The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 7, 1904, Page 19

J THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER T 1904. FOREIGN POLIC Continued From Page 18, Column 7.]turns to the Secretary of State at stated | | ———————————————— | perinds of all naturalizations conferred. | < Ll Not only are the laws relating to nat- | »'i g taken thereon during the last | uralization now defective, but those re- ' | | b cordially urge that the cec- | latine to citizenship of the United mmendation receive at your hands the | States ought also to be made the sub- consideration which its importance and | ject of sclentific inquiry with a view timeliness merit.” fo probabie further legislation. By what In his annual message of 1899 he | acts expatriation may be assumed to igain called attention to this recom- | have been accomplished, how long an | mendation, quoting it,end stated fur-| American citizen may reside abroad | = and receive the protection of our pass- | Sy port, whether any degree of protec- as the importance of the subject has| tion should be extended to one who has steadily grown since it was first sub- | made the declaration of intention to mitted to you, and no time should be| become a citizen of the United States Oft in studying for ourselves the re- but has not secured naturalization, are sources of this great field for American | questions of serious import, involving rade and enterprise.” personal rights and often producing| | The importance of securing proper in- | friction between this Government and | ormat and data with a view to the foreign Governments. Yet upon these | renew this recommendation, | nlargement of our trade with Asia is questicns our lJaws are silent. 1 recom- | ished. Our consular represen- | mend that an exa ation be made into | in China have strongly urged the subjects of citizenship, expatria-| place for permanent display of Amer- tion and protection of -Americans | can products in some prominent trade | abroad, with a view to appropsiate leg- enter of that empire, under Govern- | islation. 5 ment control and management, as an effective means of advancing our ex-| port trade therein. I call the attention of the Congress to the desirability of carrying out these suggestions. P ety declarations of the Supreme + OF THE ADMINISTRATION WILL SAFEGUARD AMERICAN HEN we come to deal with great corporations the need for the Government to act di- rectly is far greater than in the case of labor. because great corporations can become such only by engaging in interstate commerce, and interstate commerce is peculiarly the field of the General Government. 1t is an absurdity to expect to eliniinate the abuses in great Corporations by State action. It is difficult to be patient with an atpument that such matters should be left to the States, becanse more than one State pursues the policy of creating on easy terms corpora-~ are never operated within that. State at all, but in other States, whose laws they Great corporations are necessary, and only men of great and singular men- and such men must have great rewards. S 1 ignore. whicl * * tal power can manage such corporation RIGHTS FEARLESSLY AND WITH JUSTICE TO NATIONS Trus! Abuses Must Be Eliminated. successfully But these corporaticns should be managed with due regard to the interest of the public as a whole. \Where this can be done under the present laws it must be done. come short others should be e g The power of the Government to pro- | POrts, issue Thanksgiving day procla- tect the integrity of the elections of its 1 mations, and ‘ppo,n[ Indian pohce- own officials is inherent and has been | Men and notaries public. recognized d affi by repeated | eSsential to good government in Alaska e ol by TeReated | and therefors recommend that the Con. There i€ no enemy of free government | 87ess divest the district judges and the 1 believe it more dangerous and none so insidious | clerks of their courts of the adminis- fare{yn ]mm(yrania and Wfl’llm,/laflo"'n, I recommend the enactment of a tails of such a law may be safely left to the wise- discretion of the .ongress, but it should go as far as under constitution it is possible to go, should include severe penalties against Citizenship of the United States Should Be Guarded Against Debasement. tended to influence his act or opinion ' ag an elector; and provisions for the publication not only of the expendi-| tures for nominations and elections of | In dealing with the questions of im- migration and naturalization it is in- dispensable to keep certain facts ever | nds of those who share laws. First and fore- by political committees. CRIMINAL TR IALS. & whatever to do with a man’s| more than it has to do In every generation Justice Defeated by Peculiar this Government was & M of foreign birth have Operation of Laws. ery foremost rank of good | nd that not merely in one | field of American activity; to draw a distinction be- an whose parents came to and the man whose ances- | it several generations nere absurdity. Good Amer- . of con- aspiration, of sound but mnot of birthplace The medal of honor, the rize to be won by those who t Y and the navy of the orates men born here, ates men born in nd Ireland, in Germany, France and doubt- ntries also. In the t . in the field of the of philanthropic € equally true that among m we are most proud s no distinction whatever between those who them- vhose parents came over in r steamer from across the whose ancestors step- the wooded wilderness h or at the mouth of they 3 or the James iries ago. No fellow tied to any pe- »f the way in No subject is better worthy the at<l tention of the Congress than that por- | tion of the report of the Attorney Gen- eral dealing wih the long delays and the great obstruction to justice expe- rienced in the cases of Beavers, Green and Gaynor and Benson. Were these; isolated and special cases, I should not call your attention to them; but the difficulties encountered as regards these men who have been indicted for | criminal practices are not exceptional what occurs again and again in th case of criminals who have sufficient means to enable them to take advant- | age of a system of procedure which | has grown up in the Federal courts, | and which amounts in effect to making the law easy of enforcement against the man who has no money, and diffi- | cult of enforcement, even to the point of sometimes securing immunity, as re- gards the man who has money. In criminal cases the writ of the United States should run throughout its bor- ders. The wheels of justice should not be clogged, as they have been clogged | in the cases above mentioned, where it has proved absolutely impossible to bring the accused to the place appoint- ed by the constitution for his trial. Of recent years there has been grave and increasing complaint of the difficulty of bringing to justice those criminals whose criminality, instead of being! against one person in the republic, is| against all persons in the republic, be- | cause it is against the republic itseif. is en cause be in any against therefor. his worth as a| is entitled to be judged a nger of having too the right kind. nce from what coun- If they are sound in and, above all, if aracter, o that we that their children and ill be worthy fellow-! ren and grand- | d welcome them ceedingly difficult to secure proper pun- | of wrongdoing against the Government. indeed of any prejudice existing in the minds of the jury against him. At pres- ent the interests of the innocent man are amply safeguarded; but the Inter- ests of the Government, that is, the in- terests of honest administration, that is the interests of the people, are not| | recognized as they ghould be. No sub- ject better warrants the attemtion of | the Congress. Indeed, mo subject bet- ter warrants the attention of the bench |and the bar throughout the United States. | Alaska Resourceful Beyond Expectation ed. It is vital that igh the standard of our wage-workers, we chould not admit | rose etandards of liv- | = at they tend to lower nerican wage-worker; should not admit any rworthy type, any man m we can say that he be a bad citizem, or that grandchildren will de- 4 of addinz to the sum citizenship of the country. should take the greatest aturalization. Fraudulent zation., the naturalization of persons, is a curse to our and it is the affair of st voter, wherever born, to » fraudulent voting is al- that no fraud in connection with ralization is permitted. past year the cases of false, | ent ard improper naturalization coming to the attention of the branches of the Government cased to an alarming degree. sales of forged certificates alization have been discovered, as well as many cases of naturalization secured by perjury end fraud; and in addition, instances have accumulated showing that many courts issue certifi- of naturalization carelessly and nsufficient evidence. ‘nder the constitution it is in the £ the Congress “to establish a iform rule of naturalization,” and numerous laws have from time to time been enacted for that purpose, which have been supplemented in a few States by State laws having special applica- tion. The Federal statutes permit nat- uralization by any court of record in the United States having common law jurisdiction and a seal and clerk, ex- wvolice court of the District of and nearly all these courts exere this important function. It results that where so many courts of such varying grades have jurisdiction, there is lack of uniformity in the rules | apolied in conferring naturalization. { | of this country | | 1 Territory’s Progress Necessitates - Many Reforms in Latws Aflecting It. Alaska, like all our Territorial acqui- sitions, has proved resourceful beyond the expectations of those who made the purchase. It has become the home | of many hardy, industrious, and thrifty American citizens. Towns of a perma- nent character have been built. The extent of its wealth in minerals, timber, fisheries and agriculture, while great, is probably not comprehended yet in any just measure by our people. We do know, however, that from a very small beginning its products have grown until they are a steady and ma- terial contribution to the wealth of the nation. Owing to the immensity of Alaska and its location in the far north, | it is a difficult matter to provide many things essential to its growth and to the happiness and comfort of its people by private enterprise alone. the Government. The Government has already done excellent work for Alaska Some courts are strict and others lax. 0 may secure naturalization might be denied it in & .- he intent of the comstitu- the signal corps of the army. In some respects it has outgrown its | present laws, while in others those laws | ‘have been found to be inadequate. ision i in fact defeated. e information upon which Furthermore, the certificates of matur- | 9Pder to obtain alization iseued by the courts differ|] could rely I caused an official of the widely In wording and appearance, and when they are brought into use in for- ~ign countries are frequently subject to daeks | durlumep-lllmn‘:rmrmwr—l suspicion. ? 1 .fim there ua'wm lzd-h!l = R i s CITIZENSHIP LAWS. g e g 34 Problem Thflequires In- quiry and Legislation. There chould be a comprehensive re- vision ot the naturalization laws. The courts having power to naturalize’ =hould be definitely named by authority: the testimony upon which naturslization may be conferred should be dcfinitely prescribed: publication of impending naturalization applications should he required in advance of their hearing in court: the form and wording ;‘mmm the country, L . 'orm g conrts should be required to Te- | cific 1 |Congress. X 5 | should aid in the construction of needed they are precisely similar in kind to| wagon roads. should be provided. | it is especially important to aid in such | manner as seems just and feasible in the construction of a trunk line of railway to connect the Gulf of Alaska with the Yukon River through Ameri- | can territory. This would be most ben- eficial to the development of the re- sources of the Territory, | comfort and welfare of its people. lFirmw.vs and Justice Are Key- In treating of our foreign policy and of the attitude that this great nation should assume in the world at large, it as the corrupt! ate. No | trative or executive functions that they g e o gk iy g | now exercise and cast them upon the it would seem to follow that none would | Governor. . ! novation; it would simply conform the SPONE. YADIDS: SHRNSNST<E) BERTMDS government of Alaska to fundamental law “ . - | principles, making the Governorship a ,T,:\“?,:T,:Hi-m':lig?s "Fge Cf,’:_ | real instead of a merely nominal office, ? |and leaving the judges free to give | their entire attention to/their judicial the ; duties and at the same time removing and | them from a great deal of the strife | that now embarrasses the judicial of- him who zives or receives a bribe in- | fice in Alaska. This would not be an in- I also recommend that the salaries of the district judges and district attor- neys in Alaska be increased so as to make them equal to those receh!.}ed l;g - | corresponding officers in the nit; ::,‘,n‘:";?,‘?(l‘lf; :‘;’dl:,;op:éd?‘l:“;:m::;e ‘ States after deducting the difference in | the cost of living; that the district at- | torneys should be prohibited from en- | gaging in private practice; that United States Commissioners be appointed by | the Governor of the Territory instead of by the district judges, and that a fixed salary be provided for them to take the place of the discredited “fee system,” which should be abolished in all offices; lary be created to police the territory outside the limits of incorporated towns | —a vast section now wholly without | police protection; and that some pro- vision be made to at least lessen the oppressive delays and costs that now aitend the prosecution of appeals from the District Court of Alaska. There should be a division of the existing { Judicial districts and-an increase in the number of judges. that a mounted constabu- Alaska should have a delegate in the Additional lighthouses In my judgment and to the Salmon hatcheries should be estab- lished in many different streams, so as to secure the preservation of this valu- able food fish. Salmon fisheries and canneries should be prohibited on cer- | tain of the rivers where the mass of those Indians dwell who live almost exclusively on fish. The Alaskan natives are kindly, in- telligent, anxious to learn and willing to work. Those who have come under the influence of civilization, even for limited period, have proved their capability of becoming self-supporting, self-respecting citizens, and ask only for the just enforcement of law and Under any circumstance and from the | intelligent instruction and supervision. very nature of the case it is often ex- | Others, living in more remote regions, primitive, simple hunters and fisher | ishment of those who have been guilty | folk, who know only the life of the woods and the waters, are daily being con- By the time the offender can be brought | fronted with twentieth-century civiliza- nto court the popular wrath against | tion with all of its complexities. Their him has generally subsided; and there | country is being overrun by strangers, is in most instances very slight danger | the game slaughtered and driven away, the streams depleted of fish, and hith- | erto | brought bine to produce a state of abject pov- erty and want which must resuit in their extinction. Action in their inter- est is demanded by every consideration of justice and humanity. unkspwn and fatal diseases to them, all of which com- The needs of these people are: The abolition of the present fee sys- tem, whereby the native is degraded, | imposed upon and taught the injustice of law. The establishment of hospitals at central points, so that contagious dis- eases that are brought,to them con- tinuaily by localized and not allowed to become epidemic, to spread death and destitu- tion over great areas. incoming whites may be The development of the educational system in the form of practical training in such industries as will assure the Indians self-support under the cl conditions in which they will have to live. The duties of the office of the Gov- ernor should be extended to include the supervision of Indian affairs, with nec- essary assistants in different districts. He should be provided with the means and the power to protect and advise the native people, to furnish medical treatment in time of epidemics, and to extend material relief in periods of famine and extreme destitution. The Alaskan natives should be given the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property upon the same conditions as given other inhabitants; privilege of citizenship should be given to such as may be able to meet certain definite requirements. In Hawall Con- gress should give tl;e Governor power to remove all the officials appointed under him. should be dredged. The Marine Hospi- tal Service should be empowered to study leprosy in the islands. I ask spe- cial consideration for the report and It should, | recommendations of the Governor of therefore, receive reasonable aid from | Porto Rico. Sreat Yavy to Back and the The harbor of Honolulu Up WJonroe Doctrine notes of the United States’ Foreign Policy. Where possible, the Congress | nacted to supplement them. Where these laws ridiculous if unsupported by potential force, and then to refuse to provide this | itself. force. If there is no intention of pro- viding and of keeping the force neces- sary to back up a strong attitude, then it is far better not to assume such an attitude. The steady aim of this nation, as of | all enlightened nations, should be to| strive to bring ever nearer the day| when there shall prevail throughout| the world the peace of justice. There are kinds of peace which are highly | undesirable, w‘lch are in the long run as destructive'as any war. Tyrants and oppressors have many times made a wilderness and called it peace. y times peoples who were slothful or timid or shortsighted, who had been enervated by ease-or by luxury, or misled by false teachings, have shrunk in unmaniy fashion from doing duty that was stern and that needed self- sacrifice, and have sought to hide from their own minds their shortcomings, their ignoble motives, by calling them love of peace. The peace of tyrannous terror, the peace of craven Weakness, the peace of injustice, all these should be shunned as we shun unrighteous war. The goal to set before us as a nation, the goal which should be set before all mankind, is the attainment of the peace of justice, of the peace| which comes when each nation is not| ! merely safeguarded in its own rights, but scrupulously recognizes and per-! forms its duty toward others. Generally peace tells for righteousness; but if there is conflict between the two, then our fealty is due first to the gause of righteousness. Unrighteous wars are common, and unrighteous peace is rare; but both should be shunned. The right of freedom and the responsibility for the exercise of that right cannot be divorced. One of our great poets has | well and finely said that freedom is | not a gift that tarries long in the hands of cowards. Neither does it tarr§ long in the hands of those too slothful, too dishonest, or too unintelligent to exer- cise it. The eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty must be exercised, sometimes to guard against outside foes: although of course far more often to guard against our own selfish or thoughtless shortcomings. If these self-evident truths are kept before us, and only if they are, so kept before us, we shall have a clear idea of what our foreign policy in its larger aspects should be. It is our duty to remember that a nation has no more right to do injustice to another nation, strong or weak, than an individual has to do injustice to another individual; that the same moral law applies in one case as in the other. But we must also remember that.it is*as much the duty of the nation to guard its own rights and its own interests as it is the duty of the individual so to do. Within the nation the individual has now dele- gated this right to the state, that is, to the representative of all the individ- | vals, and it is a maxim of the law that | for every wrong there is a remedy. | But in international law we have not |advanced by any means as far as we have advanced in municipal law. There is as yet no judicial way of enforcing |a right in international law. When | one nation wrongs another or wrongs many others, there is no tribunal be- | fore which the wrongdoer can be | brought. Either it is necessary su- | pinely to acquiesce in the wrong, and thus put a premium upon brutality and aggression, or else it is necessary for the aggrieved nation valiantly to stand up for its rights. Until some method is | devised by which there shall be a de- gree of international control over of- fending nations, it would be a wicked | thing for the most civilized powers, for those with most sense of international obligations and with keenest and mest generous appreciation of the difference between right and wrong, to disarm. If the great civilized nations of the present day should completely disarm, the result would mean an immediate recrudescence of barbarism in one form or another. Under any circumstances a sufficient armament would have to be kept up to serve the purposes of international police; and until inter- national cohesion and the sense of in- ternational duties and rights are far more advanced than at present, a nation desirous both of securing re- spect for itself and of doing good to others must have a force adequate for the work which it feels is allotted to it as its part of the general world duty. Therefore, it follows that a self-re- | specting, just and far-seeing nation should on the one hand endeavor by every means to aid in the development of the various movements which tend to provide substitutes for war, which tend to render nations in their actions | toward one another, and indeed toward their own peoples, more responsive to the general sentiment of humane and civilized mankind; and on the other hand that it should keep prepared, while scrupulously avoiding wrong- doing itself, to repel any wrong, and in exceptional cases to take action which in a more advanced stage of in- ternational relations would come under the head of the exercise of the inter- national police. A great free people owes it to itself and to all mankind not to| sink into helplessness before the powers of evil. ARBITRATION TREATIES. America Takes Lead Toward Insuring World’s Peace. ‘We are in every way endeavoring to — expressed by the first Hague conference It is not true that the United States feels any land hunger or entertains any | projects as regards the other nations of the Western Hemisphere save such | as are for their weifare. All that this/ country desires is to see the neighbor-| ing countries stable, orderly and pros-' perous. Any country whose people con- duct themselves well can count upen our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with' reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an im- potence which resuits in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, | may in America, as elsewhere, uiti-| mately require intervention by some | civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the! United States to the Monroe doctrine may force the United 'States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such! wrongdoing or impotence, to the exer-| cise of an international police power. If | every country washed by the Carib- bean Sea would show the progress in! | stable and just civilization which with | the aid of the Platt amendment Cuba has shown since our troops left the | island, and which so many of the re- publics in both Americas are constantly | and brilliantly showing, all question of | interference by this nation with their| affairs would be at an end. Our nter- ests and those of our southern neigh-| bors are in reality identical. They have | great natural riches, and if within their | borders the reign of law and justice obtains, prosperity is sure to come to them. While they thus obey the prim- ary laws of civilized society they may rest assured that they will be treated by us in a spirit of cordial and help- ful sympathy. We would interfere with them only in the last resort, and then only if it became evident that their inability or unwillingness to do justice at home and abroad had violated the rights of the United States or had in- vited foreign aggression to the detri- ment of the entire body of American nations. It is a mere truism to say that every nation, whether in America or anywhere else, which desires to maintain its freedom, its independence, must ultimately realize that the right of such independence cannot be sepa- rated from the responsibility of making | good use of it. In asserting the Monroe doctrine, in taking such steps as we have taken in regard to Cuba, Venezuela and Pan- ama, and in endeavoring to circum- scribe the theater of war In the Far East, and to secure the open door in China, we have acted in our own inter- est as well as in the Intefest of human- ity at large. There are, however, cases in which, while our own interests are not greatly involved, strong appeal is made to our sympathies. Ordinarily it is very much wiser and more useful for us to concern-ourselves with striving for our own moral and material bet- terment here at home than to concern ourselves with trying to better the con- dition of things in other nations. We have plenty of sins of our own to war against, and under ordinary circum- stances we can do more for the general uplifting of humanity by striving with heart and soul to put a stop to civic corruption, to brutal lawlessness and violent race prejudices here at bome than by passing resolutifns about wrongdoing elsewhere. Nevertheless there are occasional crimes committed on so vast a scale and of such peculiar horror &s to make us doubt whether it is not our manifest duty to endeavor at least to show our disapproval of the deed and our sympathy with those who have suffered by it. The cases must be extreme in which such a course is justifiable. There must be no effort made to remove the mote from our brother’s eye if we refuse to remove the beam from our own. But in ex- treme cases action may be justifiable and proper. What form the action shall take must depend upon the cir- cumstances of the case; that is, upon the degree of the atrocity and upon our power to remedy it. The cases which we could interfére by force of arms as we interfered to put a stop to intolerable conditions in Cuba are nec- essarily very few. Yet it is not to be expected that a peopleike ours, which, In spite of certain very obvious short- comings, nevertheless as a whole shows by its principles of civil and religious liberty and of orderly freedom, a p«;&le me, among whom even the worst cri the crime of lynching, isnever more than sporadic, so that individuals and not cl are molested in their funda- mental rights, it is inevitable that such a nation should desire eagerly to give expression to its horror on an occasion like that of the massacre of the Jews | oe in Kishenef, or when it witnesses such systematic and long-extended cruelty and oppression as the crueity and op- pression of which the Armenians have 1 of naval warfare. been the victims, and which have won for them the indignant pity of the civ- ilized world. AMERICANS ABROAD. Rights of Country’s Citizens Must Be Respected. f Even where it is not possible to se- cure in other nations the observance of the principles which ®e accept as axio- matie, it is necessary for us firmly to insist uoon the rights of our own citi- zens without regard to their creed or race; without regard to whether i standard for the officers should be kept regards ed than from the indignation inevitably excited” in seeing such fearful misrule as has been witnessed both in Armenia and Macedonia. The strong arm of the Government inu enforcing respect for its just rights in international matters is the navy of the United States. I most earnestly recommend that there be no halit in the work of upbuilding the American navy. There is no more patriotic duty before us as a people than to keep the navy adequate to the needs of this country’s position. We have undertaken to build the Isthmian Canal. We have under- taken to secure for ourselves our just share in the trade of the Orient. We have undertaken to protect our citizens from Im&roper treatment fn foreign lands. ‘e continue steadily to insist on the application of the Monroe doc- trine to the Western Hemisphere. Un. less our attitude in these and all simi- lar matters is to be a mere boastful | sham we cannot afford to abandon our naval programme. potent for peace, and s so potent because we are not afraid of war. But our protestations upon behalf of peace would neither receive nor deserve the | slightest attention if we were impotent to make them good. The war which now unfortunately rages in the Far East has emphasized in striking fashion the new possibilities The lessons taught are both strategic and tactical, and are political as well as military. The ex- periences of the war have shown in conclusive fashion that while sea-going and sea-keeping torpedo destroyers are indispensable, and fast lightly armed and armored cruisers very useful, yet that the main reliance, the main standby, in any navy worthy the name must be the great battleships, heavily armored and heavily gunned. Not a Russian or Japanese battleship has been sunk by a torpedo-boat, or by gunfire, while among the less protected ships cruiser after cruiser has destroyed whenever the hostile squad- rons have got within range of one another’s weapons. be a large fleld of usefulness for cruis- | ers, especially of the more formidable type. We need to increase the number of torpedo-boat destroyers, paying less heed to their having a knot or two ex- tra speed than to their capacity to keep the seas for weeks, and, if necessary, for months at a time. It is wise to build submarine torpedo-boats, as under certain circumstances they might be very useful. But most of all we need to continue building our fleet of battie- ships, or ships so powerfully armed that they can inflict the maximum of damage upon our opponents, and so well protected that they can suffer a severe hammering in return without | fatal Impairment of their ability to fight and maneuver. Of course ample means must be provided for enabling the personnel of the navy to be brought to the highest point of efficiency. Our great fighting ships and torpedo-boats be ceaselessly trained and maneuvered in squadrons, The officers and men can only learn their trade thoroughly by ceaseless practice on the high seas. In the event of war it would be far better to have no ships at all than to have ships of a poor and in- effective type, or ships which, however good, were yet manned by untrained and unskillful crews. The best officers and men in a poor ship could do noth- ing against fairly good oppenents; and on the other hand, a modern warship is useless unless the officers and men aboard her have become adepts in their duties. The marksmanship. in our navy has improved in an extraordinary | degree during the last three years, and on the whole the types of our battle- ships are improving; but much remains to be done. Sooner or later we shall have to provide for some method by which there will be promotions for merit as well as for seniority, or else retirement of all those who after a certain age have not advanced beyond a certain grade; while no effort must be spared to make the service attrac- tive to the enlisted men in order that they may be kept as long as possible in it. Reservation public schools should be provided wherever there are navy- yards. e gl MILITARY NEEDS. Army Should Be Kept at High Grade of Proficiency. Within the last three years the United States has set an example in disarmament where disarmament was proper. By law our army is fixed at a maximum of one hundred thousand and a minimum of sixty thousand men. When there was insurrection in the Philifpines we kept the army at the maximum. Peace came in the Philip- pines, and now our army has been re- duced to the minimum at which it is possible to keep it with due regard to its efficiency. The guns now mounted in | require twenty-eight thousand men, if the coast fortifications are to be ade- quately manned. Relatively to the na- tion, it is not now so large as the police force of New York or Chicago relatively to the population of either city. We need more cfficers; there are not enough to perform the regular army work. P is very important that the o of the army should be accustomed to handle their men in masses, as it is also important that the National Guard of the several States should be accustomed to actual field maneuvering, especially in connection with the regulars. For this reason we to be congratulated upon the suc- cess of the fileld maneuvers at Manassas last fall, maneuvers in which a larger number of regulars and National Guard took part than was ever before assembled together in time of peace. No other civilized nation has, relatively to its population, such a diminutive army as ours; and while the army is S0 small we are not to be excused if we fail to keep it at a very high grade of at the same-time the service should be made as attractive as possible; and the even highér—which. as the Our voice is now | There will always | as their brethren in the army and as the enlisted menm of the navy. Filipinos Incapable of Self-Sovernment Islanders Must Be Helped to Rise to a Higher Plane of i Crwilization. 1 In the Philippine Islands there has {been during the past year a continua- | tlon of the steady progress which has | obtained ever since our troops definitely got the upper hand of the insurgents. The Philippine people, or, to speak more accurately, the many tribes, and | even races, sundered from one another more or less sharply, who go to make up the people of the Philippine Isl- ands, contain many elements of good and some elements which we have a right to hope stand for progress. At present they are utterly incapable of existing in independence at all or of | building up a civilization of their own. I firmly believe that we can help them to rise higher and higher in the scal of civilzation and of capacity for self= | government, and I most earnestly hope {that in the end they will be able to [ stand, if not entirely alone, yet in some | such relation to the United States as ! Cuba now stands. This end is not yet .in sight, and it may be indefinitely postponed if our people are foolish ’enou_gh to turn the attention of the | Filipi: away from the problems of i achieving moral and material prosper- | ity, of working for a stable, orderly | and just government, and toward fool- ish and dangerous intrigues for a com- | plete independence for which they are | as yet totally unfit. | On the other hand our people must keep steadily before their minds the fact that the justification for our stay in the Philippines must ultimately rest chiefly upon the good we are able to do in the islands. I do not overlook the fact that in the development of our interests in the Pacific Ocean and alon its coasts the Philippines have play: and will play an important part, and that our interests have been served In more than one way by the possession of the islands. But our chief reason for continuirg to hold them maust be that | we ought In good faith to try to do jour share of the world’s work, and | this particular piece of work has been |(mpoiod upon us by the results of the war with Spain. The problem pre- sented to us in the Philippine Islands |is akin to, but not exactly like, the | problems presented ‘n the other great | civilized powers which have posses- | sions in the O:ient. There are points | of resemblance in our work to the | work which is being done by the Brit- | ish in India and Egypt, by the French |In Algiers, by the Dutch in Java, by the Russians in Turkestan, by the Jap- anese in Formosa; but more distinctly than any of these powers we are en- deavoring to develop the natives them- selves so that they shall take an ever- increasing- share in their own govern- | ment, and as far as is prudent we are already admitting their representatives to a governmental equality with our own. There are commissioners, judges and governors in the islands who are Filipinos and who have exactly the same share in the government of the islands as have their colleagues who are Americans, while in the lower ranks of course the great majority of the public servants are Filipinos. Within two years we shall be trying the ex- periment of an elective lower house in the Philippine Legislature. It may be that the Filipinos will misuse this Leg- islature, and they certainly will misuse it if they are misled by foolish persons here at Home into starting an agitation for their own independence or into any factioug or improper action. In such case they will do themselves no good and will stop for the time being all further effort to advance them and give them a greater share in their own government. But if they act with wis- dom and self-restraint, if they show that they are capable of electing a Leg- islature which in its turn is capable of taking a sane and efficient part in the actual work of government, they can rest assured that a full and in- creasing measure of recognition will be given them. Above all, they should re- member that their priMie needs are moral and industrial, not political. It is a good thing to try the experiment of giving them a Legislature; but it is a far better thing to give them schools, good roads, railroads which will enable them to get their products to market, honest courts, an honest and efficient constabulary, and all that tends to produce order, peace, fair dealing as between man and man, and habits of intelligent industry and thrift. If they are saf against oppression, and if their real wants, material and spiritual, are studiéd intelligently and in a spirit of friendly pathy, much more good will be doge them than by any effort to give them political power, though this effort may in its own proper time and place be proper enough. Meanwhile our own people should re- member that there Is need for the highest standard of conduct among the Americans sent to the Philippine Isle ands, not only among the public serv~ ants but among the private individuals who go to them. It is because I feel- this so deeply that in the administra- | ! support of our public servants in the Philippines by good citizens here in the United States. Unfortunately, hitherto those of our people here at home who | have specially claimed to be the cham- been their worst enemies. continue to be the case as long as they strive to make the Filipinos inde- pendent, and stop all industrial devel- | opment of the islands by crying out against the laws which would it on the ground that capitalists not “exploit” the islands. Sucl i ¥ i Pt 2 2 i 1 ; i i | il i i i !ii | i §§ i