Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-25
LIFE IAIa(MAhILA
Every One Restless, Critical or
c0mlb BAT
SOME OF FlH { CAUSES
FOOLISH sENTIMENTALITY OF
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
"a q
Trouble With the Moros - Action on
the Currency-The Cholera
Epidemic.

Epidemic.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
MANILA, P. l., May IA, 1902.
Life in Manila during the past month or
two has had little OF that dreamy repose
about it supposed to characterize the trop-
les. The nerves of the people seem to be
on edge. Every one is restless. critical or
combative. Whether this frame of mind
is due to the wearing effect of the climate,
some assert, or is due to other causes,
is not clear. Much has happened however,
to Justify belligerent spirit without fall
ing back the climate, already suffi-
GENTLY maligned While April and May are
our hottest and most disagreeable months.
and have doubtless proven an irritant, this
was not necessary to complete the chapter
of our troubles. Fate, it would seem, has
been working overtime in complicating a
situation already sufficiently burdensome
and long drawn out. Something different
was hoped for. The trials, discomfcrts and
misunderstanding Of war were borne with
cheerful fortitude, for they were consid-
cred as necessary evils. Now however,
that the last insurrecto general has given
up trying to dodge our troops, and the last
self-styled president of republic which
never existed has surrendered, we were
justified In expecting better things. The
people, or most of them, had learned that
Americans were not the ogres pictured by
Spaniards and by priests. but were, instead.
earnestly. striving to help them. Autono-
nous government had been established in
practically all the towns, with a promise
to the people Of still greater participation
in government affairs as they showed ap-
titude for it. Life and property were more
secure than in Spanish days. Fields " ere
being titled, and people everywhere, freed
from the tyranny of ambitious and un-
principled political leaders, were settling
back into the passive and peaceful ex-
1stence which their nature Graves Every
thing seemed to herald prosperous, If I'M
eventful, season. Vain, however, the hope
and dream.
Foolish Sentimentality.
Our first awakening came when the great
American people, who can be so practical
where their private interests are concerned
and so foolishly sentimental when treating
the interests of others, heard of the water
cure. Forgetting the 70 barbarities prac-
ticed by the Christian nations on the mar CHI
to Pekin, which passed practically unchal-
ienged. and losing sight of the fact that
dealing with a treacheroIs foe much IS done
that would shock the Sabbath calm of a
New England village, asthey have roused
themselves into a righteous Indignation
n
ing and cannot undetstand They ask low
that old wounds be 1opened, that the past
be uncovered. and that generals and men
who have conducted the most humane war
ever waged against an uncivilized foe and
who have undergone privations and suffer-
ings uncounted that the prestige of our fag
might be upheld. should be brought upon
the carpet like sehoofboys and made to ex-
plain how and why they were guilty of
ending so speedily what threatened to be
an interminable g1errilla warfare The
crop of courts-martiaf{which have occurred
a az are ire now in progress has not sweetehed
tne temper Of the American colony nor
drawn the Filipinos any closer to us. $ .
Trouble With the Moros.
Then came the. trouble with the Moros,
our Moslem subjects in Mindanao. Our re-
lations with them thus far, had been of the
pleasantest From the beginning their Gus
toms, traditions and religion were re-
spected, while markets were built and trade
OF all, kinds encourage It seemed that
the problem which Spain had not solved in
tnree hundred years was to furnish us no
uiHlculty Two or three minor dattos
however, weighing present gain above flu
tufe good. alta cked small party of Amer
leans, killing one or two and taking their
arms and horses. An ultimatum was issued
that the guilty parties be given up and the
hefses returned 1t was not done, and a
thousand dead MorOs was the price of re-
fusal.' Possibly no other course was omen
yet the occurrence Is regrettable. The fear
has been In our hearts that the small flame
thus kindied would spread. and that for
fifty years Mindanao the fafrest and rich
est OF all the islands,, would be given over
to a sangutnary struggle with a fanatical
and ferocious foe. There Is reason to be-
lieve, however. that the decisive blow dealt
the 1nsubordinate dattos at Fort Bayan will
prove effective, and that the end of our
trouble with the Filpinos will not witness
the beginning Of difficulties with the Moros.
Inc incident, however, has not made us
happy.
Libel and Sedition Law.
Turning to the civil branch Of the govern
ment, point of ferment has been devel-
oped in the libel and sedition law, being the
act which caused some of our democratic
friends in the states rs have Mysteries. This
law was enacted a protective measure
against the seditious utterances of Isabella
de los Reyes and certain Filipino news
papers, and to render harmless the pro-
posed visit to the islands of Sixto Lopez,
the Boston favorite, who, with his British
secretary, Patterson, was then in Hong
Kong. 1t was the purpose Of Reyes to eStab-
lish in Manila. under a new name, the de-
funct insurrectO sheet formerly published
by him in Madrid, called "Fflipinas ante
Europa" Sixto Lopez on the other hand
proposed stamping the islands as an adyo.
cate OF independence and gate money. In
asmuch as the United States was support
Ing an army and spending considerable
money at that particular time in stampinN
out the instruction, and in putting a QUIT
tus on the political ambitions Of few self
appointed Filipino generals and leaders, the
necessity for this law seemed plain and
commended itself to all those not blindly
partisan, or who had not lost their logical
faculties in mad crusade in favor of Fill
pino independence and anarchy. The law
accomplished its purpose, and the anoma-
lous spectacle of our Soldiers fighting In the
field what Filipinos were privileged to ad-
vocate h in the press and upon the rostrum
Another spectacle is t5ding enacted now,
however, hardly less sorry than the one
escaped-being the enforcement Of this law
against an American Newspaper. Whether
it be because the geskfnment here has
Fiiipinos rather than 81 Americans sa rs 'o or
whether it results from the natural tend
ency Of the Americansto ctiticise everybody
in authority, the lightweight journalists
of the American pApery of Manila have,
with scarcely an EXCEPTION, not only at
tackled the government nand its methods,
but have also attacKeda everything Filipino,
calling the natives treaeherous. thieving,
deceitfhf, etc, greatly en-
oarrassing the comli1assidti in its work and