Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-11-02
tors-assuming, Of course, II It was
q svmnathetic audience

tors-assuming, OF course. It was
sympathetic audience.
He disputed the claim of Democratic
speakers that improved conditions are
due to natural causes. He assured his
hearers that the Dingley bill and the
gold standard law were responsible,
solely and alone, for present prosperi-
ty but he wisely refrained from men,
tioning the date of enactment or these
laws. The paramount issue, he said,
was whether voters desire to return
to old conditions, or continue under
existing prosperity.
Mr.. Smith characterized imperialism
as a scare-crow, which scares no.
body; a will-o'-t he-wisp that nobody
follows. He asked how there could be
an empire without an emperor, and rid
iculed the idea that anybody could as
sociate Mckinley with the idea OF be-
ing an emperor. He said the party
i was doing in Porto Rica what Jefferson
did in Louisiana, with the exception
that Mckinley is more liberal than
Jefferson was In the philippines, he
asserted that the administration is do
ing more to prepare the people for
liberty than Monroe and Jackson were
for the people of Florida He argued
that imperialism was impossible, and
that Mckinley has proceeded under the
law in all his official acts.
The speaker declared that the war
with Spain and the Filipinos carried
the country forward more in 100 days
than in 100 years of ordinary history.
When the Spaniards destroyed the
Maine, they caused the expansion of
the American republic. The Americans
went up but they came down all over.
He said he had been asked to repeat
an expression which he made four
years ago about Lincoln. He had for
gotten it, and would have to depend
upon the spontaneous expression or MS
mind for the moment His eulogy OF
Lincoln brought forth much applause.
He declared that as Lincoln was raised
by Providence for the occasion, so al
SO were President Mckinley and the
members of his cabinet raised for a
great crisis. He eulogized all the cab
met except himself, and left the aud
fence to infer that he was deserving
of like praise.
After this little depression, evidently
made for the purpose OF stirring up a
show OF life and interest in the audi
ence, Mr.. Smith went back to the
Philippine question, and said that the
Presidents policy will give peace, lib
erty, progress and advancement to the
Filipinos. He did not tell how, nor
did he say when. He then took up
Bryans discussion of the Philippine
question, and sought by means of mis-
construction and specious sophistry
to reply to it. He threw up his hands
in holy horror at the idea Of hauling
down the flag in the Philippines, de-
claring that it was the first time in
the history of the nation that the flag
has been hauled down over territory
acquired by treaty. He said the flag
had been carried into Cuba by the
law of war, and would be carried out
by the law of peace. This was danger
Gus ground, however, and he tread very
lightly upon 1t.
He admitted that the war with Spain
was war for humanity and that the
flag was carried to Manila by the law
OF war. In every other case, he adj
mitted that the flag came out by the
law of peace, but he sought refuge be-
hind the treaty of Paris, without at
tempting to justify the provisions of
that treaty.
Mr.. Smith made the astonishing
statement that 80 per cent of the peo-