The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1902-02-27
RANK VS.. FILE.

That soldier, Clarence Glove, who is
represented in the dispatches this morn
ing as telling such sensational stories
about crueltieS and outrages by Ameri-
can soldiers in the PHILIPPINES, appears
to be very willing and cheerful liar.
He is an invalid, too, and wants his dis
charge. 1t is a good ten to- one bet that
he has been an invalid during most if
not all of his service, and never at the
front where the fighting was. He should,
however, restrain both his tongue and
his pen He should remember that the
country has plenty of his kind of talk
from high places, and that he is nc
United States Senator.
The above is taken from the Salt
Lake Tribune, (The Hon. Secretary
of the National Republican COM
mittee being the publisher) and in
dicates very clearly that the opinion
of this orthodox journal, regarding
the man behind the gun, is regulated
by the distance the man is behind
the weapon, and the charity boy who
has it against his shoulder in the
firing line at $13 month, is not
entitled to the same consideration
as the other boy who directs affairs
from a safe distance through glass
for consideration of five to seven
hundred dollars a month and perks.
Yet because this $13 month boy is
an invalid suffering from ills ac-
CURED in the performance of his
duty and asks for his discharge, 1T is
assumed that during his full term he
has been chronic shirker. There
has been more or less of his
kind of talk from men in high places,
and the basis and data for these
talks has not come from Colonial
Governors who find it difficult to
make both ends meet on twenty
thousand dollar salaries and palace
rent free, and not asking for their
discharge either; but from men of
the class 80 gratuitously maligned as
Is the private soldier whose simple
story arouses the wrath of the ortho-
dox pharisees and they forget the fact
that the rank is but the guinea
stamp "The mans the gowd for a.
that
We cannot vouch for the truth of
Clarence Cloves statement, but we
know there is at least as much truth
in it as in Wheatons statement that
late senatorial criticism of the adj
ministration's Philippine policy sim
ply meant the necessity of so. 900
more soldiers over there. The state
ment of Cloves, referred to by the
Tribune, is os follows:
oeattle, wash, Jan. 2S.-Clarence
Glove OF Seattle recently invalided home
from the Philippines, where he served
as private in Company II, Twenty
fifth infantry, U s. ", has authorizes
the publication of letter written bv
him TO Senator Hoar from the islands
June 10, 1900. Glove asks in the letter
honorable discharge from service thai
is ,outraging his conscience. In alleging
lnnuman treatment by American sol.
oilers toward Filipinos he says in part;
AT any time | am liable to be called
upon to go out and bind and gag helpless
prisoners, to strike them in the face 70
knock them down when so bound. to
bear them away from wife and children
at their very door who are shrieking pitI.
fully the while, or kneeling and kissing
Ine nands OF our officers and imploring
mercy from those who seem not to know
what 1t is, and then, with a crowd Of
soldiers, hold our helpless victim % b..d