Manila, March 8.
Special newspaper despatches from Washington, together with messages from President Wilson and Secretary of War, Garrison, have broken the news to us that the famous Jones Bill is dead, but that it li be reintroduced when Congress meets next December and that the Democrats will then be in a position to guarantee it being passed by both Houses.
Needless to say, the smothering of the Bill has caused deep dissatis. faction among the people of the islands, the politicos being particularly angry. The native press, however, have taken the rebuff in a fairly philosophical spirit and have retrained from indulging in the emotional burst of language that one and all of us anticipated.
It is to be deeply regretted in more ways than one that the Senate failed to come to an understanding over the much debated preamble to the measure Had it not been for that stumbling block, the Bill would have been passed and the long drawn uncertainty from which we have been suffering 80 long, would have ended.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.