The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-02-14

THE WAR AND ACRIMONIOUS
CHARGES

there is nothing left to be lone but TO
end it by the superior strength, equip
ment and fighting qualities Of the lat
ter. If it is true hat the Filipinos
have enough of war and are suing for
peace it is clear that this country
force in a proper spirit and grant such
terms as the necessities of the situation
require. The fight was very unequal
from the start or the results would not
have been so very conspicuously difer
emit. A dispatch called it slaughter
and so 1t seems to have been. Our ma
chine guns and splendid rifles were too
much for badly armed natives and war
riors armed with the very ~antiquated
bows and arrows. 1t is no wonder
that the fight should have been pro-
claimed as slaughter" Amerisan loss
probably $50 all told, killed and wonud-
ed. The killed may be under so. The
enemy's loss is 1000 dead, $500 wound
ed. and 5000 prisoners.
The Baltimore Sun quotes from
Prof. Worcester, one of President Nc
Kinley's newly appointed commission
ers to visit the Philippines to study the
conditions, etc. He has lived there
and is known to be a particularly we'll
equipped appointee. He has given his
impressions of the natives out there,
and if correct they are of a better class
than was supposed. He says, for in
stance:
"The Philippine has developed many
admirable traits. He is peaceful and
cheerful; his self-restraint is remarka-
BILE; his family is well ordered; in some
instances, at any rate, he shows exc
cutive ability of no mean order when
called upon to attend to the admins
traitor. Of local affairs in the more i'm
pOrtant towns.
"It is my W belief that no intra-
tropical people offers brighter hope for
the future than do the Philippine ma
tives, and if trouble arises in our deal
ings with them | believe there is far
more likelihood that. it will be the re-
suit III Oul OWN ~ LAc@lA
that it will come from inherent and
Objectionable peculiarities of their
character" s.
So these "peaceable" and self-con-
tanned men, who show Executive abili-
ty of no mean order" are the people
being warred Upon. They have been
induced to plunge into a fight most
unequal, and Of course the United
States must suppress them. Whether
the trouble originated in the foolish
pride and unsanctified ambition of
Aguinaldo, or was really the outcome
of the course of Mckinley and 'our
own maladministration," to quote Prof.
Worcester, we may not seek now to de-
termine.
The noticeable thing in this war is
the extreme bitterness and blindness
of the organs of the Mckinley crowd.
They d%enounce the entire southern SEN
ators, except TWO or three that deserted
at the last hour, as TRAITORS and pour
hot shot into ALL men everywhere who
have dared to oppose the mania for
expansion and the cry for Imperialism.
Some of these tooters for wildcat ex-
pansion rave and fume and throw
their expletives in a highly embellish-
ed style. They charge that the oppon-
ents of expansion are responsible for
the late disturbances and the killing of
so many men. They rave like any
drab, and are blind in their fanaticism
and folly. The Richmond Dispatch
we'll characterized this insanity and
buster in the following sensible way:
'"Was there ever a more blatant ex-
hibition of cant, a more brazen effort
to discredit cold, hard facts, and a Ia
mer and more impudent ecOurse to
salve conscience by attempting to shift
responsibility? The only redeeming
feature about these TRADES is that they
show that the Imperialist organs are
not entirely dead to the voice of con-
science.
LAS to the ~ingratitude Of the insur-
gents, let us be honest. While we have
no use for them, the plain truth is that
talk about their obligations to us is
the veriest "tommy-rot." Since a con-
fict has been brought on, we must, of
course, maintain American prestige,
but the none the less, We are response
BILE for the conditions that conduced to
the conflict. The destruction of the
Spanish fleet in Manila harbor was a
side issue, although a necessity, of our
war with Spain.
We can only have contempt for the
furious charge that the anti-expansion
senators are really "allies of Aguinal-
do" That is madness run to seed, or,
as the Dispatch brands it, "a shameless