Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-08-24
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, July 81. 18s'

WASHINGTON, July 81, 1893
II the administration fellows its present
method of showing its confidence in General
| OTIS to its logical conclusion there win be new
commander in the Philippines before the fight
| ing campaign opens. 1t began to show it's con
fdence in General Otis, who had continually
/ declared that 1000 men we're all he needed, by
issuing the necessary orders to make the full
strength of the army in the Philippines 5000
men: then it was decided to make it $1,000, and
the orders under which the ten new regiments
are being recruited win raise the number to
6300O To be logical the next order should name
a now commander tor this large army. The pro-
ceedings in connection with the order to recruit
these last ten regiments which, by the way, will
almost bring the volunteer army up TO the limit
set by Congress. were an object lesson in the
wiblywablY policy which this administration has
so often adopted. At first it was positively
denied that the order would be issued at all; then
! il was said that the regiments would be raised
but would merely be held as reserve, and at
last, when it could no longer be hidden, it was
acknowledged that arrangements had been
made to land the last of them at Manila about
the first of December, which means that they
will leave San Francisco early in October.
is political play on the part of the admins
tration. This is recognized by all close political
observers The opinion of Colonel W z. Mclean
of Indiana, who was Deputy Commissioner of
pensions under lhe Cleveland administr alton
and who is now in Washington, on his way to
the G. A. r. encampment to which he is dele
gate -atarge, is that of thousands, regardless Of
politics. He said: zone thing is certain; if the
Philippine war is not ended before the presi dem
tial campaign comes on. it is goodbye to Presi-
dent Mckinley The war oyer there Is fast
growing in unpopularity. The policy OF expan
sion is opposed by great many western Repub-
icans, and the Democrats are nearly unit
against it, Speaking of politics in his own
state, Colonel Mclean says:"The Indinsna Demo-
Graf who is not Cor Bryan and the Chicago plat
form is a man without party. and his position
is SO lonesome that he almost feels as though he
had no country" The Colonel knows as he was
that sort of a Democrat himself in 1896.
There is paragraph in an official report just
received by Surgeon General Sternberg from
Major John R. Hoff, Chief Sur geon Of the Mill
tary district of Porto Rico which is not calcu-
lated to make new shouters for imperialism
among the thoughtful. In considering this very
serious matter, it should not be forgotten that
Porto Rico is the heaIthiest of our new Island
possessions The paragraph is almost too plain
spoken to be quoted in a family paper. Suffice
it is TO say that In it Major Hof speaks Of the
farming prevalence of private diseases among
our soldiera over there and says the indications
are that it viii not be long before a large per-
centage Ct them viii be as thoroughly infected
as the native population. He also points out the
danger of returning soldiers spreading the CON
tamination at their homes, a danger which
Great Britain has found to be Of the gravest
proportions 10 her experience with her tropical
possessions Something like this has been said
before, but it was hooted down as the talk of an
alarmist 1t begins to look as though the men
who said. 1.-THE more you know about the tropics,
the less desire you have to live there" was
about right.
According to high Republican authority, Alger
never was a real candidate for the Senate and
his announcement to that effect was made
after full understanding with Mr. Mckinley,
solely for the purpose of preparing reason for
his resignation from the cabinet This may or
may not be true, but the announcement several
days ago by Mr. Alger that he was entirely out
of politics. seems to bear out the story. There
has been SO much Republican thickness in Wash
ington that one is never surprised to discover
something new in that line. The Hanna McKin-
ley crowd seem to prefer doing even the mos
simple things in mysterious way. According
to the above mentioned Republican authority,
"the real truth is. probably. that the change
finally in the War Department was compelled
not so much by the bit er opposition to General
Alger personally as to the necessity confronting
the administration of infusing new yigor into
the war in the Philippines. which was laDguish-
clusion."