Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-11-04


the prospects of permanent peace in
the Philippines taken by Sergeant e
O. Arland, who sent a most interest
ing letter to his aunt, Mrs. Matt. An
derson of Mt HOreb, from Montllopa
Luzon, Sept. l. He says in part;
up to last night we have not had
drop of rain for the last ten days,
and the natives we're commencing tol
pray for rain, as the rice crop needs
moisture. 1t started in last night at
2. good rate, however, and has kept it
up all day today, wind and rain IN
deluge. and [ see by weather bulle-
tin that there is a bad typhoon raging
outside Manila on the China sea.
"Since last writing to you aunt, the
transport Thomas has come in and
brought us nearly 500 teachers. You
may have noticed their arrival in the
papers / sent you. 1t is a blessing
to get them and still there are 500
more to come from America, and that
will give us a thousand They will
be scattered over the islands, and Ma
Mia itself will take good many We
have only about $50 garrisoned posts
here and the teachers will not be sent
where there is no garrison. A town
here that has no soldiers stationed in
it is not very healthy place to live
in, and an American would last only
about three days, as they would cut
his head off, A town in this country
is one of two things: either American
or insurrecto; there is no middle
course. [ hope they will assign a
teacher to our little town, as these
people here would like to have one
very much All of them would like
to learn the English language. Every
day there are three or four young peo-
pie who will ask me if we will not
get a teacher here. I think very like
ly we will, although this place is only
about 1900 population, but we are
very close to Manila.
There are now two political parties
in the islands. One of them is OF
recent origin, the other having been
organized some time. The old one is
called the federal party, and the new
one is the national. The federal par
ty is strongly American, is composed
of leading well-to-do Filipinos and
great many Americans. It's object is
to sustain the government and end the
war. The national party is composed
entirely of prominent Filipinos, and
has for one of it's leading members
the famous Aguinaldo. It's object is
to try to work on the feelings of the
American people and through con-
gress to try and gain independence.
or if not independence the next best
that it can obtain. l am afraid it will
be a failure, as it looks now as if
these people have about all the indie
Dendence they are going to get, and
that is about ten times more than
they ever had before. The better
classes of natives and all the educated
ones want the American government
here, for they readily see how much
better affairs are under it, and they
are commencing to realize what a
grand and good government really is.
"A Filipino takes as readily to pol
itics as an Irishman, for it is some
thing he can always be agitating and
not do very much harm to anyone.
These islands will always be governed
direct from home, and they may talk
about no more war, and the 'constitu-
ton following the flag as much as
they like but there is only one thing
that these islands will ever be, and
that is, a colony of the United States.
[ know it does not sound very good to
a great many American citizens but
it will always remain a fact neverthe-
less.
Absolute home rule here is out of
the question, for these people would
vote at the first election for every
American to leave the islands, and
then commence to fight among them
selves. This government here must
always be backed by the iron hand of
the military, and it will take several
generations to change it. Why, even
now in the most peaceable districts
no American dreams of residing in
town that has not a garrison, and no
one can be induced to travel from one
town to another without an escort of
soldiers. Our nearest town is called
Binyan It is six miles from here up
the lake, and is in sight Of this place.
and has a garrison of 800 men; and
vet it not considered safe to try to
go there without an escort of ten men.
Another town is directly back of us
in the mountains, thirteen miles. 1t
is another good-sized place, called ST.
Nicholas, with a garrison of 200 men.
Still, it takes a whole company to
try to go to it from this place. And
this is in one of the peaceful dis
tricts. The meaning of the word
peace here is a place that is not fired
into every night, and where a soldier
can go 200 yards from camp without
having his head cut off.
There is one thing that these peo-
pie will have to learn sooner or later.
and that is to eat the proper kind OF
oO1Irco tho y1yoo1+bvy