AMERICAN POLICIES IN THE

PHILIPPINES IN 1902

ADDRESS OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR AT PEORIA, ILLINOIS SEPTEMBER 24, 1902

O

NCE before, and only once, I have visited the city of

Peoria. It was on that day, in the autumn of 1899, when the stately and beautiful monument to the soldiers of the Civil War, which adorns your public square, was unveiled. It was a day of festivity and rejoicing. All business and controversy and selfish care had been laid aside, and from all the town and all the country round the people had gathered to look upon the face and listen to the voice of their beloved President, William McKinley. As his sweet and vibrant tones carried his words to the very limits of the great throng, every sentence was an impulse to patriotism. Every wave of responsive sympathy lifted the people up to higher planes of citizenship and of manhood. Not merely what he said but what he was, the intimate relation of the listener to the man himself, for the moment ennobled every heart and forever left it better than it was before. His character was so pure, so unselfish, so free from uncharitableness and malice; his sympathies were so broad and genuine; his love of country and of humanity were so sincere; his sensitive regard for the feelings and desire for the happiness of others were so considerate; the native dignity and grace which fitted his high office were so charming, that the interests of political opposition and the rancor of partisan prejudice insensibly lost the wish to assail him; and even while he lived antagonism to the party leader merged into affection and honor for the man. His wisdom, his tenacity of purpose, his quiet and unostentatious strength, the sagacity and skill of his sympathetic

control and leadership over men, made his nobility of character an active force for justice and peace and righteousness. Men may find, or think they find, error in his judgments. Men may differ as to the wisdom of his policies; but that his judgments were formed in sincerity as he saw the right, that his policies were the outcome of strong desire for the peace and happiness and honor of his country and of his race, and that he worked them out, so long as he lived, along the lines of justice and of humanity, no one who knew him as we knew him, will ever doubt.

His memory lives. The powerful impress of his noble character persists. The lofty purpose with which he undertook the responsibilities and the duties which the fortunes of war cast upon the American government is still the guide of action for his party and his country. The first words spoken by his successor, when taking the oath of office at Buffalo were: "It is my purpose to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley for the peace, prosperity and honor of our beloved country." I challenge judgment upon the truth and loyalty with which Theodore Roosevelt has redeemed his promise. The murderer's bullet robbed us of a friend; it did not produce a revolution. It changed rulers; it did not change policies. The great party which was in power has continued the same, and its policies have continued. President Roosevelt has followed them not merely because he promised but because he approved. If he had not approved he could not have promised, for there is no shadow of deceitfulness in him. With loyalty and resolution, with the vigor of his intense convictions, and with the honesty, frankness and courage for which the American people love him, he has continued the work McKinley began and pressed forward the performance of the great duties which they both believed the welfare of their country and of mankind imposed upon the Government of the United States.

The American people are now called upon to consider whether they wish to withdraw their support from the policy of McKinley and of Roosevelt and elect a House of Representatives which will oppose and, by a hostile majority, frustrate and prevent all further effective action by the President.

Of course such action as that would result in an ineffective government. A government half Republican and half Democratic can never be a government of progress or of affirmative action. It cannot deal with difficulties or accomplish beneficent results. If the honor and welfare of the country demand that things be done, that constructive statesmanship accomplish results, such a divided government would fail. That may be no reason why the people should not change the majority in the House for sufficient cause, but it is a reason why it should not be done lightly, thoughtlessly, and for the mere sake of change. Grave disapproval and loss of confidence only could justify the people in thus dividing their government against itself.

What has the Republican administration of the country done, or failed to do, to call down upon it such a disapproval and loss of confidence ?

The principal, indeed almost the sole attack by the representatives of the Democratic party, which occupied the greater part of the last session of Congress, was violent denunciation of the Administration's policy in the Philippines, and of the execution of that policy. A crowd of difficulties to be dealt with by the Administration had accompanied the war with Spain. A large army had been raised, the national debt had been increased by the borrowing of $200,000,000, burdensome war taxes had been imposed. In the islands yielded or ceded by Spain, millions of men of alien races, differing in language, in laws, in customs, in traditions, in prejudices, in ways of thinking, most of them ignorant,

most of them suspicious, many of them unfriendly, were to be pacified and reconciled and governed and taught selfgovernment. New experiments in government were to be tried. There were no precedents, and precedents were to be made. There was no governmental machinery, and governmental machinery was to be constructed. The principles of American liberty were to be applied to new and strange conditions among peoples who hardly knew the alphabet of freedom.

By the spring of 1902 the Republican Administration had dealt with all these difficulties, and as to all but one had reached a point where the success of a wise policy and effective administration could not be gainsaid.

The army of 270,000 men had been disbanded, and the regular force had been reduced to two-thirds of the permanent number allowed by law to safeguard the country against future attacks. The war taxes had been repealed, and the industry and property of the country had been relieved of their burden. The process of again reducing the national debt had progressed so far that, through payment and refunding, after paying all the expense of the war in Cuba and in the Philippines, the annual interest charge upon the debt was less by $6,844,431.70 than it was at the opening of the war with Spain.

Plain duty had been done by Porto Rico, and done with such judgment and discretion that a new system of taxation, suited to her conditions, was studied out in detail, put in force, and made productive, taking the place of the customs duties upon which she had relied, without a break or embarrassment in the financial affairs of her government. American currency had replaced the Spanish pesos, civil government had been established upon just and firm foundations, the laws which protect individual liberty had been planted in that unfamiliar soil, the judicial procedure which

protects the innocent had been substituted for arbitrary power, the writ of habeas corpus, the great writ of personal freedom, had supplanted the incommunicado. The storm of detraction and abuse which raged around the Administration in the spring of 1900 had died away and disappeared upon the demonstration of the wisdom of the Republican Porto Rican policy, and before the spectacle of a prosperous and happy people, governed by the harmonious action of their own elected legislative assembly and of the officers appointed by the President of the United States.

The work of pacification and construction in Cuba had been completed. Military government there had faithfully given effect to the humane purposes of the American people. With sincere kindness our officers had helped the Cuban people to take the steps necessary to the establishment of their own constitutional government. During the time required for that process they had governed Cuba wisely and justly; had honestly collected and expended for the interest of the people the revenues, amounting to nearly sixty millions of dollars; had executed thorough sanitary measures, improving the health and lowering the death rate. By patient, scientific research, they had ascertained the causes of yellow fever, and by good administration had put an end to that most dreadful disease which had long destroyed the lives and hindered the commercial prosperity of the Cubans; they had expedited justice and secured protection for the rights of the innocent, while they had cleansed the prisons and created healthful conditions for the punishment of the guilty; they had provided adequate hospitals and asylums for the care of the unfortunate; they had established a general system of free common schools throughout the island, in which over two hundred thousand children were in actual attendance; they had constructed great and necessary public works; they had trained the Cubans themselves in all branches of admin