6 13be Conservative.
ishcd in vain. The trnclc of the country
( Congo Free State ) costing so much in
life and treasure remains insignificant ,
being only seven-tenths of one per cent
of Belgian commerce. ( The exports of
the I'nitctl Slates of America to the Phil
ippines are only four anc-hiutdredths of
one per cent of our country's total
e.rports. ) The same amount of energy
and money spent in the development of
industries at home , would have resulted
in a far greater development of Belgian
commerce , whereas the colonial venture
has only proven delusive and disastrous.
In Mexico the topographical structure
of the country is such as to divide it
naturally into three well-defined altitnd-
inal climatic sections the first , sea level
to about 2500 feet above is known as the
ticrra clienle ( hot ) ; the second , 2500 to
5000 feet altitude , the tierra tonplada
( temperate ) , and the third , 5000 feet and
upward , the tierra fria ( cool ) . The
"tierra caliento" of Yucatan , Cam-
peachy and Tabasco is the Van Dieman's
land of Mexico , to which , from the cooler
or temperate upland zones , certain of
fenders are exiled to eke out their exist
ence if they cpn live at all under the
hot , debilitating conditions of an ex
treme tropical climate. It is a tradition
that the sacrifice of human life in the
construction of the Panama railroad
across the Isthmus of Darien from Colon
or Aspinwall on the Atlantic , to Panama
on the Pacific , was equal to a man for
every crops tie that lies in the road.
And it is to such places , and subject to
such climatic conditions that our crusade
for glory , expansion , "imperial dem
ocracy , " is exiling the flower of our
youth ?
According to a San Francisco journal
of February 7 , "The commanding gen
eral of the United States forces now in
Cuba , has reported that fifty per cent of
the American troops on the island are
on the sick list. "
When the government of the United
States dispatches shipload after shipload
of uimcclimated young men to the everglades -
glades and jungles of tropical swamps ,
whether in the East Indies or West In
dies , it is consigning the flower of
American youth to unimaginable suffer
ing and too often , alas ! to hapless and
inglorious death.
Do you think this is overdrawn ? Do
you think this is an extreme view of the
case ? Let mo quote a sketch by an eye
witness , a well-known New York writer ,
of the embarking of sick and wounded
soldiers on board a transport hospital
ship homeward bound.
"That day strange figures began to
mount the sides of the ship , and to oc
cupy its every turn and angle of space.
Some of them fell on their knees and
slapped the bare deck with their hands ,
and laughed and cried out , 'Thank God ,
I'll see God's country again ! ' Some of
the men were regulars , bound in baud-
ages ; some were volunteers , dirty and
hollow-eyed , with long beards on boys'
faces. Some cauio on crutches ; others
with their arms around the shoulders of
their comrades , staring ahead of them
with a fixed smile , their lips drawn and
their teeth protruding. At every second
step they stumbled , andthofaco of each
man was swept by swift ripples of pain.
ThejT lay on cots so close together that
the nurses could not walk between them.
They lay on the wet decks , in the scup
pers , and along the skylights and
hatches. They were like shipwrecked
mariners clinging to a raft , and they
asked nothing more than that the ship's
bow be turned toward home. "
This is glory this is expansion this
is "imperial democracy. "
But to resume on the subject of Java :
The record of mission work is a short
one , as after casting out the Portuguese
Jesuits , the Dutch forbade others to en
ter , and all missionaries were strictly
excluded until the humanitarian agita
tion took place in Europe. This resulted
in the formal abolition of slavery and the
abandonment of the culture system
while it forced the government to do a
little for the Christianizing and educa
ting of the natives. The government
supports twenty-nine protestant pastors
and ten Roman Catholic priests , pri
marily for the benefit of European resi
dents , and their sphere of usefulness is
restricted ; proselyting and sectarian
rivalries being forbidden. Missionaries
from other countries are not allowed to
settle and work among the people. The
Dutch do not pose as philanthropists nor
pretend to be in Java for the good of
the natives. Their dominion is one of
power ; their government , a despotism.
Enforced Lul > or In Java.
A few words on the culture system , or
enforced labor : The Dutch East India
company acquired control of Java
through pioneer preemption , purchase ,
conquest , strategy and unfair diplom
acy. One-fifth of the native's labor and
one-fifth of his crops were exacted by
the government as ground rent. Each
family was required to keep one thous
and coffee trees in bearing condition on
village lauds , and two-fifths of the crop ,
clear and sorted , was to bo delivered at
the government warehouses. As late as
1880 the natives were obliged to plant
one-fifth of the village lands in sugar
cane and each man had to give one day's
labor in seven to cultivating the same.
Each native was obliged to plant six
hundred Arabian or Mocha coffee trees ,
keep them in bearing condition and de
liver the crop cleaned and sorted at the
government warehouses at a price fixed
by the Dutch officials. Previous to 1874
nine to twelve giiilders per picul (188 (
Ibs. ) were paid , although forty to forty-
five was the price in open market. ( A
guilder is equal to 40 cents. ) The great
double post road from Anger Head to
Banyuwangy was constructed at the
cost of 20,000 lives , under this system of
enforced labor. Laboring men of the
northern races never did and never will
go there or to other tropical climates , en
masse , to do the work of the country ,
agricultural or industrial , there to found
permanent homes ; and this not merely
because the rate of wages in such coun
tries , owing to native competition , is
usually low , because they cannot thrive
under the climatic conditions.
Into the despotic clutch of enforced
labor , or a contract system to exploit
humankind in the interest of capital ,
through oriental conquest , the freedom-
loving citizens of the United States are
sought to be dragooned under the speci
ous pleas of glory , expansion , "imper
ial democracy. " Will this scheme for
the betrayal of democracy succeed ? If
it does , it will be a crime against the
human race.
n Charity at Homo.
To neglect the industrial and social
conditions at home is to sap the very
foundations of national power and pro
gress. The Philippines would add one
more problem to political government ,
one more problem of industrial slavery ,
one more problem of social barbarism to
the list we have already confronting us.
There is nothing morally , socially , polit
ically , or industrially in the situation
which would make it to the advantage
of the United States to annex them.
Our duty to mankind is first of all to
maintain our own civilization , and that
is quite enough to tax us to the utmost.
James Brice , in Harper's Magazine for
September , wisely says : "Tho United
States will render a far greater service
to humanity by developing a high type
of industrial civilization upon her own
continent , a civilization conspicuously
free , enlightened and pacific , than by
any foreign conquests. "
And what of the subjugated peoples ?
I extract from the press dispatches re
porting the battle of February 5 , at
Manila :
"The engagement proved a veritable
slaughter of Filipinos , thousands of them
being killed. General King's brigade
charged upon a numerically stronger
force of the enemy and drove them yell
ing , helter-skelter into the Pasig river ,
where , in a frenzy of terror , they were
drowned like rats. The Americans are
buoyantly elated over the punishment
they have given the treacherous na
tives. "
"The account of 700 Ygorote tribes
men , naked and opposing their bows and
arrows to the rifles and cannons of the
Americans , in a desperate but hopeless
attempt to hold their ground , is wonder
fully pathetic. 'On all sides , ' says one
report , 'were lying dead natives , their
bodies in some instances , being full of
bullet holes. ' Again : 'I saw a number
of bodies which had been literally torn
into shreds by the fire from the war
ships. In some places the shells had
torn great holes in the earth and around
them were scattered dead bodies. On
