Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1902-09-04

dOne save at the cost not only OF labor
and toll. but of much puzzling worry
Normally, the nation that achieves
greatness, like the individual who
achieves greatness, can do so only at the
cost of anxiety and bewilderment and
heart wearing effort. Timid people, peo-
pie scant of faith and hope, and good
people who are not accustomed to the
roughneSs of the life of effort are al
most sure to be disheartened and dis
mayed by the work and the worry, and
overmuch cast down by the shortcOm-
ngs, actual or seeming, which in real
life always accompany the first stages
even of what eventually turn out to be
the most brilliant victories.
"All this is true of what has happened
during the last four years in the Phil
ippine islands. The Spanish war itself
was an easy task, but it left us certain
other tasks which were much more diff
fcult. one of these tasks was that of
| dealing with the Philippines. The easy
thing to do-the thing which appealed
not only to lazy and selfish men but to
very many good men whose thought did
not drive them down to the root of
thingS-waS to leave the islands. Had
we done this, a period of wild chaos
would have Superycned and then some
stronger power would have stepped in
and seized the islands and have taken
up the task which we in such case
would have flinched from performing. a
less easy but infinitely more absurd
course, would have been to leave the
islands ourselves and at the same time
to assert that we would not permit any
one else to interfere with them. This
particular course would have combined
all the possible disadvantages OF every
other course which was advocated. 1t
would have placed us in q humiliating
position, because when the actual test
came it would have been quite out of
I 81, FRF nc lf CT n -
deed of savagery had occurred in the
islands to stand by and prevent the re-
entry Of civilization into them; while
| the mere fact of our having threatened
thus to guarantee the local tyrants and
wrongdOers against outside interierences
by ourselves or others, would have put
a premium upon every species of tyranny
and anarchy within the islands.
The Course Adopted.
Finally, there was the course which
! We aCopted-rOt an easy course, one
| fraught with danger and difficulty, as is
| generally the case IN this world when some
! great feat is TO be accomplished as an in
! cident to working out national destiny.
| We made up our minds to stay in the is
| ianGs-to put down Violence-to establish
| peace aLL orGer-anG then to introduce
| Just and wise civil rule, accompanied by
a measure OF self-government which
should increase as rapidly as the islanders
| showed themselves fit for it. Well, it was
| certainly a formidable task; but think of
! the marvelously successful way in which
it has been accomplished.
THE first and vltally important feat was
| the establishment of the supremacy of the
American flag, and this had to be done
by the effort Of those gallant fellow Amer
| leans of ours to whom so great debt is
due--the officers and enlisted men of the
| United States army, regulars and volun-
teers alike In a succession of campaigns
f.pr ial m IN
| against an elusive ard treaCherous foe
| vastly outnumbering them, under the most
| adverse conditions of climate, weather and
| country, our troops completely broke the
| power OF the Insurgents, smashed their
| armies and harried the broken robber banGs
| into submission In its latter stages, the
| war against our rule sank into mere brig
| andage; and what our troops had to do
was to hunt down the parties Of ladrones.
| 1t was not a task which it was humanely
| possible to accomplish in a month or
| year, but month by month, year by year,
| with unwearied and patient resolution, our
army IN the Philippines did the task which
| it found ready to hand until the last vestige
! Of organized insurrecton was stamped
out.
II DO not refer to the Moros, with whom
| We have exercised the utmost fOrbearanCe,
| but who may force us to chaStise them If
| they persist In attacking our troops.
! Among the Filipinos proper, however,
peace has come. Doubtless here and there
| sporadic outbreaks Of brigandage will oc-
! cur from time TO time, but organized war
| fare against the American flag has ceased
and there is no reason to apprehend its re-
! currenCe. Our army in the islands have
| been reduced until it is not a fourth of
| what 1t was at the time when the outbreak
was al its height.
Civil Rule Established.
step by step the army conquered, the
] yf ,14r t..El
rule Of the civil authortics-the soldier
! was succeeded by the civilian magistrate.
| The utmost care has been exercised in choos-
| ing the best type Of Americans for the high
! civil positions, and the actual work of ad-
minIstratiou has been done 50 far as pos
! under these Americans. The success Of the
| effort has been wonderful.
Amnesty Declared.
at was, OF course, inevitable that
| there should be occasional failures; but
! it is astonishing how few these have
! been. Here and there the civil govern
! ment which had been established in a
given district had to be temporarily
withdrawn because of some outbreaks;
! but at last on the July 4th that has just
! passed-on the one hundred and twenty
! sixth anniversary of our Independence
! it was possible at the same time to de-
! clare amnesty throughout the islands
| and definitely to establish civil rule over
| all of them excepting the country of the
! Mnhammcdan MorOs, where the condi-
| tons were wholly different. Each in
! habtant OF the Philippines is now guar
! anteed his civil and religious rights, his
! rights to life personal liberty and the
! pursuit of happiness, subject only to not
! infringing on the rights of others 1t is
worth noting that already the Philip
! pine people have received a greater
| share of self-govcrnmeut, that they have
! more to say as to how they shall be gov
| crned. than is the case with any people
in the orient which is under Europeag
! rule.
Helps Our own People.
! Nor should it he forgotten that while
! we have thus acted in the interest of tho
! islanders themselves. we have also
| helped our own people. Our interests are
| as great in the Pacific as in the At
| lantlc. The welfare of California, Ore
| gon and Washington is as vital to the
| nation as the welfare of New England,
| New York and the south Atlantic states.
! The awakening of the orient means very
| much to all the nations of Christcndom,
| commercially no less than politically;
| and it would be sh0rtsightod statesman
! ship on our part to refuse to take the