Water Cure Torture Scandal - Senate Investigation Exposes Systematic Abuse

The Senate Committee on the Philippines embarks on a highly publicized investigation into “Affairs in the Philippine Islands” after letters from ordinary American soldiers in the Philippines surface in hometown newspapers containing graphic accounts of torture and atrocities. At the center of the storm is the “water cure”—a form of drowning torture in which soldiers force water (often salty or filthy) into victims’ mouths and noses until they “swell up like toads,” then jump on their distended bellies to force vomiting so the torture can begin again. Lieutenant Grover Flint describes the procedure: “A man is thrown down on his back and three or four men sit or stand on his arms and legs and hold him down; and either a gun barrel or a rifle barrel or a carbine barrel or a stick as big as a belaying pin is simply thrust into his jaws.” One report notes the technique’s lethality: “a soldier who was with General Funston stated that he helped to administer the water cure to one hundred and sixty natives, all but twenty-six of whom died.”

Anti-war Senators provide a platform for U.S. soldiers to testify regarding systematic torture practices, creating political scandal that forces the Roosevelt administration to address atrocities it has long denied or minimized. William Howard Taft, appointed U.S. Governor of the Philippines, testifies under oath before Congress and admits the “so called water cure” was used “on some occasions to extract information”—a carefully worded acknowledgment that confirms what soldier letters have revealed while downplaying its prevalence. President Theodore Roosevelt privately characterizes the water cure as “an old Filipino method of mild torture. Nobody was seriously damaged whereas the Filipinos had inflicted incredible tortures on our people”—a false equivalence that minimizes American war crimes while exaggerating Filipino actions. Nevertheless, Roosevelt also states publicly “torture is not a thing that we can tolerate,” creating rhetorical condemnation that contrasts sharply with minimal accountability for perpetrators.

The investigation exposes the accountability crisis at the heart of American counterinsurgency: while the Army judge advocate says charges against Major Edwin Forbes Glenn for using water cure on November 27, 1900 constitute “resort to torture with a view to extort a confession” that “the United States cannot afford to sanction,” Glenn receives only one month suspension from command and a $50 fine. The scandal is intensely criticized by anti-imperialists including Mark Twain and Democratic Party leader William Jennings Bryan who recognize the fundamental hypocrisy of America torturing people fighting for self-determination using techniques that violate the nation’s proclaimed values. The controversy represents the first major American torture scandal, establishing patterns that recur throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries: systematic abuse by military forces during counterinsurgency operations, initial official denials followed by limited acknowledgments when evidence becomes overwhelming, rhetorical condemnation paired with minimal punishment for perpetrators, and ultimate impunity for senior officials who authorized or tolerated torture while lower-ranking soldiers receive token sanctions designed to create appearance of accountability without fundamentally changing practices or deterring future abuses.