Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-11-17
BAD SITUATION GROWING WORSE.


1t would be interesting and instruct
i've to Mr.. Mckinley and his war de-
partment if they would have some
clerk retrace the campaign IN
the Philippines and rehearse the num-
Der Of times the American people have
been positively assured that the cam
paign was practically ended, that our
troops had Aguinaldo and his army
surrounded and already for capture,
only to be told later when the Ameri-
cans went to take him that neither
he nor his army were where they were
supposed to have been.
How long is this farce to last? How
long are the people to be fed on the
same old tale of an army chasing
will-o-the-wisp, capturing town after
town only to give them up the next
day and permit the insurgents to re-
occupy them and establish the old
order Of things again, of elaborate
preparations to surround Aguinaldo
involving tens of thousands of troops
and much forced marching and hard
ship only to find that all was in vain,
that the Filipinos had escaped?
Il is plain that our generals in the
Philippines are no match for Aguinaldo
at this sort of lighting and it is equally
plain that this is the sort of fighting
that Aguinaldo proposes to continue,
as the following order from the Fill
Pine commander, found in evacuated
trenches, seems to Indicate:
do not oppose the Americans advance.
Burn the villages as they are evacuated.
Divide the forces into bands of forty.
Harass the Americans on every occasion"
This is the only hope Of the Fill
pinos--to wear our troops out and let
the country and the deadly climate do
the rest They cannot stand and fight
our soldiers and none know it better
than the Filipinos themselves.
In view of these patent facts how
long is the present Otis plan of cam
paign to be continued? How long is
the dreary, costly farce to go on, the
people kept in patience by false pro-
misses of the certain capture of Agui-
naldo, who is never caught, and of
the speedy ending of the campaign,
which still drags its weary length
along? Intelligent people decline to
put further faith in Official news
from the Philippines, manufactured
by Otis and doctored at Washington
to suit the political emergencies Of the
administration second term cam
paign.
Gen. Otis inability to deal with the
situation was long ago demonstrated
to the satisfaction of everybody APP
parently but Mckinley, who, as usual,
fatuously declined to admit that there
could be anything wrong with the ad-
ministration's policy or the administra-
lions chosen servant in the Philip
pines. The one man whom the Ameri-
can people trust above all others in
this connection and in whose Judgment
they have perfect faith, Admiral
Dewey, is quoted as expressing his dis
gust with Otis and the administra-
tons Philippines policy from the very
beginning of the unnecessary HOSTILE
ties. On his return to this country
the Admiral stated
If Leonard Wood Chat is, General
Wood, in command at Santiago. had been
IN command of the forces at Manila. there
would have been no war; or, if there had
been It would not have lasted more than
six weeks. You are the twenty-sixth man
have said this to. I am going to saw it
to twenty-seven. The twenty-seventh will
be the President"
The Admiral thereupon repeated this
statement to Mr.. Mckinley. we are
told. But as Mr.. Mckinley apparently
takes no advice from anyone but Mr..
Hanna and the Representatives OF Wall