The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-29
DEWEY TALKS OF AGGIE.
Glad to Hear His Old Friend Is I'm
the TOils-Was Not the Brains
of the Insurrection.

Oh the lnsurrecuOn-
New York, March 2S.-Admiral Dewey
was at the Albemarle Hotel to-day and
was interviewed as to the probable effect
of the capture of Aguinaldo. He expressed
the greatest satisfaction at the news Of
the capture and said he thought that this
sistance He also said:
Il am delighted to hear this news. OF
course, we had the warning a few days
ago that it might occur, but 1t looked
like very risky undertaking, and if
Funston had lost his life, everyone would
have said, L told you So 1t appears to
be a very creditabie piece of work on
the part of Funston and in keeping with
his previous exploits. 1t was, in fact,
case of fighting the devil with fire
Aguinaldo is a most amiable little fell
low he does not have the education with
which he has been credited, and he was
not really the brains of the Instruction.
Mabini was really the brains of the Fiji
ipino rebellion and Aguinaldo was the ac-
tive leader. l admit that l did not give
him credit for the abilities that he has
shown, but he is certainly not man of
very great ability. One thing 1 wonder
about is that the dispatches to-day from
Manila, describe him as talking freely
When l first saw him he was notably ret
icent and a good deal of his strength
came from the fact that he did
not talk much. The people believed that
he was invulnerable, however, and that
no harm could be done to him. There
was a story current in fact, that dozen
men had stood up and fired at him as
test. 1 suppose there were no bullets in
the guns. That story went everywhere.
The people are intensely superstitious and
they believed no harm could befall him
1t will take some time now for the news
to get around of the capture and at first
the people will refuse to believe it, but
after the news does finally get around
the islands, I fully believe that organized
resistance will collapse"
What do you think ought to be done
with Aguinaldo now?"
"Well, it seems to me that as good a
thing as could be done for the present
would be to send him to Guam. 1t is the
same sort of a climate as in the Philip
pines and there could be no hardship in
the change, but there would be no chance
to pose"
Might Have Been Avoided.
! Admiral Dewey continued:
Looking over the events of the past
two years, 1 am sometimes impressed
with the idea that possibly the trouble
with the Filipinos might have been
avoided, but when I say that, 1 say il
because hindsight is a great deal better
than foresight. have no criticism for
anyone, but it can be seen now how the
Americans who first went there hurt the
pride of the Filipinos If we had made a
greater effort to 1atter them, 1t is posi-
HE the thing would have gone
more smoothly, but I wish to
say that at the beginning 1 do
not believe Aguinaldo had any idea of
independence at all. Afterwards, think
it was simply a case of success turn
ing a mans head in the case of Aguinal-
do. do not believe that at first he had
any idea of attempting to set up an In
dependent republic AS to the matter of
our relations with the Fiipinos the his
tory has never yet been written. 1 have
all the letters and documents pertaining
10 II, and l expect some day to write the
history of the affair. When all OF the
documents are published it will be per-
fectly clear that no obligation rested upon
the American forces to treat the Filipinos
as allies"