Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-06-05

from Cuba wounded or sick carry their
wounds and their pale faces as if they were
medals of honor. What soldier glories In a
in the Philippines?
sc. The conflict in the Philippines has cost
you $600.0O0,00. thousands of American SOL
diers-the flower of your ~youth-the health
and sanity of thousands more and hundreds
of thousands of Filipinos slain.
Another price We have paid as the result
of your practical craftsmanship. We have
sold out the right, the old American right.
to speak out the sympathy which is in our
hearts for people who are desolate and OPP
pressed everywhere on the face of the
earth.
81 read the other day in a Nebraska paper
a terrible story of the passage through
Omaha of a car load of maniacs from the
Philippine islands. That load of young
soldiers passed through that city, as other
like cargoes have passed through before.
maniacs and broke in mental health as the
result of service in the Philippine Islands.
Mr. President, every one of these
maniacs, every one of the many like
freights of horror that come back to us
from the Philippine Islands was once an
American boy, the delight of some Ameri-
can home, fairer and nobler in his young
promise, as WI like to think, than any
other the round world over. All, Mr.. Pres
ident, it was not $D,OGO,OO that We paid as
the price Of sovereignty. 1t was the souls
OF these boys of ours that entered into the
cost.
Censure for Funston.
II do not wish to dwell at length on the
circumstances which attended the capture
of Aguinaldo. But as they have been elab-
b~orately defended in this body, and it is said
that the officer who captured him had a
good record before, and especially as he has
been decorated by a promotion by the ad-
vice and consent of the senate, 1 cannot let
1t pass in silence.
Il understand the facts to be that that
officer disguised the men under his COM
mand in the dress Of Filipino soldiers;
wrote, or caused to be written, a forged let
ter to Aguinaldo, %purporting to come from
one of his officers, stating that he was about
to bring him some prisoners he had cap
tured, and in that way got access to Aguin-
aldo's headquarters. AS, he approached he
sent a message to Aguinaldo that he and his
friends were hungry; accepted the food at
his hands, and when in his presence threw
down and seized him; shot some of the SOL
diers who were about Aguinaldo and
brought him back a prisoner into our lines.
That is the transaction which is SO highly
%applauded in imperialistic quarters.
II do not believe that the senate knew
what it was doing when 1t consented to Gen.
Funston's promotion.
"Mr. President, we have two guides for
the conduct of military officers in such cir
cumstances. They apply not only to this
act of Gen. Funston, but they apply to most
of the conduct of our military officers OF
which complaint has been made. One of
these is instructions for the government Of
rmies of the United States in the field, pre-
pared by DIR. Francis Lieber and promul-
gated by order of Abraham Lincoln.
1.-THE other is the convention at The
Hague, agreed upon by the representatives
of this government with the others on the
10Th day of July, 1899, and ratified by the
senate on the 14th of March, 1902.
Infamy of FunstOn's Act.
$50, Mr.. President, the act of Gen. Fun
ston-not Gen. Funston himself if he acted
under orders of his superior-but the act of
Gen. Funston is stamped with indelible In
fanny by Abraham Lincoln's articles of war,
to which the secretary of war appeals, and
the concurrent action of "a nations and the
unanimous action of the senate this winter.
Mr.. President, in this attempt to force
your sovereignty by this process of beneV-
client assimilation we have been brought to
the unexampled dishonor of d~isregarding
our own rules for the conduct of armies in
the field and to disregard the rules to which
our national faith has just been pledged to
substantially all the civilized powers of the
earth.
But this act Of Gen. Funston's, APP
proved by his superior officer, was in viola
ton not only Of the laws of war, but of that
law of hospitality which governs alike
everywhere the civilized Christian or pagan
wherever the light of chivalry has pene-
trated. He went to Aguinaldo under the
p%retense that he was ~ahungered, and
Aguinaldo fed him. Was rot that an act
of pertidy? 1t violated the holy rite of hos
pitality, which even the oriental nations
hold sacred.
II Water Cure.
"Mr. President, the story Of what has been
called the water torture has been, in part,
told by other senator's. | have no inclination
to repeat the story. / cannot help believing
that not a twentieth part of it has yet been
told. l get letters in large numbers from Of
ticers, of the friends of officers, who repeat
what they tell me, all testifying to these
cruelties. And yet the officer, or the Of
GERS friends or kindred, who send these let
tiers to me send them under a strict injunc-
ton of secrecy. Other senators tell me they
nave a like experience. These brave Off
GERS. who would go to the lannon's mouth
for honor, who never finchIin battle, finch
before what they deem the certain ruin Of
their prospects in life if they give the evil
dence which they think would be distaste-
full to their superiors. l do not undertake
to judge of this matter. Other senators can
Judge as we'll as | can. The American peo-
pie can do it better.
"Mr. President, it is said that these hor-
rors, which never would have come to the
-..lJE I,a Iaj 900 H. 400, ~
dered this investigation, were unknown to
our authorities at home. | hope and be-
lieve they were unknown to the war depart
ment. l know they were unknown to Pres
ident Roosevelt, and | know they were I'M
known to President Mckinley. But l can
not think that the recent declaration of
that honorable gentleman, the secretary Of
war, made on a memorable occasion, that
the war on our part been conducted with
unexampled humanity, will be accepted by
his countrymen.
LET us not be diverted from the true is
sue. We are not talking of retaliation. We
are not talking Of the ordinary brutalitles
of war. We are not talking about or in
quiring into acts of vengeance committed
in the heat of battle. We are talking about
torture, torture-cold-b looded, deliberate,
calculated torture; torture to extort infor-
nation.
Is IL ueHleu tndl THESE tHllSS nave DeeH
done? Is 1t denied that although you are
| still on the threshold of this inquiry and
have only called such witnesses as you hap
pen to find 10000 miles away from the scene,
thai these things have been proved to the
satisfaction of the majority of the commit
tee, and that no man has yet been punished,
although they were going on considerably
more than a year ago?
Choice of che Hour,
az have sometimes fancied that we might
erect here in the capital of the country a
column to American liberty which alone
might rival in height the beautiful and SIM
pie shaft which we rave erected to the
fame of the father of the country. l can
fancy each generation bringing its in
scription, which should recite its own con-