The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-14
FOB PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE.

FOR PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE.
A general committee has been con-
stituted by advocates of independence
for the Philippines, containing the
names of men eminent throughout the
country for their information. their pa
triotism and their devotion to Ameri
can ideals. This committee has sent
out for signature a petition to be sign
ed by members of all political parties,
urging their respective national con-
ventions to adopt resolutions pledging
to the people Of the Philippine islands
their ultimate national independence
Cuba.
The Globe is in utter and en-
thusiastic sympathy with this demand
We have no further protest to make
about our original occupation Of the
Philippines or the events that followed
it. Our world is intensely alive, and
has no business with dead issues. But
the present and the future of the Fill
pino people are matters for which we
must answer on our own behalf and on
our peril, to God and to the national
conscience.
We do not say and do not think that
these islands should be returned to
Spain. We do not say or think that
our government should withdraw its
forces Sail away and leave the inhabit-
ants to the fate. of anarchy, that would
almost certainly overtake them. We
should never consent that they might
become the victims or subjects Of any
other power since therAcan be none SO
liberty-loving as our own. Letting by
we should put ourselves on record not
by them according to the eternal rule
of right and the necessity that genuine
democracy imposes upon us.
The petition expresses our duty in
the fewest possible words. We should
pledge to the people Of the Philippine
islands our honor for their future.
We do not need to grant them inde-
pendence today or tomorrow, nor would
it likely to be advisable to do so. But
we should put ourselves on record not
only that we may bind the future, but
that we may obtain for today the up
lifting experience of laboring for right
ends instead of wrong, and instead of
working in the helpless dark.
That to which we should pledge our
selves is the ultimate national indie
pendence" of the Philippine islands.
We do not name q date. We do not
commit ourselves to impossible adj
vances In the self governing quality Of
the Filipino. We tell him simply that
he is to have his political reward when
he shall have earned it. We even re-
serve for ourselves the dangerous priv
ilege to judge. We are to decide when
| his tutelage is ended. But for him. as
for ourselves, unless We do set before
us this high aim, we make of all Amer
lean history mockery and of the lives
that have been given to liberty a sacri-
flee in vain.
We pledge ourselves to the ultimate
national independence Of the Philippine
:..,,,- -. ss,,,,c,, +or,,,. e;,,,ilar ~ thoco
offered to Cuba" This clause is COM
| plete answer to every objector. We
| know that the independence of Cuba is
| today a blessing to the United States,
as well as to her. We have acquired
every right and every protection that
could have come to us by absolute
ownership of the island, without the
| terrible responsibility which We would
4 have entailed on us and the dissatis-
| faction and deterioration that it would
/ have brought to the Cuban people. We
are safeguarded everywhere. For mill
tary, for naval, for political and for
economic ends, Cuba is as much part
of the United States as if an American
governor were seated in Havana. The
same authority we may retain, the
same advantages may be guaranteed to
us perpetually in the Philippine isl
ands, by the grant eventually of indie
pendence under the same pledges and
restrictions.
Why may we not all as Americans
4 join hands on this platform? Why
should the Philippine question renaair
an issue between parties or between
man and man? "All that is required Of
thee. oh. man, is to do justly" Plair
justice to the Filipino requires. us te
place his future in his own hands when
they shall have grown strong enough
to bear the burden, and the example o.
Cuba shows us the way.
-------------
MA ,,o,, ,,otica how freely tha Hon