i f :
Conservative *
President McKinley had been dictator
for the past nine months , would have
precluded him also from even trying rt
friendship-winning policy ? Was there
sonio iron decree of fate that doomed
our name anyhow to become ' 'from the
word go" an object of execration to the
Luzon population ? That predestined
every superior personality among them
to become militant against us ?
Hardly ! It is safe to say that the
governor perceives as much as any one
the personal blundering and incapacity ,
and knows as much as any one that
President McKiuloy is the sole culprit
officially responsible. Yet like any Hun
or Tartar , like President McKiuley him
self , his only notion of a remedy , now
that we have committed the crime , is to
kill , kill , lull our way through all its
witnesses and victims. It is strenuous
war , divine and glorious , and accursed
be the mock philanthropists and weak
lings who presume to call a halt !
I submit to Governor Roosevelt that
here is a matter for a perfectly definite
political issue in these states. Shall the
mere killing policy continue , or shall it
stop ? Is a brown man's government ,
that has for nine months carried on a
war against the finest white army of its
size in the world , being beaten in every
special engagement and retreating , yet
holding together and never losing heart ,
aiid foiling us completely when the
campaign , as a whole , is taken is such
a government as completely "unfit" to
even be allowed to try the task of domestic
administration as we have abstractedly
assumed it to be ? No government ever
proved its fitness for trial in any other
way. For God's sake , wo say , then , let
up on the fine fellows ; give them a
fighting chance with their government
and see what they will do. It will be
time enough to fall to and massacre
them again when they shall have be
gotten an anarchy remotely resembling
that which the McKinley policy has
wrought. Therefore speak , write , agi
tate , in season and out of season , until
that policy is reversed , or its sole pro
prietors and inventors are driven out of
power.
And I submit that Mr. Roosevelt's at
tempt to turn this concrete political is
sue into an abstract emotional compar
isou between two types of personal char
acter , one strong and manly , the other
weak and cowardly , is an evasion uu
worthy the student of history which he
is. Ho knows that courage is equally
distributed among persons of divergeu
opinions and that taking one human
being with another , all are abstractly
equally willing' to fight. He knows
that the only difference between them
that betrays itself in politics is as to the
sufficient cause for fighting. To en
slave a weak but heroic people , or to
brazen out a blunder , is a good enough
cause , it appears , for Colonel Roosevelt.
To us Massachusetts anti-imperialists ,
who have fought in better causes , it is
not quite good enough.
Duties and responsibilities towards
these islanders ? Indeed , by this time
wo have them enough I Wo have done
them such injury that it would bo
raven , indeed , to lenve them exposed
to similar outrages at the hands of
other pirates as densely stupid as our
selves. With such a guarantee of
safety to them in our hands , and with a
lictator able to see things concretely
beyond the field of American party pol
itics , who of us can Pay that a modus
viveudi with them might not bo begiin
which might end , long hence , happily
enough for na both ?
TIIK ATKINSON INCIDENT.
It is well that the discussion of na
tional policy , novel or otherwise , shall
be on the lines of reason and conducted
with calmness. Edward Atkinson is
one of the most distinguished of Amer
ican publicists , and with the single ex
ception of the late David A. Wells , has
been the most copious writer in this
country upon economic and public sub
jects. He has chosen to write and
print statistics bearing upon the com
merce , climate and characteristics of the
torrid zone , and to draw therefrom con
clusions as to the wisdom of largo ex-
deuditures of life and treasure in the
conquest and occupancy of tropical
territory. These publications he ad
dressed to Admiral Dewey , Generals
Otis , Lawton and MacArthur and to the
members of the Philippine commission
now in Manila. The civil officers of the
government have been ordered to ex
clude them from the mails , and it has
been done.
No one is prepared to defend the wis
dom of Mr. Atkinson in sending his
pamphlets to our highest naval , military
and civil officers in the Philippines.
They are all busy. It is a languid cli
mate , and in their moments of repose
we have no doubt those grizzled sous of
Mars are more interested in a cool
drink or the study of how to "shuck"
some additional garment made neces
sary in the temperate zone but not con
ventionally nor physically required under
a vertical sun.
Perhaps it would have been better to
let Mr. Atkinson's pamphlets go and
test the fidelity of those martial and
civil officials by writing them that the
same are on the index expurgatorius of
the government and must not be read.
To take the matter out of the mails
may seem like a suspicion of immaturity
on the part of these uniformed gentle
men , and the fear that they may be led
astray by tables demonstrating the loss
of revenue to the United States by
abatement of the tariff on sugar. Mr.
Atkinson has addressed himself to a
quite impassioned table of figures on
that and other subjects of equally vivid
interest. The administration should
not permit itself to be misunderstood in
this matter. That there is danger of
misunderstanding cannot bo denied.
Divers views are hold as to the Phil-
ppine policy. Official tolerance and
lospitality to the expression of them all
would seem to be the proper American : m
policy , consistent with the still prevalent
idea of what American liberty means.
In the period of our revolution Burke ,
Fox and Pitt in the beginning of that
struggle took sides with our forefathers
in revolt against the crown , and in par
liament , clear to the end of the struggle ,
continued to speak and vote on the side
of the Americans and in sympathy with
their struggle for independence. The
speeches of these English statesmen
used to bo printed in our common school
readers as patriotic pabulum for Ameri
can youth. We all gained from them
not only a love of liberty but a high ap
preciation of the freedom of speech and
tolerance of opinion maintained in Eng
land a hundred and twenty-five years
ago.
ago.For
For a century and a quarter it has
been supposed that we have gone on in
this country improving upon that free
dom and tolerance. Let not the act of
the civil authorities in talcing stamped
matter out of the mails be taken as a
symptom that we have not improved.
Let no one in authority do anything
that will warrant the belief that there is
less freedom of speech and tolerance of
opinions in this republic than there was
in England under George III in 1776.
Let nothing be done that will justify
the fear that in escaping from British
rule we escaped from more liberty than
we have established for ourselves.
It will be seen clearly , and should be
seen and understood at once , that every
show of arbitrary power or sign of fear
that a policy will not bear criticism and
therefore comment must be suppressed
gives strength to the fear that designs
of imperialism and militarism are cher
ished , and that when they come it will
bo not only to rough ride the rights of
subjects in the tropic , but to abridge the
liberty of citizens at home. Call , San
Francisco.
THE CONSERVATIVE
CORN STALKS.
TIVE is convinced
that a machine which will cheaply
cleave corn stalks and divide the nutri
tious stover from the pith will bo equal
in money making and money saving to
three millions of acres of land in
meadow for the state of Nebraska , which
has eight millions of acres in corn.
Every acre of corn stalks which , by
an economical stover-saving machine
can be reduced to a nutritious cattle
food will add three dollars , at least , to
the income of the Nebraska farmer.
Just as soon as such a machine can bo
perfected , patented and put into gen
eral use the farmers' income in Nebraska
will be enhanced millions of dollars.