The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-07
Senatorial Warfare on Soldiers.

To the Editor Of the Indianapolis Journal:
The Evening News, in its editorial Of
Friday, makes a very lame effort to excuse
the Islander on the officers and soldiers of
the Philippines by some of our sugar-coat-
ed senator's. 1t makes the statement that
there is no man in the country whose
opinion is worth anything that does not
have the highest respect and regard for
the American army" BY putting emphasis
strong on the expression, whose opinion
is worth anything" it might be accepted.
but when it claims the Journal is wrong
in CHASING the senators who delight in
slandering our soldiers as being of the
same party as those who engaged in like
practice during the civil war its position
is not good. BY tracing the pedigrees of
these gentlemen back to the civil war we
find they all come from the same party
and included those who delighted in calling
Lincoln the monster Grant 1.-The butch
err" Butler 1.-The beast" and the soldiers
"Lincoln's dogs" "hirelings,'' coffee cool
ers," etc. The men who were slandered
and vilified then are now the central fig
ures of modern history, while their ira
ducers are fast being forgotten, and Raw
Inns, Carmack, Sibley & Co. will pass into
obscurity, while the fame of the soldiers
they are striving to malign will grow
brighter with time. The News thinks Sen
ators Hoar, Foraker, Fairbanks and the
President are of the same class simply be-
cause they favor an investigation. Any
officer. civil or military, against whom
charges are preferred should be subject 10
an investigation. That is right. But TO
SANDER and villify our soldiers and give en-
enlargement to the enemy is treason,
which seems to be about the difference be-
tween them, and il takes q wonderful
stretch of charity to class them together.
The facts are that the Democratic party
has never evinced much sympathy for our
soldiers except when they thought they
could use them politically. They seem to
have no interest in investigating the in
human treatment practiced on our soldiers
and the loyal natives in the Philippines.
Nor do 1 r%ecollect that they ever asked for
an amelioration of the condition of our
boys in Andersonville, or an investigation
of the horrible massacre of our soldiers by
General Forrest at Fort Pillow, where men,
women and children were murdered in cold
blood. Their sympathy seemed to be with
the other side. General Sherman said,
'War is he'll and ii seems the more hell
raised the sooner the conflict was over.
1t is simply a conquest of one or the other,
and there does not seem to be any record
of any great wars being fought with an
olive branch and bread and sugar, such as
these philanthropic senators seem TO indi-
cate. The facts are they are obstruction
lists, just as their party has been since 1860.
General Funston is accused of hewing his
way to fame with the "JaWbone OF an ass,
- WHICH III utStINtS OH CltQlL dlh
seems to have achieved a victory where
Messrs. Rawlins, Carmack. Sibley and Tel
Ter have made failures. The epithets APP
piled to General Smith by these men should
brand them as enemies of the soldiers. The
warfare waged in the Philippines has been
no more severe than that of the civil war
and no more severe than is necessary to
subdue guerrilla warfare. During the early
part of the civil war a regular system Of
guerrilla warfare prevailed. especially in
Virginia, and as drastic measures were
odonta6 m hrhol I'm that CVCtnrn &c those
recommended by General smith. Homes
were burned, plantations laid waste, and
the inhabitants either killed or driven from
home: and only by severe methods can
such warfare be suppressed. 1t is a pity
our obstructionists could not have been
given the province of Samar in which TO
have demonstrated their sugar-coated pol
icy. which might have worked a revolution
in modern warfare. But in all probability
the result would nave worked out about
as completely as the prophecies OF the
Democratic party have been working out
during the last few years. l think We will
find. after all Investigations are completed,
that there will be about as much in them
as there is in the bowling OF Bryan's "ca-
lamity'' pup. But the soldiers protest
against the use OF so many pet names when
the regulations of war prevent them reply
ing, or being attacked when in a position
in which they cannot defend themselves:
but that class Of thin-coated senators have
and should be silenced. Not only for the
sake of our soldiers, but the respect of the
Senate. 1t will not be productive Of much
political capital, and a different tack should
be pursued. +. H. WILLIAMS.
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