DIFFICULTY IN ROAD-BUILDING 151 building heavy retaining walls, because the roadbed itself when saturated with heavy rains would and did give way, carrying the retaining walls with it. Later another route was adopted and it was decided to build a substantial road along the banks of the Bued River above the flood line; but this route involved the expenditure of at least a million dollars, as much of the route runs through solid rock. The Commission determined that, notwithstanding the great outlay of money involved, the accruing benefits warranted the expenditure and directed the work to proceed. It has been prosecuted under many difficulties in procuring both labor and competent supervising engineers. The road is now rapidly approaching completion. It was built upon comparatively easy grades and of a proper width, so that it may be used for an ordinary highway or for an electric or steam road. Three thousand men have been engaged at a time upon the work, twenty-five hundred of whom are Filipinos. CHAPTER XVII AMERICAN ARMY: HUMANE Opinion of an English Officer-Orders Given to only "THE HE American Army is the most humane in the world," said an English official in Manila, who had closely observed its operations during the years 1898-1901. Sometimes it seemed to the soldiers as if their officers were too humane. "When we were guarding the water-works near Manila we were forbidden to fire upon the insurgents whatever they might do to us," said a soldier returning to the Philippines with the writer on the Logan. "One night they fired upon us and we returned the fire, with the usual effect-they ran to cover and their officers complained of us to the commanding officers in Manila. In an hour we received a severe reprimand from headquarters: "Explain your action in firing upon the Filipinos. Have I not given orders that you must not fire until you receive directions from this office?' "The commanding officer was right, of course," added the soldier with a smile, "but he had given orders to the AMIGOS NOT FAITHFUL 153 soldiers on only one side of the river. He should have been impartial in his favors." "It was very trying in the early days," said a captain of cavalry, "to feel perfectly sure that the gentlemen who on Sundays or feast days came into our fort lines as 'amigos' (friends), dressed in their best, were mentally measuring our strength and getting points which they used against us before the next week was over. Their wives coming in with vegetables and other products to sell were also acting as spies. Our men would be riding over one of the country roads when a bolo would come whizzing through the bamboo grove. One of the men would fall from his horse dead. His companions setting out immediately in pursuit of the murderer would find a very benevolent looking Filipino cutting firewood. Morally certain though they were that he had killed their friend, they could not prove it and he escaped." With strong feelings, before he reached the Philippines, against the "water cure" by American soldiers, the writer was surprised to hear a clergyman, an Army chaplain and an Association secretary defend this form of dealing with certain classes of Filipinos. 99 "While the 'water cure' may be overdone, and should never be allowed without proper medical inspection,' said the clergyman, "I think it had its legitimate place in the recent war here. Take Iloilo as an illustration. The leading men all became 'amigos' as soon as the American troops landed; they were under the protection of our flag and professed a suspicious amount of loyalty. At the same time there were outbreaks all around the place. American outposts were attacked and many soldiers killed. When an attack was near a village, if it |