User:Dcmacnut/Lodge Committee
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This is an archive of the article Lodge Committee before it's merge with United States Senate Committee on the Philippines. I will use this as a sandbox to retain references necessary to complete the merger and improve the article.
The Lodge Committee was the informal name given to a U.S. Senate investigation carried out by the Senate Committee on the Philippines. The full committee held hearings to investigate allegations of war crimes in the Philippine-American War. The hearings commenced on January 31, 1902 and adjourned on June 28, 1902. They were closed to the public, except for three press associations. The final report came to 3,000 pages.
Ironically, a remark to a Manila News reporter by newly-promoted Brigadier General Jacob H. Smith on November 4, 1901, triggered the formation of the committee whose findings would lead to Smith's own court martial and conviction. Smith said that he intended to set the entire island of Samar ablaze, and would probably wipe out most of the population.
Senator George Frisbie Hoar had been demanding an investigation after increasing evidence of US military war crimes in the Philippine-American War. Hoar introduced the resolution for the committee on January 13, 1902. After Smith's blatant comments, President Teddy Roosevelt were forced to respond. The investigation was part of the standing U.S. Senate Committee on the Philippines headed by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.
Anti-imperialists justifiably feared a whitewash. Lodge had been avoiding investigating mounting allegations of war crimes so much so that the U.S. Senate Committee on the Philippines had been inactive for several months.