Vol. XVIII, No. 7 V7ASHINGTON 



July, 1907 





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SOME RECENT INSTANCES OF NATIONAL 

 ALTRUISM* 



The Efforts of the United States to Aid the Peoples 

 of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines 



By Hon. William H. Taft 

 Secretary of War 



I ASK your attention today to the 

 page of the nation's history cov- 

 ering the last nine years, with the 

 hope of showing that there never has 

 been on the part of any country a greater 

 exhibition of pure altruism than that ex- 

 hibited by the United States from the 

 beginning of the Spanish War down to 

 the present day, toward the peoples who 

 were immediately affected. 



As we read the history of a man or a 

 nation, that which excites our admiration 

 is courageous action for which no motive 

 can be found save that of a desire to dis- 

 charge a duty to mankind. A study of the 

 conduct of our nation with respect to 

 Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, 

 covering now nearly a decade, ought to 

 fill every American with pride. I do not 

 mean to say that there were not Ameri- 

 cans who entered upon the war or fav- 

 ored the Cuban or the Philippine policy 

 from motives of selfishness, and with a 

 hope of increasing our trade and enlarg- 



ing our dominion from the mere love of 

 exploitation and empire, but the great 

 body of the people went into and fought 

 out the Cuban war, assumed the burden 

 of the temporary government of Cuba, 

 and the more or less permanent govern- 

 ment of Porto Rico, fought out the 

 Philippine wars and assumed the govern- 

 ment of the Philippines all from a sense 

 of duty only, and that most reluctantly, 

 because they could not foresee the extent 

 of the burdens which we were taking up. 

 It is hardly necessary for me to recall 

 the resistance that President McKinley, in 

 1898, offered to the popular movement, 

 that carried him slowly but surely to the 

 point of an open conflict with Spain. 

 That which the American people believed 

 to be the oppression of the Cuban people, 

 the misgovernment of that beautiful 

 island, and the continued failure of Spain 

 to restore any kind of order — all com- 

 pelled the United States to interfere to 

 prevent a continuance of that which 



■ An address to the Miller's Convention in Saint Louis, Mo., May 30, 1907. 



