Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-15
THE MARINES IN HAITI

LIVERY now and then Americans with a
A' complacent sense Of their own superb
ority as civiizers are shocked and oppressed
by some sudden evidence which shows us to
be In many ways not greatly different from
other white men who make songs about the
burdens they bear in the far places Of the
earth.
The mood of discouragpmcnt will recur
again with General Barnett's account of the
ruthless slaughter of natives by contingents
Of United States marines in Haiti.
The marines have an almost spotess
record. They are great soldiers. and great
soldiers know how to be chvalrous. In
China. in Cuba and elsewhere the marines
were known as the Clcanest Of fighters. Some
thing must have gone wrong with them in
Haiti. and what it was every one will sus-
pect who has any knowledge of life ms it is
lived in places where civilized men pioneer
against the forces of the wilderness.
Put n white man among savages, keep him
there for years, cut him off from all the
forces that make for civilized restraint, com
pei him to defend his life amid unfamiliar
pcrils. and in the course of time he will in
evitaby revert to some of his ancient in
stincts. He will become half savage.
Army officers know this, and one of the
HHTucSL tuShS tHdt lull 10 tIPIH IL 10 Keep
their men from unconscious imitation of the
moods and habits that prevail in strange re-
gions where they have to stay for long
periods. Therein lies a supreme test Of
military discipline, and it is clear that disci-
pine must have failed in Haiti.
In the light of what the Begians did in
the Congo or what the French have done in
Africa or what British soldiers have done
in India. the revelations from Haiti become
relatively insignificant. And yet General
Rarnctt's narrative will astoniSh and anger
the people of the United States.
1t is only fair to the American regular"
however, to remember what he did in China,
in Cuba, in the Philippines and in France.
He Is known in all these places and else
where as the cleanest and farest of SOL
ders. That is all the more reason why the
business in Haiti is the more regrettable.
Our soldiers have been making friends for
US everywhere in the world. They have been
our most efficient ambassadors. The warm
est and steadiest friends of the United States
are the educated people of China, who re-
member the fairness of Americans and the
American Government during and after the
orgies Of the Boxer wars. Cuba not long
ago calamity called our cause her own, and
in any emergency that little country certainly
would share our burdens voluntarily to the
limit Of her strength
SO it should be everywhere. We are not
q nation of terrorists. We need to be un-
dNrstood as thoroughly in Mexico and in
Latin America as we are in China and in
France and in Cuba and the Philippines.
That is why General Barnett's revelations
will seem like the worst and most unfair sort
of advertising for the United States. The
Navy Department ought to tell the country
and the world what happened to the officers
who permitted the outrages in Haiti. And
Secretary Daniels ought to tell why these
facts have been bottled up all these months.
If Creelesque censorship is still working
to conceal facts from the American public
it cannot be made known too soon, so that
the men responsible can be properly kicked
out of their comfortable armchairs in
Washington.