The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-26
GA DANGEROUS 1NcEND1ARY."

| peculiar conditions which exist in Ma
Mia will find it a little difficult to recon
| cile the deportation of the editor of a
| daily paper in that city on the preteXt
that he had made charges of corruption
against certain officers which were on
| investigation found, in the opinion of the
investigating body, to be unfounded. It
will be still more difficult for the man
! who believes in the inviolability of a free
press to understand how his fellow man
shall not only be driven from the plos-
ecution of his business but branded )
"a dangerous :ncendiary and a mynace
to the military situation en- such slight
provocation.
OF course we are not expected to clo-e
our eyes to the fact that military rule
prevails in Manila at this time. and that
all ideas of civil rights in such a t.
uation on the part of those in c-ntrol
are really very poorly defined But we
have been assured on tie highest au hor-
ity on several occasions sine the ap
pearance of Maj. Gen. Otis in San Fran
cisco several months ago that the war
is all over, and that no hing save the
operations of guerrilla Lands now re-
main to disturb the serenity Of the ST.
uation or prevent the complete res ora
ton of civil agencies in the conduct OF
affairs in the Philippines.
No one will be disposed to attach an
undue Importance to the young man who
has been thus treated He may return
under the delusion that the country Is
ready to accept him as a hero and
martyr But he will find him-elf mis-
taken. The country cares nothing at all
about him, and cannot be made to
care; but his case is not unlikely to be
effective in concentrating public thought
on the unfamiliar conditions Which re-
suit in his being driven from where he
had fixed his habitation and business be-
cause he wrote with more than passing
freedom on the mode of conducting af-
fairs in his home community.
No such condition can be maintained
for any length of time with the consent
of the American people anywhere within
American territory Were the public al
lowed to believe that a serious condition
exists in the Philippines there might be
some sense in characterizing a newspaper
editor who condemns one particular pub
lie transaction or department as an in
cendiary, and driving him away. But
with the assurance offered day after day
and dispatch after dispatch that the re-
volt so long in existence on the part Of
supremacy has become reduced to a
mere series of sporadic outbreaks on the
part of robbers and guerilla fighters, it
is absurd to apply such punis hment to
such an offcnse.
! The one feature Of this transaction
which will strike the ordinary observer
with some measure Of force is that 1t
tends to sustain the claims being urged
by the opponents of the administration
policy in the Philippines, that the situa-
ticn, civil and military. is about as I'M
satisfactory as it We'll may be.
Conceding the right of the authorities
in any state OF society where military
law is supreme to resort to eztreme
measures, the administration is none the
less strongly called on to explain and, if
possible, to Justify the enforced return CT
Editor Rice, and his denunciation as a
dangerous ineendiary If the situt on in
Manila is in fact as the official reports
assure the country then the treatment Of
Rice is to be regarded as tyranrous in
the extreme. On the other hand If Rice
is to be regarded as having received no
more than his deserts, then the con ,,u-
sion Is inevitable that the country has
been effectively blinded by those In
authority to the real state of things in
Manila and Vicinity.