The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-09-17
COL. TEDDY ACCEPTS /
Continued From First p.xa

&C
quiescence required. The purchase was
made by the men who had lust put
through triumphant war to re-
s sloFe f bat n Onion and son free the
IL necessary to push the doctrine
Of the consent Of the governed" to a
conclusion so fantastic as to necessitate
the turning over to Alaska to its origi-
nal owners, the Indian and the Aleut
For 80 years the United States authori-
ties, military and civil, exercised the SUI
preme authority in tract Of land many
which it did not seem likely that there
would ever be any considerable body of
white Inhabitants.
next instance of expansion occurred,
/ which was over the island of Hawaii.
An effort was made at the end of Pres
ident Harrison's administration to secure
the annexation of Hawaii. The effort
was unsuccessful. In debate in con-
gress Oh Feb. 2, 1894, one of the leaders
In opposing the annexation of the ISL
ands, stated, These islands are more
| than two thousand miles distant from
our extreme western boundary. We have
/ a serious race problem now in our coun-
try and l am not in favor of adding to
our domestic fabric a mongrel popula-
| ton of this character). Our constitu-
ton makes no provisions for a colonial
establishment. Any territorial govern
ment we might establish would neces-
sarily, because of the population, be an
ollgarchy, which would have to be sup
ported by armed soldiers" Yet Hawaii
has now been annexed and her delegates
have sat in the national conventions of
the two great parties. The fears then
expressed in relation to an "oligarchy''
and armed soldiers" are not now serI-
ously entertained by any human being;
yet they are precisely the objections urg-
ed against the acquisition of the Philip
pines at this. very moment. We are MAX
ing no new departure. We are not taking
single step which in any way affects
our institutions or our traditional poll
c1es. From the beginning we have given
widely varying degrees of self-govern-
ing to their needs.
NO IMPERIALISM.
The simple truth is that there is moth
ing even remotely resembling Imperial
ism" or 'mi-itarism' involved in the
present development of that policy of
history of America from the day when
she became nation The words mean
absolutely nothing as applied to our pres
ent policy in the Philippines; for this
policy IS only imperialistic in the sense
that Jeffersen's policy in Louisiana was
imperialistic; only military in the sense
that Jackson's policy toward the Semi
noles or Clusters toward the Sioux en-
bodied militarism; and there is no more
danger of its producing evil results at
home now than there was of it's interfer
lrg with freedom under Jefferson or
jackson, or in the days of the Indian
wars on the plains. Our army is rela-
lively not as large as it was in the days
OF wayne: we have not one regular for
every thousand. inhabitants There is
no more danger of a draft than there Is
of the re-introduction of slavery.
When we expanded over New Mexico
ana California we secured free govern
ment to these territories and prevented
their falling under the "militarism' of a
dictatorship ike that of Santa Anna or
the imperialism" OF a real empire In
the days of Maximillian We put a stop
to Imperialism in Mexico as soon as the
Civil war closed. We made a great anti
imperialiStic stride when we drove the
Spaniards from Porto Rico and the Phil
1ppines and thereby made ready the
ground in these~islands for that gradual
ly increasing measure of Self-goEernment
for Which their populations are severally
fitted. Cuba is being helped along the
path to independence as rapidly as her
own citizens are content that she should
go. OF course the presence of troops In
the Philippines during the Tagal insur-
rection has no more to do with miltarism
or imperialism than had their presence
in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wyoming
during the many years which elapsed be-
fore the final outbreaks of the Sioux
were definitely, put down. There. Is no
more militarJsm or imperialism in garri-
soning Luzon until order is restored than
to South Dakota in $780, during the
Ogallalla outbreak. The reasoning which
Justltes our having made war against
Sitting Bull also justiffes our having
his followers, directed, as they WERE,
against Philippine and American alike.
,Fhe only certain way of rendering it
necessary for our republic to enter on a
career of .sMilitarism' would be to aban-
don the Philippines to their own tribes,
and at the same time either to guarantee
stable government among these tribes
or to 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 I'M
der the American flag; While the presence
of this flag on the islands is really the
only possible security against outside ag-
erosion. The whole argument against
President McKfnley's policy in the Phil
ippfneS becomes absurd when it Is con-
ceded that we should, to quote the Lam
guage of the Kansas City platform, give
to the Philippines first a stable form of
government If they are now entitled
to independence, they are also entitled
to decide for themselves 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 evident that under
such conditions we have no right what
ever to guarantee them against outside in
reference any more than we have to
make such a guarantee in the case Of
the FoXers who are merely Chinese anal
ogues of Aguinaldo's followers). If We
have right to establish a stable govern
ment in the islands, it necessarily follows
that it is not only our right but our duty
to support that government until the ma
ives gradually grow fit to sustain it them
selves. How else will it be stable? The
BILE.
Properly speaking, the question is now
whether we shall expand,-for we have
already expanded,-but whether we shall
contract. The Philippines are now part
Of American territory. They must, of
course, be governed primarily in the In
terests of their own citizens. Our first
care must be for the people of the ISL
ands which have come under our guard
ianship as a result of the most righteous
foreign war that has been waged within
the memory of the present genera ton
They must be administered In the inter
ests Of their inhabitants, and that nece3-
sarily means that any question of re sen
al or partisan politics in their sdminis-
tration must be entirely eliminated. We
must continue to put at the heads of af-
fairs in the different islands such men as
| Gen. Wood, Gov. Allen and Judge Taft
and it is a most fortunat tie thing that we
are able to illustrate what ought to be
| done in the way Of sending officers thith-
/ er by pointing out what actually has beer
! done The minor places in their adm mis-
traitor, where it Is Impossible to fl
| them by natives, must be filed by the
| strictest application Of the merit system
| 1t is very important that in our owl
home administration the merely minis
| terial and administrative offices. where
| the duties are entirely non-political shall
| be filled absolutely without reference tt
partisan affiliations; but this is many
| times more important in the newly ac
quired islands. The merit system is il
its essence as democratic as our common
/ school system, for it simply means equal
| chances and fair play for all.
ALL FOR THE BEST.
1t must be remembered always tina.
/ governing these islands in the interest O
the inhabitants may not necessarily b,
to govern them as the inhabitants at tn,
moment prefer TO grant seIf-govern
| ment to LuZon under Aguinaldo would b,
| like granting self-goyernment to al
| Apache reservation under some loca
chief; and this is no more altered by tn,
| fact that the FiEipinos fought the Span
iards. than it would be by the fact tina