Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: University of Hawaii at Manoa; Honolulu, HI
Newspaper Page Text
AUSTIN'S HAWAIIAN WEEKLY. llk:;!"'i. "'iliih l,i; '.'iliii 'lil-li''.'!!!! llilialli'iliilili1 Ji'im :.,. I ' . 1 1'1! niiJ' It is reported by returning veteran8 that there is a more hopeful feeling in the army now that General Joe Wheel er is in Manila, because he is one of the most dashing cavalry ollicers in the army, and no power on earth will stop him from pursuing the enemy after a victory. American citizen-soldiers are unanimous in the condemnation of one man, as a childish imbecile, and a butcher of his own men, through criminal incapacity, it is an im peachment before the bar of public opinion which should cause that criminal to be court uurtialcd. ? win , ! niUh f-th'k .nA-& : .!ii, :,; vawr. rai i h . 'mrm.mrm .lm in '7, "Hi ' 'o,aii " """""'ui w.ii ,irmi m tz rauBmTur. i :"'"." i .'"' '.'. rM w i'i " - ;." ;; n,i mi' Aim The Czar of the Philippines and weak ling of the American army, General Otis' General Otis, has deigned Interview. to give a Sun correspond ent an interview on the situation. It is about time. Several thous and volunteers have returned to the United States who will not hesitate also to sav something concerning the situation in the Philippines. If wh ,t a number of these volunteers, who were discharged i.t Manila and lire going home by passenger steamer, were willing to siiy ;md swear to while p .ss mg through Honolulu, be any index to what the thousands of volunteers dis charged at San Francisco will also swear to, "here will be enough accumulation of evidence to convict this incubus of the American Eastern question of high trea son. As is the fate of all weak men, General Otis has " opened his mouth to put his foot in it." At 1 st the American people have learned the General's novel method of suppressing insurrection. He says: The question is whether, after all, i' would be wise to hasten the ending of the insurrection With the exception of a few nbbers and adventurers, the people grow sicker and more disgusted with independence every day they have it. I believe that if the insurrection is not ended too soon the Filipp'nos will be so heartily sick of independence that there will never be any more trouble on that score. Independence was a craze with these people. They did not understand what it meant, but their worship of the idea amounted almost tu fanaticism. Now that they really know what i dependence means, it is the best object lesson they ever had, and it will not be necessary to continue it much longer to forever settle the question. General Otis should have lived in the last century. One can quite easily imagine an English General in the revolutionary war saying the same thing of the Americans. The statement is weak in every respect, and reveals the mainspring of General Otis' most remarkable methods of warfare, which have gained for him the opprobrium, and even hatred, of the rank and file of the army. It has been the policy of General Otis to forbid any pursuit of the enemy after a brilliant victory by the American troops. The cavalry has thus practically been useless. The enemy have been per mitted to retreat and given time to entrench themselves again, so that the troops have been continually compelled to storm the insurgents in their trenches. Besides this, all prisoners taken are at once set free to return to their respective regiments, to take up the fight again a strange way, cer tainly, to make the insurgents sick of inde pendence. Such tactics rather tend to make the American troops dispirited and sick of fighting a foe that their command ing general will never permit them to whip after they have fought with extraordinary bravery and brilliancy to gain '..the ad vantage. Is it possible that Secretary Root, who is committed to a vigorous prosecutionfof&e war, can continue in command, a 'general who openly avows it his opinion that it is ' not wise to hasten the ending1 of;. the insur rection ? Or, is it possible that President McKinley, who has pledged himself to hasten the pacification of the Philippines, is in sympathy with General Otis' policy ? General Otis states in his interview that he has received many let How General ters from prominent and Otis Answers wealthy Filipinos nsking him Letters. to send troops to protect their property from the in surgents, and th .t he invariably replied: "Wh.it's the m .tter with independence? Go Ivck and enjoy it a while longer." Besides being insulting and disgusting, such an answer to an appeal for help is positi.-ely childish and undignified. How are the mighty f.illen? The representative of this gre.it nation with "benevolent inten tions," as Mr. McKinley says, sneers and laughs derisively lit an application for pro tection. And this childish old fool boosts of this in his interview, as if he had said something clever. Oh how proud we feel to be Ameiican citizens! An incident is related by a sergeant in the Mont ma regiment of an interview with General Pando, while a prisoner in the insurgent camp, which is interesting in revealing the opinion of both the volun teers and insurgents concerning General Otis. General P.mdo, seeing that the pris oner wore officers' stripes, spoke to him and asked, in excellent English, why the American troops were fighting so hard. The prisoner answered: "Bee. use we are ordered b- General Otis to fight you, and being Americans, we fight : s hard as we can, when we must." "Do you want to fight us?" continued the General. "No; I think we ''11 feel sorry every time we have to kill your men. I know I do," replied the prisoner. The General paused a mo ment. "We do not want to fight you either, but we must. General Otis will not give us any satisfaction as to the kind of government we are to have. Many of us believe that we can have greater independ ence and freedom under American rule if we can be permitted to govern ourselves as your States do. But General Otis treats us in a most childish manner, as if we had no intelligence. We are willing to lay down our arms, if matters of government are settled to our satisfaction." "The volunteers have nearly the same opinion," replied the Sergeant. "We believe Gen eral Otis to have reached the imbecility of second childhood. There is not a volun teer who would not infinitely rather put a bullet through General Otis than shoot a Filipino. He does not dare come out on the firing line, for there are too many of our bullets waiting for him." It is such stories as this that probably gave rise to Aguinaldo's statement that the volunteers were on the point of mutiny. But the Fili pinos can not understand that patriotism and sense, of duty in the American soldier are greater than hatred for any individual, and in the presence of an enemy, they will obey orders. ' The foregoing statement was not made by a fault-finding soldier from the slums of New York, but by an intelligent well-to-do business man from Helena, Montana, and there can be no good reason to doubt his veracity. Where several thousand good General Otis is described as sitting in his comfortable palace, located A Would-be in the inner city, with live Von Moltke. thousand regular troops to guard him against ass .ssina tion by the volunteers, with a map of the country before him, directing by wire the operations in the field. Reports are made every fifteen minutes by telegraph to this inner citadel, and, when he thinks a real victory is to be won, he orders a retreat the moment the insurgent troops have begun to run. This, of course, constitutes an American victory in General Otis' eyes. Instead of pursuit, the insurgents are per mitted to retire a few miles and make new trenches, out of which the Americans are expected, next day, to dislodge them. All the field generals even, of such as Generals McArthur and Lawton, are made to move according to the little telegrams from the palace in the walled city, where Otis com fortably sits gazing upon his maps. If Catholic priests happened to be enter taining the General he would spend hours with them, and orders to the front must wait his august pleasure. This all seems too terrible for belief. It is, nevertheless, the common gossip-among the volunteers, and must have some founda tion in fact. An instance is given of the disasterous effects of one of General Otis' delays. It seems that the American army had caught the Filipinos in a trap and were in a posi tion to compel Aguinaldo to surrender or have the flower of his army destroyed. The delay in receiving orders to advance from the palace in the walled city, gave the insurgents time to escape. During the battle of Rio Grande bridge, where General Funston won promotion, the wires were cut between the firing line and Manila, supposedly by the insurgents, and Funston led his command, the Kansas, Montana and Utah regiments to glorious victory. It was afterwards found that the insurgents could not have been within many miles of where the wires were cut. It is avered, although this may be exag gerated, that all the great victories were won after some accident had happened to the wires between the battle ground and Manila. If all due latitude be allowed for exag geration on the part of the volunteers there is still enough of truth to impeach General Otis of criminal weakness and neglect of duty. The world's fair, which is to be opened at Paris the 15th of next April, The Paris will be the climax of a series Exposition of industrial exposition in that of 1900. city extending over a time of more than a century. The first of the number which took place in 1798, and was held on the Champs de Mars, where the coming one is to be situated, was not of an international character. It had only no exhibitors, and cost but $12,000. Twenty-five medals were distributed, how ever. The fair took firm root in popular sjjw .ujssSkmimmiiiuittsrmia-. m ij &&