Page images
PDF
EPUB

the important movements, beginning with the advance from La Loma Church in March, had been to round up and capture or force the surrender of various divisions of the Filipino army; that all of them had failed to accomplish this, yet we had been obliged to represent that Otis was accomplishing just what he intended and winning a series of glorious successes and administering no end of final crushing blows.

Otis is a hard man to argue with or to pin down to any definite proposition, and his explanation of the failure of Hall's expedition the first week in June was characteristic. He said: "But how could we capture them when they were not there? They all got out the night before we started, and there were not 2,000 we found, but only 600."

We rehearsed in detail the objections to the censorship, which I have outlined in the beginning of this letter. There was no question of the fact that he had not allowed us to send full reports of the conditions here unless those reports were reflections of his own views. We asked that when there were different views held by people whose opinions were worthy of consideration we should be allowed to explain the various views and phases of the question, instead of echoing his opinions as though they were rock-ribbed and unimpeachable facts.

Davis said: "When I returned to Manila, I asked what I would be permitted to send, and you told me all facts, news about military operations not helpful to the enemy, and my opinions as opinions." All of the committee agreed that the fulfillment of that rule would be satisfactory, and I disclaimed any desire to send my personal opinions for the Associated Press. General Bates was present throughout the interview. At the close General Otis turned to him and asked, "What would you do with these gentlemen, General?"

Bates promptly replied: "I would do what I said."
"Court-martial them?" Otis asked.

"No, let them send what you promised, the facts, and opinions as opinions," Bates said.

The next morning Otis sent for Davis and tried to talk him

Among other things he complained that he did not clearly understand what we wanted. Wishing to give him a chance to establish a reasonable censorship, we sent another committee with a written request that we be allowed to send all facts not useful to the enemy and describe the different views of the situation when it was open to differences of opinion. The committee thrashed over the same ground several hours, and the result was a statement in effect that we might send anything which in his opinion was "not prejudicial to the interests of the United States."

That did not change our position in the least, because he had always construed as damaging to the Government any story tending to carry the smallest inference that his acts and policies were not entirely successful and indorsed by the whole army. He also appointed

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

Manta ement Cris and the members of his peror #15 who would feel sound to support him under any cond

The position of me newicaper correspondents here is, as it has been from the beginning, most difalt

Ory had dosed to sa every possible source of information. Only pesterday when I attempted to send a report of the bombardment of Pame the truthi Ihes of which was unquestioned, be immediately vent for Lawton, and demanded to know how it had been made public. and told Lawton to jump on the members of his staff.

Such wrist orders against talking to newspaper men have been repeatedly issued that when we go about headquarters the officers avoid us as though we had smallpox, because they are afraid to be seen talking with us. Oris refuses to give us passes to go about the city after the closing hour (8.30) although such passes are given to the reporters on local papers and to business men of all nationalities, even Filipinos. All of the privileges extended to newspaper men in Cuba, like the privilege of the Government telegraph wires and access to tele

grams from the front which are not of a confidential nature, are denied us. It is impossible to maintain any system of correspondence from Iloilo and the other islands except by mail, as the officials in those places, under orders from headquarters, exercise a censorship practically prohibitive over the cable.

Instances of the suppression of news to prove that the sole intent of the authorities is to suppress accounts of the real situation here could be multiplied if it was necessary, but the repeated assertions of the censor that he was instructed to permit nothing to go of a political nature—nothing that could reflect upon the Army or "create a bad impression at home"-leaves no doubt on that point. Such items as courtsmartial have been ruled out, with the explanation: "I am here to protect the honor of the Army."

Recently I filed what I thought a most inoffensive statement that the business men who had appeared before the commission had advocated the retention of the existing silver system of currency. The censor said: "I ought not to let that go. That would be a lift for Bryan. My instructions are to shut off everything that could hurt McKinley's Administration. That is free silver." I explained that the silver system here was not 16 to 1, and with seeming reluctance he O. K.'d the item.

The charge that we cared for nothing but to make sensations for our papers is most unjust, for I doubt if ever a body of newspaper men were more conservative in the presence of unlimited provocation for sensationalism. There have been three or four instances which I now recall of conduct by our soldiers resembling the episode of the Seventyfirst New York in Cuba, which were matters of common knowledge here, and which none of us has attempted to cable nor desired to.

There has been, according to Otis himself and the personal knowledge of every one here, a perfect orgy of looting and wanton destruction of property and most outrageous blackmailing of the natives and Chinamen in Manila, and various incidents like the shooting down of several Filipinos for attempting to run from arrest at a cock fight, not to mention courts-martial of officers for cowardice, and the dismissal of General for getting hopelessly drunk on the eve of two important battles-all of which the correspondents have left untouched by common consent.

Also, there are the usual number of Army scandals and intrigues which we have not aired, foremost among them the fact-it is universally considered a fact in the Army-that Otis is deeply prejudiced against and jealous of Lawton, and has done everything in his power to keep Lawton in the background and prevent him from making a reputation.

As a correspondent of the Associated Press, I am supposed to have no opinion, but in writing of events like this war one must necessarily,

to convey any idea of the trend of affairs, go somewhat into the field of description of conditions, etc., which are in the final analysis matters of opinion. In doing so I have endeavored merely to reflect the views of the great majority of well-informed people. Whether I have done so correctly you can easily judge by referring to the stories I sent "via Hongkong" soon after my arrival and afterwards (one on the 7th of April saying that notwithstanding the optimistic official view the war was likely to be a long one and that 100,000 men would be needed to end it). You will notice also that the tone of the Hongkong dispatches was decidedly different from those sent from Manila direct. The only time General Otis has given us any freedom was during his row with Schurman over the peace negotiations, when (by insinuation and those attempted diplomatic methods which public men seem to think newspaper men do not see through) he was encouraging us to roast Schurman and take his side.

The secret of the whole trouble here is that the Government has left a small man to deal with the most delicate problems, requiring broad statesmanship. Every one agrees that Otis is honest, and that counts for much in a position affording such chances for dishonesty, but everybody agrees also, with most remarkable unanimity, that he has bungled affairs from the beginning; that the war might have been avoided by tact, and might have been ended before now by some other plan of campaign than slashing aimlessly about, taking a town to-day, deserting it to-morrow, retaking it the next week—and by diplomacy.

The Hongkong press, which has always championed the American side of the Philippine question, reflects the feeling of most people here in an editorial beginning: "It is not difficult to imagine the disgust and indignation that would be felt and expressed in the United States when once the country awoke to the real condition of affairs in the Philippines. There has been mismanagement of the grossest description."

I wish the etiquette of officialdom might permit Dewey and Schurman to speak to McKinley and the public concerning Otis as freely as they have to newspaper men. Those two are the only men of the caliber of statesmen the Government has sent here, and Schurman has the college professor's weakness of believing that all other men, including Malays, were as sincere in what they said as himself.

Otis is a bureaucrat who never leaves his desk, has never seen his soldiers in the field, and insists upon managing both the civil and military branches of the government, although either one would fully occupy an able man, because he trusts no one but himself, and withal has a faculty for antagonizing every one with whom he has to deal, as he has antagonized the newspaper men.

Very truly yours,

ROBERT M. COLLINS.

[ocr errors][merged small]

APPENDIX VI

WHAT IS A PROTECTIONIST?

MR. PLATT, of Conn.* Mr. President, it is true that the business of grinding fuller's earth is carried on in Connecticut. It is also true, I suppose, that there has been a bed of fuller's earth found in Florida. What I understand the Senator from South Dakota wants-who is not a protectionist except in spots, when he has some particular thing that he desires to have protected-is that the Connecticut mills shall be obliged to buy the fuller's earth, which it is said has been found in Dakota, in its raw state, and transport it by rail to Connecticut and grind it there, and then send it back to Dakota for use, or as far back as it can find purchasers. Now, I do not think there is very much inconsistency in that.

MR. PETTIGREW. Mr. President, the deposit of fuller's earth in South Dakota would not go to Connecticut to be ground, nor to the Eastern market. It would go, however, into the markets of the West, to Kansas City, where it would be used to clarify lard-oil, cotton-seed oil, etc. But the clays of Florida can come into the New York market if you give, them a chance to do it, and there is no reason why they should not be allowed to come. There is no argument, except an effort to create a prejudice in the mind of somebody why the Connecticut mills should not buy the Florida earth and grind it, and be obliged to buy it or else go unprotected themselves.

Further, Mr. President, I do not know that I care to disclaim or admit the charge as to whether I am a protectionist or not. I believe that the Nation should do its own work. I believe that a varied industry is necessary to the development of the best traits of character, and the highest civiliza* Debate in the Senate June 26, 1897.

« PreviousContinue »