The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-02-02

escaping to their mountain Businesses
unused them to show more activity and
10 become holder. They established
system of extortion by which they lev
led tribute and mulc,ed everyone with
IN their reach of es much as they
thought he could pay. These collec-
tons were largely made by intimida-
ton and they threatened those who did
not pay or who reported their opera
tons with punishments SO horrible
that most of the people found it easier
to pay and maintain silence about it
than to run the risk of torture and
mutilation if they refused or told. To
use the words of the Philippine COM
mission:
They had always had very consid-
towns Of cavite and the neighboring
provinces. many of whom We're fences
Tor their stolen cattle and other plum
cruelty had thoroughly inundated the
otherwise peaceable and law.abiding
among the masses of the people. The
hardly conveys fair idea of the mean
ing sought to he given. In every in
stance .rai1 ~ where they were able to get
suspected of having given information
to the authorizes or of being unfriendly
right or cut OFF his lips or ears or cut
the tendons Of his legs, thus furnish
Ing grin. object lessons to the country
they took sides with the constituted
authorities or failed in giving aid to
the ladrSne nndn in the shape Of supplies
nicipal officials, who in obedience to
their sworn duty gave, information Of
the presence of some ladrones in the
harrios, were thus maltreated. A JUS
tfce of the peace who dared to bind over
q ladrope was sentenced to death by
trnr aud Il a ~.
but managed to escape while they We're
treat.
A few examples of this kind Of pun
ishment are now living in the neigh
bOrhOod of Manila, and it is not sur
prising that the people who witnessed
their torture and designation should
be unwilling to take any chances of
being dealt with in similar manner.
1t was only found necessary to DEM
Onstrate to the people that the authori-
ties were really in earnest; that the
campaign was to be continued until
the leaders were captured or killed,
and that protection in the meantime
would be accorded those who demon
strated their loyalty.
Thus assured, the response was
ready, energetic, and complete. Soon
Information began to come in of in
tended movements, and the authorities
finally got to know where these men
expected to stay, and one by one they
fell into the tolls, some being killed
In action, others captured, and the
smaller fry, worried by the continued
pursuit, came in and surrendered in
considerable numbers.
The secretary of commerce and po-
lice in his separate report says:
1t Is characteristic of criminals never
20 own themselves to be outlaws, liv-
ing by what they could plumber. Fan
fast, sr dssign,at, +, and uniforms were
they called themselves generals. colo
nels. majors, etc, of the Philippine
army: which they declared to be Tight
pisos Of Manila and in the previnees
a6ected. the provincial governors and
men who Were distinguished in the in
1urrection against the United States
soy ,era sIn, during the years from 1899
political significance attached to these
ladrones; that the men in charge were
neither men of weight nor standing in
the FIlipino community, and that the
personal ACKNOWLEDGMENT and loot, and
their methods We're intimidation and
theft. It is certain that the leaders
se.d9 pm or never occupied points of dan
had never been shot down nor were
they apt to be seen. The occasions
When leader has been killed have been
Wnen the band was surprised or am
In most of the provinces of the
island of Luzon practically the last
vestige OF armed resistance to consti-
tuted authority has been wiped out, and