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 ?
