Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1900-07-26

could have obtained all that is required
for our commercial expansion without
shedding single drop Of blood, without
abandoning the fundamental principles
of our democracy, without committinga
single act Of treachery such AS we have
been guilty Of, and without the incalcula-
BILE cost which the policy Of the admins
tration has brought upon us.
"AlI this, by just policy, We might do
today Nobody has as yet dared to deny
this. Thus our policy OF blood and
treachery has not only been criminal ag-
erosion, but has also been stupid and
most expensive blunder. and that blum
der will grow in stupidity and in hideous-
ness the longer we continue that policy.
The so.called commercial argument.
brought forward by the imperalist, is
nothing but false pretence.
1--WE have increased our navy, in
creased our armv, weakened our power Of
defense by multiplying the territories We
have to defend-and made mortal enemies
Of the populations thereof-tremendously
augmented the expense Of running the
government, and all without the slight
est necessity.
"What may prove equally consequent
tial, we have frightened our neighbors to
the South by making them apprehensive
Of being swallowed under some similar
false pretense, and 10 destroyed the
efficacy Of the Monroe doctrine"
"But what will be offered as the best
way out OF the diffaculty?" I asked Mr..
Schurz.
1--WE cannot wake the dead whose in
nocent blood has been Spilled" was the
striking answer. 1--WE cannot altogether
expunge the disgraceful page Of history
that has been written. But the Ameri.
can people can rise up and declare that
the great wrong attempted by misguided
men in power shall not be contaminated
and approved.
"They can declare that the president
and his abettors in this scheme Of con-
quest and aggrandizement used the name
Of the republic and the people falsely.
We can ordain that the same policy we
promised to apply to Cuba shall be APP
piled to all the foreign populations which
in some manner have fallen under our
sway; that we shall aid them in good
faith and to the best of cur ability in
forming independent governments of
their own, and that we shall hold q pro-
tecting hand oyer them against foreign
interference.
Don't you believe the foreign govern.
ments would at once pounce upon the
Philippine Islands il we acknowledge the
right of the Filipinos to an independent
government" was asked.
II do not; aud they will be far less in.
clined to do 80. If they ever were, after
having witnessed the job We have or our
hands in subjugating the Filipinos.
Moreover, Mr.. Mckinley himself in his
last message, said that no foreign power
would permit another foreign power to
have them. This shows, too, the FEAST
bility of an agreement between all the
powers concerned, that none OF them
shall have the Philippines, and that they
shall be- protected as neutral ground.
If one.tenth Of the ingenuity which the
imperialists exert now to justify their
condition had been, or were even now,
employed in bringing about such diplo-
matte agreement it could surely be &C.
complished. That bugbear Of foreign
interference is,, therefore. as false pre-
tence as was the commercial argument