The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1911-05-20
OUR LOST OPPORTUNITY
Continued from First Page

IL new Iuster For the Philippine ISL
ands you have had to convert the Mon
roe Doctrine into a doctrine of mere
selfshness. For Cuba you have acted
on it and INDICATED it. In Cuba you
have got the eternal gratitude of free
people. In the Philippine Islands you
have got the hatred and sullen sub
mission of a subjugated people. From
Cuba you have brought home nothing
but glory. From the Philippines you
have brought home nothing of glory.
In Cuba no man thinks of counting the
cost The few soldiers who came home
from Cuba wounded or sick carry about
their wounds and their pale faces as if
they were medals of honor. What SOL
der glories in a wound or an empty
sleeve which he got in the Philippines?
The conflict in the Philippines has
cost you six hundred million dollars,
thousand of American soldfers-the
flower of your youth-the health and
sanity of thousands more. and hundreds
of thousands of Filipinos slain.
Another price we have paid the
suit of your practical craftsmanship
We have sold out the right, the old
American right to speak out the SYM
pathy which is in our hearts for peo-
pie who are desolate and oppressed ev-
eryWnere on the lace Oh the edTl1.
This war, If you will call it war, has
gone on for three years 1t will go on
in some form for three hundred years,
unless this policy is abandoned. You
will undoubtedly have times of peace
and quiet, or pretended submission.
You will buy men with titles, or office.
or salaries. You will intimidate cow
ards You will get pretended and
fawning submission. The land will
smile and seem at peace. But the vol
cano will be there. The lava will break
out again. You can never settle this
thing until you settle it right.
Gentlemen tell US that the Filipinos
are savages, that they have inflicted
torture, that they have dishonored our
dead and outraged the living. That
very likely may be true. Spain said
the same thing of the Cubans. We
have made the same charges against
our own countrymen in the disturbed
days after the war. The reports OF
committees and the evidence in the
documents in our library are full OF
them But who ever heard before OF
an American gentlemen, or an Ameri-
can, who took as a rule for his owr
conduct the conduct of his antagonist
or who claimed that the republic should
act as sayages because she had saw.
ages to deal with? l had supposed, Mr.
President. that the question, whether
a gentleman shall lie or murder or tor
ture, depended on his sense of his OWL
character, and not on his opinion of hi
victim. OF all the miserable sophistica
shifts which have attended thi
wretched business from the beginning
there is none more misera BILE than this
Mr.. President. this is the eternal Law
OF human nature. You may struggl
against it. you may try to escape ii
you may persuade yourself that you
intentions are benevolent. that you
yoke will be easy and your burden viii
be light. but it will assert itself a again
Government without the consent of tn
government-an authority which heav
en- gave-can only be supported b
means which heaven never can sane
ton.
The American people have got thi
one question to answer. Can you law
fully buy with money, or get by brut
force of arms, the right to hold in sub
jugation an unwilling people, and I
impose on them such constitution a
you, and not they, think best for them
We have answered this question a goo
many times in the past The father
answered it in 1876. and founded tn
republic upon their answer, which Ia
been the corner stone. John Quinc
Adams and James Monroe answered
again in the Monroe Doctrine. whic
John Quincy Adams declared was onl
the doctrine of the consent of the gov
erned.
The republican party answered
when ii took possession of the fore
of government at the beginning OF IN
most brilliant period of all legislativ
history Abraham Lincoln answered
when, on that fateful journey TO VAST