Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-06-21

", JUNE 81. 1900.
commission now ascertaining the most
favorable route, pass law under
(which we shall build and own and ope-
rate as property of the United States,
under exclusive, American dominion
and control, ship canal connecting
/ in time of peace the commerce of the
world shall pass. If we shall be un-
happily engaged in war, the canal shall
carry our warships and shall exclude
those of the enemy, and under condi.
tions which shall violate no treaty stip-
ulations.
This is the brief account of our stew
ardship for four years. During por-
ton of that period we were involved in
a war that for time paralyzed bust
ness and commerce and would have
taxed heavily the resources and credit
of any other country than ours; and
for the past year or more we have been
employing an army of some $4,000 men
in suppressing an instruction against
our authority 5000 miles away. No in
dustry has felt the strain of these ex-
ltraordinary expenses, nor have they af-
fected the general sum of our prosper
lily, More than that, the conditions re-
sulting from the legislation of the past
four years have obliterated every issue
that was raised during the last cam
paign. The democracy, having there
fore to find some rallying cry, seek it
| in the results of our late war with
Spain. and upon that question, as upon
all Others, we stand ready to meet
them in the open.
Unavoidable Conflict,
During the weeks and months pre-
ceding the outbreak of hostilities with
Spain, the president of the United
States, who knew by personal expert
ence on many battlefield something
of the horrors of war, and who realiz-
ed the expense and suffering which
war entailed, stood firmly upon the
| ground that a peaceful solution could
be found. And when that awful occur
renee took place in the harbor of Ha-
vana, and a hot frenzy of indignation
swept over our people, and a conflict
seemed inevitable, he faced popular
clamor and heated counsels, and still
believed that the wrongs of Cuba could
be remedied and redressed without an
appeal to the arbitrament of war.
The folly of Spain and the
indignation of the American
people forbade peaceful So
luton, then the president, seconded
by q republican congress, before gun
was fired, declared to the world the
lofty and unselfish motives that alone
actuated the nation. No man now, nor
/ in the centuries to come, when history,
which alone "triumphs over time" re-
counts the marvellous story of the war
which changed the map of the world,
shall ever truthfully gay that this re-
public was animated by any but the
noblest purposes. Recorded time tells
of no such war, for it was fought,
| with bloody sacrifice, by great and
free republic, for the freedom of an
other race, while it's own liberties. We're
unassailed.
This is not the time or the occasion
to dwell upon the incidents OF the war,
crowded with successive victories and
| illumed with countless examples OF
Its living heroes are honored by gem
ISloao Noo1bGAy llo lSACdu -ldfC C1lAODlSa
the race, and will live forever in the
hearts of a grateful people. Thruout
all its anxious days, the president, COM
mander-in-chief of our armies and our
navies, planned and directed with un-
erring hand. His wise diplomacy saved
us from threatened international com-
plications. From the commencement
of hostilities until their close the con-
duct of the war was unassailable, ana
the paltry criticisms of two years ago
are already buried in the limbo of OBJ
livion.
In August, 1898, preliminary proto-
col was executed at Washington, fol-
lowed by the sessions of the peace COM
missioners of the United States and
Spain, in Paris, commencing in October
of that year. Public interest in this
country concerning these negotiations
was intense. Until our soldiers and
sailors landed at Manila we had known
little of the conditions OF the people
of the Philippines. We soon ascer.
tanned that the cruelties and oppres.
sions existing in Cuba were mild COM
pared with the treatment to which
eight millions of people in those is.
lands were subjected. We realized that
if we relinquished the archipelago to
Spain we countersigned its inhabitants
again to a. condition worse than slav-
cry, worse than barbarism. We had
put our hands to the plough, and
every instinct of horror and humanity
forbade us to turn back A universal
demand arose from all over the country
that we should retain our hold upon
these islands, afford their people the
protection of our laws, lift them out OF
their unfortunate condition, and fit
them, if possible, for self-government.
Any agreement by our commissioners
to give back the Philippines to Spain
i reserving for ourselves an island or
a coaling station, would have aroused
universal national indignation, ana
would never have been ratified by the
representatives of the people.
No man saw this so clearly as did. the
| president. In his advices to the com
missioners he told them it was imper.
alive that we should be governed only
by motives that should exalt the ma
ton; that territorial expansion was
our least concern, but that, whatever
else was done, the people of the Phil