The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1900-10-05

meuL 1of WHICH luelr p0puldllOuS are
severally fitted. Cuba is being helped
along the path to independence as rapid
ly as her own citizens are content that
she should so.
Or course the presence Of troops in the
Philippines during the Tagal instruction
has no more to do with militarism or inn
perialism than had their presence in the
Dakotas, Minnesota and Wyoming dur
ing the many years which elapsed before
the final outbreaks of the Sioux were def
nitely put down. There is no more mill
tarism or Imperialism in garrisoning Luz
ION until order is restored than there was
imperialism in sending soldiers to South
Dakota in 1890, during the Ogallalia OUT
break. The reasoning which justifes our
having made war against Sitting Bull
also justifies our having checked the out
breaks of Aguinaldo and his followers, d.
rected, as they were, against Filipino and
American alike.
No Abandonment
The only certain way of rendering it
necessary for our republic to enter on
career of '.militarism" would be to aban-
don the Philippines to their own tribes,
and at the same time either to guarantee
a stable government among these tribes
or 10 guarantee them against outside in
reference. 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 pres
ence 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 be-
comes absurd when it is conceded that we
should to quote the language of the Kan
sas City platform, give TO the Philip
| pines first a stable form of government"
II they are now entitled to independence,
they are also entitled to decide for them
selves whether their government shall be
| stable or unstable, civilized or savage, or
whether they shall have any government
| at all; while it is, of course, equally evil
dent that under such conditions we have
no right whatever to guarantee them
against outside interference any more
| than we have to make such a guaranty in
the case of the Boxers (who are merely
the Chinese analogues OF Aguinaldo's fol-
lowers).
II we have a right to establish stable
| government in the islands il necessarily
follows that it is not only our right but
our duty to support that government un-
til the natives gradually grow fit to sus-
tain it themselves. How else will il be
| stable? The minute we leave it, it ceases
to be stable.
Now a Question of Contraction.
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 surren-
der them would be 10 surrender American
| 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
| come under our guardianship as a result
| of the most righteous foreign war that
has been waged within the memory Of
the present generation. They must be
| administered in the interests of their in
| habitants, and that necessarily means
| that any question Of personal or partisan
| politics in their administration must be
entirely eliminated.
We must continue to put at the heads
| of affairs in the different islands such
| men as Gen. Wood. Gov. Allen and
Judge Taft; and it is most fortunate
thing that we are able to Illustrate what
ought to be done in the way OF sending
officers thither by pointing out what ac-
tually has been done. The minor places
! in their administration. where il is i'm
possible to ill them by natives, must be
filed by the strictest application Of the
merit system.
1t is very important that in our own
home administration the merely minis
| terial and administrative offices, where
the duties are entirely non-political, shall
| be filed absolutely without reference to
| partisan affiliations; but this is many
times more important in the newly ac-
| Quired islands. The merit system is in
| its essence as democratic as our COM
| mon school system, for it simply means
equal chances and fair play for all
Parallel with Indian Government.
1t nuts be remembered always that
governing these islands in the interest 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
/ granting self government to an Apache
reservation under some local chief; and
| this is no more altered by the fact that
the Filipinos fought the Spaniards than
| it would be by the fact that Apaches
have long been trained and employed in
| the United States army and have rem
dered signal service therein; just as the
Pawnees did under the administration Of
President Grant: Just as the Stockbridge
Indians did in the days of Gen. Wash
ington, and the friendly tribes Of the six
nations in the days OF President Madison.
There are now in the United States
communities OF Indians which have adj
vaDced so far that il has been possible
to embody them as q whole in our po-
| litical system, all the members of the
| tribe becoming United States citizens
There are other communities where the
| bulk of the tribe are still too wild for il
| to be possible to take such a step. There
are individuals among the Apaches. Paw
nees, Iroquois. 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 citi-
zens of pure white blood. Men Of Indian
blood are now serving in the army and
navy and in Congress and occupy high
position both in the business and the po-
lifieal world