The age-herald., 1902-05-16
Washington Day by Day


 tive Democratic leaders, those who have grown old in the service of the party. and those to whom common sense teaches the rules of wisdom, that the acrimonious dis
 cussion of the Philippines question has perhaps already gone too far. Therefore, there is an agreement amongst the wiser
 ones of the party in the Senate and the
 House, to be less violent and to close
 the debate as soon as 1t may be properly
 done.
 There are two sides to every question. Each side in this unhappy controversy has become too bitter for wise legisla- | ton. Unfortunately, the more hot headed
 Senators and Representatives of the Dem-
 ocratic party have made the grave mis-
 take of assailing the army in the Phil" | ippines. Instead of calmly criticising such
 acts of the administration in Washington
 and certain generals in the Philippines,
 they have fallen Into the hurtful error
 of assailing the army as the army forget | full of the fact that the soldiers supreme duty Is to obey.
 1 There cannot be any reasonable doubt
 that the Filipinos have given our soldiers
 the greatest possible provocation. cer- tain distinguished cavalry officer who won fame in the Philippines tells me that
 upon one occasion he found six Ameri- can soldiers buried alive that is to say, buried until only their heads were ex- posed. When this officer discovered his
 comrades of the army, they were In | dying condition. He rescued them, ana | preserved the lives of five of them, the sixth man dying from the tortures to
 which he had been subjected. The officer
 determined that, if possible, he would dis
 cover the perpetrators of this inhuman
 violation of the laws of war At the
 end of days march, his command went
 into encampment and the officer nlm- | self, taking his l.rd gun, went out TOT
 a stroll in hopes of killing some jack | snipe for his supper. He took no dog; | of course he had no dog to take and
 after getting away from the camp ne
 walked as carefully and as noiselessly as
 possible. Before he found a bird to shoot
 he discovered. lying in the grass within
 twenty feet of him. Filipino insurrecto. This Filipino was intently observing the
 American camp which lay few hundred yards distant and perhaps a hundred | feet below the level of where he lay, The officer cooked his fowling piece, | and, covering the Filipino, commanded
 him to rise and drop his gun. The Filipino obeyed; he was then commanded by the officer to walk before him to the
 camp. Arrived at the camp, the officer placed the Filipino into the custody of his chief scout. The scout asked the officer for instructions as to what should be done with this Filipino.
 "Take him and find out the location of
 the men who buried the six soldiers alive"
 "How shall I do so?' asked the scout
 "As you will" replied the officer, as he retired to his own tent.
 By and by the scout approached the
 officer and informed him that not only
 had he found the whereabouts of the
 men who buried the American soldiers alive, but that he had actually secured the names and descriptions of the men who had done the work.
 As soon as the officer and his men had refreshed themselves, they began their march to the place where the enemy was in camp. To make long story brief, the Americans captured the company of insurrectos, succeeded in identifying the men who burned the six Americans, and shot them on the spot, there being no
 
 The officer who is here quoted is a man whose word has never yet been doubted, and whose courage Is the pride Of the army He related numerous other cir cumstances of inhuman barbarity on the part of the Filipinoes toward our sold iers, including the murder of Americans | and nameless butchery Being asked what means the scout took to force the truth from the captured Filipino, the of | fcer replied that he did not know; he presumed that 1t was another case of | the water cure" Being further asked as to the water cure" the officer said that 1t was not so painful as many of the devices used | by the police in this country to compel | prisoners to disclose facts required in the | execution of the law. The water cure' | is merely the filling of the stomach with cold water, and its effect upon the ignor- ant mind is to cause great fright; the | FiIipinos. for example, fearing that their bodies will burst from the excess of water forced into them. There Is no real danger to life when the water cure" is | inflicted as 1t Is readily emptied from the stomach through the mouth. Still 1t is terribly Frightening to the ignorant. and, in fact, is painful to all persons subjected | to it.
 Thus, according to this officer of dis | tinguished courage and wise knowledge, who is a West Pointer of more than twenty years standing, the water cure" | is mildness itself compared with what the
 American public has been taught to be- | lieve it to be- The very term water cure" is spoken with horror by multi | tude of people in this country, simply be- cause they don't know anything about It. It isn't half as bad, for example, as swing l ing up by the thumbs, or buckingr and gagging, so commonly practiced through | out this country on recalcitrant witnesses and criminals.
 But the occupation of the Philippines having been unhappily made a party issue the conservative leaders of the