Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-06-22
A SIMPLE NOME TREATMENT

may have voice In the making Of their
own laws. In the meantime the local
and provincial governments are in tho
hands Of officers elected by the Fiji
pinos; and in the great central offices.
In the Commission. on the Bench. i'm tho
executive departments, the most dis
tinguished men of the Filipino race ara
taking their part in the government of
their people. A free school system has
been established and hundreds Of
thousands Of children are learning les
sons which will help fit them for self
government. The seeds Of religious
strife existing in the bitter controversy
| between the people and the religious
orders have been deprived of potency
for harm by the purchase of the Friars'
lands, and their practical withdrawal
| BY the Act of Congress of March I'd.
1908. a gold standard has been estab-
lished to take the place of the iuctuat-
| ing silver currency. The unit of value
is made exactly one-half the value Of
the American gold dollar, SO that
American money is practically part Of
their currency system. To enable the
| Philippine government to issue this
new currency. s6.0O0,0OO was borrowed
by them in 1908 in the city of New
York; and it was borrowed at net in
terest charge of rs per cent. per an
mum. The trade of the Islands has in
| creased Notwithstanding adverse con-
ditions. During the last five years Of
peace under Spanish rule. the average
total trade Of the Islands was less than
| $50 100000. During the fiscal year end
| ing June Goth, 1903, the trade of the
Islands was over s66,000000. There is
but one point of disturbance, and that
| is in the country of the Mohammedan
MOros, where there is an occasional fit
full savage outbreak against the en-
forcement of the law recently made to
provide for adequate supervision and
control to put an end to the practice of
human slavery.
When Governor Taft sailed from Ma
Mia in December last to fill the higher
office where he will still guard the des-
TIMES OF the people for whom he has
done such great and noble service. be
was followed to the shore by mighty
throng, not of repreSSed and sullen
subjects. but of free and peaceful peo-
pie. whose tears and prayers of affec-
tionate farewell showed that they had
already begun to learn that "our flag
has not lost it's gift of benediction i'll
it's Worldwide journey to their Shores"
None can foretcll the future; but
there seems no reasonable cause to
doubt, that under the policy already ef-
fectively inaugurated. the institutions
already implanted. and the processes
already begun, in the Philippine Is
lands. if these be not reprcssed and in
terrupted, the Philippine people will
follow in the footsteps of the people of
Cuba; that more slowly indeed, he
cause they are not as advanced, yet az
surely, they will grow in capacity for
self government, and receiving power
as they grow in capacity, will come to
bear substantially such relations to the
people of the United States as do now
the people Of Cuba, differing in details
as conditions and needs differ, but the
same in principle and the same In
bencficent results.
In 19Opthc project of an Isthmian
Canal stood where it was left by the
Claytcn-B ulwcr Treaty OF 1850. For
half a century it had halted, with
Great \ Britain resting upon a joint
right OF control ana the great under
taking Of de Lcsseps struggling against
the doom of failure imposed by eX-
travagancc and corruption. On the
18th of November. 1901. the Hay
PauncefOte Treaty with Great Britain
relieved the enterprise of the right OF
British control and left that right ex-
clusively in the United States. Then
followed swiftly the negotiations and
proctols with Nicaragua; the 1sthmian
Canal Act of June 2Sth, 1902: the just
agreement with the French Canal Com
~
work they had done; the negotiation
and ratification of the treaty with
Columbia: the rejection of that treaty
by Columbia in violation of our rights
and the worlds right to the passage OF
the Isthmus: the seizure by Panama
of the opportunity. to renew her oft
repeated effort to throw off the hate
full and oppressive yoke OF Columbia
and resume the independence, which
once had been hers, and of which she
had been deprived by fraud and force:
the success Of the revolution; our
recognition of the new Republic fol-
lowed by recognition from substantially
all the civilized powers of the world;
the treaty with Panama recognizing .
and confirming our right to construct
tn canal: the ratification of the treaty
by the Senate: confirmatory Legislation
by Congress; the payment Of the So'-
100000 to the French Company and 10
Panama; the appointment of the Canai
Commission in accordance with law
and its organization to begin the WORK.
The action of the United States az
every step has been in accordance WIN
the law of Nations, consistent with tne
principles of justice and honor. in dis,
charge of the trust to build the canal
we long since assumed by denying tne
right of every other power to buiid H.
dictated by a high and unselfish pun
pose, for the common benefit OF an
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