The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1899-04-14
Held at Arlington Cemetery Over
the Bodies of Dead
Soldiers.
FAVORS ANNEXATION
Sentiment Spreading and Making It.
self Felt-NOthing Official About
the Swapping Story.
Special Correspondence of The Gazette.

Special Correspondence of The Gazette.
Washington, April 10. - Presiden
Mckinley owes no little of his grea
personal popularity to keeping in toucl
with the people, and doing what the.
wish to be done. An instance was hi
ordering a military funeral yer th'
bodies of 366 American soldiers brough
from Cuba and Porto Rico for inter
ment in the national cemetery at Ar
lington, and ordering all the govern
ment offices closed in their honor
Washington has had military funerals
over generals, but never such al out
pouring of people in honor of privates
as witnessed the solemn and impressive
ceremonies at Arlington yesterday after
noon The military procession was
composed of regulars and the entire
national guard Of the District Of
Columbia; and the president, members
of the cabinet, justices of the supreme
court and many other officials Joined
with the people in paying honor te
those who died in the service Of their
country. It was an object lesson in
patriotism that will not be soon forgot
ten, and which deserves eternal remem'
brance. Such an occasion naturally
produces pathetic incidents. An old
lady approached one of the guards near
the caskets, with a small bouquet in
her hand, and said: Hes not my boy
only my nephew. I don't know
whether they have him here. The
records say he was killed at San Juan,
but his body was never identified.
Can't you take this bouquet? just put
it Oh one Of the caskets, one of those
marked unidentified, and perhaps it
may be the n I wish it to 60 on.
The tears in that guards eyes as he
took the flowers may not have been
soldierly, but they were humane and
manly.
The industrial commission, which is
again holding regular services in WASH
ington, has secured the aid of Professor
jerks of Cornell university in prepar-
ing a plan for a thorough investigation
of trusts and their effect upon prices.
Professor jerks, who fills the chair of
political economy at Cornell, has given
this subject much study, and good re-
suits are expected from his cooperation
with the commission. Members Of the
commission express satisfaction with
the progress made and the information
obtained in the various branches Of it's
work.
According to advices received in
Washington, sentiment in favor of an
nexation to the United States is rapidly
spreading and making itself felt in
nearly all of the South and Central
American countries, and in the British
West Indies. Nothing has been done
so far as known in this country to en-
courage or foster such sentiments, and
nothing is likely to be done in that d.
rection. The feeling in the British
West Indies is easily accounted for.
The people of these islands see that our
possession of Porto Rico and peculiar
relations with Cuba are bound to
handicap if it does not entirely wipe
out their trade with US, SO far as SELL
ing to us is concerned. The sentiment
in South and Central America is prob
ably caused by a natural yearning for
the stable government and prosperity
that the people of the United States
A prominent member of the dipllo-
corps pays this deserved compli-
ment to the Philippine commission and
the president, under whose personal di-
the proclamation issued to the
Filipinos was prepared "You Ameri-
cans may not be trained in the arts of
diplomacy, but you have a way Of get
ting there at the proper time. It would
be impossible to improve on the word
of the proclamation to the Fill
pinos. No point is omitted and moth
ing is overlooked. It cannot fail to
make a good impression in the courts
of Europe, however it may be received
BY Aguinaldo and his deluded follow.
ers. I presume hat the signers of the
proclamation had this point in mind.
For raw recruits in the diplomatic
field the Americans are doing quite
There is nothing official in the talk
about swapping the Philippines for the
West Indies, of which much is
beard just now, and there are several
very substantial reasons for thinking
hat there never will be-. Admiral
said on the subject: Jamaica,
Barbados, st. Lucia, Trinidad and
owned by England, would
make valuable additions to our south
I'm territory, but 1 doubt very much
whether England is ready to part with
hem. Bermuda is the naval station
the British feet on this side of the
Atlantic and Barbados is the military
for the British troops in
be West Indies. England maintains a
arge garrison on that beautiful island,
nd st. Lucia and Trinidad are invalu-
BILE to her in many ways"
Secretary Gage said. speaking of the
resent prosperous condition Of the
Increased wages is the nat