The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-09-19
A VOLUNTEERS VIEW.
TFrom the San Francisco Wave.I

AuSuI&GuLS just ABOUT SIX months, we
nave won IN every engagement, except
two or three minor ones, of the entire
campaign. and we are as far from a
victory as ever. The Americans hold
about enough space to turn around in
Manila and a few square miles of the
surrounding country. There is an in
surgent outpost three miles from the
town wall, at one place. The rest of
Luzon, including population or over
5,OOO,0OO is in the hands of the natives.
Before giving my humble opinion on
affairs at the front, I wish to say for
fairness sake, that have a great deal
OF sympathy with the natives, and am
not especially down on AguinaldO. Now
that We are there, I think we ought to
hold the islands rather than show our
selves incompetent to hold them, also,
believe that they are rich enough to be
worth keeping. was both in and out
OF the army during my stay; my bust
ness, in the last few months. has led
me into close relations with SpaniardS
and natives, and am convinced, from
their description of the interior, that
the land IS rich in undeVelOped reSour-
ces- 1 have heard it claimed that the
natives barely manage to live, and that
they leave, therefore, no room for US.
That is folly, because people of the
Filipino grade would get a bare subsist-
ence out of California or any other rich
quarter of the earth. Mines, planta-
tons, native woods and gums, tropical
products of all sorts are waiting for
capital and enterprise to make them
profitable. But in spite of my opinion
that we should hold on and win out,
have great sympathy for the natives
and no little admiration for their char
acter.
Let no one be deceived into believing
that they are mere hooters herded to-
gether by a band of schemers. Aguin-
aldo is slippery; so are his people. There
IS no sense of honor or fairness in the
Filipino character, but there is an in
tense patriotism and race feeling. They
keep this feeling hidden but it is there,
and with it strong hatred of the whites,
the results of 300 years of Spanish mis-
rule. All this time, they have been
herded, robbed and oppressed by the
only white men they have known, until
now all whites look alike to them.
Aguinaldo lies to them in order to keep
up their courage, but he does not need
to inspire their patriotism. If we ever
get control of LuZOn, the pacificatiOn
of the native people will be a matter
of a generation of just and fair rule.We
have to make conquest by the sword
and follow it with a peaceful conquest
by education. Even AguinaldO is a pat
riot according to his own standards.
Deceitfulness is a national character
iStic, acquired, perhaps, from the Span
iards, and he is only living up to the
best light that is in him when he works
by deceit.
To balance this, we have an army
without spirit and without confidence
in its commander. The exchanging of
volunteers for regulars has been about
the only wise move of the entire COM
paign. It was wise because that spirit
which holds volunteers to their work is
now a thing of the past. When they
went up against the Spaniards or when
they faced the natives in the early days
of the revolt they did it with dash and
VigOr They rushed the trenches
cheering. and We're Indifferent to hard
ships, but a change has come over their
feelings. They are stOical, almost IA
talistic. They go into action with har-
dened Indifference. 1t is rush the
trenches-rest aWhile-charge again
and what does it matter? have seen
men go against the trenches smoking
cigarettes Sense Of duty keeps them
to it, and not patriotism. For this rea-
son regulars, who make the thing
matter of business, are the proper
troops to meet the emergency.
This dwindling of patriotism can be
traced to two sources. The first is the
realization of a certain justice in the
native cause, the conviction that the
little brown people believe themselves
right: the second is the senseless blum
dering which has marked the whole
campaign, and which banks back to the
solemn incompetent who mismanages
things at headquarters.
Where do we stand. just now? We
have spent almost as much as the or
iginal purchase price of the islands, the
lives and health of whole regiments of
our young men, and only succeeded in
clearing out a bit of country around
Manila and in stirring up still more re-
volt And this is almost entirely the
fault of the commander general
should like to have good things to say
of him. now that I find that the home
papers have been flashing him so IN
mercifully, but 1 cannot place the
blame in any other quarter He has
called back our troops on the only two
occa sions when we had 'em going" he
has managed the campaign as badly as
he could have done had he been there
for the purpose Of losing. Never once
on the firing line himself, he takes his
information from incomplete maps,
from scouts and from unreliable ma
tives, in whom he places a touching
trust. Besides this, his plan of cam
paign has been vacillattng and child
iSh.
OF course, it is not fair to criticise
without showing ground, and viii try
to point out, briefly, thegreatest defects
in Otis plan Of campaign TO beSln
with he has ever been ready to place
faith in the insurgents, people who, as
I have already shown, are without
faith. The recall of two successful
movements, noted above, was the ar
rival of native populations asking for
peace negotiations. 1t was a plain case
of bunco. Aguinaldo saw that his ar
mics were in a bad place, and he play
ed for time BY the time that Otis
had learned the natives were not sin
cere in their peace talk, the embarrass-
ed divisions had melted away. He lets
his native servants, spies every one Of
them get at his papers; he puts native
guides at the head of scouting expedi-
tons He does not realize, as does near
" every other American in LuzOn, that
all the natives are insurgents in spirit
Next he has bungled in the equipment
of the army. The men wear, under the
tropic sun the hot, felt campaign hat,
first designed for war in temperate eli
mates. From the very first, he might
have been provided with adequate
transportation facilities, had he but
asked for them. AS it is, the advance
has depended upon water buffaloes and
native porters to carry supplies. a wa
ter buffalo is the sIowest beast in the
world, and close up to him is the ma
tive cody; while our army has bean