The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-03-06

nOunces Against Expansion.
CINCINNATI, O.. March 5.-The com
plimentary dinner given tonight at the
Queen City club to Judge William II.
Taft, the recently-appointed president OK
the Philippine commission, by his friends
and neighbors, was unique in its elegance
and in It's good will. The hundred sub
stantial citizens who took this method of
bidding farewell to their friend included
the representative men of Cincinnati
NJ. E. ingalls,, president Of the Big Four
Railroad company, presided as toastmas-
ter. After reading a letter of regret from
Secretary of War Root who was unable
to attend, and after speaking in happy
vein of Judge Taft and his great mis-
sion, he introduced Judge William R.
Day, late secretary of state, who spoke
of the negotiation of the treaty Of peace
with Spain.
JUDGE DAYS REMARKS.
Judge William R. Day, ex-secretary of
state, responded to the sentiment, THE
Spanish-American Treaty" He said In
part:
mo man in this day of rapid changes
can define policy which shall control
and limit the future action of any great
government in the world. 1t is our duty
to deal with each problem as It arises.
When the United States had. by every
constitutional guaranty, acquired title to
the Philippine islands, IT was the duty of
the president of the United States to use
the army and navy to restore peace and
order, and to repel the attacks of the
misguided people who, even before the
treaty was ratified, had attacked with
arms the soldiers of the United States.
Now. since that insurrection seems prac-
fiPallV ended ha TYnItA6 StataG
upon the crowning duty of giving to
these people a Just; stable and free form
of government The labor of acquiring
title, responsible and hampered with diff
ficulty as it was, was as naught as COM
pared with the labor which will be re-
quired in establishing ourselves in the
fitting them for self-government. We
Ehall succeed in the islands by not fol-
which they were misruled for centuries.
THE largest triumph OF American
diplomacy in many years is the securing
of the open door in China, which the
American government has been able to
obtain by friendly negotiations, where
the English nation had signally failed.
Can we hope to keep this door open If
we seek to close our own in the East to
the other commercial nations? The Ameri-
can people have a right to every COM
mercial advantage which the cession
gives. Under the protection of the Ameri-
can flag industry and commerce are to
find their new and enlarged fields of ac-
dyity.
mo greater mission has ever been plac-
ed IN the hands of any people than is now
committed to the commission headed by
our friend in whose honor We are as
sembled tonight; the new world carry
Ing to the old a message Of good will and
seeking to establish good government and
civil liberty for that people. The task
may be arduous and the progress slow,
but there will be no steps backward and
the duty which America assumed when
those people became her wards will be
QlScharged when there is firmly planted
IN these distant islands Of the sea an en-
the United States and Enjoying e WITH With us 1s
the blessings Of liberty regulated by
law"
SENSATIONAL SPEECH.
Judge Judson Harmon, who was attor-
ney general under the last Cleveland ad-
minlstration, and whose association with
Judge Taft at the Cincinnati bar has
been contemporaneous, created a sensa-
tion in his opening sentence, though 1t
was understood the company had been
chosen with the view of political har-
mony. Judge Harmon, in part, said:
If you had met to approve the general
course OF the government with respect
to the Philippines / should not be here
For hundred years we contented our
selves with words Of sympathy for peo-
pies struggling, as we once struggled, for
freedom and independence. Here for the
first time when an opportunity came to
help In Such struggle, without breaking
our settled policy, we joined ranks with
the native patriots against the comnlCn
enemy, Whether any one made or was
authorized to make promises to them is
of no consequence. Our history and prin-
ciples are a perpetual promise; and no
one will deny that when the FiIipinos
Joined forces with us they believed, and
we knew they believed, that success
would mean the fulhllment of their
hopes.
when we came to terms Of peace it
was our duty to put an end to the claims
of SDaln. AS to all the territory
few square miles, there were the ba rest
of pretensions, but Spain's need and 9TH
erS' greed might make a Specula tive as
set of them, to the injury of our allies
This was the only possible justification
for the direction to our commissioners to
purchase these claims, and we naturally
expected some declaration of trust So
did our allies. But 1t soon turned out
that instead of buying off the king of
Spain, the government bought him out
and proposed to realize on the invest
ment. our only real war followed-a war
which a word would have avoided If our
government had been willing to say it.
and whose victories reused no gladness
In our people like those over Spain
me ne government got absolutely nothing
by the treaty with SPAIN except color OF
title to a small part of the territory and
consequent color of right to make war
on the inhabitants, without action by
congress- whatever it now holds (saVe
what 1t got by treaty with the sultan of
Sulu) IT has acquired by conquest from
them, "a ana I'd not otherwise, and it is still
engaged in perfecting and extending such
conquest We now hear the usual plea
of the doers of doubtful things-the deed
is done, it is too late to discuss it.
NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND.
ut is never too late to retract a mistep,
TO right or undo wrong. If the peo-
pie shall decide that no nation is coed
enough to to rule another nation without
remember What Il cost US to cast out
the heressy that the great principles Of
liberty did not apply to black men, and
shall refuse to re-embrace it as to brown
ones; If they shall conclude that this
country cannot long exist part vassaI
and part free, as they found it could
not part slave and part free; then there
will be no difficulty in doing what we
ought to have. done in the beginning
leave the Filipinos to manage their own
affairs and serve notice on the world
that they are under our protection, That
issue may be settled soon. 1t may take
long AS it involves right and wrong #
will never be settled until it is settled
right.
meantime, there are certain duties for
which we are responsible. One is to pro
vide a government for those islands.
However strongly he may disprove the