LV
The Conservative *
I'ltOKKSSOlt HALE OPPOSES AVAU-
FA1CK IN TIIK PHILIPPINES.
[ From tlio Chicago Tiines-IIoraltl of May 25 ,
18M. ]
The grcnt news published yesterday
morning thnt , "The president believes it
quite as necessary to display a spirit of
conciliation to the Filipinos as to convince
thorn of our superior force" ( a view of
things which was treason when spoken
the other day in Central Music Hall ,
but is , of course , patriotism and states
manship when coining from Mr. McKiii-
ley ) , makes other issues for the moment
seem unimportant. A constant reader
of your paper , such as I have been ,
could let past matters go for a while , if
you yourself would let them go. But
you do not.
It used to bo thought the function of
the newspaper to give the news. Grave
charges , almost too horrible to be cred
ited have been made by privates and
lower officers in our army with regard
to the methods by which wo are spread
ing the blessings of civilization in the
Philippines. It has not been vouch
safed to your readers , and , in general , it
has not been vouchsafed to the readers
of other Chicago papers , to see those
charges with the attendant particulars
of authorship and place of publication ,
which alone could give them weight.
The Times-Herald was for a long time
silent about them. Then , on a certain
Sunday , perhaps two weeks back , it
gave , in an editorial , a few brief extracts
from them , speaking of them in tones of
ridicule as indefinite , which , if it means
anything , ought to mean anonymous.
Various ridiculing references have since
that time been made to the same evi
dence. Your latest mention is in the
issue of Monday morning , May 22 , in
which you say : "Now that the anti-
imperialists have exhausted the three
hoine-sick letters from Manila , furnished
by a newspaper clipping bureau , the other
side of the situation as is told by the
correspondence of soldier boys officers
and privates is finding its way into
print. " I wish very much that you
might give us these more cheering let
ters. The more light that we have upon
this struggle the better. The American
people have a right to know how the
"WAr f ° r humanity , " begun in Cuba ,
has teen carried on in the Philippines.
I beg you , therefore , for the sake of a
1 arge class of readers , who , I believe , do
not like to have their news censorized
for them , to print brief extracts from
such letters of what you call the "home
sick" class as have come under my ob
servation. Let mo preface them , however -
over , by saying that if wo are to have
our thinking done for us ( it is this , ap
parently , that constitutes the up-to-date
patriot ) , wo should like it done with a
little more arrangement and consistency.
I might be able to accept the theory
offered by many of the newspapers some
time ngo , lhat these letters were written
by Filipino emissaries in order to work
upon the feelings of the citizens of the
United States. I could accept a second
theory that they are written by irre
sponsible Americans , who want to call
attention to themselves.
I could conceivably accept the theory
ihat they are the product of ' 'homo sick
ness. " I could oven moro easily accept
a theory which I believe I have the
nouor myself to present , although it is
surprising that no "loyalist" has yet
thought of it , that the author is that
wicked Edward Atkinson of Boston ,
who actually sent perverting documents
: o Dewey , Otis , our commissioners at
the Philippines , and a newspaper corres
pondent. But I am absolutely incap
able of accepting all of these explaua-
; ions or of shifting with sufficient rap
idity from one of them to another. As
for the numeral "three" which you ap
ply to the letters I am forced to suppose
; hat that is a printer's error.
The charges which , if true , have de
graded us for a generation from the
rank of a civilized nation , are that , at
one period of the war , orders were given
at several different places to take no
prisoners , or , as the orders were inter
preted , to have no prisoners after taking
prisoners. I take from the letters only
such sentences as touch most directly on
this point. Let me note that all the let
ters are from republican papers.
Charles N. Brenner , Company M ,
Twentieth Kansas regiment , to his
father , residing at Beuniugton , Kan. ,
twelve miles from Minneapolis , Kan.
Letter printed in April , in the Minneap
olis Messenger :
"Then occurred the hardest sight I
ever saw. They had fotir prisoners and
didn't know what to do with them.
They asked Captain Bishop what to do
and he said , 'You know the orders , '
and four natives fell dead. "
Compare the letter of this same Cap
tain ( now Major ) W. H. Bishop to his
wife , dated Caloocan battlefield , March
1 , 1899 , published in The Republican
Journal of Saliua , Kan. :
"The insurgents have not fired on us
since last night , and I understand an
attempt is being made to patch things
up my idea of the way is to kill the
whole outfit and blow the islands out of
existence. "
F. L. Poiudexter of the Second Oregon
gen , Portland Oregoniau , May 4. The
letter is dated March 20 :
"About dark , before Company D's
return , Colonel Summers rode over to
General Wheatou's headquarters. Short
ly after reaching there reports , which
afterward proved to be somewhat exag
gerated , came in that two companies of
the Twenty-second infantry had been
literally cut to pieces , having fallen into
an ambush. After a hasty consultation
it was decided to proceed at once to lull
or drive into the lake every native pos
sible to bo found in the half-moon
shaped district lying between the mouth
of the Mateo river and the farther
end of the lake , a distance of twelve
miles. "
Harry P. Todd , a trumpeter in Bren
ner's company ( M , twentieth Kansas ) ,
writing to his father on February ,84
from Caloocau :
"There were 150 of them , and they
captured our short line train and depot
and drove the guards back. That was
it 4 o'clock yesterday morning , and by
daylight the inside , or town guard ,
marched straight along , killing every
insurgent that poked his head in view.
At one place they killed fifty , and in
all 180. "
Rev. Charles F. Dole of Jamaica
Plain , Mass. , published in The Boston
Transcript of April 15 , a letter without
names from a soldier in Luzon to his
father. Mr. Dole has been personally
known to me for many years and is a
man of highest character. The letter
said :
"The longer I stay hero and the more
I see and think of the matter the more
fully convinced I am that the American
nation was and is making a blunder.
* * * I don't think I would
miss the truth much if I said more noncombatants -
combatants have been killed than native
soldiers. I don't believe the people in
the United States understand the ques
tion or condition of things here , or the
inhuman warfare now being carried on.
Talk about Spanish cruelty ! They are
not in it with the Yank. Even the
Spanish are shocked. Of course I don't
expect to have war without death and
destruction , but I do expect that when
an enemy gets down on his knees and
begs for his life that he won't be phot in
cold blood. But it is a fact that' the
order was not to take any prisoners , and
I have seen enough to almost make me
ashamed to call myself an American. "
Lieutenant Barnes , Battery G , Third
United States artillery ( in the regular
army , be it observed ) , writes on the 20th
of March a letter to his brother , which
was published in the Greensburg ( Ind. )
Standard of May 5 , a copy of which is
in my hands. The passage bearing on
our question is as follows :
"Tho town of Titatia was surrendered
to us a few days ago , and two compan
ies occupy the same. Last night one of
our boys was found shot and his stomach
cut open. Immediately orders were
received from General "Wheaton to burn
the town and kill every native in sight ,
which was done to a finish. About
1,000 men , women and children were
reported killed. I am probably growing
hard-hearted , for I am in my glory
when 1 can sight my gun on some dark
skin and pull the trigger. "
In these cases there seems to have
been no provocation. In others there
doubtless was. I add the two extracts
