The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-26
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2e, 1899.
SIXTEEN PAGES.
A New Defense.
RECENT press


saults upon General Otis never
had the slightest chance of success
from the beginning; not because Nc
kinely is especially fond of Otis, but
for the reason that he is chiefly assailed
for doing what the administration had
expressly ordered him to do. Then We
are told that Mr. Mckinley firmly be-
lieves in the justice and necessity of
the press censorship. 1t goes without
saying that the president will stand by
Otis as long as he can without injury
to his own political fortunes. Up to Il
certain point it is absolutely necessary
for him to do so. in order to shield his
own administration
But it is the specific defense of Otis
now being made to which We desire to
invite attention, and it is stated to be
the administration view in a nut
she'll" We are told that those who are
criticising the general knew nothing of
the conditions at Manila. That he has
not had at any time five thousand men
available for campaign. All the rest
of his army, it is said, were volunteers
whose time had expired, who We're i'm
patiently awaiting transportation
home, and who could only be used for
repelling attacks in the immediate
neighborhood of Manila. Thus states
the dispatch from Washington.
This will be great news to the Amer
lean people who have been singing the
praises of those same volunteers from
ocean to ocean and from the Lakes to
the Gulf. 1t will also be something in
the way of news to the volunteers
themselves, who constituted the bulk of
the flying columns of Macarthur and
Lawton, and who doubtless thought
they were doing something more than
of Manila
The people will find themselves won
dering where Funston and his Kansans
achieved their fame; whence comes the
glory that hangs over the famous Ne
braska regiment what the Montana
boys have been doing that the state
should go wild over them and their ex-
PLOTS. Now it appears that it was not
Funston at all who swan all of those
rushing rivers and charged the frown-
ing lines of earthworks packed full of
warlike Filipinos. but that it was some
regular colonel at the head of his regi-
ment, while Funston and his Kansans,
along with the Colorado, California,
Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Pennsyl-
vania, Idaho and Nevada boys We're
snug and secure in the trenches of Ma
Mia, comfortably waiting to be attack
ed and praying for transportation
home.
What will the Montana boys have to
say of such an administration defense
as that? Shifting the blame from Otis
to them-to the volunteers who
wouldn't fight except under cover of
the breastworks around Manila? Think
of It,
But wait a moment. If Otis never
had five thousand available men, whose
fault was it? There stood the act of
congress authorizing the enlistment of
thirty-five thousand men. Why was it
not done? Why were the wires from
both Washington and Manila kept hot
with dispatches assuring the American
people that Otis had all the men ne
wanted, and that one more little tap
would end the power of Aguinaldo for
ever?
The people of the United States will
never be satisfied with any defense
which attempts to screen either Otis
or the administration by the disparage-
ment of an army of volunteers as grand
and noble and true as ever fought be-
meath the stars and stripes.