The Irish standard., 1902-08-02
ACCUSED OF HIDING CRIMES.

In a letter to President Roosevelt,
signed by Charles Francis Adams,
Carl Schurz, Edwin Burritt Smith,
Mooreield Storey and Herbert Welsh,
Secretary Root is accused of conceal
ing evidence of army atrocities in the
Philippines.
The gentlemen who address the
President are anti-imperialists and
what they communicate is the result
Of investigations made by themselves.
They are men of probity and high
standing. Adams was formerly
president of the Union Pacific rail-
road and is a historical writer of
recognized ability; Smith is professor
Of law in the Northwestern Univer-
sity; Schurz was senator from Mis-
souri, and later secretary of the in
terror under President Hayes; Storey
was once the secretary Of Charles
Sumner and for several years presi-
dent of the American Bar Associa-
ton; and Welsh is famous in Pennsyl-
vania for his opposition to bossism.
They are all patriotic Americans who
stand firmly on the Constitution of
their country and believe the Declare
tion of Independence is the grandest
document that ever emanated from
the mind Of an uninspired writer.
And because they love their coun-
try and are jealous of it's glory and
it's fame they abhor the atrocities
committed in its name by American
officers in the Orient and call upon the
chief executive to order the trial of
those officers who imbrued their hands
in the blood of the Filipinos, and are
now being shielded from punishment
by the Secretary of War and his mill
tary satraps.
They say that when Secretary Root
in his letter of Feb. II to the chair
man Of the Senate Committee on the
Philippines declared that "the war in
the Philippines has been conducted by
the American army with scrupulous
regard for the rules of civilized war
fare-with careful and genuine con-
sideration for the prisoner and the
nom n-combatant, with self-rastraint and
with humanity never surpassed. if
ever equaled, in any conflict, worthy
only Of praise and rejecting credit
upon the American people" he had all
the essential facts since brought to-
light within his official cogssizance.
They remind the president that
Henry Cabot Lodge the chairman Of
the senate committee, perhaps out Of
q tender regard for ''the honor of the
army" suppressed the case Of the
Catholic priest who was barbarously
killed by commissioned officer of the
United States, now residing in New
England. Many other wrongdoers,
they say, are also Favored Or shield
ed" and they ask the President to
bring them to justice. or course the
President will do nothing of the kind.
The Minneapolis Tribune pours out
it's wrath upon the heads of the five re-
preventative Americans who ask Pres
ident Roosevelt to fulfill the promise
made by him in his order of April IA
when he said "that all offenders shall
l,e summarily brought to justice and
the guilty punished" The local Or
gan of the G. o. p. descends to vitu-
peration and vulgarity in its charac-
terization Of the writer's of the let
ter. Some Of its choicest phrases are
''snivelins old women,' cattle" sven
erabla Mackguards." "scavengers of
tire camp" and other opprobrious cpl
thets redolent Of the fishmarkets and
the slums. The literary hack who
uses such scurrilous language is
moral and intellectual pigmy beside