drive out capital, make life and property, munication will furnish market to vast secular and religious, most insecure; stretches of rich agricultural lands." banish by fear of cruel proscription con- They report that there are " calls from all siderable body of conservative Filipinos parts of the islands for public schools, who have aided Americans in well-founded school supplies, and English teachers belief that their people are not now fit for self-government, and reintroduce same oppression and corruption which existed in all provinces under Malolos insurgent government during the eight months of its control. The result will be factional strife between jealous leaders, chaos and anarchy, and will require and justify active intervention of our government or some other. . .

...

greater than the commission can provide until a comprehensive school system is organized. Night schools for teaching English to adults are being established in response to popular demand. Native children show aptitude in learning English. Spanish is spoken by a small fraction of people, and in a few years the medium of communication in the courts, public offices, and between different tribes will

“Business, interrupted by war, much be English; creation of central governimproved as peace extends. In Ne- ment within eighteen months, under which gros more sugar in cultivation than ever substantially all rights described in the before. New forestry regulations give bill of rights in the federal Constitution impetus to timber trade, and reduce high are to be secured to the people of the price of lumber. The customs collections Philippines, will bring to them contentfor the last quarter 50 per cent. greater ment, prosperity, education, and political than ever in Spanish history, and August enlightenment." collections show further increase. The total No Alliance with Natives.-This shows revenue for same period one-third greater to my countrymen what has been and is than in any quarter under Spain, though being done to bring the benefits of liberty cedula tax, chief source of Spanish rev- and good government to these wards of enue, practically abolished. Economy and the nation. Every effort has been directed efficiency of military government have to their peace and prosperity, their adcreated surplus fund of $6,000,000, which vancement and well-being, not for our should be expended in much-needed public aggrandizement nor for pride of might, works, notably improvement of Manila Harbor. . . With proper tariff and facilities, Manila will become great port of Orient."

Philippines' Bright Outlook.-The commission is confident that "by a judicious customs law, reasonable land tax, and proper corporation franchise tax, imposition of no greater rate than that in an average American State will give less annoyance, and with peace will produce revenues sufficient to pay expenses of efficient government, including militia and constabulary.” They "are preparing a stringent civil service law, giving equal opportunity to Filipinos and Americans, with preference for the former where qualifications are equal, to enter at lowest rank, and by promotion reach head of department.

not for trade or commerce, not for exploitation, but for humanity and civilization, and for the protection of the vast majority of the population who welcome our sovereignty against the designing minority whose first demand after the surrender of Manila by the Spanish army was to enter the city that they might loot it and destroy those not in sympathy with their selfish and treacherous designs.

Nobody who will avail himself of the facts will longer hold that there was any alliance between our soldiers and the insurgents, or that any promise of independence was made to them. Long before their leader had reached Manila they had resolved if the commander of the American army would give them arms with which to fight the Spanish army they would later Forty-five miles of railroad ex- turn upon us, which they did murderously tension under negotiation will give access and without the shadow of cause or justo a large province rich in valuable min- tification. There may be those without erals, a mile high, with strictly temperate the means of full information who believe climate. . . . Railroad construction will that we were in alliance with the insurgive employment to many, the com- gents and that we assured them that they

"When the city of Manila was taken, Aug. 13, the Filipinos took no part in the attack, but came following in with a view to looting the city, and were only prevented from doing so by our forces preventing them from entering. Aguinaldo claimed that he had the right to occupy the city; he demanded of General Merritt the palace of Malacanan for himself and the cession of all the churches of Manila, also that a part of the money There has been no time since the detaken from the Spaniards as spoils of struction of the enemy's fleet when we war should be given up, and, above all, could or should have left the Philippine

Archipelago. After the treaty of peace made. It is our purpose to establish in was ratified no power but Congress could the Philippines a government suitable surrender our sovereignty or alienate a foot of the territory thus acquired. The Congress has not seen fit to do the one or the other, and the President had no authority to do either, if he had been so inclined, which he was not. So long as the sovereignty remains in us it is the duty of the executive, whoever he may be, to uphold that sovereignty, and if it be attacked to suppress its assailants. Would our political adversaries do less?

to the wants and conditions of the inhabitants, and to prepare them for selfgovernment, and to give them self-government when they are ready for it and as rapidly as they are ready for it. That I am aiming to do under my constitutional authority, and will continue to do until Congress shall determine the political status of the inhabitants of the archipelago.

Democrats are Responsible.-Are our Tagals took the Offensive.-It has been opponents against the treaty? If so, they asserted that there would have been no must be reminded that it could not have fighting in the Philippines if Congress had been ratified in the Senate but for their declared its purpose to give independence assistance. The Senate which ratified the to the Tagal insurgents. The insurgents treaty and the Congress which added its did not wait for the action of Congress. sanction by a large appropriation comThey assumed the offensive; they opened prised Senators and Representatives of fire on our army. Those who assert our the people of all parties. responsibility for the beginning of the conflict have forgotten that before the treaty was ratified in the Senate, and while it was being debated in that body, and while the Bacon resolution was under discussion, on Feb. 4, 1899, the insurgents attacked the American army, after being previously advised that the American forces were under orders not to fire upon them except in defence. The papers found in the recently captured archives of the insurgents demonstrate that this attack had been carefully planned for weeks before it occurred. Their unprovoked assault upon our soldiers at a time when the Senate was deliberating upon the treaty shows that no action on our part except surrender and abandonment would have prevented the fighting, and leaves no doubt in any fair mind of where the responsibility rests for the shedding of American blood.

Would our opponents surrender to the insurgents, abandon our sovereignty, or cede it to them? If that be not their. purpose then it should be promptly disclaimed, for only evil can result from the hopes raised by our opponents in the minds of the Filipinos that, with their success at the polls in November, there will be a withdrawal of our army and of American sovereignty over the archipelago, the complete independence of the Tagalog people recognized, and the powers of government over all the other peoples of the archipelago conferred upon the Tagalog leaders.

The effect of a belief in the minds of the insurgents that this will be done has already prolonged the rebellion, and increases the necessity for the continuance of a large army. It is now delaying full peace in the archipelago and the establishment of civil governments, and has inWith all the exaggerated phrase-mak- fluenced many of the insurgents against ing of this electoral contest we are in accepting the liberal terms of amnesty ofdanger of being diverted from the real fered by General MacArthur under my contention. We are in agreement with all direction. But for these false hopes a conof those who supported the war with siderable reduction could have been had Spain, and also with those who counselled in our military establishment in the Philthe ratification of the treaty of peace. ippines, and the realization of a stable Upon these two great essential steps there government would be already at hand. can be no issue, and out of these came The American people are asked by our all of our responsibilities. If others would opponents to yield the sovereignty of the shirk the obligations imposed by the war United States in the Philippines to a and the treaty, we must decline to act small fraction of the population, a single further with them, and here the issue was tribe out of eighty or more inhabiting

the archipelago, a fraction which wanton- upon the government, only changing the

relation from principal, which now exists, to that of surety. Our responsibility is to remain, but our power is to be diminished. Our obligation is to be no less, but our title is to be surrendered to another power, which is without experience or training or the ability to maintain a stable government at home, and absolutely helpless to perform its international obligations with the rest of the world. To this we are opposed. We should not yield

ly attacked the American troops in Manila while in rightful possession under the protocol with Spain, awaiting the ratification of the treaty of peace by the Senate, and which has since been in active, open rebellion against the United States. We are asked to transfer our sovereignty to a small minority in the islands with out consulting the majority, and to abandon the largest portion of the population, which has been loyal to us, to the cruelties of the guerilla insurgent bands. More our title while our obligations last. In than this, we are asked to protect this minority in establishing a government, and to this end repress all opposition of the majority. We are required to set up a stable government in the interest of those who have assailed our sovereignty and fired upon our soldiers, and then maintain it at any cost or sacrifice against its enemies within and against those having ambitious designs from without.

Democrats want Militarism. This would require an army and navy far larger than is now maintained in the Philippines, and still more in excess of what will be necessary with the full recognition of our sovereignty. A military support of authority not our own, as thus proposed, is the very essence of militarism, which our opponents in their platform oppose, but which by their policy would of necessity be established in its most offensive form.

The American people will not make the murderers of our soldiers the agents of the republic to convey the blessing of liberty and order to the Philippines. They will not make them the builders of the new commonwealth. Such a course would be a betrayal of our sacred obligations to the peaceful Filipinos, and would place at the mercy of dangerous adventurers the lives and property of the natives and the foreigners. It would make possible and easy the commission of such atrocities as were secretly planned, to be executed on Feb. 22, 1899, in the city of Manila, when only the vigilance of our army prevented the attempt to assassinate our soldiers and all foreigners and pillage and destroy the city and its surroundings.

In short, the proposition of those opposed to us is to continue all the obligations in the Philippines which now rest

the language of our platform, "Our authority should not be less than our responsibility," and our present responsibility is to establish our authority in every part of the islands.

Sovereignty is Essential.-No government can so certainly preserve the peace, restore public order, establish law, justice, and stable conditions as ours. Neither Congress nor the executive can establish a stable government in these islands except under our right of sovereignty, our authority, and our flag. And this we are doing. We could not do it as a protectorate power so completely or so successfully as we are doing it now. As the sovereign power we can initiate action and shape means to ends, and guide the Filipinos to self-development and self-government. As a protectorate power we could not initiate action, but would be compelled to follow and uphold a people with no capacity yet to go alone. In the one case, we can protect both ourselves and the Filipinos from being involved in dangercus complications; in the other, we could not protect even the Filipinos until after their trouble had come.

Besides, if we cannot establish any government of our own without the consent of the governed, as our opponents contend, then we could not establish a stable government for them or make ours a protectorate without the like consent, and neither the majority of the people nor a minority of the people have invited us to assume it. We could not maintain a protectorate even with the consent of the governed without giving provocation for conflicts and possibly costly wars. Our rights in the Philippines are now free from outside interference, and will continue so in our present relation. They would not

be thus free in any other relation. We rock upon which the Republican party will not give up our own to guarantee was builded and now rests. Liberty is another sovereignty. the great Republican doctrine, for which American Title is Good.-Our title is the people went to war, and for which a good. Our peace commissioners believed million lives were offered and billions of they were receiving a good title when they dollars were expended to make it a lawconcluded the treaty. The executive be- ful legacy of all without the consent of lieved it was a good title when he sub- master or slave. There is a strain of mitted it to the Senate of the United ill-concealed hypocrisy in the anxiety to States for its ratification. The Senate extend the constitutional guarantees to believed it was a good title when they the people of the Philippines, while their gave it their constitutional assent, and nullification is openly advocated at the Congress seem not to have doubted home. its completeness when they appropriated $20,000,000 provided by the treaty. If any who favored its ratification believed it gave us a bad title, they were not sincere. Our title is practically identical with that under which we hold our territory acquired since the beginning of the government, and under which we have exercised full sovereignty and established government for the inhabitants.

Our opponents may distrust themselves, but they have no right to discredit the good faith and patriotism of the majority of the people, who are opposed to them; they may fear the worst form of imperialism with the helpless Filipinos. in their hands, but if they do, it is because they have parted with the spirit and faith of the fathers and have lost the virility of the founders of the party which they profess to represent.

The Republican party doesn't have to assert its devotion to the Declaration of

It is worthy of note that no one outside of the United States disputes the fulness and integrity of the cession. What, then, is the real issue on this subject? Independence. That immortal instrument Whether it is paramount to any other or not, it is whether we shall be responsible for the government of the Philippines with the sovereignty and authority which enable us to guide them to regulated liberty, law, safety, and progress, or whether we shall be responsible for the forcible and arbitrary government of a minority with out sovereignty and authority on our part, and with only the embarrassment of a protectorate which draws us into their troubles without the power of preventing them.

There were those who two years ago were rushing us up to war with Spain who are unwilling now to accept its clear consequence, as there are those among us who advocated the ratification of the treaty of peace, but now protest against its obligations. Nations which go to war must be prepared to accept its resultant obligations, and when they make treaties must keep them.

of the fathers remained unexecuted until the people, under the lead of the Republican party in the awful clash of battle, turned its promises into fulfilment. It wrote into the Constitution the amend ments guaranteeing political equality to American citizenship, and it has never broken them or counselled others in breaking them. It will not be guided in its conduct by one set of principles at home and another set in the new territory belonging to the United States.

If our opponents would only practise as well as preach the doctrines of Abraham Lincoln, there would be no fear for the safety of our institutions at home or their rightful influence in any territory over which our flag floats. Empire has been expelled from Porto Rico and the Philippines by American freemen. The flag of the republic now floats over these islands as an emblem of rightful sovereignty. Will the republic stay and disThe Administration's Purpose. - Those pense to their inhabitants the blessings who profess to distrust the liberal and of liberty, education, and free institutions, honorable purposes of the administration or steal away, leaving them to anarchy in its treatment of the Philippines are or imperialism?

not justified. Imperialism has no place The American question is between duty in its creed or conduct. Freedom is a and desertion-the American verdict will