Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-06-14

War Department. mas suppressed
essential facts, applies to the country
at large as well as to the Register.
The military necessity for censorship
to which the Intelligencer alludes does
not exist. There is no reason of a mil
tary nature calling for the suppression
Of the news from the islands. But there
probably Is political necessity, and
facts will be suppressed, through the
War Department, as long as possible,
and will then be explained" upon such
basis as may appear most plausible to
those in authority. The truth will
come out in time, however.
The Intelligencer alleges that moth
ing has been held back by General
Otis in the matter of casualties, and
claims that lists of killed, wounded
and sick are daily reported. 1t is true
there is daily report, but no sane man
is deceived by it into imagining for
one moment that the cablegrams re-
port the full truth. The Intelligencer
refers the Register to "any old soldier"
for certain information. amy old
soldier" knows that with force of
more than thirty thousand men, carry
ing on active operations in a tropical
climate, against an active and elusive
enemy, the losses of all kinds
would be more than five times the
number reported officially. 1t is a
safe guess-and, thanks to the War
Department, we have to guess that
not one regiment of those in service
in the Philippines for four months, has
one-half of it's original membership
with the colors and fit to go on the fir
ing line, and it is known specifically
that the Kansas and Nebraska regi
ments cannot muster one-fourth of
their original strength
Concluding it's snarling criticism of
the Register, the Intelligencer says:
Some of these days it may leak out
that the Register is entitled to be classed
among those who would prefer to see
their country disgraced before the world
which it is honorably pledged"
What obligations" Is this country
pledged to fulfill an obligation" to
devastate a country with fire and
sword, inhabitated by people with
whom we were, under the pacific and
rational policy of Admiral Dewey, ON
the most friendly terms for months
after the battle of Manila bay and the
imposed this obligation" upon us?
Who demanded that we should ravage
the island of LuZon, drive it's people
at the point of the bayonet into the
wilderness and mountains, cause the
burning of towns and villages, and the
sacrifice of uncounted thousands of
lives? The obligation" grew out of
the asinine and wholly unparalleled
act of our government, the more than
conquerer of Spain, in paying into the
empty Golfers of that impotent nation
the sum Of twenty millions in gold for
territory to which Spain could no
longer assert a title and within which
she was powerless and helpless to
maintain her authority and unable to
even supply her defeated and democrat
lied troops. By all the rules of war
fare, ancient and modern, Spain should
have been compelled to pay the United
States more millions than we have
paid her, and wisdom and common
sense alikes dictated our prompt and
triumphant withdrawal from the
Philippines as soon as our original
mission there was accomplished. The
Dewey policy was the thing, and, in
brief, it was to bring about a cordial
intente with the Filipinos, encourage
them to perfect their government. see
the affairs of the islands adjusted. as
they would have been by this time, and
with the natives our eternal friends
and consistent admirers, have with
drawn the forces of the United States
to the usual Asiatic station and our
own shores.
Instead of this, we have what we
nave. To the twenty millions paid
Spain more than twenty more millions
nave gone into the rat hole of the
Philippine war, thousands of lives have
been sacrificed, and the end is not even
in sight. And yet the Intelligencer
cries treason" If there are traitors
to American ideas, to the American
Constitution, and to American prin-
ciples and traditions, they sit in au-
thority at Washington, and the Intelli-
gencer is their subservient satellite.
The Boston and Maine Railroad Com
pany has taken I'D in earnest tbo mot