The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1899-11-09
AN INJUSTICE HAS
BEEN DONE OTIS
-a-aaa.a.aa-
He Is Really Great Man and Ills
Work will Live Long After Him.
COLONEL l0PE'S ESTIMATE
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The Manila Commander Has Had to
Rule an Empire and Organize and
Fight Two Armies.
COLONEL rOPE's ESTIMATE

Colonel Pope. chief quartermaSler o
the army In the Philippines, has JUS
come 10 Washington. and he IL making
some very interesting statements abou
the situation In the archipelago, say
Walter Wclman IN tho Chicago Times
Herald. File" he aays. General otl
Ia all right. OTIS has been cenAuNd fo
things no mortal man could be blamet
for"
General Otis IL n rcally great man
and believe others will scc him In thai
light when they are able 20 look al
what he has accomplished without
prejudice"
"OtlH has had 10 manage an empire
both In u military and civil capacity:
to fght a most dlnicult war 5000 miles
from his baso Of supplies. and TO change
armies at the same time" These are
few OF Colonel Popc's expressions.
The same officer gives Us an inter-
cstlng glimpse Of General ous the
man In tho following;
THE real work of General o,is has
scarcely bocn mentioned. Public at
tentlon has been almost entirely d.
rooted TO the spectacular feature OF
the war. In the administration o( civil
affairs Gcneral Otis has done work
OF lncstlmable value 90 his country.
His capacity FOR toll is marvellous, lie
is Of nervous temperament. resultant
from a wound and cannot sleep, Work
Is q relief. and he labors almost six
teen hours a day. As have said, the
war will soon be ended. but there Will
remain the heroulsan task OF establish
lng the Affairs Of this eastern empire
on n clean. sound financial basis, This
will take ycars. and Otis II now lay
ing II on foundations which win never
be shaken and about which the taint
Of fraud and corruption will never
cling,
A few weeks ago the Chicago Record
printed In Its admirable corrcspon-
dence from Manila statement which
attracted the attention Of the country.
II was list OF che towns In the Phil
ipplnes, which had been captured once,
twice or thrice by our troops, and as
many times abandoned, The expose
did seem TO confirm the suspicion that
the American forces wtre not being
intellgently handled, but now Colonel
Pope gives an explanation, which is
both interesting and important mot
a single town has been abandoned that
is OF any Importance to us" he says.
Then why did we take them In the
flrst placer Their capture was simply
an Incident In the campaign. We were
after the Fillpinos. not the towns. II
the Fillpinos were in the towns, we
had to attack them. The object was to
get the lnsurg sits to fight end to OBJ
tain possession OF their arms, some
thing even more valuable than the reb-
els themselves. II made no difference
to us. In a strategic sense, whether we
held the towns or not. 1t was really
better TO leave them. for In many cases
they were extremely unhealthy They
wore not strongholds. and their de-
fenses were not even as valuable as the
ordinary field Notifications. II we had
retained them It would have hampcred
cur operations even more Than they are
now h!ndered and as Il matter OF fact,
II would not be the slightest trouble
to retalse any Of them, This has been
done In several instances where the
insurgents have collected in sufficient
numbers to make It worth while to give
them battle. We have kept such
places as Caloocan, San Fernando and
now hold San ysldro."