The Irish standard., 1900-08-11
WOULD STOP THE BLooDshEb FIRST
Filipinos Know How the Indians
We're Exterminated
on THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT
U. S. Citizens Have No Friends in
the Island of Luzon.

The following letter OF John Alfred
Averitt, volunteer soldier from the
Philippines, recently appeared in the
Washington Post:
1t is about time now that the Ameri-
can people wake up to the fact that
lingo applause and the hosting OF the
f1ag does not alter the nature of Io,ooo,-
600 OF people, nor sanctify crime. l
have seen a Spanish master beat his
servant for some persistence; beat him
again; then, when shame compelled him
to let the poor, bloody wretch rise, he
would, with the camcst sang froid start
in in his mighty unhastc to do exactly
what he was first beaten for. All the
sophistrics of imperialistic land greed
cannot alter this truth; any disintercsted
foreigner will tell you that this is alb
solutely the Tagal's chief characteristic.
There is but one alternative to keeping
huge standing army in the Philippines,
and that is the un- Christian and horrible
one OF the determination Of these pa
ticnt people.
Our enemies there, the Spanards, the
French, and especially the Germans.
who, by the way, have the entire faith
OF the people, have told them that while
we pretend to protect Our aborigincs.
we negatively cxterminatc them" They
believe this, and no logic or sophistry
can explain away to them the fact that
our North American Indian has about
totally vanished at our civilizing touch,
and naturally, very naturally, this pleas
ing vista for them and their sons sons
fails to inctc confidence in our CALLING
benevolent assimilation. Often have
they said to me: "Otller European
peoples live with their conquered ma
tive peoples, intcrmarry and prosper.
Only you Americans and English An.
glo-Saxons cxtcrminatc those whom
you convert and civilize." Then they
would quote to me the United States,
New Zealand, Australia etc, saying
naturally that they preferred their own
misgovcrnment (or they might endure
| that and live) to the chance TO join the
| North American red man, the Maori
and the Australian black in the pale
realms of shade How fallacious their
reasoning may be | leave as a moot
question between your readers and his
tory. 1t will take fifty years OF 10000
men to eradicate this belief, or them.
Again, is the game worth the candle?
Natural climatic conditions issue their
| ukase in declaring that our great work
ing-common-pcoplc may not labor
| and live in their latitudcs That the
country is as rich as any on earth we all
know. Judas 80 pieces OF silver were
sterling coin. Shall we make the names
Of our grandsircs mock for coming
generations? You may say this is SEN
timcnt. Aye, thank God, so it is, and
it is sentiment that keeps our young
men from dishonor and our wives and
daughters from brothcls, where money
may be earned. There is one fact that
no sophistry may controvcrt, and that
is this: The possession OF the Philip
pines from natural causes must make
our rich richer and our poor poorer.
Luxury is ever the avcnger Of the poor.
Does not oh, my countrymen, the
sccthng unrest OF our workingmcn
mean anything to you? Did history
ever show an example of the banded
rich growing modest in their grasp and
desires? Is not this brave, huge, brutal
machine of an army we are so proud OF
liable to become two-cdgcd sword in
the hands OF ruthless men bent on scrv-
ing selfish interests?
Emilio Aguinaldo is to the people OF
the Philippine Islands what George
Washington was to us, their ragged tu-
lisancs what our barefoot colonials OF
Valley Forge were to our grandsires OF
'76. That from their point of view they
are heroes none but fool Or an inter
csted militariat may doubt. They are
ignorant? Yes! Treacherous? Yes!
They rob and steal to live, now that we
have made it impossible for them to
live otherwise and fight honestly. Did
you ever ask any honest American SOL
dier returned from the Philippines. pri-
yately, if he eversaw any looting down