The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-10
THE GENTLE ART OF WAR.

Dispatches from the Philippines and South Africa have brought us much il- luminatine information these last few days as to the manner in which the lordly Anglo-SaXon conducts himself when embarked upon a war against what he considers an inferior race. In South Africa Lord Kitchener has been forced to end the miserable existence of two Australian officers who amused themselves by killing clergymen, wo- men and children, and even their own men. To- day We have the statement of De La Key, the humane and able cap tor of Lord Methuen, that the British have not only used Boer women as shields but have wantonly killed oth- CTS, whose names are given. De La Keys own wife, it Is said, has been wandering over the veldt with her six children for six months, as a result of the orders of the very Lord Methuen whom her husband treated so hand somely.
 In Manila, the American officer who tortured Filiplnos by giving them only salt fish ito eat and no water to drink,
  in jail for vulgar embezzlement. In the same place Major l.. w. T. Waller of the United States marines, an officer of tWenty-two years service, with hith- erto unblemished reputation, has been on trial for three weeks on the charge of numbering in cold blood no less than eleven natives. One of these unfortu- mates was publicly shot in different parts of his body on three successive days while tied to a tree, and was not put out of his misery until the fourth day of his agony had dawned-this in the name of civilization and of the Uni ted States, There has been no denial on the part of the accused of the cor rectness of these charges but merely an effort to justify them by the orders of the general commanding in Samar, Ja- cob H. Smith Although General Smith denies that he gave the orders in ques- ton, Major Waller to-day reiterates his testimony on this point, and adds cor rohorative details We print in anoth er column a letter from an American civilian of standing and reputation now in Manila, for whose integrity the Evening Post vouches, and whose rect tai of atrocities cannot fail to stir deeply every true American who reads it. Finally. in Washington. yesterday, the Secretary of War was severely crit icised for withholding the report of an American governor of a Philippine province. said to be a major In the army, whose grave charges against the troops in his district have already been referred to by General Miles.
 We do not recite this shameful record of a week or two of imperialism in or der to bring the particular soldiers of one nation or another into merited ob- loquy. We are satisfied of our own knowledge that there are many officers in the American army who feel deeply the shame of such happenings as have been cited, and who would never lift q finger to infiict the water-cure tort ure or any other illegal punishment. But what we would call attention to again Is the inevitable demoralization which attends every war, and particularly ev- cry war against men of another civili- "a tion or of another skin So frail is human nature that whenever one man obtains absolute control over others he must be watched to prevent his abusing his powers. When those powers are fin he hands of man legally commits stoned to burn, ravage and kill, and free To resort to almost any measures to achieve his ends, the chances are alto 1 ,ether that humanity will be crowded l 70 the wall or forgotten.
 How true this is, every war bet ween | he white man and the brown goes to | show. Mortified as England was at the errors of the Indian munity, at the | ,rightful fate of women and children at !