The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-05-09

We Have Been In the Business Of
Imperialism Only Two Years, but
We Learn the Lessons Quickly
From Our Excellent and Expert
enced British Teachers.
There is no reason why our Ameri.
can youth should longer forage in the
regions of fiction for blood and thun-
der material All they require is Il
close intimacy with American history
as witnessed in latter day army
events in the Philippines. For full
and complete material with which to
embeilsh human depravity one needs
only TO gather the martial experiences
of Major Waller as he himself relates
them in defending his acts before the
Manila court martial. Mere strenuous
| lives" sink into nsigniGcance before
these recitals.
"Whcn | was with the British forces
In Egypt i'll 1882" says the major,
1.-THE Arabs We're wont to capture the
pickets of the Bengal cavalry. decapi-
tate them and place thec heads on
poles. After that all the Arabs who
were caught were shot without trial.
During the campaign in China" he
continues, ''the Chinese mutilated the
dead and tortured the wounded to
death. Consequently when q Boxer or
a fanatic was captured he was cxecut-
1H i'm ai1i1 tnly- FThjs ;,,
case OF every nation in China. and it
was true during the three weeks that
| commanded the Americans there"
Major Waller, then. served his ap-
premiership as an impcrialist general
under the British flag. When, there
fore, he came to command our Amcri-
can troops in the Philippines; he con-
cluded logically that what bad been
approved under the standard OF Magma
Charta was good Americanisnl. for he
found that no protests were being
made, and he was led to believe that
shooting helpless Filipino captives
without trial would be approved by
Americans too.
Major Waller seems to forget that
&AihNi iNt'Ao ia We IOt DtSll 81 lDll.e Ill llp
business of imperialism as the British.
While the British have long been in
practice at the gate of Khartum and at
other bloody places we unsOphisticated
Americans have only been in the bust
ness Of imperialism some two years.
We are not so experienced in the prac-
tice Of killing and burning" "killing
everything over ten" and other acts Of
military necessity" How could we
be?
But Major Waller says. 81 honestly
thought then that WAS right in doing
these things. and believe so now"
He doubtless conceives that such things
as the rights Of prisoners of war to
civilized treatment. and especially the
right of all men to some kind of trial
before they are Shot. is an old. outworn
fiction found somewhere in musty
but is not applicable when
one is dealing with such fellows us the
natives of Samar. At least it Is good
English, and what the English do not
know about up to date Imperialism is
not worth knowing.
After telling Of all these uncivilized
things practiced under the American
nag upon the islanders Major Waller,
as if in justification CT his conduct,
protests that these natives Of Samar
actually revel in blood and have an
appetite for wantOn sacrilege of the
human body" Some Of us will hardly
wonder at it.
Yet General Smith last February in
an order intended to show The working
Of his unique methods Of ''pacification'
says he is Constrained to believe that
active opposition to our occupation of
the island has crumbed away" I'm.
der his orders to kill ana burn and to
make Samur "a bowling Wilderness"
what would not 'crumblc away?'
One can well imagine that Senator
Hoar is deeply stirred over these late
revelations in the Philippines and that
a wholesale investigation at the hands
Of congress is demanded with wide
open doors. Now that Major Waller,
in spite Of all those narrowing admis.
sions, is acquitted. will that be deemed
a military necessity" too?
Are we sowing the seeds Of per
petual revolution against us for all
time,' as the civil governor of Luzon
declares? 1t is high time we founo
out. Boston Globe.