Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-06-26
WATER CURE.
ANOTHER EXPLANATION OF THE
REASON FOR THE WATER

CURE" IN The PHILIPPINES.
A private letter has been received
recently by ? resident Of Washington
from a gentleman now in the Philip
pines in a position to know whereof he
speaks. The explanation here given
of the use Of the water cure is not
at all inherently improbab!e; it fits
with many Of the circumstances of the
cure, and it is obviously one that could
not be made public by either OF the
parties to the pious fraud. 1t has not
been made public heretofore in this
country, and is certainly both interest
ing and plausible. A portion of the
letter follows:
I am a good deal concerned over the
turn of affairs in the United States,
which has apparently necessitated a
policy with respect to- the army which
is calculated to discredit the campaign
in these islands against the insulrec-
tos. | refer to the drastic measures
adopted to bring before court-martial
officers who have been c~onspicuously
successful in securing much needed re-
suits.
1t is not denied out here that meth
DDS have been used to coerce the ma
tiyes into submission which are not
contemplated by the laws of civilized
warfare. These people are Malays,
who among themselves apply. to Sc
cure desired ends, the most revolving
forms of torture. The refinement pos
sessed by the best of them is a thin
veneer only. Scratch any of them
and you will find a savage under the
cuticle.
Now. it has been an unusual exper-
fence to find natives who at heart were
quite willing to disclose valuable
caches of gums, bolos or subsistence
stores to the Americans, not because
the men who had made the caches
were their personal enemies. But be-
fore they would yield up the secrets"
they must be able to state positively
to their people that they were tor
tured" into doing so. 1t is held that
a man may reveal a secret If tor
tured" and not be execrated by his
tribesmen for so doing. Now, OF
course, in all such cases, and there
have been many of them, it has not
taken much torture" to cause the sub
ject to cough up information" which
he was in reality willing to impart as
a means of covert evenu upon mem
bers of his own race for some actual OF
imaginary wrong. This peculiar
phase of Filipino life and character
has never ITO my knowledge beer
brought out.
I am not now saying that the "wate1
cure'' and kindred methods have no
in many cases been misapplied by
reckless agents and wholly without thu
knowledge of competent authority. II
deny that grave mistakes have beer
made would be going too far. Ii
dealing with such a peculiar race ant
possessing so slight a knowledge as we
do of their language and methods OF
thought, fatal mistakes must have oc'
Cured occasionally. But these mis-
takes have been due rather to limita'
ton of knowledge than to design
It has been the desire to bring peace
and security to these islands, rent by
instructions and inter-tribal wars TO-
ages. If there have been departure!
from civilized methods it has only beer
because civilized methods were il
scores of instances wholly ineffectua
Or abortive.
I knew Gen. Jacob Smith. Majo
Waller and Major Gle1.n. Two o
these have been tried aid both prob
ably acquitted of the charge Of viola
ton Of the laws of wal. That thei
methods were heroic 10 one denies
they themselves have admitted a
much. Nothing less would have bee.
successful. - So-called humane meth
DDS of warfare would have prolonge
the war in Samar, a.; it was unneces
sarily prolonged in Luzon. Maio
/ Glenn is now on trial. The announce
ment that he is to be tried for tn