Omaha daily bee., 1902-05-30
FIGHTING FOR SOVEREIGNTY.
A Few Remarks ON senator Honr's
sonorous "keynOte."
New Ynrk Tribune

49,"
"You are fighting for sovereignty" says
Senator Hoar. That is the keynote OF his
arraignment Of his government, the grava-
men of his indictment Of his country. You
are fighting for sovereignty" The sentence
has a fine, rhetorical tone. 1t is as filling
to the mouth and may be as satisfying to
the mind as that blessed word Meso-
potamia.'' Yet it is scarcely a charge be-
fore which the American people will
tremble and turn pale. Rather will they
be inclined to thank the venerable Massa-
chusetts senator for teaching them that
word. 1t serves them as an apt reminder
that in more than one or two wars hitherto,
OF which the memory is proud and just,
they or their ancestors we're likewlse
lighting for sovereignty" 1t serves them,
too. as a potent and convincing assurance
Of the justice and Righteousness Of the
work in which they are now engaged In the
Philippines. They are not fighting for
conquest, or for the imposition Of tyranny,
or for the lust of gold. They are "hght-
ing for sovereignty" "
We are fighting for succession to the
only real sovereignty they have known for
centuries. For three hundred years before
Dewey went to Manila there had been no
question as to the sovereignty Of those
islands. Neither by alien foe nor domestic
insurgent had the legitimacy of Spanish
rule been seriously challenged. Without
our wish, in the unsought exigency Of war,
we were compelled to strike down and to
expel that Spanish sovereignty. In the
name OF justice and reason and decency
and common sense, what was there then
for us to do but set up another and a bet
ter sovereignty in the place of the one we
had destroyed? 1t would nave been an in
famous thing to destroy the only
sovereignty the islands had and then
abandon them to the anarchy Of murder
Gus Malays or to the spoliation of what
ever alien powers might covet them.
There is an ancient parable Of q man from
whose mind an evil spirit was cast, but
who failed to fill the vacancy with a good
spirit; so presently the evil one returned
with others more evil than himself and
entered in; and the last state of that man
was worse than the first. What endless
reproach would the United States have in
CURED had 1t dealt thus with the
Philippines!
We are indeed lighting for sovereignty"
in the Philippines. as we fought for
sovereignty in 1920 and in 1744, and in 1776,
and in 1912, and in 1886 and in 1851. We
are fighting for a sovereignty every whit
as legitimate as any for which we fought
at any of those times to which Senator
Hoar so proudly refers. We are fighting
for a sovereignty sanctioned and demanded
by international law and by the highest
civic morals. We are fighting for a
sovereignty which means peace, order,
civilization and a vastly greater measure
of freedom than those Stands have ever
known. We are lighting for a sovereignty
which is Nowhere despotic or sordid, but is
everywhere generous and benehcent. The
anarchist and the bandit may regard
sovereignty with aversion. Men who be-
lieve in law and order and Justice believe
in sovereignty as an ordinance for the
welfare and the progress Of the race and
they do not and will not shrink from the
record that they are lighting for
soyereiRnty."