Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/300

256 In the United States, opinions were very much divided upon the question of what should be done with the Philippines. Many were opposed to what they called Imperialism, and claimed that the United States had no right to take the islands, but should give them into the hands of the Filipinos led by Aguinaldo. But the so-called Filipino government was only such in name, and had this been done, it is more than likely that the Filipinos would have had constant revolutions among themselves, attended with great slaughter, and in the end foreign powers might have treated them far worse than we proposed to treat them.

"It is our plain duty to take hold out there," said President McKinley. "We must protect them, both from themselves and from the world at large. We must restore order and civil power, and teach them the art and science of real civilization. We must give them good roads, good schools, good courts of justice, open up the industries and commerce of the islands, and assist them in all those things in which they need assistance." These were not his