St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1904-04-27
maintain our prestige and pursue the wise
policies upon which we have entered.
OUR PHILIPPINE POLICY.

OUR PHILIPPINE POLICY.
Much has been said in criticism of the
! acquisition of the Philippines and our
| other insular possessions because Of their
| cost and the expense and trouble incident
/ to their government.
Those who thus criticise do not take
| a very broad view.
Great national and international tran
sactions are not measured by dollars
| and cents. We are not proposing to ex-
| pend two or three hundred millions OF
| dollars to construct an isthmian canal
| with the idea of collecting tolls enough to
| make the enterprise dividend paying.
We did not acquire Hawaii. or Porto
Rico, or the Philippines because we needed
| or wanted more territory, merely as such,
nor because we wanted to extend our
| authority over more peoples. we mad no
| thought of tribute and would not exact
| dollar If we could.
| Our purposes were hlgner, broader ana
more patriotic.
| We are proposing to build the inter-
| oceanic canal, not for revenue but be-
cause of its general supreme Importance;
| and if we are to invest the vast sums
necessary to the completion of that work
| we must be in a situation to defend it.
| In that behalf T'orto Rico and our naval
stations and military reservations in Cuba
| become of incalcuIable value. More money
| does not suggest any measure OF their
| worth.
They will enable US to command and
| control the Caribbean sea, and in that
way protect and defend the approaches
to the canal from the Atlantic side, and
that is beyond computation.
Hawaii fills like Office on the Pacific
side. Those islands are so situated that
with them in our possession we hold a
strategic advantage that at once protects
and defends not only the approaches to
the canal, but our entire Pacific coast
line.
In the great commercial rivalries of the
Orient the Philippines will play for a
more important and more helpful part
still. With them in our possession we
have a base of operations that will be
of inestimable benefit in both peace and
war.
They lie in the very front of the hun
dreds of millions for whose favor in
trade we are to contend against the
other commercial powers.
Their acquisition and our successful gov
eminent of them have greatly enhanced
our prestige and influence.
If We should abandon them we would
discredit the capacity and courage of our
people for great achievements and cripple
all our efforts to command our just dues
in that part of the world.
This is not sentimental matter. It
is a practical affair Of the greatest con-
sequence. 1t involves a question that
directly affects not only the honor and
good name of the American people, but
the prosperity and happiness of every
Individual in the American body politics;
not simply merchants and manufacturers,
but the farmers and wage workers as
well.
and retire therefrom we could not hope
to develop in that part of the globe the
markets to which we are entitled, and
without those markets we would be I'M
able to sell our surplus, and being I'M
able to sell it could not any longer afford
to produce it.
The inevitable consequence would be
1essening of production affecting not
only the capacity Of our output but the
strength of our pay rolls and the demands
of our home markets.
The history of the last Six years records
unforeseen events and unforeseen steps
in expansion and general development,
but all have come about naturally and
through all has run a controlling vein
of statesmanlike wisdom and American
like patriotism.
SHALL WE TURN BACK?
The question now is shall we go forward
or turn back? Shall we hold on to these
acquisitions, or shall we surrender them?
If we turn back what shall we undo?
If we surrender what we have acquired
what shall be first given up. Where Is
the man to haul down the flag and sound
the retreat? When and where and how
is the operation to commenc?
0OS
the United States withdrawing from Porto
Rico, abandoning Hawaii and retreating
from the Philippines!
Who would dismiss the schools that
have been started and explain the coward
ice, poltroonery, or incapacity involved,
whichever or whatever it may be termed?
Such suggestions present the character
of the issue we are to try, for if the
course of our democratic friends has been
marked with sincerity, they would be, if
restored to power, in honor bound to re-
verse the policies we have been pursuing,
and do all these humiliating things.
The questions that come home to US
in connection with the coming election
are, therefore, whether, generally speak
ing, we shall condemn or uphold what
the Republican party has done with re-
spect to the policy of protection, with re-
spect to our insular possessions, the
island of Cuba, the republic of Panama,
the construction of a canal, and the in
sistence upon a policy that secures for
oyen door through which we can
enter the Orient, there to trade
equal footing with the other commercial
powers of the earth.
These are not important questions They
are far reaching in their consequence,
affecting us not only as a people, but
individually, as citizens of this country,
without regard to section, or class, or
vocation
DEMOCRATS OPPOSE THESE
POLICIES.
It has been said that the Democratic
party has no settled policy with respect
to any of these great questions. In the
sense that they are a unit as to any of
them that is true, for if you will consult
the records you will see that they are
divided among themselves. Even their
leaders and their ablest men have been
unable to agree with one another on any
of these propositions. But that of itself
is enough to disoualify them for the
power they are seeking. A party that
cannot agree with itself ought not to
expect any body else to agree with it,
or that the people will entrust it with
any important commissions.
But if the democrats are not opposed
to our policies why make a change?
Are they more capable of executing them
than we are? If we are without issues
it is only because their leaders have
found it impossible to make them. They
have tried hard enough. Their failures
have been a great tribute to the wisdom
of our work.