The evening times., 1899-06-15
Censor and Editor.

We have repeatedly called attention to
the close censorship exercised over press
dispatches at Manila. Frequently mes
sages come from our correspondents in the
city and the field SO cut in pieces as to be
hardly translatabie, and few things could
be palmer than the fact that nothing comes
by cable from the Island Of Luzon that has
not been first carefully scrutinized and
often eviscerated by the military authori-
ties.
Notwithstanding this there is a marked
discrepancy between the censored press
messages and the cabled reports of General
Otis, as they are given to the public after
liberal editing at the War Department
This morning We have direct news that.
after the fight at Zapote bridge. the rebels
escaped during the night, retiring in good
order. and that. at latest accounts, they
were strongly entrenched at linus, four
miles south of Bacoor.
The Otis despatch. as given out from the
Adjutant Generals Office, is silent concern
ing the Tagals at linus, and their prepara-
tons to give battle again at that point.
This is strange, because the facts wers
tCNciOpSA reconnaissance Dy
General Wheaton. 1t is still stranger
that the War Department message should
not only ignore the whole matter, but
should make General Otis say that the
enemy will not probably make any de-
termined future stand in the southern
provinces
On the whole 1t is altogether too obvious
that General Corbin needs to hire some
fresh editorial talent. and secure the serv-
ices of a person with more Imagination
and larger vocabulary than his present
fictioRist. According to the official pub
lications. Otis has wound up about every
report for the past ten days with the
monotonous statement that the rebels
would not probably do any more serious
fighting in the south, or something to the
same effect. But every succeeding day
has shown the Malays hard at it again, un-
der conditions which prove conclusiyely
that Otis knew they would be.
Now we are far from willing to consider
General Otis a fool, and he certainly is not
an untruthful person. Yet yellow editing
at the War Department tends to make him
appear in the eyes Of the public as one or
the other. 1t is unfortunate that our su-
thorities should consider it necessary to
doctor the news which comes to them Of
ficially, before publication, and to misrep-
resent the military conditions in Luzon, as
they evidently are doing. The object is
visible enough. 1t is to face down the
rising tide of popular indignation over
their misconduct of the Philippine cam
pagn and to prevent an irresistible ra-
tional demand for the provisional army. |
What Interior designs may lie behind the |
attitude it is not given to |
us to know; but suspicious are beginning !
to crop out through the country, and the |
President will hear of them before long.
1t is utterly useless for him to dodge the |
issue. The rebellion cannot be put down |
and the country reduced to permanent Or
der with a force of thirty-fi thousand |
men. Mr.. Mckinley knows this. knows /
that General Otis knows 1t. and that the
views of both are shared universally by
the American people. The President is |
also fully aware that every hour he post
pones the performance Of his duty will be
weeks added to the war. and a sad tale Of
dead. wounded. and missing added to the
gazette of casualties.
Is the hold of Alger upon him so hope
lessly inescapable that none of these con-