The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-24
What Rhetoric Has Cost.

That peculiar class OF un-American
Americans. whose sympathies 60 out
In such gushing flood to the Filipinos
now in arms against the government
ana authority Of the United states,
seem to find comfort in the assertion
that II congress should declare that It
had no end In view but the independ-
ence of the Fiiipinos the war would
end at once. Whether this be true or
false has little relevancy, as there is
not the remotest possibility Of congress
doing anything Of the kind. As q coun-
ter proposition. however. It IL safe to
say that II the Filipinos had any ade-
quate conception OF what their condi-
tion will be when American arms are
entirely successful and American civil
government Is extended over the isl
ands. they would rush to lay down their
arms. Right here Is where the RESPONSE
bility for the blood and treasure, Of
white men and brown, spent and wasted
in the Philippines, lies squarely at the
doors OF the so-called friends Of the Fill
ipinos in this country.
In tawdry rhetoric they have pointed
out that the policy Of this government
is to.crush out their legitimate aspira-
tons for liberty. to impose tyranny
upon them. to shaclsle them as slaves
ma uarFc, &hef 4hA w ., Sen,. <,ov,, c,xoar
to the United States was but a change
in masters, that their bodies have been
sold by Spain, and they have passed as
chattels to this country. These diabol-
ical falsehoods. for that is what, in
their effect. these statements really are,
have not been seriously dissected by the
American people, accustomed to the ex-
travagant hyperbole OF the same class
Of ranters. who are always placing
"shacltles on the free limbs OF labor"
crucifying 1t on crosses OF gold ana ex-
plotting deep-laid conspiracies Of the
moneyed power to reduce all the rest Of
the human race to AFFECT serfdom.
The same expressions which, through
long use, fall so lightly upon American
ears, have conveyed a far deeper mes
sage to the simple Filipino. The taw-
dry rhetoric and furnished metaphor
have been taken as the soberly-ex-
pressed opinion OF great class of
American citizens as to the future
policy which the government of the
United States will adopt in the Philip
pines. The highest aspiration which
the Filipino has had for liberty in the
past has been liberty to retain his own
earnings and the command of his own
time. His highest conception Of gov
eminent. one that would not rob and
Cypress him too bitterly. Can It be
wondered at that the idea deliberately
conveyed by the speeches Of Bryan. and
others Of the same stamp, should have
found Judgment in the minds OF the
Filipinos: that they have come to be-
lieve that the change of government
was simply change Of masters, and
that as they had suffered under the OPP
pressions of Spain so they would suffer.
and to far greater degree. under the
expressions Of the United States?
Every such idle piece of fustian bonn
bast has cost score Of American
lives. and every repetition Of them, es-
pecially on the floor Of congress,
delays the final settlement Of the
troubles in the Philippines. The
speeches, OF course, are simply partisan
attacks upon the administration to in
fluence the next campaign. AS under
stood by the men in arms against the
United States, they are black treason
to the country, and vile libels upon its
institutions and the character Of Its
people.