Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-04-09
HIGH PRAISE FOR
AMERICAN SOLDIERS
CONTINUED From Page Nine.)

memory of our forefathers. Moreover,
if we had abandoned it we would have
inflicted upon the Filipinos the most
cruel wrong and would have doomed
them to bloody tumble of anarchy
and tyranny 1t seems strange, look
ing back, that any of our people
should have failed to recognize a duty
so obvious; but there was such fail
civil authorities in the Philippines and
above all our gallant army had to do
their work amid storm of detraction.
The Army's Noble Work.
The Army in especial was attacked
in way which finally did good, for in
the end it aroused the hearty resent
ment of the great body of the American
people, not against the army, but
against the armys traducers. The cir
| cumstances of the war made it one of
4 peculiar difficulty, and our soldiers
were exposed to peculiar wrongs from
their foes. They fought in dense trop-
ical jungles against enemies who were
| treacherous and cruel, not only toward
our own men, but toward the great
numbers of friendly natives, the most
Ipeaceable and most civilized among
1 whom eagerly welcomed our rule.
Cannot Be an Excuse.
/ Under such circumstances, among
4 100000 hot-blooded and powerful young
men serving in small detachments on
the other side of the globe, it was i'm
i possible that occasional instances OF
A wrongdoing should not occur. The
fact that they occurred in retaliation
for well nigh intolerable provocation
4 cannot for one moment be admitted ir
the way of excuse or justification. Al
good Americans regret and deplore
/ them, and the war department has tax
en- every step in its power to punish
) the offenders and to prevent or mini
mize the chance of repetition of the
! !offense But these offenses were the
! exception and not the rule. AS a whole
our troops showed not only sigma
! courage and efficiency. but great hui
mainly and the most sincere desire tc
promote te welfare and liberties OF
the islanders. In series of exceed
ingly harassing and difficult campaign:
: they completely overthrow the enemy
: reducing them finally to condition
of mere brigandage; and wherever
they conquered. they conquered onl,
Ito make way for the rule of the civil
government, for the introduction o.
! law and of liberty under the law
!, When, by last July. the last vestigt
!, |of organized instruction had disap
: peared peace and amnesty were pre-
! claimed.
Civil Rule Established.
: AS rapidly as the military rule wa
H. .,1n l~ IN. Dir
! feat Of the insurgents, just so rapid
j was it replaced by the civil govern
t ment At the present time the CIV
government is supreme and the arm
: in the Philippines has been reduce
! until it is sufficient merely to pre-
: vide against the recurrence of trouble
a In Governor Taft and his associate
/ we sent to the Philippines as uprigh
). as conscientious, and as able q grou
1 of administrators as ever any countr
:. has been blessed with having. Wit
i them and under them we have ASST
e ciated the best men among the FIJI
a pinos, so that he great majority OF tn
II officials, including many of the highes
It rank, are themselves natives of tn
s islands The administration is incor
n ruptibly honest; justice is as jealousl
y safeguarded as here at home. Tn
it government is conducted purely j
T. the interests of the people of tn
l. islands; they are protected in their rt
4. ligious and civil rights; they have bee
given an excellent and well admins
tered school system, and each of theI
: now enjoys rights to "life, liberty an
q the pursuit of happiness such as wer
., never before known in all the histor
y of the islands.
N Provisions of Congress,
s The congress which has just ad
IN journed had passed legislation of hig
e importance and great wisdom in tn
c. interests of the Filipino people Fir
" and foremost, they conferred upo
ct them by law the present admirable eli
Fill government; in addition they gay
IN them an excellent currency: they pas