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Show IGNORANCE OR - WHAT? DEWEY'S OPINION OF FILIPINOS. Plain Facts Give an Answer to Some Peculiarly Garbled Statements. Mr. Bryan said in his speech at Te-cumseh, Te-cumseh, Nebraska, on Wednesday: "I urged the ratification of the treaty of peace, and also urged the passage of a resolution promising independence to the people of the Philippines, and if your Republican administration had passed the resolution there would not have been one drop of blood shed in the Philippines." The Republican administration, as Mr. Bryan knows, did not have anything any-thing to do with the passage of a resolution reso-lution promising independence to the Filipinos. The 'resolution was before Congress, and was opposed by Republicans Repub-licans and Democrats alike. The statement state-ment that if the resolution had been passed not one drop of blood would have been shed in the Philippines is flatly contradicted by the facts. On November 6, 1808 three months before the treaty of peace was ratified Apacible, Filipino agent at Hong Kong, wrote Aguinaldo as to the nur- chase of arms and equipment, and advised ad-vised him to postpone the plan of attacking at-tacking the Americans until the Filipinos Fili-pinos were better prepared. A letter from Aollinario Mabini, president of "31 UUIuufiWs-eeunciL- written about the same tifne, related the discussion In the council of the plans for attacking the Amiriftans, and announced the decision de-cision of the councilors to place the whole matter In the hands of Aguinal-do Aguinal-do himself. This was weeks before the resolution promising Independence to the Filipinos was introduced in Congress Con-gress and three months before the treaty trea-ty was ratified. As early as October 25, 189FVguln-aldo 189FVguln-aldo wrote the officer commanuing the Spanish troops at Manila, proposing an alliance of Spaniards and Filipinos to drive the Americans out of the Philippines. Philip-pines. On January 7, 1899, Agulnaldo wrote to friends in Manila warning them to leave the city because of the proposed attack on the Americans. Tbe treaty of peace was ratified on February 6th. The McEncry resolution, resolu-tion, which Mr. Bacon sought to amend so as to pledge the United States to withdraw from the Philippines and acknowledge ac-knowledge the Filipino government, was presented in the Senate February 7th. Three days before blood had been shed in the Philippines by a general attack at-tack of the Filipinos on American troops. In answer to the question if he believed be-lieved the Filipinos capable of self-government, self-government, Mr. Bryan said: "Admiral Dewey stated in a message to the secretary sec-retary of the navy that the Filipinos were better capable of self-government than tue Cubans, and that he formed his Judgment after a study of both races. This is not flat falsehood, but comes very near it. On his arrival In New York, September 26, 1809, Admiral Admir-al Dewey gave out an authorized Interview Inter-view which was published In all the leading American newspapers. He was asked: "Do you consider the Filipinos capable of self-government, at least enough so to justify the withdrawal of American forces?" The admiral answered: an-swered: "No; they are not. They are more capable of governing themselves than the Cubans are. Some of them I doubt not, are now capable of administering admin-istering affairs, but the great majority of them have the crudest ideas of honest hon-est and efficient government. They don't know the meanlug of the word honesty." Neither Mr. Bryan nor any other Democrat ever quotes this deliberate opinion of Admiral Dewey. Neither Mr. Bryan nor any other Democrat ever mentions the fact that the proclamation procla-mation of the President to the Filipinos, Fili-pinos, issued December 23, 1S98, and officially proclaimed in Manila January 5, 1809, four weeks before there was any shedding of blood, promised more of liberty and self-government to the Filipinos than was ever promised by Jefferson to the people of Louisiana, or by President Polk to the people of California Cal-ifornia and New Mexico, or by President Presi-dent Johnson to the people of Alaska. Chicago Inter-Ocean. |
