you will recall, "if the regular army of the United States is stationed in the Philippine islands and kept there six months, it is practically certain that, after that time has elapsed, there will be no regular army of the United States in existence capable of any effectual service even on the part of the survivors." Over three and one-half years have gone by since he said that during all of which time we have had some 60,000 troops there, until the fall of 1901, when we commenced to bring them back, so that they were there not only his six months but four times that. His statement means, if anything, that our army would be wiped out entirely.

The 1902 Report of the Surgeon General, p. 149, shows that, in 1901, we lost 1069 men in the Philippines and China. This last report enables us to give the record of the entire four years of the Philippine war, as it officially ended July 4, 1902, when military rule was abandoned and superseded by that of the civil arm.

The death rate in the army in the Philippines in '98 was 22.74, 30.58 in '99, 28.75 in 1900 and 17.96 in 1891-an average of 25, and a total of 4432 lives, an average of 1108 for the entire four years.

Now what does a death rate of 25 mean? Let us look at that a moment. A hasty glance at some representative cities of our own country will be of service. In Burlington, Vt., in 1900 the death rate was 18 per 1000. That is only seven less per thousand than we lost from all causes in the Philippine army, in a tropical climate, for over four years, more than 8000 miles from home and in a war with Filipinos and Anti-Imperialists!

The death rate in the year 1900 in Augusta, Me., was over 26, one more than our Philippine rate of 25, while the rate throughout the southern part of our own country appears to average much higher than the rate in our army in the Philippines; for example, here are some 1900 rates (1900 United States Census). New Orleans, 28; Natchez, 39; Raleigh 27.2; Charleston, 37.5; Richmond, 29.7; Leadville, Col., 28.7; Shreveport, La., 45.5; Key West, 28.4; Petersburg, Va., 31.1; Lynchburg, Va., 27.7. These are only typical. I could name dozens of others.

The Union troops in the Rebellion had worse things than this to face in their war. On p. 238 of the 1899 report of the Surgeon General of the United States Army, is a table comparing, month

to month, the admissions and deaths from disease in the first six months of the Rebellion and a like period of the Spanish War. Under the table are these remarks of the Surgeon General:

"That the prevalence and fatality of disease was greater during the civil war than in the regular army during the past year is evident from this tabulation. The highest monthly rate of admission during the civil war was 363.66, furnished by August, 1861; the highest rate during the past year was 271.79, calculated from the admissions in September. The mean monthly rate during the eight months tabulated was 287.98 in 1861, while in 1898 the mean rate was only 185.98. It may be observed, also, that the maximum rate of last year was not so large as the mean rate of the eight months of the civil war, and further, that the mean monthly rate of the 5 years of the civil war June 30, 1861, to June 30, 1866, was higher than the mean rate of the regular army during the eight months which included its disastrous experience with the climatic and febrile diseases of the West Indies. The civil war rate referred to was 197 per 1000 men; the Spanish-American war rate, as tabulated above, 185.91."

The average of admissions for the first eight months of the civil war, if carried out for a year, is 3455 sick men reporting from each 1000 men. That is a sick rate of more than 800 higher than

the worst yearly report we have yet had from the Philippines, or, to put it another way, there would be four men ill in the first year of the Civil War to three in the Philippines in the Spanish War.

CHAPTER VIII

THE VENEREAL DISEASE LIBEL

VENEREAL DISEASES

BUT, not content with attempting to frighten the parents and friends of those boys out there with false prophecies, Mr. Atkinson had to horrify and shame every woman they knew, had to thrust before the loving eyes of the mothers, sisters and sweethearts of the 100,000 men we sent out there, prophecies that they can probably never forgive. We can spend but a moment in going over this, but it seems so scandalous, so libelous, so wanting in common decency that I am not at liberty to let it altogether pass.

First I shall take the No. 2 of the Anti-Imperialist and turn to p. 18:

"The greatest and most unavoidable danger to which these forces will be exposed will neither be fevers nor malaria; it will be venereal diseases in their worst and most malignant form. It is this which has reduced the population of Hawaii to a de