Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-09-15
MIDDLEBURY MAN
ELLIS WHAT HE KNOWS OF PHILIP
PINE MATTERS.

PINE MATTERS.
tobert NJ. Collins Explains the Cores
pondents' Ground Robin" Despatch in "A
Private Letter to Ills Chief of the Assoc
ciated Press.
Robert M. Collins, graduate of Mid
lebury college in the class of 80 and a
Foung man whose career as a reporter
or the Associated Press has been fol-
bwed with much interest by many of
ur people, is now in charge of the work
{ that great association of newspapers
the Philippine islands. Papers of all
hades of belief on the question of the
administrations policy in the islands are
1cluded in the Associated Press, and
s managers will not tolerate "doctored"
ews from reporters. The newsgatherers
re required to state facts as they see
hem, and nothing more.
Some weeks ago there appeared
mong the dispatches received via Hong
Kong one signed by practically all the
correspondents in Luzon, including Mr..
collins. 1t was protest against the
Jews censorship which these news
tatherers asserted required them to
istort facts, to omit accounts of reverses
our arms, and in general to tell
(othng which did not put the campaign
the most brilliant light. This was a
rave charge, and Manager Melville E.
Btone of the Associated Press asked Mr.
Collins for an explanation. This is
|Ir. Collins answer, written with no
Expectation that it would be made pub
Fc by Mr.. Stone:
MANILA, p. l., July 30, 1899.
Ielville E. Stone, General Manager,
Chicago, U. S. A
MY DEAR MIR. STONE-Your request
or detailed record of all circumstances
eading to the statement cabled to the
newspapers by all the correspondents in
1anila is Just received.* The
censorship enforced during the war and
|efore the beginning of 1t, was, accord
hg to newspaper men who had worked
b Japan, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and
Russia in war times, and In Cuba under
he Weyler regime, and during our war,
10 much more stringent than any hither-
o attempted that we were astOnished
hat the American authorities should
ountenance it.
For long time we submitted to the
censorship because of appeals TO our pa
riotism and feeling that we might be
ccused of lack thereof if we made
NY trouble for the American authori.
les here. But when Gen. Otis came
own in the frank admission that it was
hot intended so much to prevent the
newspapers from giving information
md assistance to the enemy (the legiti-
nate function, and, according to our
yiew, the only legitimate one, of GEN.
orship), but to keep the knowledge Of
conditions here from the public at home,
md when the censor had repeatedly
old us In ruling out plain statements Of
lndisputed facts, my instructions are
% let nothing 60 that can hurt the ad
nnlstraton," we concluded that protest
was iustifiable.
Otis had gained the idea from the long
submission of the newspaper men to his
lictation that it was part of the duty
bf the governor general to direct the
newspaper correspondents as he did his
officers. Ia this way the entire Ameri-
can press was made the personal organ
bf Otis; we were compelled to send
nothing but the official version of all
events and conditions, even when the
of the great mass OF officers in the field
and of intelligent residents, and was a
Justification of events which passed be.
fore our eyes. In this way every fight
became a glorious American victory,
even though every one In the army
knew it to have been substantially a
failure, and we were drilled Into writing
quite mechanically, wholly ridiculous
estimates of the numbers of Filipino:
killed.
On comparing notes we found that We
had among US learned the views of al
the American generals, and most of tht
other prominent men in Manila whose
opinions were worth considering, ant
that there was practical unanimity O.
opinions of the situation. The pressure
upon US to "tell the truth" from army
officers of high rank and men of al
classes had been something treme ndOus
and we have been accused of cowardic'
and all sorts of things. Before taking
any steps we concluded to talk with Otis
and he made vague promises of create
liberality. About the middle of June
wrote a conservative review to the effec
that every one here was convinced that |
would be impossible to end the war dur
| ing the rainy season and for some tim
thereafter, unless heavy reinforcement
were sent. The censor's comment (
made note of it) was;
"Of course, we all know that we ar
in terrible mess out here, but we don
want the people to get excited about il
If you fellows will only keep quiet now
we will pull through in time wlthou
any fuss at home"
He took the review to General Otis
who said: TELL Collins that If he wi
hold that for a week or ten days he wi
thank me for not letting him send it,"
When went to see him he repeate
the same old story about the lnsurrectio
going to pieces, and hunted so porter
tously about having wonderful thing
up his sleeve that almost believed hin
The other men had practically the SAN
experience. So, after waiting mont
for the generals predictions to materia
ize, we decided to send the statemer
we had framed without changing 1t, 6
the conditions had not changed.
The views were the views of Lawtol
Mac rthur Funston Wheaton eft al