anila, and in some of those along
the Pasig River.

General Otis watched our operations and their results narrowly, and
was sufficiently well pleased with the latter to order General Kobbe
to follow a similar course in various towns on or near the railroad
north of Manila. Kobbe did not profess to know much about municipal
government, and asked me to go with him and help until he got the
hang of the thing, which I did.

Thus it happened that the first Philippine Commission had a sort of
left-handed interest in the first municipal governments established
in the islands under American rule.

In his endeavour to show that the Commission interfered with military
operations, Blount has ascribed certain statements to Major Starr. He
says: " ... at San Isidro on or about November 8, Major Starr said:
'We took this town last spring,' stating how much our loss had been in
so doing, 'but partly as a result of the Schurman commission parleying
with the Insurgents, General Otis had us fall back. We have just had
to take it again.'" [454]

If Major Starr ever made such a statement he was sadly
misinformed. General Lawton was the best friend I ever had in the
United States Army. I saw him almost daily when he was in Manila,
and he showed me the whole telegraphic correspondence which passed
between him and General Otis on the subject of the withdrawal from
San Isidro and Nueva Ecija, which was certainly one of the most
ill advised moves that any military commander was ever compelled to
make. General Lawton's unremitting attacks had absolutely demoralized
the Insurgent force, and my information is that when he finally
turned back, Aguinaldo and several members of his cabinet were
waiting, ten miles away, to surrender to him when he next advanced,
believing that they could never escape from him. I have not the
telegraphic correspondence before me, but I remember its salient
features. Otis ordered Lawton to withdraw, and Lawton, convinced of
the inadvisability of the measure, objected. Otis replied that, with
the rainy season coming on, he could neither provision him nor furnish
him ammunition. Lawton answered that he had provisions enough to last
three weeks and ammunition enough to finish the war, whereupon Otis
peremptorily ordered him to withdraw. The Philippine Commission had
no more to do with this matter than they had to do with the similar
order against advancing which Otis sent Lawton on the day the latter
won the Zapote R