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Show General Miles' Report. . T1IE most important and sensational contribution to the history of the ; outrages alleged to have been committed by American officers and soldiers in the Philippines is the report of General Miles to the war depart- 1 raent. j This account of his official tour of Inspection was suppressed by Secretary Secre-tary Root on the flimsy plea that it was a confidential communication, the publication of which would embarrass General Miles. General Miles, how- ever, made public his consent to the I publication, and It has at last seen the f lirht. j This report sustains the most serious bai-fics of shooting helpless prisoners End torturing by the "water cure" and other devilish means all done under the orders and supervision of officers of the regular army of the United States. Priests, General Miles reports, were amongst those so shamefully abused, and the charges made by the New York Evening Post and other papers pa-pers are fully sustained. Such was the state of affairs in the islands that General Gen-eral Miles found it necessary to issue a general order forbidding the continuance contin-uance of the inhuman work. The trifling and wholly inadequate punishments meted out to some of the offenders who have been tried and convicted are hardly less unjust than the acts of which they were found guilty. The whole business, from the hushed up trials and light sentences of these brutal officers to the attempted suppression of the report of the commander-in-chief, reflects seriously on the conduct of the war department and the efficiency of Secretary Root. General Miles is naturally the subject sub-ject of violent abuse by the more rabid government organs, but he deserves unstinted un-stinted praise for the honesty and courage cour-age which prompted him to tell the whole truth in the face of the storm which he must have known would break upon his devoted head as soon as his report was made public. It may safely be taken for granted that this report contains nothing the truth of which has not. been absolutely proven, and that its author might have said much more upon the same subject had he had the time and opportunity to pursue his investigations further. He had much to gain and nothing to lose except honor by glossing over the scandals laid bare before him. Th.e people will admire and respect bis moral courage and integrity, whatever the politicians may say about it. The Catholic press throughout the land has been calling for justice to be done. Many, influenced by the stout denials of the government organs, have doubted the truth of the charges. Now all doubts must be laid aside by every fair-minded man, and the value of a class of papers in which such charges could be ventilated without suspicion of political bias or prejudice can be appreciated. It was independent journalism jour-nalism of the best kind, and the results of such perseverance have been most gratifying. The love of justice implanted im-planted in the hearts of the people of this nation cannot fail to be aroused by the unanswerable proofs of the charges made against these army officers. of-ficers. They may, and probably will, escape punishment, but a repetition of such crimes will not occur as long as the public remembers the outcome of these investigations. |