Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-09-17
mt on common sense grounds in the new ter

ment common sense grounds in the new ter
| ritory.
Governor Roosevelt then rectes the
history of the acquisition of Florida,
Alaska and Hawaii, likening it to the his
tory of the annexation of the Philippines,
and closes as follows:
Properly speaking. the question is now not
| whether We shall expand-for have already
| eNpanded-but whether we shall contract The
| Philippines now part of American territory.
| 70 surrender them would be to surrender Amer
lean territory. They must, of course, be gov
erned primarily in the interests of their own
citizens Our first care must be for the people Of
| the islands which have under our guardian
| ship as a result of the most righteous foreign
war that has been waged within the memory of
the present generation. They must be admins
tered in the interests of their inhabitants and
that necessarily means that any question of per-
sonal or partisan politics in their admnstra-
tion must be entirely eliminated. We must con-
tinue to put at the head of affairs in the differ
cnt islands such men as General Wood, Governor
Allen and Judge Taft and it is a most fortunate
thing that able to illustrate 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 administration, where
it is impossible to fill them by natives, must be
filled by the strietest application of the merit
system. 1t is very important that in our
home administration the merely ministerial and
administrative offices, where the duties are en-
trey nonpoitical shall be filed absolutely with
out reference to partisan affiliations, but this is
many times more important in the newly acqur-
ed islands The merit systetm is in its
| as democratic as our common school system, for
it simply means equal chances and fair play for
all.
Governing the Islands.
1t must be remembered always that governing
these islands in the interest of the inhabitants
may not necessarily be to govern them the
| inhabitants at the moment prefer. To grant self
government to Luzon under Aguinado would be
like granting self government to an Apache res
eryaton under some local chief and this is no
more altered by the fact that the Filipinos fought
the Spanards than it would be by the fact that
Apaches have long been trained and employed
in the United States army and have rendered sig
nal srvice therein; just as the Pawnees did under
the administration of President Grant, Just as
the Stockbridge Indians did in the days of Cen
era Washington and the friendly tribes of the Six
Nations in the DAYS of President Madison.
There are now in the United States communi-
ties of Indians which have advanced so far that
it has been possible to embody them as a whole
in political system all the members of the
tribe becoming United States citizens. There are
other communities where. the bulk of the tribe
is still too wild for it to be possible to take such
a step. There are individuals among the ApachCs,
Pawnees, Iroquos, Sioux and other tribes who
are now United States citizens and who are
titled to stand and do stand on an absolute equal
ity with all our citizens Of pure white blood.
Men of Indian blood now serving in the army
and navy and in congress and occupy high posi-
ton both in the business and the political world.
There is every reason why rapidly an In
1ian or any body of Indians becomes fit for self
government he N it should be granted the fullest
equality with the whites but there would be no
justification whatever in treating this fact a
reason for abandoning the wild tribes to work
out their own destruction. Exactly the same
reasoning applies in the case of the Philippines.
70 turn over the islands to Aguinaldo and his fol-
lowers would not be to give self government to
the islanders. Under circumstances would the
majority thus gain self government They would
simply be put at the mercy of a syndicate OF
Chinese half breeds, under whom corruption
would flourish far more freely than it -four
ished under Tweed, while tyrannical oppression
would obtain to degree only possible under such
an ugarchy