Life — May 1, 1902 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ White there is Life there's Hope.” VOL. XXXIX. MAY 1. 1902. No, 1018, 19 Wast Torety-Fixst St., NEw Yor«. Pablishedevory Thursday. $5.00 9 year in ad. vance. Vostage to foreign countries 1a the f Colon. $1.0ta year extra. Single current copies, 1conts. Back numbers, after three months from date of publication, 2 cente. No contribution will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in Lure are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without special arrangement rwith the publishers, Prompt notification should be sent by sub- soribers of any change of address. Rr ENT news amply illus. trates the incon- venience of the defect in our insti- tutions which makes it impracti- cable to restrain Americans at home from forming and expressing opinions about concerns in the Philippines. Where there is opportunity there is ob- ligation. If we were not allowed to know or say anything about the Philip- pines until the pacification of the islands was accomplished and the tumuli were sodded over, it would save much trouble and some embarrass- ment. But inasmuch as, in spite of all benevolent intentions, we do get Philippine news, and can form and communicate impressions about it, we have to ratiocinate, and are apt to blurt out what we think, There is Major Waller’scase! What considerate citizen wants to talk about that? The Major has been accused of killing a good many Filipinos offhand, between fights. We have heard that it is asserted that he kept one Filipino tied to a tree for three days, and occasionally shot a hole in him, until finally the rebel died. For this and other innovations Major Waller has been tried by court-martial, and, ac- cording to present reports, which are *LAPE meagre and not fully trustworthy, he was acquitted. We don’t know yet whether the court found that the charges against him were untrue, or that his actions were justified by circum: stances. We have read that General Jacob Smith ordered Major Waller to make Samar howl; to kill and burn and take no prisoners, but not to kill children under ten years of age. This last sounds odd, and we have no proof, that it is true, but war is war, especially when it is waged ten thousand miles from home, against untruthful rebels, some of whom are semi-savage and cruel, and have done atrocious things. Now it seems highly indelicate and in- opportune to dwell at all on these very disagreeable things, but we all talk, and > have to talk, about what we read in the papere. Wo have to free our minds, or we couldn't eat. r O it is about Major Cornelius Gardener’s report of matters in Tayabas. Tayabas is a Philippine province, and Major Gardener is its civil governor, His report was made to the Secretary of War, and was sent by him to a committee of tho Senate at the suggestion of General Miles, made, by the way, not to the Secretary, but to the committee. Major Gardener is a graduate of West Point, who had re- signed from the army, but got back into the service when the Spanish war broke out. He thinks there are too many American soldiers loose in his province, and thinks that they are doing much more harm than good. The attitude of the army, he says, is one of hostility to the civil govern- ment. He deprecates the indiscrimi- nate ravaging done by soldiers under young and inexperienced oflicers, the habit of almost all soldiers and many officers of calling the Filipinos “ nig- gers,’’ and the prevalence of the opin- ion that just and kindly treatment is wasted on Filipinos and other Orient- als. The Major's report is temperate in language, and seemingly so in opin- ion, and reads like the work of a man who is doing his best to give the War Department useful information. It has been asserted that when Major Gardener lived in Detroit he was re- ie garded as a Socialist, and that he has not been popular among his fellow- officers in the army during his recent term of service, His report was with- held from publication by the War De- partment until General Chaffee’s com- ments on it should be obtained. But meanwhile we have had to read it, and to wonder whether as voters and tax- payers we have any duty in the premi- ses other than to sit tight and await reassurances. [HE matter of the water cure is just as bad. We have heard a great deal about the water cure, Wecouldn’t help it ; it was in the papers. Wehave read that in certain instances, not so rare as one might wish, when it was desirable to get information out of in- surgents or their sympathizers, there was a way to do it, to wit: to pamp the reluctant informer full of water— salt water sometimes—and then step on his abdomen and squeeze it out of him, This is very unpleasant to tho subject, who usually tells what he knows before the cure is perfected. These persistent stories about the water cure have all been denied, but evidence of one case was given before the Senate Committee that was too direct and posi- tive to be ignored. It implicated three American officers. The President has cabled for further facts, and for fuller information about Major Waller, Gen- eral Smith, Major Gardener, and the water cure, We are glad of it; for if we are to worry about atrocities we want to know whether they were real atrocities or bogus ones, and whether or not they were necessary. & cro G & 2) “ay a a tT j\XPANSION has its trials even for us who only sit by and read the papers and watch our delegated rulers work at it, What its trials must be for them may be faintly conjectured. One set of men in the Philippines is break- ing the eggs, and another set is trying to make the omelet. They ought to work together for good, but apparently and not unnaturally, their co-operation is imperfect. Vie comicbooks.com