The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-03-14
GEN. FUNSTON'S SPEECH
CONTINUED from Page Tenl

with Macia, the same with dozens and
dozens of other insurgent leaders
Some OF them were not worth mucn
| perhaps, but there have been absolutely
no men in the Philippine islands, if we
| except Antonio Luna, now dead. and
| Pablo TecSOn, who is still living, who
have character and real patriotism
| enough to enable them to form a gov
| eminent over there and keep IL going
for long as six months.
OUR WITHDRAWAI.M MEANS CHAOS
If we withdraw from the Philippines
| today, withdraw entirely and not es-
tablish a protectorate, there would be
| half dozen kinds of civil war inside
| of six months; there is no possible doubt
| of that. Every chief would gather his
| followers about him, and they would
burn and loot and march up and down
| the country. each man killing those OPP
posed to him, and we would have an
other Colombia or Venezuela or some
| other kind OF South American trouble
/ on our hands at once, and the world,
| l am sure, would hold the United States
responsible for that. Gentlemen, 1 thank
| you loud and prolonged applause.
cries OF GO on. TEL y, US some more,
| etc.) President Frank r. Lawrence of
| the LotOs club, after General Funston
| had seated himself, bent over and
whispered to him about moment or
| SO, and then said Gentlemen, 1 am
| trying to prevail upon General Funston
! to tell us something briefly about the
capture of Aguinaldo We have all
| erals remarks, and if we might tres
pass on his good nature for a very few
moments more on that topic we should
very much like it" General Funston
rose again and said:
CAPTURE OF AGUINALDO-DIRT
IRISH TRICK
I have very serious doubts about the
propriety> of my talking about the cap
ture of Aguinaldo. The matter has been
written up and talked about and
worked over until really believe there
is ABSOLUTELY nothing new that could be
said on the subject. / am sure that
all of you have read the press dis
patches, and a great many of you have
read the official reports, and they really
covered the thing very fully OF course
you know it was what they call "a
dirty Irish trick on Aguinaldo. Great
1aughter.)
However, if you would like a very
short account of what occurred / will
not keep you very long. You will UNI
derstand that considerable doubt had
existed for a number of months as to
the actual whereab bouts of the dictator.
He was reported a number of times to
be in Cavite, which is town very close
to Manila, but this misrepresentation
arose from the fact that his cousin
Baldomero Aguinaldo had been in the
vicinity of Cavite. Aguinaldo himself
afterward told me that he had never re-
turned anywhere near the vicinity of
Manila after he had been chased north
ward by General Lawton. Cheers for
Lawton.) He had retired to the little
village of Baler near the northeast
coast of Luzon, across an almost inn
passable range of mountains. and there,
accompanied by, believe, eight officers
and forty soldiers, had settled down In
this small village, which was fifty miles
from the nearest town garriSOned by
Americans, and 1 can tell you that fifty
miles over those mountains is further
than from here to San Francisco on a
Pullman car. Gaughter.)
He had maintained an irregular COM
munication with the insurgents with
chiefs such as Pablo Tecson, Lacuna and
numerous others, having maintained
this communicat ton by means of rum
ners who would cross the mountains
and then carry messages south.
CLUE FROM CAPTURED LETTERS.
Well, he sent one lot of messages too
many, and they fell into the hands of
Lieut. Taylor of the Twenty-fourth
United States infantry. Tsylor's sta
ton was about $50 miles south of where
Aguinaldo was, and was in my own dis
band of insurgent soldiers had come in
and voluntarily surrendered to him;
they stated that they had left Agui- |
naldo's camp twenty-six days before and |
We're bringing messages to the south;
that when they came into those prov |
inces they found war over there, and |
they did not want to go back, and SO
they would give up the whole business. |
Consequently they gave Lieut.. Taylor |
the package OF letters
He ran over them hastily and saw
cause they disclosed the whereabouts |
of the long-lost presidente and dictator, |
Aguinaldo.
One of those letters was written in |
cipher, and a very difficult cipher to |
work out. 1t was a cipher of figures, |
and everythird word was in the Taga- /
log dialect; the others were in Spanish, |
and there was a way of Subtracting GER /
tain numbers in order to get at what |
letter was meant. We had no key to /
work on.
this correspondence and the man who
brought it in were taken down to my |
headquarters at once. 1 had with me |
then an intelligent and courteous man,
a man who had served ten years as an t
enlisted man in the Spanish army, and
a man who knew the native dialects
perfectly He went to work on the
cipher letter at about o'clock in the
evening, and at about 4 o'clock in the
morning he had worked it out; 1T was
about sixty words altogether and it was
that feature of the thing can scarcely I
be appreciated by any one who does I
not understand how difficult a cipher is
without key, especially when it runs
into two languages. and those tive Ian
guages dissimilar.
NOW, HOW TO GET HIM.
But we found that Aguinaldo had sus-
pended his command in the central dis |
Ba1demero Aguinaldo, should succeed
him. In this letter he told Baldomero
Aguinaldo that as soon he had re- |
lieved Alejandrino he should select from
the various insurgent bands all through
that region about four hundred armed
men and send them to him at once
OF course knew from this that Agui-
naldo would be expecting REINFORCE
ments. 1 talked with this man bringing
the correspondence and suggested sew
era1 plans for Aguinaldo's capture, all
of which he said were impossible. He
said that the coast was very inaccessi-
BILE for about fifty miles north and one
hundred miles south of where Aguinaldo
was, and that the Bulgas, who are the
wild savages in that region, would be
sure to give Aguinaldo information of
the approach of any ship along that
coast.