CHAPTER IX

ANTI-IMPERIALISM COST LIVES

HOW ANTI-IMPERIALISM COST THE LIVES OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS

BUT there was a dangerous side to the work of these Anti-Imperialists. Their work cost the lives of American soldiers. There is no reasonable doubt about that. Their work cost the lives of hundreds of American soldiers,-stabbed in the back as they stood out there on the firing line, by their own countrymen.

Soldiers were encouraged and urged to desert by the Anti-Imperialists; and it meant death to a soldier to desert in time of war. Letters went from this country to the leaders of the enemy urging them to hold out a little longer,—that is, to keep on shooting down our soldiers; for that's what urging an enemy to keep on a little longer means, if it means anything. Keep on shooting down our men and if you can only shoot enough of them, the people of

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the United States will withdraw their troops, and then you can put Aguinaldo in power!" That, the Anti-Imperialists told you, would give the Filipinos their freedom.

The Philippine Commission told Mr. McKinley that if Aguinaldo were put in power and we withdrew our troops, it would be nothing but anarchy in those islands. The men who reported that were Mr. Schurman, Mr. Denby, Admiral Dewey, General Otis and Professor Worcester. They all spent many months there. Mr. Edward Atkinson, who runs a fire insurance business in Boston and turns out such statistics as we have examined in these pages, says in effect, that the men on this commission do not know what they are talking about!

All up and down this great country the AntiImperialists made speeches of sympathy for the men who were shooting at our own soldiers. It is said that money was collected here and dispatched to that enemy, and I am informed, and I believe it is true, much, if not substantially all of such funds were employed to buy guns, powder and bullets to be turned against American soldiers. These people sent their speeches of encouragement and good cheer to that enemy and these documents were pla

carded and distributed all over the Philippines to encourage the mob in Aguinaldo's army to keep up the fight a little longer, as their Anti-Imperialist allies in the United States were becoming stronger every day and it was represented to the Filipinos that if they could only keep up the fight long enough their cause would be triumphant, as the United States would eventually have an Anti-Imperialist President. Can one hardly imagine anything that would have stiffened up an enemy more than to receive just such news as that?

There can be no reasonable doubt but that the insurrection would have been over long before it was if it had not been for just this sort of aid, this blow from behind." I believe this can be demonstrated.

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DOCUMENTS CAPTURED BY FUNSTON SHOWING ANTIIMPERIALIST AID TO AGUINALDO

Among a mass of material bearing upon this point which I have collected for several years there are some statements to which attention is asked. I desire to exhibit to you some of the evidence itself. The documents from which quotations are made are

papers which, for the most part, I am informed, are now on file in the War Department in Washington. I believe the most of them were captured by General Funston when he discovered the hiding place of Aguinaldo's private papers. Here are the translations. You can here see positively whether the hostile Filipinos were encouraged or not by their AntiImperialist allies and partners in the United States.

In October, 1899, Aguinaldo published a signed manifesto in La Independencia, the insurgent organ of Manila, in which he said:

"We ask God that He may grant the triumph of the Democratic party in the United States, which is the party which defends the Philippines, and that Imperialism may cease from its mad idea of subduing us with its arms."

How delighted the Anti-Imperialists must have been to have learned of this! How they must have glowed with pride! The prayer should have been changed so that it would read this way:

"We ask God that He may grant the triumph of the Anti-Imperialist party in the United States, which is the party which defends the Philippines and which is doing all it can to aid us who are at war with their country."

The next is an order that was, apparently, widely distributed:

"In the United States meetings and banquets have been held in honor of our honorable President, Don Emilio Aguinaldo, who was proclaimed by Mr. Bryan, the future President of the United States, as one of the heroes of the world.

"The Masonic society, interpreting the unanimous desire of the people, together with the Government, organizes a meeting and popular assembly in this capital in favor of the national independence, which will take place on Sunday the 29th, in honor of Mr. Bryan and the Anti-Imperialist party which defends our cause in the United States.

'All the Masons and all the Filipino people are called to take part in this solemn act. The meeting will be composed of three parts: First. At eight in the morning on the 29th, a gathering in an appropriate place will take place, which will begin by singing the national hymn; then appropriate speeches will be read. Second. At midday a banquet will take place in the palace in honor of Mr Bryan, who will be represented by American prisoners. Third. At four in the afternoon a popular manifestation will take place everywhere-the people will decorate and illuminate their houses, bands of music will pass through the streets.

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[SEAL] THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

TARLAC, October 27, 1899.

"To all the provincial, local and military commanders in this capital, Nuncia Capas, Bangbang, Gerona, Panique, and Victoria, the president of the