7th April. WE do not think the New York Nation will do any good to itself or anything else by the line it continues to take on the question of the occupation of the Philippines by the United States. It is neither patriotic nor statesmanlike to treat a. fit accompli, from which the Government cannot possibly recede, with a constant fusillade of gibes' arid sneers, to mock incessantly at "the Christian policy of civilizing the Filipinos by means of rifle and cannon." Mr. Godkin might remember that, one of Boston's sanest and most clear-headed writers has said that Civilisation does get formd Sometimes upon a powder-cart."
It is quite possible that if President McKinley and Admiral Dewey had foreseen how Aguinaldo and his clique would accept their liberation by the United States from Spanish misgovernment, they would have hesitated; but it seemed a year ago and indeed was necessary that Admiral Dewey should destroy the Spanish naval power in the Philippines, and with it the Spanish rule collapsed altogether. There are those who blame the United States now for the fighting that Aguinaldo's recalcitrance has forced upon them; but they would have blamed the States still more and more justly, if Admiral Dewey, after destroying' such government -as the Spaniards maintained, had sailed away and left the islands to stew in their own juice. Mr. Godkin goes farther than the facts warrant in saying, as he does in the Nution of the 23rd of February: "Even after reinforeements arrive, it will be impossible to hunt the natives down in detail without enormous loss of life. If they choose to go on fighting, we may have for a long time nothing better to offer to the world in the way of Philippine government than the Spanish did—that is, the coast towns held by force, and the interior left. unexplored and uncontrolled." After all, it is only one tribe, the most important tribe, no doubt, the Tagals of Luzon, who are fighting the Americans; the other islands have accepted the domination of the United States. It is quite possible, or rather probable, that Aguinaldo himself is only hoping to be bought off by Admiral Dewey, as he was bought off before by the Spaniards, and he and his friends are still wrangling over the purchase-money in Hongkong. Even if it came to this, that the Americans did only hold the coast towns by force, and left the interior alone for the present, their influence would gradually spread farther and farther from those towns inland. Being Anglo-Saxons, they are not likely to leave the interior unexplored, and the Filipinos are not savages unused to and inimical to trade. If the Americans do everything in their power to foster trade atthe coast ports by an honest {and enlightened administration, the Filipinos will be ready and encouraged to put away their arms and devote themselves to money-making. Even among the Malay races, it is only individuals who go on fighting for the mere pleasure of it. In fact, our telegram of the 4th from Hongkong tells us that already the natives are returning to their homes daily.
Under the heading "The President in Boston," the Vation in its issue fof the 23rd of February last attacks President McKinley's recent speech to the Home Market Club at the hub of the United States. Mr. Me-Kinley had the pluck to wnsa good many of his former atti in favour of Protection and depreciatory of foreign trade, and his recent declarations against the policy of adventure in the Philippines, and for this Mr. Godkin calls him a humbug, an opportunist, and an expectant and obedient servant of the people. President McKinley may not Gon great statesman, but he would not be more of a statesman than he is, if he did _not change his views and his policy with changing circumstances. Dis-radi died as convinced a free-trader as he was once an ardent protectionist, and his most scathing satire was lavished, and justly, on his former friends when they twitted him with being a turn-coat. When Congressman McKinley gave his name to the Protectionist tariff, the United States had hardly begun to send their manufactures abroad for sile; they are now as keen as England or Germany to invade the world's markets.—Freetraders in England have felt all along that if once the United States abandoned their protective tariffs they would become most formidable competitors in foreign markets; that competition is well begun, and the principle of high tariffs is visibly tottering. It is poor policy of. the Nation, which has always been in favour of free-trade, to repulse a convert, whatever his inducements to accept a sounder doctrine. When Mr. VeKinley was a strong advocate of the Monroe doctrine and an opponent of expansion, the events of the past year were not dreamt of; but the statesman is not he who holds to his preconceived opinions whatever happens; but he who grasps the circumstances of the time and moulds his policy accordingly. The man who goes on walking on the roadway because he has always done it and his father before him, is likely to be knocked down and killed when tramways are introduced. Whether it is manifest destiny or what, by the concatenation of circumstances and without conscious intention, the United States have had to take up the White M..:'s Burden in the Philippines, and must' make the best they
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.