The Irish standard., 1902-06-07
No Such Brilliant Speech Has Been Heard
in the Senate Chamber for
Twenty-Five Years.
The Policy of the United States in Cuba
is the Reverse of That in
the Philippines.

The following is the continuation of
Senator George II. Hears speech which
appeared in these columns last week:
Let us not hr diverted from the
true issue. We are not talking of
retaliation of the ordinary hr,rtalitirs
nf war. We are not talking about or in
uuiring into acts of vengeance commit
tod IN the heat of battle. We are talk
ing about torture. colal-hlOodrd,
deliberate. calculated torture; torture to
rXtort information. Cavcrhousc did it
to the Scotch CovrnantrS With the
boot and thumb screw. 1t has never
till now hcrn done by Il man who spoke
English except in Ireland. The Span
iSh inuuisiion did it with the slow fire
and the hoiling OIL 1t is said that the
water torture was borrowed from
Spain ! am quite ready to believe it.
The men who made the inquiry are
told that they are assHiling the honor
of the American army. How 90 the
defenders of the American army meet
tho question? by denying the fact?
no. BY saying that the offenders have
been detected and punished by military
power?
"Somc of these facts were reported
to the war department more than
wear ago. So far as I can find there
have been but two men tried for tor
tulr to rxtOrt information. They were
two officers who hung UP men by the
thumbs and they were found guilty.
The general officer who approved the
finding said that they had dislonoral
and degraded the American army and
then they were sent back to their com.
maml with Il rcprlmald,
Il agree Will, the senator from WIS
consin that the men who have stolrr
/ and committed assaults for the grati1i
cation of brutal iisis lave been pun
iSllcd and punished severely. But what
we are talking about is the torture com
mttcd in the presence Of numerous
witnesses for the purpose of eXtortinG
information and orders from high au
thority to tlrlnpulatc whole districts
ana to say all inhabitants, including
all boys over 10 years old.
as 1t denied that these things have
been done? Is it denied that, al
though you are still Oh the threshold
of this inquiry, ana have only called
such witnesses as you happen to fint
10000 miles away from the scene, that
these things have been proved to the
satisfaction of the majority of the com
mittcc, and that no man has yet beer
punished, although they were going
on considerably more than year ago:
Now, how do our friends who seek,
will not say to defend, but to cXtcnu
ate them, deal with the honor of tho
American army? Why, they come into
the senate and say that there have
been other crucltics and barbaritics an(
atrocities in war.
"Nhcn these American soldiers ari
officers are called to the bar OIL
friends summon Nero and Torquemad;
and the Spanish inquisition and thu
shectcd and ghOstly leaders Of the III
I<lux Klan and put them by their side
That is the way you defend the honol
OF the American army. 1t is the frs
time the American soldier was put int
such company by the men who have
undertaken his defense.
"Whcrc did this order to make Samal
Il bowling wilderness originate? Tht
responsibility unquestionably, accord
ing to the discipline Of armies in thu
field, rests with the highest authority
from which it come.
1--WE used to talk, some of us, about
the horrors of Andersonville and Other
things that were done during the Civil
war We hope. all of us, never to hear
them mentioned again. But is theN
anything in them worse than that
which an officer of high rank in the
army, vouched for by senator on
this floor, from personal knowledge, as q
man of the highest honor and veracity
writes about the evils Of these recon.
centrado camps in the Philippine Is
lands?