The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1902-03-20
SHORT TALKS
Brief Comment on Political and Other
Matters of Public Interest.

Matters of Public Interest.
Ex-Postmaster Hicks, of Philadel-
phia, declares that Ashbridge said to
him at the beginning of his term Of
Office that he proposed TO get all there
was in it for Samuel II. Ashbridge.
! Ashbridge denies that he ever said
anything of the kind, and the people
of Philadelphia have been by the ears
/ for week or two as to which tells
the truth. II doesn't seem to make
very much difference whether Ash
bridge gave notice in advance of his
intentions. He has made his word
good, whether he ever gave it or not.
He ought not kick about anybody's
saying that he once told the truth.
The Army and Navy Register hauls
Roosevelt over the Goals for his shabby
treatment of General Miles, and de-
| clares that IL is not possible to justify
1t or excuse 1t even on the sround
that Teddy has fallen into the habit
Of losing his temper. We predict that
Roosevelt will go out of Office one of
I esO ihOob uhPOpuioi NhV
country has had. When a man would
rather be called colonel than vice
president II shows an exceedingly vain
! streak in his makeup. His intense
! egotism and his I-am-the-whole-thin
style Of dealing with men and meas
ures is not likely to last him through
his term. OF course, there are toad
les who are willing to applaud any act
Of the president, no matter what it
may be- but the sober second thought
OF the people will not long tolerate a
man whose conceit is his strongest
characteristic.
General Wheaton declares that 50,-
900 soldiers will be needed in the
Philippines for at least five years yet.
AS each soldier costs a thousand dol
lars a year, and the officers who have
charge Of the butchering a great deal
more, the cost of the Philippines will
be $350,000,000 in addition to what
they have already cost. and to the pen
sion roll that will, in the light Of past
experience, be with us for at least Is
years. There Is no doubt that General
Wheaton is right. The Fllipinos are
at home in the tropical sun and are
fighting for liberty and country. Our
soldiers suffer all sorts of Affections
from the climate; those of them who
have sense enough to go in when it
rains must feel ashamed that they are
conducting murderous crusade
against a people who are as much en-
titled to their freedom as we are. 1t
Is safe to predict that twice $3.50, ,000,-
900 will not subdue the Filipinos suffi-
GENTLY to withdraw our soldiers and
leave them to the tender mercies Of
the greedy politicians and capitalists.
General Taft, who enjoys the dis
tinction Of trying to be governor Of
the Philippines, like all the other
prominent men who have mixed in it.,
are having a very hard time to show
just how he and God are working dill
gently for the interests of the Fill
pinos whom they love so well. He says
that they have no thought of establish
1uS duO III lhS usual
sense of the term. OF course not. The
ordinary sense of the term and the
sense of every man who knows any,
thing understands that such camp is
a place where the captured women and
children of the enemy are placed to
their fathers, husbands and brothers
to give up their land to the invader.
This is what concentration camps
meant in Cuba, this is what they mean
today in South Africa, and it is ex-
actly what they mean in the Philip
pines, where we are doing missionary
work for the cause of the lowly Naza-
rene, who never did the slightest vio-
lence to man, woman or child, and
every one of whose precepts declare
against all such treatment of any of
Gods creatures. No matter what Taft
may say that he and God propose to
do, the whole business is damnable
from the start and will be to the finish
unless the American people have a
much needed revival of the spirit OF
freedom.
General Wheaton, an American Off.
Ger who is trying to subjugate people
who ask that we simply attend to our
own business and let them alone, says
that men have been imprisoned foi
such speeches as the one recently de.
livered by Professor Schurman in
Boston. The professor in this addres.
took exception to the rigid military
rule that is prevailing in the Philip
pines. This serves Schurman abou
right, for no intelligent, high minded
man as he is popularly supposed to be
should not be guilty of mixing up il
this Internal business of trying to fin
ish the dirty job begun by Spain o
butchering the Filipinos in order t.
get their territory. Schurman, lik
any other man possessing the in
stincts of true civilization, was at frs
opposed to the whole business and di,