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OTHER OCCUPATIONS IT WOULD BRING EXPENDITURE WITHOUT RETURN
AND RISK WITHOUT REWARD.
Farmers and laboring men have, as a rule, small incomes and, under sys-
tems which place the tax upon the consumption, pay more than their fair
share of the expenses of government. Thus the very people who receive least
benefit from imperialism will be injured most by the military burdens which
accompany it. :
In addition to the evils which he and the farmer share in common, the
laboring man will be the first to suffer if Oriental subjects seek work in the
United States: the first to suffer if American capital leaves our shores to em-
ploy Oriental labor in the Philippines to supply the trade of China and Japan;
the first to suffer from the violence which the military spirit arouses, and the
first to suffer when the methods of imperialism are applied to our own gov-
ernment. :
[t is not strange, therefore, that the labor organizations have been quick
to note the approach of these dangers and prompt to protest against both rhil-
itarism and imperialism.
The pecuniary argument, though more effective with certain classes, 1s
not likely to be used so often or presented with so much emphasis as the relig-
ious argument. If what has been termed the “gunpowder gospel” were urged
against the Filipinos only, it would be a sufficient answer to say that a majority
of the Filipinos are now members of one branch of the Christian church, but
the principle involved is one of much wider application and challenges serious
consideration,
RELIGIOUS ARGUMENT CONSIDERED.
THE RELIGIOUS ARGUMENT VARIES IN POSITIVENESS FROM A PASSIVE
BELIEF THAT PROVIDENCE DELIVERED THE FILIPINOS INTO OUR HANDS,
FOR THEIR GOOD AND OUR GLORY, TO THE EXULTATION OF THE MINISTER
WHO SAID WE OUCHT TO “THRASH THE NATIVES (FILIPINOS) UNTIL THEY UN-
DERSTAND WHO WE ARE,” AND THAT “EVERY BULLET SENT EVERY CAN-
NON SHOT AND EVERY FLAG WAVED MEANS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
We cannot approve of this doctrine in one place unless we are willing to
apply it everywhere. If there is poison in the blood of the hand it will ultimately
reach the heart: It is equally true that forcible Christianity, if planted under
the American flag in the far-away Orient, will sooner or later be transplanted
upon American soil. If true Christianity consists in carrying out in our daily
lives the teachings of Christ who will say that we are commanded to civilize
with dvnamite and proselyte with the sword? He who would declare the Divine
will must prove his authority either by Holy Writ or by evidence of a special
dispensation.
The command, “Go ve into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature,” has no Gatling gun attachment. When Jesus visited a village of
Samaria and the people refused to receive Him, scme of the disciples suggested
that fire should be called down from heaven to avenge the insult ; but the Mas-
ter rebuked them and said: “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of;
for the Son of Man came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”
Suppose he had said: “We will thrash them until they understand who
we are,” how different would have been the history of Christianity! Compare
if vou will, the swaggering, bullving, brutal doctrine of imperialism with the
Golden Rule and the commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Love, not force. was the weapon of the Nazarene; sacrifice for others, not
the exploitation of them, was His method of reaching the human heart. A mis-
sionary recently told me that the Stars and Stripes once saved his life because
his assailants recognized our flag as a flag that had no blood upon it.
’