The Irish standard., 1902-07-12

before which the angels sang.
The camp fires of our soldiers, which
for a hundred years sent forth the ill.,
cense Of liberty. now smoked over the
desolate ruins Of destroyed villages We
had fallen to the brutal level Of pagan
colonizers and We're to kill and burn
and destroy all that crossed our path.
How our English cousins will chortle
with maudlin JOY!
How every outrage perpetlated in
the valleys OF South Africa will be
sturdily defended by the government
benches i'll parliament, gleefully point
ing to the precedent established by
Smith in Samar.
Ave. Mr.. President, it is well you
should send your ambassadors to the
coronation of Edward; it is covert
compliment to the English idea of civil
ization. The memories of millions of
indescribable outrages committed in
the name of English colonization in
America and Africa, in Ireland and
India are now approved, hallowed and
sanctified.
Send your ambassadors to the coro-
nation of Edward; strike welcome
hands as congenial spirits across the
outraged bodies of Boer and Filipino;
fold in bloody embrace the empire
sweltering in glory and in gore.
Send your ambassadors to the coro-
nation of Edward; let their parchment
commissions be decorated with the red
Intercollegiate has always been in
blood Of the innocent children of Sa-
mar; it is your strenuous guaranty that
the right and we have been in the
wrong.
Send your ambassadors to the coro-
nation of Edward; but send them not
in the name Of the American people;
but rather as special pleaders of par
tisan administration seeking relief
from the shame and stain of slaughter
and the burdens of conscience by court
ing the favor of an empire which cen
turies ago sold conscience for colonies
and conquest.
Because Of your horrible atrocities in
the Philippines you have aroused the
righteous wrath of the country, from
which you now seek refuge by crying
out, 'The Democrats are attacking the
army"
Attacking the army! Who is guilty
Of the cruelest attack ever made on the
American army? The administration
in power and the officers in command.
who permitted, encouraged and ordered
torture applied to prisoners taken by
American soldiers
Soldiers merely carry out the orders
of the commander-in-clief. Their first
and most sacred duty is obedience.
They cannot inflict torture and cru
city Of their own accord. 1t is a viola
ton of the rules of war, and they
would be punished for disobedience.
So we know that if barbarity exists in
the Philippines, it is there as part of
the war policy of the administration.
From competent testimony submitted
we learn that torture is inflicted by
orders. and the reason alleged, the ex-
cuse offered, is that we are compelled
to res 1T to such practices if we are to
achieve success in our military opera
tions.
Exactly the same reason Spain Of
fered for her concentration camps in
Cuba: the same excused offered for her
Weylerism, the moving cause of our
war for the freedom of Cuba
We can criticize the "water cure"
only at the risk Of traducing the army,
and when we complain of the brutality
and inhumanity of concentration
camps we are accused of assailing the
American soldiers.
The American soldier-we love the
American soldier. His record during
a century and quarter has been bril-
liant. chivalrOus glorious, without re-
proach and without stain, until the ap-
pearance of Smith.
Thousands there are to sound the