The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-05-07
AIva Cromwell Smith.

Now at last there is to be some
check put on the policy of atrocity in
the Philippines-at least there is to
be move in that direction. General
Smith, the foremost in the devils
worh, is to be put on trial for his mis-
deeds. 1t is painful to think that
this might not be the case were it
not for the revelations made before
the senate committee and the general
cutlery against the use of torture in
the army Yet it is impossible to es-
cape the conviction that were it not
for these misdeeds the policy of the
military party must have prevailed,
seeing that the report of MAJOR Gar
diner outlining and denouncing that
barbarous system as practiced on the
Filipinos had been for months pigeon
uoled in Washington.
AS for General Smith himself, it
would appear to be altogether a SUI
perfluous formality to hold an investi-
CATION into his proceedings. Over his
own signature he acknowledges all
the responsibilities for the horrors
which have thriled the heart of this
nation as it never was thrilled since
the Virginius massacre. He says that
Wien he was sent to Samar it did
not take him long to see that the
fire and sword" policy was the only
specific for the conditions there. To
bring home to the people the fact
that war is hell' was his instanta-
neous resolve. To the fire and sword
he added famine. The treatment of
Samar, he announced, he was about
to repeat in the island of Leyte,
whose crime was that it was there
the Samarites bought their provis-
ions, and some bolomen went from
thence to Samar to fight. All these
horrors, and much more, has General
Smith recounted, and evidently with
much satisfaction, in the Critic of
Manila of February 1. And to make
them all the more revolving, he pirates
in connection with them OF duty to
God" the virtues of wisdom and tenn
perance and the sage precepts OF
Socrates. To his troops when issuing
his savage orders, he gave precise in
structions to be particularly stern in
dealing with priests-not the Spanish
friars, be it noted, but native priests.
They were to be arrested, whether
accused or suspected of anything mi
mical to American rule, and kept in
prison until they proved they were
innocent of what they were not ac-
cused of doing. When we read this
fearful delineation of Smith by Smith
himself, and then remember that he
denied on oath that he had instructed
his subordinates to kill and burn
and make Samar a bowling wilder
ness" it is easy to see that cowardice
may make even a monster a perjurer
! in the hope of saving his own vile
skin. The excuse for the hell-fire pol
icy of this man is that none of the
natives have any love of Americans
but only "secret hate'-a foolish sort
of generalization by which friends
were to be COMPOUNDED with enemies
or at least non-combatants with ac-
tive insurrectos. 1t does not seem to
nave occurred to him that love for
Americans, under the circumstances,
would be somewhat peculiar. People
do not ususually conceive profound
affection for those who try to force
friendship with the bullet, the torch
and the water cure" A little honest
dealing at the beginning would have
been worth a legion of General
Smiths and his hell-fire nostrums.-
, Standard and Times.