The Plymouth Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1878-1901, 1901-07-18
MACARTHUR AND OTIS
WERE NOT IN HARMONY
Friction in the Philippines shown by
Reports Now Filed in War
Department.


while General Otis was in com
mand in the Philippines that he
and his subordinate officers were
not in perfect harmony, and that
General Macarthur did not hest
tate to reverse some of General
Otis orders when he succeeded
to the command. There is evil
dence of this friction in the tele-
grams now for the first time pub
lished in the compendium of re-
ports made public by the lieu
tenant general commanding the
army.
Among the kilograms referred
to is one dated Bayambang, Nov.
%. 1899, addressed to General
Schwan, chief of staff, and sign
ed Macarthur. General Mac
Arthur ventures in this message
to suggest the issue by General
Olis of a proclamation of
amnesty to all who surrender
ard a declaration that any one
who should kill an American
soldier thereafter should be
treated as a murderer. He re-
ceived his reply under the date
of Dec. 9, more than two weeks
later. 1t was as follows:
Your telegram announcing
your policy received. Your rec
concentrations concerning proc
lamation cannot be carried out;
legal difficulties of an Internal
ional character, apparently not
understood by you, forbid. No
further advice on this subject
desired by the commanding gen
eral.
.'SCHwAN, Chief of Staff"
General Macarthur is general
ly rated good student of inter
national law, and his superior's
rebuke is, for that reason, pro
nOunced the more severe. A
proclamation, similar to that
Macarthur suggested, has since
been issued.
In another instance the fric-
ton between Macarthur and
Otis crops out in these kilograms
Macarthur wired a report of the
capture of a certain stretch of
the Dagupan railway from the
Filipinos, which was so quickly
effected that the enemy did not
have time to destroy the proper
ty. 1t would have been impos-
sible to make use of the property
taken and the advantage thus
acquired had it not been for
Captain Harry A. Hegeman and
Captain Carl L. Stone, both of
the Thirty Sixth infantry, who
recovered two locomotives and
acted as engineers on the same,
doing this besides the regular
work devolving upon them in
their official capacity.
1.-The exploit of these officers"
says MacArthur's dispatch must
rank in the same class as the
work of Colonel Bailey of Wis
consin, who, during the civil
war, rescued the fleet of gun
boats in the Red river by origin.
al methods of engineering"
Both officers were recommend
ed for brevet promotion.
Otis report was short and
showed no unnecessary congrat-
ulatory spirit, 1t simply quoted
the law to the effect that in or
der to be entitled to a brevet the
officers act must have been sin
the presence of the enemy" or,
as the war Department inter
prets it, ''within the range of
the enemy's guns" MacArthur's
reply was peppery-
81 would remark" he said,
THAT the position of the War De-
partment amounts to declara-
ton that the more decisive the
the less chance of recog,
milton of meritorious service.
The action was not only in the
presence of the enemy, but, by
all methods Of fair construction, |
was within the range of the
guns. Rather than have
these highly meritorious officers
Inundated by the publication of
this correspondence Tres pectful-
" request that the application be
withdrawn"