The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-07
Washington Day by Day

the bill, with all its faults, IS now law, but whether 1t will pass the house in its present form remains to be seen. This debate proved to be one of the longest, and certainly the most rancorous, that has taken place in the senate in many years.
 Millions on millions of words have been spoken-words words, words Unhappi- ly millions of these ought not to have found utterance in a debate upon so great a subject. It seems to be a measure for legalized robbery of the Filipinos of their lands and minerals. But in the closing hours of the debate Senator Quarles, a Republican of Wisconsin, denounced as "damnable" the suggestion that the ob- ject of the bill was to turn over the Phil- ippines to the exploitation of carpet baggers, scoundrels and scalawags. Ev- cry decent American, says he, would hide his face in shame if that were true but it was not true.
 Perhaps some one should have remind ed Mir Quarles that what he denounced in respect to the pending bill was pre- cisely what the federal government did with the states of the south after the civil war. If the Republican party so dealt with native Americans, why should 1t not likewise al with a semi-civilized people on the other side of the globe?
 MT. Quarles' speech was one of several short speeches delivered in the closing hours of the debate. For example, MT. McLaurin of Mississippi denied that the Democrats had attacked the army and placed the responsibility for the outrages committed in the Philippines upon the policy advocated by the Republicans MT. Beveridge, of Indiana, he of much tal- kee-talkee, chimed in to say that the next worlds drama would be enacted on the Pacific, and it was essential that the mastery of that great ocean should be ours and 1t would be ours. Vainer boast ing one never heard from an idle school boy.
 But the cearest note struck in either of those short speeches was that or the veteran Senator Berry of Arkansas, man who gave one leg to the Confeder- acy. Effectively and in strong words throughout Senator Berry deplored the fact that the President on Decoration Lay at Arlington saw proper to make "a bitter partisan speech" The president, he said, had gone back forty years to re- kindle the fires of sectionalism and had referred to the acts of an infuriated mob in the south to justify, he supposed the awful order of General Smith in the Phil ippines, to shoot all Filipinos over ten years of age.
 Yet. now that the prolonged debate Is ended it is to be regretted that some of the younger Senators on the Democrat ic side occasionally made the grave error of holding the United States army in the Philippines blamable for the acts of mon strous cruelty and murder, done in some | instances by small bands of American soldiers at the instance of their officers. who acted under instructions from those commanding the army. MT. McLaurin Of Mississippi was wise in claiming that the Democrats In the Senate as a whole had not indulged n or encouraged the tirade against the army, but that they were fighting the policy of the Republican administration.
 | Still, the injiscreet remarks of some of the younger Democratic Senators. such as MT. Carmack, MT. Patterson and MT. Rawlins, have conveyed to the popular mind that the Democrats In the Senate | were actually fighting the army. This im- pression, though not true, Is widespread. Nearly everybody in the Union believes that to have been the case, and to some extent, as Is feared, 1t will inJure the af UnfQ Sworn testimony has demonstrated that | many outrages were committed, but no political party can afford to be placed in the attitude of decrying the soldiers Of the country, who are simply obeying in- structions from their superiors. There Is further proof that the cruelty and sav- agery of the Filipinos transcends ordinary belief. They have resorted to every arti- flee and every trick to betray and mutt late and murder our soldiers It would be strange indeed if at times the soldiers did not retaliate. But for the more mon- strous acts of cruelty on the part of iso- lated bands of our soldiers, acting under orders. there cannot be any excuse. Just in what shape the Philippines bill may become law. there is no use in guess | ing; 1t is almost certain not to be en- acted as it passed the Senate.
 
 Lord Kitchener, who Is now more in the public eye than any other man, is of the old type of English soldier and hero There IS about him no humbug, no idle display, and no show of self-importance He Is a man of singular modesty and truthfulness. He doesn't know how to evade any question or any issue.
 Lord Kitchener is physically a giant He is over six feet tall and is nobly pro- portioned. He has the eye of an eagle and the brow of love. He is a great athlete, and during all his life has been given to outdoor sports and pastimes. When he was in Egypt in command of the Egyptian army and of the English troops in that country, his chief pastime was in playing lawn tennis. On one occasion, some years ago, when I was visiting a friend in Cairo, my friend invited me to go with him to call upon Kitchener. It was late in the afternoon, and my friend remarked that he was afraid that Kitchener would be at his tennis; and in answer to my inquiry he said that Kitchener played tennis an hour every afternoon. Arrived at his palace, General Kitchener's orderly in- formed us that his master was out.