"Che Conservative.
TlIE CONSEUVA-
PACIFIC COAST ,
T1V ] rccently gave
SENTIMENT. . . , , .
its renders an arti
cle as to the character of public opinion ,
relative to the Philippine question , held
by citizens and newspapers of the Pa
cific coast. A late number of The Ar
gonaut , which is by far the most gener
ally read of any weekly periodical pub
lished in California , contains the follow
ing :
"The press of the country is becoming
more and more impatient over the pres
ident's policy of
IMcKlnlcy'H PolIcy -
Icy of Urlft. drift. It is charged
that McKinley
himself is responsible for the present
situation in the Philippines. It is
charged that his policy of no-policy has
promoted intrigues , given the Filipinos
a wrong idea of American government ,
and incited insurrection among them.
We quote a few comments from papers
in different sections of the country.
The New York Herald says :
President McKinley's miserable in
firmity of purpose is responsible for the
ridiculous position wo occupy in the
Philippines today held at bay and our
authority defied by a motley horde of
the lowest type of Filipinos. * * *
Only a firm and decisive assertion of the
authority and power of our govern
ment can save the islands from anarchy ,
save our own dignity , and avert the
danger of friction with other powers.
But what is the president doing ? As
ever a wabbling opportunist , ho is shirk
ing his responsibilities and again throw
ing down the reins. Instead of grappling
with the situation like a man he is ap
pointing a commission to make at this
late day the slow and tedious voyage to
the Philippines. * * * "What this
country needs at the present juncture is
not a commission but an executive.
The Portland Oregouian thinks , too ,
that the president has waited long
enough :
Mr. MeKinley may complain , and
justly , of the senate , but the situation
we are in is a natural outgrowth of the
administration's policy of drift. There
is a time to wait , but there is a time to
act. No one knew this better that Lin
coln , with whom McKinley's obsequious
admirers are fond of comparing him.
McKinley had to be pushed on to the
St. Louis platform. Giign had to drag
him on to the currency-reform program.
He wns finally forced into the war with
Spain , and the tide of public opinion ,
not his own convictions , swept him on
to the retention of the Philippines. The
administration adopted a waiting policy
regarding the Philippines , and it is still
waiting.
The Boston Beacon says that the weak
policy is the policy of evasion and con
cealment :
If our purpose be not to make the Fil
ipinos a subject people , what good rea
son exists for its concealment ? If the
president , on the other hand , contem
plates forcible occupation and permanent
possession , the country should be in
formed of his intentions.
In the South the Savannah News
voices the growing dissatisfaction with
McKinley's waiting policy :
The fact that the administration says
nothing seems to justify the conclusion
that the administration is afraid to have
its Philippine policy made known.
When a political party is afraid to trust
the people it is time for the people to
consider whether or not it can safely
trust that party.
The Springfield Republican unbosoms
itself thus :
The American people may well arise
from their bewilderment at this point
and ask that if the president of the
United States has a policy he state it ,
that if he has definite intentions ho de
clare them. So much in the way of
elucidation is due imperialists and anti-
imperialists alike. If the president does
not intend to hold the Philippines , ex
cept for a temporary period , surely the
commercial expansionists would like to
know it. "
SELF-GOVERNMENT , /ince the year
18GO corruption
in American politics seems to have very
materially increased. Money has been
used in elections during the last thirty
years , by all parties , to an extent which
alarms and shocks the moral sense of
every thoughtful lover of his country.
In some states , ballots have become
almost as much a commodity as postage
stamps , and legislators and others in pub
lic places both state and national are
too frequently proved to be governed by
something else than patriotic motives.
Affairs today are so shaping themselves ,
politically , that it will soon seem almost
impossible for a poor and pure man to
legitimately enter the public service of
this country. Extravagance in the cost
of local government and in disburse
ments by the national government has
grown to such gigantic proportions that
the American people have apparently
lost all recollection of the frugality and
honesty which founded and , in the early
days , administered this plain republic.
Local taxation in nearly all the cities ,
counties , and states of the American
Union has become so enormous that to
pay the fixed charges of citizenship re
quires an individual earning capacity
equal to that which a half century ago
would have maintained the entire home
and household. The sooner we begin to
vote against bonded indebtedness of all
sorts to pay as we go , and to return to
the economical and careful methods of
our ancestors the better it will be for
us and our descendants. In fact , the
sooner every part and parcel of the local ,
state and national governments begin a
system of rigid economy in administra
tion , the more possible the prosperity
and perpetuity of the government.
Every student and every teacher
should endeavor diligently to inculcate
the importance of a speedy return ,
through an educated citizenship , to the
practical methods of the fathers. If it
was chivalrous and knightly in any olden
times to defend one's country against
foreign invaders , it is none the less glor
ious today to defend it from economic
fallacies , sophists , public pilferers , and
spoilsmen. ,
But educated men should never follow
more party names blindly. It is , how
ever , their duty to teach principles and
fidelity thereto , to inspire patriotism ,
and to instruct their fellows that while
adherence to a party , is , at times , a good
thing , absolute devotion and self-sacri
fice , at all times , to the safety and glory
of the whole country , is a far better
thing.
Those who are best versed in letters ,
who have broadest knowledge of the
affairs of extinct and of existing govern
ments who by research and diligence
have possessed themselves of vast treas
ures of facts , gathered along the his
toric pathways of nations are the class
who , by the right and nobility of su
perior intelligence , should be most po-
teiit in politics. The educated men , the
trained intellects from the schools , are ,
in a true and desirable sense , an aris
tocracy , obligated by study and investi
gation to understand the science and
functions of government , and to individ
ually aid in its honest and benignant
administration. A government of the
people should be for the good of all the
people , and should therefore be con
served and directed by the best people ,
and they are the educated men and wo
men who appreciate and enjoy its citi
zenship. Intelligent , honest and cour
ageous men and women are the logical
aristocracy of this form of government.
They are the chivalry conducting a
ceaseless crusade in behalf of the purity
of politics , the intelligent , nousectarian
and uonpartisau supervision of the com
mon schools , the normal schools , and
the state universities.
Upon the intellectual efforts , the vig
ilance and valor of education in its pub
lic life , the permanence of self-govern
ment upon this continent finds its only
solid and stable foundation. The ignor
ant can not govern ; the informed , the
intelligent , must , or the republic will
perish.
AN EX-PRESIDENT UNDER FIRE.
A few days ago the organs of existing
political power opened a lively fusillade
upon Grover Cleveland , who was ac
cused of ambitious and plots for secur
ing for himself a third term as presi
dent of the United States. No particu
lars were given as to any personal acts
or deeds of the ex-president that could
be cited to support the indictment but
this made no difference with the grand
jury political Lilliputs who invented the
story. They carried the case to the cartoon
teen stage in a few of the more irre
sponsible newspapers , which , in the lan
guage of the late Horace Greeley , are
permitted to exist ' 'for some inscrutable
purpose , " and then it collapsed without
making so much as a wave in the cir
cumambient air. The incident is closed ,
but if it has served no other purpose , it
revives the old maxim that political defamers -
famers of great men invariably attack
those whom they have most reason to
fear.