The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-08-24
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, ID. c., Aug. 21st, 1879!

be accomplished by hustling, even in
the month of August, which has got
to be so generally recognized in Off
cial circles as vacation time. He has
caused everything connected with
the sending of the volunteers to the
Philippines to be advanced consider
ably from the first estimates, and it
is now practically certain that the
last of the first ten regiments will be
landed at Manila not later than OctO-
Der, and arrangements have already
been made by which the other ten
regiments. the order for the enlisting
ago, will reach Manila within a week,
before or after, of December I. No
troops ever took the field anywhere
better equipped than these men will
be or better provided in every respect
for campaigning in the tropics. They
will all be armed with the Krag-J or-
gensen rifle, of which the War De
partment now has full supply, and
amply supplied with smokeless ammu-
milton. When all the troops get over
there will be more than 10000 men in
the Philippines. 1t is not believed
that so many men will be needed to
do the fighting, but Secretary Root
intends to have them there so that
every town taken from the Filipinos
can be held, instead of abandoned, as
in the last campaign. If there is as
much hustling at the other end as
there has been in Washington, the
campaign will be short and decisive.
Secretary Wilson, who has just re
turned from u western trip all the
way to the Pacific coast, upon which
he went to study agricultural condi-
tions so as to make tile work of the
Agricultural Department as helpful
to the farmers in that section as pos
sible, says the talk about a sentiment
in the West against the Philippine
policy of President Mckinley is all
manufactured in the East, and that
he did not meet a single anti west
of Chicago, although he met hundreds
of men, in all stations of life. He
found the farmers prosperous all
through the West, and especially so
in the corn belt. He says the wheat
crop of that section will be a little
short. but that the crop of corn and
oats and other farm products are
enormous. Speaking of the anneXa-
tion sentiment in the West, Secretary
Wilson said 1.-The people of the
West understand this question better
than do those of the East They
know that Dewey was sent to the
Philippines to protect our large and
growing trade with the Orient. We
have labOred to build up trade with
China and Japan, and when the war
began Spain had a fleet in the Orien-
tai waters ready to attack and destroy
our commerce. She also was ready
30 encourage privateering, and Dewey
went to Hongkong to be ready to pro-
tect our shipping. He destroyed the
Spanish fleet as the safe way to pre-
vent it from preying upon American
merchant ships. Had the battle re-
suited in a victory for Spain rather
than for Dewey, the Spanish fleet
would have crossed the Pacific to
attack our western ports. The people
out West realize this, and they also
realize that Dewey's victory and the
subsequent events which transferred
the Philippines to the United States
have given an extraordinary impetus
to the commerce of this country with
the Orient. At all the Pacific ports
the docks are piled up with goods
awaiting shipment to the Orient, and
we have not ships enough to carry
them. The people of the West regard
the Pacific as an American lake,
which should be covered with ships
carrying the American flag, and |
don't know but they are about right.
Why, | went on one big ship, loading
at Tacoma, and found in the cargo
lumber, wheat and flour from the
state of Washington butter and eggs
from Iowa and Michigan fruit from
California and Oregon steel from
Alabama cotton goods from the Car
olinas; bicycles from Chicago; no
tions from New England, and some
thing from more than half the states
in the Union. This cargo was bound
for China and Japan, and it repre-
sented every section and nearly every
branch of industry in the United
States. 1t showed me more clearly
than | had ever seen before the gen
erai interest we all have in this ORR
entail trade"
General Merritt, who was the first
American commando III the Philip
pines, has gone to Lake Champlain,
at President McKinley's request, pre-
sumably to talk about Philippine
affairs. This has revived the rumor
that General Merritt would return to
the Philippines, but no confirmation