New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1900-08-04
FEW PRISONERS NOW BEING TAKEN
IN THE PHILIPPINES.
More Filipinos Killed by Americans than
Spaniards Destroyed in Two
RebelIiOns.

NR~s'sss SS DSS"Vy W J" W.
RebelliOns.
New York, July 26.-The Worlds Hong
Kong cable says:
While no proclamation has yet been is
sued declaring Filipinos in arms to be out
laws, the American troops are practicng
in spots in the Philippines policy beside
which bandit law is tame affair.
The administration has decided the re-
bellion must be "kept down." and in spite
of peace proclamations, our soldiers here
and there resort to horrible measures with
the natives.
Since the war was officially declared to
be ended, we have killed more Filipinos
than the Spaniards did in both rebellions.
Captains and lieutenants are sometimes
judges, sheriffs and executioners. If half
dozen natives, more or less, are shot on
suspicion of being our enemies, no news of
it ::reaches the Military Governor, who
wants none.
| Publicly we are granting amnesty to
prisoners. Publicly we are most liberal.
Instead of executing our bandits in public
plazas, in the presence of the people, we
execute them where they are caught.
That keeps the facts quiet-keeps the
| truth away from the people of the United
States, which is considered justifable, be-
cause they "cannot understand the situa-
tion and its necessities"
If many actual occurrences were literal
ly told, the people would refuse to believe
that such barbarities take place under our
flag
81 don't want any more prisoners sent
in to Manila" was verbal order from
the Governor General three months ago.
That is the message passed along from
the officers to the privates, and it has been
interpreted in several ways. In other
words. volunteer officers and men individ-
ually have been guilty of deeds which,
when committed in Cuba by the Spanards
so infiamed the American people, that
they went to war to set Cuba free.
Climate breeds fever for killing.
The tropical climate seems to breed
fever for carnage in the blood of some of
these men.
Some of them have not been the most
industrious members of society at home.
The exasperating work of chasing small
bands of ladrones leads them to shoot
recklessly sometimes innocent natives.
One of the first barbarities of this cam
paign was the treatment of the body of
Pho del Pillar. This young man command
ed the body guard which protected the re-
treat of Aguinaldo. He was of unusual
intelligence, and frequently said that
when the rebellion was over, and the Fill
pinos had won their independence, he was
going to Cornell University to study under
President Schurman. While defending q
pass with little body of his men, he was
wounded, but kept on directing the fight
until he was killed. Less than third of
his company escaped alive.
On his person we found a dairy on
which he had jotted down some notes even
while the fight was in progress.
"This is my last stand, and am going
to do my best" he wrote.
All the valuables on his body were taken
and he was stripped stark naked and left
a burial
Without any direct authority from Wash
ington, without any published orders call
ing for such conduct, it is now the custom
to avenge the death of an American SOL
der by burning to the ground all the
houses and killing right and left the ma
tives who are only suspects"
When Lieut. Kiefer was ambushed and
killed, we sought in vain for the insurrec-
tos who were responsible for his death,
the company rounded up number of un-
ruly inhabitants and shot them without
trial. The official report stated nothing of
this. 1t said, as official reports always do
when telling of such an instance, that the
enemy had been routed with great slaugh-
ter.
Col. Howe ingeniously wondered why
the natives did not return to their homes
in Albay and Legaspi. For three weeks
his pickets shot at every living thing that
came in range, whether or not it carried
arms.
To compel information as to where they
have secreted their arms, natives are often
strung up by their thumbs, or nooses are
put around their necks and they are par
TALLY strangled. In one instance where
this was tried, the native confessed that
rifles were hidden in certain house some
miles distant. The soldiers searched the |
house, but did not even find a bolo knife.
In the meantime, they had allowed the ma
tive to escape.