The Portland daily press., 1899-10-11

THE uHNSDhsHtF ENDED.
It appears that the censorship at Manila
was declared of a month ago, though the
fact has just been made public, and that
since then the dispatches Of the corrss-
pondsnts have been ssnt AZ they were
written. whether Gen. Otis discontinued
1t voluntarily or. whether . hint was
given him from Washington that 10 better
be ended is not absolutely certain, though
the probability lie that Gen. Otis did not
act without some suggestion from WASH
inRton. The important thing is that the
censorship has ended and that the de-
spatches can now be relied upon ss giving
the actual facts OF the situation. 1t must
be clear to everybody, no matter what his
views about tne Philippine policy, that
the censoring Of dispatches beyond the
point required by military necessity was
serious mistake The American people
had right 10 know the exact facts Of
the situation so far ms IL was possible to
disclose them without giving valuable
Information to the Insurgents. Every
body understands that when state of
war exists there are certain military
secrets which must be kept from tbs pub
lilo lest thsy get into the hands Of the en-
envy, and no reasonable man who Is 10y al
to bis country objects to q censorship
which has for Its purpose the guarding of
those secrets But ths Manila censorship
has not been devoted to that end, except
in very small measure. Gen. Otis ap-
pears to have conceived the idea that 1t
was his duty to make popular In this
country the policy he was executing in
Luzon. at least TO let nothing go
out from Manila which might have
tendency to render it unpopular. Only
ened out military censorship as he did
broaden 1t out.
Upon the people of the United States.
rather than upon the President
or the Congress- Will rest ultimately the
disposition of the Philippines, and there
fore all items of information In regard
to them they have right to know. 10
say to the psople, You are the arbitcrs
in this matter, on you the responsibility
rests, and then to cut them of from
much of the inform alton which Is neces-
sary to discharge that responsibility WISE
ly Is a policy SO obviously absurd as to
admit Of no defence. Yet until within
a month Gen Otis has put the admins
tration In just this position, by his I'M
wise attempt to keep from the American
people the facts OF the Philippine situa-
ton. But even If keeping the Amer
lean people from being stirred up over
the matter had besn q laudable purpose
he ought to have seen that his way of
effeoting 1t was more likely to defeat
than to accomplish 1t, for with all the
facilities of communication that exist
nowadays no should have seen that it
would be impossible to prevent the facts
getting out, and that when they did get
out they would stir up the people far
more than they would II they had been
given out as they arose. Nothing has CO.
CURED during Gen. Otis's command in
the philippines to cause so much distrust
Of Els capacity to deal with the situation
as the attempt on his part to conceal
from the American people what the sit
uation really was. We might say also.
with equal truth, that nothing has caused
SO much harm to the administration 8
policy as Gen. Otis's mistaken censorship
because, whatever its purpose may have
been, it looked like an attempt to deceive
the people. 1t is well that 1t is ended.