[1] See Report U. S. Philippine Commission, 1905, pt. 1, p. 89 et seq.
[2] Report Philippine Commission, 1906, pt. 1, p. 99.
[3] U. S. Philippine Commission Report, 1907, pt. 1, p. 149.
[4] See Report Philippine Commission for 1907, pt. 1, p. 80.
Chapter XXV
Cost of the Philippines
If ’t were well to do right, ’t were better still if ’t were more profitable.
Cynic Maxims.
General Otis’s annual report for 1899,[1] dated August 31st, gives the number of Americans killed in battle in the Philippines, from the beginning of the American occupation to that date, as 380. This includes those wounded who afterwards died of such wounds. His report for 1900,[2] covering the period from his 1899 report to May 5, 1900, gives the number of Americans killed in battle from August 31, 1899, to May 1, 1900, as 258. General MacArthur succeeded General Otis in command of the American forces in the Philippines on May 5, 1900. General MacArthur’s annual report for 1901,[3] gives the number of Americans killed in battle between May 5, 1900, and June 30, 1901, as 245. Thus the total number of Americans killed in battle up to the time the Civil Government was set up in 1901, was 883. The military reports do not always give the insurgents killed during the periods they cover. But on June 4, 1900, as we saw in a previous chapter, General MacArthur reported the number of Filipinos killed up to that time, so far as our records showed, to be something over 10,000. General MacArthur’s report, above quoted, giving our killed for the period it covers (May 5, 1900, to June 30, 1901), at 245, gives the insurgent killed for the same period as 3854. If we add this 3854 to the 10,000 killed up to about where May merged into June in 1900, we have 13,854 Filipinos killed up to the time Judge Taft was inaugurated as Governor, in 1901. There was no record, of course, obtainable or attempted, by the Eighth Army Corps, of Filipinos who were wounded and not captured and who subsequently died. It is quite safe to assume that such fatalities must have swelled the enemy’s list up to the time of the setting up of the Civil Government far above 16,000 killed. Thus, as has heretofore been stated, the ratio of the enemy’s loss to our loss was, literally, at least 16 to 1, up to the time the civil government was set up. General MacArthur’s report for 1900[4] would seem to bear out the above ratio. He there gives the number of our killed, from November 1, 1899, to September 1, 1900, including the wounded who afterwards died of such wounds, at 268, and the Filipinos killed, “as far as of record,” 3227. While these last figures make our killed for the period they relate to, considerably over 200, and the enemy’s killed but a very small figure over 3200, still, making allowances for the enemy’s wounded that died afterwards, of which of course we have no record, the 16 to 1 ratio would seem to give a fairly accurate probable estimate of the relative loss of life.