The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-08-05

y RIGADIER GENERAL HARRISON 'GRA4
~ OTIS of Los Angeles falls to calling names ana
- applies several epithets derived from the 1ntre-
quen cesspools OF the English language to Inc Cail
and its proprietor.
General Otis makes the mistake that IS usual with
men OF small calber of thinking that name changes
that to which it is applied. He has Pracuced TINS
upon himself. When he gall1vant1ng III the MI
ippines dressed in white clothes and red sash and
other varieties he thought that calling thunder
shower creek the Rubcon made him Caesar when
his horse waded it. In his minds eye he saw rise
around him all the pomp and circumstance that toll
lowed the great Julius when he turned his back on
his own province and led his legions upon Rome
But the resemblance between him and Caesar was no
closer than that between tailless tabby cat and
royal Bengal tiger.
His Rubcon dispatch was all that was heard of him
as soldier and he soon followed it across the seas
to put off his shining harness and point to ele-
giant locations his ample anatomy tor scars that he
failed to get in battle He has settled down to his
usual uncivil part in civil life and demands that all
men shall agree with him, or take squirt from his
pen which does as little harm as a thrust from his
sword
He has discovered that the owner of The Call has
sugar interests" that will be destroyed by pera
nent occupancy Of the Philippines. He refers thereby
to the manufacture of beet sugar in California, and the
size of his head is measured exactly by his rejoicing
that its destruction will injure The Calls owner. In
that he is mistaken except that to destroy the beet
sugar industry by taking the Philippines will greatly
harm thousands of farmers and incidentally hurt
everybody in the State including this tin scrap Caesar
himself.
His ocund admission that this great and growing
interest is to be destroyed by the Philippine policy IS
substantial addition to the reasons why California
it The Call has only tried to promote this examina
by its readers and the people whom it reaches and
influences.
Perhaps the tin scrap Caesar of Los Angeles will
submit statement of the compromising advantages
the farmers of California which will follow the de-
struction of the sugarbeet industry, out of the
quest OF the Philippines What will the thousands OF
workingmen, thrown out OF employment find to do
when the beet fields not planted and the sugar
mills grind no more? To what equally profitable
variation in their crops will farmers devote their
lands? What equally profitable means of distributing
the wages OF labor among the merchants will be found
to take the place of what Rubcon forder boasts
will be destroyed here by conquesng the Philppnes
We can be amused by the per1 and swagger of this
struttng mperialist He begs to assure that "the
punishment OF the Filipinos will continue long as
native is in open rebellion"
If the punishment were of the kind administered by
this pompous brigadier, the Fipinos would be good
risk in any life insurance company His mere pres
ence in Luzon was the only offensive thing about
him, and as Los Angeles has to endure that the pun
shment inflicted by him upon the people of the two
places is just the His fellow citizens have a
right to inquire why they thus put level with
the dusky s1ulkers who staggered in their trenches
when the waters OF the Rubicon the fetlocks
of his snorng charger. He says The Call is 'gener-
ally offensive" which is than he as soldier
He then generally harmless and inoffensve But
when it to ofensveness as man, it is best to
get to wndward of him.