The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-07
HOAR'S LATEST POEM.
A Perfcrvid ERusiOn Without the
Merit of Statesmanship.

st. Paul Pioneer Press.
Senator Hoar's speech on the Philippine
question was a beautiful poem. perhaps the
most exquisite of the series of perferVid
effusions TO which he has given utterance
on this subject. 1t was good poetry but
bad craftsmanship. 1t was in strain too
exalted for the commonplace uses of this
workaday world. His song is OF free and
happy people crushed under the iron heel
of remorseless despOtism-a dirge OF
lamentation over the victims-a peal of
righteous wrath at their oppressors. His
imagination clothes the Filipinos with all
the virtues, the love of liberty. the aspira-
tions and capabilities of the embattled
farmers of the colony of Massachusetts in
the time of the revolution, while the United
States government is the embodiment of all
and more than all the tyranny of George
the Third OF all that our government has
done TO establish peace and order and lib
erty and justice and education and social
and material progress in the Philippines he
sees nothing, comprehends nothing, refuses
to perceive or to credit anything. But mis-
ears and eyes are wide open to every tale
of exceptional individual misconduct, and
feverish fancy seiZes upon the rare eXcep-
ton and transforms it into universal
rule.
lie applies ethical standards to the course
Of the United States in the Philippines
which were never applied TO il before or
TO any other government in the world In
any period of its history, as II they were
universally admitted maxims OF govern
ment Can you lawfully, he asked, buy
with money or get by brute force OF arms
the right TO hold in subjugation unwilling
peoples, and impose upon them such condl-
tons as you and not they deem best for
them?" He asked that question as IL there
was but one answer to il. And there is but
one answer to il, but 1t is not the answer
he sought. That answer is that from the
dawn OF American history and throughout
the whole history of the Republic We have
been doing that very thing. We bought
with money the vast territory of Louis
lana and by brute force we subjugated the
unwilling saVages who inha b.ted il. We did
the same with the territories we wrested
by force from Mexico. By force we sub
jugated the rebelliOus people of the Con-
federate States and imposed upon them
such a condition as We. not they, deemed
best for them The question which Mr..
Hoar asked was ihe question asked of the
American people in 1900 by the Democratic
party, with Mr.. Bryan as its interroga-
tiOn point They gave their answer In No
vember of that year. That answer was an
emphatic approval by an overwhelming
popular and electoral ma jority of the course
and policy of the United States in The Phil
ippines which is so loudly condemned now
by Mr.. Hoar il was then by Nj Bryan
and his followers. They will give the same
answer when the same question is put to
them in 1904, as ii will be If the issue can be
framed by the younger group of Demo
cratic senators who applauded the to them
sweet strains of the hymns of lamertation
sung by the venerable Massachusetts, poet
last Thursday.