BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-05-08
SAN JUAN, MAYO 8
Talking Generals.

President Roosevelt's military right
to order Gen. Funston to die with all
his Philippine music in him is doubtless
be ;ond dispute. unless it could be held
that silence, in the case of man like
Funston, is one of those cruel and IN
Usual punishnents forbidden by the
Constitution. The Kansan Brigadier
has been having such good time los
ing his temper and loosing his tongue.
But he ought to take the Presidents
rebuke as really necessary step in
his somewhat neglected military educa-
ton. Taciturnity is a characteristic
trait Of great soldiers. Moltke was 81
lent in seven languages, and Funston
can begin by speechlessness in one. So
we hope he will wear his gag gracefully.
We do not see that his military glory,
will be dimmed by his reprimand. The
Duke of Wellington was once twitted
in Parliament with never yet having
entered into contest with. Englishn- en-
in which he was not beaten" Funs-
tons case is similar He simply did not
know how the moral sense of the co Ill
try and of the President would be
shocked by his insolent attack upon
Senator Hoar as man with "a super
heated conscience" Now he knows.
The blow to Funston is the more
severe in that Mr.. Roosevelt singled
him out It was not general order
commanding officers to refrain from
discussing public questions; what the
President says is simply that the luns-
ton brand of talk is the kind of thing
he cannot stand and will not have All
our returned Philippine generals have
suffered from banquets and receptions
and have let words more or less winged
fly from their mouths. Merritt talked,
Anderson talked. Otis talked, Macarthur
talked; it was only Funston who talk
ed too much. He mistook his function.
Nature, as Disraeli whimsically said of
himself, desinded Funston to be silent
man; and the President is merely aid
ing nature For Our part, we do not
know any man whose after-dinuer
spe =ches would appear more brilliant
by their absence than Funston'S. What
he has said, in his frankly barbaric
way, will have served a most useful if
it remains as a sort of standard Of the
tabooed-a convenient measure of Ian
guage unbeosming an officer and
gentleman. In that sense, his speech
has been very proftably shed, as Louis
XIV, said of the blood spilled at Nal
plaquet
1t is not strange, of course, that Gen
Funston should be ignorant of the
requirements of military discipline, or
of the proprieties which command sol
dier to observe modest stiffness and hu-
mility whens1he blast of war is not
blowing in his ears. He is essentially
an irregular member of the army, hav-
ing been absurdly flung into high CON-
mahd for dash and daring in the field.
Jumped over the heads of men whose
technical requirements and personal
manners Eere SO superior 10 his own, it
is not sur prising that he imagined he
could be a kind of law to the army as
we'll as 10 himself. The captor of Aguinal-
do must surely be Supra grammaticam'
It was all very well for those to be cis-
Greet who had earned their place in the
military hierarchy by hard study and
long service, but such bonds of polite
ness were not for the man, who had
swum the Pasig with a rope in his
mouth. Well, he has got something
else in his mouth now, and has found
that even soldier of fortune must have
some regard for the decencies 1t is
one thing to be among fellow.roisterers
in camp reviling the stupid civilians
who do not like your rough-and-ready
ways, and quite another to rise 10 a
civilized company, with the reporters
pencils out, to emit sentiments which
are insubordinate in military sense
and revolving politically. Funston for
got that he was not still with the army
Wnen soma one told Metternich, i'm
pressively, that Napoleon had emerged
from Russia, Yes said the Prince
scornfuIly, "b1t< without his army
Similarly a negligible figure has Fun
ston lound himself without his army
The correct rules OF CONDUCT for mill
tary men to follow in replblic, ia time
of peace. have been much debated, but
they are, after all, very simple. Officers
of the army which is the representative
of the vhols people, and paid for by
them, ought not avow rolitical senti-
ments distaSteful to any large element
of their fellow citizens. A talking gen
eral is al vays suspected of desiring to
be a political general We prefer to let
the French have monopoly of that
kind, with their Boulangers and their
Merciers. No '.bravo general" in our
politics, If you please Then for him.
sell, an officer IN high command ought /
always 10 be on his sword. The ban
9ueting-hall may zell be more imni-
aent deadly breach to an oratorically IN