Conservative. 11
goverumeiit in the Philippines or Cuba ?
Stop a moment ! Think 1 Government
in the United States means at present
the machine in power. The people are
proverbially fickle. If they do not
smash a machine that does not run to
suit them , they have a habit of shelving
it to give it a rest and setting up a new
one. If government in the United
States is not , in this sense , with the con
sent and will of the governed , what is
it ? In point of fact , the existing govern
ment in the United States may be a
weak government with a strong people ,
or a strong government with a weak
people. All this depends on the disposi
tion of the people. But no republic of
fers a strong government except when
the government created by the people
represents their strongest intelligence
and is supported by the active strength
of the people in an aggressive majority.
The present government is weak because
it has no surety in the support of the
people. Can such a government guar
antee a strong and permanent govern
ment to the Filipinos ? Not for a mom
ent 1 The next election in the United
States is liable to bo on the basis of the
inviolability of the constitution. No tax
ation except for the maintenance of the
Union axd domestic welfare. A political
revolution in the United States is almost
sure to leave the Filipinos , and perhaps
the Cubans , without American support.
In support of this an ultra-expansion
paper says : "No question is involved
concerning the future government of the
Philippines. Congress can do as it
chooses. The present congress may de
clare in favor of permanent occupancy.
The next congress may declare in favor
I of abandoning the islands. The follow
ing congress may go ahead and retake
them , peacefully or forcefully , as it may
elect. No one congress can dictate to a
future congress. Future congresses can
undo the action of past congresses. "
( Memphis Appeal ) . If that does not de
scribe anarchy what else does it picture.
The Filipino is in a pitable plight. He
has no choice between the devil ( Spain )
and the deep sea of anarchy American
ism.
A Hard Tiihk Ahead.
These foreign complications are liable
to prove hot irons to Americans. Things
are by no means permanent. The lane
and the people alone constitute whai
permanency there is. In spite of all
authority to the contrary , the constitu
tion is as permanent as the people. To
speak paradoxically the government has
usurped the government in the United
States. That is , if the people are the
government de facto and the constitu
tion the law. The people have no
given their intelligent consent , but they
have given their indifferent assent to
machine despotism and govcrnmen
usurpation of their dictatorship. In the
United States there is taxation wit !
very little representation. Machine rep
resentation is unlimited. That of the
people is limited by their subserviency
o the machine. What kind of a gov
ernment machine despotism will give
he Filipinos is to be seen by lifting the
curtain shading the political arena in
iho United States. The last state of
hose people may bo worse than the first.
That people which have not yet learned
ho lessons of permanent self-govern-
niont , and who through indifference
jermit their government to relapse into
machine despotism and party usurpa-
, ion certainly is not fitted to give a gov
ernment to other and still weaker
people.
It has been said that the government
of the United States has acted contrary
0 and in defiance of natural law , the
declaration of independence and the
constitution. It remains to prove those
assertions. First , as to natural law.
Self-preservation is the inevitable neces
sity of life. Under what conditions will
1 man endanger his life ? In order to
save it. Under normal conditions of
mind he will not expose his life for any
other purpose. Taken at its full mean
ing there is no other necessity. ' 'But
what of heroic self-sacrifice , " some al
truist says ? All that the world gener
ally calls heroism is a form of emotional
insanity in which the actor loses sight of
self in the face of some disaster to
others. Joan of Arc is a striking exam
ple. That is pseudo-heroism. True
lieroisni is the result of intellectual self-
control. The doing of duty by the
sailor , soldier , fireman , may be heroic ,
but it is not heroism. It is largely
training and esprit da corps. In a rather
adventurous life the writer never knew
of but one hero. That was a woman
whose grounds bordered on the bank
of a river. She was washing one day
down by the bank and the child with
her fell into the water and was swept
away with the current. She might
have saved the child at the risk of her
life. Instead , with a pallid face and
form erect as if of marble , she walked to
the house. When asked "why" her
only reply was "there wore four babes
there , they needed me more. " As Ed
win Arnold says , "tho gods act some
times thus. "
If a sane man will only expose his
life to save it this principle rules the
actions of all men instinctively , as
well as intelligently and property , in
some form , is an essential means to the
preservation of life , then he who has it
will only expose it in the hope of in
creasing it that his life may be more se
cure. That is natural law , is it not ?
For that reason men enter into union
with others , form combinations , states ,
nations , copartnerships , trade organiza
tions , trusts. Never for the good of
the others 1 Always for self 1 For self
they all pull together. Thus is the good
of the whole assured.
Criminal Warfare.
Nations being organizations of men to
strengthen their self-maintaining abili-
itics ; normal governments being insti
tutions oiganized by men who depute
powers to them to carry out the condi
tions of organization , it should bo evi
dent that the power creating would not
give more authority over itself than it
tit.
itself had. Altruistic self-sacrifice is
impossible to the sane under the inevit
able necessity. In other words , if self-
preservation is the inevitable necessity
and nations organized and governments
established by individuals to maintain
it , the creating power will not give the
created authority absolute control over
its life or that property which is neces
sary to its maintenance. When the gov
ernment assumes this power it becomes
a despotism and the people have yielded
their rights , having lost the might to
maintain them. They are imbeciles
requiring guardianship. Is it not evi
dent that under natural law the govern
ment of the United States had no right
to expose the lives of citizens , or to take
of their property , for purely aggressive
war , or for the benefit or use of aliens ?
Is not the government guilty of that
usurpation of power over life , liberty
and pursuit of happiness which the
fathers declared to be inalienable rights
given them by their Creator ? All ag
gressive warfare is anarchistic except
when imposed by the inevitable neces
sity of self-preservation. This is true
of the individual or nation. It is anarch
istic again when the aggressive party
miscalculates its strength and weakens
its self-maintaining ability through its
aggressiveness. Mere wars of ambition
or conquest have invariably led to the
injury or destruction of the aggressor.
Persia , Macedonia , Homo , Napoleon ,
Franco , Spain.
Having declared themselves free , hav
ing made themselves so by their individ
ual might , those British freemen , now
become American , took steps to main
taining themselves as men capable of self-
maintenance , in a true sense , self-govern
ment. They established a nation and
organized a goveruiuent to uphold and
maintain the conditions in which they
mutually agreed to stand shoulder to
shoulder , life for life , for their in
dividual preservation. In so far , and
not one jot farther , did , or do , they
give the government authority over
their lives or property. It is only when
they individually refuse to maintain the
conditions which they agreed upon with
one another , that the government has
authority over life , because the inevit
able necessity holds them and the gov
ernment to the law as the means to
self-preservation.
The Constitution.
No endeavor of the human intellect , ' *
over codified natural law so clearly as
the fathers when they agreed that : "We ,
the people of the United States , in order
to form a more perfect Union , establish
justice , insure domestic tranquillity , pro
vide for the common defense , promote