Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-19
REPORT OF GEN. MILES
CORRESPONDENCE RESULTING
FROM MR.. WELSH's CIRCULAR.
Few of Those Receiving It Gave Any
Attention to It - Secretary
Roots Statement.

Additional correspondence has been had
as a result of the circular letter of Mr..
Herbert Welsh of Philadelphia, suggesting
that the recipients urge the publication of
the entire report of Lieut.. Gen. Miles re-
port, giving the results of his personal
inspection Of the military situation in the
Philippines.
Representative B. F. Spaulding of North
Dakota sent the Secretary of War a copy
of a caustic letter he had written to Mr..
Welsh on the subject. deprecating what he
termed the misguided efforts Of Gen. Miles
to discredit the army, and calling on the
friends of good government in the Philip
pines to uphold the wise and benevolent
policy of the administration.
Secretary Roots Acknowledgment.
In acknowledging the receipt of this let
ter, Secretary Root wrote to Mr.. Spaulding
as follows:
Il have to thank you for your letter of
May 20 inclosing a circular letter of Mr..
Herbert Welsh Of Philadelphia. dated May
H. asking you to urge the publication Of
the lieutenant generals report on the Phil
ippines. 1t may interest you to know that,
l am informed, these circular letters
were sent to all the persons named In the
book entitled Who's Who in America,
Il, 551 in number. OF these 1851, seventy
six complied with the request of the cir
cular by writing to all or some of the Of
ficers designated therein. Ninety-eight for
warded the circulars to the War Depart
ment, eighteen without comment and
proval of the circular. The remaining
11,3T appear to have put the circular in
the waste paper basket. The seventy-six
who wrote in compliance with the request
have been informed that the report was
published in full two weeks before the cir
cular was sent
Secretary Roots Statement.
The following is copy of the circular
issued by Secretary Root. replying to those
who wrote him on this subject:
WAR DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, June 6, 1903.
Dear Sir: 1 beg to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of your letter of May %, relating to
the publication of the recent report of Gen.
Miles about affairs in the Philippine Islands.
The report referred to was made public
on April q last, by furnishing full and
complete copies to all the press associations
and an the principal newspapers of the
country through their representatives in
Washington. The substance was published
generally throughout the country. and you
can doubtless find it in your own news
papers for the week following April %. If
you wish a verba tim copy you will find 1t
in the Army and Navy Journal of May 2,
published at 90 Nassau street, New York.
That is complete and accurate, except for
incosed,' referring to an Enclosure contain
ing details of sales of rice, explained at
large in the report. That Enclosure was
also given to the press, but no newspaper
cared to publish it. 1t is open to inspection
by any one, but would add nothing to an
understanding of the subject.
The report of Major Hunter, to which
you also refer, was not a part of the re-
port of Gen. Miles or inclosed or referred
to in it. 1t is a report made in the Phil
ippines to the general commanding there
in the course of judicial proceeding, and
was recently forwarded to Washington in
due course. The necessary action by the
department was taken without any avoid
able delay only last week. All the
papers in the proceedings, including the
report, were then made public by fur
nishing complete copies to the press, and
all that the different newspapers thought
important or interesting was published.
AS the papers contained 3S9 typewriter
pages the department cannot undertake
to furnish any further copies.
You will appreciate the fact that the
method adopted to make these papers pub
lie is the customary method by which the
government at Washington informs the
people of the country of what is going on.
The press has conformed itself to this
method, and all the great press associa-
tons have their representatives here, and
all the great newspapers have their spe
cial representatives. AS the business of
the newspapers is to publish everything
that the people are interested in, and their
representatives are here for the sole pur-
pose of getting such informa tion there is
not much danger of anything really i'm
portant failing to reach the people when
it is given to the representatives.
This is especially so of things which
seem adverse to the Administered ton, be-
cause all the newspapers most violently
opposed to the administration have their
representatives here, and in this particu-
lar case they had full copies of the papers
equally with all the others. Very respect
fully, ELIHU ROOT,
Of