The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-31

An Argentine View of the Situation
and Its Responsibilities.
Buenos Ayres Standard.

buenOS AyTGS STANDARD.
A telegram states that President McKin-
ley has said to a friend that ii would take
an army of 100000 men to restore order in
the Philippines, this being about 1900 more
than the Spanish commander in the islands
says he would need to do the same work
with. 1t is said that this expression of
opinion by the President is understood to
mean that the United States will not at
tempt to hold the islands, While we do not
believe the President has been making
statements for publication as to the number
of troops necessary to restore order in the
Islands, the statement said to have been
made by him is suggestive and calls atten-
ton to something that must be patent to
any one giving the subject moments
thought, and that is the American govern
ment by its course of action in the Philip
pines has created q condition of affairs that
cannot long continue and must be straight
ened out by some government sufficiently
powerful to accomplish the work under
taken. And in deliberately creating the con-
ditions that now exist in the islands it
seems to us that the American government
has made itself morally responsible to the
civilized nations of the world in such a
way that 1t cannot now easily rid itself of
the responsibilities that it assumed when it
stirred up rebellion there and sent forward
an army Of invasion.
When Commodore Dewey achieved his
great victory and utterly destroyed the
Spanish fleet in the Pacific, he had accom-
he reported what he had done by cable to
the Washington government, it would have
peen perfectly proper for the government
Cavte arsenal and withdraw with his fleet
to secure anchorage in the bay and await
developments, or to return with his fleet,
via the Hawaiian islands, to the west coast
of the States. There was not al that time
a single good reason for sending army
to those distant islands save one, and that
determination on the part of the American
government to seize and hold them. Had
Dewey steamed away after his victory, hav-
ing first destroyed the arsenal and Spanish
government property within his reach, the
object that he was sent there for would
have been considered both in the States
and by the great nations of the world as
most successfully and thoroughly accom-
pliShed. AT that time there was no organ
lied insurrection in existence.
But, fortunately or unfortunately ac-
cording TO the point of view, Dewey was
not instructed to steam away Instead
Manila was declared by the President of
the United States to be in state of block
AIDE; marines and blue Jackets were landed
at Cavite to hold the place; a military ca
petition to capture Manila and the Phil
ippines. it was declared, was at once or
gained; Consul Wildman at Hong-Kong
was set at work intriguing with Aguinaldo
to start revolutionary movement: the mill
tary expedition increased almost weekly in
size new conceptions of the Importance
of the task obtained at Washington, and
the United States entered upon a career of
conquest or expansion that can only be
justified in the eyes of the world by carry
ing it to its legitimate conclusion. To
have spent tens of millions of dollars on a
purely sterile ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS the
satisfaction of having occupied Manila for
a few weeks counts for more than We be-
lieve ii does with the American people-to
waste thousands of troops and to keep idle
a powerful and ever-increasing fleet for
many months: TO send military governor
and vice governor with fully equipped
military ard civil staff for the government
OF the Islands, and then decide the proceed
ing was all mistake. to have thus
marched up the hill with twenty thousand
men and then-marched down again, would