Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (May 18, 1899)
8 Conservative * GOVKUNOK KOOSKVKLT'S OHATION. ( William .Tiunes in Hoston Trnnncript. ) Shall Governor Roosevelt bo allowed to crow all over our national barnyard and hear no equally shrill voice lifted in reply ? Even the "prattlers who sit at homo in peace with their pilly mock humnnitarianism" nust feel their "ignoble" and "cowardly" blood stirred by such a challenge , and I , for one , feel that it would bo ignominious to leave him in uncontradicted possession of the Held. In the Hegelian philosophy the worst vice that an oration or any other expres sion of human nature can have is ab- stractness. Abstractuess means empty simplicity , non-reference to features es sential in the case. Of all the carnivals of emptiness and abstrantness that the world has seen , our national discussions over the Philippine policy probably bear away the palm. The arch abstraction ists have been the promoters of expan sion ; and , of them all , Governor Roosevelt velt now writes himself down as the very chief. We miss in him , thank Heaven , the sanctimonious abstractions. Not a word about "elevating" the Fili pinos. Not a word about giving them pure homes , free schools , American school books and ready-made pauts to hide their indecent nudity. Not a word about "sending them Christ" and for all that let us thank him. But of all the naked abstractions that were ever applied to human affairs , the outpour ings of Governor Roosovelt's soul in this speech would seem the very naked- est. Although in middle life , as the years age , and in a situation of respon sibility concrete enough , he still men tally in the Sturm and Drang period of early adolescence , treats human affairs , when he makes speeches about them , from the sole point of view of the or ganic excitement and difficulty they may bring , gushes over war as the ideal condition of human society , for the manly strenuousuess which it involves , and treats peace as a condition of blub- berlike and swollen ignobility , fit only for huckstering weaklings , dwelling in gray twilight and heedless of the higher life. Not a word of the cause one foe is us good as another , for aught he tells us ; not a word of the conditions of suc cess. Just as revolution , per se , seems the ideal status to strata of the Parisian populace , bred in a certain condition , so war in the abstract and per se seems the ideal status to Governor Roosevelt : and peace in the abstract and per se is his notion of the ignominious human life. In pure esthetic abstractuess every human heart responds after a fashion. But when it comes to turn itself concretely - _ crotely into Shaftor's policy of "Kill half the natives and govern the rest justly , " one feels that abstract esthetic and organic emotionalities may need a policeman to keep them in check. Governor Roosevelt's abstract war- worship carries no test of what is better or worse in the way of wars. Ho scathes and scores the "party of peace" in the war of secession a party whom lately wo have heard little about. But , strangely enough , ho fails to praise ex plicitly the party of Jeff Davis. Yet civil war is war , and partakes of all its virility. The secessionists were cer tainly leading the strenuous life when they chose battle rather than Lincoln as president. And certainly in his heart of liearts Governor Roosevelt does bless thorn for what they did. They gave us four years of martial excitement , and a lot of heroes and matter for war histor ians ; and therein for him lies the es sence of all national "greatness. " But why then were the Bryanites not recreants to all true national great ness when they failed two years ago to march on Washington to prevent Mc- Kinley's inauguration ? That was surely the more "adventurous" path. And why are not England's parties , with their edges all worn flabby by their mutual good nature , inferior to those of Guatemala and Peru , where every elec tion is a revolution ? Why is not the liistory of France , with its revolutions during all the century , the ideal for all other nations to imitate ? Why did not the trained and disciplined restraint of the British government and press , when President Cleveland's threat of war -was published , and when a single shrill word from Lord Salisbury would have thrown that nation into a war-fever like our own , trace the low-water mark of national intamy . They tailed to go to war , when our whole coast lay at their mercy 1 It is impossible to say what principles of discrimination Governor Roosevelt could use in these coses , for in his oration tion he swamps everything together in one flood of abstract bellicose emotion. Roosevelt and the McKiuley party make one understand the French revo lution , so long an enigma to our Eng lish imaginative powers. How could such bald abstractions as Reason and the Rights of Man , spelt with capitals , and ignoring all the concrete facts of human nature , ever have let loose such a torrent of slaughter ? The Philippine islanders well know how that naked abstraction , "good government" firing the American soul , has done the like. Wo see how , by reading Governor Roosevelt's oration , "No parleying , no faltering in dealing with our foe , " is keeping the ground red. The crime of which we accuse Gover nor Roosevelt's party is that of treating an intensely living and concrete situa tion by a sot of bold and hollow abstrac tions. The abstractions are five in number : 1. "Responsibility" for the islands. 2. "Unfituess" of the natives. 5J. "Good government" our duty. 4. "Tho supremacy of the flag" needful thereto ; wherefore 5. "No entanglement with Agui- naldo's crow. " There is not a jot of evidence that Mr. McKinley has over conceived of the sit uation otherwise than in this stark naked abstract form. Had he been himself at Manila , to see the population face to face as a concrete reality , instead of cabling abstractions from Washington for a trooper like General Otis to put into concrete shape ; had he sent an un conventional character like Colonel Roosevelt , as full of feeling as he is of will , and niudo him dictator in his stead ; or had ho , as far back as July , hired some veteran English administrator at a million a year , and given him full power to settle the job in his own way , wo should not have fallen not fallen instantaneously , at least into this hid eous fiasco. If ever there was a situa tion made to hand for our country to succeed with , had we only taken a more concrete view of it , it was this situation , soon after Admiral Dewey's victory. It grows tiresome to repeat the indict ment , but "good government" in the concrete means a government that seeks to make some connection with the act ual mental condition of the governed. It does not mean callous insult to all their representatives , and perfidy under the name of avoidance of entanglement. Similarly "unfitness for self-control" means in the concrete a visible set of facts , and not a paper label pinned to a population beforehand by an assumption made thousands of miles away. Visibly the Filipinos were showing fitness for government by actually carrying it on ; and the only anarchy the islands now show is that ensuing upon our president's proclamation , a declaration of war in ful lest technical form , to which no known concrete race of human beings ever could be expected to submit tamely. This monstrous proclamation came be fore the Spaniards gave up their legal title ; it came like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky ; it came without any prelim inary attempt to get into any kind of working partnership with the national leaders or to gain their good will by even entertaining the possibility of conciliat ing some of their ideals. The empty abstractions had unrestricted right of way -uufituess , anarchy , clean sweep , no entanglement , no parley , uncondi tional surrender , supremacy of the flag ; then , indeed , good government , Chris tian civilization , freedom , brotherly protection , kind offices , all that the head of man or people can desire. The one result that is obvious is that no more ignominious political blunder was ever made no greater failure to profit by a magnificent opportunity. Or will Governor Roosevelt pretend that there is some law of nature which , if a man of different mental mold from
