The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-05-02
ISSUES AND THE CONDUCT OF SOL
DIERS.

n man Will a. PAopbCNN 49, HAShN
undertake to taretell the precise issues
in 1904. But for common mortals that
forecast with certainty is denied alto
gether. People laok wise and tell what
is to be, but they are simply guessing.
OF course men who watch the debates
in the congress and read closely news
papers may see enough to feel assured
as to certain issues being pressed in
1904. But notifications may come and
even unexpected issues may come 10
the front by June next two years. Al
present h more prominent. deter
mined issues seem to be the tariff, the
trusts that Cypress the people. and the
wal that has been waged against the
Filipinos. The republicans may change
the tariff in some grievous particulars,
and the administration may so wage a
vigorous war against the trusts as TO
break TO some extent the present as
sertive force, but those things may not
come. Then the republicans are much
inclined to defend the outrages in the
Philippines AMI to stand by the men
III uLlllOIIl II wage -"d DIS Ink
devils. The Washington correspondent
of the Chicago Record-Herald, an in
dependent newspaper somewhat, gives
a conversation with "a western repre-
sentative who has just returned from
his district" in which he says:
In my part Of the country the peo-
pie are talking about one subject-the
trIIc nn6 tho t1riff Tho vnr1a nnd
children are talking it, and 1 am afraid
we are going to have an 1890 campaign
oVer again. My people are nothing
about this Philippine howl. They stand
by the army. They say our soldiers
are doing the best they "a in a hard
job. n that s enough"
When the republicans in general con-
vention undertake to defend Weylerism
under the American flag Chat drove
this country into a var with SPAIN
and to justly the diabolism of the SOL
diers, Who have prosecuted, outraged,
slaughtered men and women and chill
dren. they will find they have placed
upon themselves a burden that will
break their backs. The Chicago paper
by way of upon the above
opinion of the western republican, says
that it would be interesting to know
how long it is since this western repre-
sentative visited his district. Surely It
cannot ave been since the publication
of the report of Colonel Gardener and
of the Waller court-martial have sent
a shudder of apprehension and amaze
ment throughout the country"
1t is pertinent to appeal to Repre-
sentative Joseph c. Sib1ey, of PennsyI-
vania, a very staunch republican and
supporter of the Roosevelt administra-
ton, as to the conduct of Gen. Jake
Smith. He fiayed him alive in the
house on Monday. He said he was a
disgrace to the army and should be
dismissed. Among other things he
said, and he is an extreme expansion
list:
But when have read, as I have
within he past forty-eight hours, that
a general wearing the uniform of the
army of the United States, one who
stands under the shadow of our flag,
issues orders, not to conciliate a pro-
vince, but to leave it a bowling wilder
ness n to kill all above ten years Of
age then it seems to me that humanity
must have marched backward for eigh-
teen centuries and that Herod again
appears.
81 have read Of Timour, the Tartar,
/ have read of Achilles. / have read of
the Saracen scourge, but I thank God
that since the tragic scene on Calvary,
it has taken eighteen centuries to pro-
duce a Smith. l rave read of the water
ntrr : -
Can any man whose blood bounds in
his pulses, any man who has read his
Bible, or who has been reared at the
knee of a Christian woman, justify the
preparation of such crueltieS upon an
other man who wears the guiSe and the
image of his C~reator?"
He called upon the president to turn
him out at once. So it is not possible
now to tell precisely what will be the
issues presented IN the important cam
paign two years hence. There will be
more than two or three issues. There
are questions that will loom that will
look to economy in expenditures, the
preservation of the threatened liber-
ties of the people, the steady encroach-
ments of the money power, the usur
pations of the supreme court, TIE
tyranny of party rule in the house OF
representatives, the widening of sena-
torial prerogative and so on. And this
is true for all time. The Chicago pa.
per makes a remark replying to that
western justifier Of crueltfes n bar
barities in saying that the conduct OF
the war in the Philippines will be a
decisive factor III the campaign of 1901
unless in the meantime its inhumanity
is disproved. or those accountable fol
any atrocities nave beer summar!ly
dealt with.
The American people are not ye'
such baroarians us to condone barbara
methods in war by whomsoever prac,
ticed, whether by a Smith or a Sheridan
or a Sherman. There is hope for &
country SO long as it preserves its fire,
institutions and defends them bravel,
against stealthy assaults, and is con
trolled by a proper sense of human
right and SuHfarinpc and a raSolrf