The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-24

fit to be used for patrol purposes on the
lagoons and inlets Of Manila bay. Dozens
of business men in Manila, Americans and
English, stated openly that the boats were
not worth more than $4,000. They were
put up to auction by the Spanish off,
GERS and the bid of Gen. Otis was S115,-
00G. This was refused, and they were pur-
chased by q Spaniard later on for $780,
900, so. at least it was said. The pur-
chaser practically dismantled the boats,
and only left the hulls and machinery,
and in this condition Gen. Otis purchased
them for $200,0 900. A large sum of money
was spent in fitting them up again, and
if ever congress investigates this matter
some one is likely to get hurt
This is but single incident which is
(old about Gen. Otis, and the people of
this country will soon learn the inside
history of the Philippine campaign as
handled by the man now in charge.
There is no doubt that Gen. Otis is
capable civil administrator, but he is
misfit as a general in active service" said
an officer of high rank Of the Minnesota
regiment Wheaton and Lawton are all
right but Gen. Otis as a commanding
general is the wrong man in the right
place. / came in contact with him daily
and am in a position to know what was
going on in the palace at Manila. 1t may
come as a surprise that the former sec
rotary of Aguinaldo is now employed by
Cen Otis as an interpreter. What con-
clusion can be formed from this, except
that the present interpreter and former
secretary of the rebel leader would serve
his country before he would be true to
the American people?
There are dozen of F'ilipinoS employed
by Gen. Otis in responsible positions, who
to my mind, are acting as spies for
Acy1Iin no Ot
ever we intended to march out of Manila
the Filipinos miles away knew of our
plans in advance These people should
be handled in the same manner as Eng
land handled the sepoys of India in the
mutiny of 1857. There can be no senti-
ment in war; and it is perfectly useless
to placate the Tagalos. The only way to
treat the rebels is to do the same as we
did to the Indians when they rose up in
arms, make good Tagalos of them.
Gen. Otis has played a game which
has cost many American lives, to say
nothing of the enormous expense. If
Wheaton or Lawton had been in control
the rebellion would never have occurred
and if it did. would have been speedily
suppressed. Gen. Lawton had the rebels
surrounded at one time, and one swift
forward movement would have broken
their power At this critical time word
came from Gen. Otis for the command to
fall back, and the victorious regiments
marched over the ground over which
they had swept the rebels before them
Cen Otis always had plenty of men, If
they had been armed with the proper
weapons. Think Of getting into fight
with a man armed with a Colts revolver,
who is forty feet from you, and all you
have to defend yourself is penknife.
If you get to close quarters you might
get In good blow, but at a distance you
are perfectly powerless This is exactly
the situation which confronted us in the
Philippines. The Spanish were armed
with Mausers and later the rebels got
possession of these arms. Our men had
the Springfield of 1871 which had been
altered, and its extreme range is LOCO
yards. Now Mauser is effective at 1000
yards, and we never could get within
range. We simply wasted our ammuni-
ton while the Mausers were dropping
our men on all sides. The rebels used
smokeless powder, while we had the black
powder We never could see where they
were located, while every time we used
black powder, the rebels knew of our po-
SitiOn.'