The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-29
Former Democrat and Present Repub-
lican ENpansionist Creates N Sem
satiOn i'm the House.
CALLS SMITH A DISGRACE
AND HOPES THE PRESIDENT WILL
STRIP HIM OF HIS UNIFORM.
Similar Speech by Simmons i'm the
Senate-Oleomargari and ExcIu-
sion Bills Disposed OF.

WASHINGTON, April 2s-Representative
Sibley, of Pennsylvania, created something
of sensation in the House to-day during
the general debate on the agricultural ap-
priation by severely denouncing Gen. Jacob
H. Smith for the orders he issued in the
Samar campaign. He declared that General
Smith a disgrace to the uniform he
wore and expressed the hope that the
President would strip him of his uniform
within forty-eight hours. Mr.. Sibley's
speech was enthusiastically applauded by
the Democrats and was received with some
evidences of approval on the Republican
side. The speech was considered the more
remarkable in that it came from a Repub-
lican who left the Democratic party on
the issues raised by the Spanish war and
who since has been ardent expansionst.
Mr.. Williams, a Democrat, of Mississippi,
Endorsed what Sibley had said.
At the opening of the session Mr.. Cur
tbs, of Kansas, made a brief but fervent
defense of General Funston against the
criticism TO which he had been subjected.
THE people of Kansas" he began, ARE
proud of the brave and daring record of
gallant Fred Funston Applause on the Re
publican sidel; he has been criticised here
for an act which, for daring of concep-
ton and execution, ranks with the great
est feats of arms-he captured the new
George Washington, Aguinaldo. If another
had accomplished what General Funston
did, he said, 1.-The Democrats would have
made him their candidate for President.
He called attention to the fact that his pro-
motion had been recommended by General
Wheaton and General Macarthur, both sol
diers of the civil war, soldiers who knew
more of the rules of warfare than all the
politicians In this country combined And
his commission, he added, was signed by
the greatest President we have ever had
the soldier, statesman and martyr, Will
liam Mckinley. GApplause]
SIBLEY'S SPEECH.
| Mr. Sibley the next speaker. said he had
been an expansionist and defended the
policy of the administration in the acquis-
ton of the Philippines. Duty and honor,
he said, justified our position there. The
commercial welfare of the Nation demand
ed that we should control that archipelago,
which stands as the gateway to the Orien-
tai world. He then continued: when l
! have heard the statements made that we
! were cruel in the conduct of that war, /
! have thought perhaps the partisan was
| speaking. But when have read, as have
! within the past fOrty-eight hours, that
| general wearing the uniform of the army
! of the United States, one who stands under
/ the shadow of our flag, issues orders, not
| TO conciliate a province, but to leave ii
| years of age, then ii seems to me that
| humanity must have marched backward
| for eighteen centuries and that Herod
again appears l have read of Timour.
| the Tartar. / have read of Achilles;
| have read of the Saracen scourge. but
thank God that since the tragic scene on
! calvary, it has taken eighteen centuries
! to produce a Smith. l have read, of the
water cure. / believe that was exagger
! ated. Can any man whose blood pounds
! in his pulses, any man who has read his
| r1,o has, han Cd OF he lr,,x.a
| of a Christian woman, justify the perpe-
tratiOn of such cruelties upon another man
. who wears the guise and the image of his
| Creator? And yet, we hear this man at
tempting to justify acts by which men
are pumped so full of water nearly to
| drown them and then brought back to life
| by humping them over the stomach with
the butts of muskets. That is not civiliza-
| ton, that is not ChristianiZing the world.
Il am thankful that these are sporadic
cases. Again that as a man who belongs,
l hope, not alone to the Republican ranks.
but TO the whole brotherhood of man the
| wide world round, L want the members
of this House, on this side of the cham
| Der and that, 10 voice their protest, and
against all such measures. tApplause.1 A
| friend of mine said a few minutes ago
oh. know you had better wait and hear
| his defense L hope the President of the
| United States will have the courage, upon
| what the man admits, to discharge him dis
| honorably from the service that he dis
| graceS. IApplause.1 He admits that he
| issued the order TO leave the province
bowling wilderness and to kill all above
! ten years of age, the innocent with the
guilty. That man never ought TO be per-
mtted to stay in the service of the United
| States until the sun goes down. He is
disgrace not alone to the party, but to
| every man who ever wore the uniform of
the United States and he is a blot and
disgrace to our present civilization. Wait
and hear what his defense may be- That
| man does not live who can justify such
orders. / care not how adrOitly his law
| yers may frame their plea or how subtle be
| their reasoning, the fact admitted by his
own mouth that he issued such orders is
sufficient for the hope that there is the
| courage and the patriotism and the hui
manity of the Christianity at the other end
! of the avenue that will not let him wear
the federal uniform twenty-four hours
| hence"
Mr.. Williams. of Mississippi, heartily in
| dorsed Mr.. Sibley's onslaught upon Gen
| eral Smith, whom he described as a brute
in uniform. But am a little afraid"
| he continued, that he does not strike the
! evil in the right quarter II is the sys-
tenn which should be struck at, not the
! man who unconsciously carries out the
| spirit of the system. Wherever there is q
war of conquest against a weak and in
ferior cOlOred people deeds of brutality
naturally occur. The chief danger IL not
the injury to the weak race. but that the
temptation TO tyranny will react upon the
strong race and make Orutes Of its SOL
diers. For that reason ouch wars should
be avoided. ! agree with the gentleman
from Pennsylvania that there can be no
justification for a civilized man to issue
an order 10 lay waste a whole country and
kill everybody, including children over ten
years of age.
=