The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1902-07-10


Of civil government and the development
Of the Islands, This act, among other
things, provides for he survey 5settl ement
opening and development of the mines
and f forests; There are tn round. nun N.
abundance of timber. OF this amount 6l,-r
900. 900 acres are public lands, and only q
a age *
as !aborers, or as, tenants, at low wages
or high and exorbitant rents. This sys,,
tenn Of church and friar ownership ana
farming is and has been most burde n
some and odious to the natives, and was
one of their greatest sources Of COM
PLANT amt against the spaniard DIS ,w 80 tho
natives had secured titles to the lands
they occupied. Most of them were mere
ing the peope 81 the Burdens Of friar and
church lands, the act referred to makes
provision for securing. by purchase or
condemnation these lands and the d1spoSal
of them in forty-acre farms at cost price
to the natives who occupy them The act
further. provides that the natives may
title in fee, to the extent of forty acres
In each case, of the lands they occupied
and titled before we became possessed Il
in that climate and with their productions
makes good and ample farm. In TINS
way every family can secure nome VI
This free distribution of land, in fee.
among the natives-a thing unknown UNI
der Spanish law-will do more than any
happy, contented and law abiding. The
sense of ownership begets love of peace
and taste for law and order. With land
schools. and improved means of communi-
cation, the people will be in position to
become prosperous and fitted for local
Such, in brief, is what we have done,
and in the immediate future aim to do,
for the people who came to us as legacy
+ In our EFFORTS to pacify, to civilize and
to uplift them, and especially in our re-
cent efforts of legislation in their behalf,
we have. as you all know, encountered
the bitter, prolonged and most unreason-
able opposition of the Democratic party in
They would have US lay down our task
of Justice and duty and would have US
abandon the islands and their people to a
hard and hopeless fate. while they are
and political childhood.
Those islands, which some of the Dem
and compensation. helped us in secur--
Ing, those Islands, which our brave and
and been engaged in pacfying, for the
drudgery has been done and peace, with
law and order, has been restored and the
people are about to be regenerated and
born to newer and better life, now,
liminary work has been done, they
preach the gospel of scuttle and abandon
ment louder and fercer than ever. thus
belittling. as far as they can, the great
results that have been accomplished and
declaring it all fruitless and failure,
as they declared the war for the pres
eryation of the Union a failure in 1864.
X After acquiring the islands by as valid
and just method as we ever acquired
any of our territorial acquisitions, after
pouring out our blood and our treasure
them without Voluntarily
with well-nigh one accord, we are to
treat them as a stranded wreck, as
though We ourselves had been wrecked in
them, and are to cast them adrift as an
abandoned derelict at sea. This is the
latest gospel of the militant Democracy.
What the American people have, in be-
half of humanity and justice, by their
valor,. their treasure and their blood, ac-
Quired and held, they will never permit
to be wrecked, scuttled or abandoned.
Justice and duty they assume,, in 1898
they will faithfully carry out for the
good OF our entire country, and for the
good of helpless and downtrodden hui
manity the world over.
In advocating their scheme of abandon
ment the Democracy have taken special
delight and found luxury in traducing
our army by hunting for and proclaim
ing, with intense zeal and satisfaction,
isolated cases and instances where SOME
OF our officers and soldiers, goaded by the
transcribed the methods of civilized war
fare. The fact that few of our officers
and soldiers have transgressed on the
rules of war can have no valid bearing
on the justice or wisdom of the policy of
retaining the islands. Such transgres-
sions occur and are liable to occur in any
war. in fact occurred in the Civil war,
and yet no one ever undertook to measure
the justice of that war by isolated cases
of cruelty on the part of few men in our
great army. Neither has it appeared or
been shown that the president or the war
department has been negligent in bring
ing before military courts, for investiga-
ton, trial and punishment, all cases of
to their attention
These Democratic efforts to besmarch
our army, to exploit few of the short
comingS without giving it credit for it's
patience, it's Valor and it's manifold acts
of generosity and Kindness, manifest a
spirit of sheer partisan wantonnesS, u.
provoked and unpatriotic, COR they have
no bearing on the policy of Retention, nor
are they justified by any negligence of
the president or the war department in
President Mckinley had himself partici-
pated in war, was familiar with all ittI
hardships and drawbacks, and was a
most humane and KING hearted man. The
same is true of President Roosevelt. and
neither of them would for moment toll
crate or permit to go unpublished any acts
of cruelty contrary to the rules and GUS
toms of civilized warfare.
The American army is part of our
own people, of the same race, training
and blood. The rank and file are fair
representative of the average of our Gull
ture, the intelligence and the moral status
of the American people, and as whole
superior in these respects to the rank and
file of any other army. They are all, in a
certain sense, volunteers, for we have no
CONSUMPTION or enforced military service
in this country as they have in the old
world. They are as humane and as kind
hearted as any troops ever marshaled in
battle array. Their record in Cuba and
in China bear undisputed witness to this
fact: and in the Philippine islands, bar
ring few instances of cruelty provoked
by the savage and barbarous methods of
the, enemy, their conduct has been, on
the whole. brave. patient. kind and for
bearing. The savage enemy has often
want of courage, and they have often en-
countered great perils and suffered MANN
ing and slaughter because of their kind
ness, generosity and forbearance.
The Democrats have shifted their spleen
against the policy Of retention to spleen
against our little army in the islands A
true friend never takes pains to hunt for
our shortcomings or finds delight therein,
but is ever ready to see and proclaim our
congress has found occasion to see or
laud or make known any of the good and
noble qualities of that army. He has ut
tered no Kind or sympathetic word in its
behalf. Such conduct is xle
WORSE THAN UNPATRIOTIC,
1t is positively cruel to our army. The lot
of the soldier in war is most hard. dreary
and trying. His scanty pay is no .stimu-
liant. 1t is the fact that he carries the
flag and upholds the sovereignty and au-
thority, of our country in places where