Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-09-13

PAoSSSe
the Igorrotes from their oppressors?
What right to protect the law-abiding
friends of America in the Islands from
treachery. robbery and murder? Yet
10 abandon the islands completely,
without even retaining a coallng sta
tlon. would mean to abandon the posi-
ZION in the competition for the trade OF
the Orient which we have acquired
curing the last six years; and what is
lar more important, it would mean IT.
reparable damage to those who have
become the wards of the nation. 10
abandon all control over the Moros
would amount to releasing these MO
ros to prey upon the Christian Fill
1 plnos, civilized or semi-clvillzed, 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 pl-
rate are those most highly regarded;
and it has not been found practical to
/ give them self government in the
sense that we have been giving 1t to
the Christian inhabitants. To abandon
the Moro country, as our opponents
propose in their platform would be
precisely as if twenty-five years ago
we had withdrawn the army and the
civil agents from within and around
the Indian reservations in the west at
time when the Sioux and the Apache
were still the terror of our settlers. 1t
would be criminal absurdity; and
yet our opponents have pledged them
selves thereto. IF successful in the COM
ing 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
Filipinos than ever before since the is
lands first came within the ken of CIV
ilized man. We have opened before
them vista of orderly development 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 meas
ure received it. while FOR the first time
in their history their personal rights
and civil liberties have been guaran-
teed. They are being educated; they
have been given schools; they have
been given libraries; roads are being
built for their use; their health is be-
ing cared for; they have been given
courts in which they receive justice as
absolute as it is in our power to guar
antee. Their individual rights to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness
are now by act of congress jealousy
safeguarded under the American flag;
and if the protection of the flag were
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 govern
ment than they ever before had; we
are taking steps to increase it still
further by providing them with an
elected legislative assembly; and sure
ly we had better await the results of
this experimentation it is a wholly
new experiment in Asia-before we
make promises which as a nation we
might be forced to break, or which
they might interpret one way and we
in another. 1t may be asserted with
out fear of successful contradiction
that nowhere else in recent years has
there been as fine an example of con-
structive craftsmanship and wise up
right administration as has been given
by the civil authorities, aided by the
army. in the Philippine islands. We
have administered them in the inter-
est of their own people; and the Fill
pinos themselves have profited most
by our presence in the islands; but
they have also been of very great ad-
vantage to us as a nation.
A Course of Duty.
$50 far from having Slapped the foun-
dations' of free popular government at
home by the course taken in the
Philippines, we have been spreading
it's knowledge, and teaching it's prac-
never before been more than an empty
name. Our action represents a great
stride forward in spreading the prin-
ciples of orderly liberty throughout
the world. Our flag has not lost it's
gift of benediction in it's worldwide
journey to their Shores We have
treated the power we have gained as
solemn obligation, 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 position 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
acceptance 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 re-
treat. No blow has been struck ex-
cept for liberty and humanity, and
none will be. We will perform with
out fear every national and interna-
tional obligation. The republican
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 per-
Torrance. 1t broke the shackles Of
four million slaves, and made them
free, and to the party of Lincoln has
come another supreme opportunity
which it has bravely met in the lib
GRAFTON of ten millions of the human
family from the yoke of Imperialism.
In its solution of great problems, in it's
performance of big duties, it has had
the support of members of all parties
in the past, and 1t 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 pol