The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-06-24

have no great respect for the militar,
capacity of Gen. Otis. Fritz Andreae
OF the signal service, whose illustrated
lecture in Brooklyn, N. Y, was re.
ferred to in the Irish Standard of .
recent date, has the following to say o.
Otis:
Peace could be. restored in the Phil.
ippines Tomorrow if it were not sol
General Otis. He must know by this
time that, with the limited number Of
troops at his command he cannot hope
to crush Aguinaldo. The truth is Otis
is prolonging the war in the Philippines
for his own ends. He is utterly incom-
petent. The men under his command
have long realized this, and no longer
have any confidence in him either as a
leader or as man."
A member OF the Thirteenth Mime
sofa, John Roberts by name, corrobo-
rates what Major Andreae says of Otis.
In an interview published in the Min
neapolis Times he says:
Gen. Otis is one of the most accom-
plished liars on earth. He sent home
false reports about our losses and about
the losses of the Filipinos. He is simply
prolonging this war for his own ad-
vancement. II the American people on
ly knew OF the slaughter that is going
on there in the Philippines among the
natives we would have a war among
ourselves to stop it. They tell us of
Spanish cruelty. We have been vastly
more cruel than the Spanish. We have
killed more natives, and probably with
no more provocation. / have known of
orders being given to American troops
which, if put in writing, would read,
in effect: Let there be no wounded
among the enemy The slaughter
among the natives is something awful,
and when the truth is known somebody
will have to do lot of explaining.
The boys are all sick of it and want to
come home.
we enlisted to fight the Spaniards;
to tight them for two years if necessary,
but we did not enlist to fight niggers in
the Philippines, and if we had been
asked to do so I, for one, would have
refused. Moreover, I feel certain that
the other Thirteenth regiment boys feel
the same way about it. The American
troops provoked this trouble with the
natives. l am rather of the opinion
that the fight would have come anyway.
Those people will fight to the last for
their country; but at the same time we
provoked the attack"
General Otis was sent to the Philip
pine islands by Mckinley to make
grand military record for himself, but
he has PANIED out like Gen. Shafter at
Santiago. Both have been complete
failures. Both appear to have cruel and
inhuman instincts, and think it justif-
able to destroy half the natives of the
Philippines to force American civiliza-
ton on the other half against their con-
sent. They think that the Filipinos
have no rights that invaders are bound
to respect. Otis has preferred war to
peace and was instrumental in bringing
on conflict with the Filipinos. He
desires prolongation' of the war, and
hence his antagonism to Schurman's ef-
forts for settlement. He has brought
everlasting, disgrace upon the American
flag by the atrocities committed by his
soldiers. In the name OF humanity, let
the military monster who rivals Crom-
we'll and Weyler be brought back in
irons and courtmartialed for his bar
barities. We do not expect Mckinley
and Alger to deal so harshly with their
pet, but the American people expect
them to remove him for incompetency,
and to appoint better man in his place
if they intend to carry on the war to
successful termination.