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)

"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.

Date
May 5, 1902
Period
Pre-1914
Made by
New York Evening Journal
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
Techniques
Name-callingCard stacking
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.