El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-15
REAL SITUATION
In the Philippines.

In the Philippines.
People who are crying out that the
campaig in the Philippines has been q
failure are singularly blind to the real
situatioa, The area OF the Philip
pines Is about lis, 300 square miles. No
serious opposition to American rulo
exists anywhere, except In the lslane
of Luzop o. the other islands the
people a accepting American doml-
ma ion as fast as forces can be organic
ed to cake over the government, The
is aud of Luzon has an area OF 10000
square miles, so If we take out from the
Philippines the entire area OF Luzon
we ct Il have vast prePouderance OF
Philippine territory which has accept
ed or Is quietly accepting American
rule. The population OF the Philip
pine group is supposed to be about 81
600, 900, of which nearly half are on the
island of Luzon. It, therefore, follows
that, even counting what we hold In
Luzou, the American authorities are
in possession of by far the greater part
of the area of the Philippines and over
half of the inha bitants have accepted
American rule.
Turning to LuZon, where all the
trouble is, we see that the United
States authorities are in possession OF
nearly all the island worth possessing.
From the settled and fertile regions OF
the province of Csvite the American
occupation extends north to where the
lines of the advancing troops stopped
in the progress by the dry sesson), con-
front the Filipinos in their latest CAPT.
tai of Tarlac. The city OF Tarlsc and
the narrow strip of country stretching
70 the north and west of it, between
the mountains toward LinRayen, Is all
that is left 20 the Filipinos of the fer
tile plains they occupied at the begin
ming of the last campaign. Stretching
in q general direction from north to
south and henmed In by mountains,
lie the fertile plains, which
are the homes of the Tsgals. This re-
gion is densely populated, and in 1t lies
the wealth of Luzon and all important
cities of the island. The regions lying
outside of this strip of territory are I'M
productive and unsettled, some OF them
even uuexplored, and they are inhabit-
ed by various savage, half-civilized
tribes, some of which are hostile to. the
Tagals. Civilization in Luzon Is con-
fined almost entirely to the territory
from which the United States forces
have been driving out the rebels. Last
winters campaign brushed the Tagal
forces to the outskirts of the settled
and fertile territory, leaving them, when
the rainy season forced suspe nsion OF
operations, with little further to re-
treat until they should be in the noun
tain wilde or the sea. For A guinaldo o
to ID aintain the organized army in the
Door and uncultivated region toward
which he has been driven would be i'm
possible Meantime, within the ter
ritory which the Americans have estab-
iished, there sumptionof agriculture has
begun a I'D the region is rapidly settl-
ing down to a normal condition after
the fitful fever of war.
Those who are disposed to be OF q
,despairing mood because General Otis
has not annihilated the rebels are
and contrasting it's area with the area
held by the United States. Such com
parsons are misleading. 1t would be
as sensible to compare the fertile area
of the valley of the Nile with the area
of the deserts which lie about it:
From .the gates of Manila
the Tagals have been driven
to the foot of the mountains.
There are said to be some 200
tribes in the island of Luzon. and OF
these the .Tagsls are the only trouble
the rest will be easy. With their forces
divided as they now are, one section
having been swept southwark through
the province of Csvite and the other
north ward to Tarlac, it may be looked
forward to that with the close OF the
rainy season General Otis's reinforced
army will make short work of such Or
ganlzed resistance to American author
ity as remains on the island. The re-
cent capture of the city OF Cslamba, on
the shores Of Laguna de Bay, resulted
in cutting off the telegraphic ccmmu-
nicstion which Aguinaldo has some
how been able to keep up with
the southern portion of his army
and the isolation of the two
sectors is now complete. The
fleet Of gunboats for bay and
river work has been much Increased,
ard wilt play an important part In the
opening of the fall campaign. The
small gunboats and the regular men of
ficult for Aguipaldo to get supplies for
his army from the outside, and now
that the Americans have possession OF
the fertile valleys of the island, SO
that tue Tagal leader can not get his
supplies from there, he will be in bad
way for food for his army. 1t was from
this 81 ction of the island now in posses
sion of the Americans that AgulnalC o
drew the ''sipews of war" by taxation.
He can do that 90 longer. and will find
him self short of cash.
WE ARE GETTING THEIR CONFIDENCE.
Another thing which operates in
favor of the Americans is the fact that
the confidence of the Filipinos in the
white men from over the water is in
creasing. At first they believed all the
absurd things told to them by their
leaders about the Americans. 1t is
probable that large portion of the
Tagsl troops still in arms yet believe
the AT orleans to be monsters of
c-uelty aud iniquity. The thousands of
.friendlies,'' who have returned to
their homes within the zone of Amer
lean oco upation aud have settled down
to work again, will be sure. in one way
or another, to get news to their