The army had long been supreme in the Philippines.  Every function of government had been performed by its officers and men, if performed at all.  Our troops had been combating an elusive and cruel enemy.  If they were human it is to be presumed that they still harbored animosities, born of these conditions, toward the people with whom they had so recently been fighting.  Had the work of pacification been then turned over to them it would have meant that often in the localities in which they had been fighting, and in dealing with the men to whom they had very recently been actively opposed in armed conflict, they would have been called upon to perform tasks and to entertain feelings radically different from those of the preceding two or three years.

A detachment, marching through Leyte, found an American who had disappeared a short time before crucified, head down.  His abdominal wall had been carefully opened so that his intestines might hang down in his face.

Another American prisoner, found on the same trip, had been buried in the ground with only his head projecting.  His mouth had been propped open with a stick, a trail of sugar laid to it through the forest, and a handful thrown into it.

Millions of ants had done the rest.

Officers and men who saw such things were thereby fitted for war, rather than for ordinary police duty.

The truth is that they had seen so many of them that they continued to see them in imagination when they no longer existed.  I well remember when a general officer, directed by his superior to attend a banquet at Manila in which Americans and Filipinos joined, came to it wearing a big revolver!

Long after Manila was quiet I was obliged to get out of my carriage in the rain and darkness half a dozen times while driving the length of Calle Real, and “approach to be recognized” by raw “rookies,” each of whom pointed a loaded rifle at me while I did it.  I know that this did not tend to make me feel peaceable or happy.  In my opinion it was wholly unnecessary, and yet I did not blame the army for thinking otherwise.

After the war was over, when my private secretary, Mr. James H. LeRoy, was one day approaching Malolos, he was sternly commanded by a sentry to halt, the command being emphasized as usual by presenting to his attention a most unattractive view down the muzzle of a Krag.  He was next ordered to “salute the flag,” which he finally discovered with difficulty in the distance, after being told where to look.  The army way is right and necessary in war, but it makes a lot of bother in time of peace!

This was not the only reason for failing to make more extensive use of American soldiers in police duty.  A veteran colonel of United States cavalry who had just read Judge Blount’s book was asked what he thought of the claim therein made that the army should have done the police and pacification work of the Philippines.  His reply was:—­