The record-union., 1899-10-20

!
ands is removed from political influence
at nome the quicker will come the ut
ter rum OF the insurgent cause and the
establishing OF peace. Now is the time
10 Strike and the struggle must be
kept up Till every rifie-carrying rebel Is
carried to his fathers.
/ A Governor of the Philippine ISL
ands must have almost autocratic pow
| er or his title would be worthless in q
very short time. The natives are dis
tlnctiy Oriental in mental character
lctlcs. slow and crafty when an ener-
/ getlc move would be dangerous, and
/ quick as lightning when the time comes
/ TO strike a. telling blow Their minds
are tickle and without the depth which
we find in people who have a ma
tlona1 history into which they may look
! for guides to future conduct. They
| nave never governed themselves, and
know nothing of the blessings of
peaceful republic, for the Spanish used
/ them simply as beasts, to labor and
! earn taxes for a corrupt, decaying
monarchy. There are no educated Fill
| lplnos-ln fact, the word Filipino no
more describes our bare-legged, hatless>
| ana shoeIeSS wards than the word
American would in the case of a native
! OF the South American wilderness of
Patagonla. Any fifteen-year-old boy i'll
! the united states could preside over
| the sessions OF the so-called Filipino
| congress; that is if his mind could
| descend TO the low cunning which
| prompts all their acts There are about
forty tribes Of natives. each having a
| dialect Of it's own, and very few OF
! them being smart enough to speak the
! language Of their recent Spanish rulers.
Even the religious training of the
natives conspires to hold them back.
for many of the priests in the interior.
where most of our greatest difficulties
arise. have steadily and openly robbed
their parishioners, and still more deep
| ly impressed their minds with the ORR
entail maxim that anything is right il
you are not caught at it.
| We are not fighting a nation of
patriots, because the more intelligent
natives, VINO, without exception, live
IN the larger cities, are peaceable ana
proud OF their affiliation with the
| United States, nor are we opposed by
an organized army. The whole insur-
gent army cannot produce a command
! er who knows as much of military
tactics as High School cadet or a one
year youngster in the National Guard.
| The whole rebellion may be summed
up as an insane outbreak, which can
be traced to nothing more beautiful
! than the fanaticism which causes the
Hindoo to grill his tough feet on red
| hot plowshares.
| Now, right there is where most poll
| ticians go astray in their reckoning
Being Indifferent to death is not neces-
sarily proof of capability for self-gov-
ernment, nor is fanaticism on the insur-
gents part a good reason why we
| should go easy with him. If the native
| believes he is insuring himself a glor-
! ious future life by hunting the Amer
ican soldier to his death it would be
! good thing for us to put the native
himself out of the way as soon as pos
sible, so his son will grow up with a
| big, healthy respect for organized gov
ernment There is altogether too much
| being said by lot of low-browed stay
at-home orators about the poor Fill
pino.' The poor Filipino is poverty
stricken mainly in the matter of con-
troll over his passions He shoots the
American soldier because he is only
partially civilized and chafes under re-
straint
Now, as to the so-called looting of |
the churches. There has never been |
any serious disposition On the part Of |
our troops in the islands to steal or
wantonly destroy church property, but |
many churches have been nearly ruined |
by our men in searching for insurgent |
soldiers, arms and ammunition and |
money that was being used to continue |
the rebellion. Nearly 200 insurgent SOL |
diers, Krupp gun, and a lot Of rifles |
and ammunition were found by my reg |
iment in the Santa Ana Church, and |
the churches at Paco, San Pedro Me- |
cate, Guadalupe, Pateros, Pasig City |
and many other places were used as |
forts. The insurgent headquarters flag |
of that part of the rebel forces which |
fought us near Laguna del Bay foated |
tantalfZingly in the breeze from the |
ridge of the church roof at Tai-tai. |
Some of our men have lain down to !
die, $500 miles from the land which |
gave them birth, after receiving a bull |
let aimed, religiously perhaps, from a |
Filipino church belfry. Don't you think |
it would be a good thing to furnish |
those natives with a sort of religion |
which will include respect for our gov |
ernment? Maybe some of our humanity |
yelpers would like to rest their jaws |
and try soldering, for a change, in the |
Philippines. They would very likely |
acquire some brains, at least, valuable |
knowledge, in the experience. There |
is nothing like information at first hand |
and there are recruiting offices all over
the country waiting for husky |
rockies"
Mr.. Harlan was disinclined to speak |
of the First Calfornia's internal af-
fairs, but said the war had shown that |
our National Guard is unfit for cam
paign service except after much hard |
drilling by the enlisted men and study |
by the officers.
Much of the trouble arises from too |
great familiarity between the enlisted |
men and the officers. The men in the |
ranks of all the volunteer regiments |
We're disinclined to submit to discipline |
because they had never received proper |
training in practical campaign work |
and knew that very few of their offlcers
were competent to instruct them. Then |
the rations were never properly at
tended to. With the exception OF the |
cooks in the different companies there
wasn't a commissary man in the Can-
fornia Regiment who could cater TO |
crowd at a clam-bake. You see,
continued Mr.. Harlan, there is no time |
for educational work in the field and an |