The National tribune., 1902-06-05

will be made. to minimize the chances Oh
| cruelty occurring.
But keep in mind that these crueltes
in the Philippines have been wholly ex-
ceptional. and have been shamelessly eN-
aggerated We deeply and bitterly re-
sret that any such crUeltieS should nave
been committed no matter how rarely, no
matter under what provocation, by Ameri-
can troops. But they afford far less Justl-
! ficatiun for a general condemnation of our
army than these lynchings afford for the
condemnation of the communities in which
they have taken place. In each case 1t Is
we'll to condemn the deed and it is well
also to refrain from including both guilty
and innocent in the same sweeping con-
demnation.
In every community there are people
who commit acts of well-nigh inconceiva-
bic horror and baSeness. If we fix our
eyes only upon these individuals and upon
their acts and if we forget the far more
numerous citizens of upright and honest
life and blind ourselves to their countless
deeds of wisdom and justice and phllan-
thropy. it is easy enough to condemn the
community. There is not q city in this
| land which we could not thus condemn If
we fixed our eyes purely upon its poiice
record and refused to look at what it had
| accomplished for decency and justice and
charity Yet this is exactly the attitude
which has been taken by too many men
with reference to our army in the Philip
pines; and it is an attitude both absurd
and cruelty unjust.
The rules of warfare which have been
promulgated by the War Department and
accepted as the basis of conduct by our
troops in the field are the rules laid down
by Abraham Lincoln when you, my hear
ers, were fighting for the Union. These
rules provide. of course, for the just
severity necessary in war. The most de-
structive of all forms of cruelty would be
to show weakness where sternness IS de-
manded by iron need. But all cruelty is
forbidden. and all harShness beyond what
is called for by need. Our enemies in the
Philippines have not merely violated every
rule of war, but have made of these vio-
'ations their only method of carrying on
the war. We would have been justified by
Abraham Lincoln's rules of war in in
finitely greater severity than has been
shown. The fact really is that our war
fare in the Philippines has been carried on
with singular humai'ity. For every act
of cruelty by our men there have been in
Vulnerable acts of forbearance, magnani-
nifty. and generous kindness. These are
the qualities which have characterized the
war as a whole. The cruelties have been
wholly exceptional. 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 III
the soft places of the earth, remember
also 10 do them common justice. Let not
the effortless and the interrupted rail over
much at strong men who with blood and
sweat face years of toll and days and
nights of agony, and at need lay down
their lives in remote tropic jungles to bring
the light of civilization into the worlds
dark places. The warfare that has ex-
tended the boundaries of civilization at the
expense of barbarism and savagery has
been for centuries one of the most potent
factors in the progress of humanity. Yet
from its very nature it has always and
everywhere been liable to dark abuses.
THE UNION ARMY CRITICISED IN 1862.
1t behooves us to keep q vigilant
watch to prevent these abuses and to pun
ish those who commit them; but if because
of them we finch from finishing the task
on which we have entered, we show our
selves cravens and weaklings, unworthy
of the sires from whose loins we sprang.
There were abuses and to spare in the
civil war Your false friends then called
Grant butcher" and spoke Of you who
are listening to me as merceDaries, as
"Lineoln's hirelings." Your open foes
as in the resolution passed by the Confed
crate Congress in October, 1S62-accused
you, at great length, and with much par
ticularity, of "contemptuous disregard of
the usages of civilized war;" of subjecting
women and children to punishment. i'm
prisonment, and DEATH" of murder"
of .'rapine" of ''outrages on women" of
.'lawless cruelty" of ''perpetrating atroci-
ties which would be disgraceful to saw
ages" and Abraham Lincoln was singled
out for especial attack because Of his
spirit of barbarous ferocity." Verify,
these men who thus foully slandered you
have their heirs today in those who
traduce our armies in the Philippines, who
fix their eyes On individual deeds of
wrong SO keenly that at last they be-
come blind to the great work of peace and
freedom that has already been accom-
plished.
Peace and freedom-are there two bet
ter objects for which a soldier can fight?
Well. these are precisely the objects for
which our soldiers are fighting in the Phil
ippines. When there is talk Of the cruel
ties committed in the Philippines, remem-
Der always that by far the greater pro-
portion of these cruelties have been COM
mitted by the insurgents against their own
people-as well as against our soldiers
and that not only the surest but the only
effeetual way Of stopping them is by the
progress Of the American arms. The
victories of the American army have been
the really effective means Of putting a
stop to cruelty in the Philippines. Wher-
ever these victories have been complete
and such is now the case throughout the
greater part Of the islands-all cruelties
have ceased, and the native is secure in
his life, his liberty, and his pursuit of
happiness. Where the insurrection still
| smolders there is always q chance for
! cruelty TO show itself.
THE ARMY coSQUERs TO PREPARE FOR
CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
Our soldiers conquer; and what is the
object for which they conquer? To es-
tablish a military government? No. The
laws we are now endeavoring to enact
for the government Of the Philippines are
| to increase the power and domain of the
civil. at the expense Of the military au-
thoFities, and to render even more difficult
| than in the past the chance of oppression.
The military power is used to secure
peace, in order that it may itself be sup
planted by the civil government. The
progress of the American arms means the
abolition of cruelty, the bringing of peace
and the rule of law and order under the
civil government. Other nations have
conquered to create irresponsible military
rule. We conquer to bring just and re-
sponsble civil government to the conquer
ed.
But our armies do more than bring
peace, do more than bring order. They
bring freedom. Remember always that
the; independence of q tribe or com
munity may, and often does, have nothing
whatever to do with the freedom of the
individual in that tribe or community.
There are now in STA and A fr;o, eooro.