Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-07-31


c. Rowland Dr. Rowland, owing to
two periods of service in the Philip
pines as acting assistant surgeon in
the United States army, was offered
unusual opportunities of studying the
physical and mental conditions of our
soldiers in that far-off tropical serv-
ice The following are extracts from
his thrillingly interesting sketch, the
deductions from his study of actual
cases and conditions;
To presume that the reports of
soldiers in the Philippines are
wholly or partially untrue would be
to eliminate the necessity for this ar
gument, for the sake of which We
will grant the following:
az That United States commits
stoned officers have ordered the exc
cution without trial of the natives;
(2) that United States commissioned
officers have ordered the torture of
natives; and 60 that these orders
have been carried out without pro-
test, by subordinates that is, noncom-
missioned officers and private
soldiers.
1t is easy to understand a mono
mania of blood-thirstineSs existing
in the individual as the result of heat,
fever exposure and other climatic
conditions. History is full of such
cases. The difficult task for us is
the conception of an obedient fulfill
ment of cruel and savage orders by
exactly such men as we see about us
every day. If our troops were bound
by such Intangible ties of discipline
as characterize the rank and file of
certain continental armies, whose
soldiers have sucked in a martial at
mOsphere from infancy, and to whom
the obedience of an order is as much
of an unconscious reflex as the act
of closing the eyes at the report of a
gun, the matter would be clearer.
American Soldier is New.
This, however, is by no means. the
case. The average American soldier
is a comparatively recent production,
and although in an all-around mill
tary capacity we refuse to admit the
existence of his superior, it is true
that blind, implicit obedience toI
orders is not his highest Qualifica
ton.
When a man of this sort is ordered
to shoot at some one, he is apt to
know that it is not a saluting charge.
If he were ordered to shoot his broth
err, or a "bunkie," we fear that heI
would not act with the lofty, martial
self-sacrifce to duty ChroniCled in
history. The chances are that heI
would shoot nigh, or perhaps toss his
piece into the culpirt's hands with an
admonition to hike for the woods"
A knowledge of these conditions
forces us to admit that in the case of
the tralless, wholesale executions
of which we read, the orders to kill |
are carried out by men, not in blind
obedience, but because such orders |
seem to them good The factors in |
the production of such a state of
mind cannot be distinguished at a
range of 10000 miles. An intelligent
comprehension of them demands |
either a personal experience or an
accurate reproduction.
Reading in his morning paper of the
torture and Wholesale determination |
of helpless Filipinos, the average |
New Yorker or Philadelphia thinks |
at once of the Tom, Dick or Harry
whom he happens to know in the
Philippines, and is assured that if
only all of the men were of the type
Of this particular acquaintance there
would be no such disgraceful blots on
the pages of our nations recent his
tory
Now, as matter of fact. it is Just
some such Tom, Dick or Harry who
has done these things. Let us try to
follow the military career of these
three types, and see if we can throw
some light upon the casuistry pro
ducing such results.
Tom is an intelligent young Irish
American born in New York City.
His father is a subcontractor, fairly
prosperous and respected Tom has
a good public school education, and
has held a position as shipping clerk
in a wholesale house, but has lost it
through being a trife wild in his
habits. This has brought down the
ire of his parent They have quar-
relied, and Tom, in pique and despond-
'ency, has enlisted in the United
States regular infantry.
War Spirit Reused by Stories.
Dick has been raised" In Gaines
willie, Ga. He Is a high-spirited boy.
and the freside "reminiscences of
|civil war veterans have reused his
martial ardor quarrel with his
sweetheart leaves him with the con
Eviction that he is destined for a
laro's death-or proud return.
l Harry is clerk in his uncle's
| tore, the only one in a middle west
lrn village He has watched the
'train loads of troops rushing through
IN their way to the Pacific coast,
hd, being Anglo-Saxon, and there
pre- adventurous, he has been unable
p resist the temptation of following
bem.
1 At the eud NJ thair fret vow +Lo,.