The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 Part 33

Early in 1905, Hon. George Curry, of New Mexico, who was an officer of Colonel Roosevelt's regiment in Cuba, and had gone out to the Philippines with a volunteer regiment in 1899, remaining with the civil Government after 1901, was made Governor of Samar. Governor Curry has since been Governor of the Territory of New Mexico, and is now (1912) a member of Congress from the recently admitted State of New Mexico. Governor Curry has told me since he was elected to Congress that it took him all of 1905 and most of 1906, aided by several thousand troops, native and regular, to put down that Samar outbreak. Yet a certificate signed March 28, 1907, by the Governor-General and his a.s.sociates of the Philippine Commission states that "a condition of general and complete peace"

had continued in the Islands for two years previous to the date of the certificate. [457] We will come to this certificate in its chronological order later. How many and what sort of uprisings were blanketed in that "forget-it" certificate of 1907 is material to the question whether or not the National Administration has ever been or is now frank with the country about the universality of the desire of the Philippine people for independence and local self-government, and pertinent to the insistently recurring query: "Why should we make of the Philippines an American Ireland?" But inasmuch as, in addition to the Samar uprising which raged all through 1905, another insurrection occurred in that year, which was duly "forgotten" by said certificate, this last movement must now claim our attention.

The provinces which were the theatre of the outbreak last above mentioned were all near Manila. They were: Cavite, a province of 135,000 people almost at the gates of Manila; Batangas, a province of 257,000 inhabitants adjoining Cavite; and Laguna, a province of 150,000 people adjoining both. Some five hundred brigands headed by cut-throats claiming to be patriots were terrorizing whole districts. Far be it from me to lend any countenance to the idea that the leaders of this movement, Sakay, Felizardo, Montalon, and the rest of their gang, were ent.i.tled to any respect. But they certainly had a hold on the whole population akin to that of Robin Hood, Little John, and Friar Tuck. In refusing in 1907 to commute Sakay's death sentence after he was captured, tried, and convicted, Governor-General James P. Smith gives some gruesome details concerning the performance of that worthy, and his followers, yet in dealing with the nature and extent of the trouble they gave the Manila government he says they "a.s.sumed the convenient cloak of patriotism, and under the t.i.tles of 'Defenders of the Country' and 'Protectors of the People' proceeded to inaugurate a reign of terror, devastation, and ruin in three of the most beautiful provinces in the archipelago." [458]

It has already been made clear that, during the time of the insurrection against both the Spaniards and Americans, the insurrecto forces were maintained by voluntary contributions of the people. Major D. C. Shanks, Fourth U. S. Regular Infantry, who was Governor of Cavite Province in 1905, after calling attention to this fact, adds [459]:

When the insurrection was over a number of these leaders remained out and refused to surrender. Included among them were Felizardo and Montalon. The system of voluntary contributions, carried on during the insurrecto period, was continued after establishment of civil government.

Again Governor Shanks says, with more of frankness than diplomacy, considering that he was a provincial governor under the civil government:

The establishment of civil government of this province was premature and ill-advised. Records show the capture or surrender since establishment of civil government of nearly 600 hostile firearms.

One of the causes contributory to the Cavite-Batangas-Laguna insurrection is stated in the report of the Governor-General for 1905 thus:

In the autumn of 1904 it became necessary to withdraw a number of the constabulary from these provinces to a.s.sist in suppressing disorder which had broken out in the province of Samar. [460]

Another of the contributory causes is thus stated:

There was at the time [the fall of 1904] also considerable activity among the small group of irreconcilables in Manila, who began agitating for immediate independence, doubtless because of the supposed effect it would have on the presidential election in the United States, in which the Philippines was a large topic of discussion. Evidently this was regarded as a favorable time for a demonstration by Felizardo, Montalon, De Vega, Oruga, Sakay [etc]. All these men had been officers of the Filipino army during the insurrection.

Consider the benevolent casuistry necessary to include these fellows, and the tremendous following they could get up, and did get up, in Cavite, "the home of insurrection," and the adjacent provinces, in a certificate to "a condition of general and complete peace" alleged in the certificate to have prevailed for two years prior to March 28, 1907. To make a long story short, on January 31, 1905, a state of insurrection was declared to exist, the writ of habeas corpus was suspended in Cavite and Batangas, the regular army of the United States was ordered out, and reconcentration tactics resorted to, as provided by Section 6 of Act 781 of the Commission. This is the act already examined at length, intended to meet cases of impotency on the part of the insular government to protect life and property in any other way. Political timidity is conspicuously absent from the resolution of the Philippine Commission of January 31, 1905, formally recognizing a break in the peerless continuity of the "general and complete peace." It is virilely frank, the presidential election being then safely over. [461] It concludes by authorizing the Governor-General to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and declare martial law, "the public safety requiring it." Then follows a proclamation of the same date and tenor, by the Governor-General.

It appears from the case cited in the foot-note that in the spring of 1905, one, Felix Barcelon, filed in the proper court a pet.i.tion for the writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he was one of the reconcentrados corralled and "detained and restrained of his liberty at the town of Batangas, in the province of Batangas," by one of Colonel Baker's constabulary minions down there. The writ was denied by the lower court. In one part of the opinion of the Supreme Court in the case it is stated (p. 116) that the pet.i.tioner "has been detained for a long time * * * not for the commission of any crime and by due process of law, but apparently for the purpose of protecting him." The opinion of the court, delivered by Mr. Justice Johnson, very properly held that the detention was lawful under the war power, basing its decision on the authority conferred on the Governor-General of the Philippines by the Act of Congress of July 1, 1902, section 5 of which expressly authorizes the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus "when in cases of rebellion, insurrection, or invasion the public safety may require it." A long legal battle was fought, the court holding that the Executive Department of the Government is the one in which is vested the exclusive right to say when "a state of rebellion, insurrection, or invasion" exists, and that when it so formally declares, that settles the fact that it does exist. At page 98 of the volume above cited [462] the court held, as to the above mentioned resolution of the Philippine Commission and the above mentioned executive order declaring a state of insurrection in Cavite and Batangas:

The conclusion set forth in the said resolution and the said executive order, as to the fact that there existed in the provinces of Cavite and Batangas open insurrection against the const.i.tuted authorities, was a conclusion entirely within the discretion of the legislative and executive branches of the Government, after an investigation of the facts.

Yet two years later the same "const.i.tuted authorities" certified to the President of the United States, in effect, as we shall see, that no open insurrection against the const.i.tuted authorities had occurred during the preceding two years. They do not in their certificate ignore Cavite and Batangas. They mention them by name, with a lot of whereases, explaining that after all they really believe that the majority of the people in the provinces aforesaid were not in sympathy with the uprising. However, after they get through with their whereases they face the music squarely, and certify to "the condition of general and complete peace." Of the "n.i.g.g.e.r in the woodpile" more anon.

Governor Wright was not a party to the certificate of 1907. He left the Islands on leave November 4, 1905. A speech made by him prior to his departure, as published in a Manila paper, indicates an expectation to return. He never did. In 1906 he was demoted to be Amba.s.sador to j.a.pan, a place of far less dignity, and far less salary, which he resigned after a year or so. Vice-Governor Ide acted as Governor-General until April 2, 1906, on which date he was formally inaugurated as Governor-General.

Just why Governor Wright did not go back to the Philippines as Governor, after his visit to the United States in 1905-6, does not appear. It would seem almost certain that if Secretary of War Taft had wanted President Roosevelt to send him back, he would have gone. Mr. Taft never did frankly tell the Filipinos until 1907 that they might just as well shut up talking about any independence that anybody living might hope to see. Governor Wright began to talk that way soon after Mr. Taft left the Islands. Possibly Governor Wright undeceived them too soon, and thereby made the Philippines more of a troublesome issue in the presidential campaign of 1904. President Roosevelt recognized the sterling worth of the man, by inviting him to succeed Mr. Taft as Secretary of War in 1908. But President Taft did not invite him to continue in that capacity after March 4, 1909. Gossip has it that when the incoming President Taft's letter to the outgoing President Roosevelt's last Secretary of War, Governor Wright, was handed to the addressee, and its conventional "hope to be able to avail myself of your services later in some other capacity"

was read by him, the outgoing official quietly remarked: "Well, that is a little more round-about than the one Jimmie Garfield [463] got, but it's a dismissal just the same."

I have always thought that the reason Governor Wright did not go back to the Philippines as Governor after 1905 was that he did not continue to "jolly" the Filipinos, and abstain from ruthlessly crushing their hopes of seeing independence during their lifetime, as Mr. Taft did continuously during his stay out there. The inevitable tendency of the Wright frank talk was from the beginning to discredit the Taft pleasing and evasive nothings. Also, it was followed, as we have seen, by quite a crop of serious disturbances of public order, and somebody had to be "the goat."

CHAPTER XX

GOVERNOR IDE--1906

The Tariff is a local issue.

General W. S. Hanc.o.c.k.

After Governor Wright left the Islands finally on November 4, 1905, Vice-Governor Henry C. Ide acted as Governor-General until April 2, 1906, when he was duly inaugurated as such. He resigned and left the Islands finally in September thereafter.

All through 1905, Governor Curry, as Governor of Samar, which is the third largest island of the archipelago, wrestled with the Pulajan uprising there, aided, as has been stated in the previous chapter, by the native troops, scouts, and constabulary, and also by the regular army. But at the end of 1905 "the situation" was not yet "well in hand." Since his election to Congress in 1912, Governor Curry has told me that in 1905 many thousands of people of Samar partic.i.p.ated actively as part of the enemy's force in the field during that period. By the spring of 1906 Governor Curry was getting a grip on the situation, and in the latter part of March of that year, some of the main outlaw chiefs agreed to surrender to him. The report of Colonel Wallace C. Taylor, commanding the constabulary of the Third District, which included Samar states [464]: "After several weeks of negotiating, during which time the camp of the Pulahanes was visited by Governor Curry, and the Pulahan officers visited the settlement at Magtaon"--a settlement in south central Samar--"an understanding was arrived at by which the Pulahanes were to surrender, March 24, 1906. Instead of surrendering as agreed, the Pulahanes, commanded by Nasario Aguilar, made a treacherous attack on the constabulary garrison on the day and hour appointed for the surrender." The constabulary numbered some fifty men, the pulajans about 130. After the pulajans opened fire they made a rush on the constabulary and a hand-to-hand fight ensued. Colonel Taylor's report continues:

After the first rush the fighting continued fiercely, and when the last of the pulahanes disappeared there remained but seven enlisted men of the constabulary able to fight. Seven more were lying about more or less seriously wounded and twenty-two were dead. Captain Jones received a bad spear thrust in the chest early in the fight, but fought on, regardless. Lieutenant Bowers received a gunshot wound through the left arm, which, however, did not put him out of the fight. Thirty-five dead pulahanes were found on the field and eight more have since been found some distance off. The number of wounded who escaped cannot be determined. The unarmed Americans present with Governor Curry escaped to the river and afterwards rejoined Captain Jones who armed them.

The explanation of this treachery, as given by Governor Curry, is curious and interesting. The outlaws had intended in good faith to surrender as a result of his negotiation with them, but at the last moment there arrived to witness the surrender certain native officials and other natives bitterly hated by the Pulajans and wholly mistrusted by them. Their arrival caused the outlaws to suspect treachery themselves and that was the cause of their change of plans. It was not until the end of the year 1906 that the various energetic campaigns which followed the Magtaon incident finally began to work more or less complete restoration of public order by gradual elimination of the enemy through killings, captures, and surrenders. An idea of the seriousness and magnitude of these operations may be gathered without going into the details, from the annual report for 1906 of General Henry T. Allen commanding the Philippines Constabulary. This report, dated August 31, 1906 [465], states:

At present seventeen companies of scouts and four companies of American troops under Colonel Smith, 8th U. S. Infantry, are operating against the pulahanes, but with success that will be largely dependent upon time and attrition.

General Allen adds: "The entire 21st Regiment [of Infantry] is also in Samar." These facts are here given because they relate to the period covered by the certificate of the Philippine Commission of March 28, 1907, heretofore alluded to, and which will be more fully dealt with hereinafter, which stated that "a condition of general and complete peace" had prevailed throughout the archipelago for two years prior to March 28, 1907. Without a brief exposition of all these matters, it would be impossible to enable the reader to feel the pulse of the Filipino people as it stood at the time of the election of their a.s.sembly in 1907. The fact of our having been unable to discontinue Filipino-killing altogether for any considerable period from 1899 to the end of 1906 is too obviously relevant to the state of the public mind in 1907 to need elaboration.

The Report of the Philippine Commission for 1906 [466] deals at some length with disturbances which occurred in the island of Leyte (area 3000 square miles, population nearly 400,000), beginning in the middle of June. It describes among other things a visit of Governor-General Ide to Tacloban, the capital of Leyte, made in consequence of said disturbances, and conferences held by him there with Major-General Wood, commanding all the United States forces in the Philippines, Brigadier-General Lee, commanding the Department of the Visayas (which included Leyte, headquarters, Iloilo), Colonel Borden, commanding the United States forces in the island of Leyte, Colonel Taylor, the chief of the constabulary of the District, etc. Certainly from this formidable gathering of notables, it is clear that there was about to take place in Leyte what our friends of the Lambs' Club in New York would call "An all star performance." Leyte was four to five hundred miles from Manila. Yet so serious was the disturbance that the highest military and civil representatives of the American Government in the archipelago deemed it necessary to meet in the island which was the scene of the trouble with a view of handling it. Yet in the Report of the Philippine Commission for 1906 one finds the usual rotund rhetoric treating the disturbances as of no "political" significance--which was only another way of claiming that they were not serious. It is difficult to handle this aspect of the matter without imputing to the civil authorities intent to deceive, but to leave such an imputation unremoved would be to miss the whole significance of the matter. As has already been made clear, when Judge Taft, Judge Ide, and their colleagues of the Philippine Commission had left Washington for Manila in 1900 Mr. McKinley had a.s.sured them he had no doubt that the better element of the Philippine people, once they understood us, would welcome our rule. As soon as they set foot in the Philippine Islands they had at once begun to act upon the theory that there was no real fundamental opposition to us on the part of the people of the Philippines and had continued obstinately to act upon that theory ever since. Certainly the att.i.tude of the civil government toward the disturbances in Leyte in 1906 is not surprising when the mind adverts for a moment to the panorama of the five more or less sanguinary years already fully described hereinbefore and then takes the following bird's-eye glance at the official reports for those years.

The Report of the Philippine Commission for 1900, (page 17) had said:

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.

The Report of the Philippine Commission for 1901 (page 7) had said:

The collapse of the insurrection came in May.

The Report of the Philippine Commission for 1902 (page 3) had said:

The insurrection as an organized attempt to subvert the authority of the United States in these islands is entirely at an end,

referring farther on to "the whole Christian Philippine population"

as "enjoying civil government." If the "enjoyment" thus described had been genuine, continued, profound, and sincere, it would have been another story. But the net att.i.tude of the civil government toward the general health of the body politic, relatively to public order, reminds one of the cheerful gentleman who remarked of his invalid friend, "He seems to be 'enjoying' poor health."