The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-01
BL0CKADING OF PORTS.
something Rather Irregular Going
on in the Philippines.

III thC I-hlIDn1noS,
10 the Editor of the Globe:
Your article, "All Is Well" s,,o,oro.4,
1orc1biy the manner in which truth abont
the Philippines is cozing out nv daeraae
II appears from news items in the sana
issue that Gen. Otis has "raised the
blockade of those few ports occupied nv
our troops since the war began, and also
lhaC gunpoats are to be provided for the
purpose of protecting vessels which visit
These ports against cOntsca ton by the
flnplnos. Now the average newsnanar
reader is not expected to know. bu+ Of
course, Gen. Otis and President Mckinley
90 KNOW that nation cannot blOcka1e
It's own ports. Blockade is a war meas.
ure To blockade the ports held by rebels
IS TO admit that they are under -belliger-
ent government de facto, whose commu-
nicatton with the sea gives it the ouasi
diplomatic relation of consular inter-
course with all civilized nations. If Otis
mas blockaded Philippine ports and I'M
plockaded them, he has recognized tbe
belligerency Of the Philippine republic
The demand for gunboats to protect tho
trade or those ports we have occupied is
also very significant. 1t means that the
t1l1pinos profess to blockade some of
those ports which are actually in orr
possession Most likely their blockade Is
paper one; but no gunboats would be
needed II there We're not Filipino war YES
sells making at least some show of main
tanning it. No gunboats were emploved
to prevent Confederate war vessels from
conf1scating foreign ships bound for New
YORK, although the Confederacy did have
war vessels looking out for our own mer-
chantmen upon the high seas
The Inference is plain. The Filipinos.
though perhaps inferior to the Confeder-
acy in power on the high seas. are more
powerful, relatively to ourselves, in Phil
ippine waters than the Confederacy ever
was In America. If the Filipinos more
over, though not actually able to block
ade our newly acquired ports, should, I'M
der pretense Of doing so, confscate for,
eign vessels bound for those ports, what
would happen? The very thing we have
most to fear from-foreign interference.
First, the aggrievad foreign power makes
demand for redress, not on US but the
Filipinos, as England did the other day.
She gets her redress, of course; and the
Filipinos score, so much recognition for
them. If that sort of thing becomes mo-
nOtonous, as it soon must, the foreign
powers will tell US, as they have told
many a nation under like circumstances
that our troubles. though alleged to be
domestic, have become a common nui-
sance, and must stop They will tell US so
with the less scruple, because our troubles
are very evidently not domestic in fact
The lingo designation of the Filipinos as
rebels is absurd. A rebel is one who
takes up arms against the actually exist
ing government Of his own country. Our
government was never actually estab-
lished over an acre of Philippine SOIL ex-
cept what we have conquered since the
war began. Meanwhile, we have come
down for months from offensive war to
defensive, abandoning a large part of the
not large territory which we had tempo
rarily overrun. 1t will be apt to strike
the most rapacious lingo, on reflection,
that such results are not due those trait
ors who believe, like certain other Amer
lean traitors about a hundred and twenty
years ago, that governments derive their
just powers from the consent-of the gov
erned," but, on the contrary, are due the
mismanagement of President Mckinley
and his agents in stirring up a bigger
hornets nest than they had provided
means to souse. &C. L. James.
Eau Claire, Wis, June %.