The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-09-21

HAuays SEPT. 81, lSUO.
to another power, which is without expert
ence or training, or the ability to maintain a
helpless to perform its international obliga-
lions with the rest of the world.
Will Defend Our Title.
To this we are opposed We should not
yield our title while our obligations last.
In the language of our platform, "Our au-
thority should not be less than our RESPONSE
bility," and our present responsibility is to
establish our authority in every part of the
islands.
No government can so certainly preserve
the peace, restore public order, establish
law, justice and stable conditions as ours.
Neither Congress nor the Executive can es-
tablish stable government in these islands
except under our right of sovereignty, our
authority and our flag. And this we are do
ing.
We could not do it as protectorate power
so completely or so successfully as are
doing 1t now. AS the sovereign power we
can Initiate action and shape means to ends,
and guide the Filipinos to self-deyelopment
and self-goyernment.
AS a prOtectorate power we could not ini-
tiate action, but would be compelled to fol-
low and uphold a people with no capacity
yet to go alone. In the one case can pro-
tect both ourselves and the Filipinos from
being involved in dangerous complications;
in the other we could not protect even the
Filipinos until after their trouble had come.
Consent of the Governed.
Besides, if we cannot establish any gov
eminent of our own without the consent Of
the governed, as our opponents contend,
then we could not establish stable govern
ment for them or make ours n protectorate
without the like consent. and neither the
majority Of the people nor minority of the
people have invited us to assume it. We
could not maintain protectorate even with
The consent of the governed without giving
pr"vocation for conflict and possibly costly
wars.
Our rights in the Philippines are now free
from outside interference and will continue
so in our present relations. They would not
be thus free in any other relation. We will
not give up our own to guarantee another
sovereignty.
Our title is good. Our peace commission
erS believed they were receiving a good title
when they concluded the treaty. The execu-
tive believed it was good title when he
submitted it to the Senate Of the United
States for its ratification. The Senate be-
lteved 1t was a good title when they gave 1t
their constitutional assent and the Con-
gress seems not to have doubted its com
pleteness when they appropriated $50. 000,0 900
provided by the treaty.
Title Is Unquestionable.
If any who favored its ratification believed
it gave US bad title they were not sincere.
our title Is practically identical with that
under which we hold our territory ACQUIRED
since the beginning of the government, and
under which we have exercised full SOW
ereignty and established government for the
inhabitants.
1t is worthy of note that no one outside of
the United States disputes the fullness and
integrity of the ceSsiOn. What, then, Is the
real issue on this subject? Whether it is
paramount to any other or not, 1t is whether
we shall be responsible for the government
| of the Philippines, with the sovereignty and
authority which enables us to guide them to
regulated liberty. law, safety and progress,
or whether shall be responsible for the
forcible and arbitrary government of mi
nOrity. without sovereignty and authority
| l., 1.
ment of a protectorate, which draws us into
their troubles without the power of prevent
ing them
Obligations of War.
There were those who two years ago were
rushing us on to war with Spain who are
unwilling now to accept its clear conse-
quences, as there are those among US who
| advocated the ratification of the treaty of
peace, but now protest against its obliga-
lions. Nations which go to war must be
prepared to accept its resultant obligations,
and when they make treaties must keep
them.
Those who profess to distrust the liberal
and honorable purposes of the administra-
ton in its treatment of the Philippines are
not justified. Imperialism has place in
its creed or conduct. Freedom is rock up
on which the Republican party was bullded
| and now rests. Liberty is the great Republi-
can doctrine for which the people went to
| war and for which million lives were Of
fered and billions of dollars expended to
: make it a lawful legacy of all without the
| consent of master or slave.
Strain of Hypocrisy.
There is a strain of ill-concealed hypocrisy
in the anxiety to extend the constitutional
/ guarantees to the people of the Philippines,
while their notification is openly advocated
| at home. Our opponent may distruSt them
selves, but they have no right to discredit
the good faith and patriotism of the major
| ity of the people who are opposed to them.
| They may fear the worst form of imperial
! ism with the helpless Filipinos in their
4 hands but If thew do III Is bpCAnSp they have
parted with the spirit and faith of the faith
erS and have lost the virility of the founders
| The Republican party doesn't have to as
| sert its devotion to the Declaration of indie
! pendence. That immortal instrument of the
| fathers remained uneXecuted until the peo-
| pie, under the lead of the Republican party
| in the awful clash of battle, turned its prom
| ises into fulfllment. 1t wrote into the Con-
| sttution the amendments guaranteeing po-
| ltical equality to American citizenship, and
| it has never broken them or connseled 9TH
ers in breaking them. 1t will not he guided
in it's conduct by one set of principles at
| home and another set in the new territory
| belonging to the United States.
Doctrine of Lincon.
If our opponents would only practice as
| well as preach the doctrines of Abraham
/ Lincoln there would be no fear for the safe
| ty of our institutions at home or their fright
full influence in any territory over which our
| flag floats.
Empire has been expelled from Porto Rico
! and the Philippines by American freemen.
The flag of the republic now floats over these
/ islands as an emblem of rightful sovereign
| ty Will the republic stay and dispense to
| their inhabitants the blessings of liberty,
/ education and free institutions, or steal
away, leaving them to anarchy or imperial
! ism?
! The American question is between duty
and desertion. The American verdict will
1 be for duty and against desertion for the
! Republic against both anarchy and imperial
ism.
| The country has been fully advised of the
purposes of the United States in China and
they will be faithfully adhered to as already
defined.
Sufferers in Pekin.
The nation is filled with gratitude that the
| little band, among them many of our own
| blood, who for two months had been sub
| iected to privations and peril by the attacks
| of pitiless hordes at the Chinese capital, ex-
| hibiting supreme courage in the face of de-
] spair have been enabled by Gods favor to
| greet their rescuers and find shelter under
their own flag.
| The people not alone of this land, but of
all lands. have watched and prayed through
| the terrible stress and protracted agony of
the helpless sufferers in Pekin: and while
at times the dark tidings seemed to make all
| hope vain. the rescuers never faltered in the
heroic fulfillment of their noble task. We
are grateful to our own soldiers and sailors
and marines, and to all the brave men who,
though assembled under many standards,
representing peoples and races strangers in
country and speech, were yet united In the
sacred mission of carrying succor to the be-