Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1901-04-04
IN THE PHILIPPINES
Report of Geo. Kenno~
in the "Out1Or' Z.
UNFLATTr'
.cRING SITUATION.
Special Commissioner Finds Affairs in
the Islands Anything but Compli-
nentary to the Government-Wey-
Ter Methods to be Adopted.

In the work of George KEENAN,, the
famous investigator Of Russian modes OF
governmental "benevolence," whom the
Outlook commissioned to write up the
Philippine question, the Outlook man.
agement must have suffered some from
a sense OF disappointment. Although it
placed Mr.. KEENAN, in journalistic
straightforward, it could not wholly sup
press the terrible truth about the Philip
pines.
In his paper on present conditions and
possible courses of action in the archi-
pelago, published in the Outlook on
March 8, Mr.. KEENAN, was restricted, it
seems, 'to plans and suggestions based
OH the existing state OF affairs, without
reference to the manner in which such
state of affairs has been brought about. ="
For religious paper, those were, under
the circumstances, rather worldly in
structions. They rendered it, as Mr..
KEENAN, writes, unnecessary, if not i'm
possible, to treat the subject fully from
the ethical point of view." For, as he
adds, and as ought to be obvious, -four
duty, and consequently our proper policy.
depend very largely upon the morality
and justice of the acts by which, histor-
ically, the existing situation has been
created" Restricted thus by his in
structions, Mr.. KEENAN, refrains from
dealing with the question of the moral
and legal validity of the American title
to the Philippines; but his views OF the
situation even as it is are not reassuring
either to the American conscience or to
American expectations.
TO begin with, Mr.. KEENAN, finds that
we must stay in the Philippines, and
must exercise there the powers of gov
ernment-with emphasis upon "must"-
for a term Of years, at a cost to us OF
"perhaps, some thousands of lives and
tens of millions of dollars" His estimate
of the army needed for this purpose and
this indefinite period is from $4,000 to
10000 men. 1t is with reference, how
ever, to that behavior of our government
which has turned our one-time Filipino
friends into implacable foes that Mr..
Remnants paper is most suggestive. At
the same time it is shocking. To quote
him:
"We have offered them many verbal
assurances Of benevolent intention; but,
at the same time, we have killed their
unresisting wounded; we hold 1900 or
1900 of them in prison; we have estab-
lished at Guam penal colony for their
leaders; and we are now resorting, di-
rectly or indirectly, to old Spanish in
quisitorial methods, such as the water
TORTURE in order to compel silent pris-
oners to speak or reluctant witnesses to
testify. That the present generation of
Filipinos will forget these things is hardly
to be expected. 1t is painful
and humiliating to have to confess that
in some of our dealings with the Filipinos
we seem to be following more or less
closely the example Of Spain. We have
established penal colony; we burn
native villages near which there has been
an ambush or an attack by insurgent
guerrillas; we kill the wounded; we re-
sort to torture as means of obtaining
information; and in private letters from
two officers of the regular army in the
Philippines l find the prediction that in
certain provinces we shall probably have
to resort to the method of Recommendation
practiced by Gen. Weyler in Cuba"
WAR; perhaps, lis hell, as Gen.
Sherman said," comments Mr.. KEENAN,;
"but it need not be hell with Spanish
improvements" These quotations, let
it be remembered, are published in an
imperialist magazine from the pen of its
own chosen commissioner. Are Ameri-
cans yet ashamed of the Philippine
situation? Or have they got piously
used to it?