The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-06-02
WHAT STAYED OUR HANDsg

The "Oregonian' puts it squarely but
justly when it says that from the first
our army in the Philippines has been
held back by the silly notion that peace
was to be had with the insurgents
through diplomatic arrangement. That
blunder that permitted the insurgents
to depart from our front at the time
Of the taking Of the city of Manila.
Before that, and at that time we had
sion of Aguinaldo's person, and should
have done so and have challenged his
right to maintain an army. Prompt
and proper action would have nipped
the instruction in the bud at that mo-
ment But the weak idea that we
could trust the insurgents, or by fair
means and peaceable. induce them to
accept our domination held our hands
and resulted in the present war. AS
the -Oregonian" well puts it:
The diplomatic idea permitted the in
surgents to organize formidable force
under our very eyes, and the attack
on our troops followed as matter Of
course. 1T checked the aggressive
movement by our troops that followed
the attack, and recalled them from the
positions they had taken; and this gave
the insurgents opportunity to claim a
victory. Then it held back our troops
for six weeks, and gave the insurgents
heart and courage for new efforts.
Lately it has been pa1tering again,
after the same fashion, in the foolish
hope that the insurgents could be per-
suaded through diplomacy to quit and
surrender. This CONTINUOUS folly has
been paid for, at every stage Of it, with
the blood of our soldiers.
In this connection our contemporary
prints a letter from Captain Wells of
the Oregon Regiment. He is an intel
ligent observer and his analysis of the
changing phases of the situation in the
Philippines during the past year is
thorough. searching and, as our con-
temporary aptly terms it acute" The
Captain shows that our difficulties have
arisen out of a policy of doubt and hes
itation and consequent delay. This has
been interpreted by the insurgents as
weakness, cowardice and lack of heart
in our cause. The "Oregonian" says,
on the basis of Captain Wells observa-
tons and the facts of record:
We have been afraid of going so far
as TO produce an Irritation" in the
minds of an insurreetionary class which
from the first it has been necessary to
crush; and we have all the time shrunk
from pressing them to extremity under
the notion that we could yet fix up the
matter by negotiation
| This. from the first, has interfered
With the efficiency of the army, 1t
has held back the army repeatedly
from aggressive movements 1t caused
our troops to be Withdrawn from posi-
tions which they had carried soon after
the outbreak, and held the army in a
state Of inactivity for many weeks,
/ thereby destroying the moral effect OF
the first victories and making neces-
sary the long course of subsequent
hshting to establish the prestige of our
arms. In a word, our military efforts
in the Philippines have been handicap
ped by the counsels of political char
latanry at Washington. The Admin
istration has failed to recognize that
it had purely military problem to deal
with, and has been trying to solve it
| through political and diplomatic expe-
dents. And the commission it has sent
to the Philippine Islands has thus far
been an obstruction to the only posi-
BILE settlement, which can be had only
by crushing utterly the military pre-
tensions of the insurgents.