The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-01-31


his own immediate family to starve
our government paid out of the Unit
ed States treasury 100000 to Cuban
soldiers. When Porto. Rico suffered
from the effects of & hurricane in 1895
our citizens responded to an appeal
by contributing literally, whilst $1,000
600 was taken from the national treas
rry to aid those who were in need
The president, in a message to con-
gress, recommended that $3,000000 be
appropriated to meet the wants which
Governor Taft says exist in those
! islands at present. The war secretary
supplements the presidents recon-
lnendation in very plausible reasoning.
! He said:
1.-THE occasion for relief in the Phil
! ippines is now greater than it was in
| Cuba when congress appropriated So
100000 for the payment of the Cuban
| soldiers out of the treasury of the
| United States. OF than it was in Porto
| Rico when hundreds of thousands of
dollars were contributed by the people
of the United States and more than
$,OOO,000 paid out of the national
| treasury for the relief of the sufferers
| from the hurricane of August, 1899"
Members of congress are too en-
crossed with home affairs to pay any
attention to our distant possession.
| Their first ambition is to curry favor
with their constituents in order that
they might be reelected after their
term of Office expires. Not a very
laudable motive when their apathy to-
wards a famine-stricken people is TAX
en- into consideration. This is very apt
Iy shown by the Springfield Republican,
which says:
Suppose a state in the Union were
IN distress in any way comparable
with conditions in the Philippines. The
appropriation recommended would be
passed within twenty-four hours. 1t
was even so in the case of the French
citizens of Martinique last spring when
The volcanic eruptions swept away st.
Pierre. Yet week has passed with
out heed being paid to the needs of
the Filipinos.
The question naturally arises, Who
cares?' Congress does not seem to.
congress tends to it's own conStitu-
ents, and has been engaged in passing
a coal rebate bill, which it's own lead
ers say will amount to nothing, sim
ply because the American people by a
lew kicks could upset any party in
control of the government.
But congress has no constituents in
the Philippines, the Philippines have
no representatives in congress, and
there is absolutely no Filipino public |
opinion in existence that can be con-
centrated upon the final authority |
5000 miles away, that rules the far !
distant archipelago with absolute, I'M
limited power
Inc Iapguor, the apparent indiffer- |
ence of congress to the measure of |
relief proposed by the secretary of war
and the president are highly illumi- |
mating. The incident gives new point |
10 j. S. Mills remark that tine gov
eminent of a people by itself has a
meaning and a reality, but such |
thing as a government of one people
by another does not and cannot exist.
One people may keep another as a
warren or preserve for its own USE a
place to make money in, human cat
Tie farm but. if the good of
The governed is to be the proper bust
ness OF government, it is utterly i'm
osslble that people should directly
lttend to IT.. No people can do. more
han decently govern themselves
Governor Taft anticipates trouble. He
IS preparing to suppress it by the usual
remedies, namely, martial law, and
calling in the military finally to sup
'ress Instruction. These desperate
remedies may include the water cure
and looting of churches, which is a
ar worse species of Iadronism than
hat which the governor tells sis bred
n the people of Cavite," from whom the
worst is expected. The bright prom
ses made to the natives before and
lfter Admiral Dewey entered Manila
BAY have not been realized They have
een some fine specimens of refined
adronism in the dissertation and rob-
'ing of churches, and the cruelties ex-
'rcised in administering the water
ure and other means of torture show
hem a higher order of civilization
han they expected. Liberty is sweet,
nd civilization is a high-sounding and
atching word, but all is not gold {
hat glitters.'
,