The Republican., 1900-09-20

nlllUarlsln; anu Unere is no more uan-
ger of its producing evil results at
home now than there was of it's in
tefering with freedom under Jeffer-
son or jackson or in the days of the
Indian wars on the plains: Our
Army is relatively not as large as it
was in the days of Wayne; we have
not one Regular for every thousand
inhabitants. There is no more dan
ger of a draft than there is of the re-
introduction of slavery.
The only certain way of rendering
it necessary for our Republic to enter
on a career of "miltarismn would be
to abandon the Philippines to their
own tribes, and at the same time
either to guarantee stable govern
ment among these tribes or to guar
antee them against outside interfe-
renee. A far larger army would be
required to carry out any such policy
than will be required to secure order
under the American flag, while the
presence of this flag on the islands is
really the only possible security
against outside aggression. The
whole argument against President
McKinley's policy in the Philippines
becomes absurd when it is conceded
that we should, to quote the language
of the Kansas City platform, give to
the Philippines first stable form of
government If they are now enti-
tied to independence they are also
entitled to decide for themselves
whether their government shall be
stable or unstable, civilized or savage,
or whether they shall have any gov
ernment at all; while it is, of course,
equally evident that under such con-
ditions we have no right whatever to
guarantee them against outside in
reference any more than we have to
make such guarantee in the case of
the Boxers, who are merely the
Chinese analogues of Aguinaldo's fol-
lowers. If we have a right to esta-
blish a stable government in the
islands it necessarily follows that it
is not only our right but our duty to
support that government until the
natives gradually grow fit to sustain
it themselves. How else will it be
stable? The minute we leave it it
ceases to be stable.
Properly speaking, the question is
now not whether we shall expand
for we have already expanded-but
whether we shall contract. The
Philippines are now part of American
territory. To surrender them would
be to surrender America territory.
They must, of course, be governed
primarily in the interests of their
own citizens. Our first care must be
for the people of the islands which
have come under our guardianship
as a result of the most righteous for
eign war that has been waged within
the memory of the present genera
ton. They must be administered in
the interests of their inhabitants, and
that necessarily means that any
question of personal or partisan po-
litics in their administration must be
entirely eliminated. We must con-
tinue to put at the head of affairs in
the different islands such men as
General Wood Governor Allen and
Judge Taft; and it is a most for
tunate thing that we are able to illus
trate what ought to be done in the
way of sending officers thither by
pointing out what actually has been
done. The minor places in their ad
ministration, where it is impossible
to fill them by natives, must be filled
by the strictest application of the
merit system. 1t is very important
that in our own home administration
tie merely ministerial and admins
trative offices, where the duties are
entirely non-political, shall be filled
absolutely without reference to par
tisan affiliations; but this is many
times more important in the newly
acquired islands. The merit system
is in it's essence as Democratic as our
common school system, for it simply
means equal chances and fair play
for all.
1t must be remembered always that
governing these islands in the in
terests of the inhabitants may not
necessarily be to govern them as the
inhabitants at the moment prefer.
To grant self-government to Luzon
under Aguinaldo would be like grant
ing self government to an Apache re-
servation under some local chief; and
this is no more altered by the fact
that the Filipinos fought the
fact that Apaches have long been
trained and employed by the United
States Army and have rendered signal
service therein; just as the Pawnees
did under the Administration of
L IIOoluobU oIdAl, JubU DIS UhS ObOCh-
bridge Indians did in the days of
General Washington, and the friend
ly tribes of the Six Nations in the
days of President Madison.
There are now in the United States
communities of Indians which haye
advanced so far that it has been pos
sible to embody them as whole in
our political system, all the members
of the tribe becoming United States
citizens. There are other communi-
ties where The bulk of the tribe is
still too wild for it to be possible to
take such step. There are individ-
uals among the Apaches, Pawness,
Iroquiois, Sioux and other tribes,
who are now United States citizens,
and who are entitled to stand, and
do stand, on an absolute equality
with all our citizens of pure white
blood. Men of Indian blood are now
serving in the Army and Navy and
in Congress, and occupy high posi-
tions both in the business and the
political world. There is every rea-
son why as rapidly as an Indian, or
any body of Indians, becomes fit for
self-government, he or it should be
granted the fullest equality with the
whites; but there would be no justi-
fication whatever intreating this fact