The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-09
OTIS CORDIALLY HATED
Private Young's Opinion of the
Philippine Situation.
A GENERAL IS NEEDED
Two or Three Times the Americans Had
the Flllpinos Cooped Up and Could
Have Crushed Them, but
Were Called Off

wait till the volunteer regiments
are mustered out and get to their homes
and there is no longer any restraint
upon them, then you will hear such a
roar go up that it won't be long before
there will be a fighting general in
charge of affairs at Manila"
These were the words of one of Mon
tanas fighters who got home yester-
day from the Philippines. He is c. e.
Young of G company. who left $3.50 a
day in one of Buttes mines to enlist as
a volunteer soldier. Mr.. Young was
shot through the right hand at La Iona
church in the advance on Malolos. The
wound was of such a nature that he
was rendered unfit for service, and he
was sent home. He arrived in San
Francisco on the Hancock, was at once
mustered out and came home, arriving
yesterday. His hand is still in very
bad shape, as he cannot close it. He
will be unable to work with it for a
long time.
When seen last evening and asked
for statement of the situation in the
Philippines, Mr. Young said: Il am
reluctant to express myself very freely
at this time for / was only private
and many people would say I am sore
al something, but wait till the volun-
teers are mustered out and get to their
homes, and there Is no longer any re-
straint upon them-yOu will hear such
a roar that it won't be long before
there will be fighting general in
charge of affairs in the Philippines.
When it is found they all say the same
thing, people won't be so ready to
doubt the story as they are when it
comes from an individual private"
Being pressed, Mr.. Young continued:
There is no excuse for a war in the
Philippines right now. There We're men
enough there to have conquered the in
surgents If the fighting generals had
have been allowed to have their way.
1t seems to have been general orders
to spare the enemy as much as posi-
BILE and kill no more than you have to,
but whip them, and so every time we
had them in a corner where we could
have crushed them we were called off.
There were two or three times when
the American soldiers had the insur-
gents cooped up and could have wiped
them off the earth if the fighting men
in command had been allowed to go
ahead. You read in these cases that the
enemy escaped for one reason or an
other, but that was not true; it was
because we were called off, the gen.
erals in command being refused per-
mission to advance. Now the war has
reached such a stage that the Ameri-
can army there Is not large enough,
though it was originally, and it will
now take at least 100, 900 men to win,
and then there will have to be a fight
ing man in command. With a large
enough force and a fighting man to
give orders, it won't take long to whip
the niggers, but the war cant be won
under any other conditions.
You will see that the volunteers will
all tell the same story when they get
in the position to do so, and the only
reason they have not told it before is
because they have not been permitted,
and because they knew what the con-
sequence would be if they did Otis is
regarded as an old woman and not a
soldier by every man in his command,
big and little. and he is cordially hat
ed. 1t has been said before, and it is
undoubtedly a fact, that he is afraid
to go out in the field among his own
If he did some fellow
would make it necessary to send new
general to Manila. That's pretty hard,
but there are a great many of the sol
diers who feel just that sore. I'm not
sorry l went. and I'd go again If the
country needed soldiers for a legitimate
war, put Shouiu want 10 leel pretty
certain l was not going to fight under
a man like Otis"
Private Young states that the health
of the Montana regiment is very bad,
and that the boys are longing for the
order to return home. OF the officers
of the regiment he speaks in general
terms of praise, especially Captain
Wynne. his company's commander, and
of Major Cook, who, he says, is the
best liked officer in the regiment, and
the most efficient.