The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-06-06
MENDAclous ~BuENcAMINo.

MENDAclOUs BUENCAMINo.
Great as is the democratic love of
the downtrodden and prosecuted Fill
ipinos, it is not elastic enough to en-
brace Felipe Buencamino, late of
Aguinaldo's cabinet. To the members
Of that party he has made himself de-
cidedly Objectionable and they regard
him as a traitor and enemy to his own
people. In fact Felipe, so far as they
are concerned has put himself on "the
hog" to use democratic diplomatic
language. He appeared before the
house committee and gave testimony
and expressed views that shocked
the gentlemen of the minority. He
would not swear that his people were
tortured and tyraniZed by the soldiers
and that Governor Taft had Filipino
babies served as a regular dish at his
boarding house. In fact he had the
effrontery to declare that Governor
Taft and all those associated with
him were doing their utmost to i'm
prove the conditions existing in the
islands when they arrived there and
had succeeded in doing so to an as
tonishing degree.
Not satisfied with this misstatement
of the facts as the democrats believe
and know them to exist, he had the,
hardihOOd to utter the monstrous
falsehood that under the Taft system
the Filipinos were enjoying greater
liberty than they would have had un-
der Aguinaldo. STEPPED in mendacity
and nurtured on untruths, he went
even further and averred that the
governor was now the idol Of the
people, even as Aguinaldo had once
been. But he did not stop there. He
said that 5000 municipalities had
been established and the form of gov
eminent inaugurated for them had
been found satisfactory and the is
lands were practically pacified and
American authority was constantly
extending. Still prompted by the
spirit of Ananias, he informed the
committee that the educational meth
DDS of the islands had improved un-
der American jurisdiction and cited
the many schools he credited the gov
eminent with having established
there. It raj no longer necessary to
send children to Manila in order that
they might attend schools, as the op-
pressive and. tyranical Unitel States
government has established local
schools ample for the communities in
which they are located. His only
complaint on the score of the educa-
tional facilities provided was that he
wanted 5000 instead of 1900 teachers
and also wanted their pay doubled.
What probably graveled the minor
ity the most was his effrontery in in
timating a denial of the democratic
claim that the natives were capable of
self-government by saying that eighty
five per cent of them are absolutely
illiterate and able to neither read
0 write. The best that could be
expected of them at the end of four
or five years of American tutelage, he
said, was that they might then have
advanced far enough to be able to de-
eide whether they wanted annexation
or independence. But that was about
all. Spurred on by his reckless dis
regard for everything true and honest
he took the trouble to point out what
might be expected if the Americans
were to withdraw from the islands by
calling attention to the map and the
relative positions of the different pow
ers waiting for some such thing to
occur SO that they might swoop down
on them and parcel them out among
To complete his infamy, he said he
and the party he represented favored
annexation because they knew that
that meant liberty and justice under
American sovereignty, which they
loved.
Altogether Felipe made a bad mess
of it and caused himself to be as
cordially and unanimously disliked on .
the democratic side of the chamber
as any republican whose name can be ,
recalled. !.
HE cHILLS THEM. ,
If there is anything really colder