Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-12-08

ment of humane and civilized mankind;
ana on the other hand, that it should keep
prepared. while ~Scrupulously avoiding
wrongdoing itself, to repel any wrong. and
IN exceptional cases to take action which
In a more advanced stage of International
relations would come under the head of the
exercise of the international police. A
great free people owes it to itself and 10 all
mankind not to sink into helplessness be-
fore the powers of evil.
Second Hague Conference.
We are in every way endeavoring TO he,p
on, with cordial good will, every movement
which will tend TO bring us into more friend
ly relations with the rest of mankind. In
pursuance of this policy | shall shortly lay
before the senate treaties of arbitration
with all powers which are willing to enter
into these treaties with us. 1t is not pos
slbIe at this period of the worlds Develop
ment to agree to arbitrate all matters, but
there are many matters of possible differ
ence between us and other nations which
can be thus arbitrated. Furthermore. at
the request of the Interparliamentary
union, an eminent body composed of prac-
tcal statesmen from all countries, | have
asked the overs to join with this govern
ment in a second Hague conference, at
which it is hoped that the work already so
happily begun at The Hague may be car
tANN SAAt StSPS litI lONdIu tOIlpltllOI.
This carries out the desire expressed by
the first Hague conference itself.
The Monroe Doctrine.
In asserting the Monroe Doctrine. in taxi
ing such steps as we have taken in regard to
Suba, Venezuela and Panama, and in en-
oeaVor1ng to circumscribe the theater of
war in the far east, and to secure the open
door in China, we have acted in our own
interest as well as in the interest of human
ity at large. There are, however. cases in
which, while our own interests are not
greatly involved, strong appeal is made to
our sympathies. Ordinarily it is very much
wiser and more useful for us to concern
ourselves with striving for our own moral
and material betterment here at home than
10 concern ourselves with trying to better
the condition of things in other nations.
we haVe plenty of sins of our own to war
against, and under ordinary circumstances
we can do more for the general uplifting of
humanity by striving with heart and soul
to put a stop to civic corruption, to brutal
laWlessness and violent race prejudices
here at home than by passing resolutions
about Wrongdoing elsewhere. Neverthe-
less there are occasional crimes committed
on so vast a scale and of such peculiar hor-
ror as to make us doubt whether it is not
our manifest duty to endeavor at least to
SHOW our disapproval of the deed and our
sympathy with those who have suffered by
1t. The cases must be extreme in which
such a course is ju%stifiable. There must be
no EFFORT made to remove the mote from
our brothers eye if we refuse to remove
the beam from our own But in extreme
cases action may be justifiable and proper.
what form the action shall take must de-
pend upon the circumstances of the case.
that is, upon the degree of the atrocity and
upon our power to remedy it, The cases
IN which we could interfere by force Of
arms as we interfered to put a stop to in
tolerable conditions in Cuba are neces-
sarily very few. Yet it is not to be expected
that a people like ours, which in spite of
certain very obvious shortcomings, never
theless as a whole shows by its consistent
practice its belief in the principles of civil
and religious liberty and Of orderly free
dom, a people among whom even the worst
crime, like the crime of lynching. is never
more ~than'sporadic, so that individuals and
not classes are molested in their funda-
mental rights-it is inevitable that such a
nation should desire eagerly to give express
sion to its horror on an occasion like that
of the massacre of the Jews in Kishineff. or
when 1t witnesses such systematic and
l~ong-eXtended cruelty and oppression as
the cruelty and oppression Of which the
Armenians have been the victims, and
which have won for them the indignant
pity of the civilized world.
The Philippines.
In the Philippine islands there has been
during the past year a continuation of
the steady progress which has obtained
ever since our troops definitely got the
upper hand Of the insurgents, The Phil
ippine people. or, to speak more accur-
ately, the many tribes, and even races,
sundered from one another more or less
sharply, who go to make up the people
of the Philippine islands, contain many
elements of good, and some elements
which we have a right to hope stand for
progress. At present they are utterly
incapable of existing in independence at
all or of building up a civilization of
their own. l firmly believe that we can
help them to rise higher and higher in
the scale of civilization and of capacity
for self-government, and l most earnest
ly hope that in the end they will be able
to stand, if not entirely alone, yet in
some such relation to the United States
as Cuba now stands. This end is not yet
in sight, and it may be indefinitely post
poned If our people are foolish enough to
turn the attention of the Filipinos away
from the problems of achieving moral
and material prosperity, of working for
a stable, orderly and just government.
and toward foolish and dangerous in
trigues for a complete independence for
which they are as yet totally unfit,
On the other a M our people must
keep steadily before their minds the fact
that the justification for our stay in the
Philippines must ultimately rest chiefly
upon the good we are able to do in the
stands. l do not overlook the fact that
in the development of our interests in
the Pacific ocean and along its coasts,
the Philippines nave played and will play
an important part, and that our interests
have been served in more than one way
by the possession of the islands. But our
chief reason for continuing to hold them
must be that we ought in good faith
to try to do our share of the worlds
work, and this particular piece of work
has been imposed upon us by the results
of the war with Spain.
For Elective Government.
Within two years we shall be trying
the experiment of an elective lower
house in the Philippine legislature. It
may be that the Filipinos will misuse
this legislature, n they certainly will
misuse it If they are misled by foolish
persons here at home into starting an
agitation for their own independence or
into any factious or improper action. In
such case they will do themselves no
good and will stop for the time being all
further effort to advance them and give
them a greater share in their own gov
eminent. But If they act with wisdom
and self-restraint, If they show that they
are capable of e~lecting a legislature
which in its turn is capable of taking a
sane and efficient part in the actual work
of government, they can rest assured
that a full and increasing measure of
recognition will be given them. Above
all they should remember that their
prime needs are moral and Industrial, not
political. 1t is a good thing to try the
experiment of giving them a legislature;
but 1t is a far better thing to give them
schools, good roads, railroads which will
enable them to get their products to mar
ket, honest courts, an honest and efficient
copstabulary, and all that lends to pro-
duce order, peace, fair dealing as between
man and man, and habits Of intelligent
industry and thrift. If they are safe
guarded against oppression, and II their real
wants, material and spiritual, are studied
intelligently and in a spirit of friendly