The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-26
A TRULY NATIONAL QUESTION.

ship.
 l It Is a pity that congress finds it im- possible to deal with great questions in | a great way. The Philippine govern ment bill, discussion of which should not have been interfered with by the
 consideration of water cure" and oth- CT outrages, has not been debated ex- cept by MT. Rawlins and MT. Lodge. Mr Lodge himself, instead of explain ing the bill when it came before the senate, as he ought to have done, wait ed until MT. Rawlins had made such an able attack upon it that he was forced to defend it.
 This bill is altogether the most inn portant piece of legislation which has been presented to congress at the pres ent session, because 1t invilves a per manent departure from the essential principles of the republic and a step in direction which must inevitably end in the weakening of the legislative branch of our own government and the strengthening Of the executive.
 It is a fair question whether such departure would not be for the benefit of the orderly administration of our own affairs if the departure affected domestic concerns. The movement, however, is for the establishment of an oligarchy for alien people, while re- taining the looser and perhaps more ineffective emthods of government for the hepublic at home.
 Important as the bill is. however, it is to be voted on in the senate without ii d lxy men who have been arrayed on one side or the other of it by false appeals to their passions. In the House of Representatives the bill is very likely to be forced through without any de- bate at all, or with so little debate as to emphasize the unintelligent process through which 1t is to become a law
 The country has been given an en- tirely false impression of the attitude of the opposition to this bill by the char acter of the debate here, and by it's echoes in the republican press. Sena- tor McLaurin of Mississippi yesterday made a speech which is said by some of the newspapers to be a rebuke to the younger senators of the Philippine committee.
 
 rin had taken the view of the ranters of the house against criticism of the out rages which are known to have been committed in the Philippines. On the contrary, MT. McLaurin, who is him self @ young senator, placed the re- sponsibility for the war and its conse- quences precisely where MT Rawlins, MT. Carmack, MT. Culberson, MT. Pat terson and MT. Turner place 1t.
 The responsibility rests upon those who forced on the war. The conse- Quences of the war have been inevita- ble. If those who made war, and who insisted upon depriving the Filipinos of their independence, did not know what would happen, they are much more in- nocent of familiar knowledge than they ought to be. MT. Lodge and Secretary Root know that war of the character which is being waged in the Philippines must result in barbarities, and they are not surprised at what they learned long ago and which the country now knows.
 The charge against the democrats is that they are attacking the army be- cause they have criticised acts which | the army has confessed. It is said | there is no evidence that any tortures had been inflicted upon Fiipinos for | more than year past, but the answer to that made by one of the democratic | is that witnesses have not | been procurable whose testimony would | cover that time. What we do know is | that in December General Bell issued | his order at which MT. Lodge ex- pressed horror.
 We know os General Smiths order, | it is not in writing. It 1 has been sworn to by witnesses who l heard 1t, and it has been admitted by | the counsel of General Smith himself at | the court-martial trial. It is proved, | therefore, that inhumanity was resort ed to because the men in the Philip pines who know best deem it essential | that General Smith ordered every one above ten years old to be shot, and that Samar should be made a bowling will derness.
 When the republican speakers and tditors, therefore, say that attacks are being made upon the army, they must mean that when officers and soldiers of l