The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1900-11-03
Philippine Revelations
From Lhe Kew York evening Posi-.

From the New York Evening Post.
The extremely well-inlormed London
correspondent of the Manchester Guardian,
Mr.. George Russell, writes that after our
Presidential election revelations about
the bad state of affairs in the Philippines
will be made (Which will astonish people
both in the United States and in Europe.
This, he says, he has been told by people
intimately acquainted with the actual Phil
ippiue situation. The censorship and official
terrorism now keep back information, but
once November 6 is safely passed the whole
shameful story will come out. Then, re-
marks Mr.. Russell, ''the new Imperialism
will have to Justify itself as best it may.
Be this as it may, we need no one to
rise from the dead to tell us that things are
going badly in the Philippines. Mistake
and failure are writ large on American oc-
cupation of the islands from the first day
until now. Granting that it was not a
huge blunder to take the archipelago at all,
the record of our attempts to govern the
inhabitants is an unhappy melapge of ig-
norance, ineptitude and disappointment.
Feebleness alternating with ferocity, threats
following Establishments, vacillation and in
consistency have marked our course, and
now the last state of the islands is worse
than the first. As conquerors, as colonl-
zers, as a boastful world-power, we are Il
ridiculous failure in the Philippines. Vol
taire said that there are only three ways
of subjugating people, One is by means
of law, another by the aid of religion, and
the third is ';to cut the threats of part
of the nation in order to govern the rest
We have tried little of each, though our
main reliance has been throat cutting; but
by neither method. nor by all three to-
gether, have we won any appreciable sue
cess.
Among the accommodating proofs of this
we note an interview with Mr. Spencer
Pratt in the Singapore Free Press. Mr..
Pratt was formerly United States Consul
at Singapore, and had much to do in get
ting Aguinaldo to go back to Manila. lie
was on terms of friendship with many Fill
ipinos, and spent some time in the Philip
pines this past summer Condensing what
he says of the state of affairs there we find
him declaring that the situation, from
the military point of view, is very unsatis-
factory - that there is ''gross maladmin-
istration'' and corruption in the civil
government that the army, from top to
bottom, has a strong 'distaste for their
present work, y one officer telling him that
ssat least 100, 600 men will be required to
effect the pacifcation of the islands !
that the Presidents amnesty proclamation
was ssnot taken seriously, and fell abso-
lutely fat that the natives do 'not be-
lieve that the American people know the
facts of the situation, or that they had
given any moral authority for the things
that were being DONE Ex-Consul Pratt
said, in concluding his interview ST is
great pity some one was not sent to learn
the truth and tell it to the American
people the present state OF things would
then never have been allowed.
Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt, of the
Berlin Society of Ethnology, is the leading
German authority on the Philippines. We
have before cited his writings He has
now issued pamphlet covering the latest
Developments which has been translated
by DR.. d. J. Doherty and published by
Donohue Brothers, Chicago. 1t onght to
be read by everybody DESTROYS of knowing
the truth. Prof. Blumentritt's closing
section is headed e'American Blunders.
1t is not pleasant reading for Americans;
but it would be wholesome reading for
them. 1t is an impartial account of the
friehtful results of an ear-to the ground
policy when the welfare of 5000, 900 hui
man beings is involved. The Government
fumbled and backed and filed through all
the critical months; the American officers
in Manila fumed and fretted, and were
evasive or tongue-tied in their dealings
with the natives; then when, at last, the
United States made up its mind, SO fatally
late, tG keep the islands, the browning
blander was made of riding roughshod over
the inhabitants, of neglecting native adj
vice and assistance, Of crushing instead Of
cherishing an existing local government, of
hunting native trusted leaders to death-in
short; of flounderipg about in domineering
ignorance and brutality as if the A B G of
colonization and government Of protector
ates had yet to be learned by the United
States.
Two hundred puddlers Of the American
Car and Foundry Company, at Berwick,
~ n AL