The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-06-20


having then before us the report of
the able commission now ascertaining
the most favorable route, pass law
under which we shall build and oper-
ate as property of the United states,
under exclusive American dominion
and control, a ship canal connecting
the Atlantic and the Pacific. Through
1t in time of peace the commerce of
the world shall pass. If we shall be
unhappily engaged in war. the canal
shall carry our warships and shall
exclude those of the enemy, and un-
der conditions which shall violate no
treaty stipulations.
This is the brief account of our stew
ardship for four years. During por-
ton of that period we were involved
in a war that for a time paralyzed
business and commerce, and would
have taxed heavily the resources and
credit of any other country than our;
and for the past year or more we have
been employing an army of some $4,000
men in suppressing an insurrection
against our authority 5000 miles away.
No industry has felt the strain of
these extraordinary expenses, nor have
they affected the general sum OF our
prosperity. More than that, the condi-
tions resulting from the legislation OF
the past four years have obliterated
every issue that was raised during the
p,
ing, therefore, to find some rallying
cry, seek it in the results of our late
war with Spain, and upon that ques-
ton, as upon all others, we stand
ready to meet them in the open.
STILL SOUGHT PEACE.
During the weeks and months pre-
ceding the outbreak of hostiities with
Spain, the president of the United
States, who knew by personal exper-
fence on many a battlefield something
of the horrors of war, and who real
lied the expense and suffering which
war entailed, stood firmly upon the
ground that peaceful solution could
be found. And when that awful oc-
currence took place in the harbor of
Havana and a hot frenzy OF indigna-
tion swept over our people, and ~
conflict seemed inevitable. he faced
popular clamOr and heated counsels.
and still believed that the wrongs of
Cuba could be remedied and redrcssed
without an appeal to the arbitrament
of war.
The folly of Spain and the indigna-
ton of the American people forbade
peaceful solution. Then the presi-
dent, seconded by a Republican con-
gress, before a gun was fired, declared
to the world the lofty and unselfish
motives that alone actuated the ma
tion. No man now, or in the CEN
turtles to come, when history, which
alone "triumphs over time" recounts
the marvellous story Of the war which
changed the map of the world, shall
ever truthfully say that this Republic
was animated by any but the noblest
purposes. Recorded time tells of no
such war, for it was fought, with
bloody sacrifice by great and free
republic for the freedom of another
race while IFS own liberties were I'M
aSSailed
This is not the time or the occasion
TO dwell upon the incidents of the war,
crowded with successive victories and
illumined with countless examples OF
individual bravery and gallant con-
duct. It's living heroes are honored by
generous country; it's dead have en-
nobled the race, and will live forever
in the hearts of a grateful people.
Throughout all it's anxious days the
president, commander-in-chief of our
armies and our navies, planned and
directed with unerring hand. His wise
diplomacy saved us from threatened
international complications. From the
commencement of hostilities until their
close the conduct of the war was un-
assailable, and the paltry criticisms of
two years ago are already buried In
the limbo of oblivion.
THE PHILIPPINE PROBLEM.
In August, 1898, a preliminary proto-
col was executed at Washington, fol-
lowed by the sessions of the peace
commissioners of the United States
and Spain, in Paris, commencing in
October of that year. Public interest
in this country concerning these nego-
tiations was intense. Until our SOL
diers and sailors had landed at Manila
| we had known little of the conditions
| of the people of the Philippines. We
soon ascertained that the cruelties and
| expressions existing in Cuba We're mild
| compared with the treatment to which
| eight millions of people in those is
| lands We're subjected. We realized
that if we relinquished the archipelago
to Spain we consigned it's inhabitants
| again to a condition worse than slav-
| cry, worse than barbarism. We had
| put our hands to the plough, and every
| instinct of honor and humanity for
badc us to turn BACK. A universal
| demand arose from all over the coun-
| try that we should retain our hold up
| on these islands, afford their people
| the protection of our laws, lift them
| out of their unfortunate condition, and
| fit them, if possible, for Self-govern-
nent. Any agreement by our COM
missioners to give back the Philip
pines to Spain reserving for ourselves
an island or a coaling station, ~would
|
dignation, and would never have been
ratified by the representatives of the
| people.
No man saw this so clearly as did
the president. In his adVices to the
| commissioners he told them it was inn
perative that we should be governed
only by motives that should eXalt the
nation; that territorial expansion was
our least concern, but that, whatever
else was done, the people of the Philip
pines must be liberated from Spanish
| domination, and he reached this view
solely through considerations of duty
and humanity. The American COM
| missioners men of differing political
faiths, reached a unanimous conclu-
sion. The treaty of Paris was ratified
by the vote of two thirds of the SEN
ate, and the territory We acquired un-
der 1t became lawful and legal pos
sessions of the United States The
responsibility for the war rested chief
ly upon the Republican party, and that
party avows the wisdom of the treaty
and declares it to be the policy of the
party. to adhere to it's terms and to
accISt the responsibilities it imposed.
AS TO PORTO RICO.
We assumed dominion of Porto Rico
Cuba and the Philippines for reasons
differing as to each of them.
We took to ourselves the little is
land of Porto Rico because it lay un-
der the shadow of our own shores
and because its continued occupancy
by Spain or by any foreign govern
ment would be a constant menace tC
the states and to that great inter
oceanic waterway which We shall build
and own and operate as an American
canal. We found it impoverished by
years of colonial misgovernment and
GNTGt Af 10,