¦DEC 7- 1904
library.
THE PEOPLE'S PARTY
eampaign of /90U

¦:¦:¦::¦;¦:-¦¦:¦:

BREVET COLONEL H1DIEK B. Sl'UAOnE.

3 Speech Delivered in Germania Hall, Hartford, Conn., Nov. 5, IOOU,
by Homer B. Sprague, Ph. D., of Boston, Mass.

"We see dimly in the present what is small and what is great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate."

THE PEOPLE'S PARTY.
(A Speech by Homer B. Sprague, at Hartford, Conn., Nov.
The Evening Leader. )

5, 1904, from

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens:
We have reason to congratulate the
country on the character of the presi
dential candidates — Roosevelt, Parker,
Watson, Debs, Swallow. They are ali
clean, honest, honorable men; in pri
vate life ornaments of society, good
friends, good neighbors, good citizen?.
Let us not defile them nor ourselves
with mud-slinging.
Bach party, too, has rightfully some
thing good to say of itself. The Re
publican recalls the grand name and
deeds of Abraham Lincoln and his il
lustrious compeers. The Democratic
party is justly proud of its great foun
der, Thomas Jefferson, and other sign
ers of his immortal Declaration. The
People's party, yet unspoiled by am
bition, is what it claims to be, the un
selfish advocate of the political equality
of all men. The Socialists would repro
duce on a world-wide scale the happi
ness, alas too brief and otherwise too
limited, of that ideal brotherhood when
the early disciples "had all things in
common." The Prohibitionists are
faithful champions of one of the noblest
of causes.
AN OCCASIONAL CHANGE OF AD
MINISTRATION
is desirable. Nothing is more health
ful in the body politic than a strong
opposing party. It is stimulative, pre
ventive, and curative, — an "outward
conscience," holding the party in con
trol to its principles, warning the un
faithful of the lash that shall scourge
corruption and folly, and pointing out
the remedy for the evils we feel or
fear. Long-continued party supremacy in
evitably tends to corruption. The or
ganization more and more degenerates
into a mere machine. Secure against
change, the managers are in danger
of becoming a gang of adventurers,
bent on using the party simply for
their own selfish aggrandizement. Is it
not true that the power, the honors, the
offices, the emoluments come to be re
garded but as leigtimate spoils to re
ward the victors; that' principles are

forgotten, and all the machinery of.
party is manipulated by so-called
"bosses" for themselves alone? And
so we hear of a Democratic primary
gang; a Republican Quay or Philadel
phia machine, declared by John Wana-
maker to be worse than Tammany
Hall; a Delaware or Addicks junto, and
even a Washington ring.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY NO EX
CEPTION.
Save for the brief period of the
Cleveland regime, the Republicans have
wielded the power of the national gov
ernment ever since the end of our civil
war, forty years ago. They are plaus
ibly charged with apostasy. Certain
ly some of its leaders have of late ig
nored its lofty ideals. The party as a
whole during the last six years has
seemed to many to be no longer the
conservator of equal- rights. The
charge is made on probable, nay, seem
ingly incontrovertible grounds, that its
recent career has been characterized by
greed, false glory, ambition for con
quest, an almost irresistible tendency
to plutocracy. Unlike the great men o!'
fifty years ago, the present leaders for
the most part appear at times to be
cunning and shifty politicians rather
than far-seeing, magnanimous states
men. How few, like George S. Bout-
well of Massachusetts — the most heroic
figure now on the political horizon
shining like the setting sun — have
stoutly resisted the insidious ideas an'l
sentiments that seem fast turning the
commonwealth into an empire! Are
we not exemplifying anew the sad gen
eralization of the poet?
There is the moral of all human tales ;
'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past,
First Freedom, and then Glory! When
that fails.
Wealth, vice, corruption — barbarism
at last:
And History, with all her volumes vasl
Hath but one page.
REPUBLICANS WILL "STAND PAT"
in everything. From the whizzing
rocket-like orator down to the sputter-

ing pin- wheel "spellbinder," every Re
publican declares that, if victorious
in this campaign, the adminis
tration of public affairs for
the next four years shall be exactly
what it has been during the last six,
so far as circumstances shall permit.
Without exception they ring the chimes
of unstinted praise of everything the
party has done during the reign of Mc-
Kinley and Roosevelt.
WHAT HAS THAT POLICY BEEN?
Not the policy of Jefferson or Lin
coln. Commonwealth rapidly taking on
the complexion of empire, old founda
tions forgotten, if not consciously
abandoned; the fundamental principles
of the great charter of freedom, the
Declaration of Independence, scouted
by the present secretary of war as "im
possible dogmas;" greed of gain, sub
stituted for love of man; "gold and
glory" proposed by Senator Depew as
our motto instead of liberty aiid inde
pendence; a craze for epaulettes and
plumes -and swords and quick-firing
guns and battleships and army maneu-
vres and target practice, that we may
strut as a world power and show our
selves able to "whip all creation;" ambi
tion to "dominate" this hemisphere
and the Pacific ocean; fierce disdain of
inferior races, and a determination to
exploit for our own commercial ad
vantage; the golden rule ridiculed as
not "up-to-date," and a general defi
ance of the doctrine of the fatherhood
of God and the brotherhood of man —
have not these mischievous tendencies
been too often and too painfully man
ifest in the recent past?
A BIT OF HISTORY.
On the 15th of February the battle
ship Maine was blown up in Havana
harbor. The Spanish government im
mediately invited the United States to
join in appointing a commission of
Spanish and American experts to in
vestigate the cause of the explosion
and to fix the blame. We declined the
proposal. Insurrection against Spanish
authority had long been raging in Cu.
ba, and it had recently broken out
again in the Philippine Islands. On the
21st of March our consul, Williams, at
Manila, telegraphed to the government
at Washington that the new rising
against the Spanish was very serious
and never more threatening to Spain.
In April, 1898, not knowing that Spain
at the intercession of the good pope of
Rome had offered to withdraw from

Cuba in a few hours and leave Cuba
independent, our congress by resolu
tion asserted that "The people of Cuba
are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent," and declared war against
Spain. On motion of Henry M. Teller,
Democratic senator from Colorado,
these words were added:
"The United States hereby disclaims
any disposition or intention to exer
cise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or con
trol over said islands, except for the
pacification thereof, and asserts its de
termination* when that is completed,
to leave the government and control of
the island to its people."
On the first of May, 1898, Admiral
Dewey, by destroying the Spanish fleet,
annihilated the Spanish sea power on
the Pacific ocean. But the enemy had
a strong garrison in Manila. They
were held in check there by a large and
increasing, though poorly armed force
of Filipinos. On the 19th of May,
young Aguinaldo, the recognized leader
of the Filipinos in their rebellion
against Spain, arrived from Hong
Kong in an American ship to assist the
United States in capturing the Span
ish forces. He emphasized the ardent
desirv of his countrymen for independ
ence. Independence was everywhere
proclaimed as their universal desire.
Dewey furnished him arms and ammu
nition. THE PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC
PROCLAIMED.
On the 24th day of May Aguinaldo
by public proclamation invited all his
countrymen to rally to the aid of the
Americans, and to establish a re
public. They responded in vast num
bers till they had assembled an
army of twenty or thirty thousand,
poorly equipped but enthusiastic
in their admiration of the Ameri
cans and in their desire to fight tho-
Spaniards. to win independence, and
to establish a republic. They drew a
cordon around the city of Manila, cut
ting off .-.11 communication between the
Spanish forces and the interior. Re
peatedly and earnestly Aguinaldo be
sought Dew ey to join in a. simultaneous
attack by land and sea and capture
the city. But Dewey, under instruc
tions from Washington, held back He
was waiting till American troops
should arrive from San Francisco Ha
had great respect for the Filipinos
On the 23rd of June, 1S98, he tele
graphed to the government, at Wash-

ington: "These people are far superior
In their intelligence and more capable
of self-government than the natives of
Cuba, and I am familiar with both
races." On the 24th of June Aguinaldo
proclaimed the independence of the
Philippine Islands.*
FILIPINO CAMPAIGNING.
Aguinaldo was busy organizing, arm
ing and drilling his forces, and prose
cuting military operations against the
Spanish ports at a distance from Ma
nila. The important city of Iloilo was
captured without American aid. The
Spanish garrison, prisoners of war in
the handa of the Filipinos, were well
treated; there was no looting, no sack
ing, no disorder. A Red Cross society
with Aguinaldo's wife at the head ol
It had been organized to care for the
wounded, the sick and the helpless. On
the eleventh of July, Captain CogUlan
of Dewey's fleet, delivered to Agui
naldo 400 Spanish soldiers, who had
surrendered, with about 100 sick, and a
hundred women. All were kindly
treated. Finally, without the presence
or aid of the Americans, the Spanish
garrisons throughout the islands, ex
cept at Manila, were captured by the
Filipino forces. The patriots' dream of
independence and self-government was
fast becoming an accomplished fact.
CAPTURE OF MANILA.
Manila was still unattacked. Dewey
was still waiting for American troops.
The first installment arrived June 3C.
They continued to come. The Spami'i
army, hemmed in on the landside by
some thirty thousand Filipinos and
some thousands of Americans, and on
the sea by Dewey's fleet, saw that re
sistance was vain. Their general of
fered to capitulate soon; but, to save
his "honor" in the eyes of Spain, he
thought it necessary to have a show
of battle and a goodly number of sol
diers killed off. The conflict thus ar
ranged for was fought on the 13 th of
August. The proper number of Span
iards were cleverly killed, and the rest
surrendered to the Americans. So at
this time our soldiers held the city,
bay and harbor of Manila. Aguinaldo
and his partiotic countrymen held all
the rest. The Spaniards retained in
their possession not a square mile of
all that territory. Spain had lost
everything. If they had ever had any good titia
they had forfeited it long before, and
now they had been kicked out of the
islands. Senator Wolcott of Colorado

in his great opening speech at the Re
publican convention at Philadelphia in
July, 1900, truthfully declared "The
cruelties and oppression existing in
Cuba were mild compared with the
treatment to which 8,000,000 of peop'.e
in the Philippines were subjected by
Spain." They i.ad a belter right than
the Cubans to be free and independent.
They trusted the Americans to do
what they had solemnly promised to
do with Cuba, and the fascinating
vision of a republic, modeled after that
of the United States, seemed to them
an assured reality.
THE FILIPINO CONGRESS.
Aguinaldo summoned a congress of
eminent and representative Filipinos.
It numbered about ninety members.
Among them were seventeen university
graduates. A distinguished American,
who visited the congress during its ses
sions, declared that in knowledge and
ability and in the conduct of public
business, its members compared favor
ably with those of the parliament of
Japan, with whose deliberations he
was also familiar. Of the constitution
which they prepared, the ablest and
best of the Republican senators, the
Honorable George F. Hoar, declared in
a great speech delivered on the floor of
the United States senate, "Not twenty
men on this planet could have drafted
a better constitution."
ENTHUSIASTIC HOPES OF THE
FILIPINOS.
The joy of the people during the sum
mer and autumn that followed Dewey's
victory was unbounded. The cruel ty
rant had been expelled. Not a vestige
of Spain's authority remained. Their
long-baffled hopes were in process of
fruition. Their struggles, sufferings
and sacrifices seemed not in vain. They
looked upon the Americans as their
saviors. They almost worshiped us and
our flag. The great republic, they said,
had come to their rescue, and would aid
them in establishing an independent na
tionality. From the 5th of October to
the 20th of November, 1898, two gentle
men of the highest respectability, Naval
Ensign Leonard R. Sargent and Pay-
masted W. B. Wilcox, traveled to and
fro many hundreds of miles on a tour of
inspection and observation through
nine provinces of the island of Luzon
then containing over 3,000,000 inhabi
tants. These witnesses bore abundant
testimony in emphatic terms to the

good sense, courtesy, hospitality and
enthusiasm of the people, and their
general and joyful acquiescence in the
new regime, the first oriental "govern
ment of the people, by the people, and
for the people." Admiral Dewey, Dec.
1, 1898, approved and forwarded the
official report of Sargent and Wilcox,
vouched for their high character, and
called the special attention of the Wash
ington authorities to the document as
containing the most complete and accur
ate information. For six or eight
months this dream lasted.
SUSPICION AROUSED, DANGER
THREATENED.
But what meant the rapid increase of
the American army in the Philippine
Islands; the inflowing tide of cavalry,
infantry, and artillery? Spain had
neither ship nor soldier within ten
thousand miles. The Filipinos grew
suspicious. Could it be that the repub
lic which had freed Cuba, and by a
unanimous vote "disclaimed all disposi
tion or intention to exercise any sov
ereignty, jurisdiction or control" over
that island — could it be that the Amer
ican people, the special champions and
guardians of liberty, were preparing to
subjugate their friends, their allies,
their comrades in arms? Could it be
that the great republic was preparing
to strangle her youngest child, the com
monwealth just born, the first to see
the light and lift the standard of lib
erty in the eastern world?
RECOGNITION REFUSED.
Most earnestly did Aguinaldo and his
associates appeal repeatedly to our
government at Washington to receive
and listen to a representative of their
people. Repeatedly did they beg in
behalf of the millions of their country
men to be heard by the board of com
missioners in session at Paris, delegates
representing the United States and
Spain, discussing and formulating the
terms of a treaty. The protocol or first
draft, outlined by President McKinley
about the) middle of August, claim
ed for the United States nothing but
the city, bay and harbor of Manila; but
now he demanded the whole archipela
go. Judge Gray of the commission
protested vigorously against this as
wrong in morals. He was overruled.
Meanwhile the American troops kept
pouring in and crowding the brown
men, whom they called "niggers," fur
ther and further back. Repulsed and
snubbed at Washington and Paris,

Aguinaldo and his associates still hoped
against hope. "What harm," they ask
ed, "have we ever done to the Ameri
cans? Why should they turn against
us? Are we not following their ex
ample? Have they forgotten their own
Declaration of Independence? The
American president and the American
army may turn against us; but surely
the American people and the American
congress will come to our rescue."
MCKINLEY'S FATAL MISTAKE.
At last like a thunderbolt came the
astounding order of President McKin
ley. It was dated December 21st, 1898;
and it read: "The military government
heretofore' maintained by the United
States in the city, harbor, and bay of
Manila, to be extended with all possible
dispatch to the whole of the Philippine
Islands"! "The bold grasp of the Phil
ippines was his," said Henry Cabot
Lodge. AN ACT OF WAR.
Remember this was several months
before the treaty with Spain went into
effect, and while it was still very doubt
ful whether it ever would be in force.
It was submitted to our senate three
weeks later, and ratified by us Februa
ry 6th. But it came near failing alto
gether, and would have been rejected
but for the earnest efforts of William
J. Bryan, who in the simplicity of his
heart believed that our government
would treat the Philippines as we prom
ised to treat Cuba. It was ratified by
Spain some weeks later.
McKinley's order was an unmistaka
ble act of war, a virtual declaration of
war, the proper business of congress
alone according to the Constitution of
the United States. It was a high
handed usurpation by our sweet-souled
president. Translated into plain Eng
lish it said to the Filipinos: "Submit
to our authority, or we will kill you.
Obey, or die!"
THEY CHOSE TO DIE.
But they still hoped that the Amer
ican congress would not ratify the land-
grabbing treaty. They could not quite
believe that the American people would
sanction the cruel inconsistent action
of our well-intentioned but misguided
president. "I have studied the United
States constitution," said Aguinaldo,
"and I find in it nothing to warrant
them in holding subject colonies."

WAR.
The two armies were facing each oth
er at Manila. The Americans, con
scious of their superiority, were eager
for a fight. Aguinaldo and the prin
cipal generals of the Filipino army
were fifty miles away at Malalos, at
tending a session of the Filipino con
gress. One of our sentinels, a soldier
from Nebraska, observed a Filipino
strolling across the line between the
two armies, and, contrary to the usage
that had prevailed up to that time,
which was to arrest the trespasser, our
sentinel shot him dead. This was the
first blood shed in the struggle that
was to prove so bloody. Another was
killed. Firing instantly began along
the whole line, though the Filipino
army was unprepared for immediate
action and their leaders were many
leagues away. They were defeated with
great slaughter. It was a massacre
rather than a battle, for the Americans
were thoroughly prepared and very
¦clever with their machines of murder.
The Filipinos were forced a long dis
tance back. Next day our brave gen
eral, Otis, sent a dispatch to the war
-department in which he said as fol
lows: "The enemy were not prepared
to assume the initiative. They acted
everywhere on the defensive; the
Americans everywhere vigorously on
the offensive." Otis was merely obey
ing President McKinley's order to "ex
tend with all possible dispatch the mil: -
tary government to the whole of the
Philippine Islands."
BEGGING FOE PEACE.
Aguinaldo hastened to the scene of
conflict and immediately sent a com
mission to Otis begging that there
might be no more fighting, and pro
posing chat a neutral zone should be
established, a wide space between the
two armies, so that further bloodshed
might be averted, at least until the
government at Washington could be
heard from. Otis would grant no
armistice, no neutral zone. He fiercely
replied in these words, "The fighting
has begun, and it must go on to the
grim end." And so it has gone on and
it is hardly yet terminated; for, in the
southern part of the Philippine Islands
within the last six months, General
Wood has reported that he has slain
in battle several hundred rebel Moros.
The war department reports more than
2,500 "engagements" between the
Americans and the insurgents in re
bellion.

REBELLION.
They had never been under our do
minion but they had repeatedly bean
in rebellion against Spain and we
bought them from Spain and so suc
ceeded to Spain's right to crush the
rebellion!Rebellion, foul dishonoring word,
Whose w rongful blight so oft hath
stained
The holiest cause that tongue or sword
Of mortal ever lost or gained.
How many s spirit born to bless
Hath sunk beneath that withering
name,
Whom 'jut a day's, an hour's success
Had wafted to eternal fame!
THE NUMBER MURDERED.
On Wednesday evening of last week
(October 28, 1904) in a speech at Ithaca,
N. Y., the secretary of war, William H.
Taft, ex-governor of the Philippine
Islands, stated that according to the
official reports to the war department,
there had been killed during this war
1,087 of the American army, and that
by disease, suicide, and other casual
ties incident to war 4,177 others of our
officers and men had perished there,
making, up to the first of last July, a
total of 5,264 dead. Of the FiliDinos lie
said the reports of our officers show
15,365 killed in battle. He does not ap
parently include those of the enemy
who died of wounds or sickness. These
usually outnumber the slaughtered,
three or four to one; so that the esti
mates by the Filipinos, of over 50,000
of their soldiers perishing in their per
sistent struggle for independence, are
probably correct. ||
MONEY COST OF THE WAR.
On the 12th of May, 1902, in a speech
in the United States senate, the la
mented George F. Hnai, who died »
month rgo, solemnly declared, and no
man has stood up to contra
dict him till since his death,
"The conflict in the Philip
pines has cost you six hundred million
dollars." Reckoning the expenses that
would not have been necessary if we
had not taken the islands by-force, one
of the ablest of American statistician^
Dr. Edward Atkinson, estimates the
money cost up to the present time as
over a thousand million. But the sec ¦
retary of war last week declared that
the cost has only been a little ovei
one hundred and eighty-nine million.
Well, $189,000,000 of the people's money

is a large sum to be sunk and lost in
this bloody business. It would pay for
all the buildings and grounds of thirty
Yale universities or thirty-five Har-
vards, and we have not got back ooe-
twentieth of what we have so foolishly
spent. NON-COMBATANTS DESTROYED-
Senator Hoar in that great speech
also declared: "The conflict has cost
you thousands of American soldiers,
the flower of youth, the health and
sanity of thousands more, and hun
dreds of thousands of Filipinos slain."
That was spoken in May, 1902. On
the third day of that month, Gen.
James M. Bell, who served in our army
in the Philippines, and who had special
facilities for ascertaining the truth and
no motives to misstate the facts, as
serted: "One-sixth of the natives of
Luzon (amounting to more than five
hundred thousand) have either been
killed or have died of the dengue fever
in the last two years."
The cruel "reconcentrado" policy,
adopted by the Spanish in Cuba, and
against which President McKinley had
eloquently protested before the war
with Spain — the herding together in
great enclosures of old men, women,
children indiscriminately, threatening
with death any who should escape-
while our armies burned the houses,
barns, stores, implements of agricul
ture, destroyed the crops, devastated
the fields, seized and drove away the
cattle, and made the country in many
places a howling wilderness — this poli
cy was adopted on a great scale in the
Philippine Islands. It was announced
by our commanding general: "A policy
will be pursued that will make every
one in these islands have a burning de
sire for peace." He issued the order:
"Make them want peace, and want it
badly." Within the last three months
the newspapers have stated that this
"reconcentrado" policy has again been
resorted to in the island of Samar, in
a district containing 20,000 inhabitants
— ill-fated Samar, of which it was tes
tified that one of our generals com
manded his soldiers, "Make it a howl
ing wilderness- Kill all above ten." 1
trust it is not true. After the election
is over we may be permitted to know.
And so friends and foes were driven
in. It is horrible enough when soldier.'
in battle are hacked down with sabres,
or stabbed to death with bayonets, or

made into hash by machine guns. But
here were non-combatants, deprived of
all that makes life dear; and when they
were at last let loose, in want of all
things, houseless, homeless, friendless,
cold, starving, broken-hearted, dying of
pestilence like sheep, thousands, yes,
hundreds of thousands of them. The
Filipinos declare that nearly a million
so perished; our Gen. Bell says over
half a million.
Oh the famine and the fever!
Oh the wasting of the famine !
Oh the blasting of the fever!
Oh the wailing of the children!
Oh the anguish of the women!
WHAT WAS THEIR CRIME?
Simply this: Some of them had rela
tives or friends or neighbors or fellow
countrymen in arms fighting for their
independence, or suspected of sympa
thizing with the rebellion, or not con
tributing all they might to aid the
Americans in putting it down- And
so they must be punished; for, said oui
General Hughes in justification of the
order, "You can't punish a man worse
than to punish his family." This
Philippine war — is it not the darkes-"
chapter in American history?
THE BLACKEST DEED OF ALL.
The capture of Aguinaldo March 23,
1901, was effected by first deliberately
forging letters purporting to be from
the rebel general Lacuna, skilfully im
itating his handwriting and using his
captured seal; then sending the con
cocted letters to Aguinaldo, falsely as
serting that a company of his soldiers,
between seventy-five and a hundred,
were on their way to bring to him Am
erican prisoners whom they had cap
tured in battle. In violation of the
usages of civilized warfare, this gang
wore the enemy's uniform, carried the
enemy's flag, and pretended that some
of their number had surrendered. Ar
rived near Aguinaldo, they were in
danger of starvation, and they sent to
him begging for food. He instantly
sent supplies and gave orders that the
supposed American prisoners should be
treated with the utmost kindness.
Reaching at last the spot in their dis
guise, they opened fire upon Aguinal-
do's guards, killing several and seiz
ing him.
The contriver and executor of this
plot was one Funston. He was thanked

by President McKinley and promptly
promoted to be a brigadier general.
THE SULU INFAMY.
Such in part is the policy of the last
two Republican administrations — a pol
icy which they loudly proclaim that
they shall duplicate as far as circum
stances shall permit. Beyond a doubt
if we get a slice of China, or of any
other region inhabited by a different
race from ours, the party, if again in
vested with political power, will ful
fil their promise and repeat the crime.
It is a. phase of the imperialistic policy
upon which they have entered. The
Sulu infamy further illustrates that
policy. What is imperialism ? The com
bination under a central authority
of peoples having different forms of
government. On the 20th of August, 1899, a sort of
treaty was drawn up, signed and
sealed, and afterwards it was ratified
by President McKinley between General
John C. Bates in behalf of the United
States on the one side, and the Mo
hammedan sultan on the other.By vir
tue of this treaty slavery was permit
ted to continue and has continued to
this day in pointed violation of the
Constitution of the United States;
Moro fugitive slaves are to be deliv
ered up to their masters, who have
power of life and death; polyg-imy
shall be "respected;" and their religion
shall never be interfered with, though
one article of their faith teaches that
whoever kills a Christian is sure of
admission to the seventh heaven. Pres
ident McKinley objected at first to the
recognition of slavery; but he was like
the amiable lady in Byron,
"Who, saying she would ne'er consent,
consented." IMPERIALISM.
Our flag now floats over three peo
ples; a free people in the United States,
a subject people whom we govern in
spite of their dissent in the north of
the Philippines, and a people under an
absolute despotism in the south of the
Philippines. This illustrates imperial
ism. Ours is essentially false as well
as despotic. After the battles of Lex
ington and Concord in 1775, and again
after the battle of Long Island in 1778,
George III. at the opening of the Brit
ish Parliament, said he wished "to re
store to the Americans the blessings
of law and liberty!" The trouble 13,
no despot ever thinks his subjects fit for
liberty, so long as he can extort money

from them without their consent. Sec
retary of War Taft, who for years gov
erned the Filipinos in spite of their dis
sent, wringing from them by "taxa
tion without representation " his sal
ary of $20,000 a year in gold, when all
they could earn by their labor was
twenty or thirty cents a day, thinks it
will take some generations to fit them
for independence. The spirit of despot
ic greed is contagious. Poet Laureate
Robert Southey, once an ultra-liberal
Democrat, in his Life of Nelson, some
twenty-five years after our Constitu
tion was adopted, declared that "the
Americans received their independence
before they were fit for it."
Tyranny is good at excuses. "What
could we do with the Philippines?" it
asks. We might answer, "Let them
alone." But we are instantly and ev
erywhere met with the assertion, "If '
we leave them to themser. es, they will
go to killing each other." So, to pre
vent that, we have ourselves killed off
from fifteen to fifty thousand of them!
"What could we do with them?" Do
with them as we promised to do with
Cuba, distinctly promise them their in
dependence, and keep the promise better
than we have kept that. "But men
must EARN their freedom by strenu
ous effort," says President Roosevelt.
"Have they not earned it?" we answer.
Besides our navy, we had to send 126,-
468 soldiers to the Philippines (the fig
ures are Secretary Taft's) to subdue
those who were for years fighting for
independence; and now, when by the
most stringent measures on a large
scale, including the water torture, we
have wrested from them every weapon
of war, it still requires there a stand
ing army of 15,r&0 regular soldiers to
keep them in subjection. "But we
bought them," said Secretary Hay at
Carnegie Hall last week. So said Shy-
lock when he wished to cut out Anto
nio's heart:
"The pound of flesh which I demand
Is dearly bought; 'tis mine and 1 will
have it." *
But it is often said, "If we had not
seized the islands, some other power
would have done it." So Bancroft
quotes the British Tories as saying, "If
we give up the American colonies,
France will seize them." It amounts
to this: "Watch what the other wants
to grab, and grab it first."
Despotic power recoils. You a Free
mason, are not allowed to meet your
brother Masons in a lodge in those

islands. You, an American, cannot
have trial by jury there. Except, pos
sibly for a few weeks, while this presi
dential campaign is going on, no free
speech is allowed you there. Nay,
even now free speech is deprecated here,
lest it stir up discontent there. What
high United States official was it that,
two years ago, suggested the arrest of
Senator Hoar for advocating Philippine
independence? Was it Governor Taft
that four years ago, at Manila, declared
that all that kept the rebellion alive was
the agitation in America, and that, if
Bryan were defeated, the war would
cease in sixty days?
MILITARISM.
There is a craze for military glory.
No man admires much in Mr. Roosevelt
more than I. He has splendid quali
ties of mind and heart; but from his
childhood, his biographers tell us, he
has longed to be a soldier and to win a
warrior's laurels. When a student in
college he taught a class in Sunday
school. One of them came in with a
black eye from fighting. Roosevelt
rewarded him by giving him a dollar.
Once he started out to fight a. duel, but
his antagonist backed down. "In the
long run," said he, "a Quaker may be
as undesirable a citizen as a duellist."
He "sincerely regrets the decline of the
military spirit" in New England. His
biographer, Leupp, tells us Roosevelt
"often treats peace with scorn"; that it
had always been "a fond dream" of
Roosevelt to take part in a war.
Roosevelt says, "It is not always desir
able for nations to act with great disin
terestedness and generosity towards
other peoples." He affirms, "No foot
of soil to which we had any title in the
northwest should ever have been given
up. We ought to have taken it all.
We should have hard fighting with Eng
land, to be sure. We should have given
ourselves the benefit of every doubt,
and shown ourselves READY TO
MAKE PROMPT APPEAL TO THE
SWORD." He very strongly urged at
tacking the Spanish fleet immediately,
BEFORE WAR WITH SPAIN WAS
DECLARED. His fiery argument in
favor of such violent measures in
breach of international law made Mc
Kinley smile and members of the cab
inet laugh aloud. He was in favor of
taking the Panama strip "treaty or no
treaty"; but the sudden revolution ren
dered such high-handed action unnec
essary. He said he had a "bully time '

10

in the fighting at some place in Colora
do, I think it was at Victor. He told
the cadets at West Point in June, 1902,
"You must not only be willing to fight;
you should be anxious to fight. I
WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOTJ
IF YOU ARE NOT ANXIOUS FOR A
FIGHT." At Sea Girt, Long Island,
he expressed regret that the Spanish
war was so brief. He says, "Our dan
ger always is that we shall spend too
little, and not too much in keeping our
selves prepared for foreign war."
It takes the Japanese two minutes,
the Russians fifteen, to sink a battle
ship which costs $7,500,000. Dike Hob-
son and Secretary Morton, the president
wants a $2,500,000,000 navy. The ordi
nary life of a battleship is twelve or
fifteen years; then it goes into the junk
shop. One of them costs a million and
a half more than all the 94 buildings of
Harvard university. For 120 years
since our independence was won
no nation has ever attacked us. Why
throw away the people's money by the
thousand million for army and navy?
Were half the power that fills the world
with terror —
Were half the wealth bestowed on
camps and courts
Given to redeem the human mind from
error,
There were no need of arsenals and
forts! WAR IS HELL.
So says Sherman, echoing the words
of the great John Wesley, who solemn
ly declared, "The business of war is
the business of hell." Can you imag
ine our Lord and Savior leading a
charge, and shouting, "Come on boys!
Cut, stab, shoot; they want to be inde
pendent; give 'em h— !" Then, again,
war brings frightful demoralization.
Our armies introduced into Manila hun
dreds of liquor saloons and a thousand
prostitutes, the latter licensed, inspect
ed, and certificated by our army sur
geons f^r four dollars a week apiece!
Furthermore in ninety-nine wars out
of a hundred, more injustice is perpe
trated than is prevented or punished.
Yet Governor Black in his speech, nom
inating Rooseve't, evidently with the
approval of hi= master, scouted abiding
peace as a childish dream !
RACE HATRED.
Is not the new outbreak of lynching
North and South due in part to the ex
ample set by ourgjjjrnment in tramp-

ling upon the rights of men in the Phil
ippines? We never justify the Demo
cratic party for disfranchising the
black man; far from it; but Republi
can Oregon has in her constitution a
more cruel provision in regard to col
ored men than -can be found on the stat
ute book of any southern state; and it
was a Republican governor that inter
cepted a train load of imported negro
workmen -and threatened to fire upon
them if they left the cars. There is
little or no difference in the attitude of
the two great parties towards the ne
gro. "What would you do with Booker
Washington? asked a. northern gentle
man of a distinguished southern Demo
crat who is now stumping the South
for Parker. " I would shoot him," was
the answer. THE PEOPLE'S PART5T
ALONE SEEMS CONSISTENTLY TO
ADVOCATE THE POLITICAL EQUAL
ITY of white and black EVERY
WHERE. THE MONEY POWER.
Back of and beneath almost all of
our political evils and dangers is the
abuse of enormous wealth in the
hands of one or a few. It can buy leg
islature, lawyers, courts, juries, votes,
newspapers, professors in colleges,
ministers of the gospel, churches — al
most everything. Greed for gain was
at the bottom of our land grabbing
in the Philippines and in Panama, and
if opportunity again arises, we are
likely to see this conduct repeated. The
first public avowal of this policy that
I have seen was that by Senator De-
pew at Carnegie Hall in New York
city last week. He said as follows:
"The Republican party intends to hold
the Philippines because every business
man, manufacturer and artisan is inter
ested in them. This country needs
them for markets. What is this
war between Russia and Japan for?
It is for markets for the surplus pro
ducts of highly organized industrial
nations. This war will come to
an end, and when it does there will
be, as there was after the battle of
Waterloo, an adjustment by the great
powers of the world. There will be
gathered about the table England,
Russia, France, Germany, and possi
bly Japan, but there will be a power
there that was never there before, and
that power will say: "Yes, divide these
peoples as you will, for trade purposes,
but when you come to parcel out and
divide China, we will have something

1
to say." For bald and fearless avowa
and apparent approval of gigantic sel
fishness as a rule of national action,
I have never heard anything quite equal
to this.
Is the dollar only real, God and truth
and right a dream?
Weighed against your Jying ledgers
must our manhood kick the beam?
I fear it is too true. Chinese Daniel is
to be torn in pieces, and America must
be on hand to get her share of the car
cass! INDUSTRIAL SLAVERY
seems not far off. "These mills will close
on Monday next if  is elected."
This notice was given in large manu
facturing establishments four yearg
ago. The employer of a thousand
workmen can control their votes by
intimidation or by purchase, his only
fear perhaps being that they will not
stay frightened or stay bought.
PANIC AND BOOMS.
A dozen men can by combining th.iir
influence control the money volume
Passing the word around they can
make the issue easy and plentiful, stim
ulating production, raising wages,
bringing prosperity. When prices are
thus made artificially high, they can '
sell out and rake off into their pockets,
their coffers, and their safe^ an enor
mous sum of cash. Then by raising
the cry of over-production, and by
passing the word around that hard
times are impending, they can gradu
ally contract the issue of money, stop
discounting of notes, reduce produc
tion, lower wages, shut down mills,
bringing adversity ,md distress upon
multitudes. When ;they have thus pro
duced a shortage nf money and prices
have touched bottom, then they can
use their accumulated cash and buy in
for a song the depreciated property.
Then gradually they can again expand
the currency till business booms and,
when prices have reached the top notcil
then they sell out again, getting the
benefit o? inflation- Again they slow
ly contract the circulating medium, and
at last tyuy in again vast properties at
merely /nominal values. So the sponge
is alternately filled and squeezed, and
at ey'ery squeeze more money comes
into/their chests, and at every inflation
mo/e land and other property are added
to/ their permanent holdings! The
n/ioney kings are not fools.

11/

DEADLY USURY.
Having got a million dollars, for his
fingers are in a million pockets, one
can lend it out at 4 per cent. The in
terest is $40,iliin a year. $3,300 a month.
$110 a day. He perhaps compounds it,
and his property doubles in a few yearn.
Here is a man worth 25 millions. At
4 per cent, interest, it will bring him
in a million a year. He need not lift
a finger, except to sign his checks. Ij
there not something radically wrong
here? He is not to blame. It is the
system. TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES.
Legislation against these has amount
ed to little or nothing. Fifteen suit
or prosecutions were brought against
a few of them twelve years ago. They
are still pending in court, and the law-
. yers know how to keep them there
\ indefinitely. If the cases were decidej
tagainst them, tittle would come of it.
l\he disease lies deeper.
VhE PREVENTION OR CURE.
NEjTTHER (.IF THE TWO GREAT
PARTIES PROPOSES ANY REM
EDY. \ Both profess to be hos
tile to k trusts; but if they were sin
cere and; successful in their opposi
tion, they\would not obviate the awful
danger tha\t impends over the country
from enonnVius aggregations of wealth
in the bands\of a few. The greed of
PLUTOCRACY MUST GRADUALLY
BE CRUSHEj\ or the republic goes
down. Suits ar.iil legislator! against in
dividuals or corporations will not work
a cure.
The People's Party alone strikes ef
fectively at the ROvOT of the evil, and
that WITHOUT H,\ i;n TO VESTED
RIGHTS. v
INCOME AND INHERITANCE TAN.
Sufficient income tax will stop the
dangerous overgrowth of wealth, and a
sufficient inheritance tax will stop th ¦>
transmission of abnormal \and really
dangerous accumulations to'-, one's de
scendants. Not a dollar shoulM be tak
en from the possessor during \his life
time. Let his right to it be h.eld sa
cred. But let the residue of anmiial in
come or of excessive hoarded richves at
last come to the public treasury, tio be
returned in a hundred beneficent w.ays
to the people. Among these is t he
public management of

PUBLIC UTILITIES.
The railroads, the mines of coal,
copper, iron, silver and gold, the oil
wells — whatever utilities may in the
hands of monopolists prove to be man
ifestly sources of inconvenience and
great danger to the people. These the
People's party believes should be su
pervised and if necessary, acquired by
fair purchase and owned by nation,
state or municipality.

Candidates.
Thomas E. Watson, candidate for
president, is learned, brilliant, and
fearless. His reputation for honor and
integrity is world-wide. The candi
date for governor of Connecticut I have
known intimately for more than fifty
years. I know better than any other
man that his great object, his supreme
desire, expressed to me a thousand
times, has during all these years been
to promote the welfare of his fellow
men Every good cause has had his
sympathy. Above all, he has dared to stand
alone, when it cost something to stand
alone, for what he deemed just and
right. He cannot be elected. He may
receive few votes or many. What of
that? It is nothing to him. People are
beginning to appreciate him at last,
and sure I am that this loving and
reverent appreciation will grow, and
increasing numbers for many years to
come will thank God for Joseph Sheldon.

*In an elaborate article in the Annu
al Report of our commissioner of edu
cation for the year 1897-98, expert R . L.
Packard (Vol. I, p. xlvi) declared that
there were then over 6,000,000 Christians
in the Philippine Islands, and that
nearly all the Tagalos (afterwards the
principal fighting antagonists of the
Americans) could read and \\ -ite. In
the islands there were 1,016 beys'
schools. 592 girls'. The University of
Manila, older than Harvard, had about
eleven thousand graduates.
|| In all other modern wars the usual
proportion of wounded to killed on the
spot is three or four to one; but in our
battles with the natives there, we
killed, according to the official reports,
about four times as many as we
wounded. We do not like to think that
no quarter was given on the field to
the wounded or prisoners.

,12

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