Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1899 — A FEW PLAIN FACTS. [ARTICLE]

A FEW PLAIN FACTS.

fHE MALICIOUS AND IGNORANT NEWSPAPER CRITICS The Lack of f officiant Soldiers in the Philippines One Entirely to the Hostility of the Democrats Under Fuch Leaders as senator Gorman. If those papers which propose to deal fairly with the President In regard to the Philippine matter would take the time to possess themselves of a few facts, they could criticise more intelligently and justly. For instance, those papers assume that the apparent insufficiency of men in Luzon is due either to Gen. Otis or the President. If Gen. Otis has been reporting that 30,000 men are sufficient when they are not, one of those critics says, he is unfit for the position. If, on the other hand, this paper continues, he has reported that 30,000 men are sufficient because the President desires such a report, the President is more than responsible. The critic, it should be added, expresses tbe opinion that the latter assumption is very improbable. So it is, and being one of the assumptions of reckless and malignant papers it should not be repeated as a possibility. The grasp of a few facts would shift the responsibility of having a larger army in the Philippines. Agulnaldo opened hostilities Feb. 4. A,t that date the treaty with Spain had not been ratified, and by tbe conditions of the protocol, which secured a cessation of hostilities, the United States could not send a soldier to Manila. The treaty was not ratified by the Senate until Feb. 6. As soon as the treaty was signed by the Queen of Spain, March 17, the war was at an end. Not only did

every volunteer regiment have tbe right to muster out, but the regulars enlisted under the law calling out the volunteers had the right also to be mustered out. This meant that on March 17 the only disciplined soldiers of wbom the President could avail himself was the regular army of 27,000 men in service when tbe war began. Nearly a month passed after tbe attack of Agulnaldo before the Senate permitted the bill Increasing the army to become a law. The bill was fought by Democrats under tbe lead of Gorman on the ground that tbe army was large enough. Finally, after wasting more than a month, during which period it was doubtful if tbe hostile Senate would give the President a man whom he conld send to Manila, that body, March 2, passed the compromise army bill which authorized the President to increase the regular army to 65,000 men for two years and to enlist 35,000 volunteers for a like period. Until the passage of this bill, nearly a month after Agulnaldo began the war, the President did not have a soldier he could send to Manila—not one. After the adjournment of Congress orders were issued and recruiting for the regular army began. If the 33,000 or so of regulars bad been recruited in a week and hastened to Manila they could not have reached that point before the middle of May. But the 35,000 or any considerable portion of tbe number conld not be recruited in a week, and they could not have been shipped to Manila in such numbers because it would have been impossible to obtain ships to carry them. If these green troops had arrived at Manila the middle of May or June and had been put into the field unacclimated, half of them would have died of disease incident to exposure in the beginning of the rainy season. Therefore, if Gen. Otis had called for 20,000 more men when Agulnaldo began war, they conld not have been supplied until Congress had authorised the President to recruit them. When Congress did finally give the President the luthority it was too late to put that lumber of seasoned and disciplined hen In Manila. Tbe later responslbilly about calling for more men may lest with Gen. Otis as a matter of lodgment, but tbe fact that tbe Presileut had no men to send is due largely iO tfle Gormans and the Vests and those who prevented, the passage of the bill authorising the increase of the truiy.—lndianapolis Journal. Political Tide in the Went. No Mtaßiw portjl* u. »Wrt for sort tear. Its rouou&tioxi has 20110 to

posits amounting to $21,000,000, tUthM dark days of the Cleveland failure ue the Bryan scare, the Nebraslc*,li§H deposits amounted to only tII.QOO.OIWH They have doubled under a Republican administration. Bryan, If fUmiM iuatel, will be pushed hard in MM braska. Though State pride is i llllgjß ed in behalf of a second trial, tfcrJH publican vote has grown since 1896. The fusion plurality last year was onl/l 2,781 for Governor, the RepnblicaiM carrying the Legislature and gatntojM a Senator. Bryan has no certainly fm Nebraska In 1900. In fact, the chancegfj are tbe other way. Some of the Wee#jl era States In his list before are sure t#| go against him next year. One of these Is Washington. Bryan’s antl-e ipum| sion views alone settle that. Washing! ton is for commercial development on the Pacific. Its Republican plurallty| last year was 8,028, quite a change! from Bryan’s 12,493 in 1896. Kansas has parted company with thd| silver party. Its Repoblican plurality last yt-ar was 15,870. Kansas asfl Washington combined take fourtecM electoral votes from the Bryan cohuwijjj A change of 1,600 votes last fall would J have given Nebraska and South De-| kota to the Republicans. The galas of ] Republican Congressmen in the tranu-J Mississippi States last November wet**? remarkable, and bad tbe high dlstisu»| tlon of saving the House. All of Ne/I braka’s neighboring States are as pros- ' perous as itself, and can match Its increase in deposits. Speaking In the light of mathematical facts, Bryan'e : prospects in the States west of tbtl Mississippi have generally faded. Fig- 1 ures of all kinds prove It. Nor can he, count on gains east of tbe unless In Kentucky, in which the Democratic party at present is more ously divided than in 1896- The facts • in the case suggest a change in that| Democratic candidate, but even that | might cost more votes than it would |

gain. Prosperity, expansion and soundll 1 money are a winning combination.—Stkij 3 Louis Globe-Democrat m Political Paragraphs. -H 1 What shall it profit tbe Democracy,J| to get on the wrong side of a new i#-JJ 1 sue?—Milwaukee Sentinel. m Mr. Gorman Is silent now. And tiNijH fj is always the time when Mr. Gormmn JJ Is most busy.—St. Paul Dispatch. M When the people ask the Democratism ‘i party the crucial question, “What did 1* you ever do to the trusts?" that neW#! fj aggregation will have to hang Its head J fj and say, “Nothin’.”—Rockford Repub- 1 Some of tbe free silver editors ax* 1 able to see an immense procession of 1 9 gold Democrats marching into tbedl fj Bryan ranks. These are the same [email protected] fj tlemen who had charge of the BryattJ predicting In 1896.— Washington Post. J M Neatly printed copies of the fj Gusrtus Van Wyck’s antitrust speech J are still being extensively in the South. Evidently the Van WwSj || boom Is making prodigious efforts work up a circulation.—New York Mafl i and Express. M Another little Moses was found hill 11 the rush grass at West Hempstead, j S N. Y., the other day. It was about 4’l| || weeks old and expensively clad, Jj was deserted and awaiting its Perhaps It is needed by the party as much as by any one.—Boston ■'ll lowa Democratic Platform. '{ 9 lowa Democrats are dominated Populists. Their State ticket is reaUy : defeated before it is printed.—EOgJaflli lowa Democrats indorse the Chicago ill platform “in the whole.” The spelling Ijj is faulty, but the whereabout of thO;|S platform Is correctly noted.—Kansas j City Journal. J|| The lowa platform does not mentioffi«|| silver, and the lowa voter who coil- j!l§ slders that question vital must in ancient history to ascertain what the party pretends to believe on that j subject to-day.—Rockford Republic. There are several things which the ; -yjjj lowa Democrats “view with alNWlj There are several things which the publicans of the land do not view witlgfl alarm, and one of them Is the catn4| $$ paign of 1900.—Milwaukee Evaifia§l Wisconsin. .. §§§ aside, jyrfr M In No v«mbe*v—B roofeijrm