Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-10-11
omacy with an unfriendly nation.

iomacy with an unfriendly nation.
believe that we are in better position
to wage successful contest against
Imperialism" that is, to secure inde-
pendence to the Filipinos, than we
would have been had the treaty been
rejected. With the treaty ratified, a
clean-cut issue Is presented between
government by consent and a gov
ernment by force, and imperialists
must besr the responsibility for all
that happens until the question is set
lied If the treaty had been rejected,
the opponents of imperialism would
have been held responsible for any in
ternational complications which might
have arisen before the ratification of
the treaty The title of Spain
being extinguished, we were at liber-
ty to deal with the Filipinos accord
ing to American principles"
You assure us that these reasons
and consideration were present in your
mind and influenced your action when
you procured the treaty to be ratified.
If they were, and the consequences to
the country of that imperialism to
which the ratification of the treaty
gave BIRTH and of which you are the
father, are as baneful and deadly as
you wish us to believe they are, then
rather than risk prejudicing your own
political prospects by asking PROSTATE
Spain to so far modify the treaty as
to transfer these islands to the people
thereof, your patriotism preferred to
endanger our civilization and hazard
the very existence of our political sys-
TEN, by ratifying the treaty and fas-
tening imperialism on the republic
with all it's baneful and destructive
consequences. When you were delb-
Grating whether to give your support
to or withhold 1t from the treaty, you
were not seeking how best to serve
your country, but how you could make
the results Of the Spanish war best
subserve the aspirations of your vault
ing ambition, and concluding that rat
ification would best subserve your pur-
pose by furnishing a pretext for maxi
ing the scarecrow imperialism q par
amount issue, with which to alarm
your countrymen in 1900, you favored
it. Your suggestion about forcing a
new treaty from a hostile power and
international complications" is pure
fancy. Spain had already consented
to part with the islands and it was a
matter of Indifference to her in whom
their sovereignty should be ultimately
lodged. If you had more desired to Sc
cure Filipino independence than to
promote your own political fortunes,
and in order to secure it it had been
necessary to reject the treaty and ask
Spain to join in making new, or
modifying the existing, treaty SO as to
transfer the sovereignty of the islands
to their people, she would have done
SO az unhesitatingly as she relinquish-
ed the sovereignty to Cuba to the
Cubans."
Judge West then declares that the
ratification of the peace treaty with
Spain has placed Bryan in a worse
OF the Filipinos than he was in pre-
vious TO that, or had he opposed the
ratification of the treaty. In proof of
this he quotes from Bryan's speech ac-
cepting the Populst nomination for
the presidency, and shows very fully
that when Bryan procured the treaty
to be ratified, he believed, or pro-
fessed to, that the cession of these
islands without the consent of their
people nullified the declaration of in
dependence; believed that by their ces
sion, either with or without their con
sent, their people must either become
citizens of the United States, which
they could not without endangering
our civilization, or must become sub
jects OF the United States, which they
coud not do without imperiling the
very existence OF the republic; believed
that their cession would in either case
introduce into our political system the
consuming poison of Imperialism with
all its consequences. Believing this,
you nevertheless, by procuring its rat
ification, became the foster parent OF
that imperialism which you now de
nounce, and yourself purposely infused
nullified the declaration of independ-
ence; endangered our civilization, and
imperiled the very existence of the re-
public by making the Filipinos what
they now are, either citizens or sub
jects of the United States"