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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

American
Anti-Imperialist League

Office of the Executive Committee
164 Dearborn Street, Room 517
CHICAGO

' George S. Boutwell, President.
William J. Mize, Secretary. Frederick W. Gookin, Treasurer.
vice-presidents
Andrew Carnegie. Donelson Caffery. Richard T. Crane. Carl Schurz
1 . Sterling Morton. Rufus B. Smith. John J. Valentine.
' FINANCE COMMITTEE
Daniel M. I,ord, Chairman, Chicago. Herbert Welsh, Philadelphia.
Dana Estes, Boston. I,ouis R. Ehrich, Colorado Springs.
Robert Fulton Cutting, New York. EXICUTIVE COMMITTEE
Ed"^in 'burritt Smith, Chairman.
President, Secretary, Treasurer, Ez-Offido.
Edgar A. Bancroft. Louis R. Ehrich. William H. Fleming.
George G. Merce k. , Frank H. Scott. Winslow W^arren.
Charles b. Wilby. Erving Winslow. Sigmund Zeisler.
Charles M. Sturges. Geo. I,. Paddock.
-Ernest H. Crosby.

This League is organized to aid in holding the United States true to the
' principles of the Declaration of Independence. It seeks the preservation of
the rights of the people as guaranteed to them by the Constitution. Its
members hold self-government to be fundamental, and good govemment
but incidental. It is its purpose to oppose by' all proper means the extension
of the sovereignty of the United States over subject peoples. It will con
tribute to the defeat of any candidate or party that stands for the forcible
subjugation of any people.

CORRESPONDENCE IS SOLICITED.
5 '

ADDRESS TO THE LABORING AND PRODUC
ING CLASSES OF THE UNITED STATES.

The American' Anti-Imperialist League and the Auxiliary
Leagues were formed for the purpose of laying before the people
the evidence of a design, on the part of President McKinley to
give to the American Republic the characteristics and the policy
of an Empire.
The charge was made in a formal manner as early as the 1 5th
day of August, 1899. We gave a name to the pur pose, and to
the policy. We called it Iinperialism.
In this address we omit the use of words and phrases and we
ask your attention to facts that are of common knowledge 'and
free from controversy. We shall then ask you to consider the
probable consequences of the policy indicated by the facts.
' We are engaged in a warlike contest with ten million people
who occupy islands in a tropical climate and ten thousand miles
from our ports.
The contest has continued for the space of twenty months.
An army of sixty thousand men has been employed at a cost of
four million dollars a week and the sacrifice of many lives eacji
month. The war is not ended. Stable governments have not been
set up, and there are no evidences of peace, except in the Sulu
Isles, where peace has been purchased by pensions on the public
teeasury and a recognition of the crimes of slavery and polygamy.
' The presi4ent, with the sanction of the Republican party, has
declared that the war is to go on until the Filipinos acknowledge
our sovereignty and submit to our rule.
These statements are statements of accepted truths and they
warrant certain conclusions.
• The war is to go on at an enormous cost iri men and money
and without justification on our part.
Who are to furnish the men and by what means is the army
to be kept in the field ? The laboring population rnust furnish
the men, either by voluntary enlistments or through a process of
conscription. Is there any element in this contest in the Philippine Islands
which invokes the sentiment of patriotism in any American ?

Voluntary enlistments can be secured only by the prostration
of the industries of the countrj-. This is one branch of the
altemative by which an army in the East is to be kept in the
field. The other branch of the altemative is a system of con
scription. Are the laboring people prepared to accept either branch of
the altemative ?
And next: On whom do the war expenses fall, which, upon
the present basis, are not less than twelve dollars annually for
every family of five persons ? The war expenses are to be paid
¦•by taxes, or by an increase of the public debt, ¦which is taxation
delayed. Every stamp duty paid bj- a banker, or landlord, or dealer
,^ merchandise is a revenue assessment upon labor that at some
time and in some form must be paid.
As to the wisdom or unwisdom of the exemption we express
no opinion; but the incomes of those who enj 03- incomes are freed
from taxes bj^ the national govemment.
The war concerns, and it chieflj- concerns, the laboring and
producing classes of the countr}-. Your destiny and the fortunes
pf the country are in your hands. You can bring the ¦war to a
close and that forthwith, or you can authorize its continuance
for an indefinite period of time.
No one is called to the support of this war upon moral or
equitable grounds. It is not so defended by the Administration.
The President defends the war upon the ground of national
pride coupled ¦with an exhibition of philanthropic statesmanship.
Others sustain the war because we are in the war, while they
admit its un^widsbm and injustice on our part. Others sustain
the war because the Philippines appear to be valuable as a prop
erty possession.
The laboring population ought not to heed any of these con
siderations. Le.t your demand be this: Prove to us that this
war ¦was just and necessar5Mn the beginning; that it has been
just and necessary at every stage of the proceedings; that its
continuance is the demand of justice ; and that an honorable
peace is not attainable. These demands ¦will not be answered.
They cannot be answered.
You are invited to accept a promise of prosperitj', and the
in\atation is tendered in a form of offensive grossness. The

invitation says to the woi-kingraan of America,: "Your only
interest in government is a full supply of your physical wants. ' '
The proffer, such as it is, carries with it certain conditions.
With the promise of prosperity and a supply of your physical
wants you are to accept President McKinley. You are to furnish
the recruits for the army, ^and each year every head of a family
is to yield to the government, in war taxes, an amount equal to
the weekly earnings of a laborer.
These are the inevitable results of a policy of war. Can a
policy of peace be more offensive, more disastrous to the
industrial and producing classes of the country ? And this,
whatever may be the circumstances incident to a condition
of peace. What is the measure of prosperity that is promised to ygu ?
The country is now in war. Is the prosperity which you now
enjoy adequate to the demands of family life with something
over for the contingencies of age and sickness ? With war before
yoti, and before the country, is any improvement in your
condition possible ? Is not the promise a vain promise ? And
where is the security ?
The evils and burdens of which we have spoken are not
conjectural, they are actual ; they are evils and burdens which
now i-est upon the country, and which are to continue while the
war shall last.
Without your endorsement of President McKinley, his
re-election is so near an impossibility that the contingency does
not merit consideration. His re-election can be secured only
through your support. Thus your own fortunes, and the
fortunes of the country are in your hands.
By his re-election you guarantee the continuance of the war
•until the Philippine Islands are in fact, as well as in form, a part
of the possessions of the United States.
We ask you to consider this question: Are not the products
of your industry to come into competition with the products ^of
their industry? The Supreme Court may decide that the
Philippines are of the territories of the United States. In that
event trade must be free, legislation cannot interrupt freedom in
trade between the several states and territories of the Union.
Your security must be found in ehding the war, and in
abandoning the islands. Otherwise, you stake everything upon

the opinion of 'the Coiirt, whose record leads to the conclusion
that there must be freedom of trade between the states and
territories of the Union whatever may be the tenure by which
territories are held. Assume now your votes for Mr. McKinley,
assume his election, the war prosecuted, the Filipinos subdued
to a condition of peaceful servitude, and freedom of trade
established between Manila and the ports of the Pacific, what
then will be the prospect opening before you? When thu
Philippines are recognized as a part of the United States, the
.' right of the inhabitants to reside and to labor in any State is
; guaranteed by the Constitution, and their right to travel cannot
' be interrupted. Of more importance, even, is the fact that the
products of their home labor can be sent to every part of the
United States. No tariff can be applied to a part only of the
United States. Thus you are to be brought into competition
with laborers whose customary wages are less than thirty per
cent of what you are now receiving, who need neither fuel nor
clothing for warmth, and whose living expenses are less than
fifty per cent of the expenses of the American laborer. Beyond
these evils the incorporation of the Philippine Islands into the
American union is a menace to every manufacturing town and
city in the country. If some mills were transferred from the
North to the South in pursuit of cheap labor, may not whole
towns, and with stronger reasons, be transferred from America
to Asia ?
" The cheap labor of Asia and especially of tropical Asia
threatens directly or indirectly every form of American labor —
the meat and grain j)roducing industries of the Northwest, which
are dependent largely upon the manufacturing to^wns and cities
of the East ; the sugar industry from Minnesota to Louisiana ;
the hemp industry of Kentucky ; the tobacco industry of
Connecticut and Virginia, and the fruit growing industries of
Florida and Cahfornia — all, all are in peril through the passion
for conquest and the war policy of the McKinley Administration.
For the evils that exist there is one remedy ; against the
evils that are apprehended there is one security: The defeat of
President McKinley.

President of the American Anti-Imperialist Iveague,

THE "SINGLE TRIBE" FICTION.

Edwin C. Pierce of .Providence, R. 1, in the Springfield (Mass.) Republican.

In a letter in the Republican of September 17,1 showed the
falseness of the pretense of Mr. McKinley in his letter of accept
ance that a majority of the Filipinos welcome American rule,
refuting the claim bj^ evidence contained in the letter of accept
ance itself.
The letter of acceptance asserts the same false claim in
another form, as follows : ' ' The American people are asked by
our opponents to yield the sovereignty of the United States in
the Philippines to a small fraction of the population, a single
tribe out of the eighty or more inhabiting the archipelago. . . . "
Both Mr. McKinley and Gov. Roosevelt have repeatedly
spoken of the adherents of the Aguinaldo govemment as a
single tribe, sedulously conveying the impression by the use of
the word tribe that the Tagalogs, who are intended by the
"single tribe" reference, are like a tribe of ¦wild American
Indians. It is proper to speak of the civilized Filipinos as consisting
of tribes only as it is permissible to speak of the American or
British people as composed of different tribes, referring to their
various descent. The people of I^uzon and the Visayan group
h^ve been d-vdlized and Christian for centuries, the only excep
tions to-day being a very small number of mountaineer savages,
split up, indeed, into numerous tribes. Nor is it true at all that
the civilized Filipinos are not a homogeneous people, constitut
ing ' for all practical purposes one people. For proof of this
statement I refer to the testimony of Prof. Dean C. Worcester,
one of the President's Philippine commission. Prof. Worcester
spent several years in the Philippines before the Spanish war,
and in 1898 was published his book entitled " The Philippine
Islands and Their People." At page 475 Prof. Worcester says :

' ' The iinportant questions which intimately concern the future
of the Philippines result from the character of the five millions
of civilized natives, and the conditions existing in the regions
which they now inhabit." "They belong to three tribes, the
Tagalogs, the Ilocanos and Visayans. Some attempt has been
made to draw fine distinctions between the Tagalogs and Visayans,
rather to the discredit of the latter people, t^ut I confess that'it
seems to me a little far-fetched. . "'". .' 'S^&e differences will
inevitably be found between the inhabitants of different islands,
or even of different parts of the same island, yet I think that
the civilized natives show sufficient homogeneity to be treated.
as a class. ' '
The civilized Filipinos are as homogeneous as the Swedes
and Norwegians. There are about eighty tribes in the Philip
pine islands, but they mostly inhabit small islands, many hundreds
of miles distant from lyuzon, having remained almost entirely
untouched by Spanish civilization or government, and are not a
practical factor in the Philippine question.
Does not, Mr. McKinley know of the opinion of his o^wn com
missioner. Prof. Worcester, that ' ' the civilized natives show suflSc
ient homogeneity to be treated as a class ?' ' And Prof. Worces
ter says these homogeneous people number five millions.
In the September number of the Review of Reviews there is
an article on "Pressing Needs of the Philippines," by Maj.
John H. Parker, 39th infantry. United States volunteers. Maj.
Parker says : —
The preconceived ideas of Americans about them are nearly
all wrong. ,'.':i7 '
I . Although they are fighting in a manner generally con
trary to the laws of civilized warfare, yet they are not an
uncivilized people. They are uniformly polite, both to each
other and to foreigners; they are intelligent, and generally able
to read and write ; - they are a very religious people ; they have
always been accustomed to a system of law and' legal settlements
of disputes ; they have produced generals, poets, lawyers,
painters and business meu of recognized ability — some of world
wide reputation ; and they ajre eager to learn the ways of
advanced civilization.
2. lyike ourselves, they are a mongrel race, formed by the
survival of the hardest-lived traits in a ¦varied and cosmopolitan
(Oriental) ancestry.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIB

3 9002 01505 5370

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