Sunday Washington globe., 1902-05-04

Every Filipino survivor of the butcheries
going on in the Philippines under the flag
of our so-called Republic will cost more per
head than all the Indians dead and living
whose lands we purchased and whose souls
we sent to glory. 1t has been couservatively
estimated from the appropriations made
that the cost of the Philippine war from
May l. 1903, to the present time amounts TO
the enormous sum of $500, ,ooo, 600. The
annual appropriation for the army at present
is $I3o,ooo 600, the greater part, if not nearly
ALL Of which is made necessary by our war
at the other side of the globe AS a straw
shows the current of the stream. however
sluggish 50 the mperalistic acts of our high
officials indicates the beginning of the end
of the present form Of Republican govern
ment. Cabinet officers now refuse or de-
cline to furnish information to the people Isl
representatives and the legislative branch
of the government Is de6ed b. the execu-
tive or administrative arm. This was dem
onstrated in a striking manner in the Senate
the past week during Senator Carmack's
speech on the vast expenditures in the
Philippines.
Il understand" said Senator Carmack, 3"
that the Senator from Texas. Mr. Culber-
son, wrote to the Secretary Of War making
inquiries upon this particular matter and
that the letter lay there fof a month unan-
swered. 1 will ask the Senator if that is
correct7"
'I will not undertake to be accurate or
exact about the time" responded Senator
Culbersou, ''but am satisfied it was fully
a month before the letter was answered.,
and then it was not answered until the Sec
retary's attention was called to 1t a second
time Then the answer was a refusal to
give the information"
Il wish to state" interrupted Senator
Wellington, that directed letter of the
same kind to the same source of informa-
tion and received no reply for quite long
time, and the reply, when second letter
Of inquiry was written, was of a very un'
satisfactory character"
That is the way information is being
given upon this question" remarked Sena-
tor Carmack. Letters are sent from Sena-
tors who are seeking information of the
most vital importance to them in the dis
charge Of their public duties and they are
ignored One of them, a member of the
committee, charged by the Senate with in
vestigatiou covering that very question,
writes letter to the Secretary of War, and
It is treated with absolute contempt No
notice is taken of it whatever. And when
a second letter is written he gets a reply
/ refusing to give the information might
add that a resolution has been adopted call
ing for that very information aud there is
no answer to the resolution"
This paper has before pointed out the
! gross assumption of the administration that
the war in the Philippines is their especial
enterprise, and that the people or their rep
I e..
foot the bills. And the bills What do the
farmers and the toilers of the country think
Of them. Five hundred millions of dollars
already sunk in the rice swamps and quag-
mires Of Luzon and Samar and nothing to
show for the enormous amount but the
corpses of children of ten years of age and
old men and women's uncovered bouesl
The cartoon in Fridays Post told an elo-
quent story to the eternal disgrace of the
American name and character, but even
Weyler's horror at Smiths order is not
more astonishing than the supineness Of the
American people and its Congress at the
high handed imperialistic assumptions of
the Roosevelt administration in the person
Of the Secretary of War.
Stanton, himself, in the crisis of the Civil
War, dare not send a United States Senator
such an answer as Mr. Culberson received
from Secretary Root
The Philippine Committeepf the Senate
have finally determined to summon Major
Gardner, whose protest and expose of
military atrocities has been widely circu
lated by the press. The committee, how
ever, baked on Aguinaldo and that much
maligned individual who has been called
murderer thief, etc, will not be given an,
opportunity to inform the American public
of his side Of the case. General Macarthur.
however, did not characterize him as an
assassin. and we have only little Freddie
Funston's word that 'Aggy" informed him
he ordered a rival Filipino general shot.
The Democratic members Of the Senate
Philippine Committee notably Senator
Patterson, are developing information on
the conduct of the Philippine war, which
is astounding the American people When
Major Gardner arrives and informs the
public Of what he has seen enacted under
his own eyes the revelations will shock not
only the United States, but the civilized
world.