The age-herald., 1899-05-12

 will that has been wanting, but when that will is expressed as it is now being, the executive and congress alike will cease to drife as they now drifting without any apparently definite plan or purpose without any comprehensive estimate of cost, and without any method yet devised to fill the gaps in our forces, caused by death and disease, already apparent
 The pamphlet, Criminal Aggression: By Whom Committed" having reached third edition, bears date of March 31, 1899. Ono of it's opening paragraphs headed ."Sani- tary Aspect" describes the medical author ities as having "ordered that all soldiers att tackled with dysentery and rheumatism, two of the most common causes of disease in the tropics, must be immediately removed from the Philippine islands, as they can not be cured in that climate.
 "Nine per cent. of 10000" says the writer. "comes to only 3,600 sick. to whom may be added over 1000 wounded When the hot and then the wet season. the ma larial air of the jungle, and the bad water outslde the camp begin to exert their ma Egnant influence, how many will then be- come the victims of the criminal aggres- sion now being directed by President Me- kiniey, who, having asserted that the responsibility rests with congress and with the American people, now fails to call con gress together, and continues the carnage of the Flipinos and the ghastly sacrifice of American soldiers in a bad cause. to them repusive. on his sole responsibility"
 MT. Atkinson, after describing "the re. pulsive and ghastly aspect of burning and slaughter of the Filipnos," cites with ap- proVal of the writer of a private letter who chal ges the Manila commander with zig norance, incompetence and unhappy tenn permeht," and the American direction of affairs at Manila as being to blame for the fact that the insurgents changed from friends to foes.
 The bulk of the pamphlet consists of the text of an address which MT. Atkinson de- livered before a club of clergymen. I've entered" he says, into an unreasonable declaration of war before we were pre- pared
 Does any one" the WI ter asks sup pose that. if Cleveland had been there, even though he himself had declared that it might become necessary to deal with Cuba by force, he would have allowed his hand to he forced by the venal pressure of the yellow press and it's sensat onal emisaries in Cuba? Is it not our misfortune to have had in the chair of the. president of the United States man of weak and uncertain purpose, W thout convictions and unequal to the emergency who, having declared that an act of aggression would be q national ,crime, has trifled with the question?
 'Dis he not. in his recent apoligetic speech before the Home Market club, seek to find way out of the evil conditions into which he has led the country by divesting himself of the respons biity and trying to throw it all on the congress of the United States. I think it Is time to speak and to speak plainly. William Mckinley is the president of the United States. He was treated with respect in Boston as the pres ident of the United States, but twas a great misfortune that even the members of tie Home Market club, who utterly oppose expansion, were under such obligation that none were able, owing to the courtesy of tho cio fo ora word n m to expansion or to the apparent policy or the president Therefore. the president may have returned under the impression that he is sustained n acts of criminal aggres- sion here in Boston, when we know that the moral sense of the community-the con- science of the community-is being aroused day by day against the policy which lie represents"
 MT. Atkinson cites from various utter ances of the president In support of his claim that the sole responsibility for the "criminal aggression which has taken place rests upon the official head of this re- public
 "The president" he says, having brought thsi shame upon us; having said that the flag should not come down; having assert ed possession before the cess on from Spain had been accepted by the senate, and be- fore he had any rightful authority, thus in- citing the Filipinos to resistance; having
 
 ties and responsibilities of his pos ton. is now shifting upon congress the dreadful penalties of his own incapacity.
 "It seemed to me blasphemy." adds MT. Atkinson, "when I read the following par agraph closing the speech of Secretary Long in support of the action of his chief: Is not that the statesmanship of the great Master, who limited not his mission that of hls disciples to his own chosen people, but proclaimed that his gospel should he preached in all the world unto all nations, that greatest statesman of all times, Jesus Christi It seemed to me blasphemy to cite the authority of Jesus Christ in justf- fcation of the slaughter of the Filipinos. can conceive of nothing more sacreligious than that citation"
 Finally the writer says: "The rising tide of popular opinion. among working men, among farmers, among clergymen and among all thoughtful men who can right fully claim to be good citizens, will re- sist criminal aggression and will yet conn., pei congress and the executive of the na- ton to remedy the wrongs which have been inflicted upon these people. Then will be found the easy way to do right; then the present executive may open that way by neutralzing the Philippine islands and making them the sanctuary of commerce.
 "The opponents of criminal aggression will then join in saving the president from him and his supporters when the death rate in our army in the tropics begins to be re- corded unless this great wrong Is quickly righted If that way is taken, then the name of William Mckinley may yet go down in history, when all the evils of the present have been buried in the remote past among the great many of the bene- factors of the world"
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