The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-13
SECRETARY TAFT
CHIEF SPEAKER
Lincoln Club Banquet at Grand
Rapids, Mich, Attended by
Two Thousand Persons.
FREEDOM AND FILIPINoS
WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN
HONEST AsE's" POLICY?

III -
Grand Rapids, Mich, Feb. 12.-The
Lincoln club banquet here tonight was
brilliant success. with a galaxy of
speakers never equaled IN Michigan
political banquets. More than 1000
persons occupied seats at the tables.
The hall was deliberately decorated,
and as a compliment TO Ambassador
Jusserand of France. French colors
were mingled with the American.
The speakers were Ambassador JUS
serand. Congressman George Edmund
Foss, Secretary of War Taft, Governor
Curtis Guild jT., of Massachusetts, and
Director John Barrett of the bureau OF
American republics. Although all of
the speakers were greeted with en-
thusiasm it was Secretary Taft who
received the greatest outburst of APP
plause.
It continued for several minutes be-
fore he could begin his address. In
terrupted frequently by applause. he
spoke as follows
Mr.. Taft's Address.
The Philippine Islands came to US
without our design. In war one must
pursue his enemy where he can find
sxould destroy the Spanish fleet in the
Pacific territory. The destruction of
the Spanish fleet put the Philippine
islands at our mercy. We had no
troops, however. and as a reasonable
war measure we invoked the assistance
of Aguinaldo and his fellow insure
tOs against the power of Spain. TO as
sist US i'm establishing calm in the ISL
ands until our army could traverse the
haf aatr ha
Philippine islands With the assist
ance of Aguinaldo's army we took the
city of Manila and then the peace
came. The question was what course
lay open to US.
What Would Lincoln Have Dones
Should we turn our island allies
back to the government of Spain and
the oppression against which they had
revolted? Would Abraham Lincoln
have advised that course? 1 do not
think so. Should we turn the islands
over to Aguinaldo and his military
subOrdinates2 They had themselves in
the nine months intervening tried to
establish a civil government and the
tyrants and the insufficiencies in that
government in trying to maintain or
der would have made il a crime
against the whole people of the islands
den which Providence seemed to have
thgust upon us. Would Abraham Lin
n have advised a policy of scuttie
and retreat from these islands, TO
leave them with no government and
chaos that would only increase the
suffering of those unfortunate people?
Clearly there is nothing in the Decla
ration of Independence as interpreted
by Abraham Lincoln that would have
a n
Consent of the Governed.
1T is true that the declaration re-
cites that all just government must re-
~ on the consent of the governed; but
that is TO be interpreted as meaning
a consent of the governed who have
intelligence sufficient to enable them
10 discriminate as to what is govern
ment i'm their own interest. Lincoln
i'm his debates with Douglas did. not
insist that the cOlOred men, as they
then were, should take part in the
government as voters, but he evidently
treated the postulatc in the Declaration
OF independence as the ideal toward
which all government should work He
would have been the last man to af-
firm that it was the duty of McKin-
ley and the Republican party. respOn-
sible for administration, to have turned
those islands over to a people of sew
en- millions, with ninety per cent haV
ing a density of ignorance hard for us
TO understand and with ten per cent
though somewhat civilized and intel
ligent, yet without the slightest expe-
rience i'm the exercise of political and
governmental control. I affirm that
the policy adopted by VIM. Mckinley
and embraced by the Republican par
~, under which il is proposed by a
gradual extending of self-gOVernment
To the people of the Philippine islands
as they shall become better and Better
politically educated by practice and by
the school system, is following the true
spirit and proper Interpretation of the
principles of the Declaration of indie
Liendence. No man would have been
Suicker to scout as impracticable dog
matism. the bitter criticism, the I'M
reasonable opposition, and the almost
treacherous sympathy with the OppO-
sition OF our government in the Phil
ippines, displayed by the anti-imperial-
lists and their Democratic followers,
than Lincoln.
Blood and Treasure Expended.
In the now nearly ten years that
We have been in the islands we have
produced tranquility and freedom from
the LadrOnism and disturbance which
long interfered with agriculture of the
Islands. . We have done this at the
cost of blood and treasure. Would
Abraham Lincoln have disapproved
this policy?
We have found a people separated
from each other by sixteen different