Chapter IV

. ante.

[195] Otis Report for 1899, p. 66.

[196] Report, p. 99.

[197] Ib., p. 100.

[198] Ib., p. 150.

[199] Raw recruits.

[200] War Department Report, 1899, vol. i., pt. 4, p. 375.

[201] There were thirteen States represented by at least one organization. These were the First Californias, Second Oregons, First Colorados, First Nebraskas, Tenth Pennsylvanias, Major Young's Utah Battery, the First Idahos, Thirteenth Minnesotas, the North Dakota Artillery, the Twentieth Kansas, and the Tennessees, Montanas, and Wyomings.

[202] The regular regiments represented were the 14th, 8th, and 23d Infantry and 4th Cavalry. There were also some batteries of the Third Regular Artillery, and a number of Engineers, Hospital Corps, and Signal Corps people.

[203] War Dept. Report, 1899, vol. i., pt. 4, p. 440.

[204] Hearings on affairs in Philippine Islands, 1902.

[205] War Department Report, 1899, vol. i., pt. 4, p. 109.

[206] Senate Document 331, p. 1890.

[207] Senate Document 331, pp. 1890 et seq.

[208] Ib., p. 1436.

[209] Senate Document 331, p. 1448.

[210] Ib., pt. 2, p. 1447.

[211] The "water cure" (a cure for reticence) consisted in placing a bamboo reed in the victim's mouth and pouring water down his throat thus painfully distending his stomach and crowding all his viscera. Allowed to void this after a time, he would, under threat of repetition, give the desired information.

[212] Since the above was written, the officer in question has joined the Great Majority. It was that fearless, faithful, and kindly man, General Fred. D. Grant, who died in April, 1912.

[213] The lieutenant is no longer in the army, but he resigned voluntarily long after the incident related in the text, and for reasons wholly foreign to said incident.

[214] Of course my host's name was not Jones, but Jones will do.

[215] Spanish for man.

[216] A Philippine campaign expression for losing one's nerve and wanting to quit.

[217] Otis's Report, p. 133.

[218] War Dept. Report, 1899, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 35. In this handsome commendation General Lawton also included Maj. Charles G. Starr, one of the best all-round soldiers I ever knew.

[219] See Correspondence Relating to the War with Spain, vol. ii., pp. 1068 et seq.

[220] Otis's Report, p. 115.

[221] An interesting account of this experience is given by General Funston himself in the October, 1911, number of Scribner's Magazine, in an article entitled "From Malolos to San Fernando."

[222] Otis's Report, p. 136.

[223] War Dept. Report, 1899, vol. i., pt. 4, p. 138.

[224] Except, of course, the capture of Aguinaldo by General Funston nearly two years later.

[225] See General Lawton's Report on the Zapote River fight, War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 282.

[226] See Harper's History of the War in the Philippines, p. 214, where the name of the gentleman is spelled "Kanly."

[227] Correspondence Relating to the War with Spain, Otis Despatches of November 27th, vol. ii., p. 846.

[228] House Document 85, 55th Cong., 3d Sess.

[229] The words quoted are from President McKinley's message to Congress of December, 1899.

[230] Correspondence Relating to the War with Spain, vol. ii., p. 1002.

[231] Correspondence Relating to the War with Spain, vol. ii., p. 1020.

[232] Meaning, of course, in time not to embarrass President McKinley's prospective candidacy for re-election in 1900, in a campaign in which all knew the acquisition of the Philippines was sure to be the paramount issue.

[233] War Dept. Report, 1899, vol. i., part 4, p. 122.

[234] Strictly speaking, only twenty-three regiments were sent out from the United States. Under the Act of March 2, 1899, providing the volunteer army of 35,000 men for the Philippines, twenty-four regiments of infantry and one of cavalry were organized. The infantry regiments were numbered Twenty-six to Forty-nine, both inclusive, the numbering taking up where the numbering of the regular infantry regiments then ended, with the Twenty-fifth. The cavalry regiment was called the Eleventh Cavalry, the regular cavalry regimental enumeration ending at that time with the Tenth. The Eleventh Cavalry and the Thirty-sixth Infantry were organized, officered, and largely recruited from men of the State Volunteers sent out in '98, who, in consideration of liberal inducements offered by the Government, consented to remain.

[235] The population of the city of Manila according to the Philippine Census of 1903, vol. ii., p. 16; was 219,928. The three next largest towns are: Laoag, in the province of Ilocos Norte, about 270 miles north of Manila, near the northwest corner of Luzon, population 19,699; Iloilo, capital of the island of Panay and chief city and port of the Visayan Islands, some 300 miles south of Manila, population 19,054; and Cebu, capital and chief port of the island of Cebu, a day's voyage from Iloilo, population 18,330. See Philippine Census of 1903, vol. ii., p. 38.

[236] 115,026 is the exact figure. See Philippine Census, vol. i., p. 57.

[237] The exact figure for Luzon is 40,969, and that for Mindanao, 36,292. Ib.

[238] Philippine Census, vol. i., p. 56.

[239] Ibid.

[240] Table of Areas, Census, 1903, vol. i., p. 263.

[241] Table of Populations, ib., vol. ii., p. 126.

[242] Total of these six in large type 20,418 square miles, say roughly 20,500.

[243] Total of these last three in smaller type 9114 square miles.

[244] There is a large sugar estate on Mindoro, supposed to contain over 60,000 acres or, say, ninety odd square miles, which in 1911 figured in a congressional investigation of certain charges against Professor Worcester, a member of the Philippine Commission, but this is wholly separate from the original problem of public order.

[245] The exact figure is 36,292. Philippine Census, vol. i., p. 263.

[246] 499,634, Philippine Census, vol. ii., p. 126.

[247] The semi-civilized Moros of Mindanao live mostly in the interior, and have a crude form of Mohammedanism. The civilized Christian Filipinos of Mindanao live mostly on the littoral.

[248] This was said in no mere speech. Speeches are often misquoted. It was a letter signed by the foremost man of this age, Mr. Roosevelt, written September 15, 1900, accepting the nomination for the Vice-Presidency. (See Proceedings of the Republican National Committee, 1900, p. 86.) Yet it represented then one of the many current misapprehensions about the Filipinos which moved this great nation to destroy a young republic set up in a spirit of intelligent and generous emulation of our own.

[249] One of the sultans, or head-men, was believed in 1899, to have tried on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca made before we took the Philippines, by some dickering at Singapore or near there in the Straits Settlements, to sell out for a consideration to Great Britain, so as to be under the protection and in the pay of British North Borneo.

[250] The fraction used is based on 500,000 (the population of Mindanao), being that fraction of 7,500,000 (which last is, roughly speaking, the total population of the archipelago). The census figures being 499,634 and 7,635,426 respectively, as heretofore stated.

[251] 7,635,426. Philippine Census, vol. ii., p. 15.

[252] 3,798,507. Philippine Census, vol. ii., p. 125.

[253] 223,506 is the total of the uncivilized tribes still extant in Luzon, Philippine Census, vol. ii., p. 125, but they live in the mountains and you might live in the Philippines a long lifetime without ever seeing a sample of them, unless you happen to be an energetic ethnologist fond of mountain climbing.

[254] Philippine Census of 1903, vol. i., p. 57.

[255] The area of Cuba is about 44,000 square miles.

[256] Except Ohio, the States of Pennsylvania and Tennessee are nearer the size of Luzon than any others of the Union, the former containing about 45,000 square miles and the latter about 42,000.

[257] This comparison does not pretend to be mathematically exact. New Jersey's area is nearer 8000 than 7000 square miles. For further illustration by comparison, it may be noted in this connection that the area of Massachusetts is over 8000 square miles (8315) and that of Vermont between 9000 and 10,000 (9565). As Costa Rica has only 368,780 inhabitants (Statesman's Year Book), the province of Pangasinan alone contains more people than the republic of Costa Rica. The average of intelligence and industry of the masses in both is doubtless about the same, with the probabilities in favor of Pangasinan.

[258] Table of Areas, Philippine Census of 1903, vol. i., p. 58.

[259] Table of Populations, ib., vol. ii., p. 123.

[260] In alluding, in complimentary terms, to this officer's gallant conduct on that occasion, Harper's History of the War in the Philippines spells the name "Hustin," as it had previously misspelled the name of the star actor among the younger officers who participated in the Zapote River fight "Kanly." "Such is fame." The gentleman's right name is Mustin. He is now a lieutenant-commander, well known in the navy to-day, as the inventor of the "Mustin gun-sight."

[261] There is a notable unanimity, among the men in the army of about Major March's age and rank, in the opinion that he is a man of very extraordinary ability. This unanimity is so generous and genuine that I deem it a duty as well as a pleasure to emphasize it here.

[262] See Otis's Report covering September 1, 1899, to May 5, 1900, War Dept. Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 4, p. 261.

[263] The 12th, part of the 25th, and the 32d Infantry being used to guard the railroad and for other purposes.

[264] Calumpit will be remembered as the place where in the previous spring Colonel Funston and his Kansans performed the daring and successful manoeuvre of crossing the Bagbag River under fire.

[265] Senate Document 331, pt. 2 (1902), p. 1926.

[266] This ratio is no jest. It is a statistical fact, figured out from one of the War Department Reports.

[267] War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 59.

[268] Report of Secretary of War, 1899, p. 12.

[269] Campaign Spanish for "look for." Generals Lawton and Young had cut loose from their base of supplies and their command was trusting for subsistence to living upon the country.

[270] See translation of diary of Major Simeon Villa, Senate Document 331, pt. 3, 57th Cong., 1st Sess. (1902), p. 1988. It was in this Aringay fight that one of the narrowest escapes from death in battle ever officially authenticated occurred. Lieutenant Dennis P. Quinlan, now a captain of the 5th U. S. Cavalry, was struck just over the heart by an insurgent bullet (probably more or less spent) while crossing the river in the face of a hot fire, the bullet being deflected by a plug of tobacco carried in the breast pocket of the regulation campaign blue shirt he was wearing, which pocket, any one acquainted with that shirt will remember, is at the left breast just over the heart (War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 6, pp. 166, 279). He was knocked over, but soon recovered and went on. The flesh of the left breast over the heart was bruised black and blue. He was recommended for a medal of honor on account of the incident (War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 7, p. 136).

[271] If these figures are not exact, they are approximately correct. We always called it three hundred miles from Manila to the northern end of Luzon via Vigan and the lighthouse at Cape Bojeador.

[272] For instance, there was what used to be known to the 8th Corps as "Col. Jim Parker's night attack at Vigan," which occurred early in December, 1899, soon after that place was occupied, the insurgents coming into the town in large numbers, at night under command of General Tinio, through a tunnel so it was said, and being driven out only after desperate close quarters' fighting from about two o'clock in the morning until after broad daylight, leaving the streets and plaza of Vigan much cumbered with their dead. Again, later on, there was the sudden order, swiftly executed, in obedience to which Lieutenant Grayson V. Heidt with a part of a troop of the 3d Cavalry, rode from Laoag to Batac to the rescue of a besieged garrison at the latter place, arriving in time to prevent a small Custer massacre, the garrison having gotten short of ammunition, and having just managed to telegraph for reinforcements a few moments before the enemy cut the telegraph wire. Then, there was Lieutenant Hannay, of the 22d Infantry, who being at the front, received an order from General Lawton to come back to build a bridge. The order made him sick, the surgeon reported him sick, the messenger returned with that message, and then Hannay promptly got well, and stayed at the front. And so on, ad infinitum.

[273] The Visayan Islands--the half-dozen islands between Luzon and Mindanao already mentioned, as the only ones worth mentioning for our purposes, together with the various smaller islands, islets, and rocks "visible at high water."

[274] "During April, in the First District, comprising the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Union, Abra, Lepanto, Benguet, and Bontoc, Brigadier General S. B. M. Young, commanding, the insurgents manifested considerable activity and endeavored to take the offensive against the scattered detachments in the district. The insurgents were in every instance defeated, and lost more than 500 men killed." War Dept. Report 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 196.

[275] The language quoted is that employed by Robert Collins, Associated Press Correspondent, in connection with the Round Robin incident of nine months previous, described in the concluding part of the chapter preceding this.

[276] Hereinafter more fully set forth.

[277] For the Table of Areas, see Philippine Census, vol. i., p. 58.

[278] For the Table of Populations, see Philippine Census, vol. ii., p. 123.

[279] Under the Spaniards, these were two provinces. They were combined by us.

[280] A province in Latin countries corresponds more nearly to what we call a county than to anything else familiar to our system of political divisions.

[281] For the details of this march, see War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 4, p. 309. Captain Batchelor had neither orders nor permission to do what he did. When he cut loose from the command he belonged to, he took very long chances on finding subsistence for his men in the unknown country he had set out to conquer, to say nothing of the highly probable chances of annihilation of his whole command. When an officer commanding troops does this in time of war, he does so at his peril, and signal success is his only salvation.

[282] Area tables, Philippine Census, vol. i., p. 58.

[283] Population tables, Philippine Census, vol. ii., p. 123.

[284] Though Nueva Vizcaya is not in the Cagayan valley, but on a plateau of the great divide, still, its streams all flow into the Cagayan valley, and that term will be used in this book, as it is colloquially in the Philippines, to include not only the Cagayan valley proper, but also the adjoining tributary province of Nueva Vizcaya.

[285] The only thing of interest to the American people that ever happened over there was the capture of Lieutenant Gilmore of the Navy, and his men, at Baler, on the Pacific coast, in Principe, a capture which, it will be recollected, was followed by long captivity, and ultimately terminated in rescue. The interested student will see these two provinces on the American maps of the islands, but they were each attached by the Taft government for administration purposes to another province, and do not appear in the American census list of provinces. Therefore, they cut no figure in the census totals, either of area or population.

[286] The officer on whom public attention in the United States was later focussed by an alleged order, charged to have been issued by him in a campaign in Samar to "kill everything over ten years old." This alleged order was called by the American newspapers of the period "Jake Smith's Kill and Burn Order."

[287] The figures as to Principe are mere arbitrary guesses, the exact figures used being fixed on merely to get convenient round numbers, there being no statistics as to Principe.

[288] Of course the Filipinos should be consulted as to what provinces should constitute each state, but I am simply sketching a tentative governmental scheme based upon the way our army perfected its original grip on public order and the general administrative situation.

[289] All along here we, of course, deal in round numbers only.

[290] See War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., part 5, pp. 45 et seq. The city of Manila and vicinity constituted the Sixth District of the Department of Northern Luzon.

[291] War Dept. Report, 1900, vol. i., part 5, pp. 47-8.

[292] War Dept. Report, 1900, vol. i., part 1, p. 9.

[293] The Spanish word camarin means a warehouse. The province of Camarines was originally two provinces, and is still referred to as two, though governmentally but one.

[294] Of March 2, 1899. Under it the term of enlistment of the volunteers was to expire June 30, 1901.

[295] Table of Areas, Philippine Census of 1903, vol. i., p. 263. Table of Population, ib., vol. ii., pp. 123 et seq.

[296] Copper-colored thief.

[297] Sung to the tune of "Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching."

[298] See Forum, vol. xxvi., p. 647.

[299] See Forum, vol. xxix., p. 403.

[300] These quotations are not taken from a scrap-book. Many readers forget that the bound volumes of all the great magazines are permanently available in the great libraries of the country.

[301] Hostilities had not yet broken out when the article now being considered appeared on January 4th, and did not break out until thirty days later, to wit, on February 4th.

[302] Congressional Record, April 13, 1898, p. 3701.

[303] In the early days of the fighting they used to hurrah a good deal, and shout "Viva la Independencia" (Live Independence).

[304] See Judge Taft's cablegram to Secretary of War Root of August 21, 1900, War Department Report, vol. i., pt. 1, p. 80.

[305] The Caribao Society is an organization composed mainly of officers of the regular army, but to which any one who served as an officer, volunteer or regular, in the Philippine Insurrection, is eligible. Their principal function, like that of the famous Gridiron Club, is to give an annual dinner.

[306] Addresses at Republican National Convention (1904), p. 62, published by Isaac H. Blanchard & Co., New York, 1904. The Republican National Convention of 1900 met June 19th, just sixteen days after the Taft Commission arrived at Manila.

[307] General MacArthur relieved General Otis May 5, 1900, and the Taft Commission arrived at Manila June 3d thereafter.

[308] Correspondence Relating to the War with Spain, vol. ii., p. 1051.

[309] Letter of July 22, 1898, by Duc d'Almodovar del Rio, Prime Minister of Spain, to President McKinley, suing for peace. Senate Document 62, pt. 1, 55th Congress, 3d Session, pp. 272-3.

[310] See Congressional Record of that date, p. 33.

[311] General Otis's appreciation of such "aid" was thus expressed in his cablegram to Washington of June 4, 1899: "Negotiations and conferences with insurgents cost soldiers' lives and prolong our difficulties." Correspondence Relating to the War with Spain, vol. ii., p. 1002.

[312] Address by Secretary of War Taft before the National Geographic Society at Washington, published in the official organ of that Society, National Geographic Magazine for August, 1905.

[313] Says General Chaffee in his annual report for 1902: "The intelligent element controlled the ignorant masses as perfectly as ever a captain controlled the men of his company." War Department Report, 1902, vol. ix., p. 191.

[314] War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 61.

[315] August 29, 1898, to May 5, 1900.

[316] Especially independence.

[317] Senate Document 331 (1902), pt. 1, page 50.

[318] A slander ignorantly repeated by the adverse report of the minority of the Insular Affairs Committee of the House, on the Jones Bill, introduced in March, 1912, proposing ultimate independence in 1921.

[319] See The Commoner, April 27, 1906.

[320] Philippine Census, vol. ii., p. 9.

[321] These are the three main lines of cleavage, linguistically speaking. Nearly all the minor dialects are kin to some one of the principal three.

[322] Peasant's hut, usually of bamboo, thatched with stout straw (nipa). It is the log cabin of the Philippines.

[323] By way of protest against this kind of belittling of the army's work, General MacArthur says in his annual report (War Dept. Rept., 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 60), "Such a narrow statement of the case is unfair to the service," adding a handsome tribute, which might have come very graciously from the Commission had it felt so disposed, to "the endurance, fortitude, and valor" of his 70,000 men during the precise period while the Commission was filling the American papers with politically opportune nonsense about "Peace, peace," when there was no peace.

[324] See Report of Secretary of War Root for 1900. War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 1, p. 80.

[325] See Report of Taft Philippine Commission of 1900, p. 17.

[326] War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, pp. 34-42.

[327] S. D. 435, 56th Cong. 1st Sess.

[328] Report U. S. Philippine Commission, November, 1900, p. 15.

[329] General Lawton was killed in battle in the hour of victory at a point only about twelve miles out of Manila, in the winter preceding the spring of 1900 in which the Taft Commission left the United States for Manila.

[330] This interview was indorsed as substantially correct by General MacArthur before the Senate Committee of 1902, Senator Culberson first reading it to him and then asking him if it quoted him correctly. See hearing on Philippine affairs, 1902, Senate Document 331, pt. 2, p. 1942.

[331] War Department Report, 1901, vol. i., pt. 4, p. 88.

[332] Ibid., 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 60.

[333] November, 1899, to September, 1900, both inclusive.

[334] W. D. R., 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 60.

[335] Judge Taft had cabled Secretary of War Root on August 21, 1900, after his arrival in June: "Defining of political issues in United States reported here in full, gave hope to insurgent officers still in arms, * * * and stayed surrenders to await result of election." See War Department Report, 1901, vol. i., pt. 4, p. 80.

[336] War Department Report, 1901, vol. i., pt. 4, p. 89.

[337] See Report of Taft Commission to Secretary of War, dated November 30, 1900.

[338] A sample of one of these death sentences that Cailles and all the rest of the insurgent generals were accustomed to issue against their "Copperheads" may be seen in General MacArthur's report for 1900. War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 63.

[339] War Department Report, 1901, vol. i., pt. 4, p. 90.

[340] See Report of Secretary Root for 1902, p. 13.

[341] Just how correct this was will be examined later.

[342] "The people seem to be actuated by the idea that men are never nearer right than when going with their own kith and kin." War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 61.

[343] General MacArthur's Annual Report dated October 1, 1900. War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, pp. 61-2.

[344] General MacArthur's report which we are now quoting from, dated October 1, 1900, was forwarded by the ordinary course of mail, and even if it arrived before the day of the November election, the Secretary of War certainly did not at once place it before the public.

[345] Compare this MacArthur, October 1, 1900, statement with the Taft statements of the same situation between June and November, 1900, as expressed for instance in his November, 1900, report to the Secretary of War thus: "A great majority of the people long for peace and are entirely willing to accept the establishment of a government under the supremacy of the United States. They are, however, restrained by fear. * * * Without this, armed resistance to the United States authority would have long ago ceased. It is a Mafia on a very large scale." Report, Taft Commission, November 30, 1900, p. 17. This was before Judge Taft met Juan Cailles above mentioned and liked him well enough to make him governor of a province, in spite of his being an "assassin," in other words a Filipino general who had a few weak-kneed fellows shot for being too friendly with the Americans.

[346]