Bullets and Bolos by White John R.;

Author:White, John R.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barajima Books
Published: 2020-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

XXI. MORE ROUTINE—INCLUDING MURDER

We may have lost a certain amount of government property through carelessness and more by reason of unavoidable circumstances connected with our campaigns and our high-pressure work by day and night. But we certainly made up for any such losses by dipping our hands in our pockets to buy food and equipment for our soldiers whenever government supplies failed us—which was often in those days of organization that sometimes amounted to disorganization. There was scarcely an officer who did not purchase delicacies for sick soldiers, extra ammunition for target practice or for his own personal arms used against outlaws, or who did not spend his pay freely on entertainments for Filipino officials and in the thousand and one other ways that contributed to build up the corps and the prestige of its officers and men.

It was about this time (1903) that the titles of Constabulary officers were changed from inspectors of various grades to designations of military rank. At first we were called lieutenants and inspectors, captains and senior inspectors, but later the suffix inspector was dropped, and we blossomed into full military rank. Nevertheless, we were given little or no increase of pay to uphold our rank in competition with officers of the regular army and Scouts, whose pay averaged for the same grades about 25 to 30 per cent, more than ours, while their commissions carried certainty of ultimate pension, which ours did not. We ran greater, far greater, risks of death or disablement in action or by disease. We had little or no opportunity for rest in garrison between field operations. We had no cheap commissary and quartermaster supplies with which to eke out our scanty pay.

It would have been much better if the military rank had been withheld from us when we might have been resigned to more economical life and have saved money to provide for a future that the government failed to guarantee. In order further to lure us on there was formed a totally inadequate “Pension and Retirement Fund” for the Constabulary; how inadequate may be imagined from the fact that for total disablement, such as loss of eyesight or both legs, an officer might receive the princely reward of twenty dollars per month. Yet, inadequate as it was, the Pension Fund kept many of us in the service with the belief that future legislation would improve our conditions. Realizing the work we were doing in establishing peace in the islands and playing a prominent part in building up a Civil Service that did credit to the United States, we could not believe that our only reward would be the consciousness of work well done. Age and experience were to disillusion us.

At Bacolod I had my first experience with beriberi, the dread tropical disease that science has later shown to be due to an insufficiency of nitrogenous food in the diet. Two soldiers whom I sent to the Mambucal Hot Springs near Murcia soon died there; while if I had

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