The Irish standard., 1900-04-28
THE FILIPINO AGITArORS.

one Frederick Palmer, special CORE
spondent of Golfers Weekly ut Ma
Mia, recommends that the two or three
hundred halfbreeds who live by agita-
ton in the Philippine Islands should
be punished by imprisonment, followed
by Punishment. He says they are po-
litical gamblers who ought to be con-
fined as prisoners on one of the small
islands as social lepers for term of
twenty years. eff we put them on an
island" he says, "where they would
have no audience, the cost of maintain
ing the whole parcel of agitators would
be less than that of maintaining a
platoon of American soldiers in these
islands for a year. AS it is, each one
is. costing us as much as a platoon"
This suggestion is endorsed editorially
by the Minneapolis Times which says
that "the agitators must be gathered
in as rapidly as possible and sent to
some quiet place where they can agi-
tate no longer"
Now, who are those agitators that
are to be banished in the way sug-
gested by the newspaper men? Ac-
cording to ex-Judge CAVITY of the Min
nesota Supreme Court, WHO has just
returned from the Philippines, they are
the best element of the Filipinos, the
intelligent and wealthy natives Such
men have been the agitators in every
country struggling for independence
and liberty from the days of antiquity
to the present hour. Demosthenes, the
Grecian orator, who said "Let us
march against Phillip, let us fight for
our liberties, let us conquer or die"
was an agitator. Patrick Henry, who
said 81 care not what others may
think, but rs for me, give me liberty
or give me DEATH" was an agitator.
Daniel O'Connell, who said in the Brit
ish parliament that the young men of
Ireland were bounding with indigna-
ton and could not be restrained until
liberty was granted, was another agi-
tator. So were Otis and Adams, of
Boston, in the days Of the American
Revolution, and could they be captured
by the British they would dangle at
the end of a rope.
Irish agitators for the past seven
hundred years have been treated by
England in the manner suggested by
the war correspondent and endorsed
by the Minneapolis Times In 1S4S
Mitchell, Meagher, Martin and Smith
O'Brien were transported to penal
colony in the antipodes by the British
government because they were agita-
tors. In 1865 Luby, O'Leary, Kick
ham and Rosa were imprisoned in
British bastiles for being agitators.
Later on Charles Stewart Parnell, John
Dillon and William O'Brien were cast
into prison for agitating the public
mind of Ireland in a constitutional
way. Leading Irishmen have recently
been placed in Jail on the same charge,
and one of them, John O'Donnell, was
elected member Of parliament while
serving his term of Imprisonment for
agitating the rights of his countrymen.
Is it possible that the United States
of America, whose independence from
British control is due to agitators
whose names will be honored for all
time, will adopt British methods in
dealing with the educated and patrl-
otto men of the Philippine Islands?
Has this country come down so low
that patriotism will be punished by
The agitators in the
Philippine Islands win our admiration
for speaking out against injustice and
wrong, and for encouraging their coun-
trymen on the field to fight to the bit
ter end against McKinley's Criminal
aggression" They agitated against
Spanish oppression for years, and why
not agitate against American oppres-
sion? They are CALAMITY fighting for
their homes and native land against
odds, and they are justi-
fed in the eyes of the world in defend
ing them with their lives from rapa-
cious invaders who came into their har-
Dor In the guise Of friends and betray-
cd their confidence after using them as
allies against Spain. Once the McEin-
ley administration resorts to the ban
ishment of patriots in the Philippine
Islands it will make itself odious in
the sight Of every true American who
loves liberty and hates injustice. The
next thing after Punishment will be to
hang, draw and quarter them in the
English fashion adopted i'll Ireland to
silence agitators, and still agitators
sprang up like mushrooms to declaim
against tyranny and to meet the same
fate. You cannot kill the principle of
liberty inherent in the human breast.
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
nor iron bars cage" sang Lord
Byron. "You cannot kill an idea," ex-
claimed Wendell Phillips.
II Mckinley and his myrmidons of
Danish and hang Filipinos
for being agitators, how long will it
take before the same punishment is
melted out to the agitators of the
United States who are fighting trusts
and monopolies which buttress the