The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-06-15
AMERICA MOVES AS 4
POWER IN THE WORLD
Greater Duties and Opportunities Which Come
With the Broadening of National
influence.

| power" Richard Olney calls simply
! manufacturing interests compel US to
seek markets in the Orient and we
could not remain isolated if we would.
Mistakes will be made, cruelties will
be perpetrated, selfishness and greed
viii be apparent, because nations are
but human and have their limitations,
but We have faith to believe that the
general trend will be onward and up
ward. The disarmament of Europe is
a contamination devoutly to be wished
but till the millennium there will be
need Of armies and navies to enforce
the peace of the world just as there is
the same necessity for police and other
officers of the law in the best governed
cities. Now that the United States has
suddenly awakened to the fact that it
is a world power. its duties as such
are not to be evaded.
We have bettered the condition Of
Cuba. Minister Squiers reports that
the young republic is growing in
strength and confidence every day"
We were pledged to give the island in
dependence. President Roosevelt said
at Canton not long since. THE pledge
was kept not merely in letter but in
spirit. 1t would have been a betrayal
of our duty to have given Cuba indie
pendence out Of hand"
Under a storm of misunderstanding
and Misrepresentation our government
has wisely guided the island through
period of preparation for independence
and the wisdom of this course is now
apparent. since. as the President says,
"It started with a better equipment
and under more favorable conditions
than has ever previously been the case
with any Spanish-American common
wealth
Again let me quote from the same
high authority. I'm the Philippines, the
problem was one of great complexity.
There was an insurrectionary party
claiming to represent the people of the
islands and putting forth their claims
with a certain speciousness which de-
ceived no small number of excellent
men here at home and which afforded
to yet others a chance TO arouse a fac
lions party spirit. Of course,
looking back, it is now easy to see that
it would have been both absurd and
wicked to abandon the Philippine
and let the scores of diff
ferent tribes,-Christian, Mohammedan,
and pagan, in every stage of semi-civil-
ization and Asiatic barbarism,-turn
the islands into a weller of bloody saw
agery, with the absolute certainty that
some strong power would have to step
in and take possession"
We do not undertake to deny that
mistakes of judgment have sometimes
been made by the military in crushing
rebellion; nor do we deny that in GER
tain instances undue severity has been
used and cruelty has been practiced by
our arms. 1t must not be forgotten !
that our troops have been contending !
with barbarous tribes, ignorant of the
methods of modern warfare.
It is not so strange that fevered by |
ong marches in tropic heat through |
swamps and jungles and exasperated |
oy a treacherous foe, our officers and
men have sometimes resorted to meas
Ires that we sincerely regret. 1t is
easier, however, to criticize at home
han TO act in the Philippines.
Henry Cabot Lodge. on the floor of
he Senate, after abiding to the afro
titles perpetrated upon our soldiers,
disembowelling, burying
live, has shown that in comparison