The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1904-12-08

civilized powers for those with most SCI Sc
| OF international obligations and with keen.
est and most generous appreciation of the
| difference between right and wrong, to DIS
arm. If the great civilized nations of the
| present day should completely disarm, the
| result would mean an immediate recru
| descence of barbarism in one form or an
| other. Under any circumstances a suffi-
| cient armament would have to be kept VI
| TO serve the purposes of International po-
| lice; and until international cohesion and
| the sense of international duties and rights
are far more advanced than at present,
nation DESTROYS both Of securing respect
| for itself and of doing good to others must
| have force adequate for the work which
II 1eels is allotted to 1t as its part Of the
general world duty. Therefore it follows
| that self-respecting, just and far-seeing
| nation should on the one hand endeavor
by every means to aid in the development
| OF the various movements which tend to
| provide substitutes for war, which tend to
| render nations in their actions toward one
another. and indeed toward their own peo-
| pies, more responsive to the general senti-
ment OF humane and civilized mankind;
| ana on the other hand, that it should keep
| prepared. while scrupulously avoiding
| Wrongdolng ITSELF to repel any wrong, and
! In exceptional cases to take action which
In 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 to all
| mankind not to sink into helplessness be-
| lore the powers Of evil.
Second Hague Conference.
| We are in every way endeavoring to help
| 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
| Hxyhfo ax1y;l1;
into these treaties with US. 1t is not pos
| slble 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-
| teal statesmen from all countries, l have
| asked the powers to join with this govern
| ment In second Hague conference, at
| which it Is hoped that the work already so
happily begun at The Hague may be car
RED some steps further toward completion.
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
Cuba, Venezuela and Panama, and in en-
| OeaVorlng to clrcumScribe 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
| 1ty 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
| TO 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 stop to civic corruption, to brutal
| laWlessness and violent race prejudices
| mere at home than by passing resolutions
| about wrongdoing elsewhere. Neverthe-
less there are occasional crimes committed
on so vast 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 course is justifable. 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 q whole shows by it's consistent
| practice its belief in the principles of civil
and religious liberty and Of orderly free.
| dom, people among whom even the worst
lFn fhn ~ @f1
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, OF
when 1t witnesses such systematic and
long extended cruelty and oppression as
the cruelty anu 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
of the Philippine islands, contain many
elements of good, and some elements
which we have right to hope stand for
progress. At present they are utterly
incapable Of existing in independence al
all or of building up civilization OF
their own. I firmly believe that we can
help them to rise higher and higher in
the scale Of civilization and of capacity
| for self-government, and 1 most earnest
ly hope that in the end they will be able
to stand, II 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 fol
a stable, orderly and just government
and toward foolish and dangerous in.
trigues for complete independence fol
which they are as yet totally unfit
On the other hand 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
islands. I do not overlook the fact that
| in the development Of our interests in
the Pacific ocean and along its coasts
the Philippines have 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 II
may be that the Filipinos will misuse
this legislature, and they certainly will
misuse 1t If they are misled by foolish
| persons here at home into starting an