Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1907-09-26
WE MUSI KEEP
PHILIPPINES.
Admiral George Dewey ReSents PrOpO
SitiOn That We Give Up Islands.
DOES NOT BELIEVE THIS
COUNTRY WILL EYER DO 1T
We Want Oar Share or Eaormnus
Commerce Of the East and We Can,
Keep Door Open Unless We Hold ,he
lsiands-What if Japan Would Gain
COnirOl2

COnirO2
Washington, Sept. 2l.--AdmiraI
Dewey strongly resents the iro 20 i,:on
that has been discussed in NOR. OF
less academic manner to SUI dr. ,he
Philippines, which, Of al men. he was
leading factor in bringing u,,! r the
American flag. In an interview today
the admiral set out clearly the reasons
which impel him 10 insist upon he 70
tention of the islands. Sing,'a y
enough, in view Of the fact that the
admiral is a man OF war by trade, TIE
strong point of his argument is not
based upon military or naval Importance
OF the archipelago, but almost alto
gether upon the great value, present
and prospective, of the Philippines
to America in the extension of our
trade with the Orient, which he re-
CARDS as holding out the best promise
OF commercial expansion. The Ad-
miral says:
Abandon the Philippines! / don't
believe our country will ever do that.
Certainly it should not, because it has
altogether too much at stake. 1t is
only our control over the Philippines
that makes it possible for us to insist
upon the open door in the east, toward
which our diplomacy has been directed
for a number of years. We want our
share of the enormous commerce of the
east and we cannot keep the door open
for it, unless we hold the islands.
why did Spain for 200 years dom
mate the commerce of the Orient.
Just because she had the bay and har-
Dor OF Manila as great commercial
and naval base. The base can be lust
as useful to US commercially as it was
TO Spain. For the past ten years every
strong European nation has been trying
to get a foothold for commercial and
naval purposes in eastern waters
Germany, England, France and Russia.
Through the forces of war, the United
States obtained. rightfully and without
chicanery, the best and most strategic
position possible, giving US superior
naval and commercial advantages over
the other nations. What sort of COM
mon sense would it be for us to give I'D
such position?
Suppose we should dispose of the
Philippines and Japan should ACQUIRE
them. See how the islands stretch
along the coast. Here are the jap
anese islands, here is Formosa, which
Japan owns, and then come the Phil
ippines. If Japan had them, she would
command every gateway to the Orient
and the United States would be COM
pletely shut out.
Every one comedies that the Orient
Is the future great. field for the prin.
cipal commercial nations Of the world.
we ought to be the leaders, but we
must at least have share in the enter
prise and in order to do so we must
maintain the positions we have occu-
pied through force of circumstances in
that region. l am talking now of the
purely commercial phase of the question
and l think it is plain that we must
have commercial base of operation
such as Manila furnishes. And then. in
order to protect our commerce. we
must have a naval base, and at Subie
Bay such base Is now being devel-
oped. Congress has recognized our
needsin the Philippines and has appro-
priated literally for fortifying the
Islands. Modern guns are being mount
ed, large dry dock has been located
IN Subig Bay, troops are stationed in
the Island of Luzon and in every vay
congress has shown its desire to protect
the islands from foreign aggression and
also to establish q base for possible
military operations.
ut has been frequently said that the
United States has assumed responsible
tiles in the Philippines which it can not
pass over to other hands. l do not care
to discuss this phase of the situation.
except to say that l believe the Ameri-
can people will never shrink from such
responsibilities as were assumed for
them when the United States took over
the Philippines.
II want to emphasize my belief that
the United States, as a world power,
will always have commercial and dip-
lomatic interests in the far east and
can not maintain itself properly without
base Of operations. The United
States can not withdraw from its pres
ent enterprise in the east, but must 90
forward, seeking its share of the advan-
tages and sustaining its share of the
responsibilities.
T.~a.As. NAL