Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-08-03
wALHALLA. SOUTH oARoLINA. AUG. 8. 1904

600 were spent last year in stamping
out cholera, and yet in the Philip.
pines, the center of the trouble, the
revenues are scarcely sufficient to
pay municipal expenses. BY a
decree of the President, who, by the
way, does his own legislating when it
suits him, the civil engineer of the
Panama canal gets a salary of $685.
600 per annum. During the last
fiscal year 8,415 new Offices were
created at an additional cost of
| l$5, ,431, 1865, most Of them chargeable
to our "imperial policy"
1t is estimated that we have paid
out to date $6O0,OOO,O0O to get and
retain control of our island posses
sions, while the balance of trade in
our favor is nominal. What obliga-
tion, moral or otherwise, rests on
us to keep up this extravagance ? We
are not related to these people by
consanguinity or affinity. The pros
poets of commercial advantages are
not even remote possibility. Then
why are we their self.constituted
guardians? The question is asked
what disposition could we make of
the Philippines. In answering this l
feel very much like exclaiming with
the fellow who yoked himself up with
wild steer, "Stop us darn fools"
My first policy toward them would
be to turn them loose, establishing
with them such relations as we have
with Cuba, and taking their obliga-
tion for such amount as they hon
estly owe us. This would relieve us
of further expense in trying to main
tain government there and pre-
serve peace on the islands. If our
people az whole are welded to the
idea of holding them at any cost I
would suggest as means of remu-
neration that the doors there be
opened to Chinese immigrants, an
energetic people, who will build up
agricultural and commercial interests.
Some of the best informed men with
whom | have talked, men who have
lived there, tell me that the China
man is one of the most Industrious,
while the Filipino is the most indo-
lent and thriftless of our inhabitants
there. If, then, it is commercial
greed that is actuating us, why no
make the most of it
Now as to pensions. This govern
mcnt paid out during the last fiscal
year $l3S,36O,T00 for pensions, and
this mammoth amount is little more
than a campaign fund. President
Roosevelt, acting in his legislative
capacity, not an uncommon role for
him, decreed that every Federal SOL
dier over 60 years of age is entitled
to a pension, his age being accepted
as sufficient evidence of disability.
Acting under this order, inspired by
the President, the Pension Bureau
has literally flooded the doubtful
States with pension money to the
utter neglect of claimants from other
States.
am sorry to say, however, that
in the matter of pensions we have
little to hope for from either party.
The South on the pension question
is in very much the same predica-
ment as was an old Virginia farmer
during the war, who had been robbed
by Federal and Confederate. Walk
ing out one morning and looking
over the wreck Of what was once his
well equipped farm, he said: "Well,
never took no sides in this here
war, but Pll be gol darned if both
sides haint took me-"
1t is one of the bitter DEGREES of
fate that the war-impoverished vete
ran must contribute from the scanty
earnings of his feeble hands to the
comfort and ease of his conqueror in
his declining years. Under Demo
cratic rule we may hope for an eco
nomical and judicious distribution of
the pension fund, but little more, so
much has this appropriation become
a vote sobsidizing fund, upon which
both parties are dependent in mea-
sure for election.
There was time in the history of
this government when ga public
office was a public trust" To-day ga
public Office is a private snap" in the
estimation of Republican officials
The salaries of government officials
in many instances are so out of por-
ton with the little work they do that
we can readily account for doubled
appropriations. One striking ex-
ample of this extravaganza may be
seen in the report of the Secretary
of the Treasury, showing that 1872
custom house officers employed at
salaries and expenses amounting to
$lG4,000 collected but $4,000. At
Gloucester, Mass, it costs $l8,489 TO
collect $5,132; at Brazos, Texas, it
costs $31 ,09l to collect $4,731.