The Farmington times. [volume] (Farmington, Mo.) 1874-1902, 1902-06-12
puaLrsHRp IN TaE IMTzxnSs
UPON THEIR OWN HEADS.
Reasonable Results Of the Aan,IaIss
tFatIsn's BIaRdsr la the HAna-
linE Of Philippines.

President Roosevelt, Secretary
Moody aud every republican that I'M
dertakrs 10 defend the work Of the
army or justify the policy uf the gov
ernment Ia the Philippines, can now
appreciate the far-rrachinE effects Of
the hlunder the administration made
when II permitted the establishment %
a military censorship The evil that
institution did has lived after 70. The
good. II there Was any, has been in
tcrreswith les bones, says the Detroit
Free PresH.
When the administration authorized
censorship that suppressed news,
distorted news aud invented news, 10
succeeded In setting the seal " dis-
ingenuousness upon all information
cmaHatinR from the Philippines or re.
latinF To the Philippines, II was many
months before the American people
ehny 10 unaerstnud that shsir govern
ment did not consider them az to know
the truth about their own business;
but having once cumprchended II, they
are slow 10 forget Il. A. = result Of the
administration folly, the country 40
a whole believes nothing that any Of
Rcsr Of the government, either civil 90
military. may say in regard to the
conditions 10 the archipelago.
When o man like Gov Taft says
that this thing Is 30 or that his testi-
mony ought TO be conclusive. II Is not.
While nobody charges the governor
with deliberate Misrepresentation, hia
statements are accepted al their face
value only hy persons that prefer 20
believe them. For the rest there ia
Struggling OF shoulders, iRfinuationE
as 90 the pleasures of rainbow chasing,
an offset OF contradictory testimony
given hy others, and a general cvi-
dence of polite distrust, Theodore
Roosevelt, whose reputation for truth
and ycracity ig certainly as good aa
that OF anybody la she United States,
Is she victim of the censorship evil,
too. when the president declares that
the army has not violated the rules uf
war and that individual eases have
been urged TO the disgrace OF all the
troops, nobody seems Co believe this
because the president has said IL. Nd
ministrntionists accept q, because Il Is
in the interests OF their party. Demo
Gratis sucer at It. Persons that are try
ing 10 learn the truth assume that
the president Of the United safes
must be reliable and yet they recall
how Mr. Mckinley seemed Go he badly
informed at times iu regard tu the
inEular matters that he diseussedl
And thus 1t Rocs.
There can be- NO general crrdulity tn
On atmosphere ~ disirust, and this
atmosphere Of distrust WIS created
when the administration went into the
business of supprcssing Information
through the medium Of a military cen
sorship. Il T. unfortunate now that
the democrats in congress, in order to
make campaign material for their
party. should misrepreseut conditions
in the Philippines, and possibly circu-
late falsehnods about the atrocities
committed by the troops. But Sc must
remember that II was the government
Of the United States that first began
the business of lying about the Philip
pines. The administration did not
/ call q lying; but q was lying and it,
own folly has survived TO plague the
( marty.