The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1902-06-06

governine>these islands, You substitute in
this bill the declaration that the rights
acquired in the Philippine islands under the
treaty with Spain are to be administered for
the benefit of the inhabitants OF those is
lands
THE share which you propose to admit
these people in your scheme Of government
Is an admission that a large number of
them are fit for self-government.
What you have been fighting for all this
time as your right, If you expect to enact
this bill into law and to carry ii out in prac-
tice, is to substitute constitution of your
making for one of their making; to have
dependency, which is what you want, in
stead of a republic, which is what they
want; to have fitness for the elective fran
chise determined by an authority which has
its source 10000 miles away, instead of with
the people at home; and te deny them inde-
pendence, even If they are fit for it, so long
as you please, without any regard to their
desire.
Gov. Taft, If I understood him, con-
cedes that nothing so far indicates that the
existing policy has been good for the United
States. 1t is only the benefit Of the people
Of the Philippine islands, in saving them
from anarchy or from foreign nations, in
establishing schools for them, that yindi-
Gates what you have done so far What you
nave done so far has been to get some Saw
thousand children actually at school in the
whole Philippine dominion. To get this re-
suit you have certainly slain many times
that number of parents.
John Quincy Adams, as everybody
knows, was the father of what we cali the
Monroe doctrine. He secured its adoption
through the weight of his great influence
by hesitat!ng president and reluctant
cabinet 1t is not so well known that he
placed the Monroe doctrine solely upon the
doctrine that just government must rest
upon the consent of the governed. That he
declared to be its only foundation, and that
so founded it rested upon the eternal princi-
pie or righteousness and justice.
Moral Equivalent of Policy,
"Mr. President, if you have your own way
and keep on in the path you are treading
you have not only repealed the declaration
of independence, but you have left for the
Monroe doctrine only the principle of
brutal selfishness. You have taken from
that doctrine, which is the chief glory of
this country, from the time of the treaty
of peace in 17SS till the inauguration of
Abraham Lincoln in 1861, it's foundation in
Righteousness and freedom, and you found
1t only upon Selfshness.
when We ratified the treaty of Paris we
committed ourselves to one experiment in
Cuba and another in the Philippine islands.
We had said already that Cuba of right
ought to be free and independent. So when
in the treaty Spain abandoned her sover-
eighty the title of Cuba became at once COM
order until we could hand over Cuba to
government her people had chosen and es-
tablished.
"By the same treaty we bought the Phil
ippine islands for $40 600, GOO and declared and
agreed that congress shall dispose of them.
So, according to those who held that treaty
valid, it became the duty of the president
to reduce them to submission and of con-
gress to govern them.
Here the two doctrines are brought into
sharp antagonism.
SIN Cuba, of right, just government, &C
cording to you, must rest on the consent of
the governed. Her people are to institute
a new government, laying its foundation on
such principles and organizing its powers
in such form as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their safety and happiness
'In the Philippine islands government is
to be instituted by power 10,0 600 miles away,
to be in the beginning a despotism estab-
lished by military power, and to be such,
to use the language of the McEnery reso-
luton, as shall seem for the interest of the
United States
you have given both doctrines a three
years trial. Three years is sometimes a
very long time and sometimes very short
time in human affairs. believe the whole
life of the Saviour after He first made His
divine mission known lasted but three
years. Three years has wrought a mighty
change in Cuba, and it has wrought a
mighty change in the Philippine islands.
We have had plenty of time to try both ex-
periments.
Real Cost of War.
'Now, what has each cost you and what
has each profited you?
II should naturally begin where our IA
theirs used to begin. But somehow the |
things get so ineXtricably blended that we
cannot keep them separate. This world |
is so made that you cannot keep honesty, |
and sound policy, and freedom, and ma |
terial property, and good government, and |
the consent of the governed apart Men |
who undertake to make money by cheat |
ing pay for it by failure in business. If |
you try to keep order by military despot- |
ism you suffer from it by revolution and |
by barbarity in war. If strong people |
try to govern a weak one against its Will |
the home government will get despotic too.
You cannot maintain despotism in Asia
and a republic in America. If you try to
deprive even a savage or barbarian of
his just rights you can never do it with
out becoming a savage or barbarian your
self
your practical craftsmanship has sue
ceeded in converting people who three
years ago were ready to kiss the hem of
The garment of the American and to well
come him as liberator. who thronged after
your own men when they landed on those
Islands with benediction and gratitude, into
sullen and irreconcilable enemies, possessed
of a hatred which centuries cannot eradi-
cate
1.-The practical craftsmanship of the
declaration of independence and the golden
rule would have cost nothing but few
kind words They would have bought for
you the great title of liberator which your
'athers won for your country in the South
American republics and in Japan and which
you have won in Cuba. They would have
bought for you the undying gratitude of
great and free people and the undying glory
which belongs to the name of liberator.
That people would have felt for you as
Japan felt for you when she declared last |
summer that she owed everything to the
United States of America.
Contrast of Ideals.
what have your ideals cost you, and
what have they bought for you?
SCI For the Philippine islands you have
lad to repeal the declaration of indepen-
lence.
For Cuba you have had to reaffirm 1t and