The Commoner.
May 23, 190a
7
THE PHILIPPINES AGAIN
Jacob Gould Schurman
In New Yerk Independent.
THE WEEKLY PRESS FORUM.
Wymore (Neb.) Arbor State: Im
perialism knows no law but the law
of might. It breaks every other law,
human and divine.
Rockvlllo (Ind.) Tribune: Teacher
of Rhetoric "Name some notable ex
ample of irony." Bright Pupil "Tho
republican platform on trusts."
Guthrie (OkL) State Register: The
ship owner is the active voice and the
farmer, is the passive. The one wants
subsidy and the other is wanted to
subside.
Vandalia (Mo.) Mail and Express:
Grover Cleveland writes beautifully
about how to kill ducks, but it is the
beef trust that needs killing atthe
present writing.
Broken Bow (Neb.) Beacon: The
"water cure" is a part of the plan
of "benevolent assimilation." It Is a
very great exhibition of Christian
charity and fraternal affection.
Athens (0.) Journal: The tay on
hides should be repealed as well as
the tax on beef. The laborlngman
could carry his untaxed dinner pail
with freer gait if he should walk on
untaxed sole-leather.
Hastings (Neb.) Democrat: Do not
place man in authority to act. for you,
unless you know that he represents
what you do and that he will act as
you, wish him to. Look out for repub
llcanized democrats and populists.
Anna (111.) Democrat: Captain Clark
cannot see King Neddy coronated be
cause he hasn't got the stuff to pay
the bill.- It is well enough that lie
is not going, because' he doesn't be
long -in the envoy class, anyhow. He
is a hero.
Warsaw (Mo.) Enterprise: Inheri
tances go to people who have not
earned them and inheritance taxation
lightens the burdens of all taxpayers.
Inheritance taxation and income tax
ation are among the fairest methods
of providing for public expenses.
Durango (Colo.) Democrat: The
price of silver, when over two-thirds
of the world's inhabitants are silver
using, shows how thoroughly the
money power has us grabbed. We
must have an open door and tariff for
trust products, but not a decent $how
for our mines.
Green'sburg (Pa.) Democrat: The
"full dinner pail," promised the labor
lngman by the republican orators and
organs two years ago, has proven to
bo a delusion. The laboringman can
secure a "full dinner pail" under trust
control, but to do so he must be satis
fied with an empty pocketbook.
Benton (Mo.) Record: Talk about
civilization, Christianity, the millen
lum and all the rest of it, but the
opening years of the twentieth century
have witnessed deeds perpetrated by
the self-styled leaders of the world's
progress such as we pretend to shud
der at in tales of the middle ages.
Wayne (Neb.) Democrat: Can there
any longer be a doubt as to the su
periority of the Anglo-Saxon over the
supine and indolent Latin? What,
for instance, are the puny perform
ances of Don Valeriano Weyler as
compared with all-conquering achieve
ments of Gen. "H. R." Smith of
"howling wilderness" celebrity.
Ackley (la.) World: General Smith
admits that he gave his subordinate
officers and men orders to "kill all
over ten and to "make the island-of
,Samar a howling wilderness." Isn't
it about time some good .American
missionary was going to the Philip
pines 'to .convert the savages in the,
American army to the methods of civ
ilized 'beings when dealing with an
enemy?
Rochester (Pa.) Commoner: Presi
dent Roosevelt, Secretary Root and
his subordinates and the Imperialist
organs have been convicted of doublo
dealing and deception in their efforts
to conceal the Philippine brutality.
But, like fill things evil, their fraud
and deception proved a dismal failure.
Urbana (0.) Democrat: Oh, yes.
the end of the so-called war is at hand
and peace in the Philippines is just
in sight, but it is the peace of the
grave. When all the people above ten
years of age have been murdered and
all their property burned of course
there is peace and quiet, in that part
of the country.
Buffalo (Mo.) Record: We venture
to say if the American people would
give expression to their feeling re
gardless of partisiauism, they would
overwhelmingly say, cease trying to
conquer a people to whom you dare
not read the Declaration of Indepen
dence lest it Increase their desire for
liberty and love for freedom.
Eddyville (Ky.) Tale of Two Cities:
It will be months before it can be
known whether the administration is
fighting or bluffing the beef trust, In
the federal courts, but the democrats
in congress have asked the republicans
to join with them in bringing the
trust to its knees at once, by repeal
ing the duty on imported meat.
Connersville (fnd.) Examiner: If
the Filipinos are such a bad lot. that
an American army officer issues or
ders to kill all the inhabitants over
ten and make the island a howling
wilderness, what business has tlila
government there? Does it wangle,
muruer an me peopie in. .ojuhj- lo
dome into possession of a howling
wilderness?
m
. Long Island (Kas.) Leader: Every
thing in the Philippines is again re
ported "quiet," since the killing of
one officer and four men and the
wounding of four other officers and
twenty-seven men, of the American
forces, in the capture of Fort Moro, In
the island of Mindanao. The "quiet"
secured in the Philippines is of the ex
pensive kind.
Durango (Colo.) Democrat: Roose
velt is now confronted with several
very humiliating facts as to the Eng
lish army posts in this country. The
New York World has the letters and
documents and there is now no es
cape. Secretary Hay and the nation's
executive are no doubt aware of the
wrong and outrage practiced upon the
liberty-loving Boers.
Lincoln (111.) Times: Are the Fili
pinos human beings?' If so, why treat
them like dogs? Thsy have longing
for independence the same as we; and
they have the same right to enjoy
it, and we have no right to kill them
for this God-given desire. This ad
ministration ought to tremble with
fear in the face of this Godless war.
"Thou shalt not kill" came from the
heart of our God, and applies with as
much force to Roosevelt as to Czol
gosz. Paris (Mo.) Mercury: "For the
good of the army" is a new cry in this
land of Washington, Jefferson and
Lincoln. One would think that he had
been suddenly transported into mili
tarized France or soldier-ridden Ger
many to hear this strange prattle.
"For the good of the army" murder
must be hushed, torture condoned and
freedom subverted. It was the cry
against Dreyfus, and has helped throt
tle justice and liberty from Romulus
to Roosevelt. "For the good of the
people" is a halting phrase In these
days when the jingoes are trying to
stir up military ardor over the butch
ery in the Philippines.
(Continued on Page 12.)
There is always something now from
Africa," was the Old World saying..
In, our New World we have, since
1898, been continually having some
thing now from the Philippines. Be
sides the" developments in .the investi
gations conducted by thd senate Phil
ippine committee, which would bo
more satisfactory to the impartial in
vestigator if they could be divorced
from partisan politics, wo have had
In rapid succession within the last lew
weeks the Gardener report, tne cnargea
made in the Waller trial, the horrible
admission of General Smith's couns.-,
the testimony concerning the tortur
ing of Filipinos by Americans, and
the outbreak of hostilities witli somo
of the Mohammedan tribes on tno
southern coast of the great island of
Mindanao. The editor of tne indepen
dent has done me the honor of asking
my opinion regarding the effect whlcn
the most recent developments in the
Philippine situation will have, or
should have, on the general Philippine
policy of the United States.
Now, replying to that question, I
think it will bo well to begin with the
recent fighting between our troops ano
the Moros. Every nation is bound to
protect its citizens and soldiers and to
demand reparation when they are at
tacked or murdered. There seems to
be no doubt thnt one or more Ameri
cans were killed by Moros. If no sat
isfaction were offered, if the act were
not disavowed, both the honor of our
flag and the safety of our peopre
would seem to call for punishment,
and among communities tribally or
ganized, as all the Mbhammedan anh
heathen peoples of Mindanao are, that
nunlshment 'might from their point oi
view"bd' as' properly corporate as In
dividualmight; that is to say, fall
with equal justice either upon tne
personal offender or the tribe or clan
to which he belonged. The punitive
expedition dispatched by the Ameri
can officer in command against the
Dattos and members of the guilty
tribes "Was in itself considered no im
proper proceeding. And if we were
not responsible for any prior provo
cation, I do not see that the course
finally adopted is fairly open to criti
cism.' Our soldiers and officials in the
Philippines must be protected so long
as we keep them there, and if their
conduct squares with our statutes,
with the commandments of morality,
the rules of war and the laws of na
tions, wo must protect them even v.i
the cost of further war.
But I fear that we may have been
guilty of the " original provocation
which ended in murderous' retaliation.
I have read in the newspapers an or
der issued by the officer In command
requiring our troops to explore the
country of the Mohammedan chief
tains concerned. Now these chieftains
never recognized Spanish authority
beyond the coast lino. Even In the
Island of Sulu (Jolo) the Spaniard had
no footing except in the little walled
coast town of the same name. With
that exception the island was gov
erned by the sultan and his dattos as
though Spaniards had never landed
on its shores. As inheritors of Span
ish sovereignty we have no rights
other than those which Spain enjoyed.
Why then should we send exploring
expeditions among the Lake- Moros
in the interior of Mindanao? Have
we not enough on our hands already,
even if we have the right, which I do
not concede, to force the Mohammedan
and heathen chieftains to receive ex
peditions whom they will certainly re
gard as enemies coming to spy out
and probably take forcible possession
of their lands? As we. have lived in
peace since 1899 with the fierce and
dangerous people of those southern
Philippine Islands by respecting their
wishes and making amicable agree
ments with them, by whose authority
is this policy to bo reversed? Does
the president, does congress, does the
American nation desire a moro exten
sive jurisdiction In the Philippines
and a moro intensive control over
those autonomous and practically in
dependent million of two Mohammc
ans and heathen in Mlndnuao, Sulu
and Palawan? J havo heard nothing
of It. Why, then, should any Ameri
can officer in tho Philippines havo
power to plungo us Into a bloody and
1 Inhuman war by forcible entry into
domains over which (If we are tech
nically sovereign) our sovereignty
amounts actually to tho most shadowy
suzerainty? I remember vividly tho
expression of haughty pride with
which tho sultan of Sulu recounted
to me In 1899 tho victories which his
people had won over Spain, compell
ing her, as he said, to pay them tri
bute. For in his estimate at any rato
tho annual allowance paid to him
and his dattos by Spain was not in
the nature of salary to a subordinate,
but of tribute to a proved superior.
Certainly he was supreme In his own
dominions. And tho majority of tho
chieftains in Mindanao had probably
never heard of Spiin. Why force upon
them a knowledge of Spain's succes
sor in tho sovereignty of tho archi
pelago by what they will regard as an
unlawful invasion of their territories?
Thanks to tho cautious and far-scc-lng
wisdom of President Roosevelt
tho danger of a Mohammedan con
flagration, which was imminent a few
days ago, has perhaps passed away.
But the possibility of its recurrence
should be prevented. Our 'people aro
sick of bloodshed In the Philippines.
If tho Moros are stirred up it will bo
a blobdy business for us. Let us cry
halt to the explorer and exploiter. ,
In Luzon and the Vi3ayds, whoso
6,500,000 people are civilised and Chris
tianized, tribal organisation has dis
appeared, and the inhabitants having
been long governed by Spanish sol
diers, civilians and priests, they were,
when Spain withdrew in 1898, without
native leaders a sheer democracy
absolutely unorganized. There tho
United States found no recognized
power to deal with, for Aguinaldo was
a usurper and strong only (as it
seemed) among the Tagalogs. Had
there been native potentates, whoso
rule had been sanctioned by time and
solidified by the acquiescence of tho
people, it would have been possible
to substitute mutual agreements for
the arbitrament of the sword, to which
Auglnaldo appealed. But tho tribal
organization which Spanish power had
destroyed in Luzon and tho Visayas,
where Spanish power was effective,
still survived in the southern islands,
where Spanish power had been mere
ly nominal.
Perhaps I may be allowed to say
hero that I was the first American offi-
pcial to visit those regions, and, as J
have elsewhere reported, I arranged
on behalf of the president of the
United States for the renewal with tho
sultan of Sulu of the so-called "treaty",
under the terms of which he had lived
with Spain; and in cabling the result
to Washington I recommended the ex
tension of this policy of friendly
agreements to all the sultans ana
dattos of Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan.
A month later the execution of this
policy was entrusted to General Bates,
who pursued the work with admirable
skill and excellent results. A similar
course had been adopted by Great
Britain in her dealings with the kin
dred sultans of the Malayan Feder
ated States many years before, and
the brilliant success attending It had
become a commonplace of oriental his
tory. Now I ask with tho deepest
qoncern whether an arrangement
which has the "warrant of historical
experience, which is adapted to tfc
(Continued on Page Nine.)
