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Show "Lest We Forgtt." A few years ago wben a transport returned from the Philippines the papers were full of the news, the. soldiers were met at the docks by enthusiastic friends and admirers and it was a national event, Now when a transport arrives it receives merely prefunctory mention and no one pays more than passing attention to the boys in khaki. The American public is as fickle as a coquette. It is for the thing of the moment and its idols are worshiped, wor-shiped, but a day. The worship is fervid while it lasts, but it is well for the object of. the adoration to make the most of his triumph while he may. Yet the work of Uncle Sam's offleerg and men in the Philippines has been greater and better since the close of the war with Spain than it was in those exciting days. While we have forgotten them and ceased to regard them as of any interest, they have been working steadily away, helping to solve one of the greatest problems a nation ever undertook. And it has been pretty well solved. The Philippines have been pacified and made orderly. or-derly. Progress is being made by the natives, and while they have not exactly been benevolently assimilated as-similated they have advanced to no small extent. We think the strongest opponent of so-called imperialism im-perialism will hardly contend that the change has not been for the better. Military and civil forces have worked together to bring it about. They have worked unceasingly and the American spirit of accomplishment ac-complishment has been behind it, and that spirit never fails to bring about the desired end. We would all have been happier had the burden of the Philippines not fallen upon the United States, but the hand of fate was in the thing and there was no other course. We think the United States never arose to an emergency better. She worked on In the face of hostility in the islands and hostility at home until now the worst is over, and the outlook is for ample reward for all the labor and the loss. - Although we would not have the old United .States different from what she is, we wish for the boys who have done the work that a little more recognition rec-ognition fell to their lot. But we are a big, good-natured, good-natured, indifferent, selfish Nation, and those of us who do things must get our reward from the consciousness con-sciousness of having done our best. It is a great country for hero worship, but the hero is just as likely to be the breaker of an automobile record as the man who created a new nation. |