Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1904-09-15

aspect would amount to an international
crime. Anarchy would follow, and the
most violent anarchic forces would be Cii-
rected partly against the civil govern
ment. partly against all forms of religious
and educational civilization Bloody con.
ficts would Inevitably ensue in the archi-
pelago, and just as inevitably the islands
would become the prey of the first power
which in its own selfish interest took up
the task we had cravenly abandoned OF
course the practical difficulty in adopting
any such course of action-such a "policy
of scuttle," as President Mckinley called
it-would be found we'll nigh insuperable
Ii it is morally indefensible to hold the
archipelago as a whole under our tutelage
in the interest of it's own people then il is
morally indefenSible to hold any part OF
it, In such case what right have we to
Keep coaling station? What right to
Keep control over the Moro peoples +?
what right to protect the Igorrotes from
their oppressors? What right to protect
the law abiding friends of America in the
Islands from treachery. robbery and muir
der? Yet to abandon the islands COM
pietely, without even retaining a coaling
station, would mean to abandon the posi-
ton in the competition for the trade of
the orient which we have acquired dur
Ing the last six years, and, what is far
more important, it would mean irrepara-
BILE damage to those who have become the
wards of the nation. To abandon all con-
troll over the MoroS would amount to re-
leasing these Moros to prey upon the
Christian Filpinos, civilized or semfciy-
iliZed, as well as upon the commerce of
other peoples. The Moros are in large
part still in the stage of culture where
the occupations of the bandit and the
pirate are those most highly regard ID
and 1t has not been found practical to
give them self government in the sense
that we have been giving it to the Chris
tian inhabitants. To abandon the Moro
country. as our opponents propose in
their platform, would be precisely as il
twenty-five years ago we had withdrawn
the army and the civil agents from with
in and around the Indian reservations in
the west, at a time when the Sioux and
the Apache were still the terror of our
settlers. 1t would be a criminal absurd
lty, and yet our opponents have pledged
themselves thereto. If successful in the
coming election they would either have to
break faith or else to do an act which
would leave an indelible stain upon our
national reputation for courage and for
good sense. During the last five years
more has been done for the material and
moral well being of the FiIipinos than
ever before since the islands first came
within the ken of civilized man. We have
opened before them a vista of orderly de-
Velopment in their own interest, and not
policy of exploitation Every effort is
being made to fit the islanders for self
government, and they have already in
large measure received it, while for the
first time in their history their personal
rights and civil liberties have been guar
anteed. They are being educated. They
have been given schools. They have been
given libraries. Roads are being built for
their use. Their health is being cared for
NIna hAN
they receive justice as absolute as it is
in our power to guarantee. Their indi-
vidual rights to life, liberty and the pur-
suit OF happiness are now by act of con-
gress jealousy safeguarded under the
American flag, and il the protection Of
the flag weCe withdrawn their rights
would be lost and the islands would be
plunged back under some form of vicious
tyranny We have given them more self
government than they have ever before
had, we are taking steps to increase it
still further by providing them with an
elected legislative assembly and surely
we had better await the results of this
experimentation it is a wholly new ex-
pertinent in Asia-before we make prom
ises which as nation we might be forced
to break or which they might interpret
one way and we in another. 1t may be
asserted without fear of successful con-
tradlction that nowhere else in recent
years has there been as fine an example
of constructive craftsmanship and wise
and upright administration as has been
given by the civil authorities. aided bv
the army, in the Philippine Islands We
have administered them in the interest of
their own people, and the Filipinos them
selves have protited most by our presence
in the islands, but they have also been of
very great advantage to us as aaanation
So far from having slapped the foun-
datons' of free popular government at
home by the course taken in the Philip-
pines, we have been spreading it's knowl-
edge and teaching it's practice among peo-
pies to whom 1t had never been more than
an empty name. Our action represents
great stride forward in spreading the
principles of orderly liberty throughout
the world. Our flag has not lost its gift
OF benediction in its worldwide journey
to their shores" We have treated the
power we have gained as a solemn obliga-
ton and have used it in the interest of
mankind, and the peoples of the world
and especially the weaker peoples of the
world, are better off because of the posi-
ton We have assumed. To retrace our
steps would be to give proof of an infirm
and unstable national purpose.
Four years ago in his speech of ac-
ceptance President Mckinley said:
1--WE have been moving in untried
paths, but our steps have been guided by
honor and duty. There will be no turning
aside, no wavering, no retreat. No blow
has been struck except for liberty and
humanity and none will be. We will
perform without fear every national and
international obligation. The Republic
an party was dedicated to freedom forty
four years ago. 1t has been the party of
liberty and emancipation from that hour;
not of profession, but of performance.
1t broke the shackles of 100000 slaves
and made them free, and to the party of
Lincoln has come another supreme OPP
portunity which it has bravely met in
the liberation of 100000 of the hui
man family from the yoke of imperial
ism. In its solution of great problems,
in its performance of high duties, it has
had the support of members Of all parties
in the past, and it confidently invokes
their cooperation in the future"
This is as true now as four years ago.
We did not take the Philippines at WILL
and we cannot put them aside at will
Any abandonment of the policy which we
have steadily pursued in the islands
would be fraught with dishonor and dis
aster, and to such dishonor and disaster
/ do not believe that the American people
will consent.
Alarm has been professed lest the Fill
pinos should not receive all the benefits
guaranteed to our people at home by the
fourteenth amendment to the constitu-
have already secured the substance of
these benefits. This government has been
true to the spirit of the fourteenth
IA