VII.

THE CAPTAIN SLEEPS.*

IN the Outlook for April 22 is an editorial record of the "Philippine history" which to me is very painful reading. Its narrative of alleged facts doubtless represents the record of what the authorities of the United States wished to do, and of what thousands of good people think has been done. But it is not " Philippine history." Our rulers have shown the most singular misconceptions of the nature of the tropics and their inhabitants, while our own people have equally forgotten the nature of our own government, its strength, its limitations and the principles on which it rests. As a result we are trying to hold a large and active population by force, without visible plan or purpose, or reason for so doing. In the process we find ourselves in the midst of a war of extermination, one of the most horrible in the records of civilization. These people fight for freedom. This we understand. We fight for law and order, so we are told, because without examination of the facts, we assume that the first republic of Asia would be unable to maintain order. They fight for freedom because they can see with their own eyes that the first republic of America urges on them a military despotism. If we could under

*Letter to the editor of the Outlook, April 26, 1899.

stand each other better, we should each know that the real purposes of the other are more rational than they

seem.

The Outlook passes lightly over the huge blunders which have brought on this war, mistakes that would bring on war anywhere whenever made. Doubtless these delays and blunders were well intentioned, but the fates judge men and nations by the results, not the purposes, of their acts. Good intentions lie at the bottom of the greatest crimes of history. The present writer has opposed federal union with the Filipinos, because however just morally, such unequal yoking politically would help neither them nor us. Against imperial or colonial dominion he is opposed from principle, knowing that industrial success in "control of the tropics" is inconsistent with "equality before the law." The justification for slavery and that of the "Crown Colony " is one and the same, nor is there appreciable difference in the results. The empire can exist, the republic cannot, with such dominion accepted as part of its function.

But these theoretical considerations have little part to-day. It is no longer a question of imperialism or of expansion. It is one of saving the lives of an innocent people, of saving the honor and self-respect of our own republic. We can have no future in these islands save that which comes through the present.

Does the Outlook know what really takes place in the Philippines? Of course it is familiar with official dispatches and with the text of proclamations. These tell of a difficult task slowly and unwillingly accomplished, with deeds of heroism on the part of brave men, and the loss of precious lives both Saxon and Malay.

This is true, but it is not all. We fail to read between the lines. For the rest, we must take the word of naval officers and of soldiers, sick or wounded, sent back to their homes. California was the first to catch the fever of expansion because it is nearest the glamour of the Orient. It will be the first to recover, because it first meets face to face the heroes of Manila.

Does the Outlook know what. these men have to say? Their words contradict the Spanish slander of Aguinaldo as a bribed soldier of fortune. They show him rather as a patriot, the ally of our leader, the valued "protégé of men who had authority to ask his help. They tell of his weary waiting for some indication of purpose on the part of the United States government, of the Constitutional Convention at Malolos, of the adoption after a long debate of the principle of religious equality in a country of Catholics, of the choice of a President by a free ballot; of the Cabinet and. Congress containing educated men, many of them graduates of Universities of Europe. They tell us that, till the fatal Fifth of February, "life and property was as safe in the Malolos as in San Francisco" and that the sole anarchy and destruction of property which has taken place in any of these islands since Manila surrendered has been in the few square miles occupied by our troops. Except about Manila and Iloilo, selt-government of the natives is the sole government existing to-day, apparently the sole which has ever existed. Except in Luzon apparently no other is contemplated. The Mohammedan sultan still enjoys undisturbed sway, and I am told that we pay him the same tribute he exacted from Spain. Even savage races for the most part are at peace within themselves. They

are savage only to the alien invader. A wasp's nest is a home of peace till an alien force assails it.

What does the man who was on the ground say to the argument that "we destroyed the only stable government in the Philippines: is it our duty to set up another like it in its place? Is military despotism the only government we know how to set up? Does the Outlook know what Manila is becoming under military rule? We hear of four hundred saloons on the Escolta, where two were before: that twenty-one per cent. of our soldiers are attacked by venereal disease, that according to the belief of the soldiers, "even the pigs and dogs on the streets have the syphilis."

Does the Outlook realize that Malabon, a prosperous suburb of Manila, a town in which the kindly and cultivated people had shown special courtesies to the officers and men of the McCullough, was burned to the ground by the men of the Monterey, under orders from the commandant at Manila. It is easier to hold a city that has no suburbs; for this reason the town was burned and its people driven out to starve in the swamps.

Does the Outlook know how it feels for a young man of culture to set the torch to "two hundred acres of houses while the people are kneeling and praying at his feet?

Does the Outlook realize the picture of the "halfnaked savages "driven from Santa Ana, while in one of their spacious "huts" five pianos were found, one of which was thrown out of the second story window, to make more room for something else?

Does the Outlook understand that of 30,000 or more Filipinos slaughtered thus far, half are estimated to have been non-combatants?

Does the Outlook know that our soldiers say that they were ordered to fire on white flags? Does it remember that since February 6th, when audience was refused to Aguinaldo, these people have had no chance to be heard?

Does the Outlook know that some regiments of United States troops have "taken no prisoners?"

Does the Outlook know that the general in command is described as a man who rarely leaves his office, where he conscientiously devotes himself to the adding of accounts, "to the work of a quartermaster's clerk?" Does it know that the simple-hearted, loyal hero of Manila is conscientiously sacrificing his reputation and his judgment because he serves the United States under the orders of the military commander?

Does the Outlook know why all the general officers who can get away, escape from Manila? Can it be as the soldiers say that they would avoid responsibility for what they cannot help?

Does the Outlook realize that few of the officers at Manila have any military training, and that over many of the bravest troops in the world are placed as commissioned officers men who were lawyers, insurance agents, printers, elevator boys, bartenders, and drivers of beer-wagons, a year ago in civil life?

Does the Outlook realize the effect of the promiscuous looting of towns and the murder of " every man that sticks his head out of the door" on the men engaged in it?

Some of them glory in it. "It is like a Colorado rabbit drive on a grand scale.' More loathe the very idea of war and everything and every man concerned in it.