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- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 23:40:00 CST
- Sender: History <HISTORY@PSUVM.BITNET>
- From: RICHARD JENSEN <CAMPBELLD@APSU.BITNET>
- Subject: McKinley's methodology in 1899 (keeping Philippines)
- Lines: 33
-
- Some final comments, and I'll let the list turn to something
- else. (Hey, let's skip the 1st Amendment stuff if nobody knows
- much about it.)
- McKinley did tell some ministers that he prayed for guidance and
- "one night late it came to me." (He did not say God told him).
- --he also studied reports from Army, Navy (esp Captain Mahan),
- State Department. Military was urgent regarding US need for
- coaling and cable stations in Pacific. Britain, Japan, Germany
- already had them. Without stations, US fleet would be helpless.
- Most important, he gave 57 speeches & tested audience
- reaction (the way politicians do), and decided that he finally
- understood the best intersection of national (military/
- diplomatic) interests, public opinion, and humanitarian empathy
- with plight of Filipinos.
- It seems very unlikely to me that business/ economic
- influences mattered much. Wisconsin school didn't quite make
- that up, but they multiplied it by 10x, and reduced national
- interest by 10x. They completely ignore McKinley's brilliant
- career from Congress to White House was based on promising
- growth of home markets (cities) was more important that overseas
- trade. Wisconsin historians always quote McKinley's losing
- opponents instead of him! Humanitarianism they reduced by 100%
- by laughing at McKinley's talk with God. LaFeber, for example,
- in his catalog of reasons leaves zero space for humanitarian
- interest in the plight of what Americans saw as the
- poor/uncivilized/backward/ helpless Filipinos. Public opinion
- they reduced 99% by saying it was artificially created by
- Hearst/ Pulitzer. (au contraire: Hearst, Pulitzer heard the same
- public opinion that McKinley did and catered to it, thereby
- selling newspapers. 1992: a network that ignored the Somalia
- story and instead played up (say) business in Russia would get
- turned off.)
- Richard Jensen campbelld@apsu
-