The Irish standard., 1900-09-15
x'KINLEY,s LENGTHY LETTER.


President Mckinley has accepted the
nomination bestowed upon him by his
henchmen at Philadelphia. His letter
announcing the fact occupies nine col
umns. of space the st. Paul Globe,
which truly says that man must pos
sess great patience or much enthusi-
asm who reads 1t in it's entirety. We
have not read much of it, and vet we
perceive that he devotes six times as
much space to imperialism as ,he does
to the silver question, which he tells
the American people is the paramount
issue this year. When it was the para
cunt issue in 1896 he did not meet IT..
He kept harping on the tariff and
promised to do his best in settling the
money question by international agree
ment. He sent Il commission to Eu-
rope to get the nations to agree on BIZ
metallism, and while it was away he
did his best to balk it in its mission
Senator WOlcott on his return made a
speech in the United States senate in
which he charged the administration
with bad faith for sending him on a
wild goose chase from one European
capital to another when it was known
everywhere abroad that the Republic
ans wanted gold standard. Every
one supposed that the country was on
a permanent gold basis until Secretary
Gage said it was possible to undo the
work recently performed by congress
If Bryan is elected this fall. Mckinley
intimates In his letter that there is
great danger in Bryans triumph over
himself, and asks. "Will the American
people, through Indifference or fancied
security, hazard the overthrow of the
wise financial legislation of the past
year and revive the danger of the sill
YER standard?" How can the legisla-
tiOn be wise If 1t can be overthrown so
easily? Carl Sclurz says that con-
gress when it convenes in December
can fix up the matter so that Bryan
cannot overthrow it if elected. All this
bugaboo is unworthy of q president of
the United States, but nothing better
can be expected from Mark Hanna's
factotum.
President Mckinley dcvotes few
inches to civil service reform and says
it has always had the support and en-
cQuragement of the Republican party.
OF course, nobody believes n word of
that. Republicans themselves are
ashamed of the way, Mckinley gave
jobs to the henchmen of Mark Hanna
in every state of the Union. ",rhe fu-
ture of the merit system is safe in it's
hands," adds the little Napoleon. So
it is.
Under the heading of philippine
Question" Mckinley says nothing new.
He quotes his former utterances to
show how consistent he has been in
carrying out his abominable policy in
the Orient. He gives Il resume of his
instructions to his Philippine commits
sions and their reports OH the islands.
He tries to show there was no alliance
between Americans and Filipinos
when fighting the Spaniards around
Manila, and quotes Admiral Dewey as
saying that mo alliance of any kind
was entered into with Aguinaldo. nor
was any promise Of independence
made to him Mt any time"
Strictly speaking, Dewey is correct
in what he says, but why did he bring
Aguinaldo from Hong Kong and arm
the Filipinos? Did he not know the
Filipinos and their leaders had reason
to believe they would get independence
like the Cubans? What We're the Fill
pinos fighting for if not for their indie
pendence? They certainly hemmed in
the Spaniarls in Manila until they
surrendered to the United States. IL
they We're not allies they surely were
auXiliaries and we are not aware that
they ever demanded or received any
pay for their services.
McKinley's letter is production
which does not elevate him in the eyes
of II majority of the American people
whom lie is trying to hoodwink into
the notion that his treatment of the
I'ilipinOs has been Of the most henevO.
lent character. He persists in saying
that "a small fraction of the popula.
tion, Il single tribe" is opposing his
authority, and that he wants to convey
the blessings of liberty and order to
the Philippines by shooting civilization
into them from the mouths of Gatling
guns. He omitted to say anything Of
the mighty sultan of Sulu and his
slaves and concubines.
He speaks of Porto Rico, but says
nothing of his "plain duty message to
congress. nor of the 15 per cent tariff.
He says empire has been expelled
from Porto Rico" but says nothing Of
the carpetbnggers he has sent there
himself to eat up the substance of the
people. '"rhe flag of the republic" he
saws ssAno tS cyn,. fhn island on n,o