The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1899-08-26
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON 4uprlSt 81 lS

From our Regular Correspondent.
Washington, August 81, 1899.
Secretary Root is giving the country
a striking exhibition of what can be &C
complished by hustling, even in the
month OF August, which has got to be
so generally recognized in official circles
rs vacation time He has caused every
thing connected with the sending OF
the volunteers 10 the Philippines to he
advanced considerably from the first
estimates, and it is now practically GER
tain that the last of The first ten Teg-
ments will be landed at Manila not later
than October, and arrangements have
already been made by which the other
ten regiments, the order for the enlist
ing of which was oulv issued several
days ago, will reach Manila within
week, before or after, of December /.
No troops ever took the field anywhere
better equipped than these men Will be
or better provided in every respect for
campaigning in the tropics. They will
all be armed with the krag-Jorgensen
rifle, of which the War Department
now has full supply, and amply sup
piled with smokeless ammunition.
When all the troops get oyer there will
be more than $1,000 men in the Philip
pines. 1T is not believed that so many
men will be needed to do the fighting,
but Secretary Root intends to have
fl,n,, t,1-
from the Filipiuos can be held, instead
of abandoned, as in the last campaign
If there is as much hustling at the other
end rs thsre has been in Washington,
the campaign will be snort and decisive.
Secretary Wilson. who has just re-
turned from a western trip all the way
to the Pacific coast, upon which he
went to study agricultural conditions so
as to make the work of the Agricultural
Department as helpful to the farmers in
that section as possible, SAYS the talk
about a sentiment in the west against
the Philippine policy of President Me-
kinley is all manufactured in the east,
and that he did not meet a single "anti"
west of Chicago, although he met hum
dreds of men, in all stations of lie. He
found the farmers prosperous all
through the west. and especially SO in
the corn belt. He says the wheat crop
of that section will be little short, but
that the crop of corn and oats and 9TH
er farm products are enormous. Speak
ing of the annexation sentiment IN the
west, Secretary Wilson said ''The peo-
pie of the west understand this ques-
ton better than do those of the east.
They know that Dewey was sent to the
Philippines to protect our large and
growing trade with the Orient. We
have labored to build up a trade with
China and Japan. and when the war
began Spain had a fleet in Oriental wat
ers ready to attack and destroy our
commerce. She also was ready to en-
courage priyateering, and Dewey went
TO Hong Kong to be ready to protect
our shipping. He destroyed the Span
ish feet as the safe way to prevent it
from proving upon American merchant
ships. Had the battle resulted in vic
tory for Spain rather than for Dewey,
the Spanish feet would haye crossed
the Pacific to attack our western ports.
The people out west realize this, and
they also realize that Dewey's victory
and the subsequent events which trans
ferred the Philippines to the United
States have given an extraordinary i'm
petus TO the commerce of this country
with the Orient. At ali the Pacific ports
the docks are piled up with goods
awaiting shipment to the Orient, and
we have not ships enough to carry
them. The people of the west regard
the Pacific as an American lake, which
should be covered with ships carving
the American flag, and l don't know
but they are about right. Why, [ went
on one big ship loading at Tacoma, and
found in the cargo lumber wheat and
flour from the state of Washington: but
ter and eggs from Iowa and Michigan:
fruit from California and Oregon: steel
from Alabama. cotton goods from the
Carohnas; bicvcles from Chicago: no.
tions from New England, and some
thing from more than half the states in
the Union. This cargo was bound for
China and Japan, and it represented
every section and nearly every branch
of industry in the United States. 1t
showed me more clearly than | had
ever seen before the general interest
We all have in this Oriental trade"
General Merritt. who was the first
American commander in the Philip-
pines, has gone to Lake Champlain. at
President Mchinlev's request. presum- !
ably TO talk about Philippine affairs.
This has revived the rumor that Gen /
erai Merritt would return 10 the Phil /
lppines, but no confirmation can be OBJ ,
tanned in official circles.
The Washington committee that is
collecting money for the relief of the
Porto Rico hurricane sufferers has re-
ceived checks for $3.50 each from Presi- /
dent Mckinley, Vice President Hobart
and Secretary Root. The latter has an
pointed National Committee to take
charge of the distribution OF contribu-
tions. to which all local committees will
report. Ex Secretary Bliss Is chairman
of this committee