The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-31

upon the peaceable and lawabiding ma
tlves who are friendly to us, cannot
be held to excuse any wrongdoer on
our side. Determined and answering
effort must be made, and is being
made, to find out every instance of
barbarity on the part of our troops,
TO punish those guilty of it, and to
take, II possible, even stronger meas
ures than have already been taken to
minimize or prevent the occurrence of
all such instances in the future.
rs it only in the army of the Philip
pines that Americans sometimes do
acts that cause the rest of Americans
regrets?
Lynchings Dragged in.
From time to time there occur in
our country, to the deep and lasting
shame of our people, lynchings carried
on under circumstances of inhuman
cruelty and barbarity-a cruelty in
tinitely worse than any that has ever
been committed by our troops in the
Philippines; worse to the victims, and
far more brutalizing to those guilty of
it. The men who fail to condemn these
lychings, and yet clamor about what
has been done in the Philippines, are
indeed guilty of neglecting the beam
in their own eye while haunting their
brother about the mote in his. I'm
derstand me. These lynchings afford
us no excuse for failure to stop cruelty
in the Philippines. Every effort is be-
ing made, and will be made, to mini
mize 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 lynchings afford for
the condemnation of the communities
in which they have taken place. In
each case it is we'll to condemn the
deed, and it is we'll also to refrain
from including both guilty and inno-
cent in the same sweeping condemna-
ton.
At Some Distant Day.
1.-THE slowly-Iearned and difficult art
of elf-government, an art which our
people have taught themselves by the
labor of a thousand years, cannot be
grasped in a day by a people only just
emerging from conditions of life which
our ancestors left behind them in the
dim years before history dawned. We
believe that we can rapidly teach the
people of the Philippine Islands not
only how to enjoy but how to make
good use of their freedom; and with
their growing knowledge their
growth in selfzgovernment shall
keep steady pace. When they
have thus shown their capacity
for real freedom by their power of self
government, then. and not till then.
will it be possible to decide whether
they are to exist independently OF US
or be knit to US by ties of common
friendship and interest. When that
day will come it is not in human wis
dom now to foretell.
Not Party. Question.
''This should no more be a party
question than the war FOR the Union
should have been a party question. AT
this moment the man in highest Office
in the Philippine Islands is the vice
governor, Gen. Luke Wright of Ten
nessee, who CALAMITY wore the gray in
the Civil War, and who is
now working hand in hand
with the head of our army in the Phil
ippines, Adna Chaffee, who in the civil
war gallantly wore the blue. Those
two and the men under them, from the
NORTH anu from the SOulI, III civil lie
and in military life, as teachers, as ad-
ministrators, as soldiers, are laboring
nightly for us who live at home. Here
and there black sheep are to be found
among them; but taken as whole they
represent as high a standard of public
service as this. country has ever seen.
They are doing a great work for ciyili-
zation, a great work for the honor and
the interest of this nation, and above
Ill 20, %I,a al Of he iYatN fa 70
of the Philippine Islands. All honor to
them; and Shame, thrice shame, to US
if we fail to uphold their hands!"
The applause accorded the President
as. he concluded was long and continu-
GUS and as he took his seat some one
cried out, Three cheers for our brave
President" whereupon a mighty shout
went up from the thousands who had
gathered to hear him.
Commander of G. A r.. Followed.
Gen. Terrence, commander-in-chief
of the G.. A. r., followed the President
with a few remarks, and then the SER
vices were brought to a close with the
playing of America" by the band, the
choir and assembly joining, and ben
ediction by Henry S. Stevens, depart
ment chaplain.
Immediately after the memorial ex-
ercises at the amphitheater, the mon
ument erected to the memory of Col.
Edgar O'Connor. of the Second Wis
consin Regiment, was unveiled in the
presence of a number of his comrades.
The address of the occa sion was deliv
cred by Representative j. j. jenkins of
Wisconsin.
At Soldiers Home, at battle-ground
Cemetery, near the site of old Fort
Stevens. at St. Elizabeth's, and at 9TH
err cemeteries, appropriate services were