New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-14
THE ONLY CHOICE.

The speech Of Controller Dawes at Peoria on
Monday set forth with convincing dstinctness
the real question about the Philippines which
the United States has now to face. There are
not many men whose thirst for notoriety leads
them to delight in being known as traitors To
oppose the suppression of an instruction, TO
desire the defeat of United States forces and
the overthrow Of United States authority, is to
be traitor. For years after the outbreak in
1861 there were men who could carp and quib-
BILE every day and all day about the origin Of
the war, yet would not brand themselves as
traitors by taking sides with the instruction
against the United States. But there are some
who still cheat themselves with the idea that
the Tagal insurgents are fighting for liberty"
Mr.. Dawes puts that side of the case accurately
in saying that the rebellion had its immediate
rise in the discovery and Illustration of a plot
Ito treacherously massacre at night our soldiers
land foreigners In Manila" Later he shows
that the choice is now between suppression of
the instruction and surrender of the islands
10 "a native oligarchy of a cruelty and corrup-
''tion which would rival that before maintained
by SPAIN
The actual character of this insurgent force
when once clearly comprehended, ends the dis
cussion for all civilized men. 1t seems utterly
inconceivabe that any United States Senator
d
10 fasten a cruel and despotic rule upon a
majority Of the natives. When men recall acts
of unspeakable barbarism and treachery which
have marked the conduct Of the insurgents and
realize that the question is whether several
millions of peaceable natives shall be ruled by
the United States or by this gang, whose deeds
OF brutality and shame cannot be distinctly
described in decent newspapers, it ceases to be
possible for most civilized men to wish defeat
of United States arms
Unsuitable craving for the notoriety which
comes 10 him who differs from everybody else
appears still to enable some TO ignore completely
the history of these insurgents. Because there
are among them educated and capable men,
who have shown their character by a course Of
almost incredible treachery, swindling their own
followers and Spain, and trying to swindle the
United States also, 1t must not be forgotten
that the great majority of the insurgents-one
official report says 80 per cent-cannot read or
write Most Of them are saVages, without the
yarnish Of education which only makes persons
ike Aguinald0 and his associates even worse
than others Of Malay blood IN bad faith and
cruelty. The majority have been making war
just as redskins hunted down the Puritan an
cestors Of many constituents Of Senator Hoar,
leaving behind them mutilated bodies, outraged
women, murdered children and burned homes
Prisoners who have fallen into the hands OF the
better educated leaders have been held as val
usbe properly for ransom or exchange but
those leaders themselves have been settling
their own disputes by assassination or treach-
cry, while the cruelty or extortion of their
agents in the government OF villages or districts
has been intolerable, according TO all testi-
mony by fugitives by priests or by merchants,
and has made even the men Of their own race
revolt against them
In the face Of this record, beginning with the
attempted massacre a year ago and ending with