Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1899 — MORE TROOPS NEEDED. [ARTICLE]

MORE TROOPS NEEDED.

Great Force Necessary to Control the Philippine*. A dispatch from Manila says that events of the past week have emphasized the need of a much larger army, without which, according to the best authorities in Manila, it would be attempting the impossible to expect to establish American supremacy in the Philippine Islands. The inadequacy of the American forces is said to be responsible for the large total loss in the number of small encounters, without material results as a compensation. Most of the fighting has been in territory which the Americans had swept, but had been compelled to abandon because they could not spare troops to hold it. Aguinaldo’s peace commissioners, fearing imprisonment at Luna’s hands, returned to Calumpit and proceeded up the river on a United States gunboat. The President and the War Department have about decided to support Gen. Otis’ view of the Philippine situation, and there will be no more parleys with Aguinaldo’s envoys unless they indicate, before entering the American lines, that they are prepared for unconditional surrender. The administration is informed that the optimistic views of Chairman Schurman and other members of the American commission at Manila are without foundation, and that the Filipinos will have to be whipped into submission. Conquered territory is being reoccupied, and the Ameri-. can troops are being harassed daily. To end this, more troops will be sent to Gen. Otis, and preparations made to deliver a crushing blow.