The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-08-01
"IMPERIALISM.r


share towards bringing on the war
with Spain and 1t professed to be dis
satisfied. at every step, because or
what 1t called want of vigor in the
campaigns" Two great Democratic
journals, the New York World and the
organ of VIM. III. Hearst, claim the du
bious honor of having made the war
inevitable and both shouted from the
outset for quicker results and more
smashing blows. "On to Havana"
they cried. What do we hear at Wash
ington? A snore.' was the burden of
their earlier lay. When $50. 000.0 900 were
asked of Congress for war purposes,
every Democrat voted for the appro-
priation. and the leaders of the party
were eager for a chance to do military
duty. the present nominee for Chief
Executive seeking and accepting a
Coloners billet. in an army of invasion.
Yet 1t was perfectly clear that we were
entering upon a war of aggression and
that, II we were to be Unidentified for
the cost. the bankruptcy of Spain
would compel her to pay the bill in
hand. Knowing all this the Democracy
way yet enthusiastic for the war.
So ffr the party was consistent with
-
its life the Democracy had been for
conquest and expansion. The founder
Of the party. Thomas Jefferson, did not
hesitate to say to Napoleon that the
young republic would marry the Brit
ish fleet and army" unless the French
agreed to leave the Louisiana district
and sell that virgin empire to its nat
ural possessors. Here was an impe-
Of
Democracy pause at that. 1t deliber-
ately provoked a Jrar with Mexico for
the sake of SEEING California and the
adjacent regions and threatened. in
the terms of the Ostend Manifesto, to
acquire Cuba in the same way. The
Manifesto declared, in brief. that the
sale of Cuba would be as advantageous
and honorable to Spain as it's purchase
would be to the United States; but that
! II Spain should obstinateiy refuse to
sell 1t. self-preservation would make 1t
incumbent on the United States to
''wrest 1t from her" Had Mckinley
uttered such a threat before going to
war over Cuba, the charge OF ''impe-
riaiism" would stick.
Consistency ought to have led Demo-
Gratis to deal with the acquisition of
Spanish soil In these days just as they
were prepared to deal with it fifty
years ago-a method they boosted or
as late as 1884 in the first Grover Cleve-
land platform. But consistency went
out OF the window when craftsmanship
came in at the door. And so did COM
mon sense.
Upon the latter point much is to be
said. The Democracy, with its new
rnal for arff nfR Il
that the country shall surrender the
richest fruits of the Spanish war and
the bulk OF its indemnity. for the sake
OF giving the Filipinos freedom. Yet
the only freedom possible for these
people lies within the protecting arms
of some great liberty-loving power. Is
there a man so dead to the influences
at work all over the world, and par
ticularly in the Orient, to annex small
undergraduates to great States that he
believes in the possibility of a per-
manent Philippine republic? There is
not a small free island power to-day
outside the sphere Of the Monroe doc
trine. Tonga was the last one In these
seas; Madagascar the last one In Az
rican waters. Over all such countries
n great nation stretches the arm of
authority. AS surely as the sun rises
and sets were the Philippines cut loose
to shift for themselves some battleship
power would sooner or later fasten a
line to them. Russia, or Germany, or
France, or Great Britain or Japan
would assuredly possess themselves OF
such a rich prize. What then Of Fill
pino freedom? Barring annexation to
Great Britain. there is nothing beyond
annexation to the United States which
would give the Filipinos chance to
be anything better than a subject race
The Democracy like the Republican
party justified the war Of 1898 on the
score of humanity. Would 1t be hui
name to turn the Philippines. fol-
whose good order the world holds us
responsible. over to instruction and
conquest? There could be no domestic
peace In an archipelago where SO many
tribes dispute for mastery. The mo-
ment the Tagals asserted themselves
the Igorrotes and Macabeepes, the