The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-17

no more danger OF n draft than there Is
OF the re-introduction of slavery.
when we expanded over New Mexico
and California we secured free government
to those Territories, and prevented their
falling under the militarism OF dicta-
torship like that of Santa Anna, Or the
imperialism OF real empire in the days
OF Maximillian. We put a stop 10 i'm
perialism in Mexico as soon as the civil
war closed. We made great antrim
perialistic stride when we drove the Span
iards from Porto Rico and the Philippines,
and thereby made ready the ground in
these islands for that gradually increasing
measure of self-government for which
their populations are severally fitted. Cuba
is being helped along the path to indie
pendence as rapidly as her own citizens
are content that she should 60 OF course
the presence Of troops in the Philippines
during the Tagal insurrection has no more
TO do with militarism or imperialism than
had their presence liz the Dakotas, Mime
sofa and Wyoming during the many years
which elapsed before the final outbreaks
of the Sioux were definitely put down.
There is no more miltarism or Imperialism
in garisoning Luzon until order is re-
stored than there was Imperialism in send
ing soldiers TO South Dakota in 1880, dur
ing the Ogallalla outbreak. The reasoning
which justifies our having made
against Sitting Bull also justifies our hav-
ing checked the outbreaks of Aguinaldo
and his followers directed, as they were,
against Filipino and American alike.
WOULD CREATE MILITARISM
1.-THE only certain way of rendering it
necessary for our Republic to enter on a
career of 'miltarism' would be TO abandon
the Philippines to their own tribes, and at
the same time either TO guarantee a stable
government among these tribes or to guar
antee them against outside interference.
far larger army would be required to
carry out any such policy than will be
TO 0r1a he
can flag; while the presence of this flag
on the islands is really the only
possible security against outside aggres-
sion The whole argument against Presi-
dent Mckinley's policy In the Philippines
becomes absurd when 1t is conceded that
we should, to quote the language of the
Kansas City platform, give to the Philip
pines first stable form of government
If they are now entitled to independence,
they are also entitled to decide for them
selves whether their government shall be
stable or unstable, civilized savage,
whether they shall have any government
at all; while ii is, of course, equally evil
dent that under such conditions We have
no right whatever to guarantee them
against outside interference any more than
we have TO make such a guarantee in the
case of the Boxers (who are merely the
Chinese analogues of Aguinaldo's follow
ers.) If we have right to establish a
stable government in the islands it neces-
but our duty to support that government
until the natives gradually grow fit to sus-
tain 1t themselves. How else will Ii be
stable? The minute we leave 1t, 1t ceases
to be stable.
Properly speaking, the question is now
not whether we shall expand-for we have
already expanded-but whether shall
contract. The Philippines are part of
American territory. To surrender them
would be to surrender American territory.
They must, of course. be governed primar-
lily in the interests of their own citizens.
Our first care must be for the people of the
islands which have come under our guar
dianship as result of the most righteous
foreign war that has been waged within
the memory of the present generation.
They must be administered in the interest
or their inhabitants, and that necessarily
means that any question of personal or
partisan politics in their administration
must be entirely eliminated. We must
continue to put at the heads of affairs in
the different islands such men as General
Wood, Governor Allen and Judge Taft; and
it is a most fortunate thing that we are
able to illustrate what ought to be done in
the way of sending officers thither by
pointing out what actually has been done.
The minor places in their administration,
where Ii is impossible to fill them by ma
tives, must be filed by the strictest APP
plication of the merit system. 1t is very
important that in our own home admins
tration the merely ministerial and admin
istrative offices, where the duties are en-
tirely nonpolitical, shall be filled absolutely
without reference to partisan affiliations;
but this is many times more important in
the newly acquired islands. The merit sys-
tenn is in its essence democratic as our
common school system, for IL simply means
equal chances and fair play for all.
GRADUAL SELF-GOVERNMENT
1T must be remembered always that gov
erning these islands in the interest of the
inhabitants may not necessarily be to gov
ern them as the inhabitants at the moment
prefer. To grant self-government to Luzon
under Aguinaldo would be like granting
self-government to an Apache reservation
under some local chief; and this is no more
altered by the fact that the Filipinos
fought the Spaniards, than 1T would be by
the fact that Apaches have long been
trained and employed in the United States
army and have rendered signal service
therein; just as the Pawnees did under the
administration of President Grant; just as
the Stockbridge Indians did in the days of
General Washington. and the friendly
tribes of the Six Nations in the days of
President Madison.
There are now in the United States
communities of Indians which have adj
vanced so far that ii has been possible
to embody them as whole in our politi-
cal system, all the members of the tribe
becoming United States citizens. There
are other communities where the bulk of
the tribe are still too wild for it to be
possible to take such a step. There are
individuals among the Apaches, Pawnees,
Iroquois. Sioux and other tribes, who are
now United States citizens, and who are
entitled to stand, and do stand, on an abb
solute equality with all our citizens of
pure white blood. Men of Indian blood
are now serving in the army and navy
and in Congress, and occupy high posi-
tions both in the business and political
world. There is every reason why as rap
idly as an Indian. or any body of In
dams, becomes fit for self-gov eminent,
he or it should be granted the fullest equal
ity with the whites: but there would be
no justification whatever in treating this
fact as a reasonl for abandoning the wild
tribes to work out their own destruction
Exactly the same reasoning applies in
the case of the Philippines. To turn over
the islands to Aguinaldo and his follow
ers would not be TO give self-government
to the islanders; under no circumstance
would the majority thus gain self-govern-
ment. They would simply be put at the
mercy of a syndicate of Chinese half
breeds, under whom corruption would
flourish far more freely than ever IL flour
ished under Tweed, while tyrannical op-
preston would obtain to a degree only pos
sible under such an oligarchy. Yours truly
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
Oyster Bay. l.. L., Sept. 49,
Mckinley Visits Cemetery.
a MT