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-Ill'
The Commoner
Vol.i; No. 13.
Lincoln, Nebraska, April 19, 1901.
Not Ingratitude, But Caution.
The Spanish War Journal 'accuses the Cu
bans of ingratitude and its language would in
dicate that it is anxious for the .Cubans to give,
this nation an excuse for whipping them. It
says:
It would bo hard to find a peoplo as ungrateful
and unworthy of respect as the Cubans. They are
a contemptible lot of curs. After all the Americans
have done for them, the lives we gave up for them and
the suffering we endured for their sake, they want to
turn us out of Cuba without any rights whatever,
not even a coaling station. Those of us who served
in Cuba know thom. I hope that when the time
comes for us to "lick" thom for good and all the
United States will allow the Spanish War Veterans
to go there in a body and finish the task. When we
whipped the Spaniards in Cuba, we did the work
only half, for we ought to have licked the Cubans "to
boot." They should be wiped off the earth. They
all want office and to live fat and do nothing.
. It is hardly fair to accuse the Cubans of in
gratitude, when the administration lias given
such uninistakeable evidence of a desire to re
pudiate the pledge made at the beginning of
the, war. Men who fought many years for f rec
dbmiandciulurfidfcejv their efforts to secure if, ought "to WBBSHWitlr
as patriots and not as renegades.
" The republican party is to blame for the
fact that the Cubans entertain suspicions as to
our intentions. Nothing has been demanded
as a matter of right that would not, in all probr
ability, have been conceded as a matter of fa
vor. There is no danger that the Cuban peo
ple will ever desire to surrender their indepen
dence to an European nation and- if they do atr
tempt it the Monroe doctrine can be invoked
to prevent it. If the administration had so
acted as to convince the Cubans that they were
to have their independence without unnecessary
delay they would out of gratitude have- con-'
sented to our occupancy of any necessary na
val, stations. But if they have reasons to fear
aggression from us, is it strange that they de
cline to give us a foot hold on their island?
"When they see the Porto Ricans denied the
representation which they had under Spain;
when they see the Filipinos hunted through
jungles because they want to govern them
selves; and when they read the utterances of
men like Senator Bcveridge, and editorials like
the one above quoted, is it surprising that they
decline to trust the American people? It is
not ingratitude, it is simply caution born of ex
perience with an old master and observation of
a (possible) new one.
Was Aguinaldo a Rebel?
- .A' .reader asks whether Aguinaldo was a
rebel. That is a matter of opinion. A rebel is
defined by, Webster to be "one who revolts
from the government to which he owes
allegiance.1' Did Aguinaldo owe allegiance to
the United States? .Those who believe that
this nation could buy sovereignty over the
Filipinos believe that, sovereignty having been
bought, Aguinaldo owed allegiance to this
country, and was, therefore, a rebel in making
war against it.
Those who believe, with Tim Commoxkk,
Hint sovereignty could not be bought, and that
Spain could not transfer title to the Filip
inos, deny that the Filipinos owed us allegiance,
and, therefore, deny that Aguinaldo, and his
followers stood in the attitude of rebels.
"A Legislative Lie."
The Chicago llecord-IIcrald reproduces
from the Congressional Record a dialogue
which took place between Senators Hale and
Spooner:
Mr. Hale I am profoundly impressed and pro
foundly depressed by the fact that I find in hun
dreds of quarters a determination that we shall
never withdraw from Cuba, but shall retain her as
a possession of the'IJnited States.
- 'm$tfoBp&ti&t will Ihwer. tul'iToutrnfyrfr
$1.00 a Year
' " r, i-i'i'ih1 " ,,,,,. '.aim i"i ' r
Government money in the ordinary course of their
banking business. It costs them nothing, and
they can loan it, out to their best advantage.
For example, there arc forty-four national
banks In Now York City. The favored banks,
with their deposits, are:
Chase $ 1,738,500.00
Hanover 4,975,695.00
Mercantile 575,G50.00
National Bank of Commerce 2,757,807.10
National Bank of North America.... 717,075.00
National Bank of the Republic 784,000.00
Nutional City. (Standard Oil) Bank.. 14,490,500.00
Western National 1,050,053.00
W
Watterson on Destiny.
In a recent issue of the Courier-Iourim1j$Ifc
Watterson, that quaint and always interesting
journalist, advises his party to raise the white
ilag and surrender to the republican party on
the question of imperialism. lie does not
announce that he is convinced of the righteous
ness of the republican position, but he excuses
himself by assuming that it is impossible to
combat the forces which seem to be behind the
republican party:' He admits that imperialism
4 - v ;
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from Maine that any man in any cou
point to the Teller resolution and say with
that it was a legislative lie.
Mr. Hale I hope so. . '
Mr. Spooner The senator need not hope so;
he had better know so.
Mr. Hale I do not know.
Mr. Spooner Well, he ought to know.
It is interesting, in the light of passing
events., to recall the skepticism of the senator
from Maine and the confidence of the senator
from Wisconsin.
The only comment that the Record-Herald
- adds but it is enough is, "And now we
know that the Piatt amendment has made of
the resolutions of April 2(Tth, 1898, "a legisla
tive lie.'"
W
Favored Banks.
The New York World charges that favored
banks have in their coffers nearly ninety mil
lion dollars of government money, loaned to
them by the treasury department without in
terest and loaned out by these banks at their
established rates of discount.
The World shows that at the last report the
favored national banks of the United States,
designated as
United States depositories, had ?87,992,
782 of Government money, on which they were
asked to pay no interest and for wh'.ii they had
merely to ma the favor of the Secret. y of the
Treasury aJBUeposit with him government bonds
to the amjK of the sums deposited by him in
the varlougHpks.
These gBiiment bonds bear interest, which
the owners coSpt. They are permitted to use the
lent! is airinn ovation upon Americairprinciples and
nu-ywjean antagonistic to .me, tcacnmgs oi'fuo eni;ijoEqfe
truth' -statesmen. Here -are his words: ' .?
Let us say at once that the scheme cf occupy
ing a territory remote from our borders, of sub
duing a people alien to our character and institu
tions and of undertaking a system of colonial gov
ernment over this territory and these peoples vItli-;
out their consent and apparently in opposition to
their will is not merely a serious innovation upon
the original plan embodied by the Constitution of
the United States, and contemplated by the aiitnors
o that Constitution, but that it 's repugnant to
the prudent counsels delivereu by the wisest oi! .
our older statesmen, to say nothing about the
teaching of history.
After a brief review of the past one
hundred years, he accepts the republican doc-.
trine of Providence and says:
God moves In a mysterious way His wonders
to perform. He made the Spanish war. He was
not less behind Dewey in Manila than He was be
hind Shatter and Sampson and Schley at Santiago.
What was His all-wise purpose? We know not
But there we were and there ve are; and nothing
is surer in the future than that we shall be there
a century hence unless some power turns up
strong enough to drive us out. Instead, therefore,
of discussing the abstraction of imperialism, il-
lustrated by the rights and wrongs of the Philip
pines, Mr. Bryan were more profitably engaged in
considering how we may -best administer posses
sions, which, for good or for qvil, are with us to
stay.
It will be noticed that he adopts the
republican: theory that God is responsible for
what we have done; that it is a matter of des
tiny, and that we arc being swept along by
influences over which we have no control.
The doctrine, enunciated by the republicans
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