The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-01

call himself Democrat or a Republic
an-one the choice of whom will show
that the local Democracy puts faithful
public service above party needs in the
selection of public officials
IN UNPROFITABLE INVESTMENT.
The recent disaster in the Philippines
brings home the fact that the Philippine
war is not over; that our political expan-
sion beyond seas is still in the experiment
al stage, and that thousands of lives and
millions of dollars must still be spent
in an attempt to bring the races of those
islands under American dominion Wheth-
er it was the hand of fate or a desire
for territorial conquest that gave us the
Philippines does not matter now. We
have them They have cost US dear.
The public, animated by the spirit of
commercialism, ratified the action of the
administration in its course toward Spain
and its later course toward the Phil
ippines. There was little else to do at
that time. But we have become some
what wiser during the last two years
Opinions on the great question of ma
tional expansion and benevolent assim-
ilation" have begun to focus and the
mage of our relations with the world
and our duty to humanity has become
clearer. We have learned that the Unit
ed States cannot absorb alien races over
the seas and assimilate them under the
constitution. We have learned that there
is a wide difference between commercial
expansion and political expansion; that
commercial expansion can go on unac-
companied with political expansion We
have awakened to the fact that the CIV
ilization of a race cannot be accomplish
ed in a day by spreading over it the man
tie of our institutions and our laws. All
these things we might have known had
we stopped to think. But we did not
stop to think. The dream of being an
empire on which the sun would never set.
was too dazzling to allow the brain to
work in its regular channels of reason
able conservatism.
Every thinking man, whether he be an
lmperialist, an expansionist, or what
not, now realizes that we have white
elephant on our hands in the possession
of the Philippines
If absolute peace reigned, those islands
et;IJ
charge upon us-a tax upon our NATIONAL
ity. We must reconstruct our organic
laws and our whole system of govern
ment if we are to hold them. Are we
ready to do it? Two years ago the ma
ton was imbued with desire to become
the great civilizing force of the world. 1t
was commemorate enthusiasm. But
we forgot that government of the peo-
pie, does not possess the machinery for
the propagation of it's own theories The,
power that forces civilization on unwill-
ing races and peoples must be despotic.
The secret of the amazing success of
Russia in Asia, lies in the system of gov
eminent which allows it's agents to
adapt means to any end A nation
without constitution can go into the
civilizing business and make of it
success. The process is necessarily
slow. That is one reason why a con-
stitutional republic will always fail in
such an enterprise. The advocates of
territorial expansion declared that the
F1llplnos were not fit for self-govern-
ment. Granted. If they are not fit for
self-government We have no use for them
within the constitutional nest of the re-
public. We can hold them only as
serfs, and that cannot be done so long
as We are what We are. But, says the
territorial expansionist, we have them
and we must keep them even if we have
to sacrifice our constitution. Not so.
The power which bought can sell. The
moving force in our recent expansion
craze was commercialism. That may be
preserved, uncoupled with territorial ex-
pansion. What we want is the trade of
the Orient, including the Philippine ISL
ands. That we can secure without car
rying the flag to mountain or jungle over
the sea.
1t has been said we took the Philip
pines to prevent them from falling into the
hands of other European nations, whose
commercial interests are inimical to ours.
Well and good. We will sell them, but
not to England, nor to Germany, nor
France, nor Russia This would dis
turb the balance of power in the far
East. and we wish to preserve the Fill
pinos from three centuries more of Eu-
ropean rule. What will we do? Let us
offer them to she only nation which can
develop the material resources of the ISL
ands and civilize the inhabitants. Let
US sell them to Japan. BY so doing, we
will help to adjust the balance of power
OF the world, we will secure for our
selves political and commercial ally
across the Pacific; we will check the
dominance of Russia in the far East by
giving to Japan additional power and
prestige. In return we can secure COM