The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1899-07-02
WHY NOT END THIS AGONY?

/ Gen. OtlS HAS kept up lnc splTllS
of .he people of the United States
by the daily information that all
is going well in the Philippines
Once or twice he has declared that
the situation is improving and this
in the face of the fact that, as far
as could be gathered from him, the
situation was never so bad that it
could be improved 1t is charged
that press censorship is exercised
by Otis and that the true condition
of affairs in the Philippines is un-
known to the United States.
Whether this be true or false,
some of the people of this country
have come to that point where they
are beginning to believe they have
been deceived. The skeleton re-
ports of battles or skirmishes given
out show that, taken all in all, the
American army has made no great
progress in bringing the war to a
close. More than this, there is
something about them which
arouses the supicion that about
the only territory really held by
the United States in the Philip
pine islands is that in the immedi
ate vicinity of Manila. The Ameri
can people are a reading people.
They are of that kind who read
between the lines as well as read
the lines. They are divided on
the question of whether the war
ought to be waged in the Philip
pines. They are not divided, how
ever, on the position that if it
must be waged it should be waged
in a way that will terminate it.
The matter of that war is in the
hands of the administration. The
administration has made up its
mind to prosecute it. This being
the case, the demand is becoming
universal that it be prosecuted and
terminated There is too much
money being spent and blood spill
ed with too few satisfactory results.
AS the days pass the difficulties
which arise become greater. 1t
many not be just to charge Otis
with being the cause of the delays
in bringing this deplorable con-
dition of affairs to an end. He
may be doing all that a man can
do with the means at his command.
But there is an idea that he is not
the man for the place; that he
is full of buncombe; that he is a
cooked hat kind of a man; that he
lis favorite. and finally that there
is politics in his retention in the
position he occupies. The war, as
now understood, is of no mean
proportions. This being the case,
what have we commanding gen
eral for? A commanding general
thousands of miles from the army
when the country is in a sure
enough war is rather a strange
spectacle. Major Gen. Miles is
not a popular man. He has some
weaknesses which are childish
There is much display about him.
He has acted on occasions in way
to make the newspapers exaggerate
his petty faults. But he is
pretty good soldier. He is a eau
tious man. Whatever may be said
now, and whatever history may
say, truth as long as it lives must
give him credit for having saved
this nation thousands of lives.
Mckinley, effected by the blasts
of fol de-rol oratory in congress
about the cowardice of the Span
iards and the heroism and numbers
of the Cubans, wanted to invade
Cuba with 10000 or $1,000 men.
He believed that with this number
as a nucleus about which the
heroic Cubans could gather, Blan-
, co.'s army could in jiffy be driv-
en- into the sea. Miles protested
| against this = protested, as the
, truthful story goes, till his voice
could be heard through the thick
walls in the room in which the