The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-06-04
RoosEvELT's EASTERN POLICY
From the Presidents Memorial Day
Address at Arlington Cemetery,
Near Washington.


with the men in gray, who with such
courage and such devotion for what
they deemed the right fought against
you. But you left us much more even
than your achievement, for you left
us the memory of how it was achiev-
ed. You, who made good by your valor
and patriotism the craftsmanship of
Lincoln and the soldiership of Grant
have set as the standards for our
efforts in the future, both the way
you did your work in war and the
way in which when the war was over
you turned again to the work of peace.
In war and in peace alike your exam
pie will stand as the wisest of lessons
to us and our children and our chill
dren's children
Just at this moment the army of
the United States, led by men who
served among you in the great war,
is carrying to completion a small but
peculiarly trying and difficult war in
which is involved not only the honor
of the flag but the triumph of civiliza-
ton over forces which stand for the
black chaos of savagery and barbar-
ism. The task has not been as diff
cult or as important as yours, but OH
my comrades, the men in the uni
form of the United States, who have
for the last three years patiently
and uncomplainingly championed the
American cause in the Philippine
Islands are your younger brothers,
your sons They have shown them
selves not unworthy Of YOU and they
are entitled to the support of all men
who are proud of what you did.
These younger comrades of yours
have fought under terrible difficulties
and have received terrible provoca-
tion from very cruel and very treach-
erous enemy Under the strain of
these provocations I deeply deplore to
say that some among them have so
far forgotten themselves as to counsel
and commit, in retaliation, acts of
cruelty The fact that for every
guilty act committed by one of our
troops a hundred acts of far greater
atrocity have been committed by the
hostile natives upon our troops, or
upon the peaceable and law abiding
natives who are friendly to us, cannot
be held to excuse any wrong doing on
our side. Determined and unswerv-
| ing effort must be made, and is being
made, to find out every instance of
barbarity on the part of our troops,
to punish those guilty of it, and to
ures than have already been taken to
minimize or prevent the occurrence of
all such instances i'll the future.
From time to time there occur in
our country, to the deep and lasting
shame of our people, lynchings car
ried on under circumstances of inhu-
man cruelty and barbarity-a cruelty
infinitely worse than any that has
ever been committed by our troops in
the Philippines, worse to the victims
and far more brutalizing to those
| guilty of it.
| The men who fail to condemn these
| lynchings and yet clamor about what
has been done in the Philippines are
indeed guilty of neglceting the beam
in their own eye while haunting their
brother about the mote in his. IN
derstand me. These lynchings afford
us no excuse to stop cruelty in the
Philippines. Every effort is being
made and will be made to minimize
the chances of cruelty occurring.
But keep in mind that these cruel
ties in the Philippines have been
wholly exceptional and have been
| shamelessly. exaggerated. We deeply
and bitterly regret that any such cru
elites should have been committed,
no matter how rarely, no matter I'M
der what provocation, by American
troops. But they afford far less JUS
LITIGATION for general condemnation
of our army than these lvnchings
| afforded for the condemnation of the
communities in which they have tax.
EN- place In each case it is we'll to
condemn the deed, and it is we'll also,
to refrain from including both guilty
and innocent in the same sweeping
condemnation.
In every community there are peo-
pie who commit acts of well -nigh in
conceivable horror and baseness. If
we fix our eyes only upon these indi-
viduals and upon their acts, and if we
forget the the far more numerous citi.
zens of upright and honest life and
blind ourselves to their countless
deeds of wisdom and justice and phil
| anthropy, it is easy enough to condemn
| the community. There is not city
in this land which we could not thus
| condemn if we fix our eyes purely
upon it's police record and refused to
look at what it had accom- plished for
decency and justice and charity. Yet
| this is exactly the attitude which has
been taken by too many men with ref
erence to our army in the PHILIPPINES
and it is an attitude both absurd and
cruelty unjust We would
have been justified by Abraham Lin.
coin s rules of war in infinitely great
er severity than has been shown. The
| fact really is that our warfare in the
Philippines has been carried ON with
singular humanity. For every act of
| cruelty by our men there have been
innumerable acts of forbearance, mag
, nanimity and generous kindness.
These are the qualities which have
| characterized the war as a whole.
The cruelties have been wholly unex.
ceptional on our part.
The guilty are to be punished but
in Furnishing them let those who sit
at ease at home, who walk delicately
and live in the soft places of the
earth, remember also to do them COM
mon justice. Let not the effortless
and the interrupted rail overmuch at
strong men, who with blood and