The Anti-Imperialists and the Army in the Philippines
Mr. David Greene Haskins, treasurer of the Anti-Imperialist League, in a leaflet entitled, "A Definite Policy," said regarding the criticisms of the United States Army in the Philippines: "The criticisms ... were protests against acts of cruelty committed by some American soldiers.... The events which gave rise to these protests might naturally arouse the indignation of all true Americans, jealous of their country's good name; but they were merely side issues in the great struggle against imperialism. Indeed to an anti-imperialist, as such, they have no special importance, except as illustrations of the impossibility of carrying out the experiment of colonialism without working grievous wrong to the subjugated people, and to our American ideals."(1) Yet it is necessary to include in this work a chapter on the League and the American Army in the Philippines, because for four years from 1900 to 1904 Anti-imperialist activities dealt mainly with abuses alleged to have been committed by the Army during the campaign against the Filipino forces and during the pacification of the Islands.
For this phase of the activities of the anti-imperialists one man is chiefly responsible, Mr. Herbert Welsh of Philadelphia. In the City and State of January 2, 1902, he wrote that the first of the "Army atrocity" stories which attracted attention was an excerpt from a letter to the Omaha World(2) by Private A. F. Miller of the Thirty-second United States Volunteers, written under date of March 5, 1900, and describing the so-called water cure method of getting information from the captured suspect or enemy. Private Miller said:
"We go out on a hike, catch a negro(3) and ask him if he has a gun; he will give us a polite bow and say 'No sabby,' and then we take hold of him and give him the 'water cure,' after which he can get us two or three guns. Now, this is the way we give them the water cure; lay them on their backs, a man standing on each hand and each foot, then put a round stick in the mouth and pour a pail of water in the mouth and nose, and if they don't give up pour in another pail. They swell up like toads. I'll tell you it is a terrible torture.
"We went up the bay the other day to get some robbers, and secured three. They could not tell where they had their guns. So we gave them the water cure (salt water), and two of them gave us their guns. We gave the other one so much water that we nearly killed him, yet he would not tell. Guess he was an old head. They have lots of grit. They will stand and see you half kill one of their friends and won't tell a thing. When it comes to their time to take the cure, they will take their clothes off, lie down, and take two or three pails of water before they will say a word. One of them said 'You can kill me, but you cannot make me tell.'"(4)
This letter aroused curiosity and evoked some comment and speculation at the Arbitration Conference at Lake Mohonk in June, 1900. It should be noticed, therefore that rumors of military abuses in the Philippines reached the United States a few months after the conflict with the natives had begun. Not very much later, a letter fell into the hands of Mr. Herbert Welsh purporting to come from another American soldier, and telling how the Army was preparing for the fight during the coming rainy season. The letter also related that the natives who had guns could turn them into the American army for thirty dollars Mexican money. The communication said further:
"We have a company of Macabebe Scouts(5) here who go out with white troops, and if they cannot get any guns voluntarily they proceed to give the fellow the 'water cure.'" After having described this system of punishment, the writer continued: 'I guess it must cause excruciating agony, as they nearly always disclose where guns are hidden. Of course there is no pay for guns got in that manner. It is rather a harsh way for us to use them. I wonder how we would feel were we treated in such a manner. The soldiers, who look on, think it a huge joke.'"(6)
Another soldier, John E. White, a sergeant in the Ninth United States Infantry, described the same water torture in the Atlanta Constitution. He said that in order to make a prisoner talk after water had been forced into the stomach of the man, it was expelled by tapping the stomach with the butt of the gun, and if the water did not spurt out high enough to satisfy the whims of the torturers, they "playfully jump on him, which usually has the desired effect, and when they get through with him if there are any guns concealed or buried around there, he will very promptly produce them." Thus the water cure must have been an effective means to obtain confessions from the captured enemy, and the Macabebes must have been a great help indeed, for the writer continued:
"We had been going on scouting parties for nearly three months here day and night before a company of Macabebes were sent here, and we never found a single gun. As soon as they came, they went to every barrio where we had been and got from five to a dozen from every one of them by means of the hydraulic treatment. They had the Tagalos(7) and Pampangos(8) so stirred up that a great many of them brought in their guns without waiting to be told. We were surprised completely when the Macabebes found four guns in a house less than one hundred yards from our outpost right here in the town."(9)
Mr. George Kennan, the special investigator of the Outlook, wrote an article for its issue of March 9, 1901, on the water cure, which gave further light as to the method of expelling the water from the victims: "After they are distended, a cord is sometimes placed around the body and the water expelled." He said that the Macabebes were not the only ones who used this method of extorting information. Ellucidating further, he said:
"Personally, I have never seen this torture inflicted, nor have I ever knowingly allowed it, but I have seen a victim a few minutes afterwards, with his mouth bleeding where it had been cut by a bayonet used to hold the mouth open, and his face bruised where he had been struck by the Macabebes. Add to this the expression of his face, and his evident weakness from the torture, and you have a picture which, once seen, will not be forgotten. The Spaniard used the torture of water, throughout the islands, as a means of obtaining information; but they used it sparingly, and only when it appeared evident that the victim was culpable. Americans seldom do things by halves. We come from here and announce our intention of freeing the people from three or four hundred years of oppression, and say 'We are strong and powerful and grand.' Then to resort to inquisitorial methods, and use them without discrimination, is unworthy of us and will recoil on us as a nation. It is painful and humiliating to have to confess that in some of our dealings with the Filipinos we seem to be following more or less closely the example of Spain. We have established a penal colony; we have burned native villages near which there has been an ambush or an attack by insurgent guerillas; we kill the wounded; we resort to torture as a means of obtaining information."(10)
A letter from the correspondent of Columbia State of South Carolina, and quoted in the Springfield Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, on December 24, 1901, told a similar story of the water-cure system employed as means for getting information. A soldier of General Funston was said to have told the correspondent of having himself, alone applied the so-called water cure to 160 natives out of which only 26 died of the process. He said, however, that while generally the torture made the Filipino betray everything many of them were game to the last and carried their secret to the grave. This correspondent said further:
"The Americans are using the severest methods to put down the rebellion in Samar.(11) General Smith(12) has ordered every one to come into towns by a certain day, and all who are found in the country after then will be killed without question. In Mindoro, Samar and Leyte,(13) the Americans are using fire and sword as the Spaniards used them in Cuba. This is part of a report from Mindoro; 'Captain Bent applied the torch to the rebel quarter, went back to Monsolia, rounded up the horses and carabaos,(14) and shot them, set fire to the town, watched it until it got well under way, marched back to the Monsolia, did the same there, and then got on the "Custer" and sailed back.' Like reports come every day from Samar."
The writer, however, remarked that no American in the Philippines ever blamed the army for such measures because, according to him, the natives themselves were exceedingly cruel, and considered leniency as a sign of weakness and fear, and had no respect for anything short of torture,(15) just as John E. White in the Atlanta Constitution said, "This may sound very shocking to you at home, but if you were here you would realize fully that extreme cases require extreme measures."(16)
From the evidence thus partly related here, Mr. Herbert Welsh concluded that the water torture had been used in the Philippines for two years by the American forces; and that while it appeared that it was first employed by the Macabebe Scouts (for whom the President asked in his message special recognition by Congress for their loyalty)(17) it was evident that the American soldiers shared in the ghastly work. Mr. Welsh, therefore, contended that there could be only one conclusion,
"that there is an extended conspiracy among United States soldiers to do before their flag.... If the conspiracy theory is to explain in the facts, then it is the duty of our government to vindicate its honor by letting the real truth be known, and by punishing those of its soldier servants who have circulated so cruel a falsehood among the American public.... But if the other theory is correct, if it be true that the United States military authorities in the Philippines have made use of 'savage allies' who in their warfare have revived the horrors of the Inquisition, then their infamous policy should be fittingly rebuked by our governments, a re-occurrence of such wicked acts should be rigidly forbidden, and those who have justified and permitted them should be punished."(18)
While such stories of cruelty in the Philippines had many times appeared in American newspapers, the public seemed indifferent to the matter. So Mr. Welsh attempted to arouse public opinion against the related abuses by saying:
"What is the significance of such silence? Do we realize that amidst all the sunshine of our rich, prosperous life we are being weighed in the balance of a true civilization, of eternal justice -- and are being found wanting? It is the product of arbitrary government authority without justice, force from which the lifeblood of righteousness and truth has run out.
"It is respectfully suggested to those readers of the foregoing article who may feel impressed with the probable truth of the facts stated in it, that they might do well to write to their representatives in Congress, whether in the Senate or the House, asking that an inquiry into the subject may be promptly made. By this simple means citizens whose consciences are aroused may meet the measure of their responsibility and, in addition to that, good will undoubtedly accomplished."(19)
This was the first appeal for the investigation of the army in the Philippines, and it marked the beginning of the bitter fight which the Anti-Imperialist League launched against the administration.
Early in 1902 there were again published in the different newspapers in the country stories of abuses committed by the army, but the first specific incident which seems to have aroused general horror was that which became known as the "Father Augustine" case, the wanton killing by torture of a Filipino Catholic priest who refused to be a traitor to his people's cause. Interest in the Father Augustine case was first aroused by a letter appearing in the Boston Evening Transcript on April 13, 1902. Though the letter was anonymous, it is here quoted in full because of the importance it was destined to have. It ran thus:
Boston, April 13, 1902.
"TO THE EDITOR 'TRANSCRIPT':
"SIR -- I read your article the other night about the conduct of our troops toward the native Filipinos, and know for a fact that great cruelties are practiced upon them by certain old ruffians. Of course they are cruel themselves, but what I should like to see something about in the papers is whether the priest of Molo(20) was secretly executed by order of General Hughes, or murdered.... Also what became of the couple of hundred pesos he had when he landed from the Paragna(21) gunboat. Anyhow it will greatly oblige us if you can find out whether it was a regular execution or murder, now that Hughes and Brownell are both here.
"The padre is buried outside headquarters, on the ground cleared of turf, where we used to play ball.
Yours truly,
"One of Co. D., 26 U. S. V."
The story could not be definitely traced, being anonymous, but on April 24 of the same year there appeared in the Philadelphia Press, a Republican newspaper, another communication on the same case. This second letter follows:
"Lynn, Mass., April 23. -- Two Lynn men, William LaBelle and Albert E. Bertrand, formerly privates in Company D., Twenty-Sixth Regiment, United States Volunteers, have sent to Senator Lodge(22) a statement of instances of the application of the 'water cure' in the Philippines that came under their observation. Bertrand was clerk of Company D. and regimental clerk at headquarters while the regiment was stationed at Panay.(23)
"LaBelle says that while at Anilao three natives were taken by Company B into a Catholic Church and given the water cure. One of the natives refused to tell where insurgent guns were secreted, and after he had been given the water cure, he was blindfolded and one of the soldiers fired his gun near the man's head. The instant the gun was fired another member of the squad hit the native with a stone, and he was told that he had been shot....
"Bertrand has furnished Senator Lodge with particulars of the alleged disappearance and killing of Father Augustine, a Catholic priest, at Bolo.(24) He says it was reported that Father Augustine knew where insurgents' gold was buried. Men from Company D captured him in December; 1900, and dressed him in a uniform of the United States artillery. He was then taken to Banate(25) and kept in a well. He refused to tell where gold was buried, and on the night of December 9th he was taken to a house formerly occupied by the president of the village. Upon his arrival there, Bertrand says, the water cure was given him by the 'water cure squad.' The men proceeded to get nearly all the water out of him, but he did not revive. The men became frightened and a surgeon was sent for. His services proved unsuccessful, and Bertrand says that the priest died.
"Some of the men were sworn to secrecy, and the body was buried in a plot of land used by the troops as a baseball ground. Bertrand says that a non-commissioned officer was seen with the priest's watch and chain, and when a commissioned officer learned this they were turned over to him. Bertrand gives the names of the men taking part, and also refers to several officers."
1. Communication to the Boston Transcript, March 25, 1902.
2. Reprinted from City and State on June 21, 1900.
3. Meaning a native of the Philippines.
4. Pamphlet, "By Way of Manila," 1-2.
5. The soldier who wrote the above letter gave further description of the Macabebes thus: "These Macabebes are a people who have always been held in contempt and subjection by the Tagals. They are not numerous, and not the equal of the latter in anything except ferocity. Had the former known a year ago that they would take arms for us, I think they would have exterminated them. Between the two there is little to choose, except that the Macabebes are more cowardly, and indulge their craven ferocity under the protection of Americans."
The Macabebes are Filipinos who live in the little town of Macabebe in the Northern part of Pampanga, a province in north central Luzon. Even during the Spanish regime they had been known to take the side of the Spanish priests against the Filipinos. So when the Americans came they became members of the American army. Even today, because of their abuses during the Filipino-American War, the Macabebes are feared and suspected by other Filipinos. The stigma has not as yet been wholly erased, although they have now joined the other groups favoring Philippine freedom.
6. Pamphlet, "By Way of Manila," 3.
7. Tagalos, people of Central Luzon around Manila.
8. Pampangos, people of the Province of Pampanga, north central Luzon.
9. Pamphlet, "By Way of Manila," 4.
10. Ibid., 5-6.
11. sland in the Visayan group.
12. A. L. Smith.
13. Islands in the Visayan group.
14. Carabaos, or water-buffalo, the principal working animal in the Philippines.
15. Pamphlet, "By Way of Manila," 5-7.
16. Ibid., 4.
17. James D. Richardson, Messages and Papers of the President, Vol, XV, 6693.
18. Pamphlet, "By Way of Manila," 7.
19. Ibid., 8.
20. Molo, a city of Iloilo Province, Island of Panay.
21. Paragua.
22. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge was the chairman of the Philippine Committee of the United States Senate.
23. Panay is an island south of Luzon.
24. Should be Molo.
25. Banate, a town in the northern part of Iloilo
M. Patrick Cullinane, Liberty and Anti-Imperialism, July 4, 2007.