The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-04-29
COMPARED TO HEROD
JOE SHELLEY MAKES ATTACK ON
GEN. SMITH.
HIS DISCHARGE DEMANDED.
SMITH COMPARED TO DESTRoYERS
OF THE PAST.

1atiOn of Samar-Trusts President
Will Have Courage to Discharge
Him DishOnOrably From Service
He Has Disgraced.
Washington, April 2S.-Representa-
tive Sibley of Pennsylvania created
something of a sensation in the House
to-day during the general debate on the
agricultural appropriation bill by Sc
verely denouncing Gen. Jacob H. Smith
for the orders he issued in the Samar
campaign. Mr.. Sibley's speech was en-
Enthusiastically applauded by the Demo-
Gratis and was received with some evil
dences of approval on the Republican
side. The speech was considered the
more remarkable in that it came from
a Republican who left the Democratic
party on the issues raised by the Span
ish war and who has since been an ar
dent supporter of expansion.
Mr.. Williams, Democrat, of Missis-
sippi, endorsed what Mr. Sibley had
said.
MIR. Sibley said he had been an ex
pansionist and defended the policy of
the administration in the acquisition
of the Philippines, that duty and honor
justified our position there; that the
commercial welfare of the nation de-
manded that we should control that
archipelago, which stands as the gate
way to the Oriental world.
He then continued:
Therefore, when l am compelled to
read utterances contained in military
orders that make the blood of men run
cold, when l have heard the state
ments made that we were cruel in the
conduct of that war, l have thought
perhaps the partisan was speaking.
But when l have read, as 1 have with
in the past forty-eight hours, that a
general wearing the uniform of the
army of the United States, one who
stands under the shadow of our flag,
issues orders, not to conciliate a prov
ince, but to leave it a bowling wilder
ness and to kill all above ten years of
age, then it seems to me that human
ity must have marched back
ward for eighteen centuries and
that Herod again appears.
have read of Timour the Tartar.
have read of Achilles, I have, read
Of the Saracen soourge. but I thank
God that since the tragic scene on Cal
vary it has taken eighteen centuries
to produce a Smith. l have read of
the water cure. l believe that was
exaggerated. Can any man whose
blood pounds in his pulses, any man
who has read his Bible or who has been
reared at the knee of a Christian wo-
man. justify the preparation of such
cruelties upon another man who wears
the guise and the image of his Crea-
tor? And yet, we hear this man at
tempting to justify acts by which men
are pumped so full of water to nearly
drown them and then brought back to
life by humping them over the stom-
ach with the butts of muskets. That is
not civilization. that is not Christian
izing the world. 1 am thankful that
these are sporadic cases.
Asks Congress to Protest.
"They will never pacify any race of
human beings on this earth by first
drowning them and then bringing them
to life with the butt of musket; and
against that, as a member upon this
side of the chamber, against that, as
a man who belongs, l hope not alone,
to the Republican ranks, but to the
whole brotherhood of man the wide
world round, l want the members of
this House on this side of the cham
Der, and on that to voice their protest,
and against all such mea sures. CAP
plause.) A friend of mine said a
few minutes ago, oh, you
had better wait and hear
his Defense hope the
President of the United States will
have the courage upon what the man
admits to discharge him dishonorably
from the service that ne has disgraced.
(Applause.) He admits that he issued
the order to leave the province a
bowling waste, and a bowling wilder
nd 70 iii oil Oh f,f
age, the innocent with the guilty. That
man never ought to be permitted to
stay in the service of the United States
until the sun goes down. He is a dis
grace not alone to the party, but to
every man who ever wore the uniform
of the United States, and he is a
blot and disgrace to our present civil
ization. Wait and hear what his JUS
tilcatiOn may be! That man does not
live who can justify such orders. CAP
plause.) There is no justification.
care not how adroitly his lawyers may
frame their plea or how subtle be their
reasoning. The fact admitted by mis-
own mouth that he issued such orders
is sufficient for the hope that there is
the courage and the patriotism and
the humanity and the Christianity at
the other end of the avenue that will
not let him wear the federal uniform
twenty-four hours hence"
Trouble Is with System.
Mr.. Williams of Mississippi heartily
endorsed MIR. Sibley's onslaught upon
Gen. Smith, whom he described as a
brute in uniform.
But, ] am a little afraid" he con-
tinued, that he does not strike the
evil in the right quarter. 1t is the
system which should be struck at, not
the man who unconsciously carries out
the spirit of the system. Wherever
there is a war of conquest against a
weak and inferior colored people deeds
of brutality naturally occur The chief
danger is not the injury to the weak
race, but that the temptation to tyran-
ny will react upon the strong race and
make brutes of it's soldiers. For that
reason, such wars should be avoided.
agree with the gentleman from Penn
sylvania that there can be no justifi-
cation for a civilized man to issue an
order to lay waste a whole country and
kill everybody, including children over
ten years of age"
Gen. Funston Defended.
Mr.. Curtis Of Kansas made a brief
but fervent defense. OF Gen. Funston
against the criticism to which he had
been subjected.
The people of Kansas" he began,
ARE proud of the brave and daring
record of gallant Fred Funston G@p-
plause on the Republican side) He
has hacn criticised here for an act