The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-11-29
A PRIEST TORTURED TO DEATH.

A PRIEST TORTURED TO DEATH.
It is an unpleasant duty for The Irish
Standard or any other Catholic journal
to refer to the barbarities committed
by American soldiers in the Philip
pines. That the natives Of the islands
were subjected to cruelties at the
hands of the American army of subju.
cation is admitted by the perpetrators
themselves.
1t is useless to try to conceal the in.
famous conduct of some American of.
ficers like General Jacob II. Smith.
The "kill-and-burn" policy of that mill.
tary monster in Samar equalled In
savagery the fiendish outrages of Oil.
yer Cromwell in Ireland, who saved
neither age nor sex in his campaign of
determination. One of the most com
mendable acts performed by President
Roosevelt during his administration is
to have discharged Jake Smith from
the military service of the United
States.
According to Mr.. w. A. Croffut, pres
ident of the Liberty League, more than
a thousand cases Of alleged torture
have been reported to Elihu Root, the
Secretary of War, but that New York
lawyer and politician paid not the
slightest attention to any charges pre-
ferrcd against the American volunteers.
AS the charges came from the Anti
Imperalists, who were opposed to the
benevolent assimilation" Of the Fill
pinos, the Secretary of War treated
them with contempt, and made no in
quiry into their truth or falsity.
The case Of Father Augustine was
submitted to Secretary Root and Sen
ator Lodge by such eminent citizens
as Charles Francis Adams and Carl
Schurz, but nothing was done by either
of them. Not until President Roose-
welt was appraised of the inhuman treat
:ment to which the innocent priest was
subjected was anything done to dis
cover the perpetrators. After two
years of inactivity in the matter, Elihl
Root has at last found out that Captain
Brownell, Of the Goth United States In
fantry, ordered the "water cure" to be
administered to Father Augustine, and
that the priest died after the third op.
Grafton.
What had Father Augustine done?
Absolutely nothing. The only charge
against him was that he knew where
money belonging to the insurgents was
secreted, and that he refused to give
his captors any information whatever
on the grounds that any secrets in his
possession were obtained confidentially
through the confessional. He would d.
vulge nothing and was tortured to
death under orders issued by Captain
Brownell. The dead body of the mar
tyred priest was buried on the regi-
mental parade ground, as If it were
the body of criminal, and every trace
of the grave was obliterated.
1t would be unjust to hold the Amer
lean army in the Philippines RESPONSE
BILE for the atrocious conduct Of Jake
Smith and Captain Brownell. The SOL
diers had to obey orders, but they did
so very reluctantly when torture was
to be inflicted. 1t is no reflection on
the army as a whole that cruelties were
perpetrated by few officers and SOL
diers in the Philippines, but the in
dividuals guilty of barbarous acts
should be severely punished by the
military authorities.
1t is to be regretted that Captain
Brownell is beyond the reach of the
military Jurisdiction, having been mus
tered out of the army before any in
vestigatlon was made. He never re-
ported to the department commander
that he had murdered the priest, and
he says that military necessity COM
PEELED him to administer the fatal dose
to the prisoner. There ought to be
some legal way of bringing Brownell
to justice, even though he is out of the