Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-12-20

TOR as to make us doubt whether 1t 10 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. Tae cases must be extreme in which
such 4 course is justiiable There must ba
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 do
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 interfera>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 a 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
crime, like the crime Of lynching, is never
more than sporadic, so that individuals and
not classes are molested In their funda-
mental rights-it is inevitable that such
nation should desire eagerly to give express
sion to its horror on an occasion like that
Of the massacre of the Jews in Kishineff or
when 1t witnesses such systematic and
long-extended cruelty and oppression as
the cruelty and oppression of which tho
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
0N1yN1n nod
sharply, who go to make up the people
of the Philippine islands, contain many
elements of good, and some elements
which we have a right to hope stand for
progress. At present they are utterly
incapable of existing in independence at
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 / most earnest
ly hope that in the end they will be able
to stand If not entirely alone, yet in
some such relation to the United States
as Cuba now stands. This end is not yet
in sight, and 1t may be indefinitely post.
poned II our people are foolish enough to
turn the attention OF the Filipinos away
from the problems of achieving moral
and material prosperity, of working for
and toward foolish and dangerous in.
trigues for a complete independence for
which they are as yet totally unit.
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, 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 world'i
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 tryini
tho experiment Of an elective Lowed
house in the Philippine legislature. II
may be that the Filipinos will misuse
this legislature, and they certainly will
misuse 1t II they are misled by foolish
persons here at home into starting an
agitation for their own independence Oh
into any factious or improper action. Iu
such case they will do themselves no
good and will stop for the time being all
further effort to advance them and give
them greater share in their own gov!
eminent. But II they act with wisdom
and self-restraint, II they show that they
are capable of electing legislature
which in its turn is capable of taking O
sane and efficient part in the actual work
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