The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1902-02-22
NELSON SPEAKS =:
ON PHILIPPINES
MINNESOTA SENATOR ADMINISTERS
A REBUKE TO PATTERSON
OF COLORADO.
TALKED ON SECTARIANISM
NO TYRANNY IN TEACHING FLIP
mos ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
People of This Country VIII Never
Consent to Abandon the Island,
Declared the Senator.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.-With the
exception Of few minutes given to
routine business, the senate devoted
Its entire session to the Philippine
question.
Mr.. Patterson, Of Colorado, one Of
the minority members of the Philip
pines committee, delivered his first
extended speech in the senate and was
given a most attentive and careful
hearing.
He maintained that congress alone
had the power to put in force enact
rnents Of that character.
He compared information furnished
by the executive departments. OF, the
government with some Of the state
ments Of Governor Taft, in his testi-
mony before the Philippine committee,
with respect to the capability Of the
Philippine. people, and declared, with
some heat, his belief that Gov. Taft
misrepresented the true situation in
the islands for motives unknown.
He asserted that If the 6,OO0, 900 of
Christians in the Philippines were
Protestant Christians the cruelties
practfced on them would have to stop,
as no member would be able to with
stand the wrath Of the Methodists,
Baptists and Presbyterians of this
country.
Senator Nelson's Reply.
Mr.. Nelson, (Minn.), followed Sena-
tor Patterson with legal argument
dealing with various phases of the
Philippine question. In beginning he
took Mr.. Patterson sharply to task for
Injecting sectarianfsm into the dis
ed and inexcusable.
It had remained for Mr.. Patterson.
he said, to declare that the sending
Of American teachers to the Philippines
to teach the Filipino youth the Eng
lish language was an act of tyranny
and despotism. The foreign-born peo-
pie of the northwest, he said, might as
we'll insist that it was tyranny and
despotism to be afforded the opportun-
ity of sending their children to- public
schools.
Made Extended Argument.
In an extended constitutional argu-
ment Mr.. Nelson maintained that the
right of a trial by jury was not neces-
sarily a constitutional right. In con-
clusion Mr.. Nelson said the argument
Of the minority was based, on an entire
rnisapprehension Of the physical and
legal situation in the Philippine islands.
The United States government was
not in the Philippines precisely az 1T
was in California from 1886 to 1850.
The government was holding these is
hVr olo
but by the executive powers Of the gov
eminent. The president had the right
to govern those islands until such time
as the congress should provide for their
control
The Philippine commission. he said.
was simply an executive aid to the
president. and it was idle for senators
to regard it in any other light. If it
were so desired, he maintained, the
United States had ample authority to
hold the islands precisely as they are
being held today.
SANDERS American People.
Mr.. Nelson declared that it was a
SANDER upon the American people ia
assert, as the minority did, that thiq
government was not fully competent to
give the Philippines a good govern
ment.
I'VE are there, and I want to tell
senators on the other side that the peo-
pie Of this country, (whatever else they
may do), will never consent to abandon
those islands," said he.
when did it come to pass" he de-
manded ilnpulsively, that the Amer
lean people became set Of tyrants?
When did it come to pass that the
American soldiers became bashi Bag
ouks over those islands? It is a sland-
er upon the American nation. I take
1t that no senator will say that the
American people are not capable and
willing to do more for the inhabitants
Of the Philippines than any other ma
ton on 1earth.' -.
( The house spent the day working