The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-10-20

should Keep the islands or not
human life aud human suffering
can't be weighed in such II scale
but our people will find In the Philip
pines q fountain Of great riches. Be.
sides who now counts in money or
calls the cost too great in life or
wealth that in its expenditure pre-.
served thIrty.iive years ago the in
tegrity of the Union? 1 believe that
within five years all men will admit
that the Eastern islands are worth
far more than they are costing III.
The additional cost ought not TO bt
great.
MUST 60 OUT TO DO 1T.
"Fitty thousand or 10000 men will
end the war in six months If they are
pushed. or course, if they are kept
in Manila it will he different. Such
a number of troops will teach those
Filipinos the lesson they deserve.
But it must not be campaign of
temporizing. 1t must he aggressive
and persistent from the start, There
muet be no let up and no opportunity
must be given the rebels, once routed,
to recover.
1.-The seat of all the trouble at this
time IL the Filipino junta at Hong
Kong. The pernicious little body is
keeping the war alive. 1t IL in COM
municatiOn with the states, and it
supplies Aguinaldo's army with the
nope upon which it lives. 1t sends
out reports of fearful disasters to our
troops that never occurred, 1t i'm
AGNES all manner of friendly feeling
the world over toward the Filipinos;
assures them of all kind of outside
support, when it is entirely without
foundation, and in this manner keeps
their spirit alive.
THEIR COMFORT FROM AMERICA.
"They are busiest just now circu.
lating reports that the trend of pub
lie opinion 10 this country is against
the American procedure in the
Islands. They are informed by this
junta that majority of all the states
have already pronounced against the
policy of the administration and that
they have only to wait until the
next general election when the United
States will grant them their inde-
pendence and leave the islands for
ever. OF course, such policy would
be absolut 'ly absurd, because as 1
have said. the Filpinos are too ignor-
ant and are thoroughly incapable of
self government. But still, this kind
of campaigning has its effect on the
ignorant natives, and they are in
duced to keep on their campaign.
He TALKS OF AGUINALDo
"Aguinaldo himself is shrewd, but
not clever To use slang, he is a
great cor worker know of no bet
ter term. He circulates and cor
roborates all that the junta sends out
and adds 10 it all that his cunning
Imagination can devise. With him
the campaign lie Il great confidence
game. l cannot see at present just
how he will he benefited particular
ly, but 1 know enough of his nature
to be certain that he Ia not working
for nothing. He is cruel, vndictive
and selfish, and if his people could
only be persuaded to accept the truth
of the situation they would desert
him tomorrow.
"The very best that the Filipinos
could have done for themselves
would have been to accept the terms
of the first proclamation issued by
General Otis. These terms were
broad and magnapimous and were
all that they could possibly expect
"Agmnaldo and the iunta made
such efforts to misrepresent this proc
lamation that the natives were sus-
piciOus of II and their great oppOr-
tunity was lost Except for the mis-
approximations Of the junta hostilities
would never have been commenced,
but having been commenced there
is only one way to finish them.
$50 long as those fellows think
they have ghost of a show of hold.
ing up their end they Will maintain
the rebellion. But if the American
army fights them at every hand,
drives them before and completely
convinces them that it is absolutely
useless to prolong struggle against
such overwhelming odds, then the
natives, believe, will make rather
cheerful bow to the inevitable"