Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1900 — BILLTHE BLUNDERER [ARTICLE]

BILLTHE BLUNDERER

APPELLATION WHICH MAY BE GIVEN M’KINLEY. Pr**ld*nt la Likely to Involve the United State* in China Just no Ho Haa Done in the Fhilippinea—Luzon Not Subjugated. Washington correspondence: There will be no special session of Congress. At first it was rather h puzzle to know why McKinley was so afraid of his own Congress, but a canvass of the directory showed that so many of the opulent Republican Congressmen are spending the summer in Europe that the Impecunious Democrats who stay at home would have a majority in the House If an extra session were called now. The administration has no notion of having a hostile Congress on its hands with an election approaching. His own Republican Congress made more adverse campaign material than McKinley likes to contemplate. A session now with the Democrats in control in the House would emphasize the issue of Imperialism in the most startling fashion. McKinley hurried to Washington from Canton at the first report of the murder of the legations at Pekin, but now he has gone back and resumed his front poroh campaign. Meanwhile about 15,000 troops will be sent over to China to get into quarrels with the troops of the continental powers. When they have been sacrificed McKinley will do the baby act just as he did in the Philippines matter and beg for more troops and plead that unlimited blood and treasure should be wasted because he drifted along and got into complications of his own making In the first place. The continental powers are quarreling with each other about their respective spheres of action in China. Russia has the advantage in being on the ground, and she is not the nation to give up an advantage. England, having no white troops to send, is trying to form an alliance with the United States and Japan as against the field. On account of his understanding with Great Britain, McKinley is hurrying all the troops that can be mustered to China. If the Monroe doctrine had not been relegated to the Umbo of oblivion long ago with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the Republican party would not now be dragging this nation into a war whose end cannot be foreseen. There is plenty to excite apprehension. The Chinese have modern guns and know how to use them. Despite internal dissensions they have thousands of soldiers to every hundred that European nations can furnish. The Chinese are fighting for the preservation of their nation against foreign aggression. The usual sophistries about our “interests” are being put forth in order to furnish an excuse for getting involved in the international quarrel which is about to begin. It may be well to remember that the only trade interests the United States had were given because we approached the Chinese as a peaceful power, having no sympathy with the imperialist designs of foreign powers. The Chinese trouble has served to show the exact situation in the Philippines. The administration has been sending out rose-colored reports for the last six months, stating that the Filipinos were subjugated, and that merely a few “robber bands” remained to be hunted down." Now comes General McArthur's statement that he cannot spare any of our enormous army in the Philippines to march on China, and that he will have to have 100,000 men in order to complete the campaign in the Philippines. This gives the lie to the stories which the administration has been sending out for campaign purposes. The Filipinos are no more conquered than they were eighteen months ago. They are fighting for independence. If 4t had been given them In the first place, along with protection against foreign Interference for a reasonable ime, there need have been no war. It is noticeable that Roosevelt in his rampant and warlike speeches neglects to state what results have attended applied imperialism In the Philippines. The Republicans had the effrontery to assume that they could choofle the campaign issue, and they are much chagrined to find that the people agree with the Democrats that “imperialism is the paramount Issue.” The First Fruit of Imperialism. Sixteen insane soldiers In a darkened emigrant ear passed through Council Bluffs lately. They came from the Philippines, and were going as fast as steam could take them to a living death at the U. S. hospital in the city of Washington. Fine, stalwart fellows they were, at least most of them. They were unshaven and begrimed with dirt from their long journey through the heut and dust of the Alkali deserts, A few were gaunt, and the vacant stare told only too plainly that God’s image had been brought down to the reasonless state of the mere animal creation. A vigilant regular watched and waited on the poor fellows who laughed and jlbbered like apes Inside the darkened cur. Very few wgre above 21 years »ld, and it wrenched the heartstrings to ree some of the young fellows talking io themselves, about “home,” and •mother," and .be "toys and girls" that once grouped themselves In the “old nest,” that they in this world should rev no more forever. Then other* were violent, and to prevent a tragedy their guardians manacled them, and strapped them to a seat, where they moaned like some mad creature In Its agony.