The Week [excerpt]

     That the city of Worcester should choose Senator Hoar to be the formal eulogist of the late President was perhaps natural. That Senator Hoar should decline this office was even more inevitable, for how could the orator who, if he supported Mr. McKinley last fall, had never agreed with him on the most important issue, praise the policy which he had consistently denounced? Accordingly he writes:

     “I think the eulogy on the President should be delivered by some person who was in full accord with him upon the principal political measure of his Administration. I never questioned his absolute sincerity, his devotion to the public welfare, his love of liberty, and his desire to do his duty as God gave him to see it. I was fully in accord with him on the great fiscal measures with which he was identified. But, as you know, I differed with him and his Administration—and my opinion on that subject has been strengthened and not weakened in the lapse of time—in regard to his policy in dealing with the Philippine Islands.”

The personal import of these words is less significant than the fact that Senator Hoar believes increasingly that President McKinley’s solution of the problem of the Philippines was radically wrong. This leads to the hope that Senator Hoar [329][330] will show his old ardor in urging every measure which looks towards the ultimate independence of these unfortunate islands. The time for recrimination has passed, and the time for repairing a situation rashly incurred has come. All moderate men recognize this fact, and the talk of never hauling down the flag is no longer heard. Towards this constructive work for the Philippines none may more justly contribute than those who have opposed the Government’s policy in the past.