ferred to the Committee on the Philippines, and there it slumbered. Information is denied and refused, not only to the Senate, to the Congress, which is expected to create legislation, but to the people of the United States, who give their money to sustain our legislation. Ever since the conflict began in the Philippines a steady practice of concealment has been carried on by the Administration. There has been a constant refusal to furnish information that might justify Army operations. This was not because it was feared the enemy might secure information, but with the purpose of keeping information from the people of the United States.

In the first place, the correspondents found their news censored, and when they made inquiry and protest they were told by General Otis that he took that course because he wanted to do nothing that would hurt the Administration at home; that practically he censored their news to keep the facts from the people of the United States. When we asked by resolution for information, it was denied, and to-day there are concealed in the archives of the State Department a vast amount of information that, in my opinion, if disclosed to the American people would be deemed by them as discreditable to the Administration.

I believe, Mr. President, from what little information we can get from this source that the battle which commenced on the 4th of February near Manila, in 1899, was begun under orders from Washington, and that if we could procure access to the records they would disclose that fact. We began the war, and I fully believe that General Otis was ordered to begin the war. He says the battle of Manila, which began on the 4th of February, was one of vigorous attack upon our part and one exclusively of defense upon the part of the Filipinos.

Important information is denied. Only such portions of the official record are given to the public as it seems in the interest of the party in power to disclose. We were told that if it were not for the sympathy of the people at home the war in the Philippines would cease. It was said to us that if we had not encouraged the insurgents, as they were called, they

would lay down their arms and surrender their liberty. This policy of concealment has continued up to date.

Just before the election in 1899 in Ohio the State Department practically denied that it had made such an agreement as the contract with the Sultan of Sulu, and when the Associated Press sent for a copy of that infamous agreement they were given one written in Arabic-Sulu Arabic-that nobody in the United States could translate. By such subterfuges the contract or agreement with the Sultan of Sulu was kept from the public until after the election in Ohio.

Just before the election the Schurman commission made a partial report, setting forth only such facts as would inure to the interest of the Administration and concealing the remainder. Last year during the campaign, although the instructions to the Paris commissioners were sent to the Senate in secret, the President in his letter of acceptance quotes copiously from the instructions to those commissioners, leaving out lines and paragraphs and words which changed the meaning, in order to deceive the voters during the election campaign. And yet the Senate refuses to make these instructions public and all information is denied to the people except that which the Administration finds it politically safe to disclose to the public.

The Taft Philippine Commission during the campaign was reported in the newspapers to have said that the insurgents were maintaining war because of a hope of the election of Bryan and that the insurrection would fall to pieces in case he was defeated. Now that the election is over we find the insurrection more vigorous than ever, having thus continued up to date. When we asked for the real facts concerning the war from official sources-and such facts would have been serviceable pending the passage of this bill-the desired information was refused. After the bill passes and has gone into conference we are flooded with telegrams stating that the insurgents are about to surrender, that the war is nearly over, and thus the Taft commission again comes to the relief of its masters, the Administration.

One purpose having been accomplished by a partial dis

closure of the truth, they shift their position and say the rebels are surrendering and that the war is about over. What new purpose they now expect to accomplish I know not, but under all these circumstances the American people are entitled to full disclosures on both sides of the question. As a coordinate branch of the Government, it is our right to know what has been done and what is being done. We ought not to be required to glean our information from a partisan commission, whose members merely obey the orders of the Administration in promulgating an opinion which suits the particular political exigency of the case.

When this bill came before us I supposed an elaborate report, showing the operations of our Army, the extent of territory which had been conquered, the details, the necessity for the continuation of an armed force in the Philippines, would be forthcoming. All we received was a book of testimony in favor of the canteen and some evidence with regard to the re-formation of the Army upon different lines from those heretofore employed and the rearrangement of the staff. The debate in this body has been upon those subjects, and to-day we are ignorant as to what the situation is, though we have passed an important measure, based upon our supposed knowledge of the situation.

I am credibly informed that the United States has not control of one-quarter of the area of the Philippines; that the entire population are arrayed against us. These people are not in revolt, Mr. President. How can they be rebels to a Constitution which the Administration insists never extended over them? How can they defy a Constitution which does not exist within the area of their country? How can they be rebels against a sovereignty which they never acknowledged?

No, Mr. President, they are not rebels. Any citizen of the United States has the privilege of sympathizing with them. without being open to the charge of treason. Our Constitution, so our Administration states, does not extend to them. The sovereignty of the United States does not encompass the environment of these Orientals. How can our sovereignty extend beyond the jurisdiction of our fundamental law? Through

what process has such a feat been accomplished? Not through conquest. Once we made this claim, but the cold terms of the Paris treaty dissipated it, and instead of sovereignty by conquest we are now proclaiming ownership of the Philippine islands by right of cession, with a sordid purchase behind the deal. It seems to matter little that, under our Declaration of Independence and its resultant form of government, we are precluded from establishing sovereignty over any people without their consent.

So far as anything can be ascertained officially, Mr. President, the United States is trying to conquer the Filipinos and impose a government upon them, and up to date the effort has not succeeded. It is not a single tribe in that far-off archipelago that is resisting us. It is the entire population, if common report may be relied upon, and we have little else to guide our legislative course. We are asked to vote for a permanent enlargement of the Army and are denied the information upon which we can justify our acquiescence.

But a few days ago I asked the Secretary of War for a copy of General MacArthur's report, and found that it had been suppressed. No citizen can procure a copy of MacArthur's report. Why has it been suppressed? Why is not the information it contains given to the American people? Upon this subject I have received a letter from the Secretary of War only a few days old. It is as follows:

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, January 14, 1901. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2d instant requesting a copy of Major-General MacArthur's last report in relation to conditions in the Philippine Islands.

In reply I beg to inform you that the same is not at present available for distribution, and that volume 1 of the Report of the War Department, a quota of which, it is understood, will be placed to your credit in the document room of the Senate as soon as published, will contain the annual report of General MacArthur.

Very respectfully,

Hon. R. F. PETTIGREW,

ELIHU ROOT, Secretary of War.

United States Senate.

So I say that I am justified in charging that for political purposes the Administration keeps from the American people information which is necessary for a justification of the passage of this Army bill. I believe that if the information was secured the justification would not be found within it. I believe the American people would say, if they could have access to all the facts, that the way to stop the war is to stop fighting. The people of the Philippines are not our enemies. In speaking for them I am not encouraging the enemies of my country. All they have done to us is to resist the invasion of their islands and the destruction of their liberties. All they have done to us is to insist upon their freedom, their independence as a nation, and, as evidence of their earnest intentions, they participated as our allies in a contest to overthrow the power of Spain. Stop fighting, cease to try to conquer them and to rob them of their country, and the war will be over and bloodshed will cease.

Mr. President, I hope the Filipinos will be successful. I want them to secure their liberty. I believe that they ought to succeed. They are struggling for freedom-for that which has made our history as a nation grand in all its past. I hope the day will never come when I shall fail to sympathize with any people who are struggling for liberty, no matter where they are.

While opposed, Mr. President, to this entire measure, I am especially opposed to one of its features. I am opposed to that paragraph in the bill which requires the United States to copy the infamous policy of Great Britain in the present and in the past the paragraph which provides that we may enlist soldiers among the Filipinos to fight their own people. I am especially opposed to the legislation covered by that paragraph. It reads as follows:

That when in his opinion the conditions in the Philippine Islands justify such action the President is authorized to enlist natives of those islands for service in the Army, to be organized as scouts, with such officers as he shall deem necessary for their proper control, or as troops or companies, as authorized by this act, for the Regular Army. The President is further authorized, in his discretion, to form companies,