The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-07-19
IMPERIAL LYING.
Plight in Which the Cor
respondents Round Rob-
in Has Placed Nc
Kinley and Otis.

/ TFrom the Evening POST of Yesterday
In uneoncealed CONSERVATION, our I'M
perialists at Washington and throughout
the country discovered yesterday that
their policy Of suppression and deceit is
a melancholy ruin. The exposure by the
newspaper correspondents at Manila OF
the fraud which has been deliberately
practised upon the American people, is
the most terrible blow which President
| Mckinley has received For to him it
comes back. This futile war in the
Philippines Is his war. If his underHngs
rave acted like knaves or fools, they are
still his undeflings, chosen by him, kept
in Office by him, directed In all things by
him. Attempt to dodge responsibility as
he may, the American people know where
to fix and fasten it. If they have been
tricked into thinking this wal on the
Filipinos anything but a criminal blunder,
If they have been steadily deceived as to
its causes and course and the prospect of
it's speedy termination, William Mckinley
is the man to be held ultimately respon-
sible. Politically, that is the most mo-
mentous inference to be drawn from the
collapse of imperialistic lying, brought
about by the united action of the Ameri-
can correspondents in Manila.
Their statement is spoken of as an Eek
pldsfon,' and such 1t truly is, as is clear
are lodging the fragments of shell. Yet
there Is really no surprise about the rev.
Citations. They come in a dramatic way,
! and will shock the country, but they only
confirm Indications which have BEEN ae-
- n1Ir Drsr-a+ 1a+-
! tiers. talks with returned correspondents
| and volunteer officers and men, and infor-
nation obtained from naval officers, all
nave pointed to the fact that official de-
ception had been practised on a mon
1 strous scale. Those who had closely fol-
| lowed the news, with a due amount of
! reading etween the lines, had become
| well aware that the Philippine cam
| paign was a fiat failure; that in spite of
all the fighting and loss Of life and terri
/ BILE h~ardships of the troops. General Otis
stands practically just where he did last
February. The letter from our own MAN.
liza correspondent Ga captain of the Second
Oregon regiment) which we are able OPP
| portunely to publish today, shows how in
! evitable the inference was from all that
| had occurred. including the abortive peace
| NEGOTIATIONS, that the military situation
had simply gone from bad to worse. But
| our paternaI, or, rather, grandmotherly,
| rulers at Washington had not thought 1t
I good for the American people to know the
truth. So they kept on with their absurd
and lying bulletins about encouraging
| news,' and peace being 'in sight" until
! now this bombshell has exploded and
/ blown up their whole edifce of humbug
| and deception.
AS for General Otis, we think of him
| mainly as an unlucky subordinate blum
deringly carrying out his orders. There
| can be no doubt where he got his inspira-
| ton to secrecy and deception. The phrases
| of his which the correspondents quote
that certain facts would alarm the peo-
| pie at home.D or would have the people
/ Of the United States by the arss-show
that he was acting not as a general but
| as a politician. That is, he was taking the
White House view that this is "a Repnb-
| lican war; and must be conducted not
| SO as 10 win battles but to win votes.
| IN this General Otis no doubt thought
| that he was just as faithfully serving his
master at Washington, as he was by tele-
| graphing the manifest absurdity the other
| dav that only the encouragement derived
| from anti-imperiahsts In America pre-
| vented the Filipinos from surrendering.
| That there was no military reason for the
| censorship is proven beyond all dispute
| by the correspondents. who show that the
very statements of fact which General
OTIS would not permit them to telegraph
J to this country. lest somehow the news
ket to the ears Of the Filipinos. were
| printed In newspapers in Manila which
| freely circulated among the insurgents.
| 1t is clear enough that General Otis was
| acting in All this matter Of the censorship
J from polffieal motives, under political in
structions krom Washington. This ~ the
main reasolN Why the exposure leaves him,