The Washington weekly post., 1900-11-20
Macarthur or the Commission,

Gen. MacArthur's official report, re-
Gently made public, confronts US with a
serious dilemma. Shall we believe the
military commander or the civil commits
sioners as to the state of affairs in the
Philippines?
The commissioners have solemnly as
sured US that the fighting in Luzon is all
over; that nothing but peace and mutual
confidence and affection now prevail.
They tell US that armed resistance is at
an end; that the respectable Filipinos are
our warmest friends, and that the only
function left the army is that OF protect
ing the Industrious and thoroughly paci-
fed natives from the few Insignificant
maraudiD=g, bands that now represent the
miserable remnant of the Aguinaldo sin
surrectiOn." 1t is true that. concurrently
with this halcyon announcement, the
newspapers gave the account OF serious
disaster to our arms In the immediate vi
einity Of Manila-an engagement in which
several hundreds of the scattered Fill
pinO rebels had mysteriously come to-
gether and inflicted very severe losses
upon our troops A few days afterward
We have official information to the effect
that a whole company OF American SOL
diers had been wiped out of existence by
the skulking and disheartened followers
Of Aguinaldo. Nevertheless, we must re-
spectfully consider the positive statements
Of the commissioners. who are fearlessly
confronting the situation in Manila and,
not to mention the continual presence
Of an armed guard at the door of each
office and a bayonet at every corner
Throughout the city. are taking their lives
il their hands in order to complete with
intelligence the investigation they have
undertaken.
On the other hand, Gen. Macarthur,
who is plain soldier man, and who de-
rives his impressions from former service
in the field and, now that he Is in su-
trained officers who are in daily actual
contact with the militant Filipinos-Gen
Macarthur expresses the opinion that we
have not a man TO spare in the Philip
pines; that the trouble is by no means
dismissed; that we may well look for a
long and stubborn struggle before making
any calculations upon peace and order in
the island. 1t is true that ne has en-
veloped some Of his sentiments in cloud
of corpulent and unwieldy language that
might easily confuse less alert and pen
etrating mind than that of the late la
nented Mr.. Pickwick. We freely admit
that he deals in cumbrous periods and
elephantine rhetoric OF which the Sage
OF Princeton would be jealous IL he only
knew. But the spirit of the thing is there.
We are left in no doubt as to Gen. Mac
various pronunciamentos. Clearly the
two authorities do not agree. As clearly.
we are called upon to choose between
them.
So far as concerns The Post. we did not
wait to hear from either the military or
the civil authorities in LuZon, IL has al
ways seemed evident that under the pres
ent dispensation we are making abso-
lutely no progress in the Philippines. All
the information at our disposal tends to
satisfy US that the so-called ''insurrec-
ton is as serious now as it was eighteen
months ago; that we hold nothing in the
island save the mere ground we occupy
and garrison, and that, at the present
rate, We shall be no better off ten years
from now than we are to-day.
At one time-when Gen. Otis was in
command at Manila-the civil and the
military representatives of the United
States We're in sweetest accord. Both
sang of peace Both sent US bulletins of
the approaching millennium. Now, with
at least one branch of our government
acting instead of dreaming, we NAV
choose between the fiction and the facts.