Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-11

were among the first to greet him. After
S, jig short time with the assistant
secre.. ~, Gen. O;is. accompanied by Adjt
Gen. Corbin. proceeded to the White House
and paid his respects to the President.
Talks With apartment Friends.
Very naturally General Otis had many
questions to answer in his intercourse with
his friends at the War Department respect
ing present and future conditions in the
Philippines, and of these he talked quite
freely He made one statement in particu-
lar which came as a distinct surprise. in
view of the fact that h" has spent year
and a half in lighting the Filipinos. for he
declared that these same Fllipinos were.
without question, the very best of any OF
the Asiatic races living on the Pacific coast
and islands He paid high tribute to
their acquisitiveness. saying that young and
old alike anxious t. learn from the
Americans and quick to do so if given an
opportunity.
The demand for schools on the American
plan was Unsuitable. 1t had not been pos
sible to secure sufficient supply of Span
i,h-American text books; the market mad
been denuded of such. Wnen the book
hungry F'ilipinos were told this they beg
ged for American school books. and de-
clared that their children could learn from
them. even without the Spanish text and
TRANSACTIONS. General Otis found to his
constituent that such was the case. and
he says that in the course of a very few
months the Filipino children pick up a fair
knowledge Of English. Even the old ma
tives the text books in the effort to
fix English phrases in their minds.
Dearth of Teachers.
There was IA dearth of teachers, too; so
General Otis often had recourse to the sol
diers in his; ranks who knew a little Span
ish, and so were suitable for detail as
teachers General Otis was evidently deep
ly Interested in the success of this educa-
tional movement. Indeed he said he look
ed upon 1t the only solution of the
Philippine problem, and was confident that
the spread of American ideas through the
Filipino schools would in the end make
coed citizens of the Filipinos
General Otis was positively of the opinion
that the American forces in the Philippines
at present were sufficient for all needs, not
withstanding current reports to the contra
ry. OF course. he said. General MacAr-
thurs present army could not furnish a
guard to protect every Filipino household
from the ladrones: to do that would re-
quire force of no less than 22o.000 troops.
and even with that force the task would
occupy many years. AS matter of fact,
Spain had spent several centuries in the ef-
fort to stamp out the ladrones in the
Philippine group, and there was reason to
believe that these br:gands are scarcely
more numerous now than they We're during
the Spanish occupation, when the islands
were nominally at peace with Spain.
Conditions Will Improve.
General Otis was confident. however. that
conditions would steadily improve, and that
little by little these robber bands would be
driven away. Meanwhile he admitted that
1t was often dangerous for Filipinos of the
better class, whose interests naturally lay
in American sovereignty, to admit their
preferences for they We're subject in that
case to assassination, to the loss OF prop
erty and to persecution, instigated by vari-
elements in the population TO whom
m nhnnStpl.S
Save for "a swarthy color, the evidence of
his long sojourn in the tropics, General
Otis. in personal appearance, looked very
much he did when he was last in Wash
inGton, before the Spansh-Amercan war
He has perhaps lost little flesh, but this
has not impaired his soldierly appearance.
He emphatic contradicted the stories
that he had been ill while i'll Manila, and
declared that lie in perfect health,
statement which was borne out by his
appearance.
Received by the President.
President Mckinley was engaged with
Justice Harlan of the Supreme Court, Sen
ator Culom and Gen. and ex-Speaker j.
Warren Keller when Gen. Otis and his aids
arrived. The latter were ushered to the
library, where the President went to meet
them. Gen. Otis was given q very cordial
reception and the President conera tuIated
him upon his appearance. After few mo-
ments chat the group proceeded to Join
the others in the Presidents room, when
the conversation was general
Shcrtly before II O'Clock Gen. Otis and
his aids bade the President goodbye and
their way out of the mansion were met
by group of newspaper men. When the
latter announced their calling Gen. Otis
scrutiniZed them closely and remarked that
there seemed to be great army OF the
craft in this country.
Had Made SO Detailed Report.
In response to questions General Otis
said he had made no detailed re-
port to the President, but merely had
paid his respects and given him some