The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-12-16
"THE DEATH HOUSE NEVER
EMPTY"

Philippines the American troops there
are in deplorable condition and it is
small wonder that the officers and men
are almost unanimous in their opposition
to retention of the islands and that mem
bers of Congress are deluged with letters
from the families of volunteers who are
at Manila.
The New York Herald correspondent
writes his paper as follows:
MANILA, Oct. %, (via San Francisco,
Dee. 13.)--Nearly a thousand soldiers are
seriously i'll in the hospitals. while twice
that number are walking around unfit for
active service.
about twenty patients are in the
smallpox tents. These tents are any
thing but pleasant places for the suffer
ers. They stand in an open squire IN
the central part of the new city. No
shade protects them from the fierce heat
of the midday sun, nor is there any floor
ing to keep out the water when it rains.
In consequence the heat is we'll nigh
unbearable and the atmosphere sitting.
On q stormy day water runs in and
oyerhows the ground, turning the dirt of
the floors into a slushy bed of mud two
inches deep. in which the cots of the pa
tients stand
A Red Cross nurse, returned to Homo
lulu from Manila, declares that the hos
uitals are full of sick soldiers with no.
body but awkward boys to attend to
them. that officers ''squabble over prece-
dence in rank while the men are neglect
cd. that five cents a day for each pa
tent judiciously expended would save
hundreds of lives" and adds: 'the mum
Der of deaths are seven or eight per
day. The death house is never empty.
This is not very encouraging out
look for the future of expansion in the
Philippines. Seven deaths per day means
$500 soldiers graves every year. Ii the
death rate is seven per day when the
soldiers are all stationed at Manila,
where facilities for caring for them are
certainly better than elsewhere on the
islands. and when no collision with the
insurgents has occurred, it is safe to say
that the death rate will not be lower
when instructions begin or when our
forces are scattered in smaller camps
with poorer advantages than at Manila.
That instructions are expected TO occur
is shown by the demand of officers now
at Manila for $4,000 troops and that they
are probable is shown by the defiant at
titude of Aguinaldo and his savage al
herents.
In his evidence before the House COM
mittee General Corbin admitted that no
one can foresee the time when less
than $4,000 men will lie needed i'll the
Philippines. All authorities are agree.
that the islands are practically uninhabi-
table for Americans, and climate does not
yield even TO destiny" There is no
reason to expect that. the Philippines will
ever reach the condition that obtains in
Hawaii, where the natives are controlled
by resident Americans. q
We are called upon to face, therefore,
an indefinite prolongation of military rule
over the Filipinos in climate where our
soldiers die, off like, flies, even when the
treacherous< and, m1irderous natives arc
not in open revolt and when lives are
not being sacrificed in battles in the bush.
Meantime the pension rolls will be grow
ing and the military budget expanding"
from year TO year.
If our soldiers are 10 be sacrificed ~
an indefinite attempt tolenforce our rule
4
OVER q people WAC do not want tit and
who will give no return but blows for It,
let it be doue openly and avowedly, in the
name of might and for the sake Of con-
quest and not with any hypocritieal cant
Of duty and humanity" on the lips.