It Makes a Difference Whose Ox Is Gored
By Editor
It Makes a Difference Whose Ox Is Gored.—Apropos to the note in our Outlook department on "What Is Treason?" it may be well to recall the eloquent plea for the American colonies made by the great English Commoner, Edmund Burke. It was he who said, "If I were an American as I am an Englishman, while a single foreign troop remained in my native country, I would never lay down my arms, never, never, never!" In speaking of that very time the Encyclopædia Britannica says: "His speeches are almost the one monument of the struggle on which a lover of English greatness can look back with pride and a sense of worthiness." There were those then who considered his plea for a people desiring to be free as treasonable, as aiding the enemy; but Americans have ever admired the noble utterance, and Britons acknowledge its justice. The Filipinos have for years been fighting for freedom from an oppressive foreign government; they count America the same. Shall a plea for their freedom be accounted treasonable in the light of America's struggle for liberty? It makes a wonderful difference in decisions sometimes as to whose ox is gored.