The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-20

name of the Horseshoe-And thinking on thls very theme and preparing this very courser of eternity apesding along had just struck the mountain with one hoof and gone on into illimitable space. So short is time. % insignificant is earth. moment voices roll down the sky and all the worlds of light are ready to rejoice at your disenthrallment. Rush not into the presence of the King raggsd with righteousness. Dash not your foot to pieces against the throne of crpcfhed Christ. Throw not your crown of life off the battlements. All the scribss of God living ii9ht to record the news of your soul eniancipated.
 Copyright, 1902. Louis Klopsch. N. I) The Suppressed Philippine Reports. New York Evening Post. ,.., csme very badly out of this affair of keeping back vital information from Congress. The reports withheld are ter. ribly damaSing, but the fact of with. It Is not simply that 1t argues lacE of candor; 1t is very nearly breach ol faith; violation of the Implied contract between the Administration. on the one hand. and Congress and the people On the other. In . word, MT. Root goes country in hehalf of certain Philippine policy. and then he keeps under lock shows that that whole policy Is tumbilns like a house of cards. No wonder thai Imperialsts are stricken dumb by this revelation. Their boasted eagle of em. suddenly discovered to be a. very silly specimen of ostrich, hiding its foolish head in the sand. and thinking that its fairly conspicuous postsrtors are there- fore invisible.
 MT. Root is greatly mistaken if ne thinks that the airs of q Russian bu- reaucrat are in place. or will be toier- ated, in the conduct of his Department. nation 1t is advisable for the American people to be allowed to have. in making up their minds on this whole question. They say to him, sn the language which ter of his day. Information Is an ad vantage to us: and we have right to demand it. Nor need he imagine that he can fall back on the excuse for con- cealment which Dundas gave to Parla- nature" and that "the state will suffer detriment by the exposure" MT. Root will remember how Burke shattered that plea. In words which read as If proph- etically fitted to the case of the Phti- ippines, as well as to that of India, he exclaimed:
 "A government has been fabricated for that great province: the right honorable gentleman says that, therefore, you ought not to examine into its conduct. Heavens, what an argument is this! Then we are only to examine into the conduct of those who have no conduct of Se e estabsbmen. %as in the publicity of its proceedings. in its per- petual responsibility toe Parliament Without this check. what is our govern ment at home? But If the scene on tn.
 nth uiH Ha nf tnk x1yt1f rfS invites, almost compels to tyranny and rapine, be not inspected with the ey0 Of a severe and unremitting vigilance. shame and destruction must ensue.'
 mate babbling of military secrets. If Secretary Root thought that those parts of Major Gardeners report which re- fiected directly on officers of the army made public, he might have kept them back for a time with propriety. But the burden of the report is quite other. It is the contribution of an able and con- of Philippine government Is the present policy the correct one? Is it working well? Ought 1t to be changed? To all these queries Major Gardeners report gives the most pertinent and significant answers. Nothing so telling and strat- egic has been brought out by any wit ness before the Philippine Committee. The document Is one which should have been instantly turned over to that com. mittee of inquiry, and given to every American to read and ponder. Hut what was done with it7 Why, Governor Taft concealed 1t, Secretary Root pigeon-holed 1t. and nothing but the iudtscretion of General Miles gave the public hint that such teil-tale report was in existence. This is, to our mind, almost an tm- peachable offence. It Is to treat Con- gress and the people with contempt. 1t casts inevitable suspicion on every state- mapf 0f the that SAarQfarv Root may make. What cards Is he still keepv. ing under the table? General Miles. we note. spoke of ''other communications withheld. as we'll as the Gardener report. fatherly little way of treating us all as children. and doling out only informa- ton which is good for us, cannot be pursued much longer. Mir. Root had bet ter volunteer his documents, instead of waiting to be further huniliated by hay ing them dragged out of him by Con- gress.
 The one report which has been reiuct- antly given to the public is. as we have said. simply crushing araignment of the course which the Administration has been following In the Philippines. Gov ernor Taft has denied that there was any and civil authorities. What says Major Gardener? Why, that the attitude of the army is decidedly hostile" even '9p- tensely so among the higher officers" to dil &OTLtS OI CIVIL government III these islands" The work of Governor Taft's Com mission, he adds. is openly ridicui. ed'' by the soldiers. and when "outrages" are committed by officers and soldiers in an organized municipality and province" they are often not punished" This is bad enough, without taking into account the Majors reference to tho to-turing of natives by so-called water-cure and other methods" asHf those things were well-known part of army procedure.
 What strikes us most in Major Gar dener's report Is the humane and states maniike note of 1t. He speaks with fine disdain of the notion that it Is weak ness" to treat Filipino justly or kindly having proved the contrary in his own experience; and his testimony as to the people of his province of Tayabas--name- ly, that they are fin every way superior in education. intelligence. morals and civilization to the Mexicans and Cuhans whom he has known intimately--is in line with much other evidence by our own officers. and puts the fittdng brand upon the barbartc and bioodthirsty rav- ings of men like Funston, who prate about the need of killing half the mig gers in order to make the rest afraid of us. It Is precisely this cruel and overbeariug course which Is, Major Gar dener reports, sowing the seeds for a perpetual revolution against us hereaf- ter" and making of the Filipinos our |~'permanent enemies.' As 1t is. he de- clares the political situation in his prov | G-n-.