The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-05-21
AMERICAN MEYLERISM.


1y authority of President Lincoln in
1868, on which the present admins
,ration of the war department is at
tempting to justify the outrageous
order of Gen. J. Franklin Bell in
Batangas, P. l., to execute a Filipino
prisoner of war for every American
or friendly native murdered within
the province, the prisoner to de Sc
lected by lot. In issuing his barbar-
Gus ukase, General Bell refers to GER
tain sections in General Order 100
as his authority.
This famous General Order 100
simply approved certain instructions
for the government of the United
States armies in the field,' prepared
by Francis Lieber, LII. D. The Sec
lions to which General Bell refers in
his Batangas order are:
"All prisoners of war are liable to
the infliction of retaliatory meas
ures," and "The law of war does not
allow the proclaiming either an indi-
vidual belonging to a hostile army,
or a citizen, or a subject of the hos
tile government, an outlaw, who may
be slain without trial by any captor,
any more than the modern law OF
peace allows such intentional out
lawry; on the contrary, it abhors
such outrage. The sternest retalia-
ton should follow the murder COM
mitted in consequence of such proc
lamation made by whatever author
ity; civilized nations look with hor-
ror upon offers of rewards for the
assassination of enemies as relapses
into Darbarism."
On this shadow of authority-if au'
thority it may be, though it resem-
bles a prohibition-and on this alone,
General Bell bases his order to MUIR
der perhaps innocent people as a
retaliatory measure. A careful read
ing of these same instructions con-
tanned in General Order 100, shows
that General Bells order as well as
the water cure and the other atroci-
ties charged against him and Gen
eral Smith, are utterly opposed to
the spirit of Dr. Lieber's document,
which stands as the first codltication
of international ARTICLES of war Sec
ton Is, for instance, says: Men
who take up arms against one an
other in public war do not cease on
this account to be moral beings, re
sponsible to one another and to God"
Section 16 has this: Military neces-
| sity does not admit of cruelty-that
is, the infiction of suffering for the
sake of suffering or revenge-nor OF
manning or wounding except in fight,
nor of torture to eXtort confessions" "
And here is still another section
section S0--that has a bearing on the
water cure practice: Honorable
men, when captured will abstain
from giving to the enemy information
concerning their own army and the
modern law of war permits no longer
the use of any violence in order to
extort the desired information or tC
punish them for having given false
information"
The knowledge of the atrocities
committed as the defenders of the
administration would have the people
believe under General Order 100, was
withheld from the public a long time
by the administration officials and NJ
effort made to remedy the situation
and punish the offenders until the
tales of horror were reluctantly anC
suddenly forced from the war depart
ment.
The infamies of Weylerism pail
) beside the record of our He'll Roar
ing Smith, Walters and Glenns, blu
Waller has been acquitted and tn
indications are that Jake Smith ha
, also been whitewashed by the cour
martial which the president ordere
in his perfunctory pursuit of the O.
: tenders. All this may happen, couI
: martials may acquit them and a par
isan congress whitewash and col
t done the barbarities done by on
, army, even to the assembling cloa
e of General Order 100, but the Amer
S. can voter will have his day at coul
r in November. and he will nut q