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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1899)
Conservative * ous doctrine to bo accepted by a self- governing people. Senator Foraker has told s that wo are not to keep the Philippines longer than is necessary to teach the people self-government. How one man can tell what wo aie to do before the constitutional authorities have decided it , I do not know. Per haps it is a detail of our now method of self-government. If his assurances are to bo trusted , wo are paying $20,000,000 for the privilege of tutoring the Tagals up to liberty and self-government. I do not believe that , if the United States un dertakes to govern the islands , it will over give them tip except to superior force , but the weakening of imperialism shown by this gentleman's assurances , after a few days of mild debate in the senate , shows that agitation of the sub ject is not yet in vain. Then again , if wo have done anything , especially if wo have acted precipitately , it is a well- recognized cours-e of prudent behavior to find out where \ve are , what wo have done , and what the new situation is into which wo have come. Then , too , we must remember that when the states man lays a thing down the historian takes it up , and ho will group it with historical parallels and contrasts. There is a set of men who have always been referred to , in our Northern states , , , , , for the last thirty T f iUorul Cowurdh. North ami south , pars , with especial - ial disapproval. They are those Southerners who , in 1801 , did not believe in secession , but , as they said , "went with their states. " They have been condemned for moral cowardice. Yet within a year it has become almost a doctrine with us that patriotism requires that wo should hold our tongues while our interests , our in stitutions , our most sacred traditions , and our best established maxims have been trampled under foot. There is no doubt that moral courage is the virtue which is more needed than any other in the modern democratic state , and that truckling to popularity is the worst po litical vice. The press , the platform , and the pulpit have all fallen under this vice , and there is evidence that the uni versity also , which ought to bo the last citadel of truth , is succumbing to it likowiso. I have no doubt that the con servative classes of this country will yet look back with great regret to their ac quiescence in the events of 1898 , and the doctrines and precedents which have been silently established. Let us be well assured that self-government is not a matter of flags and Fourth of July orations , nor yet of strife to got offices. Eternal vigilance is the price of that as of every other political good. The perpetuity of self-government de pends on the sound political sense of the people , and sound political sense is a matter of habit and practice. Wo can give it up , and we can take instead pomp and glory.- That is what Spain did. She had as much self-government as any country in Europe at the begin ning of the sixteenth century. The union of the smaller states into one big one gave an impulse to her national feeling and national development. The discovery of America put into her hands the control of immense territories. Na tional pride and ambition were stimu lated. Then came the struggle with France for world-dominion , which re sulted in absolute monarchy and bank ruptcy for Spain. She lost self-govern ment and saw her resources spent on interests which were foreign to her , but she could talk about an empire on which the sun never set , and bonst of her col onies , her gold mines , her fleets and armies , and debts. She had glory and pride , mixed , of course , with defeat and disaster , such as must be experienced by any nation on that course of policy , and she grew weaker in'her industry and commerc'o , and poorer in the status of the population all the time. She has never been able to recover real self-gov ernment yot. If wo Americans believe in self-government why do wo lot it slip away from us ? Why do we barter it away for militarj' glory as Spain did ? There is not a civilized nation which does not talk about its civilizing mist - . . , , sion just as grand- t lt . . _ Xutloiml Vanity. , , ly as wo do. The English , who i-eally have more to boast of in this respect than anybody else , talk least about it , but the Phariseeism with which they correct and instruct other people has made them hated all over the globe. The French believe themselves the guardians of the highest and purest culture , and that the eyes of all mankind are fixed on Paris , whence they expect oracles of thought and taste. The Germans regard them selves as charged with a mission , es pecially to us Americans , to save us from egoism and materialism. The Rus sians , in their books and newspapers , talk about the civilizing mission of Russia in language that might be trans lated from some of the finest paragraphs in our imperialistic newspapers. The first principle of Mohammedanism is that we Christians are dogs and infidels , fit only to be enslaved or butchered by Moslems. It is a corollary that wher ever Mohammedanism extends , it car ries , in the belief of its votaries , the highest blessings , and that the whole human race would be enormously ele vated if Mohammedanism should sup plant Christianity everywhere. To come last to Spain , the Spaniards have , for centuries , considered themselves the most zealous and self-sacrificing Christ ians , especially charged by the Almighty , on this account , to spread true religion and civilization over the globe. They think themselves free and noble , leaders in refinements and the sentiments of personal honor , and they despise us as sordid money-grabbers and heretics. I could bring you passages from penin sular authors of the first rank about the grand role of Spnin and Portugal in spreading freedom and truth. Now each nation laughs at all the others when it observes these manifesta tions of national International vanity. You may rely upon it that they are all ridiculous by virtue of these pretensions , including ourselves. The point is that each of them repudiates the standards of the others , and the out lying nations , which are to be civilized , hate all the standards of civilized men. Wo assume that what wo like and prac tise , and what wo think better , must come as a welcome blessing to Spanish- Americans and Filipinos. This is gross ly and obvioxisly untrue. They hate our ways. They are hostile to our ideas. Our religion , language , institutions and manners offend them. Thoj * like their own ways , and if we appear among them as rulers , there will bo social dis cord on all the great departments of social interest. The most important thing which wo shall inherit from the Spaniards will bo the task of suppres sing rebellious. If the United States takes out of the hands of Spain her mis sion , on the ground that Spain is not ex ecuting it well , and if this nation , in its turn , attempts to bo schoolmistress to others , it will shrivel up into the same vanity and self-conceit of which Spain now presents an example. To read our current literature one would think that we were already well on the way to it. Now , the great reason why all these en terprises which begin by saying to sonie- bodjr else : We know what is good for you , better than yon know yourself , and wo are going to make yon do it , are false and wrong , is that they violate liberty ; or , to turn the same statement into other words : the reason why lib erty , of which wo Americans talk so much , is a good thing , is that it means leaving people to live out their own lives in their own way , while we do the same. If we believe in liberty , as an American principle , why do wo not stand by it ? Why are we going to throw it away to enter upon a Spanish policy of dominion and regulation ? The United States connot bo a col onizing nation for a long time yet. We have only Population to the twonty.fchroe . por. Squiiro JHHo. . , , sons to the square mile in the United States without Alaska. The country can multiply its population by thirteen , that is , the population could rise above a billion , before the whole country would bo as densely populated as Rhode Island is now. There is , therefore , no pressure of population , which is the first condi tion of rational expansion , unless we could buy another territory like the Mis sissippi with no civilized population in it. If we could do that it would post pone the day of over-population still fur ther , and make easier conditions for our people in the next generations. In the f r