The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-18
Why Do These Democrats Hate the
Army?

army
The Hon. WILLIAM ATKINSON JONES,
Representative in Congress Of the First
Virginia district, should write history
when he ceases to make it. He has the
intuitive perception of facts, the passion
for the truth, the open mind, the absolute
freedom from bias, the calm moderation
Of the ideal historian. For the reproof
and instruction of hasty and prejudiced
writer's for the press some passages from
his remarks in the House on the storm
ing of Mount Dajo are here reverently
reproduced:
Conduct as cruel and as inhuman as that which
characterized the atrocities OF the Duke OF ALvA
in the Netherlands"
The lips o. every Moro are sealed in death. and
we are asked to accept General WOODS statement
that the women and children were killed simply
because they did not desire TO be saved. For one,
/ decline 10 be satisfied with such an Incredible
story. Such a monstrous proposition is to my
mind simply unbelievable. And feeling as l do,
! am not willing that a single day shall pass by with.
out my registering my emphatic dissent TO the CON
cluslons TO which the President tells US he has ar.
rived. In my deliberate judgment the killing OF
600 men, women and children in the crater OF Mount
DaJo by the troops under command OF General
WOOD was a wanton and cruel act OF %butchery,
and one which cannot be justlned and which the
American people win never excuse and forget"
Who can believe that there was necessity for
this wholesale massacre OF women and children,
What reasonable human being can believe that the
killing OF these poor. ignorant creatures could rkt
have been avoided. To me II is unthinkable that
the Moros charged the assaultlng American col
umns holding their children before them as shields.
such a story Is too preposterous. too mOnstrous TO
nnd credence in any quarter. It will not be ac-
cepted by unpreJudiced and dispassionate humane
and Christian people anywhere. From one end OF
civil cation 10 the other 1t will be repudlated-
throughout the world will be scornfully rejected.
" Mr.. Chairman, excuse II as we may, the revolt
ing story OF the massacre OF Mount DaJo will 90
down into history as the blacklist stain upon the
American name. A thousand years Of honorable,
humane, noble and Christian conduct on the part
Of our American soldiery will not suflce TO blot
out that stain" Applause on the Democratic
sldel
Mr.. JONES is bound to believe that
the American soldiers are butchers, He
seems to welcome and rejoice in "the
blacklist stain upon the American name. 4"
His mind is made up for the worst; and
he thinks that the American people SYM
pathize with his desire-a pretty common
desire in recent years Of Democratic
anti-imperialist politicians-to insult the
American army.
1t is not very long ago that the Ameri-
can soldiers in the Philippines were
called "murderers." Possibly that is still
Senator CARMACK's opinion Of them.
The assertions Of the Hon. WILLIAM
ATKINSON JONES of Warsaw may not in
themselves be of the highest Importance,
but the Democratic party, 80 far as there
is one and it is heard in Congress, has
taken for years and still takes the Jones'
ian view of the army. The thoughts Of
the Hon. JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS, the
Democratic leader, On the crater fight
have not appeared in official and re-
vised form. The reports Of them given
in dispatches from Washington show
him in character, emitting his brilliant
sarcasm and his customary doggerel
at the soldiers of his country.
Mr.. WILLIAMs's profound incapacityt to
understand American sentiment is doubt
less one OF his chief qualifications for
leadership The Democraticp party has