The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1901-01-31

coming not as invaders conquerors, but
as friends, of the mild sway of justice,
and of benevolent assimilation the al
ready Justly awakened distruct of the Fill
pinos clearly beheld the unsheathed and
glittering steel of despotism.'
If we are bent on slaughter said he,
let 1t be In open guise. If we lust for this
poor land, let us not gloss our enterprise
with false and sinister pretense Rather
let us boldly raise the sOmber flag of inter-
wind, and then close in upon our feeble
victim to the cry of loot and glory"
Mr.. Towne maintained that the United
States was under the obligation of circum-
stances, If not indeed, of actual promise, to
grant independence to the FilipinOs, and
that among nations, the former was quite
as binding as the latter.
FILIPINOs TO GOVERN.
Senator Towne then argued at length in
support of his contention that the Filipinos
were perfectly capable of governing them
selveE, pointing cut that 80 per cent of the
population of Luzon can read and write,
and holding that the government estab-
lished by Agulnaldo was strong, symmetri-
cal and progressive, even l. the difficult
and disturbing conditions which surround
ed it.
He declared that the Filipino statesmen
would creditably meet almost any emer-
advanced government, and would have dig
nif1ed and Ornamented the early struggle
Tor nationality OF any people known to
history.
There is excellent reason to believe that
even at this day the existing Filipino gov
ernment, low as it Is in estate and migra-
tory to some extent as to location, exer
cises a wide and respected authority in the
Philippine islands, and is obeyed quite gen.
orally by the local authorities in the in
terror.
There is not the slightest ground for be-
lieving that any appreciable impression has
been made upon the determination of the
Philippine people to resist us to the end.
There is no evidence that any strong
native American element has any ex-
lstence whatever.
LAS the result of two years Of wasting
war. we occupy about one e-five-hundredth
part of that archipelago. No district Is
really pacifed.' We hold the ground our
troops stand on-practically nothing more" !"
During the campaign Of 1900 1t was
Of the administration Philippine policy that
they were keeping alive a smouldering re
bellion' in the Philippines.
THE newspapers and magazines made
much of this foolish argument, and in many
. Sllpit. where the gospel of the bullet has
supplanted the Christianity Of the Bible, the
pious anathema of prudent priesthood rose
to heaven on the wings Of prayer"
Mr.. Towne then declared that after the
elections the resistance in the Philippines
increased and that 1t had been announced
in the senate within a week that &c, 900
American soldiers would be needed in the
islands for an indefinite period.
rs 1t not clear, he inquired, that the
way of duty is equally the path Of profit?
Do we need to own people in order to trade
with them? Is it not better to allow our
customers to live, to have their good will
and to leave them the means of payment
than to kill the strongest Of them, to earn
the hatred of the survivors and to impover-
ish all By desolating war;"
THE PLAN TO PURSUE.
He held that it was better to trade liberty
to Fflipinos for security to the United States
In the islands than to force "a sulen un-
willingness into slavish compliance with
some of our customs by the employment of
an army of 100. 600 men."
It was a habit Of the defenders Of the ad-
ministration policy to sneer at the term
imperialism" he said, but it could not be
sneered away.
..You can have Imperialism without an
emperor just as the Romans found that
they could have more than royal master
though he did not wear the hated name OF
king" asserted Mr.. T0wne.
.The retention of the Philippines will
commit us to the whole program Of empire.
There is a law among nations, as Hamlet
says there is among men. by which a bad