The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-05-03

ceeueu. Sucn a course
would have meant the absolute GER
tainty Of our being speedily forced to
interfere again. We would commit
a grave wrong to our own people if
we permitted the great island which
is u neighbor once more to become
a plague spot of civilizations; a still
graver wrong if we permitted the pos
sibility of it's being used against us
by some strong alien power. Our
business was to help in the devolp-
ment of those qualities in the Cubans
which would render them able to
solve the difficult problem of self-gov-
eminent: to further every movement
for decency in the island; and to give
our aid to the new Cuban common
wealth as it strove to walk alone.
1t is everywhere necessary to have
good laws; but it is even more neces-
sary to have good men to execute
those laws. Something. can be done
under a bad law by a first class man;
but the best law ever put upon the
statute books is useless in incapable
or dishonest hands. The president
chose in Governor General Leonard
Wood, exactly the man to put our
policy into effect. We ask that it
be judged by it's fruits. Compare
what Cuba now is with what it was
three years ago; compare the peace
and order and justice of today with
the unspeakable misery, the bloody
tumble of anarchy and tyranny Of
three years Ago.. Think of the strides
made in the school system and the
courts; think of what has been done
towards the cleansing Of the cities,
towards stamping out disease. Re-
member that the change is solely due
to the fact that we dared to go to
war for a righteous ause. If ever
in history an action has justified it.
self, our action in interfering in Cuba
has thus furnished it's W justiica-
ton.
Finally. we come to the Philippines
where the difficulties were greatest
of all. Perhaps few better tests of
our worth as a nation have ever been
offered than this Philippine problem.
The temptation was great to shirk
it altogether. Such a course would
thoroughly honest and excellent peo-
pie who were imperfectly informed,
or who were misled by false analo-
gies or by sentimental considerations,
but it would have been greetd with
enthusiasm by all short sighted peo-
pie and by all in whom the legitimate
dislike of needless effort and worry
tends to become an unhealthy fear of
all risk and trouble. But as we look
back we can see that the national
duty was really plain. We could not
give the islands back to Spain; we
could not see them taken by some
other European power; and least of
all could we turn them over to be
scrambled for by insurgent leaders,
most of whom were but little above
the level of banditti, and the success
of any of whom meant destruction to
the peaceful and law abiding portion
OF the islanders, and a more or less
swift relapse into barbarism of the
entire population. The first thing to
be lone was to restore order by put
ting a stop to the insurrection. This
has at last been practically accom-
pllshed in a succession of campaigns
which have brought out into bold re-
lief the daring, the skill and the in
domitable resolution of our officers
and men. The campaigns have been
wearing and difficult beyond descrip-
ton, both because of the nature of
the country and of the character of
Jul opponents. After the first few
months the insurgents ceased to op-
pose us in regular warfare, their
methods becoming more and more
such as by stern application of the
laws of wal would have forfeited
their right to be treated otherwise
than as a~ssassins. For the last
eighteen months our chief difficulty
has been not to beat the insurgents
in the field-for that was easy-but
to grapple with the dii1iculty caused
by lneir conduct in visiting murder
and torture upon all peaceful and
friendly natives who were anxious to
see our rule made permanent. Yet
under vel these circumstances the
has seer to it that the
almost intolerable %provocation given
by our enemies should not result in
their III treatment. Our army has
been most merciful in it's dealings.
With equal wisdom and clemency we
refrained from exacting the pen
alties which by every principle of mil.
itary and international law we had
to exact from our foes. The
record of the struggle in the Philip
pines for the last two years and a half
is one which should make all Ameri-
cans proud because of the firmness
ohN tHS AlS1Sy, LIZ JuoIlIC dLu CuC
with which their repre-
in the islands have acted
under as trying condition as have
ever been faced in a similar case.
From Lawton to Funston many a
name has been added to the honor
roll of the republic. Moreover as soon
as we began to get the upper hand Of
insurgents, steps We're Immediate
taken to establish a civil govern
ment in the islands. Here again, as
in the choice of Leonard Wood, the
president showed far sighted wisdom
in selecting out of the whole country
the mar best qualified to perform the
in the person of Judge Taft,
whom he made the head of the COM
1t is a great and solemn re-
sponsibility to frame a new system
government out of such a weller