Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1899 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

(From our regular correspondent.) If the administration follows its present method of showing its confidence in General Otis to its logical conclusion, there will be a new commander in the Philippines before the fighting campaign opens. It began to show its confidence in General Otis, who had continually declared that 30,000 men were all" he needed, by issuing the necessary orders to make the full strength of the army in the Philippines 40,000 men; then it was decided to make it 50,000, and the orders under which the ten new regiments are being recruited will raise the number to 63,000. To be logical the next order should name a new commander for this large army. The proceedings in connection with the order to recruit these last ten regiments which, by the way, will almost bring the volunteer army up to the limit set by Congress, were an object lesson in the wibly-wably policy which this administration has so often adopted. At first it was positively denied that the order would be issued at all; then it was said that the regiments would be raised, but would merely be held as a reserve, and at last, when it could no longer be hidden, it was acknowledged that arrangements had been made to land the last of them at Manila about the First of December, which means that they will leave San Francisco early in October. * * * The sending of a big army to the Philippines is a political play on the part of the administration. This is recognized by all close political observers. The opinion of Colonel W. E. McLean of Indiana, who was Deputy Commissioner of pensions under the Cleveland administration, and who is now in Washington, on his way to the G. A. R. encampment, to which he is a delegate-at-large, is that of thousands, regardless of politics. He said: “One thing is certain: if the Philippine wjir is not ended before the presidential campaign comes on, it is good bye to President McKinley. The war over there is fast growing in unpopularity. The policy of expansion is opposed by a great many western republicans, and the democrats are nearly a unit against it.” Speaking of politics in his own state, Colonel McLean says: “The Indiana democrat who is not for Bryan and the Chicago platform is a man without a party, and his position is so lonesome that he almost feels as though he had no country.” The Colonel knows, as he was that sort of a democrat himself in 181)6. j? * * * There is a paragraph in an official report just received by Surgeon General Sternberg from Major John R. Hoff, Chief Surgeon of the Military district of Porto Rico, which is not calculated to make new shouters for irnperalism among the thoughtful. In considering this very serious matter, it should not be forgotten that Porto Rico is the healthiest of our new Island possessions. The paragraph is almost too plain spoken to be quoted in a family paper. Suffice it to say that in it Major Hoff speaks of the alarming prevalence of private diseases among our soldiers over there and says the indications are that it will not be long before a large percentage of them will be as thoroughly infected as the native population. He also points out the danger of returning soldiers spreading the contamination at their homes, a danger which Great Britain has* found to be of the gravest proportions in her experience with her tropical possessions. Something like this has been said before, but it was hooted down as the talk of an alarmist. It begins to look as though the man who said, “the more you know about the tropics the less desire you have to live there,” was about right. * * According to high republican authority, Alger never was a real candidate for the Senate and his announcement to that effect was made after a full understanding with Mr. McKinley, solely for the purpose of preparing a reason for his resignation from the cabinet. This may or may not be true, but the announcement several days ago by Mr. Alger that he was entirely out of politics, seems to bear out the story. There has been so much republican trickiness in Washington that one is never surprised to discover something new in that line. The Hanna-McKin-ley crowd seem to prefer doing even the most simple things in a mysterious way. According to the above mentioned republican authority, “The real truth is, probably, that the change finally in the War Department was compelled, not so much by the bitter opposition to General Alger personally as to the necessity confronting the administration of infusing new vigor into the war in the Philip-

pines, which was languishing beyond the period set for its successful conclusion.”