T'
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The Commoner.
10
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Are the Filipinos Capable
of Self-aovernment?
If the intelligence of the Americans
is to bo taken as the standard by which
.the capacity for self-government is to
bo determined, then it is very doubtful
whether any other people are capable
of establishing and maintaining a re
publican form of government. Every
country has peoples of high and low
order of intelligence, and if wo are
to assume that tho men of lowest order
of civilization are to rule, wo might
exclude from self-government every
nation On earth. It is tho experience
of mankind, however, that the intelli
gent classes in all the countries rule.
That bolng true, there are very few
peoples who are not capable of self
government. It was Henry Clay who
said that it was impossible for him to
conceive of a people who were incap
able of self-government.
Of the republics of Central and South
America, it is safe to say that, al
though they may not be as perfect in
the administration of affairs as tho
United States, yet they have given to
the people governments far better and
freer from acts of tyranny and oppres
sion than tho governments which pro
ceeded them.
The general impression exists among
many Americans that the Philippine
people are savages. A visit to the isl
ands will certainly dispel any such
delusion. The members of the unciv
ilized tribes of the archipelago are few
in number, compared to the total pop
ulation; they are fewer In proportion
than were the tribes of Indians in Am
erica at the time of the establishment
of our republic. They rove in bands
and are as hostile to tho Filipinos as
were tho red men to. our forefathers.
When I And behind the prescription
desk's of tho numerous drug stores of
the- islands, even when kept by Ameri
cans and Englishmen, Filipinos com
pounding medicines taken from bot
les labeled in Latin; when I see be
hind the counter of banks having
large capital, natives acting as book
keepers and as receiving and paying
tellers; when I find them as merchants
and clerks in almost all lines of busi
ness, as telegraph operators and ticket
agents, conductors and engineers upon
railroads and as musicians rendering
upon "almost all instruments high class
music;' when I am told that thov nlone
make, the observations and intricate
calculations at the Manila observatory
and that prior to the insurrection
there wore 2,100 schools in the islands
and 5,000 students in attendance at the
Manila university; when I find the bet
ter class living in good, substantial
' and sometimes elegant hou'ses, and
many of them pursuing professional
occupations, I cannot but conclude that
it. Is a. vile slander to compare these
people to the Apaches or tho American
Indians. Even tho civilizing test of
Christianity is in their favor, as a
greator proportion aro members of the
church than among our own people,
Of the 8,000,000 of inhabitants, Mr.
Sawyer, in his work on the Philip
pine Islands, asserts that 5,8G9,000 are
Christian natives.
, But, even as, to tho Indians, as un
civilized as they may be, our govern
ment recognfzes that it produces a bet
ter condition of things to let them gov
ern themselves, and thereby we even
recognize in them a capacity for self
government. We do not rule them
we make treaties with them as we do
with, nations. We do not appoint a
governor or commission to govern
.them, nor judges to administer laws
ITS
STOPPED FREE
Permanently Cured by
DR. KLINE'S GREAT
NERVE RESTORER
,. . " er urn aar use.
Consultation, nirionftl or bv mllj treatiio and
to Pit 5S.n&n.v. "b ..
ftrmontnt Cure, not only Umporary roller, roraUJVtr
voui DUatdm, Kp epiy, 8paimi? St. Vitui' Danca
DtbllUr, Kxbau.tlon. Ar. fcn bum rf
931 Arch Street, Phlladllphliu iSSk mS
among them, nor a police force to
maintain order. We let them select
their own chiefs, punish their own
criminals, and in every way govern
themselves so long as they stay on
their own reservations.
The instinct of self-government im
planted in man makes him ordinarily
a better agent in managing his own
family and affairs than would be one
of greater ability or higher education
without that Interest. And as with
man, so with nations, that same prin
ciple of self-betterment ordinarily
makes each nation" most capable of
managing its affairs to tho advance
ment of its own people.
No better illustration of this can be
found than in the action of the mem
bers -of tho civil commission of the
Philippine islands in fixing official sal
aries to be paid out of funds collected
from the people of a poor and alien
race. They voted to tho governor,
who is a member of tho commission,
a salary of $15,000 per annum and $15
a day for subsistence, making in the
aggregate a salary of $20,375 a year.
The governor is also furnished a fine
house in which to reside. To each of
tho commission they voted a compen
sation, including subsistence of $15,000
per annum. They voted a yearly salary
of $7,600 to the secretary of the com
mission, of $7,000 to each of the six
(an exceedingly large number) asso
ciate justices of the supreme court, of
$7,500 to the chief justice, of $6,000 to
the treasurer, of $5,000 to the director
general of posts, and of $6,000 to the
collector of customs. - All of these sal
aries are payable in gold. I do not
wish to impugn the honesty of the
commissioners, but to call attention
to the fact that such action natural
ly grows out of the attempt of one
people to govern another. If that com
mission were responsible to a con
stituency, does any one imagino that
such salaries would have been voted?
The aggregate area of the Philippine
islands is 115,300 square miles, a little
less than that of vthe territory of New
Mexico, yet the governor of Mexico re
ceives only $3,000 per annum, and is
not allowed anything for subsistence
nor furnished with an executive man
sion. Think of a commissioner, appointed
from Washington (a place 10,000 miles
from tho Philippine islands), composed
of men who never saw the land they
govern prior to the Spanish war, who
do not speak or read the language of
the Philippine people, and who aro not
even of the same race as their subjects,
voting to each member a salary which
Is nearly .double that of a cabinet offi
cer of. the greatest nation of the world,
and three times that of a senator of
the United States, and voting to a-territorial
governor a salary more than
double that of the governor of the
wealthiest state In the union. How
must such action appear to the Fili
plno laborer, who, furnishing his own
food and lodging, earns but twenty-five
cents in gold ,a day! It musfe be re
membered that wealth is nothing more
than stored labor, and that In tho last
analysis labor., in one form or another
pays all taxes. Such action cannot
but, make tho little browrfiman doubt
the ability of one nation to give good
government to another. Does not "the
conflict of interest between us and the
Philippine people, arising from the
growing of competing stable products,
render us incapable of governing them
to their best Interest? We know that
it will be to tho welfare of tho isl
ands to give free trade with the United
States. American, Spaniards and Fili
pinos there unanimously agree that the
islands can never bo' well developed
without it, yet the very fact that we
hesitate in the matter, shows that we
aro consulting our own interest instead
of theirs. No matter how learned and
just the judge may be, the ethics of
our jurisprudence has determined that'
he Is incapacitated from deciding a
'wasl 1
Hfi
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Tm.
ill
case when his own, interest might be
affected. Nations are but aggregations
of individuals and are subject to the
same influences.
The Filipino is not a bold, warlike
or unruly person; he impresses every
one as of a shrinking, submissive, kind
nature and as one who will suffer great
wrongs before he will resist. Such
people always appeal to the law and
support good government. They have
not the tendency of tho Spaniard to
ward revolution. The revolts in which
they have participated have been to
overthrow Spanish reigns of terror,
almost equal in barbarity to that of
the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands.
The brief experience they had in
self-government prior to the insur
rection, was entirely in their favor.
They ..established a government mo
deled after our own. Their state pa
pers would have done credit to any na
tion. They inaugurated good judicial,
school and revenue systems and pre
served law and order.
Consul Barrett, a strong supporter
of the present administration, wrote
of the hundred men who composed the
Philippine congress as follows:
"These men, whose sessions I re
peatedly attended, conducted them
selves with great decorum and showed
a knowledge of debate and parlia
mentary law that would compare
favorably with the Japanese parlia
ment The executive portion of the
government was made up of a ministry
of bright men, who seemed to under
stand their respective positions."
Consul-General Wildman, an ap
pointee of the president, speaking of
tho Philippine government, said:
"Aguinaldo has made life and property
safe, preserved order, and encouraged
a continuation" of agricultural pur
suits. Ho has made brigandage and
loot impossible, respected private prop
erty, forbidden excess .either in re
venge or in the name of the state, and
made a woman's honor safe, In Luzon,
than it has been in three hundred
years."
Admiral Dewey, it will be remem-r
bored; cabled: "These people are far
superior in their intelligence, and more
capable of self-government than the
natives of Cuba; and I am familiar
with both races."
The best evidence of the ability of
tho Philippine people to govern them
selves, is that they possess a- large In
telligent class, thoroughly identified
in interest with the islands and cap
able of administering good govern
ment. The civil commission has rec
ognized this ability by recently adding
three native members to that govern
ing body; by appointing three Fill
pins judges of the supremo court; by
selecting about half of the judges of
the first instance and nearly all the
governors of the provinces from that
race; and by appointing a solicitor
general and many other officers from
the natives. Are these officials not in
the governing business, and do they
not perform their work as well as the
Americans? Is it possible that they
are capable of governing because they
were appointed by the representatives
of a distant nation? Would they lose
that ability if elected or chosen by
properly constituted authority of their
own? In the latter event they would
make far better officers, because they
would consult only the interest of
their own people instead of that of a
nation 7,000 miles away.
Tho law of our being is that "the
just powers of government aro derived
from the consent of the governed."
Then why continue a policy which
means the continuing loss of millions
to the government, the weakening of
the military power of tho nation and
the destruction of tho policy under
which. we have grown so great? Why
not bo true to our nature and fulfill
the prayer of Lincoln that government
of the" people, for the people and. by
the people shall not perish from the
earth "
JOHN F. SHAFROTH.
Manila, P. I.
Solitude and Society.
It takes two for a kiss, '-;.
Only ono for a sigh';
Twain by twain we marry, -
One by one we die. -.'
Joy is a partnership,
Grief weeps alone;
Many guests had Cana,
Gethsemane had One!
Frederick L. Knowles in Atlanta
Constitution.
EMPLOYMENT WITH ADVANCEMENT.
For Evory Ablo Man and Woman In
Largo and Successful Co-Opor-
atlvo Entorprlso.
The Co-operative Association of Am
erica, central headquarters at Lewis
ton, Maine, is an enterprise for creat
ing and distributing wealth by co-operative
methods by which each co
worker (member) shall receive the full
product of his toil. It is already a suc
cess and furnishing employment to
many men and women on the abovo
terms, New positions are continually
opening for more co-workers. For in
formation send 2c for a circular or 10c
for a complete pamphlet to above ad
'i.,
'! .
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