The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902, June 22, 1899, Page 7, Image 7

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    Conservative *
on this point that have conio to my
knowledge. The first is from n letter
published in The Topeka ( Kan. ) State
Journal of April 29 , and written by
Resil Manah.au , who had already met
his death in battle before his letter was
given to the world :
"The Filipinos put up white flags , and
then when our officers go out to see
what they want they are fired upou.
They shot from , a church just across
from the smallpox hospital and killed
one of the patients who was looking out
of the window. We do not take pris
oners , neither do they , so you see it is
kill or be killed. "
Manahau was mistaken at one point.
The Filipinos still hold prisoners from
the gunboat Yorktowu.
The other is from a letter by Robert
D. Maxwell , Company A , Twentieth
Kansas , published in The Omaha ( Neb. )
Bee of May 7 :
"Sometimes we stopped to make sure
a native was dead and not lying down
to escape injury. Some of them would
fall as though dead and after we had
passed would climb a tree and shoot
every soldier that passed that way.
Even the wounded would rise up and
shoot after we passed. This led to an
order to take no prisoners , but to shoot
all. "
There may bo people who think that
under such circumstances the order for
wholesale killing is right. Probably the
atrocities of Spanish warfare in Cuba
had a similar justification. But at any
rate it is a gloomy kind of necessity into
which our refusal to the Filipinos of
self-government under our protection
has brought us.
Is this the view of an "unpatriotic"
civilian , who , though he voted for
McKinley , has now lost his judgment
along with his right to free speech and
free thought ? Let me add the judg
ments of an officer in the American
army and of an English observer in
Manila. At a banquet of the Medical
Society of Pennsylvania , held at Johns
town , Pa. , on May 17 , 1899 , Major W.
H. Daly of General Miles' staff is re
ported to have said this , among other
things to the same effect :
"Warfare in the Philippines has
drifted away from the methods of civil
ization , and the shooting down of a
people who only desire the opportunity
to be free is contrary to the essence of
our traditions. "
The other judgment is from a long
communication sent by an English ob
server at the seat of war and published
in The North China Daily News of
Shanghai in March :
"We do think that the nation which
at this time last year boasted in its nu
merous newspapers that America , the
most free among nations , would cheer
fully expend her gold and the blood of
iJ r
her sons to bestow the precious blessings
of liberty on a down-trodden sister ,
and , snatching her from beneath the
heel of a tyrant , set her upon the proud
eminence on which she herself stands ,
is at present a little off her base in the
Philippines. "
Such will be the sober judgment of
history. Such , I believe , will even be
the sober judgment of the majority of
Americans , when the passions of the
moment are spent and the old-fashioned
national habits of free thought and free
speech reassert themselves.
Very truly yours ,
W. G. HALE.
Tornadoes have
DEATH IN
THE STORM.becu kllOWll in
America for a cen
tury or more , and thousands of persons
have been killed and injured by them.
A record of these visitations since 1794
shows tremendous loss of life and pro
perty. On February 9 , 1884 , the coun
try from the Mississippi river to the
Atlantic was the dancing ground for
sixty terrible tornadoes , which killed
800 people and injured nearly 3,000 ,
while they reduced to ruins 10,000 build
ings. During the period from 1794 down
to the present time the most disastrous
cyclone was that at St. Louis on May
27 , 1896. The precise number of per
sons killed has never been known , but
the dead were several hundred and the
injured many more. One of the earliest
cyclones on record was on May 7 , 1840 ,
in Adams county , Mississippi , when 317
people were killed. The same place
was revisited two years later , when 500
were killed. The property loss was
very great. Louisville was stricken in
1890 , but the same city was visited by a
whirlwind as long ago as August 27 ,
1854. At that time twenty-five persons
were killed. Chicago people have al
ways congratulated themselves on the
exemption of their city from the tor
nado , but away back in 1855 a cyclone
leaped over Cook county and destroyed
several lives and much property. A
similar storm sweeping over the same
ground today might kill thousands.
Here is a table of some historic wind
storms in this country :
Place.
Adams County , Miss
Erie , Pa
Webster and adjacent counties , Mo.
Now Ulm. Minn
Grinnell , Iowa
Emnietsburg , Iowa
Central West and Southern states. .
Louisville
Savannah and vicinity
Louisiana and Gulf Coast
8t Louis
Kirksvillo. Mo
Savannah , Ga. , and its vicinity seem
peculiarly subject to destructive wind
storms. That beautiful city was storm-
swept on September 80 , 1896 , and again
in 1898 , with much loss of life and pro
perty. On May 20 of last year a oy-
clone tore great holes in Iowa , Illinois
and Wisconsin. Seventy people were tn
killed and the loss to property was very iS.
great. So far as property loss goes St. i
Louis thus fnr holds the record.
The compilation above , taken from
the Times-Herald of Juno 14 , must
now bo supplemented by the terrible cat
astrophe at Herman , Washington
county , Nebraska , a few miles above
Blair. This occurred on June 13 , 1899 ,
at 6:30 : in the afternoon and resulted in
the death of more than half a score of citi
zens and the demolition of the village.
From 1854 to date the cyclone or tornado
at Herman is the most destructive ex
perienced in Nebraska.
What is the topography of Herman ?
Is it on high ridge land or in a bottom-
on low land as compared with surround
ing country ?
Bryanarchists
HIGH SILVKU.
contend that a dollar
lar made out of silver bullion worth a
a dollar and twenty-nine cents an ounce
can bo much more easily earned by la
bor than a dollar made out of the same
kind of bullion when it is selling for
sixty cents an ounce.
The silver smelting syndicate per
fectly agrees with the Bryanarchist.
They are economic twins. All the sil
ver smelters are for free coinage at six-
teen-to-one , and so are all the zealous
disciples of Bryanarchy.
NO PATRIOTISM IN IT.
"Patriotism is sometimes wanting in
the upper classes , but in the recent war
our country showed that the rich have
this heritage in common with the poor.
Theodore Roosevelt and many another
young man of wealth and high family
left their homes to enter the ranks with
the commonest workmen , and proved
anew the glory of American citizen
ship. " Bishop Ireland.
Patriotism is not emotional insanity.
Patriotism , is not Quixotic knight-erran
try. Patriotism is intelligent self-hood.
It is not standing by one's country
when there is 110 danger threatening it.
When a government imperils the people
of a country in a causeless , aggressive
war , and not for self-preservation , that
government becomes a despotic usurpai
tion. Patriotism is the intelligent ap-
ii"
Date.
June 10 , 1842
July 20 , 1875
April 18 , 1880
July 15 , 1881
Juno 17 , 1882
Juno 24 , 1882
Feb. 0 , 1884
March 27 , 1800
August28 , 1803
Oct. 2 , 1803
May 27 , 1890
April 27 , 1809
Killed.
500
1M !
100
105
100
100
800
70
1,000
2,000
500
60
Injured.
000
200
00
2,500 ,
200
500
Loss. 1
$ 1,200,000
600,000
1,000,000
800,000
1,000,000
Unknown
2,150,000
Unknown
Unknown
12,004,909
Destroyed
preciation that one's own welfare is
inseparably connected with the general
welfare and that to prosper personally
one must intelligently do his utmost to
maintain the general prosperity. Gush
patriotism is childish imbecility.