President Taft: "denying American citizens the right to keep arms...."

TAFT AND THE PHILIPPINES.

   There are probably but a small percent of the voters of the United States who ever think about the condition of the people of the Philippines. They are just forgotten in the daily exactions of our modern civilizations. But as we bought the Philippines and are continuing to be responsible for their welfare, we should know how the are faring under our "beneficent assimilation."

   As Secretary Taft, the republican candidate for president, has been the virtual dictator of the policy of the United States toward the Philippines, the conditions there may take on political significance.

   In a recent issue, the Inter-Island News published at Zamboanga, P.I., said:

   "Taft's sympathies are altogether with the great and powerful, and, in his estimation, the rights of property are paramount to the rights of man. He is a natural born autocrat, and, with a hungry mob of place hunters back of him, would set about creating a strong centralized government Which would be the stepping-stone to the abrogation of the most cherished rights of the American people. In our estimation, his government of the Philippine Islands proves this beyond all dispute, since it was one continuous assault upon the rights of the people through arrogant control of the judiciary, abolishing trial by jury, appealing from verdicts of 'not guilty,' increasing punishment on appeal, denying American citizens the right to keep arms, and the enactment of severe libel and sedition laws. Let his record of despotism in these Islands be a warning to the American people to trust Taft in no position where he can demolish the structure of their government."

   Whether this pen picture of Taft and his doings is true, or exaggerated, there must be enough truth in it to cast grave doubts about his fitness for president of the United States.

[Aberdeen Herald, Aberdeen, Washington, June 29, 1908. Vol. XXII. No. 84. Pg. 4]