The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-09-12

fort will be contiLred to secure, an lecORo;ny as strict as is consistent with Iefficlency. Once more our opponents
 have promised what they cannot or lEhould not perform. The prime reason
 why the expenses Of the government
 have increased of recent years is to be found in the fact that the people, after Imature thought, have deemed 1t wise
 to have certain new forms of work for
 the public undertaken by the public.
 This necessitates such expenditures, for Instance, as those for rural free deliy- Iery, or for the inspection of meats un- Ider the department of agriculture, or flor irrigation. But these new expendi- lures are necessary; no one would se- lriously propose to abandon them; and iyet it is idle to declaim against the in- lcreased expense of the government un- Hess it is intended to cut down the very Expenditures which cause the increase.
 The pensions to the veterans of the lcivil war are demanded by every sen Itiment O. regard and gratitude. The Irural free delivery is of the greatest
 use and convenience to the farmers, a
 body of men who live under conditions
 
 tie direct return for what they pay
 toward the support of the government.
 The irrigation policy in the arid and lsemi-arid regions of the west s one fraught with the most beneficent and
 far-reaching good to the actual settlers
 the home-makers, whose encourage lment is traditional feature in Amer ,ica's national policy. Do our opponents Igrudge the fifty millions paid for Ihe
 Panama canal? Do they intend to cut
 down on the pensions to the veterans
 of the civil war? Do they intend to put
 a stop to irrigation? or to the per
 manent census bureau? or to immigra-
 tion inspection Do they intend to abol-
 ish rural free delivery? Do they in
 tend to cut down the navy2 or the
 Alaskan telegraph system? Do they intend to dismantle our coast fortifica-
 tions? If there is to be real and sub
 stantial cutting down in national ex-
 penditures it must be in such matters
 as these. The department of agriculture
 has done service of incaleulable value to the farmers of this country in many ; different lines. Do our opponents wish to cut down the money for this service? 1 They can do it only by destroying the . usefulness of the service itself
 The public work of the United States has never been conducted with higher degree of honesty and efficiency than at the present time; and special need of praise belongs to those officials respon-
 sible for the Philippines and Porto Rico.
 where the administrations have been iV1nn nIolF op nf has occasionally occurred, but it has
 been relentlessly stamped out. We ! have known no party in dealing with
 offenders, and have hunted down with out mercy every wrong-doer in. the ser- vice of the nation whom 1t was possi- , ble by the utmost vigilance to detect; for the public servant who hetrays his . trust and the private individual who debauches him stand as the worst of , criminals, because their crimes are crimes against the entire community, and not only aganst this generation but
 against the generation that are yet to be. ! Democratic Inability to Create Con- structiye Policy.
 Our opponents promise independence to the Philippine Islands. Here again we are confronted by the fact that their irreconcilable differences of opinion among themselves, their proved inabil- ity to create constructive policy when in power, and their readiness, for the sake ofAnotilentary political expediency, to abandon the principles upon which
 they have insisted as essential, con- lev,g A, HIS. do or do not intend in good faith to
 carry out this promise if they are given control of the government. Iii their lplatform they declare for Independence, t apparently-for their language is lit : tie obscure-without qualification as to . time; and indeed a qualification as to 1, time is an absurdity, for we have neither right nor power to bind our suc-
 cessors when 1t is impossible to fore [ tell the conditions which may confront 1, them; while if there is any principle involved in the matter, it Is just as r wrong to deny independence for few years as to deny 1t for an indefinite 3 period. But in later and equally official utterances by our opponents the term !, self government was substituted for in- 5 dependence; the words used being Sc chosen that in their natural construc- 7 tion they described precisely the policy s now being carried on. The language 5 of the platform indicated radical f change of policy; the later utteranees s indicated a continuance of the present g policy But this caused trouble in their 3 own ranks; and i'll a still later, al- r though less formal, utterance, the self government promise was recanted, and s Independence at some future time was e promised in its place. They have occu- y tpied three entirely different positions within fifty days. Winch is the promise r they really intend to keep? They dc
 not know their own minds; and no one = can tell how long they. would keep oi = the same mind, should they by any s chance come to a working agreement S among themselves. If such ambiguity a affected only the American people il
 Ewould not so greatly matter; for the = American people can take care of them y tselves. But the Filipinos are in nc - Esuch condition Confidence is with then f "a plant of slow growth. They have e been taught to trust the word of this -,' government because this government = has promised nothing which if did mi