El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-19

now serving them out to US as it sees
, they are needed. One of it's latest biti
, of advice is to pay no heed TO such in
expert advisers in military matters al
DIR. Depew. We quote:
"The idea current in American news
papers of raising hundred thousand
men and crushing the rebels once for
ALL is q most foolish one. Such q
, force would only cost millions and &C
complish nothing. You cannot man
euver a hundred thousand men in q
tropical forest, or feed them either
Ten thousand regulars we'll led, steadi'
ly reinforced from home, and aided by
five thousand native auxiliartes, will
do the work much better, if only it is
once understood that the work to be
done is not to kill Tagals, or hang
Aguinaldo, or provide reputation for
General Otis, but to establish and pro-
tect government in each district &C.
cupied, government intent on restor-
ing order and prosperity The troops
should not be there to conquer, but to
see that the orders and policy OF the
district commissioner are carried out,
SO that all who are quiet and pay their
taxes may be sure of protection"
Impatience is an American failing, it
appears. We are "too much in q hur-
~" over our task in the Philippines.
It took Englishmen four years to su b.
due the Burmese. who were not so well
armed as the Tagals, had no such
clever methods of forest warfare, and
lacked such a center of unity as Agui-
naldo. It's kind of campaigning that
"taxes the best men," The Maoris of
New Zealand, too; see how long they
held out and what job it was to con-
vince them.
| It's q great disadvantage to us, the
Spectator" further points out, tina
this sort of work is so new to us. We
don't know how to set about doing
things, and we have no traditions of
our own to guide us. 1.-THE Ameri-
cans are wasting thier gigantic
strength simply because they are not
sure what to be at, or by what means
ends may be mos. easily attain
ed,' is the way our good and wise
London mentor puts it. II England
had had the came job thrust upon her,
she would have known just how to
tackle it. She would have had her
pick of half q dozen generals having
just the experience needed and not too
have had, ready to her hand, hundreds
Of army officers seasoned in jungle
cam pai gning, and IAN endless number
of civil servants, no better than Ameri
cans, but with fixed ideas derived from
experience, with objects narrowly de-
fined, and with position in regard to
soldiers which IL has taken more than
a century to settle SO that both exactly
understand their respective functions"
She would not have sent any volun-
teers to the Philippines, and no very
large army of regulars, She would
have gone to work quietly, doggediy,
patiently, without fuss or
furry. and in the end would
have finished up the job with won
derfully little expenditure either of
national means of energy" That's
toe advantage of having been there
before many times and knowing how.
1t isn't our fault (merely our misfor-
tune) that we are so young and green
at this kind of business, but the "Spec-
tator" tells US it is our fault that we
are 20 hasty and self-conceited,t that we
have learned so little from the ex-
perience of older countries, that we
have no trained civil servants, and
that except in the navy-we ''do not
most competent men," On the Amer
lean campaign to date in Luzon, the
London critic remarks:-
"They (the Americans) do not appar-
emily establish any kind OF civil order,
and consequently, whether they win or
lose, hold only the ground they stand
on. The English create civil admins
Vi aeiOh do OhCO, ouPpofe ~ Will orOOps,
cut roads, or use waterways, and thus
acquire at all events the passive
support of that general mass which
wants first of all to go on with its &C
customed life, and provide its own din
ner in peace. 1t seems probable, too, |
to observe on this side, that General
Otis is bad organizer. He seems to
think that sending detachments to
fight their way through q tropical |
country is equivalent to conQuering it, |
whereas he should proceed step by step,
establishing posts or forts as he goes |
on, cutting roads between them, and |
setting up civil authority in every |
fresh district occupied. Above all, he |
should set himself to create native regi- |
ments, who will spare his Americans |
fatigue duty, who know the country, |
who will divide the native interest,
and, above all, who will not die off like
flies in winter"
Nevertheless, with all his imperfec-
tions on his head, Uncle Sam is going
to accomplish in the Philippine Archi-
pelago what he has set out to accom-
plish; the spectator" hasn't a doubt
on that point It thinks the expert
ence will be educational for him, and
1t also thinks he will have much less
trouble with the people of those distant
possessions in the years to come than
some doleful prophets here at home
are predicting. AS to this the English
newspaper says:-
"What specially moves the Tagals in
their struggle we do not know, for, as
they have never been free, it can hard
" be the passion for freedom: but thew