Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-05-30

rades, the men in the uniform of the
| United States, VINO have for the last
three years patiently and uncomplain-
ingly championed the American cause
In the Philippine Islands. are your
younger brothers, your sons. They
have shown themselves not unworthy
of you, and they are entitled to the
support of all men who are proud of
what they uid.
These younger comrades of yours
have fought under terrible difficulties
and have received terrible provocation
from very cruel and very treacherous
! enemy. Under the strain of these pro-
vocations | deeply deplOre to say that
some among them have so far forgot
ten themselves as to counsel and com,
NIT. in retaliation. acts of cruelty. The
fact that for every guilty act COM
mitted by one of our troops a hundred
acts of far greater atrocity have been
committed by the hostile natives upon
our troopsa or upon the peaceable and
law-abidinglnatives who are friendly to
us, can not be held to excuse any
wrongdoer on our side. Determined
and answering effort must be made,
and is being made to find out every in
stance of barbarity on the part of our
| troops, to punish those guilty of it,
and to take, If possible, even stronger
measures than have already been
taken to minimize or prevent the oc-
currence of all such instances in the
| future.
Lynchings Are lnhuman.
From time to time there occur in our
country, to the deep and lasting shame
of our people, lynchings carried on un-
49,, ~. ~f til, ,Nl4.
and barbarity-a cruelty infinitely
worse than any that has ever been
committed by our troops in the Philip.
pines; worse to the victims, and far
more brutalizing to those guilty of it.
The men who fail to condemn these
lynchings, and yet clamor about what
has been done in the Philippines, are
indeed guilty of neglecting the beam
in their own eye while taunting their
brother about the mote in his. Under
stand me. These lynchings afford us
no excuse for failure to stop cruelty in
the Philippines. Every effort is being
made, and will be made, to minimize
the chances of cruelty occurring.
But keep in mind that these cruel
ties in the Philippines have been who'll
ly exceptional, and have been shame
lessly exaggerated. We deeply and
bitterly regret that any such cruelties
should have been committed, no mat
ter how rarely, no matter under what
provocation, by American troops. But
they afford far less justification for a
general condemnation of our army
than these lyncnIngs afford for the con-
demnation of the communities in
which they have taken place. In each
case it is well to condemn the deed,
and ii is well also to refrain from in
Guiding both guilty and innocent in the
same sweeping condemnation.
Should Condemn the Deed.
In every community there are people
who commit acts of well-nigh incon-
ceivable horror and baseness. If we
fix our eyes only upon these individ-
uals and upon their acts, and if we for
get the far more numerous citizens of
upright and honest life and blind our
selves to their countless deeds of wis
dom and justice and philanthropy, it is
easy enough to condemn the communi-
ty. There is not a city in this land
which we could not thus condemn II
we fixed our eyes purely upon its po-
lice record and refused to look at what
it had accomplished for decency and
Justice and charity. Yet this is exactly
the attitude which has been taken by
too many men with reference to our
army in the Philippines; and 1t is an
attitude both absurd and cruelty un-
just.
The Rules Are lincoln's.
The rules of warfare which have
been promulgated by the war depart
ment and accepted as the basis of con-
duct by our troops in the field are the
rules laid down by Abraham Lincoln
when you my hearers, were lighting
for the union. These rules provide, OF
course, for the just severity necessary
in war The most destructive of all
forms of cruelty would be to show
weakness where sternness' is demand
ed by iron need. But all cruelty is for
hidden, and all harshness beyond what
is called for by need. Our enemies in
the Philippines have not merely vlo-
lated every rule of war, but have made
of these violations their only method
of carrying on the war. We would
have been justified by Abraham Lin
coins rules of war in infinitely greater
severity than has been shown. The
fact really is that our warfare in the
Philippines has been carried on with
singular humanity. For every act of
cruelty by our men there have been in
Vulnerable acts of forbearance, mag
nanimity and generous kindness. These
are the qualities which have character
iZed the war as a whole. The cruelties
nave been wholly exceptional, on our
part
The guilty are to be punished; but in
furnishing them, let those who sit at
ease at home, who walk delicately and
live in the soft places of the earth, re-
member also to do them common JUS
tice. Let not the effortless and the un-
tempted rail overmuch at strong men
who with blood and sweat face years
of toll and days and nights of agony,
and at need lay down their lives in re-
mote tropic jungles to bring the light
of civilization into the worlds dark
places. The warfare that has extend
ed the boundaries of civilization at the
expense of barbarism and sayagery
has been for centuries one of the most
! he nf