ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 73 



the result? Before I left that Spanish camp I could have secured more 

 recruits for the American army than the Spanish General could re-enlist 

 for Spain. They learned what life under a free government meant, and 

 those Spanish boys, who, when we first went there were kept in the 

 trenches and told if they were taken prisoners they would be shot — 

 when we came away were friendly and anxious to know us better. So 

 much for the method in which the Spanish-American war was carried 

 out. It stands as a standard for a 11 time, a new standard of humanita- 

 rianism in warfare. 



Now as to its results. We have gained territory. We did not want 

 it, but we have it and it is a matter of strength. We have found out that 

 the American youth of 1898 has the same sort of heroism, patriotism that 

 their fathers had in 1861. We have tested our young men and they have 

 stood the test. We have bound all parts of our country together in chains 

 of steel. Nothing can ever separate it again. We are brothers from now 

 on from north and south and east and west. 



We have done much in the past year to give our nation rank and 

 standing and precedence in the wcrid, more than has been done in a hun- 

 dred years previously. Our flag today is offered more respect in every 

 corner of the globe, a thousand times more than it was one year ago today. 

 More than that we have sent the knowledge of American liberty ringing 

 throughout the world, into every corner of every country, telling them 

 there is a country where happiness is free. These are a few of the many 

 results which we have gained. 



And now as to some of the responsibilities which have fallen upon us 

 through this war. The question comes, what shall we do with Cubi, with 

 Porto Rico, and the Philippines? It seems to me there is just one ques- 

 tion which we have the right to ask and no other. Not, what will be the 

 consequences, but what is right? Is it right for us to abandon these peo- 

 ple? Is it right for us to send them back into barbarism? Have wo a 

 right to tear down one government without building up a better? Seme 

 will say to us that we have no right to govern a people against its will. 

 That is not the test my friends. The test is this: There is a higher law 



