The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-02-22
From Dewey to Persnlng.

Gridley.o These were the words
which signalized the beginning Of the
battle of Manila Bay, uttered by Ad-
miral George Dewey, who passed away
January 16, 1917. George Dewey won
honor for himself, glory for his COM
mand, and the respect of foreign coun-
cries for the United States, In the ma
val engagement which took place off
Cavite, April 80, 1898. His oyerwhelm-
ing defeat of the Spanish fleet marked
the entrance of this country into ac-
tive participation in the affairs of the
Far East, having sacrificed blood and
treasure that two weak nations might
be rescued from the tyranny of coun-
try whose colonial policy harked back
to the seventeenth century. And we
entered the far eastern arena without
fear and without reproaeh.
We found a population made up of
two-score tribes, most of them cut off
from civilizing influences by noun
tains, forests, rivers, and a Babel of
tongues. They were without cohesion,
and with no idea of government. They
had been plundered to the point of
poverty and they hated the white man
with a deadly virulence. y
Dewey lived to see that small nation
instructed in the A B C's of govern
ment according to the. concepts of the
most enlightened government ON earth.
He saw schools spring up like mush-
rooms and hundreds of American men
and women teaching the young idea
the proper way to shoot. He saw the
fertile areas Of the Philippines made
accessible by good roads ascending
mountains, winding through valleys,
and crossing rivers over Yankee bridg-
es. A railroad unlocked the stores of
the great Cagayan Valley. Harbors
and docks, the envy of the Orient, be-
came crowded with ships transporting
the products of the Philippines to all
the world and bringing back the prod
uets of the Philippines to all the world
and bringing back the products of
western civilization. Asiatic diseases
were swept into the sea. Laws were
enacted preventing selfish exploitation
that the Filipino might have his just
share in the fruits of his land and toll.
We had never before had colonial pos
sessions, so we made mistakes, and ex-
perienced discouragements, butt we
were sincere and that is why we were
successful.
The Filipino saw these things and
they were good. He tucked his shirt
inside his pants, laced up a stubtoed
pair of American shoes, spit on his
hands, aAd went to work, by hecki of
his own free will, thing the Spanish
government had not been able to bring
about In three and half centuries,
except at the muzzle of a gun. The
Benguet head-hunter chucked his mum
mified skulls and began to hunt the
head that is found on an American
dollar. The Moro fanatic quit running
amuck, sharpened his barong and went
to cutting hemp. The nimble fingers
of the Visayan were turned from pill
fering to the weaving of fairy gossa-
mers for the bellies of this grand old
ball. The great American game was
played from Apart to Zamboanga.
The roads and the rails had bound the
tribes into cooperating whole. The
harbors and docks allowed them to
dc 4b1
Baseball and the sturdy English tongue
gave them health and directness of
speech, And all this was accomplished
under the guidance of political party
whose record for constructiveness will
never be approached until that party
is restored to power.
Probably to his disgust, Dewey lived
to see the splendid muscles of this ma
ton grow fiaccid under the most effem-
mate administration we have ever
known, and the conscience of the coun-
try become sodden with political OPT
ates. Among the powers of the world
we bear the contempt accorded drug
addict, and 'Elaisser faire'' is our mot.
to. The opportunity which was Dew
ey's will never become Pershing s.
The you may fire when you are
ready" of 1898 is the "too proud to
| fight of 1917. The watchful wait.
ing' of today is the never-readiness
of the morrow. Dewey was an intense
patriot The times had grown so de.
generate that for him death had no
sting.
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| The highest tfihute that any one h. s