Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1901 — Page 4 Advertisements Column 1 [ADVERTISEMENT]

Twenty-nine years ago last Thursday the editor of this paper went sleighriding.—Goodland Herald. Pshaw, that’s nothing. We knew a Wheatfield editor who went on a “skate” in July. The first plan provided for the President to take his western trip was in the car “Imperial,” but when he found it out, the wires were kept hot until another car could be obtained. “Imperial”was altogether too significant. Prof. Reid, late superintendent of the Winamac schools, who was deposed by the school board for alleged improper conduct toward Pearl Lemasters, has brought suit to collect the balance of the year’s salary for which he was hired. The amount is $408.33. The Supreme Court has just held that the stamp tax on export bills of lading imposed by the war tax law is n tax on exports and therefore unconstitutional. Now will it hold that taxes collected in Porto Rico on exports from the United States are or are not taxes on exports in the meaning of the Constitution? One sentence of Aguinaldo’s recently published manifesto, acknowledging American sovereignty of the Philippines and calling upon the Filipinos to cease resistance to American authority, has aroused more or less speculation and curiosity in Washington. It is that in which he refers to the yearnings of the Filipino people “to see their .dear ones enjoying the liberty and promised generosity of the great American nation.” Many think that the “promised generosity” relates to promises made to Aguinaldo personally and that the wily Filipino put it in his manifesto so as to make it a matter of official record. Whether that surmise be correct or not the language of the manifesto indicates that promises have been made of which the American public know nothing, and'’ naturally there is curiosity to hnow what those promises are.

We must confess that we see no ground for complaining because Aguinaldo has been induced to make an effort to end the Philippine war. The only question involved is the propriety of the war, and however that may be regarded, it is certainly as proper to try to secure success by enlisting the services of an opposition leader as by filling the Filipinos with cold lead. Aguinaldo is tanking the best of a bad situation. We think he made an honest and fairly able attempt to save the independence of his country. But he ran into a Btone wall, and there is no obligation on him to keep butting hiß head against it forever. The sensible thing was to recognize the inevitable and do the best he could under the circumstances for himself and for his people. His course does not change the moral responsibility of our administration for the war, and does not lessen the embarrassment of the governmental problems which military success insures to iis. The personality of Aguinaldo is not a feature in the issue. He lias been merely a figurehead for a cause.—lndianapolis Sentinel