The Billings gazette., 1902-11-25

the army, himself "a man who had
honored the blue uniform as Wright
had honored the gray.
General Wrisht's Work.
General Wright's work has been as
difficult as it was important The
events Of the last four years have
definitely decided that whether we
wish to or not we must hereafter play
a great part in the world. We can
not escape facing the duties. We may
shirk them if we are built of poor
stuff, or we may take hold and do
them if we are sons of our siresAbut
face them we must, whether we will
islands has simply been one of the
duties that thus have come upon us.
F! We are there, and we can no more
haul down our flag and abandon the
islands than we could now abandon
| Alaska Whether we are glad OF SCR
ry that events forced us to go there
| is aside from the question; the point
is that, as the inevitable result of the
war with Spain, we found ourselves
! in the Philippines and that we could
not leave the islands without dis
| credit. The islanders were wholly
| unfit to govern themselves, and if we
had left there would have been a
brief period of bloody chaos, and then
J some other nation would have step
| ped in to do the work which we had
1 peated that there was no question
that the work had to be done. All
| the question was, whether we would
do it we'll or i'll, and, thanks to the
choice of men like Governor Wright,
it has been done we'll. The first and
absolutely indispensable requisite was
order-peace. The reign of lawless
violence, or resistance to legitimate
/ authority, the reign of anarchy could
! no more be tolerated abroad than IL
could be tolerated here in our own
! land.
What the Flag Stands For.
"The American flag stands for or
derly liberty, and it stands for it
abroad as it stands for it at home.
The task of our soldiers was to re-
store and maintain order in the is.
lands. The army had the task to do,
and it did it we'll and thoroughly. The
fullest and heartiest praise belongs
to our soldiers who in the Philippines
brought to q triumphant conclusion
war, small indeed compared to the
gigantic struggle in which the older
men whom I am addressing took part
in the early sixties, but inconceivably
harassing and difficult, because il
was waged amid the pathless jungles
of great tropic islands and against a
foe very elusive, very treacherous
and often inconceivably cruel bott
toward our men and toward the great
numbers of peace. loving Filipons ,hc
gladly welcomed our advent. The sci
diers included both regulars and vel
unteers, men from the north, the
south, the east and the west, mer
from Pennsylvania and from Tennes
see, no less than men from the Rocky
mountains and the Pacific slope-anG
to all alike we give honor, for they
acted as American soldiers should.
CrueIties Committed.
"Cruelites were committed here ant
there. The fact that they were com
mitted under well-nigh intolerabls
provocation affords no excuse for sucl
cruelties, nor can we admit as just1
fication that they were retaliatory IL
kind. Every effort has been made tt
detect and punish the wrongdoers ant
the wrongdoing itself has been com
pletely stopped. But these misdeeds
were exceptional, and their occur
renee in no wise alters the fact tha
the American army in the Philippines
showed as whole not only splendl(
sOldiery qualities put a nlgh oruef U
humanity in dealing with their foes
A hundred thousand of our troop:
went to the Philippines. Among then
were some who offended against tht
right. Well, are we altogether i'm
maculate at home? l think not.
ask for no special consideration tt
be shown our friends and kinsmen
our sons and brothers, who during
three years so we'll upheld the nation
: al honor in the Philippines. l asl
) merely that we do the same equa
) Justice to the soldier who wen
l abroad and faced death and hve(
? hard as we show to his fellow wh'
, | 1iuO6 n9Sj1V ant