Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-03-21
A SOLDIERS SOLUTION.

Has Servedin the Philippines, and Who
Urges that We Should Let the Natives
Govern the Islands.
John Hammill Kapsas City, Mo-. In Harpers
Weekly.
Sir: My people have been Amer leans
for 200 years. | have an honorab dis
charge from the United States army,
of engagements In the Philippine
can who has done his full duty in the
matter, and earned q right to discuss
the Philippine question. In my judg-
ment. the greatest difficulty under
which our people labor is their ina
bility to get at and realize the fncts.
We can leave out Of the discussion
danao Except its northeast corner,
which is Christian ,insurgent, and
making common cause with the other
''insurgentsn), which are inhabited by
Mohammedans and heathen, to whom
our government has accorded local self.
government, and with whom We have
no contention they having on relations
with the Christian Filipinos whom we
are lighting in the other islands. This
leaves Euzon, Leyte, Samar, Panay,
Negros, Cebu, Bohol, and islands I'M
mediately about them In all these
war 10 being constantly waged, and
there is the Filipino question. We can
leave out Of this discussion loo few
thousands OF Negritos In their noun
tains, who occupy about the same re-.
lation to the Filipinos in numbers and
Importance that the red Indians do to
US. There are also few Cinnamon
ttsat -. MI
rest of these people are 1000, 900 Of
Christian Malays, and 1t is with them
that we are fighting. They are not only
Christians. but very depout Christians,
with a church 10 every hamlet. While
they are not enlightened like the
Americans, they are probably better
civilized than our ancestors were the
day William SHAKESPEARE married Ann
Hathaway, certainly surprising Shaks.
| pere's neighbors in school facilities, as
they have school in every village, poor
though it Is, They wear suits of
clothes, live in houses suitable to the
climate till the soil, carry on trade
and commerce, and to some extent
manufactures. They have lesser per
centage OF illiteraoy than certain
States in the Union that could name.
|
had surrounded, they had, when Manila
foil, conquered from the Spaniards,
| without any body's aid, every foot Of
land in the Philippine Islands, except
| the towns of Baler and lloilo, which
they subsequently, took without any
help from US. This is the point you
must fix In your minds. 1t will be seen
by this that Spain had nothing to sell
| n .ta h.t Azl A.
$40, 000, 600 to nybody we should have
paid it to the FiIipinos, who had con-
quered the country, and freed them
selves. That Is what had happened.
Such are the people.
Those who are best disposed to them
frequently inquire, Can they govern
themselvesSlI do not know why any one
should ask such a question. II is no
longer a question. BY the 4th OF July,
1893, they had full possession of the
country everywhere except Manila.
Our war with them began on the 4th of
February, 1899, seven months after
ward, during which time we did not
pretend to govern outside Of Manila or
Cayite, except few rods out where
our sentries stood. During this time
they governed, undisEuted, all these
ialands. have seen and talked with men
from nearly every island of any inn
portance. There were no disputes, no
troubles, and no confusion any more
than we have had at home in the last
few months, and, in fact, / think even
less. They held their capital at Malolos,
with their President, Administration,
Congress, army, and organized govern
ment until about the 1st of April, 1899,
/ m nj IpA H. 81
ment. That fall they still retained
everything except the railroad as far
north as Tariac, Manila, and the couu-
try immediately adjacent Iloilo, Cebu.
and a few points in Negros-so that
they had over year of self-govern
ment, and never heard soul say that
II WASN'T entirely satisfactory. or
course they can govern themselves.
They did SO. Besides, Abraham Lincoln
says: Any nation can govern itself
better than any other nation can govern
it, and / think he is right.
How did we get into the fight with
themY We had Manila and Cavite. They
had the rest OF the islands and gov
ernment OF their own which they asked
President Mckinley to recognize. He
refused to do this, friction ensued
/
and one night one of our sentries fred
gu theirs and precipitated the war.
This done, Gen. Otis refused TO make
any treaty with them unless they made
an unconditional surrender, which thew
wouldn't do, and probably never will
| We have spent q couple of hundred mil
lion dollars. sacrificed several thousand
valuable lives, saddled ourselves with
q standing army of 100000 men, and,
as far as 1 can judge from what | read
and what / hear from my old comrades
still in the islands, are no nearer con-
| quering them than we were the day the
first shot was fired To sum it up.
what is the Filipino question, then? III
simply is this: Shall 1000, 900 of
Christian and civilized Malays govern
themselves or he governed by the
Americans? To any man who wants TO
be honest or fair there is only one
answer to such a question.
What should we have done? We
should have retained the Bay of Manila
as naval station, given the Filipinos
their independence, notified the rest of
| the world to let them alone, Ieauired
them to pay us that $40, 600. 600, and to
grant us some trade privileges, and TO
have let us had possession OF q few of
the principal seaports for term of
years until the conditions were full
filled. What should we do now? We
should do what is right. We should do
now what we should have done then.
a great nation like ours can afford to
do right without any danger Of being
laughed at. We ought to withdraw our
troops to the principal seaports, declare
a truce of 80 days. let Aguinaldo get
his Congress- together again, appoint