American fury in the Philippines. XXXI / Luzón

The Boston Advertiser is a Republican newspaper, and in its columns
appeared this statement:


- The time has come, in the opinion of those in charge of the War
Department, to pursue a policy of absolute and relentless subjugation
in the Philippine Islands. If the natives refuse to submit to the
process of government as mapped out by the Taft Commission, they will
be hunted down and will be killed until there is no longer any show of
forcible resistance to the American government. The process will not
be pleasant, but it is considered necessary.

Who has been the person in charge of the War Department ever since
the Taft Commission was appointed, and has not this statement been
proved to be true by what has happened since? On May 3, I9oI, General
James M. Bell, in an interview printed in the New York Times, said:
One-sixth of the natives of Luzon have either been killed or died of
the dengue fever in the last two years;

and, as Senator Hoar said, I suppose that this dengue fever and the
sickness which depopulated Batangas is the direct result of the war,
and comes from the condition of starvation and bad food which the war
has caused. General Bell is a witness whom the War Department cannot
discredit. " One-sixth of the population of Luzon "- one in every six
of men, women, and children - had either been killed or died in two
years. This means 666,ooo people. The population of Luzon is estimated
by the War Department to be 3,727,488 persons.* How many were killed,
and how? General Bell gave a suggestive answer when he said as a part
of the same statement:

The loss of life by killing alone has been very great, but I think not
one man has been slain except where his death served the legitimate
purpose of war. It has been thought necessary to adopt what in other
countries would probably be thought harsh measures.

A Republican Congressman, who visited the Philippines during the
summer of 1901, confirms this answer in an interview published in the
Boston Transcript, and in other newspapers, on March 4, 1902:

You never hear of any disturbances in Northern Luzon; and the secret
of its pacification is, in my opinion, the secret of the pacification
of the archipelago. They never rebel in Northern Luzon because there
isn't anybody there to rebel. The country was marched over and cleaned
out in a most resolute manner. The good Lord in heaven only knows the
number of Filipinos that were put under ground. Our soldiers took no
prisoners, they kept no records; they simply swept the country, and,
wherever or whenever they could get hold of a Filipino, they killed
him. The women and children were spared, and may now be noticed in
disproportionate numbers in -that part of the island. Thus did we here
protect " the patient... millions."


Title: Secretary Root's record. "Marked severities" in Philippine
warfare. An analysis of the law and facts bearing on the action and
utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.
Author: Storey, Moorfield, 1845-1929.