The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1913-12-05

command us, as we'll as our con-
sciences, there stand out our obliga-
tions toward our territories over sea.
Here we are trustees. Porto Rico,
Hawaii, the Philippines, are ours, in
deed, but not ours to do what we
please with. Such territories, once
regarded as mere possessions, are no
longer to be selfishly exploited; they
are part of the domain of public con-
science and of serviceable and en-
lightened craftsmanship. We must
administer them for the people who
live in them and with the same sense
of responsibility TO them as toward
our own people in our domestic
affairs. No doubt we shall success
fully enough bind Porto Rico and the
Hawaiian Islands to ourselves by ties
of Justice and interest and affection,
but the performance of our duty to-
ward the Philippines is a more diff
cult and debatable matter. We can
satisfy the obligations of generous
justice toward the people of Porto
Rico by giving them the ample and
familiar rights and privileges accord
ed our own citizens in our own terri
tories and our obligations toward the
people of Hawaii by perfecting the
provisions for self-government al
Philippines we must go further. We
must move toward the time of the in
dependence as steadily as the way can
be cleared and the foundations
thoughtfully and permanently laid.
Acting under the authority con-
ferred upon the President by Con-
gress. l have already accorded the
people of the islands a majority in
both houses OF their legislative body
by appointing five instead Of four
native citizens to the membership Of
the commission. l believe that in
this way we shall make proof of their
capacity to counsel and their sense
of responsibility in the exercise of
political power, and that the success
Of this step will b esure to clear our
view for the steps which are to fol-
low. Step by step we should extend
and perfect the system Of sclf-gov-
ernment in the islands, making test
of them and modifying them as ex-
perience discloses their successes and
their failures; that we should more
and more put under the control of
the native citizens Of the archipelago
the essential instruments Of their life,
their local inStrumentalities of gov
ernment, their schools, all the COM
mon interests Of their communities,
and so by counsel and experience set
up a government which all the world
will see to be suitable to n people
whose affairs are under their own
! control. At last, 1 hope and believe,
we are beginning to gain the conf
! dence of the Filipino peoples. BY
their counsel and experience, rather
! than by our own, we shall learn how
best to serve them and how soon II
will be possible and wise to withdraw
our supervision. Let us once find
the path and set out with firm and
confident tread upon it, and we shall
not wander from 1t or linger upon It.
DUTY TO ALASKA.
A duty faces us with regard to
Alaska, which seems to me- very
pressing and very imperative-per-
haps | should say a double duty, for
it concerns both the political and the
material development OF the terri
tory. TIE people Of Alaska should be
given the full territorial form of gov
ernment, and Alaska, as a store house
should be unlocked. One step t oil
is a system OF railways. These the
government should itself build and