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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1899)
LZ.'L. . . The Conservative. TIIK UKAT , EXHMY IX TH13 I'HIT- II'I'IXES. Hordes of naked semi-savages , bravo , cunning , half-armed and undisciplined , nndcr cover of jungle , nnd never fight ing in the open , whoso numbers hnve never been counted , nro not the renl enemy which it is to bo costly in life nnd treasure to conquer in the Philippines. The sacrifices which war is certain to demand , if it is to bo prosecuted for any length of time , in killing what are now " " the oscillating flippantly called "rebels" by lating genius which presides over the daily destinies of The Brooklyn Eagle , for instance , are sure to be largo enough to satisfy in moderation the ravings and cravings of even the most advanced of our Christian statesmen. But the cost in American lives promises to bo far greater from the ravnges of those well- known diseases of the tropics from which the fighting heroes under Shaf ter at Santiago , escaped by the skin of their teeth. Other and nameless forms of dis- enso , deadly in a double sense , will contri bute , with assured certainty if the war is prolonged for the subjugation of the natives , which will multiply sufferings and slnughter to an incalculable degree. It is not Filipinos whom our gallant armies are to fight or fear in a conflict of arms. It would seem , even if this were otherwise , that the methods of modern warfare are impracticable in these islands in the absence of roadways upon which modern armies can move ; and the jungle is everywhere , into which the natives can hide , and from which , with the cunning in a savage warfare is peculiarly their own , they can , as they surely will , inflict continu ous losses upon our troops. The § 20,000,000 which our govern ment stipulated to pay for the purchase of the Philippine rebellion against Span ish rule is not worth mentioning as a burden to our people compared to what is sure to come in countless more mil lions in suppressing it , and should not bo mentioned at all in comparison with the certain loss of life and health to thousands of Americans from the death- breeding climate in which the war is to bo prosecuted. All for the uncertain nnd shamefully ignoble purpose of ex tending the trade of the United States that thrift may follow blood and slaugh ter upon a people whoso solo offense is that they are struggling to bo free. Regardless o f PACIFIC COAST partjr ties the people SEXTIMEXT. ple of the Pacific coast nro swiftly getting together in solid antagonism to the "beneficent as similation" of the Filipinos and other heathen exotics , by means of those Christian civilizers , fire and sword. The enormous cost which the main tenance of an army and navy in the Pacific Archipelago will saddle upon the people of the United States is more readily estimated and appreciated by ? ? V ' t * Californians than by Now Englanders and Now Yorkers Relatively the people ple of the Pacific const are much more enlightened upon the Philippine ques tion , the character of the islanders them selves , the products of the soil and the sanitary conditions than nro citizens east of the Rocky mountains. And the terrible loss of American lives which must como upon our army like an avalanche - lancho of death in the hot weather now drawing near , looms up to the eyes of these people in dreadful proportions. They know how deadly the fevers are and how impossible it will bo to save .soldiers , in the Philippines , who have been stricken unless permanent and wholesome hospitals are established at once. Even theii under the best care and management the death rate will bo appalling. The sons of this country who have been sacrificed and those who are yet to be offered up in behalf of "bono- ficient nssimilntion" were and are worth more to the world than nil the eleven million Filipinos together. The tropics never did niid the tropics never will con tribute those physical and intellectual forces which exalt and advance man kind. The races of humanity are largely reflexes of soil and climate. The cli mate of the Northern countries compels efforts. Life can only be sustained against the rigors of winter by active , persistent labor. The overcoats in Nebraska and the Dakotas cost more work , more mental and manual effort , than all the clothing of all the islanders over whom wo are now trying to extend a system of civili sation and government entirely una- dnpted to them and the climate and soil of their latitudes. There Nature with generous sponta neity furnishes foods without effort upon the part of the consumers ; and clothing is made of warm air and sun shine , which need no running of looms and shuttles other than those which are moved by the viewless fingers of the wind. The islanders are as different from Americans as are palms from oaks , and palms die if given the soil nnd climate - mate which make the oak strong nnd hardy , durable and valuable. And the oak cannot bo grafted onto the palm. But the two trees could bo hybridized just as successfully as can be the two races or the two forms of civilization and government. The American people will bo taxed two hundred to three hundred millions of dollars each ] -XpClhCK. year for the pur pose of Christianizing , by gunpowder , and compelling "the consent of the gov erned" at the point of the bayonet in those far-away abodes of the heathen. And there may como corruption of the blood from this military invasion and occupation which will put a pagan as similation by the conquered upon the victors and make generations yet to como curse the stupidity of that statesmau- ship which was too vain to stay at homo , nnd too weak , insincere nnd near-sighted for invasion. The Anglo-Saxons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain , who have experienced the evils of corruption of the blood , which has como to them from insular and other dependencies in the tropics , are amazed at the temerity with which Americans seem willing to let go of the safe doctrines and tradi tions received from their forbears and to make political and social contacts which are poisonous and revolting filled with loathsomeness. The financial fallacy of expansion and annexation of powder-and-ball-civiliza- , , , tion and smokeless Exiii'iiso of Health. , , . , gunpowder philan thropy is rectitude , economy and wis dom compared to the reckless chances for the corruption of the blood which the McKinley and Algerine style of pub lic functionaries now delight in defying. The future of these pseudo philanthrop ists ought to bo , and will bo , no doubt , badly pitted with the pustulur marks of the era of philo-Philippinoism. The expenses in wealth will be fabul ous , if the United States holds and gov erns for a term of years. But the ex penses in national health will bo beyond estimation. Money thrown away maybe bo recovered but health destroyed by corruption of the blood is an irretrievable , irreparable and eternal loss. AX UXKXOWX I.OXGITUDIXAl. IIXE. In the benighted times when the first settlement of this trans-Missouri country by white men began , the line of its suc cessful occupation was laid down by their incredulity along a strip of land not much wider than that which com prises the river tier of counties. In fact , uplands were generally excluded as be ing the next thing to barrens , and it was mainly to bench lands nnd bottom lands along small streams nnd rivers that the soil for successful cultivation was re stricted , in the public opinion of four and forty years ago. The longitudinal line underwent n gradual march to the westward by the agency of individual enterprise until the grazing-lands were encountered and invaded , followed by a reaction , abandonment , and much loss and suffering to the reputation of the state at large as an agricultural region , and to the resolute men who undertook the conquest. THE CONSERVATIVE was recently asked by n prominent citizen of Hastings at what point it would now draw the line of longitude beyond which agricultural industry could not bo profitably prose cuted. Its momentary representative declined to attempt to locate that abso lutely unknown line of longitude. If Dawson , Adams , Buffalo and other counties' , can beat the world on wheat independently of irrigation , who would venture to locate it on this side of the foothills of the Rocky mountains ?
