The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-04-23
TMPERT4LISTIC

IMPERIALISTIC MTSSTATEMENTS.
The esteemed Pioneer Press devotes a
column to what it is pleased to describe as
More Anti-Imperlalistic Logic" A more
accurate heading for the article would
be, "Imperialistic Misstatements," for
the whole argument is based upon prem
Uses which are false, and as the premises
are false the conclusions are false.
To take up seriatim the missatenents in
the article in question: 1t opens with the
declara ton that the leading opponents
of anti-imperialism are rubbing their
hands with infinite glee" because they i'm
agine the army has been found to be
guilty of torturing the Filipinos. On the
contrary. every man who believes in lib
erty and equality and the right of the
governed to select their own form of
| government and endow it with just pow
crs, is Inundated and grieved beyond the
power Of words to express at the apparent
proof of the atrocities mentioned. Not
! one of them gloats over it, not one men
tons it except to lament it. No crime
committed in liberty's name ever brought
delight to those who love liberty.
Those liberty loving Republicans of the
quality Of Senator Hoar, former Senator
Edmunds, Thomas B. Reed, Benjamin
Harrison, and countless others who spoke
and wrote against the policy of 'forcible
annexation" which no less a person than
William Mckinley declared would be
criminal aggression, - and under our code
of morals mot to be thought of'-are not
men to grow jubilant" over the serious
departure from correct principles involv-
ed in the conquest of the Filipinos, and
the horrors Of a prolonged war, which
for the natives means determination. That
the conquest is ''for mere greed of terri
tory was asserted by Senator Thomas
H. Carter, Republican, who avowed on
the floor of the United States senate that
the only question to ask was, viii it
pay?' If it would pay, no other consid-
GRAFTON was needed. Let battle and fire
Admiral George Dewey is authority that
the Filipinos are as capable of self-gov-
eminent as the Cubans, and he added
that he knew both peoples we'll We have
established the Cubans in republic
which we shall watch with jealous eye
and protect against the incursions Of any
enemy. Why not do as much for the
Filipinos? There is no reason to doubt
that if the same promise had been made
to the Filipinos that was made to the
Cubans not a single drop of American
blood would have been shed in the islands
after the surrender of the Spanish troops.
But mere greed of territory impelled
the soaring imperialists of the Republic
an party to refuse such promise to the
Fflipinos who believed we had come to
help them establish a republic, for which
purpose they had fought Spain for years
almost without number. That chaos and
unspeakable injustice and civil disorder
would have reigned in the islands if we
had set them up a republic and warned
all covetous nations to keep hands off is
gratuitous assumption, with no shred
of evidence to support it. Such Conditions
do not prevail in other countries peopled
by men and women of like qualify
Mexico, Cuba, and other republics not far
away
Those who love liberty for themselves
and would bestow the boon upon all
others do not believe, do not assert that
United States army officers are "rapac-
lous beasts, let loose to murder and de-
stroy" But, this should not be forgot
ten: War is hell The authority for
the definition is William Tecumseh Sher-
man. Men following that sort of a bust
ness are not in the nature of things the
most gentle and humane and considerate
men. 1t is false assumption of the Pho
neer Press that army officers are men
whose standards of honor are higher
than those in any other occupation
Army officers are apostles of might not
right. Their standards of honor are not
higher than those of the poet, the author
the lawyer, the minister, the physician
the teacher, the editor the business man.
h e Gil 0 b e also holds that if the al
legged tortures the reported killing and
burning, are proved to have occurred,
the infamy of it all rests on the man who
issued the orders and not on the army as
a whole; but T h e GIob holds respon-
sible for even one instance of cruelty the
policy of the civil administration at
Washington, which, in violation of the
dictum of President McKinley-"f orcible
annexation is criminal aggression" is
waging war of forcible annexation. And
lie G be believes the penalty will
be exacted sooner or later of that nation
by whom war cometh.'
Only by calling attention to the appar-
emily we'll authenticated cases of atrocity
can the public conscience be aroused and
an end put to such shameful doings I'M