Washington sentinel., 1900-06-02

why cannot truce now be arranged an
. negotiations entered into? We belieN
that such a course Of action would g
much further towards convincing Ii
= Filipinos OF the dlsinterestedness of th
: Americans than the present method {
striving to instil this belief with tn
baYonet. Everyone is we'll aware of tn
power of the United States, and we d
not think bY adopting the more human
course, and thus saving hundreds of tn
lives OF the people that they profess T.
have come to elevate and civilize, tina
the least loss Of prestige could accrue t,
them. The blessings of civilization viii
not be Of much account to an extinc
racel
Surprise has been expressed il
some quarters because the Fllipi
nos did not come to terms with the
Schurm an Commission, and it is
generally assumed that the fault
lies with che Filipinos and with
them only. But is this the iact7
Did the Commission approach the
great task allotted to it with a sim
gle eye to a speedy, honorable and
benehcent settlement OF the many
vexed questions then at issue7 The
report does not lend support to the
supposition that peace, pure and
simple and not conquest, was the
sole object in view, as was once
generally supposed. The docu-
ment begins with the somewhat
startling assertion that "The Com
mission was not appointed as a
Peace Commission, as it has been
often called. It was appointed as
a civil Commission to accomplish
the objects set forth in its instruc-
tions, one OF which was to assist in
the peaceful extension OF Ameri-
can authority &c., &c." Now, it
was we'll known to the whole world,
and to the American Government
in particular, that the Filipinos,
through their special envoy in
Paris and in Washington, Sr. Don
Felipe Agoncillo, strongly pro-
tested against the purchase and as.
sertIon oil rights by the American
Government. One would be in
clined to think, therefore, that to
such intelligent gentlemen as
composed the Commission, the
task they set out to perform was a
forlorn hope from the very outset
that they were virtually in the
position Of the bull fighter whose
every act in the arena is purposely
offensive to the object OF his deli
cate attentions. To induce, by Sc
ductive argument or otherwise, the
Filipinos to accept American au-
thority against which they were
fighting, while active hostilities
were in full swing was obviously
to attempt the impossible, and yet
we read that although the delegate
sent by General Aguinaldo to con
fer with the Commission urged the
Commissioners to use their inhu-
ence to bring about an aTmistice,
ne was told that they could do
nothing of the kind, that the ap-
peal Tor cessation oil hostilities must
be made to General Elwell S. Otis,
and to that officer only. Now,
seeing General Otis was a member
of the Commission, does not this
excuse oi Mr.. Schurman and
his colleagues indicate that there
was no real desire to end the war
at that time; that the Commission
was a mere stop-gap manuuvre in
tended more for effect at home
than benehcence towards the Fill
ipinos2 On the face of it the re-
port lends color to such a suppo-
sition for we find the remarkable
and almost appalling statement
made on page 3 of the opening
chapter, that the commlsslon'e early
became convinced that ,he Taga-
log rebellion was due to the ambi-
tions of a few and the misunder-
standing Of the many" To
"earlY become convinced" OF a
thing is to admit that ones mind
was made up as to the veracity Of
certain allegations before going
through and carefully WEIGHING all
the evidence that might be avail
able. To preiudge a case is gen.
orally regarded as the height of
injustice to the accused, and yet
here we have the admission that
the Filipino leaders who were then
being held up to the whole world
as ambitious adTenturers preying
upon the ignorance oi the masses
solely for selfish as opposed to pat
riotIc purposes, we're actually pre-
judged to be guilty of such despic-
able conduct II is a sorry con.
fession OF these Commissioners but
it is nevertheless as valuable as it
is dIscreditable, for il throws light