Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1902-06-11
ROOSEVELT
PAYS TRIBVTE
CONTINUED from First page.)

AASA 80 80 w.
as a whole. The cruelties have been
wholly exceptional on our part.
The guilty are to be punished, but
in furnishing them let those who sit at
ease at home, who walk delicately
and live in the soft places of the
earth, remember also to do them COM
mon justice. Let not the effortless
and the interrupted rail overmuch at
strong men who with blood and sweat
face years OF toll and days and nights
Oh agony, and at need lay down their
lives in remote tropic jungles to
bring the light of civilization into the
worlds dark places. The warfare that
has extended the boundaries of civiliz.
alton at the expense Of barbarism and
savagery has been for centuries one
OF the most potent factors in the pro.
gress of humanity. Yet from its very
nature it has always and everywhere
been liable to dark abuses.
Ii behooyes us to keep a yigilant
watch to prevent these abuses and TO
punish those who commit them, but il
because of them we finch from finish.
ing the task on which we have epter,
ed, we show ourselves cravens and
weaklings. unworthy of the sires from
whose loins We sprang. There were
abuses and to spare in the civil war
Your false friends then called Grant
a butcher" and spoke of you who
are listening to me as m~ercenaries
as "Lincoln's hirelings." Your open
foes-as in the resolution passed by
the confederate congress in October
lS62-accused you, at great length
and with much particularly. of "con
temptuous disregard of the usages 81
civilized war;" of ~subjecting womer
and children to Punishment. impris
onment and outrages of women" 0I
'lawless cruelty" of 'perpetratine
atrocities which would be disgracefu
to savages." And Abraham Lincoln
was singled out for especial attach
because of his spirit of barbarous
ferocity." Verify. these men who thus
foully ~slandered you have their heirs
today in those who traduce our armie;
in the Philippines, who fix their eyes
on individual deeds of wrong so keen
ly that at last they become blind t.
the great work of peace and freedom
that has already been accomplished.
objects of the Philippine War.
Peace and freedom-are there two
better objects for which a soldier car
fight? Well. these are precisely tn,
objects for which our soldiers ar,
fighting in the Philippines. Whei
there is talk of the cruelties commit
ted in the Philippines. remember al
ways that by far the greater proper
ton of those cruelties have been CON
mitted by the insurgents against thei
own people-as well as against on
soldiers-and that not only the sures
but the only effectual way OF stoppinI
them is by the progress of the Amer
can arms. The victories of the Amer
can army have been the really effect
i've of putting a stop to cruelt
in the Philippines. Wherever thes
victories have been complete-anI
such Is now the Isl throughout tn
greater part of the islands-all crue'
ties have ceased, and the native is sc
cure in his life, his liberty, and hi
pursuit of happiness. Where the In
surrection still smolders there is a
ways a chance for cruelty to show II
self.
Our soldiers conquer: and what |
the object for which they conquer
To establish a military government
No. The laws we are now endeavol
ing to enact for the government of tn
Philippines are to increase the powe
and domain of the civil at the expens
of the military authorities. and to rer
der ever more difficult than in tn
past the chance of opposition. TIL
military power is used TO secure peac
in order that it may itself be supplant
ed by the civil government. The pre-
gress of the American arms mean
the abolition of cruelty, the bringin
of peace. and the rule of law and OF
der under the civil government. Othe
nations have conquered to create II
responsible military rule. We COZ
quer to bring just and responsible CT,
il government to be conquered.
But our armies do more than brin
peace, do more than bring order. The
bring freedom. Remember always
that the independence of a tribe or
community may, and often does, hav
nothing whatever to do with the fire.
dom OF the individual in that tribe G
community. There are now In Asi
and Africa scores of despotic MOI
arches. each of which is Independent
and in no one of which is there tn
slightest vestige of freedom for tn
individual man. Scant indeed is I'll
gain to mankind from the ''indepen
ence" of a blood-stained tyrant wi
/. rules over the abject and brutalize