The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-09-17

one of the leaders, in opposing the
annexation Of the islands. stated:
These islands are more than 2,000
miles distant from our extreme west
ern boundary. We have a serious race
problem now in our country and 1 am
not in favor Of adding to our domestic
fabric mongrel population (Of this
character). Our constitution makes no
provision for a colonial establishment
ANY territorial government we might
establish would necessarily, because of
the population, be an oiigarchy. which
would have to be supported by armed
soldiers
Yet Hawaii has now been annexed
and her delegates have sat in the ma
tional conventions of the two great
parties. The fears then expressed in
relation TO an 'oligarchy' and armed
soldiers are not now seriously enter
tanned by any human being: yet they
are precisely the objections urged
against the acquisition OF the Phil
1ppines at this very moment. we are
making no new departure. We are
not taking single step which in any
way AFFECTS our institutions or our ira
dltional Dolicies. From the beginning
we have given widely varying degrees
OF self-government to the different ter
r1tories, according to their needs.
Denies There Is imperialism.
The simple truth is that there il
nothing even remotely resembling i'm
perfallsm or 'miIitariasin' involved in
Inc present development OF that policy
OF expansion which mas been part o.
the history of America from the Gay
she became nation. The words mean
absolutely nothing as applied to ou-
present policy in the Philippines: fo-
this policy is only iTnperiasistic in the
sense that Jeffersons policy was i'm
per1al1stic: only military in the sense
tnat Jackson's policy toward the Sem
inoles or Clusters toward the Sioux en-
bodied militarism; and there is no more
danger of its producing evil results at
nome now than there was of its inter
fering with freedom under Jefferson
or jackson, or in the days of the Indian
wars on the plains. Our army is reIa-
uVely not as large as it was in the
DAYS OF Wayne; we have not one regu-
lar Tor every 1000 inhabitants. There
IS no more danger of a draft than
there is of the reintroduction of slar-
cry
When we expanded over New Mex
leo and California we secured free gov
eminent to these territories and pre-
vented their falling under the mill
laflSm OF dictatorship like that o.
santa Ana, or the imperialism of a
real empire in the days of Maximil-
nan We put a stop 20 imperialism in
MeXlco as soon as the civil war closed
we made great anti-imperialistic
stride when we drove the Standards
from Porto Rico and the PhiIiDDines
and thereby made ready the ground in
these islands for that gradually in
creaSlng measure of self-government
for which their populations are sew
eTalIy ntted Cubans are being helped
along the path to independence as read
lily as her own citizens are content she
Snould go. The presence Of troops in
the Philippines during the Tagal ins11r-
rectlon has no more to do with mill
tarlsm OK Imperialism than had their
n ha TA,7~
and Wyoming during the many wears
Whlch elapsed before the final out
breaks of the Sioux were definitely put
down. There is no more militarism or
imperialism IN garrisCning Luzon until
order is restored than there was i'm
perialism in sending soldiers to South
Dakota In 1880 during the OgalalIa out
break. The reasoning which iustjfies
our having made war against Sitting
BUN also justif1es our having checked
me the outbreaks of AguinaldO and his
toIIowers, directed, as they were.
against Filipino and American alike.
Attacks Bryan Policy.
THE only certain way of rendering
1t necessary for our republic to enter
on career of 'militarism would be to
abandon the Philippines to their own
tribes, and at the same time either to
gufrantee a stable government amonG
these tribes or to guarantee them
"A
larger army would be required to carry
out any such policy than win be re
CURED to secure order under the Amer
lean flag: while the presence of this
flag on the islands is really the only
possible security against outside ae-
gression. The whole argument against
President McKinley's policy in the
philippines becomes absurd when it is
conceded that we should, 10 quote the
language 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 govern
ment at all; while it is, of course.
equally evident that under such cOndi-
lions we have no right whatever to
guarantee them against outside inter-
ference any more than we have to
make such a guarantee in the case of
the Boxers (WhO are merely Chinese
analogues of Aguinaldo's followers.l
II we have right to establish a stable
government in the islands. it neces-
sarily follows that it is not only orr
right but our duty to support that gov
eminent until the natives gradually
grow Mt TO sustain 1t themselves. How
else viii it be stable? The minute we
leave II, 1t ceases to be stable
properly speaking, the question is
now not whether we shall expand-fo~
we have already expaBded-but wheth-
er we shall contract. The Philippines
are now part of American territory
To surrender them would be to surren-
der American territory They must. of
course. be governed primarily in the
interests Of their own citizens. Our first
care must be for the people of the ISL
andS which have come under our guar
dianship as a result of the most right
eous foreign war that has been wased
within the memory of the present gen
Grafton. They must be administered in
the interests of their Inhabitants and
that necessarily means that any cues
ton OF personal or partisan politics in
thelr administration must be entirely
eliminated
We must continue to put at the
heads of affairs in the different islands
such men as General Wood Governor
Allen and Judge Taft; and it is a most
fortunate thing that we are able to il
lustrate 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 adj
mlnistration where ii is impossible to
fill them by natives. must be filled by
the strictest application of the merit
system. It is very important THAT in
our own home administration the min
isterial and administrative officea
where the duties are entirely non-po-
liticaI. shall be filed absolutely win
out reference to partisan affiliations.
but this is many times more Important
in the newly-acquired islands. The
1nr.i4 Tom, fcys