Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-09-01

He's been making a speech, and in It
/ he pleads guilty to imperialism, but
FOR defense sets up the excuse that
the Democrats are equally guilty with
Republicans because the Democrats
upheld the hands of the government
in time of war, as in duty bound, and
because both parties were represented
on the peace commission" Captain
Dovener also says, as further plea
in mitigation of the imperial poilcy
of the administration that 1.-The acqui-
sition of these Islands (the Philip
pines) was an incident of the war
which could not be avoided"
This is news. 1t also shows the
lengths to which Republican orators
will go in bamboozling the people ID
the hope of getting votes. The ac-
QUESTION Of the Islands could not be
avoided" Whew. Captain DoVener
knows as we'll as any man living that
the only reason Admiral Dewey had
for going to the Philippines at all was
to smash the Spanish fleet, which
might, otherwise have inflicted some
measure of damage upon our PACING
coast. And the Captain also knows
that after that fleet was destroyed all
Danger from the Spanish ON the Pacific
coast was at an end, and Admiral
Dewey might have sailed back to Hong
Kcng. from whence he came, anchored
his fleet and taken his ease, for he had
accomplished his WORK, and the Span
ish in the Philippines were utterly i'm
potent But, instead of taking that
course, which meant little cost, per-
feet safety, no loss of Life and no en-
tanglements or interrninable warfare,
the administration, with the advice
and consent of the Republican mem
bers of Congress, CT whom Mr.. Dove
ner is one, laid the defeated ana de-
moralzei Spanish nation twenty mil
lion dollars tor some hing to which the
Spanisl government had virtually lost
all title, and thus took over a lot OF
trouble which we ought to have been
glad to pay five times twenty millions
to escape.
The lact CT the matter is-2r1 it IS
thoroughly well known-that the
American occupancy of the Philip
pines Was a gigantic misblke and
criminal blunder On the part OF the
Mckinley administrator. The Wheel
ing lntelligencer asserts th~t we are
rapidly pacifylng the islands. We
have more than sixty Thousand men
there. and have "pacIfed" a few thou
sand natives by killing them, but the
restoration of peace is long way Off
and everybody appreciates the truth.
The cost of military and naval opera
lions in the Philippines has certainly
been $3.50 zoos, 600. how much more it
will be no man knoweth. The bodies
of nearly three thousand American
boys lie buried In that far-of soil.
Thousands more have been wounded,
and other thousands are chronic in
valids. The casualty lists are cabled
over every few days, few killed and
wounded and sick at time, that a
minimum Of attention may be at
tracted, and thus the process OF 'paci-
flcation" goes on from week to week,
and from month to month, as it prob
ably will from year to year. And lit
tie common sense and adherence to re-
publican ideas would have prevented
it all.
When Republicans attempt to de-
fend the administration in its Philip
pine blunder they pick up the hot end
of the poker President Mckinley is
responsible for the american graves
in that far-off land, and those who de-
fend his course are not wise.