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The Commoner.
May 23, 190a
The Philippines Again.
(Continued from Pago 7.)
social conditions of the Mohammedan
tribes of Mindanao and which gratifies
them and has made them our friends
for two or three years, should be sot
aside because some army officer or
ome civilian trader wants" to seo
what the interior of their country is
like? Our primary concern with the
Moros is peace, and to the maintenance
of peace wo should lend every effort
and sacrifice every minor object.
Let us now dismiss the Moham
medans and their heathen neighbors
in the southern islands and turn to
the island of Samar, in the Visayan
group, and to the .province of Batan
gas in the island of Luzon. These
people, remember, are not savages, or
"Injuns," or barbarians. Tliey are
civilized Christians, and in the pro
vince qf Batangas, which lies just
south of Manila, the people, who are
quite prosperous, are above the aver
age of Filipinos in education and re
finement. Samar and Batangas were
the last active centers of the insurrec
tion, which is now completely quellect
according to our official reports. It
is here, if we may believe official dis
patches as well as telegraphic news,
that some .of our military authorities
have practiced Weyler's system of
reconcentration, resorted to oriental
methods of torture, turned Tiappy
homes into a howling wilderness, and
not only killed non-combatants, hut
murdered boys over ten years of age.
I state the alleged facts without
either exaggeration or palliation!
Would to heayen they were only a tis
sue of devilish inventions! But too
much has already been admitted to
leave any hope of appreciable abate
ment of the horror and the anguish
which have wrung the hearts of the
American people. War is hell indeed,
and in a sense-wehadf scarcely dreamt
of. I remember (alas, the pity of it!)
at the beginning of hostilities in the
Philippines, seeing cities where thou
sands of people dwelt together In
peace and prosperity utterly destroyed;
hut there was no murder, there was no
torture: there may even have been a
good military excuse, or the insurgents
themselves may have lighted the first
incendiary torch; and in all cases the
lives of non-combatants were sacrea,
GAS FACTORIES
In People "Who Do Not Ttnow Eow to Se
lect Food and Drink Properly.
On the coffee question a lady says,
4(I used to bo so miserable after break
fast that I did not know how to get
through the day. Life was a burden to
me. When I tried to sleep I was mis
erable by having horrible dreams fol
lowed by hours of wakefulness. Gas
would rise on my stomach and I would
belch almost continually. Then every
few weeks I would have a long siege
of sick headaches. I tried a list of
medicines and physicians without ben
efit. Finally I concluded to give up my
coffee and tea altogether and use
Postum Coffee. The first cup was a
failure. It was wishy-washy and I
offered to give the remainder of the
package to anyone who would take it.
I noticed later on in one of the
advertisements that Postum should be
boiled at least 15 minutes to make it
good. I asked the cook how she made
it and she said, 'Jus,t the same as I
did tea, being careful not to let it
steep too long.'
I read the directions and concluded
Postum had not had a fair trial, so we
made a new lot and boiled it 15 or 20
minutes. That time it came to the ta
ble a different beverage and was so
delicious that we have been using It
ever since.
My sick headaches left entirely as
did my sleepless nights, and I am now
a different woman." Name given by
Postum Co., Battle Greek, Mich.
and insurgent soldiers taken prison
ers were .well cared for in our pris
ons or tenderly nursed In our hospi
tals. But, as tho greatest observer
human nature has recorded, the hand
is subdued to what it works ln and
for our three years of hostility In the
Philippines the inevitable 'Nemises
now confronts us. This Is a world
where effect inexorably follows cause.
You cannot .have war without inhu
manity, and the practico of inhuman
ity deadens feeling and brutalizes
character. When it Is a race war,
particularly a war of Anglo-Saxons
against a colored race , tho white
man's moral deterioration is facili
tated by contempt, by arrogance and
by injustice. Most trulv wan it said
in 1898 that the question was not
what shall wo do with the Philippines,
but what will the Philippines do with
us.
This question we are now seeing
answered. On the other side of tho
globo, irritated by a bad climate, con
fronted by great difficulties and ex
posed to great temptations without tlu
home restraints that keep men steady,
galled and exasperated by the machin
ations of an elusive foe, whose color
and stature make it impossible for
the Anglo-Saxon to treat him with
respect, some Americans at least have
been guilty of conduct which evokes
the horror and detestation of man
kind. But if our cheeks burn with
patriotic shame, and our hearts quiver
with moral indignation, let tho bolt
strike not only the unhappy individ
uals, but the system and policy of
which they have been the victims.
What, I ask, do you want in the
Philippines? More particularly, why
in any part of Luzon and the Visayan
islands are you making a howling
wilderness and killing children over
ten years of age? It will be said that
these are the unhappy incidents of
war, which is always a stern affair,
very different from the holiday-making
into which civilians would turn
It. Be it so. Why, then, are we
making war? Here are 6,500,000 fel
low Christians of ours the only Chris
tian nation in Asia as highly civil
ized as most of the people of Central
and South America. What do we want
of them? We have never told them.
The treaty of Paris requires congress
to determine the civil rights and
political status of the inhabitants of
the Philippines. Congress has been
dumb. President Roosevelt, with his
noble instincts and straight-seeing
statesmanship, declared that we wer-i
to prepare them for liberty after the
fashion of the really free nations.
The period of tutelage should bo short,
because no nation can confer freedom
upon another, and the most we can do
for the Filipinos is to establish favor
able conditions and then endow them
with independence. This implies doing-in
the Philippines what we have
already done for Cuba, which this
month is to start as an independent
republic. But, in face of all this,
General Wharton says that the Fili
pinos must bo despotically governed,
like India and Java, and that any
one who advocates their independence
should be sent to prison. Congress
is silent, the military authorities whis
tle down the wind the humane ana en
lightened policy of the president, ana
the military authorities are the su
preme power and final arbiter in the
Philippines. Are tho American people,
then, the freest people on this earth,
the very flower and cnivalry of liberty,
shooting down Filipinos because Fili
pinos will not do what Americans
want, while all the time Filipinos are
endeavoring to ascertain, but cannot,
What it is Americans do want? Are
not your oriental wards entitled to
know how you Intend to dispose of
them before bidding you welcome to
their homes? If we have no policy,
let us say so and stop fighting. If we
have a policy, let us say so and it may
end all fighting. But to keep an army
of 40,000 or 50,000 American citizers
In Asia to fight for no policy Is at
once foolish and wicked.
It is said officially that the fighting
is over. But the commanding officers
agree with tho best newspaper report
ers that the Christian Filipinos are
everywhere against us. And the war
department has stated in confirmation
of this situation that tho retention of
a large army in tho Philippines Is in
dispensable. But if this be so, though
tho Insurrection may bo ended, tho
archipelago is as full of our enemies as
ever it was. You have governed them
against their will: behold tho result.
Shall we make of tho Philippines an
American Ireland an Ireland con
sumed with hatred for us, governed
by coorcion and bent on rebellion?
Thank God, there is a more excel
lent way. Drop coercion and try con
ciliation. Give the Filipinos what they
want, not what you think is good for
them. Regard them not as Sioux or
Apache Indians, but as Christianized
and civilized brown men, ranking with
the Japanese. General Otis said to
the senate committee that they could,
if we withdrew, at least maintain a
military government; and with tho
sedition law before you can you say
we are doing much better? Governor
Taft is reported as saying at New
Haven that, if we conferred indepen
dence upon them, power would fall
into the hands of the educated classes;
but is an intelligent oligarchy of Fili
pinos worse than an intelligent
oligarchy of Americans?
I was in Ireland last month when
the cities of Dublin and Cork con
ferred their freedom upon the leader
of the nationalist party. His speech
on those occasions was printed in full
in the newspapers, and one sentence
of it still rings in my ears. "There
are," he said, "only two methods of
government that of freedom and that
of force; and Ireland has shown for
centuries that the latter Is permanent
ly impossible." The remedy for our
Philippine ills is to substitute a gov
ernment by the consent of the Fili
pinos for a government by the coercion
of the Filipinos.
The Beef Trust.
However, it is noted with interest
that no republican statesman rises in
his place to move the abolition of
the tariff tax on live stock and meat
products. Attorney General Knox
meanwhile Is busy frying fat and fool
ing the folks who want to be fooled.
Johnstown Democrat.
What we most need is the beef
cure, with spring chickens and fresh
eggs oh the side. Memphis Morning
News.
The fight against the beef trust has
begun. In the meantime the full din
ner paU will be as meatless as ever.
Illinois State Register.
The department of agriculture takes
occasion at this time to give us the
comforting assurance that a diet of
grain is better than a diet of meat.
St Joseph Gazette.
Mr. Morgan is said to have received
$12,500,000 for his services in pro
moting the shipping combine. The
presumption is Mr. Morgan will feel
warranted in continuing the use of
meat a while longer than some of
the rest of us. Sioux City Journal.
Who would have thought when we
voted for the full dinner pail that wo
would be quitting meat for a month
under the full dinner pail policy?
Red Wing Argus.
Attorney General Crow has com
menced work upon the Investigation
of the beef trust. In this he has set
the pace for the national government's
investigation. While the latter is tell
ing what it intends to do Mr. Crow
commences actual work. Columbia
Herald.
Say, you workingman, don't you
see how the trust has cut down your
expenses of living? The price of meat
is now so high that you can't afford
to buy it, and look what you save In
money by doing without meat. Blessed
ENGAGED.
Marriage is very largely mi accident.
In few cases do men or women Get up a
standard of manly or wouinnly excellence
and choose by it. Jn most coses people
become engaged as the result of pro
pinquity rather than because of any deep
rooted prctcrence.
And so it often
happens that the
wire enters upon
the obligations of
maternity just as
thoughtlessly as
she entered onthc
marriage relation,
because no one
has warned her
of the dangers she
faces.
Thousands of
women become
invalids for lack
of knowledge of
themselves. It is
to this large body
of women that Dr.
Pierce's Favorite
Prescription
comes as a priceless boon, because it
cures womanly ills.
"Favorite Prescription" establishes
regularity, dries weakening drains, heals
inflammation and ulceration and cures
female weakness. It makes weak women
strong, sick women well.
After ray first child was born," writes Mrs,
Jordan Stout, of Fawcettgap, Fredericlc'Co., Va..
w ray health was very poor for a long lime, and
last winter I was so bad with pain down in back
I could hardly move without great suffering.
My husband got rac a bottle of Dr. Pierce's Fa
vorite Prescription and a vial of his ' Pleasant
Pellets,' which I used as directed. In four days
I was greatly relieved, and now, after using tnc
medicine three months. I seem to be entirely
well. X can't see why it is that there are sa
many Buffering women when there is such an
easy way to be cured. I know your medicines
are the best in the world."
Dr. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets the fa
vorite family laxative. One Pellet 9
laxative, two Pellets ' a cathartic dose,
be the benefits of tho private trusta
to the working people. Colorado
Chronicle.
1
A Democrat.
A democrat is one who supports
democratic principles and the demo
cratic candidates who embody them.
But all these men and most of those
who are calling for "rehabilitation"
did not support democratic principles
and the candidates embodying them,
either in 1896 or in 1900. On the con
traiy they supported republican prin
ciples and the candidates who em
bodied them. They supported William
McKinley and in so doing they mado
themselves in part responsible for a'
war of criminal aggression, for tho
abandonment of plain duty, for a pol
icy of benevolent assimilation through
forcible annexation, for the setting
up of slavery under the American flag,
for helping England to destroy two re
publics while we were engaged in de
stroying another, for the upbuilding of
the trusts and the exploitation of la-'
bor, for government by Injunction, for,
the suppression of free speech and tho.
adoption of sedition laws which would
disgrace Russia, for toadyism to roy-'
nlty and for all the long chapter oC
hypocrisy and false pretense which'
in the name of patriotism and religion'
we have written in blood and tears and
Iroken pledges during the past six
years. It is time for the Hills and tho
Carlisles and the Clevelands to go
away back and sit down. They long
figo ceased to command respect in tho
democratic party. And If they have
failed to gain it in the party to whoso
am and comfort they have so sedulous-
ly contributed, their fate Is the usual'
one of traitors to a cause. Johnstown
(Pa.) Democrat.
..'.
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