The Holt County sentinel., 1902-06-27
Cruelty in War.

Cruelty in War.
General o. .. Howard is re-eminent.
ly the humane and Christian soldier
More conspicuously than any other
Union officer Of the civil war he carried
his religion into the camp and the Held.
His whole life shows that he is the best
man in the world to practice or defend
cruelty in war.
In the current Independent, General
Howard discusses, with relation to the
charges against our soldiers in the Phil.
ippines. the question rs Cruelty Insep-
arabic from War; He points out the
necessity of discriminating between in
cidental and intentional cruelty. He
declares that If killing and wounding in
battle, sickness produced by exposure,
and the retaliatory punishment of crime
be cruelty, then there can be no war
without cruelty, for these are necessary
incidents of war.
But to slsy wounded and helpless foes
or prisoners, who make no effort to
escape, or to kill women, children, and
other actual noncombatants, or to tor
ture enemies or to inflict upon them
suffering from which the victor can de-
rive no advantage, 10 intentional cruelty
not countenanced by civilized warfare
and wholly separable from its opera
tions.
General Howard agrees with General
Sherman that from the viewpoint of
men at peace, war in itself is cruel and
cannot be too much refined without
losing the object for which it is waged
1t is cruel 10 it's treatment of spies, and
yet this cruelty is absolutely necessary.
1t is cruel in it's punishment of guer-
rillas, and yet without such cruelty there
would be no safety for an army pledged
to civilized methods Of warfare.
General George II. Thomas, described
by General Howard as the kindest and
gentlest of men, issued one Of the Sc
verest orders against guerrillas. He
gave public notice that if a certain tun-
mel were INSTRUCTED. every house with
in five miles would be burned. His or
der was justified by results. After it no
tunnel was obstructed.
Retaliation, while essentially cruel
from the viewpoint Of peace, General
Howard declares, is inseparable from the
Of war. After the Confed-
crates had abandoned their works above
Yorktown, In 1862. it was discovered
that they had left torpedoes concealed
in the roads leading to the fortifica.
tions. So many Union soldiers were
killed and MANNED by these torpedoes
that General Mcclellan directed that
prisoners should be com.
PEELED to march over these roads to find
and dig them up. This was cruel to the
prisoners, but it prevented such use Of
thereafter.
The retaliatory orders of Generals
Bell and Smith in the Philippines are
no more cruel than those Of Generals
Thomas and Mcclellan in the civil war.
In fact, they are in strict accordance
with established precedent.
Having discovered that the outlaws Of
Batangas were resorting to assassina-
! on, and pointing to humane methods as
proofs of American cowardice, Gen.
sral Bell gave notice that wherever
prisoners, or unnamed or defenseles
or natives friendly to the
United States are murdered for politi-
cal reaaoDs, prisoners selected by lot
from among the officers or prominent
Filipinos, chosen when practicable from
the town where the murder occurred,
will be executed" This was cruel, but
t stopped assassination, and the result
vas the surrender of Malvar and the
Of Batangas.
Having results in mind, General How
srd says in conclusion: Looking to
,ur army for protection, We ought to
De very careful not to condemn the army
or severe measures which appear to be
An army or police means
he exercise of force. If We mean that
t shall never exercise force, then why
,ave an army or police at all?"
The fact is that the Filipino insur- !
rents resorted to cruelty to terrify
heir own people and our army. When
heir barbarity was met by retaliatory
severity of punishment, there was an
nc of their barbarism. The corrective
while incidentally cruel, were +,
eally humane. because they brought
,eace and put an end to intentional
:ruel.y.
The Meaning of Love in the Home.
There is something in manhood,
whether of high or low degree, that