Content note: Blindfolded Filipino children before a firing squad. This object is shown as it was published. Why
"Kill Every One Over Ten" (New York Evening Journal, 1902)
A U.S. Marine, captioned "Criminals," stands over blindfolded Filipino children awaiting execution on an American flag, responding to General Jacob Smith's order after the Balangiga attack to kill everyone over ten. The cartoon turns the general's own words back on him rather than reporting them as news.
A cartoon by Homer Davenport on the editorial page of the New York Evening Journal, 5 May 1902, published as General Jacob Smith's court-martial proceeded. A U.S. Marine captioned 'Criminals' stands over blindfolded Filipino children awaiting execution on an American flag, beneath Smith's quoted order. The cartoon turns the general's own words against him. Name-calling appears in the 'Criminals' label, and card stacking in its focus on the children as the only victims shown. It depicts children facing a firing squad.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- May 5, 1902
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- New York Evening Journal
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Theodore Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Empire and colonialism
- Event
- Philippine American War
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 27, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published in the U.S. in 1902)
Homer Davenport, "Kill Every One Over Ten", New York Evening Journal, 5 May 1902, editorial page
Text on the object
Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked
EDITORIAL PAGE OF THE EVENING JOURNAL "KILL EVERY ONE OVER TEN." —GEN. JACOB H. SMITH. Criminals Because They Were Born Ten Years Before We Took the Philippines.
Scan is a low-resolution halftone with heavy vertical scan lines; the masthead line 'EDITORIAL PAGE OF THE EVENING JOURNAL' and the quotation/caption are legible, but any smaller incidental lettering within the drawing itself was not legible and is not transcribed.
