The age-herald., 1899-04-09
SITUATION IN PHILIPPINES AS CREELMAN VIEWS TIT
The New YorEl's Journals Correspondent Gives Ac count of am Interview With the In-
 surgent Leader.
surgent Leader.

handed us cigarettes and We all returned to the trenches.
 No man can spend week in the Philip pines and not understand the hopelessness or talking about giving up these islands to tie insurgent government. It Is true that the Tagalos have an organized army, thar they have a smokeless powder mill at M1lo- los and that they are manufacturing cart ridges for their 40 000 or 50,O00 rifles; aa1 It is also true that they have been able to force large bodies of the other tribes 10 take up arms against us. But the Tagales do not represent the feeling or purpose of the vast majority of the population, wbo want peace and are willing, nay, anxious to see the American dag flying over the archipelago.
 As General Merritt told me in Paris few weeks ago: We cannot give one part of IIle Philippines and hold the rest.'
 Money Grabbers Back of the Rebels
 To yield to the Tagalos would mean ,ir- tual slavery for all but the Tagalos and their moneyed allies in Manila. The rich Spaniards who have settled permanently n Manila, together with the powerful and ambitious half-breed merchants, have com bined to supply the Tagalos with cash and arms. They are anxious to see a weak na- tive government here in the hope that they will control and plunder the ignorant pop ulation at will. They are a heartless, sor- did sdl of money grabbers, who wo id willingly see a feeble barbarian sovereign ty susceptible to intimidation and corrup- tior, rather than a strong, progressive government founded on princip.es of jis- tice and freedom.
 l came to Manila full of sympathy for Aguinaldo and his fighting men, but I know now that any yielding on the part of the United States would be a black crime against the helpless millions who have been
 
 since Spain came to the Philippines
 Admiral Dewey, General Otis and every man who is in position to understand lnls situation say that when our troops have smashed the Tagalos our flag will be wei comed by the rest of the Filipinos. This is the simple truth.
 Time is everything now. In few weeks the rains will flood the country and make the roads impossible. Fever and smalrox will spread through our ranks
 Already hundreds and hundreds of houses and many noble and ancient churches have been burned.
 Flags of Truce All Around
 Along the edges of the great fighting zone, stretched crescent-wise from he north to the south about Manila, the trinl- bling natives creep about with white flags carried over their shoulders, and every lit tie defencesless hut that has been allowed to stand has a banner of truce fiuttering above it. People are starving in the dis .tant parts of Luzon, but We cannot send them food lest the insurgents seize our steamers. The Tagalos area pretoTian ele- ment They have sent around bands of fifty or hundred here and there to drive forward the unwilling pesants to the fight ing lines.
 As Admiral Dewey says, we must move forward our forces without hesitation. We must smash, smash, smash, one or two quick, decisive victories will relieve mill lions of the people from their fear of Taga- 10 leaders.