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4 13be Conservative.
TIIK CONQUEST OF THE PIIIIIIM INES.
A IlOlllllliSVCIIUMi
EDITOK THE COSSEUVATIVE ,
Nebraska City , Neb.
Dear Sir : Ono year ngo , upon my
return trip from the Orient , I wrote as
follows :
"Steamship 'Coptic , ' Tuesday , June 21 ,
1898 :
"Last night , at 1 : ! 30 a. m. , I was
awakened by three sharp blasts of our
ship's whistle saluting the passing trans
ports to Manila. Alas 1 alas 1 and alas !
Enthusiasm now , but later on sickness ,
suffering , misery , squalid death under
the pitiless sun of a tropical sky in an
alien land. And still later on for those
who remain at home , taxes 1 taxes 1
taxes ! Such is the glory and the cost
of war. When all the burdens of it are
settled 011 the backs of the people , then
look out for political and social revolu
tions at home. As the war has been re
peatedly referred to by my correspon
dents , I will say I'm no jingo : don't
believe in the doctrine of island expan
sion , annexation or conquest , but fear
that the American people are lending a
willing ear to the suggestions of pride ,
ambition , and avarice , rather than to
the sober and wholesome dictates of
wisdom , prudence and justice. Spain's
colonies have ruined her. "
Last January I summarized the war
craze thus :
"The policy of the present United
States congress and the executive ad
ministration may be summed up as
having shown four stages of progres
sive development :
First. "Yellow journalism and hys
teria.
Second. "Revenge and elemental fer
ocity.
Third. Militarism and pride of power.
Fourth. "Ambition , greed and ignor
ance. "
In February I made the following ob
servations as to the effects of war in a
tropical country upon American sol
diers :
"When the government of the United
States despatches shipload after ship
load of unacclimated young men to the
everglades and jungles of tropical
swamps , whether in the East Indies or
West Indies , it is consigning the flower
of American youth to unimaginable
suffering , and too often alas ! to hapless
and inglorious death. " And I added :
"Do you think this overdrawn ? Do
you think this is an extreme view of the
case ? Let me quote a sketch by an eye
witness , a well-known New York
writer , of the embarking of sick and
wounded soldiers on board a transport
hospital ship homeward bound :
"That day strange figures began to
mount the sides of the ship , and to oc
cupy its every turn and angle of space.
Some of them fell on their knees and
slapped the bare deck with their hands ,
and laughed and cried out 'Thank God.
I'll see God's country again. ' Some of
the men were regulars , bound in ban
dages ; some were volunteers , dirty and
hollow-eyed , with long beards on boys'
faces. Some came on crutches ; others
with their arms around the shoulders of
their comrades staring ahead of them
with a fixed smile , their lips drawn and
their teeth protuding. At every second
step they stumbled , and the face of each
man was swept by swift ripples of pain.
They lay on cots so close together that
the nurses could not walk between
them. They lay on the wet decks , in
the scuppers , and along the skylights
and hatches. They were like ship
wrecked mariners clinging to a raft , and
they asked for nothing more than
that the ship's bow be turned toward
homo. "
It is interesting to remember that the
Paris peace commission , that aggrega
tion of American wisdom , decided in its
combined sagacity that an army of five
thousand men would bo ample to con
trol the Philippines. General Lawton
said recently , after his very creditable
experience in the field , that 100,000 men
will be required to hold and pacify the
Philippines , or more than four times the
strength of our old army. In addition
we will need from 25,000 to 60,000 in
this country , Porto Rico and Cuba. ( It
is assumed that Cuba is to be annexed ,
since our patent laws have already been
extended to that island by the assistant
secretary of war. )
The latest statistics on the subject ( by
Edw. W. Harden ) allege that the total
exports of the Philippine islands are
$41,000,000 ( Mexican dollar currency )
per annum ; or , pay , $20,000,000 gold ,
United States currency. We know that
an army of 28,000 men costs us yearly
not less than $23,000,000 in the United
States. One hundred thousand men in
the Philippines will cost us over six
times as much , owing to the expense of
transporting supplies , etc. , or , say $140-
000,000 per year.
Now where is the profit to come in
the profit to the American taxpayer
the American workiugman ? With an
outlay seven times as great as the entire -
tire commerce of the islands , where are
we to recoup ourselves ? For Colonel
Denby has said that we have taken the
islands for considerations of profit solely.
The commerce of the islands , even were
it all profit , does not come anywhere
near the cost of the "keep" of our sol-
dieis , and anyway their entire com
merce goes to other nations than the
United States. The cost of maintain
ing an army of 05,000 men in the islands
is now some $5,000,000 a mouth , or $ GO-
000,000 per year ; and in the same ratio
for one of 100,000 men the cost to Uncle
Sam for the same period would bo over
$170,000,000.
Just when will the ledger balance ?
And if the opinion of the officers of the
"Raleigh" and other government offi
cials should turn out to be correct , the
army will have to bo further increased
to 150,000 , in which event the cost
would jump to $255,000,000 per annum
an expensive luxury. And the Amer
ican taxpayer will have to foot the bills
they never can be collected from the
islanders. And besides we have paid
$20,000,000 spot cash for the bargain ,
too ! our title to which is so astonish
ingly clouded. Has Uncle Sam fallen
into the hands of the Philistines ?
In this connection I may mention that
in the San Francisco press of June 22 ,
appeared the following :
"In the matter of bodily losses wo are
told that C04 men have been Mlled , and
0,500 wounded and invalided. " And ,
An army officer returned from Manila
made the astonishing statement today
that eighty per cent of the soldiers in
the Philippines will get pensions for
dysentery and other intestinal com
plaints. "
And another officer , referred to as of
high rank , and well qualified to speak ,
asserted , in substance , that the war in
the Philippines is costing the govern
ment at the present time at the rate of
$8,000,000 per month. The cost mounts
steadily higher and higher , mouth by
month , as the carnival of death and de
struction goes on. Bear in mind that
here we are only considering dollars.
Human life is cheap ! Our care is wholly
for pelf. Commissioner Deuby has said
it , in regard to this precious scheme of
"Benevolent Assimilation. "
The outcome of the last six mouths'
operations was foretold by Spanish of
ficers , who said , "The Americans will
win the battles , but the Filipinos will
win the campaign , " and this is con
firmed by the admission of such officers
as General Greene , General Reeve ,
General Lawtou , General King , General
Hall , Fleet Engineer Ford , Captain
Clay , Captain McQueston , and others
too numerous to mention. For partic
ulars see San Francisco press of Juno 22.
In April I averred : "All that this
country can possibly acquire ( as a re
sult of expansion in the Philippines ) is
perplexing responsibility , continued un
rest and tumult , and liability to con
stant altercation and even warfare.
As against this there is not one single
redeeming feature , moral , commercial
or otherwise. In fact , to say nothing of
the enormities of the last two mouths'
occurrences , the whole scheme is a wild
goose chase of the most idiotic kind.
From my standpoint no more insane ca
price than this fad of colonial expansion
into Oriental tropical islands has ever
before possessed our people. The old
delusions and follies of the past , John
Law's Money , the Mississippi bubble ,
the South Sea islands scheme , the mul
berry culture , the blue gross mania , and
the free silver craze seem all combined
in this last spasm of political delirium
tromons. "
As to the present status , and in con
clusion I will use the language of Col.
