Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-07-20
Itens of Information Upon Issues
and Affairs CT National
Interest.
MISTAKES OF PRESENT ADMINISTRATION.
cance-McKinley Getting Into Deep
water-The Tool Of Great Britain
Cuban Scandal Remains Uninvesti-
gated.
Especial correspondence.l

under way and then proceeded to his
home in Canton, where he will spend
the summer receiving front porch |
delegations. In the intervals of cam |
paign work he will endeayor. by tele-
phone and telegraph, to instruct the |
war department. how to keep the real
state of affairs well hidden from the |
people, while at the same time he |
still furthers his designs of imperial |
ism and militarism.
The war department. carefully |
states, as matter of form, that we |
are not in state of war with China |
and that we are merely trying to keep |
that country from beng partitioned
among European powers. 1t IS said to
be our plain duty to land troops and
send warships, even at the risk of los
ing splendid battleship like the Ore
gon. When pressed to explain just
what business our forces have in the
Chinese row, the war department
doesn't exactly like to state but hints
that it is best to allow the matter
to develop.
The people of the country may as
well understand what our presence in
China means. In the first place it is
in plain violation of the letter and
spirit of the Monroe doctrine for Unit
ed States troops to be mixing up in an
oriental scramble for the division of
an empire.
Again, it is in contravention of the
action of The Hague peace confer
ence-though nobody has ever taken
that very seriously, except the admin
istration when it wanted to use it in
the republican platform.
Granted that the lives and property
of United States citizens should be
protected in foreign countries, it must
be remembered that our missionaries
have been murdered and despoiled of
property. in other countries and no
such extreme action as the landing of
thousands of troops has ever been
contemplated, much less carried into
effect And the piles of dusty claims
in the state department show how lit
tie such affronts have been resented
in the past.
1t should be noted, too, that the
| missionaries had ample notice of the
Boxer instruction and most, if not
all of them, escaped to the sea coast.
Now comes the assurance that the
foreign ministers in Picking had no
tice of the uprising and did not think
| it worth while to flee from that city.
So the people begin to wonder what
all the cutlery has been ABOUT.
The troops were not sent in the
| direction where the missionaries
| might possibly have been in danger,
| because the real intent of the whole
| move was to use the missionaries
merely as blind for other designs.
The cold fact is that Great Britain
! feared that the time had come for the
| partitioning of China and, owing to
her war in South Africa, she could
not spare troops for the Chinese af-
| fray. So what was easier than to use
Mckinley to pull her chestnuts out
| of the fire? With his usual prompt.
| ness when there is any question of
| carrying out the Anglo-American al
lance, he put American troops and
| American prestige at the disposal of
| the British. They marched under a
| British admiral, and about the first
thing British stupidity did was to
walk into an ambuscade of Boxers and
| allow nearly the whole force to be
| annihilated.
The Administration's Mistake.
! 1t is, of course, difficult to tell what
| the outcome may be. But the admin
istration is getting into deep water.
It will be remembered that it's excuse
for the expense and loss of life in car
| rying on war of determination
| against the Filipinos was that, al
| though we perhaps made a mistake
in the beginning. yet we must now
carry on the war to the finish.
| 1t is making just that sort of mis-
| take in mixing up in the Chinese i'm
broglio. And when it gets itself hope
essly involved in the continental trou-
| BILE that is likely to follow it will then
plead with the tax payers to pay the
bills and furnishi soldiers and prate
| about never hauling down the flag"
Hiding the Facts.
Already the administration carefully
| censors all Chinese news. It comes in
the first place from British sources and
over cables controlled by British inter-
ests, but the people may rest assured
that Mckinley will be in the future as
he has been in the past, the willing tool
of Great Britain, but that he will take
every precautioh to hide the true state
| of the case from the voters until after
| election.
The Chinese trouble has a distinct adj
| vantage too, in that it diverts atten-
ton from the Philippines, Porto Rico
and Cuba and also keeps the people
from noticing too closely that about all
the prosperity in sight is that which
the trusts take unto themselves.
| The Cuban Postal AFFAIR.
While the administration has been
solemniy promising that the Cuban
postal scandals should be probed to the
bottom promptly and the guilty par
ties punished. yet Nicely tarries in New