Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1902-05-29
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y Senator's Playing 1S
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ing Philippine business more adroit,
more just, more compact. more elo-
quent, more thoroughly American or
more sincerely humanitarian than
Wheeler delivered in the house on the
18th day Of May. Upon it all Demo-
Gratis aye, all Americans-can afford
to stand. Here it is in toto:
"AIr. Chairman, judges full often be-
come advocates, unfortunately, and the
bitter language of the gentleman from
Connecticut Mr.. Hill and the gentle
man from Iowa [Mr. Hepburn] illus
trates the truth of this statement most
forcibly. However, l cannot, or rather
will not, permit the opportunity to
pass without noticing at least portion
of what the gentleman from Iowa has
said. / deprecate in no uncertain terms
the effort of any American citizen to
make political capital out of the un-
fortunate occurrences in the Philip
pine Islands. 1t is a matter that lies
beyond the partisan, whether Repub-
lican or Democrat. Whether true or
false, when we discuss them, as we
should-nay, as is our bounden duty
we should speak not in the hope of po-
litical advantage for this or that side
of the chamber.
81 cannot refrain from expressing as
tonishment at the vindictive and bitter
exposition made by the gentleman
from Connecticut of the barbarous and
inhuman practices of some of the semi
civilized inhabitants of those unhappy
islands. He hurled it with ghoulish
glee in the teeth of gentlemen upon
this side of the chamber as justifica-
ton for what is charged against the
American army in those islands. con-
denim with equal sternness and severi-
ty the barbarities, if barbarities there
be, of the Filipino and the American
soldier. 1t is not to criticise the army
but that is a right that every decent
fair and intelligent man not only
claims, but possesses. When did the
army become so sacred that when it
does wrong an American citizen can
not criticise it?
"Are we to sit quietly by when un-
worthy men wearing the uniform of
their country do unworthy deeds and
not expose them?
"The gentleman from Iowa asks pa
thetically what good will come from
an exposition of the barbarities that
have been committed by these vicious,
unworthy men that have been exposed
upon the floor of this house. Sir, what
70 nj xxyhn +1,n
prowling night thief who climbs your
porches and commits depredations on
your property is exposed and con-
demned? What good comes to human
civilization when the murderer and
the thief and all of those infamous
men that connect their names with
crimes are brought to the bar of judg-
ment and for their acts branded with
infamy and henceforth known as scoun-
drels and unworthy to associate with
decent people or with the better class
of their kind? I in the same manner
condemn all human monsters who in
the security of their rank set social
safety and civilization at defiance, not
as a Democrat, not as a Republican,
but as an American citizen; not in con-
demnation of the army, not in condem-
nation of our civilization, but as an
humble citizen who loves justice and
is not SO charged with bitter partisan
ship that he is lost to all sense of pity.
Unworthy of the Gentleman.
"I condemn in unmeasured terms the
barbarities said to be practiced in those
unhappy islands by men who wear the
uniform of our country. Our country,
my country, and 1 say my because
under the providence Of God will be
here when you are gone. How fool
ish, how unworthy, of the great gentle
man from Iowa to bubble and seek to
dodge behind the facts that there is no
official statement as to the guilt of this
.inhuman monster Smith! Not as Re-
publican, but as president of the Unit
ed States, and l pause here to give
him my unstinted commendation for
his manly efforts to bring justice-not
as a Republican, but as the chief citi-
zen of the republic-to this same inhu-
man monster that you say it is unpatri-
otic to criticise and condemn. Is he
acting without authority? Would he
disgrace his great place or subject him
self to the criticism of the delicate
consciences possessed by the gentle
man from Connecticut and the gentle
man from Iowa by ordering court
martial to investigate this man upon
testimony so fiimsy that it is unbecom-
ing for us to mention it upon the floor
of congress?
"This is not political question. This
is not criticism of the army, but it is
criticism of that policy which we
have warned you against that gives
the opportunity to produce the occasion
for these unspeakable acts. We point
them out to you to show you where
you are drifting. Inhumanity and bar
barity in the Philippines will, as GER
tain as God hung the sun in yonder
heavens, culIninate in inhumanity and
barbarity In your own homes and the
republic. It is against the system, it is
against the opportunity, it is against
the occasion, it is against the men that
make these opportunities and make the
occasion that we as American citizens
are protesting in earnest terms, not as
partisans, but as patriots.
A Valuable Lesson.
II agree with you, sir, that it is un-
fortunate that we should be required
to air these things before the world;
but, sir, it serves to illustrate lesson
that we can all well afford to learn.
remember to have read with shudder-
ing horror when the man Kitchener,
now commanding in South Africa, was
sent along the Nile he reached Omdur-
man, and when these helpless people
came in white robes and kneeled with
uplifted hands to pray for peace at his
hands-a long file of women and chill
dren knelt on that sunlit plain amid
those adobe houses-his answer to them
was to open upon them with grape and
canister and shoot down thousands of
women and children in order to set an
example to the unfortunate Egyptians
and establish peace and to accomplish
benevolent assimilation. And yet on
the floor of the British parliament men
rose in their places and defended that
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