Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1902-05-14

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Dr. Schurman, president of the first
Philippine Commission, published a
strong article in the May Independent
criticising the ADMINISTRATORS Phil.
ippine policy. He concludes as fol-
lows.
Let us now dismiss the Mohammed-
ans and their heather neighbors in
the southern islands and turn to the
island of Samar, in the Visayan group
and to the province of Batangas In the
island of Luzon. These people, remem-
ber, are not savages or 'injuns" or bar.
barians. They are civilized Chris
tians. and in the province of Batan-
gas. which lies just south of Manila,
the people, who are quite prosperous,
are above the average of Filipinos
in education and refinement. Samar
and Batangas were the last active
centers of the insurrection, which is
now completely quelled according to
our official reports. 1t is here, If we
may believe official dispatches as well
as telegraphic news, that some of our
military authorities have practiced
Weyler's system of reconcentration, re-
sorted to oriental methods of torture,
turned happy homes into bowling
wilderness, and not only killed non
combatants, but murdered boys over
10 years of age.
| state the alleged facts without
either exaggeration or palliation.
Would to heaven they were only a tis-
sue Of devilish inventions! But too
much has already been admitted to
leave any hope of appreciabe abate.
ment of the horror and the anguish
which have wrung the hearts of the
American people. War is hell indeed,
and In sense we have scarcely dream.
ed Of. remember (alas, the pity of IT,
at the beginning of hostilt!es in the
Philippines, seeing cities where tho,ls.
ands of people dwelt together in peace
and prosperity utterly destroyed: but
there was no murder, there was no tor.
ture; there may have been even good
military excuse, or the insurgents
themselves may have lighted the first
lncendiary torch and in all cases the
lives of non-combatants were sacred
and insurgent soldiers taken prisoners
We're well cared for in our prisons or
tenderly nursed in our hospitals. But.
as the greatest observer of human ma
ture has recorded, the hand Is subdued
to what 1t works in; and for our three
years of hostility in the Philippines
the inevitable Nemesis now confronts
us. This Is world where effect in
exorably follows cause. You cannot
have war without inhumanity, and the
practice Of inbnmanty deadens and
brutalizes character. When II Is u
race war. particularly war of Anglo
white mans moral deterioration is fa-
cilitated by contempt, by arrogance
and by injustice. Most truly was it
said in 1903 that the question was not
what shall we do with the Philippines,
but what will the Philippines do with
us?
This question we are now seeing an.
swered. On the other side of the
globe, irritated by bad climate, CON
fronted by great difficulties and ex-
posed to great temptations without
the home restraints that kept men
steady, CALLED and exasperated by the
Vaccinations of an elusive foe, whose
color and stature make 1t impossible
| for the Anglo-SaXon to treat him with
respect, some Americans at least have
been guilty of conduct which evokes
the horror and detestation of man.
| kind. But II our cheeks burn with
patriotic shame and our hearts culver
with moral indignation. let the bolt
strike not only the unhappy individuals
but the system and policy of which
they have been the victims.
What | ask, do you want in the
Philippines More particularly, why
IN any part OF Luzon and
the Nisayan islands are you making n
bowling wilderness and killing chill.
drcn over ten years of age? 1t will
he said that these are the unhappy in.
cidents of war; which is always Il stern
affair. very different from the holiday.
making into which civilians would turn
1t, BE 1t so. Why, then. are We max.
Ing war? Here are 6,50O,0OO fellow.