Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-01-18
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GA HEheO
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
PHILIPPINE DEBATE IN SENATE.

The debate on the army III III 'lIc
United States Senate has on course
brought up the question why an increased
regular army is needed, and this OF
course brought up the Philippine ques-
ton.
Senator Teller of Colorado, in the
course of the debate, last week. said
81 said two years ago that there would
not be any imperialism H. the Philippine
Islands. for the American people wouli
not allow it. Since that have seen in
those islands an imperial government
that has no equal on the face of the earth.
"And so take back what | said two
wears ago. Imperialism has come; il is
there in its worst form, and what ! want
to know, like the senator from Maryland
(Mr. Wellingtun). Is, what are you going
to do now? Are you going to keep up
this imperalistc government? Are YOU
going to continue to govern l20O0,0OO
people contrary to their wish, without /
voice. without being heard, when your /
chief actor over there, Gen. Mac Arthur, !
tells you that the people are unit against
this administration, when every Filipino
in Europe to day, and there are thous- /
ands of them, is against our government
over there?
81 saw to the gentlemen who are so
ready to charge US win desire to with I
draw the army and dishonor the flag that
it does not involve that, when we demand
that you give to those people govern
ment of their own. Gen. Otis said to the
president of the United States: These
people want conditional Independence
a nrnnnsitinn from
any Filipino authority anywhere that we
should withdraw our army and leave
them unprotected. They have said we.
want your protection; we want YOU to
keep the rest of the world off of us Is
that inconsistent with giving them
government Of their own?
"What did we say we could do for
Cuba? We said we would leave the peo-
pie to govern that island. Does anybody
suppose that we are going to leave them
the prey of other nations: We will apply
the Monroe doctrine to them. And what
the Filipino asks was that we should
apply the Monroe doctrine to them over
there That i what we ought to have
given them. When we said what we
said with reference to Cuba, we said prac-
tically to the world, This is not a war of
aggression; it is a war in the interest of
liberty and of humanity and of good
government We said to all the world,
1T is not war of aggrandi2pment; it is
not war of acquisitions; we are not 60
ing into it for a profit; we are going into
it for the greatest good to those people,
Nobody wants to deprive the admin
istratiOn of the power to put down that
so-called rebellion if they have the ability
to do so, but. Mr.. President | believe
you can compose affairs in that country
by simple declaration, made in proper
manner by the House ana the Senate and
signed by the president. that YOU will APP
ply the fourth resolution of the Cuban
resolutions to them, as you have got to
apply it to Cuba, whether you want to
or whether you do not"
Senator IIoar of Massachusetts, follow
ing Mr.. Teller. said:
THE president has declared his pur-
pose to keep order in those islands until
congress shall act. He has not in any
official communication to US, that | can
now remember, recommended that con-
gress continue policy of subiugaton.
On the contrary, he eXpress6s in his mes
sage the desire of 'insuring the benefits
of liberty and good government to the
Filipnos, in the Interest of humanity,
and with the aim of building up an en-
during, self.supporting, and self-admin-
istering community in those Far Eastern
seas.
"Mr. President, if those words mean to
you what they mean to me, if they mean
what the American people have always
held them to mean throughout our past
history, they express with the beauty,
precision, and clearness,, which always
characterized their author. exactly what
| think we ought to do. The Fiipinos
are entitled to liberty and good govern
ment;' they are entitled to be an endur-
ing, self supporting, and self administer
ing community The United States,
who set them free from Spain, is to in
sure liberty and self-government as it
should, as it has done, is doing, and
means to do In Cuba.
"But liberty is inconsistent with for
eign yoke, is it not? Is there any senator
who will stand up here and say that the
liberty of country is consistent with a
foreign yoke, or that when we insure lib
erty we should act like an insurance
company which should itself set the in
sured premises on lire? That government
is not notwithstanding whose executive,
whose judiciary, whose legislative pow
ers, whose relations to other countries,
in war and in peace, whose trade, whose
commerce, whose Jurisprudence, are at
the mercy of another and a foreign
authority.
"There can be no liberty, there can be
no government, there car be in the
end no political rights without independ-
ence Our declaration of the principles
of liberty, which for hundred years has
been to US as political bible, is decIar-
alton of Independence. The dying words
of Lnhn Alnun. IL. III n On