Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-03-04
Troubles of a "World Pow.r.u

sSSaSsSS W q vVVgb0 TOW0Ts
THE white man is very uncertain"-
likewise the Asiatic. We have been
told time and time and time again
that the Filipinoss were thoroughly
pacified $50 they are-the dead ones)
and that they were greatly and hys-
terically in love with Old Glory $50
they are-those who are holding good
fat offices under our Uncle SamueD.
General Otis informed us repeatedly
that they were pacified. He was fol-
lowed In his declaration by all his sue
cessors In command. Then Governor
General Taft announced that peace
reigns throughout the archipelago"
Then General Leonard Wood pacified
some 800 Moros by loading them up
with lead. Leonard was then hotfoot
after the double stars Of q major gen
eral.
Notwithstanding all these assurances
OF complete paeiacation and bubbling
enthusiasm OF THE. Tilipinos for the
stars and stripes, recently quoted a
dispatch in these letters to the effect
that some two or three hundred con-
stables had taken their guns and &c
couterments and all the money they
could cabbage and had deserted to the
jungles. A later dispatch describes a
battle in which an American officer
and several priyates were killed. Per-
haps these are signs. of perfect pacifica-
ton, but sensible people will not SO re-
gard them. The truth is that so long
as we attempt to hold the Philippines
we must pin them down with bay
onets.
But we have been told all along that
the Porto Ricans are the most docile
Of all our subjects" and would never
give us any trouble whatever. Others
might buck and. kick and cavort, but
the kindly, gentle and grateful Porto
Ricans never! Nevertheless, as the fol-
lowing dispatch shows, we We're de.
ceived In that matter also, reckoning
without our host. The Porto Ricans
were represented in both branches of
the Spanish cortes. We permit them
to send a nondescript and powerless
commissioner" to Washington. Now
they are clamoring for statehood or In
dependence. Here Is the dispatch,
which is self explanatory:
San Juan. Porto Rico, Feb. 2o-The fed
eral assembly today. by vote Of 60 to
IL. demanded that Porto Rico be admitted
to statehood or that the island be granted
independence.
Here we are confronted with the
identical question about which our
forefathers got up the Revolutionary
war. AS there are only about 1000, 600
of the Porto Ricans, they cannot, of
course, achieve their independence,
but if they should set up the standard
of revolt at the same time the many
times pacified Filipinos do there would
be something doing in the outlying
provinces Of this world power.
But the Porto Ricans and the Fflipi-
nos are not the only inhabitants Of
territory appurtenant to the United
States" who are giving trouble. The
big sugar planters of our sugar col
ony, commonly called Hawaii, for the
privilege of maintaining which we
paid several million dollars, are de-
handing Of Uncle Sam that they be
permitted to import Chinese coolies
and Japs ad libitum. This Republican
congress would no doubt hearken to
their voices, but this is election year,
and there are the labor unions to be
considered. So the sugar barons vii
have to wait until next session. In the
meantime they will be bled by the Re.
publican campaign managers. The
conglomerate peoples now under the
American flag are enough to make
Roman emperor stare If he should re-
visit the glimpses of the moon. White
men, red men, black men, saddle col
ored men, yellow men. brown men,
notified men, Americans, Africans, Eu-
ropeans, Asiatics, Oceanics, Christians,
Jews, pagans, Mohammedans, heather,
cannibals. anthropophagi, lepers - oh,
we are getting there as a world power
with both feet! What becomes Of the