St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1900-09-01
Latest Intelligence Upon Matters
Of National Interest at the
Capital.
UHDERHAAD WORK OF ADMINISTRATION.
The Chinese Situation and the State
of Affairs in the PhiIippines--Re-
publican Campaign Managers Use
Government Employees for Cam
paisn Purposes.
Especial correspondence.l

the fact that it has failed to do the
only effective thing that ought tx
have lain within it's power.
It ought to have been able to throw
big force into China and rescue oul
citizens at the first intimation of Sc
rious danger. If it had done that an6
then withdrawn from the country
and sent every Chinaman packing
home from these shores it would have
won the admiration of the civilized
world.
In such an action the president Of
the United States need not have
wasted time cooperating with foreign
powers and getting entangled in their
jealous chickering's.
Everybody knows now that the adj
ministration has deceived the people
about the condition of the Philip.
pines. It's boastful allusion in the
speech accepting the. nomination,
about Manila being an advantageous
base of operations in case of Asiatic
war, has proved a boomerang.
Our troops might as well have been
at home as in Manila for all the use
they have been in this crisis. They
were so enfeebled by disease that
they were unfit to fight the Chinese
even If the administration had deci-
sion enough to pull them out of the
Philippines and leave the settlement
of that trouble until some time when
our own citizens were in less danger.
The Caurar MeSaane
The administration now claims that
it is pinning its faith to the alleged
message from Minister Conger, re-
ceiyed through Chinese sources, stat
ing that our citizens were alive but
sorely besieged by the Chinese. The
dispatch was not dated, but the adj
ministration claims to have supplied
that information from unknown
sources and makes it July 1S.
Even if the minister were alive at
that date, it is difficult to see how it
improves the situation for the adj
ministration 1t is admitted that no
troops will start for Peking until aft
er August /, and the date of starting
depends on the whim of the COM
manders of the allied forces.
The continental powers do not cred
1t the Conger message in f,he least.
They believe that the foreign inhab-
itants were massacred earH in July
and that this is a message which
Conger tried to send out but which
the Chinese intercepted. They sent
1t later to defer the outburst of wrath
at the news of the massacre.
An Administration Trick.
It is difficult to discuss the Chinese
question intel1igently because the adj
uainistration is up to it's usual trick
of censoring all dispatches. 1t gives
out it's own version or nothing at all,
just as it sees fit.
The experience in the Philippine
situation gives good ground to believe
that subsequently the public will find
that the administration has all along
known facts which it did not choose
to divulge.
1t is now said that the imperial
government of China has asked Nc
Kinley to use his good offices to ex-
tlricate it from the difficult and dam
geFous position in wh6h it has been
plaGed by the Boxer uprising.
This looks like the entering wedge
of an attempt to disclain all respon-
sibillity for any atrocities which may.
have been committed and to so wind
up the administration in net of
diplomacy that nothing will ever be
dome either to punish outrages which
have} been committed or prevent their
repetition in the future. France per-
emptprilE declined similar request
from China. Mckinley is drifting
along and will get in the midst of
various unpleasant complications.
The Is 600 troops to be sent from this
country viii not reach China before
September. They can involve this
country in plenty of trouble, but it
IL difficult to discover what good they
can dts. II
Jlemocrats ON Record.
Bryssn ana the other democratic
leaders have put themselves on rec
ord as earnestly favoring protection
TO ourt citizens, but no participation
in any scheme of grabbing territory.
.tgoncealins the TsEscts.
News comes from the Philippines
that zoe of them were killed by our
troops last week. 1t requires the
killing sbf a large number of these
alien people in order to prepare them
for the beauties Of the Mckinley
carpetbaag regime.
A report has also escaped the CEN
sor that from five to ten of our sol
diers arIe dying daily with the bubonic
plague. This is the rainy season and
our trc5ops suffer untold hardships.
Senator Pettigrew publishes let
ter Which he received from the Fill
ipinoi who conducted negotiations
with Admiral Dewey. in which the
Filipiinos were promised independence
IL they would help Dewey defeat the
Span8iards on land.
Of course the administration press
sneeArs at tJlis. but it should not do so,
for tons of extracts from the Con-
gre,ssionaa Record are daily being