The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1902-06-21
UPON THEIR W HEADS.
results of the Admlnis-
tration's Biunder In the Hand
ling OF Philippines.

President Roosevelt, Secretary
Moody and every republican that un.
dertakes to defend the work of the
ARMY or justify the policy of the gov.
eminent in the Philippines, can now
appreciate the ~far-reaching effects of
the blunder the administration mads
when ii permitted the establishments
a military censorship. The evil that
institution did has lived after it. The
good, if there was any, has been in
TERED with its bones, say the Detroit
Free Press.
When the administration authorized
a censorship that suppressed news,
distorted news and invented news, it
succeeded in setting the seal of dis.
ingenuousness upon all information
emanating from the Philippines or re-
lating to the Philippines. 1t was many
months before the American people
came to understand that their govern
ment did not consider them fit to know
the truth about their wi business;
but having once comprehepded it, they
are slow to forget it. As a result of the
administrations folly, the country as
a whole believes nothing hat any Of
ficer of the government, either civil or
military, may say in regard to the
conditions in the archipelago.
When n man like Gov. Taft says
that this thing is so or that his testi-
mony ought to be conclusive. 1t is not.
While nobody charges the governor
with deliberate misrepresentation, his
statements are accepted at their face
value only by persons that prefer TO
believe them. For the rest there is
struggling of shoulders, insinuations
as to the pleasures of rainbow chasing,
an offset of contradictory testimony
given by others, and a general evil
dence of polite distrust. Theodore
Roosevelt, whose reputation for truth
and veracity is certainly as good as
that of anybody in the United States,
is the victim OF the censorship evil,
too. When the president declares that
the army has not violated the rules OF
war and that individual cases have
been urged to the disgrace of all the
troops, nobody seems to believe this
because the president has said it. Ad-
miDistrationists accept it, because it is
in the interests of their party. Demo
Gratis sheer at it. Persons that are try
ing to learn the truth assume that
the president of the United Safes
must be reliable, and yet they recall
how Mr.. Mckinley seemed TO be badly
informed at times in regard to The
insular matters that he discussed
And thus it goes.
There can be no general credulity il
an atmosphere of distrust, and this
atmosphere of distrust was created
when the administration went into thu
business of suppressing information
through the medium of a military cen
sorship. 1t is unfortunate now that
; the democrats in congress, in order to
make campaign material for their
= party, should misrepresent conditions
in the Philippines. and possibly circu-
late falsehoods about the atrocities
!, committed by the troops. But we must
remember that 1t was the government
of the United States that first begar
/. the business of lying about the Philip
pines. The administration did moi
call it lying; but it was lying, and Its
w folly has survived to plague tn,
party.