Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1903-04-18
ROOSEVELT ON !.
PHILIPPINE POLICY
Makes Defense and Highly
Compliments Work of In
suIar Authorities.
OUR WORK IN THE ISLANDS
President Declares It Has Given Them
More Peace, Prosperity and Lib
erty Than They Ever En- /.
joyed Before.

Fargo, N. D., April 9.-Notwithstand-
Ing yesterdays severe blizzard the
weather today was clear and bracing
and the program for the reception and
address of President Roosevelt was
carried out according to plans.
h special train arrived here during
the early morning and at $3.50 the local
reception committee waited on the
president, and after a brief informal
reception at the train escorted him in
carriages through a portion of the city.
One of the features was the welcome
accorded him by the children of the
city, several thousand of whom as
sembled where. the president was able
to gree them. After the drive the pres
ident was escorted to the stand in front
of the Waldorf hotel, where he adj
dressed an immense and enthusiastic
crowd on the Philippines.
The president said:
The northwest, whose sons in the civil war
added brilliant pages to the honor roll of the
republic, likewise bore a full share in the
struggle of which the war with Spain was the
beginning; a struggle slight indeed when COM
pared with the civil war, but fraught with
consequences out OF all proportion to the
smallness of the effort.
Three and a half years ago President Nc
Kinley spoke in Minnesota on the return of the
Thirteenth Minnesota volunteers from the Phil
ippines. After heartily thanking the soldiers,
he said:
THAT congress will provide for them a gov
eminent which will bring them blessings,
which will promote their material interests as
well as advance their people in the path OF
civilization and intelligence, l confidently be-
lieve. They will not be governed as vassals
or serfs or slaves. They will be given a
monument of liberty, regulated by law, hon
estly administered, without depressing exac-
tions, taxation without tyranny, justice with
out bride, education without distinction of So
cial condition, freedom of religious worship,
and protection in life. liberty, and the pur-
suit of happiness
What he said then. lay In the realm of prom
Use, Now 1t lies in the realm of performance.
1t is a good thing to look back upon what has
been said and compare it with what has been
done. If promises are violated, those who have
failed should be held up to reprobation. II
promises have been made good, they who made
them claim the credit. This credit l claim for
the men who have managed so admirably the
affairs of the Philippines, and who have backed
When President Mckinley spoke, the first
duty was restoration of order; and the army
was necessary. To put down instruction and
restore peace was a duty. We could not have
abandoned the conflict without Sinking this
duty. II we had abandoned 1t we would have
inflicted upon the Filipinos a bloody anarchy.
1t seems strange that any should have failed
to recognize a duty so obvious; but there was
such failure. The army in especial was at
tackled in q way, which finally aroused the re-
sentiment of the people against traducers. The
circumstances made 1t difficult, and our SOL
diers were exposed to peculiar wrongs from
their foes. They fought in dense tropical jun
giles against enemies treacherous and cruel, not
only toward our men, but toward the friendly
natives. Under such circumstances il was I'M
possible that occasional wrongdoing should not
occur. The fact they occurred in retaliation
for we'll nigh intolerable provocatlon' cannot
be admitted in justification. All good Ameri-
cans deplore them, and the war department
has taken every step TO punish offenders and
minimize the chance of repetition. But Of
/ fenGpS vera the pXCRDtiOn. not the T1l1p nltr
troops showed signal courage, humanity and
most desire to promote the welfare of the
islanders. In a series of difficult campaigns
they completely overthrow the enemy, reduc-
ing them to mere brigandage; and wherever
they conquered, they conquered only to make
way for civil government, law and liberty.
When last July organized Instruction had dis
appeared, peace and amnesty were proclaimed.
AS rapidly as military rule was extended il
was replaced by civil government. At present
civil government is supreme and the army
has been reduced until 1t is sufficient merely
to provide against recurrence of trouble. In
Governor Taft and his associates we sent as
upright and able administrators as any coun-
try has been blessed with. Under them we
have associated the best men among the Fill
pinos, so that the great majority of officials
are natives. The administration is incorrupt-
IDLY honest; justice is jealously safeguarded.
The government is in the interests Of the peo-
pie; they are protected in religious and civil
rights; they have been given a good school
( system, and cr.oy rights such as never known
in the islands.
Congress, which has just adjourned, has
passed legislation of great wisdom in the in
terests of the Filipino people. First, they con-
ferred the present admirable civil government.
gave them an excellent currency, allowed the
organization Of a native constabulary, and
provided a reduction of 25 per cent. in the tariff
on Filipino articles brought to this country.
| asked that , still further reduction be made.
1t was not granted, but ] think 1t will be.
Even without it, the record is one with which
we have a right to feel great satisfaction.
| Congress- apDrODriatpd a. mn 600 IN ba rsad
by the Philippine government TO meet the dis
tress occasioned primarily by the cattle dis
ease which almost annihilated the carabao or
water-bufalo, the most important domestic
animal. Coming as this disaster did upon the
heels Of the havoc wrought by the insurrec-
tionary war great suffering has been caused;
and this misery, for which this government
is in no way responsible, will doubtless in turn
increase the difficulties of the Philippine gov
eminent for the next year or so. In conse-
quence there VIII doubtless occur increases of
brigandage, and the bandits may style them
selves patriots; but these difficulties will be of
little consequence save as they give occasion
to a few men at home. again to mislead our
people. Not only has the military problem in
the Philippines begn worked out better than
we dared to expect, but the progress socially
and in civil government has likewise exceeded
our hopes.
Remember always that in the Philippines the
American government has tried to carry out
exactly what the greatest genius and most
revered patriot ever known in the Philippine
islands-Jose Enthusiastically advocated. This
man in a message to his countrys6n, Deem
Der 16, 1896, condemned unsparingly the insur-
rection of Aguinaldo, and pointed out the path
to liberty and enlightenment. Speaking of the
Instruction and of the pretense that Filipino
independence could be obtained, he wrote:
when, in spite of my advice, a movement
was begun, 1 offered my services, my life, and
even my good name, to be used in any way
they might believe effective in sitting the re-
bellion. l thought of the disaster which would
follow the success of the revolution, and |
deemed myself fortunate If by any sacrifice I
could block the progress of such a useless
calamity.
: Il was one who sought liberty for our coun-
try and l will seek 1t. But as a first step /
insisted upon the development of the people
in order that, by education and labor, they
might acquire the proper character and force
which would make them worthy of IT. / have
commended TO you study and civ!c virtue,
without which our redemption does not exist.
" " l cannot do less than condemn this
| savage instruction, which disnonors us before
the Filipinos and discredits us with those who
otherwise would argue in our behalf. | abom-
mate its cruelties and disavow connection with
it."
This message embodied the policy upon which
the American government has acted. What
Rial said Of the insurrection before we came
applies with tenfold force to those who OPP
posed the beneficent government we were in
stituting. The judgment of the martyred Rial,
whose birthday the Philippine people celebrate
as their hero and ideal, sets forth the duty of
American sovereignty.
White we have been doing these benefcent
works in the islands, we have been reducing
the cost at which they are done, The last
congress repealed the law for wal taxes. and