The Irish standard., 1899-06-10
TALES FROM THE PHILIPPINES.

The Chicago Times-Herald recently
published a communication from Com
missioner Worcester denying that any
atrocities have been committed by
American soldiers on non-combatants in
the Philippines. The organ of Mr.. Nc
Kinley calls upon the papers which
printed an account OF the barbarities re-
lated in letters to make retraction in
stanter, now that Worcester has spoken.
1t declares that the "apocryphal letters
emanated from Hongkong Or from the
fever-smitten brains of homesick boys,
and that they did not contain one grain
OF truth to whole reams OF as horrible
falsehood as ever de6led paper" This
it boldly says on the unsubstantiated tes-
timony Of McKinley's peace commits
sioner at Manila.
The Irish Standard would be quite
willing to believe that American soldiers
| fighting under the stars and stripes have
not brought themselves to the low level
OF the British soldiers in Africa and
India; but despite the denial OF Prof
Worcester, who evidently tells what he
has been told by Otis and his military
subordinates, there is reason to believe
that many crimes have been committed
that reflect no credit on this country.
The young men who wrote private let
tiers to their families and friends from
the Philippines are more entitled to Gre
dence than is any of McKinley's COM
missioners or the Chicago advocate OF
benevolent assimilation" The Ameri-
can soldiers in the Philippines would
not be likely to tell OF the murder of
prisoners and the slaughter of women
and children if such outrages had not
taken place with the cognizance of the
military authorities. 1t is only few
weeks ago (May 24) that Prof. w. G.
Hale, one of the leading educators OF
Chicago, sent the Times Herald for pub
LEGATION several extracts from soldiers
letters that were printed in different
papers of the United States. Among
them were the following, all in Repub-
lican papers:
Charles N. Bremen, company M, goth
Kansas regiment, to his father, residing
at Bennington, Kan, twelve miles from
Minneapolis, Kan. Letter printed in
April, in the Minneapolis Messenger:
"Then occurred the hardest sight I
ever saw. They had four prisoners and
didn't know what to do with them.
They asked Captain Bishop what to do
and he said, You know the orders,
and four natives fell dead"
F. L. Poindcxter, OF the Second Ore
gon, Portland Oregonian, May 4. The
letter is dated March 20:
| "About dark, before company DIS re-
turn, Colonel Summers rode over to
General Wheaton's headquarters. Short
ly after reaching there reports, which
afterward proved to be somewhat ex-
aggerated, came in that two companies
Of the 22nd infantry had been literally
cut to pieces, having fallen into an am
bush. After hasty consultation it was
decided to proceed at once to kill or
drive into the lake every native possible
to be found in the half-moon shaped dis
trict lying between the mouth of the
| Mateo river and the farther end of the
lake, a distance OF twelve miles"
Robert D. Maxwell, Co. A. Twentieth
Kansas, wrote the following which was
published in the Omaha Bee of May 7:
Sometimes we stopped to make sure
native was dead and not lying down
to escape injury. Some OF them would
fall as dead and after we had passed
would climb tree and shoot every SOL
dier that passed that way. Even the
wounded would rise up and shoot after
we passed. This led to an order to take
no prisoners, but to shoot all"
Rev. Charles F. Dole, of Jamaica
Plain, Mass, published in the Boston
Transcript OF April IS letter from a
soldier saying in part: Il don't think
| would miss the truth much if said
more noncombatants have been killed
than native soldiers. l don't believe the
people in the United States understand
the question, or the condition OF things
here, or the inhuman warfare now being
carried on. Talk about Spanish cruelty
They are not in it with the Yank. Even
the Spanish are shocked. OF course, |
don't expect to have war without death
and destruction, but 1 do expect that
when an enemy gets down on his knees
and begs for his life that he won't be
shot in cold blood. But it is a fact that
the order was not to take any prisoners
and have seen enough to almost make
me ashamed to call myself an Ameri-
can"
In view Of these awful revelations ii
is no wonder that McKinley's Chicago
organ and his Philippine envoy stoutly
deny what the soldiers say in their let
tiers. When the boys return home and
are mustered out Mckinley may deem
it necessary to appoint another white.
washing board to vindicate his policy
in the Philippines from the odium cast
upon it by his generals in DISCRIMINATING
the natives. 1t is fortunate that Otis did
not intercept the letters of the volun-
| tcers and that the American DeoD1e are