Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-02-01
SAYS IT'S GRAND LARCENY
Senator Towne Bitterly Attacks the
Administration for Taking the
Philippine Islands.
CHARGES AGAINST AeUlNALDo DENIED
Omcial Publications of Our Own Govern.
ment, He Declares, Contradict the Sto-
Ties That the Tagal Leader Sold His
Country to the Spaniards for Bride
Dewey Accused of DupIicity.

Country to the Spaniards for q Bride
Dewey Accused of DupIicity.
Washington, Jan. 29.-As previously
announced, Senator Charles A. Towne
Monday addressed the senate on his
resolution declaring for Filipino indie
pendence. In opening his address Mr..
Towne referred to the petition pre-
sented to the senate a few days ago
by 2,006 FilpinOs for a cessation of
hostilities and for the granting of in
dependence to the people of the Phil
ippines. He maintained that it would
prove ''quickening appeal to the
ancient spirit of the republic, or it's
rejection must dedicate the twentieth
century to reaction prejudicial, if
not fatal, to free institutions" While
discussing events which led United
States forces to the Philippines, Mr..
Towne referred with particularly to
the charge that Aguinaldo had sold
his country to the Spaniards for a
bride. He declared the accusation was
''gratuitious in it's calumny, when we
consider that the official publications
of our own government contradict and
destroy it," The senator declared that
1--WE were in an alliance with the Fill i-
nos, an alliance sought by ourselves,
availed of by us for our own adj
vantage and finally, to our everlasting
shame in the estimation of honorable
men, repudiated by us when we found
it no longer necessary and when lust
of empire had SO blunted our moral
sensibilities that we could mount
from an act of perfdy to the grand
larceny of a nation" Referring to
Admiral Dewey's denial that he had
ever treated the insurgents as allies,
Mr.. Towne said sarcastically: 81 fear
the honest sailors Technology has
suffered from recent contact with the
nice discrimination of administra-
ton diplomacy" Discussing the
QUESTION of the Philippines, Senator
Towne said:
It is not easy to fix with accuracy
the time when the design was formed to
take forcible possession of the Philippine
islands, nor to ascertain the mind in
whose gloomy recesses'' this enterprise
of Sacrilege and violence first gathered
form and pressure. There has indeed been
evidenced a disposition by its most illus
trious sponsors, as if their prophetic souls
already trembled at the inquisition of
after ages, to impute the dubious re-
sponsibility of Providence itself. I know
not which to admire the more, whether
the modesty which dsclaims credit for
the policy. or the colossal presumption
which challenges and betrays the vaunted
confidence of the Almighty.
Mr.. Towne said of the presidents
proclamation that ''among the roses
of it's soft rhetoric of love, it's fair
speech about bur coming not as in
vaders or conquerors, but as friends
of the mild sway of justice and of
benevolent assimilation the already
Justly awakened distrust of the Fill
pinos clearly beheld the unsheathed
and glittering steel of despotism."
Continuing, he said:
| If we are bent on slaughter, let it be
in open guise. If we lust for the peoples
land, let us not glaze our enterprise with
false and sinister pretense. Rather let
US boldly raise the Sombre flag of inter-
national piracy, whistle scruple down the
wind, and then close In upon our feeble
victims to the cry of loot and glory
There is not the slightest ground for
believing that any appreciable impress
sion has been made upon the determine
ton of the Philippine people to resist us
to the end. There is evidence that
any strong native pro-American element
has any existence whatever AS the re-
suit of two years of wasting war. we
occupy about one five-hundredth part of
that archipelago. No district is really
"pacified" We hold the ground our
troops stand on, practically nothing more.
Is it not clear that the way of duty is
equally the path of profit? Do we need
to 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 pay
ment, than to kill the strongest of them,
| to earn the hatred of the survivors and to
| impoverish all by desolating war?
Mr.. Towne maintained that the
United States was under the obliga-
ton of circumstances, if not indeed.
of actual promise, to grant independ
| ence to the Filipinos, and that, among
nations, the former was quite as bind
| ing as the latter. Senator Towne then
| argued at length in support of his
contention that the Filipinos were
| perfectly capable of governing them
selves, pointing out that so per cent.
| of the population of Luzon can read
| and write, and holding that the gov
| eminent established by Aguinaldo
| something symmetrical and some
| thing tangible, even in the difficult
and disturbing conditions which sur
rounded it.
Immediately upon the conclusion of
Mr.. Towne's speech Mr.. Nelson pre-
| sented the credentials of Moses E.
| Clapp, TONNES successor, and the
| oath of Office was administered.