Conservative *
ory and injurious iu practice. While ]
cannot see how Mr. McKiuley coulc
have avoided the responsibility of polit
ical sovereignty in the Philippine islands
nor the duty of establishing order and
protecting life and property there , I do
ardently wish that Admiral Dewey had
happened to sink the Spanish navy near
the Golden Gate or at some other point
equally far from the islands , and had
never fired a gun nor cast an anchor in
Manila bay. After the naval victory in
that bay , I would either have held the
islands by conquest or quietly sailed
away would never have agreed to pay
the $20,000,000 for the islands. But
that is all past. Mr. Bryan urged the
ratification of the treaty. So far , at
least , he is as much of an expansionist
and imperialist as Mr. McKiuley.
It is too late to discuss expansion. As
is often tersely said , "we have ex
panded" with Bryan's approval and
with his active help , both by his advice
to his political friends and as ti colonel
in camp anxious to go to the front.
That expansion brought duty , the duty
of establishing and preserving order and
protecting life and property. Thus the
whole cry of imperialism , so far as Mr.
Bryan is concerned , and so far as there
is any difference between him and Mr.
McKiuley on that subject , can only
mean that the present war in the Philip
pine islands might have been avoided by
wiser management. I have never been
convinced of that. But concede it.
Then I will accept whatever imperial
ism is implied in Mr. McKiuley's con
duct of the Philippine question , and
continue to live at least in peace and
safety under his high protective tariff
rather than swallow one pellet of Bry-
anisin. These are the views of a gold-
standard , free-trade democrat. George
H. Yeaman in N. Y. Mail and Express.
New York , Aug. 18,1900.
KX-GOV. IIOADI/Y OF OIIIO ON THE
DUTY OF GOLD DEMOCRATS.
I can conceive of no calamity great
er than an attempt by the govern
ment to lower the standard of money
in the United States , and this without
reason , in a time of prosperity and
without the excuse of any of the causes
which operated in other like ruinous
movements in other times. French
assiguats , continental currency , legal
tender notes , were all issued upon the
plea of necessity. No such excuse exists
for the use of silver now. The 50 cent
dollar is simple robbery , nothing more ,
and the worst of it is that it can in the
long run benefit nobody except the char
latans and demagogues who are promoting
meting its use in the expectation of se
curing office.
Bryan "Would Degrade the Supreme Court.
I confess that McKinley's administra
tion has failed to satisfy me , except in
the administration of the state , war and
navy departments and they , other than
the first and third , only partially. But ,
notwithstanding the Dingley tariff and
the Porto Rico fiasco , what better can
be expected of the democratic party
under Bryan's lead ? His potent in
fluence plunged our country into the
Philippine scrape , by ratifying the
treaty , when the situation might have
been controlled , and $20,000,000 saved ,
by leaving Spain and the friars to fight
it out with the Tagalogs. Mr. Bryan
now proposes a carnival of anarchy ,
with the supreme court degraded , and
the Tngalog tribe in immediate power ,
beginning his efforts the day after his
inauguration.
How do the Catholic voters of our
country relish the banquet to which this
invites them ? The seventh article of
the Tagalog programme involves the ex
pulsion of the friars. Does Mr. Bryan
realize what this means and that if done
at all it will be done by him and his
his party , although the blame and loss
will rest upon us all ? I am as earnest a
protestant as Bryan or any of his sup
porters , but the spoliation of a church or
religious order , or the exile of its ad
herents without trial , without judicial
sentence , does not seem worthy to be
entered in the roll of beneficial Ameri
can achievements. Still , if the Catholic
voters can stand it , perhaps , we outsiders
ought not to complain. But if Messrs
"Hole in the sky" Bontwell , and "G. B. "
and General Schurz and their allies can
help Bryan to try the lunatic experi
ments of 16 to 1 in currency , and of de
grading the supreme court , the loss and
disgrace will not be wholly theirs.
Responsible for the Government of the
Philippines.
This is our country. "We hold if we
do not own the Philippines , and what
ever happens to them and their inhabit
ants will proceed from us , and ours as a
nation , will be justly charged to the
action of our government in the dit-
position of these islands and their pee
ple. Moreover , Mr. Bryan has told us
his purposes with relation to the Taga
logs. What will he do with the Mores ,
and their slavery and polygamy ? This
nut will be hard enough for McKinley ,
even with the aid of his commissioners ,
io crack. Can Bryan do better ? Does
his program of letting the Mores "stew
in their own giease , " promise better
outcome ?
I have had , in my life time , the pleas
ure of acquaintance with two of Mr.
McKinley's commissioners , Judge Taft
and General Luke Wright. No better ,
more capable or wiser men live in our
country. They are now in Manila ,
charged with the responsibility. I con
fess I would rather trust them than
'Hole in the sky" Boutwell as he
was formerly nicknamed , or Erving
Winslow or , under the circumstances ,
even than that noble gentleman , Wentworth -
worth Higginson. Upon the advice of
. .
n < v * a.fjgaaijig TOi iAtjiEtej3--a i.
such men , I propose to base my vote ,
in re Filipinos.
I do not think wo ought to be diverted
from the matter in hand for one mom
ent by considerations of blame for the
past. McKiuley's administration may
have been guilty of many errors of
omission or commission. What do they
amount to in consideration of the at
tempt now proposed to debase our cur
rency and degrade our courts. Even
Bryan's successful action in favor of the
ratification of the treaty of Paris would
not be worthy of remembrance had it
not created the present Philippine situa
tion and caused us to face the music.
Shall we , iguorantly and hastily , trans
fer our power and duty of control of the
islands to the Tagalogs , or to the Taga
logs and the Mores ? Or , shall we wait
and try the experiment of attempting to
establish a stable government before
giving up hope ? And this when aban
doning the islands means silver money ,
and a ruined judiciary.
Must Not Fly to Evils we Know Not of.
In the choice of evils it is clear to me
that the least of the possible or probable
harmful effects of the presidential elec
tion will be to accept those of which we
can be the most easily and quickly re
lieved , those we are already suffering ,
and not fly to others likely to continue
as permanent and durable assaults upon
the scheme of government derived from
our fathers , and the happiness of the
people. To lift greenbacks to par re
quired the labor of more than a genera
tion , and for one , I honor and respect
the court of which Marshall and Story
and Chase and Field were members too
much to acquiesce patiently in the inno
vations proposed by Altgeld and to be
completed by Bryan. We can return
to the Tagalogs and the Mores any rights
they have been deprived of as the result
of Dewey's achievements any day with
out delay. The remedy for this evil will
be quick and effectual if once resolved
on. But it ought not to bo preceded ,
accompanied or followed by the degrada
tion of the currency or the court.
GEO. HOADLY.
Ifc
TALKED DOWN. ,
by many thought
ful tax payers in Omaha that the popu
lation of that flourishing city was talked ,
during the last decade , down and out by
populism , fusion and Bryanarchy.
Hence the census shrinkage.
There were so many revivals of the
religion of calamity held in Omaha in
1892 , ' 98 , ' 94 , ' 95 and ' 90 , under the au
spices of the Pope of Populism , that
many men of capital gladly left Omaha ,
and many who would have gone into
Omaha kept out. The piety of disaster ,
and the hope of eternal calamity may
be satisfying and solacing to politicians
seeking office for "money and not the
honor" , but it has no attractions for
men of action , patriotic men of
business.