'
APRIL 10, 1007
The. Commoner.
L
tary of-war. We shall have exchanged a balking1
horse for a willingrone. The sullen submission of
a cGnquered Reople will gLve place to' genuine and"
universal gratitude toward America. The unborn
National Life will leap for joy Jn the Womb1 of
Time. To Dennis will be celebrated in every
church of every town in the Archipelago from
Aparrl to Zamboanga. Aglipay himself may even
say: "Now, Lord, let my schism depart in peace,
for mine eyes have soon Thy salvation."
The great ocean steamship companies of the
world publish the sailing dates of their vessels a
year aheod; Everything else hinges upon tills
point of departure. All preparations, whether by
crew, shippers or prospective passengers, are
shaped to that end. Why cannot the same be
done in the matter of the launching of a Ship of
State? If- three strong and able men, familiar
with insular conditions and still young enough to
undertake the task say-, for instance, General
Leonard Wood, of the jirmy; Judge Adam C. Car
son, of the Philippine supreme court; and W. Mor
gan Sinister, Collector of Customs of the archipel
ago; or three other men of like calibre wore told
by a president of the United States, by authority
of the congress: "Go out there and set up a re
spectable native government in ten years, and then
come away," they Could and would do it, and that
government would be a success; and one of the
greatest moral victories in the annals of free gov
ernment would have been written b the gentle
men concerned upon the pages of their country's
history.
To understand the-causes of the present dis
content, andhow incurable it is except by a prom
ise of independence at a fixed date, let me review
this tragedy of errors which we have written in
Jjlood and selfish legislation in that unhappy land,
as -rapidly as may be consistent with clearness
and commensurate with the ability of an Incon
siderable person, an individual whose only claim
to be heard upon a great question like this must
rest upon the circumstances that he was an eye
(witness to the tragedy.
When trouble began to brew in the Philippines
after the signing of the treaty of Paris the
Sclutrman commission, it will be remembered,
was' sent out; bringing the olive branch. It -accomplished
nothing. It was too late': War-ensued.
When the writer reached Manila early in. Novem
ber, 1899, he, was detailed to the command of a
company of' Maccabebe scouts, to develop fire' for
General Lawtbri's division) their commanding of
ficer, Lieutenant Boutelle, of the artillery, having
been killed the day before. On the way to join
them, he met General Lawton's adjutant general
at a place called San Isidro. The colonel said:
"We took this town last spring, after a pretty
stiff fight. Then, as a result of the negotiations
of the Schurman commission, General Otis had ua
evacuate this place and fall back. We have just
had to take it again." The Schurman commission
hoped that the Filipinos could be persuaded to
give up their idea of independence. The army
knew better.
IiTthe first half of 1899, General Otis inexcus
ably postponed recommending to President Mc
Kiuley the call for federal volunteers. He did not
really uuderstandlhe seriousness of the situation.
He conducted the campaign all the time he. was
there from a desk in Manila, and never once took
the field-
The Volunteer Army of 1899 was to last, un
der the act of congress, for two 'years only that
is, until" the close of the fiscal year ending June
80, 1901. The Insurrection had to be over at that
time, whether or no. To use an expression of the
theatrical managers, that date was to be "posi
tively its last appearance." The Volunteers began
their work In the fall of 1899, twenty-five regi
ments of them, and, shoulder to' shoulder with the
Regulars, pegged away cheerfully at the war, do
ing their country's work; and 'they had been vig
orously convincing the Filipinos of the benevo
lence of out ' intontlons for about nine month's,
when the Idea of a second Philippine commission,
a second olive branch, was conceived at Wash
ington. The presidential election-was to occur in
the following. November, and men high in tlie;.
councils of the republican party at home believed
that the success of the party would be seriously
imperilled if the situation did- not soon clear up,
or at least improve, In the Philippines. The pub
lic press of that period contains Interviews with,
such men, of the tenor indicated. In this state-of
the case, the Taft commission was sent out.
Things looked dismal. Philippine stock was going
down. Optimism was devoutly to be wished.
Judge Taf tf did ttot disappoint his friends at home.
He wasr not then a judge. He was a- partisan of
the- republican party, an advocate.- And, like
many another' able. advocate, he persuaded himself
that the- witnesses- whose testimony militated,
against bls clients; interest were, if not. menda
cious, at least blinded with prejudice; He ac-
cepled the views of natives not in Armsftus
against that of. ihe army.
In June, 1000, when the Taft commission ar
rived, the military authorities had riot forgotten
the Schurman commission, and the folly of. Ife'
efforts to mix puaeo with war; and they did not
look forward with enthusiasm to the coming of
the new outfit These latter brought with thorn,
like the Schurman commission, the theory Unit
kindness would win the people over: and they at
once proceeded to act conformably to that amiable
delusion. Of course it was not long before they
found abundant evidence to. support their pro
conceived theory. Accordingly, on November 30,
lOOOi they made their first report to the secretary
of war, in which, among other things, they an
nounced this tragically optimistic conclusion:'
"A groat majority of the people long for peace,
and are entirely willing to accept the establish
ment of a government under the supremacy, of ihe
United States'
The army entertained a diametrically opposite
opinion. Tho military view of the situation about
the same time was thus satirically expressed In
General MacArthur's annual report to the sec
retary of war:
" ' The people seem to be actuated by the
idea that In all doubtful matters of politics or
war, men are never nearer right than when going
with their own -kith. and. kin. "
Allusion Is then made to the "almost complete
unity of action of the entire native population.
That such unity Is a fact Is too obvious to admit
of discussion." Then, follows this humorous
thrust: " The adhesive principle comes from
ethnological homogeneity, which Induces men to
respond for a time to the appeals of cousanguln6
ous leadership." -
If tho Volunteers whose term of enlistment was
scheduled to expire with the fiscal year, June 30,
1001, should have to be replaced by anything like
an equal number of other troops, a call for further
appropriations to conduct a long-drawn out and
unpopular war, would surely try the patience of
the American people, and endanger the ultimate
fortunes of the republican party. Everything had
to be shaped to avoid such a catastrophe. Whether
the country should be ready for civil government
on that date or not, it had to be. When Joel
Chandler Harris's creation, "Uncle Remus," .lolls
his little friend the story of Brer ,Rabbit!s climb-'
Ing'-the tree to elude tho dogs,, and the lad Inter
rupts: "But, Uncle Remus, a- rabbit can't climb
a tree," the resourceful narrator very promptly
replies: . "Oh, but, honey, dis rabbit des 'bleeged
tor climb dis tree." The administration -was
'bleeged to climb the tree of civil government
Civil government was therefore duly Inaugurated
on July 4, 1901.
Withih less than six months thereafter, the
flames of insurrection broke out anew in Batangas
and the adjacent provinces, and it became neces
sary to give the military a free hand. General
J. Franklin Bell accordingly Invaded Batangas
and the region round about, with an ample force,
a brigade, and proceeded to wage war the sort
of war General Sherman described, only more so;
for General Sherman did not practice reconccu
tration. General Bell went there to joaake those
people "long for peace." And he did make them
"long for peace," or, to use his own langauge,
"want peace and want it badly." General Bell
is not to be. blamed for this. He. is a brave and
skillful soldier, one of the best in our own qr
any other army. He was simply doing Ills duty,
obedient to orders. This Batangas insurrection
of 1901-2 would never have occured had not Gov
ernor Taft persisted in believing that the Filipinos
could be genuinely satisfied with something less
than Independence. This error led him to reduce,
most Imprudently, the army of occupation and the
number of army posts, against military advice,
thereby giving the insurrection a chance to get ils
second wind If the1 army of occupation, had not
been so reduced, reconcentration would never
have been necessary; in Batangas or . elsewhere.
Reconcentration tactics are born of numerical
weakness. If you have troops enough thoroughly
to police a given territory, no need for reconcentra
tion will arise there. Reconcentration Is an ad
mission that you are not able constantly to provide
protection for all the people. As a corollary of the
fundamental mistake indicated, a constabulary
force Avas organized, which, it was believe'd, could
control the situation. That it has never been able
to do so Is a matter of record in the official publi
cations both of tho Manila and of the Washington
government. The fact is solemnly admitted In
the recitals of a law now on the statute books of
the Philippine Islands. Section G of Act 781, of. the
Philippine, commission, approved June 1,- 1903,
(providing for reconcentration, begins thus:
'In provinces which are infested to, such an
extent with ladrones or outlaws that the lives and.
property of -residents in the outlying barrios, are
rendered wholly Insecure by corillnudd predatory
raids,, and such outlying barrios thus furnish toi
the ladronoa or outlaws (heir sources of food-supply,
and it In not possible, with tho available po
lice forces constantly to provide protection, etc."
Such ate tho conditions which today warrant,
reconcentration in tho Philippines whenever "it
is not possible with the available police forces"
to protect the peaceably Inclined people. It will
thus be seen that wo are now doing in tho Philip
pines the very thing for which wo drove Wovler
and his Spaniards from the Western Hemisphere.
Reconcentration under tho military authorities Is'
bad enough, even with the superb equipment of
the commissary and quartermaster departments
of the army. But reconcentration conducted by
inexperienced civilians and unfriendly constabu
lary Is simply unsportsmanlike.
Caring for tho peaceably .inclined people, or
paclflcos, as tlioy were called in Culmthose who
upon being told to do so voluntarily come within
the zono or radius prescribed In the order for re
concentration is not the only problem which can
be competently handled by the military alone.
There are tho prisoners brought In by the policing
force, from time to time, because found outside
the prescribed radius, and put In the provincial
jail. An ordinary Jail, with 400 to 800 people
crowded into it within a short period of time, can
not be properly handled by Inexperienced hands.
The sanitary conditions are sure to become bad
and foul, and more or less disease and death la
certain to ensue. ""
In the latter part of 1003, about the middle
of November, the writer was sent to hold court in'
-the province of Albay, where quite a formldale
insurrection had been In progress for about a year,
without suspension of civil government. There
had been as many as 1,5500 men In the field on
each side, at times. Reconcentration under the law
quoted had been resorted to. There hod been as
many as 700 or 800 prisoners in the provincial
jail at one time, so he was told. Toward the close
of the term, just after Christmas, when most of
the docket hud been disposed of, and there was
time for matters more or loss perfunctory In their
nature, the prosecuting attorney brought In rough
drafts of two proposed orders for the court to
.sign. One was headed with a list of fifty-seven
names, the other with a list of sixty-three names.
Both orders recited that the foregoing persons hail
died In tile jail all but one between May 20 anil
December 3, 1003 (roughly six and one-Iialf
months), as will appear from an examination of
the dates of death and concluded by directing,
that the indictments against them be quashed.
The writer was only holding an extraordinary
term of court there, and was about to leave tho
province. The regular judge of the district was
scheduled soon to arrive. He did not sign tlio
proposed orders, therefore, but kept them as legal,
curios. A correct translation of one of them ap
pears below, followed by the list of names which
headed the other (identical) order.
If the military authorities had had charge ofc
those prisoners, it is safe to say that the mortality
among them would have been far less, that possi
bly half, or even threcrfourths, of those who died,
would have lived. Political necessity, inherent In
our form of government, kept the army from act
ing then, and keeps It from talking now.
When the civil government was sot up in July,
1001, the army took a back seat, and looked on
with more or less Impatience, ready to say, "I
told you so" eager, of course, to got a chance
to fight again. Gentlemen of the military profes
sion have a predilection that way. The writer
was, of course, entirely In sympathy with the
civil authorities having been promoted from the"
army to the judiciary, and rather enjoyed seeing
the army behave with becoming subordination, ac
cording to orders, even if It did not like to do so;
It is human nature to enjoy the possession of
power. Nor did ho ever give much thought one
way or the other to the question of the original
wisdom of setting up the civil government against
military advice, until he became aware of the
death of these 320 prisoners in the Albay jail.
This gave him pause. It was impossible to escape
the reflection that just about that number had died
in the Black Hole of Calcutta. After that, how
over, he labored all the harder, to uphold the civil
government by speedy trials of persons Incarce
rated, with a view to minimizing the necessity for
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus; and,
finally, early In November, 1004, in tho province
of Samar, broke completely down In health' from
trying to dispose properly of overcrowded jails,
before the people awaiting trial died. TU6 prov
ince of Samar was at that time being overrun- by
several, thousand brigands, and fn less than one.
hundred days more than 50,000 people had been
made homeless by their depredations, according7
to the sworn testimony of a constabulary officer
of the province, who appeared as a witness beforo
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