The Forrest City times., 1902-05-09
IT Is UP TO MIR. ROOT.
The Military Head Is Charged with Withholding Information Re-
 garding Philippine Frauds.

After the treaty of .'dris had been
 signed and the Philippines thereby
 ceded to the United States. the Span
 ish prime minister. Senor Sagasta, a,
 said: Now Spain is avenged" This
 was laughed at as a fine bit of cyni- elsm; but events have established Sa- gaSta as highly respectable authori- | ". The gift" has cost Us hundreds | of millions and the prediction that the end Is at hand is no more sanguine than 1t has been scores of times with III the last two years. After the task ot establishing peace and quiet ill a broken and scattered territory there Is the problem of protecting it. In the event of foreign war We would not have the comparatively easy work of defending continuous empire. To attack compact nationality fighting for home and country is a very differ ent proposition and far less inviting than the inauguration of q war which may be forced and fought 1000 miles from our shores, says the Detroit Free ] Press
 d stupendous menace we nave bought appears in the fact that it is trying to make appropriations to fortify the seaboard cities in towns where the costly maintenance of garrisons will
 be necessary even after the internal troubles are quieted. For the same reason the navy must be largely in l creased is tn ,i long as we cling to the Philippines but to establish and maintain large ! ly increased fighting equipment both for the reasons cited and because the respect formerly had for the Monroe doctrine k greatly weakened by the | invasion of the other hemisphere Some idea of what it would mean to have to defend our new possessions in the event of war appears in the fact that the aggregate land of the Philip plneS ls about equal to that i'll New
 Mexico, while the seacoast they have Is almost equal to that of ali our states bordering on the two great oceans.
 Figures of the expenses that we N | D, most sanguine do not predict that the generation is yet born that will see the balance in favor of this country. Yet these considerations are far from covering the material considerations involved. Charges of fraud in the Philippines have been passed over with lighthess that invites it's repetition. &..,, : | l. with modern civilized warfare are un- der investigation. The senate com mittee k eHeountering extreme diffi- eHlty in getting vital facts as to the true situation in the islands Gen. Taft k charged with the suppression of important information bearing upon the military government There Is no valid excuse for this, but there is the creditabIe explanation that he as the. .head of the civil government, shrank from conforming those with whom he is allied in control.
 Now II k alleged in open senate that the secretary of war is withholding material information from the com mittee. If this be true he is without "h "poi'5S' ile ls the power Dehlnd the military government, and to cover it's derelictions is to become party to them. If the charges are true Mir
 Root has ignored acts for the people and that it is they who are demand ing an unabridged and explicit state ment of conditions in our new posses sions. Conceding the right of military l n1 in, ha II follow that it can be exercised at home in the slightest degree. Congress has right to know everything, and of course will know everything.