The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-29
POLITICAL PALACES.
Weak Spots I'm Senator Hoar's Speech
on the Philippine Bill.

Elkhart Qnd.) Review.
Some of the ringing" sentences in the
speech of Senator Hoar give utterance to
some of the most pronounced fallacies of
modern politics. He takes the clap-trap of
patriotism and undertakes to make it the
basis of the logic which he applies to pres
ent conditions in the Philippines. For in
stance, he says: You cannot maintain a
despotism in Asia and a republic in Amer
lea" Senator Hoar might just as well
have said: You cannot enforce the law
on the criminal classes of New York city
and give independence to lawabiding citi-
zens."
He says again that Gin order to get a
few thousand children in school you have
slain many thousand parents" He might
just as well have said that in order to pro-
vide public education for the sons of Grim
inals these criminals should be kept out
of the Denitentiaries and allowed to earn
their living.
He repeats again the doctrine that "just
governments must rest on the consent of
the governed" and applies it to the bar
barous hOrdes on the islands which we
conquered from Spain. He might with
equal justice say that the parent and the
teacher shall not enforce discipline nor re-
strain conduct because the child does not
give acquiescence.
Mr.. Hoar might just as well argue that
the mallciously lawlesS masses of our great
cities, the Anarchists and the murderers
are entitled to the unlimited application of
those principles of liberty which we give
TO the honest citizen, to the intelligent man
and to the true disciple of human freedom.
He says, You are fighting for sover-
eighty and does not explain the PROPOSE
ton the ground that we have to deal
with insurgents who are rebelling against
authority.
He says if we had done in the Philip
pines did in Cuba we would soon
be in those islands as we are in Cuba, mere
arbiters of certain political principles while
the people themselves are the authority.
He does not go on and tell the full truth.
He does not say that Cuba appealed to us
for release from the domination of Spain
and that the answer to it's prayer brought
with IL the sovereignty of the islands in
the Pacific. He does not truthfully state
that the conditions which resulted in our
holding the Philippines are as different
from those which obtained in Cuba as
black is from white, and that of the
millions of Filipinos only a few hundred
or at the most. a few thousand, know any
thing about what freedom means, while
the balance of the millions esteem it lib
erty TO pillage and to commit all sorts of
hideous crimes.
Senator Hoar has adapted his appeal 20
passion for license rather than the pa
triotic appreciation of liberty. He has
sought to work upon the feelings of the
American people by the use of that same
unfair logic with which he would arouse
the passions of a mob excite the worst
emotions of the barbarian and stir up the
feelings Of the lawless and the depraved.
That he should have resorted to those
tricks of logic, stating principles of high
moral value and distOrting them in the
most dishonest manner, is a surprise to
every one, and there are millions who in
the past had respected him as a man of
authority in craftsmanship, honesty in
principle and candor in statement.
Mr.. Hoar would hide entirely the fact
that our army is doing police duty in the
Philippines, and in order to enforce law
must at times Quell insurrection. He hides
the truth under special pleas for un-
tutOred hordes of savages who are not
even nationalities and hardly sufficiently
intelligent TO be coherent rabies or even
cohesive bands of murderers