The San Francisco call., 1899-07-14
1t Is Said to Be Much Worse Than
Official Reports Indicate.
Returned Army Officer Says 1t Will Take Hundred
Thousand Men TO Subject the Followers
Of AguinaldO.

recognize Aguinaldo as. President of the
republic. He just gave him TO understand
that he was a d nuisance and that
he would sit down on him Il .-e annoyed
him (MerritD too much.
"Otis on his arrival gave the F'ilipinos
every latitude. They closed around the
city of Manila and commenced practical
siege and eXacted a toll on everything
that went in or out, and just simply
barred our men from going into their
lines. The Filipinos had the freedom of
the old walled city. Merritt's treatment
of the Filipinos had put them on their
mettle, and Otis gave them every oppor-
tunity to form a powerful army. The
were we'll drilled men. Otis chased these
soldiers out of Manila and they imme-
diately went, to the Filipino army. these
men would have served with our army;
in fact, they begged to be allowed to join
it, but Otis action drove them to the en-
emy. There were probably 1870 of these
Before the outbreak Otis had treated
the Ftlipinos as though he was afraid of
them. He used no tirmness with them,
and they got the impression that all they
had to do to take Manila was to come
and get it. Otis policy was certainly q
very weak one. The Filipino army and
to the outbreak that the outposts of the
two armies were not more than two feet
apart. With these Filipinos in
Sulting and abusing our men continually
there was out one result that could hap
pen and that was fight.
After the American soldier had been
in the leash so long nothing could stop
him, not even bad generalship. General
King said; There goes the American
soldier and all hell can't stop him!' Otis
is unquestionably great office man.
When it comes down to saving ten cents
he is a great general. He devotes the
most of his time TO finding out whether
some clerk is entitled to rations or not.
As great general of lighting army
he is decidedly failure.
Reports as a rule have been colored
from Manila. The plain fact of the mat
ter is a hundred thousand troops are
needed. That is the very smallest num-
Der that can subjugate these Filipinos.
1t is an impossibility that the present
army, which numbers probably 30 ,000
men, can ever conquer these people Our
policy OF moving through a country and
gaining victories without establishing
garriSonS-merely moving on through the
country and allowing the enemy to oc-
cupy again positions we have just taken
is surely no advantage TO US.
The Hospital Corps has done effective
work considering the way it has been
handled, which has been very economi-
cally. There is a large number of wound
ed and sick who might recover and be
States, but they can never hope to re-
cover in that climate. If these men were
sent, home 1t would leave more room in
the hospitals and the corps could better
attend to other patients.
The policy of the present government
over there has been to send encouraging
reports TO the United States, but facts
have not warranted these reports. Peo-
pie of the United States must make up
their minds that these islands will cost
a great many million dollars and the loss
of at least ten thousand more lives before
the Government ever realizes any profit.
The number of sick and wounded in the
certainly should be done 10 increase the
hospital facilities