New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-04-19

wHIrELAw REDS SAN FRANCISCO
SPEECH.
WHITELAW
DELIVERED AT THE FAREWELL BANQUET TO The
COMMISSION ATRTI. r.


terpreted or taken advantage Of Quite enough
OF my voice has been heard In the land and that
very recently. as some OF you can testify 20 your
cost There are others here with far greater
claims upon your attention. and I promise To
be as brief as heretofore have been prollx
The occasion is understood to be primarily
one Of congratuIatiOn and personal goodwill
It is evident that San Francisco thinks well OF
the Pacific Coast member OF this Commission:
and none the worse because he seems TO have
been chosen for the post merely account OF
his being peculiarly fit for It, The city gladly
takes the of you faith. believing that
| the same rule of selection must have been ap-
piled in the cases with which it is not quite so
familiar.
But it Is occasion. I authoritatively
assured. Of political significance whatever. II
, embraces in its comprehensive impulse Of greet
ing and good wishes. Republicans and Demo-
Grassland Dewey men;-men who hold the Of
! fees, men who want the Offices and men who say
a plague on both your houses; men who indorsa
the course of the Administration. and men who
believe the acquisition Of the Philippines mis-
take. / shall not attempt 10 disguise from you
the fact that this last is not an opinion that
1 individually hold, Still can respect the con-
victions of those who do.
But evidently we can have no concurrence to-
night extra continental policy. since the
differences are so wide on vital points. Yet the
organizers of this testimonial made mistake
There IS a common ground for our meeting We
are all citizens of the Republic. grateful for our
high privilege and sOlictOus that the Republic
shall take harm;-aH Americans. proud %
the name and eager that it shall never be stained
! by base or unworthy acts. There is one here
; of whatever political faith OF lack Of faith who
is not. please God. a patriot, anxious for our
must walk.-most DESTROYS that all its ways may
prove ways of pleasantness and all its paths
! lead to honorable peace.
! Well, then. gentlemen what Is 1t that a COM
| pany thus divided in opinion and united only
/ in patriotic aspirations agree in looking 20
! this Commission for? What do the American
people in general. and without distinction OF
party. look to them for?
+ Did 1 hear a public opponent but personal
friend over there murmur as his reply Not
much OF anything? Alas. we may as well
recognize that there are political augurs. who
are ready TO give just that their horoscope
and even point to their useful predecessor the
7 last Commission. for presumptive proof, In fact
there are occasional grumblers who say they
I would look for more from them II they were
fewer. They recognize that sometimes IN
multitude of counsellors there may be safety;
: but they also recall the maxim that councils %
: war never nght- II the truth must be whls-
pered in their ear. there are here and there very
/ sincere. capable people who are growing a BIT
/ weary of a multiplicity Of commissions. They
say--so cynical are they-that in all ages and
| countries the easiest method OF evading or
| postponing a difficult problem has been 70 ap-
! point a commission on it and thus prolons the
! circumocution. For first thing. then. in which
| we are united we wish them TO redeem the
| character of this mode of government by COM
mission. For assume that they sent
| out to the archipelago 10 govern; and Just at
! present we don't know Of any part OF our pos
| sessions that seems more in need OF government
| So Also at the outset, we are trying 10 put
| ourselves in Emerson's state Of mind about a
| certain notable young poet. and all unite in
| hoping that use his we'll known phrase.
/ and greet them at the beginning OF great
| career.
| We all unite In adjuring them 10 remember
| that they are setting SAIL not only charged with
the National interests. but dignifed and ennooled
| by a guardianship of the National honor.
| We all unite l venture TO think in earnestly
| wishing that they may make the best OF stua-
| ton which none OF wholly like and many
dislike with all their hearJs;-the best Of II, for
| the country which, by good management or bad,
rightfully wrongfuIly. is at any rate certainly
| and in the eyes Of the whole world now re-
sponsible for the outcome; and the best Of ii. no
! less for the distracted people thrown upon our
| hands.
| We cannot we'll help uniting in the further
| hope that their first success will be the r.
! establishment of order throughout regions
| lately filed with violence and bloodshed: and
| that they can then bring about system OF Just
! and swift punishment for future crimes OF DIS
| order, since all experience in those regions anu
| among those people shows that the neglect "
enforce such punishment is itself the gravest
| and cruellest of crimes.
Nor can any one here help uniting IN the
hope that their next and browning success VIII
someway be attained in the preservation ana
extension of those great civil rights whose
growth is the distinction. the world over. "
! Anglo-Saxon civilization: whose consurnma's
flower and fruitage are the glory OF our own
Government
I am even bold enough TO believe that, now
/ ever 1t might have been twelve months ago. or
but six months ago, there Is no one here. rec's-
nizing the changed circumstances OF to-day WIN
would think they could now best secure those
rights 10 all the people by calling back me
leader who is IN hiding. and his forces "i4e-
are scattered and disorganized and oy H0"
abandoning TO such revengeful rule the efe8
majority of the islanders who have reuialheu
peaceful and orderly during our occupation'
For the present at least. they are forced 20 to
tain that care themselves. They are rorceu "
act In the common interest OF all the peOp''
there not in the sole interest of a warning iae-
ton in a single tribe;-n the interest OF All INC
islands for which we have accepted reSponS'0"-
ity not simply of the one or OF a part OF 'he
population on the one that has made the most
trouble.
There can be little disagreement IN this COM
v.Siff