The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-06
Impertaiism or pandcmomium.

There can be no imperialism. ThosC
 have faith in the republic are against
 1t. So that there is universal abhor-
 renee for 1t and unanimous opposition
 to it."
 While the President is thus repudiat.
 Ing imperialism as possibility, unde,
 authority of the United States, Congress
 is preparing, with rhis approval, plans
 for the governments of Porto Rico and
 the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands which, while allowing the people of thos:
 islands qualified share in local self
 government Subject, however, to the
 approval of officials to be appointed by
 the President of the United States) will
 place them under the autocratic control
 of the President as to all external cela-
 tions whatsoever, while all matters of
 general taxation and revenue will be regulated by Congress, In which they will be allowed no representation. To l enforce this form Of government over
 the islands garrisons of United States
 troops will be maintained in all of them.
 and in the case of the Philippines, at least, it is expected that there will be a
 constant exercise, for many years to come, of military power. If this is not
 imperialism, what is 1t?
 The President, like most Of the pane gyrists of expansion, shirks the real question when he remarks in the same speech:
 "The liberators will never become the oppressors. A self-governed people will never permit despotism in any govern
 ment which they foster and defend'
 Imperialism is not necessarily oppres- sion. It may give the most beneficial government to It's subjects, as the rela- tions of England to it's colonies abun- dantly prove. It may even supply the most suitable or the only practicable form. as in the case of China and other semi i-civilized peoples, including possi- bly, the Filipinos But none the less 1t Is form of government which Is liable to become the very worst, and 1t is one which is inconsistent with American principles and abhorrent, as the Presi- dent rightly declares, to the American people. Its danger lies in the circum- stance that the interests of the govern
 ing power and of It's subjects are not in all respects identical, and when thls ie the case all experience shows that the selfshness of human nature is almost never controlled by the claims of gen. erosity or justice. It may be, as the President seems to maintain In another part of his speech, that the American people have shown themselves so supe- rior in all the virtues and capabilities in their relations to inferior races that they and their officials, ten thousand miles away from home, are sure to fal- sify all the previous experiences of mankind.
 But this Is outside of the present dis cussion. The point we are making is that in spite of the Presidents asser- tion to the contrary imperialism does exist and is contemplated as a perma- nent institution in our island possess sions. Let us not misunderstood or mis- state the real situation, but frankly ad- init it, and, if need be, defend it as un- avoidable or even desirable according to our convictions.
 On the same evening that the Presi dent was thus denying all prospect or possibility of holding the people of our new possessions as subjects of imperial authority Hon. Whitelaw Reid was thus discoursing to the Massachusetts club 1t Boston:
 Tn their eagerness to embarra6s the advocates of what has been done and with the vain hope of in some way un- doing it, and so lifting this nation of seventy-five millions bodily backward two years on its path, there are many who are still putting forth all their en- ergies in straining our Constitution and defying our history to show that we can have no possessions whose people are not entitled to citizenship and ultimate ly to statehood.
 "The movement began In the demand that our Dingley tariff-as matter of right, not of policy, for most of these people denounce the tariff itself as bar our Dingley tariff should of necessity be extended over Porto | Rico as an integral part of the United States. tFollowing an assent to this must have come inevitably all the other rights and privileges belonging to citi' and then no power could pre- vent the admission of the State of Por- to Rico Then behind Porto Rico stands Cuba; and behind Cuba, in time, stand the whole of the West Indies, on whom that law of political gravitation which | John Quincy Adams described will be acting with redoubled force. | And behind them-no far ahead of them | abreast of Porto Rico itself, stand the | Philippines! The Constitution which | our fathers reverert'v ordained for the ! United States of America is thus tor l tured by it's professed friends into | under whose dirty folds | must huddle the United States of Amer ica, of the West Indies, of the East h. | dies and of Polynesia; and pandemoni- um is upon us.''
 Here MT. Reid distinctly enunciates | the doctrine that imperialism over our | new possessions Is not only not abhor- rent, but that any other method of gov arnment for them is not to be consider l sd for a moment The half civilized in | oabitants of those islands must be eith- ar citizens or subjects. There Is no mid 1Ia prpOnd IT ia intolera bla that theV