M U
12
The Commoner.
VOLUME 4, NUMBER m
-
"The Religious Argument"
An editorial from tho pen of Dr.
Winston, editor of tho Nashville Chris
tian Advocate, follows:
"A very" largo number of thought
ful American citizens deplored the ac
quisition by our country of tho Phil
ippine islands, since they believed
our national government not well
adapted to tho management of col
onial dependencies. Probably a much
larger numbers are heartily in favor
of setting these islands up in self
government at the very earliest day
that such a step is justified by condi
tions. But tnere are comparatively
few among us though the, numuer
compnaes some vei aule citizens not
conaueu to any section 01 country
or party in politics who tniuit mat
the only pussiuie remedy for cue mis
take 01 aeijuirmg the rnnippines is tno
granting oi immeuiate independence
to tneir people. There is sucn a class,
however, and its members maive up ior
what they lack In numbers by vigor
of language. It is but speaidug mod
erately to say that these gentlemen
.would be more worthy of attention if
they reasoned on the basis of the tacts
and not merely from theory.
J It i3 all very well, for example, fol
us to speak of the Philippine and the
Filipino, as if those islands constituted
a unity and their people were homo
geneous. We got them from Spain In
a' lump, since . most of-us .scarcely
had heard of them before 1898, and, aa
our language concerning them proves,
know very little about them now. But
what are the facts?
The islands are a straggling group
that if thrown down beside our coast
would reach from Maine to Florida.
Their inhabitants, often even those of
a single island; are not merely divided
by tribal boundaries; they differ from
each other in everything in racial
stock, in language, in religion, in de
grees of civilization, in dress, habits,
and even n physical appearance. There
is .absolutely not a trace of any bond
bf unity. They were nominally under
the Spanish government, but most of
them yielded allegience but grudging
ly, and the administration of affairs in
one tribe or island was not connected
in their minds with that in any other.
According to Senor Buencamino,
former "secretary of state" to Aguin
algo, only about twenty-five thousand
of !he population that is, less thin
one-half of one per cent can use the
Spanish language. Probably a larger
' portion of our people that tliat under
stand German, yet who would suggest
thq German language as a bond of
unity for the American nation?
As to intertribal relations, a recent
visitor to theislands. writes: "In Lu
r Son there are the Christian Tagalogs,
the Ghrlstaih Matabelesr (who murder
; Tagalogs as a tribal virtue), the non
Christian Igorr-tes, and the Negritos,
"besides several tribes of head-hunters.
In the "Visavan group is another tribal
division speaMng a Malay dialect dis
tinct from Taeralog; and in Mindanao,
Sulu, and Tawi are the Moros. Mus
sulman savaee3, enemies of the rest
and continually warring among themselves."
Now how can an indeppndent nation
i,u" "w ujueppnnenc nanon 77 " , uwwou muuey put
he formed of these mutually repellehtJ " ?nnnPnnnn ' 80me beInS as low
and impractical elements? Acruinaldo
appeared to the imagination of many
AT I crM'er
fcllttiT Bes ' focine
,. BALSAM H"W
as the Washington or tho Hidalgo of
his country. But Aguirialdo was in
fact the leader of a not very unani
mous movement in a single tribe of
tho island of Luzon, a tribe aerainst
which tho othera even of that island
cherish hereditary enmity. Had he
been able to assert his leadership
among his fellow-Tagalogs, and coax
pr bully the United States into grant
ing him independence, there was not
tho remotest posibility that the Mat
abeles and Igorrotes on his own is
land, to say nothing of Moros, Visa
vans, and the rest on others, would
treat his government with anything
but scornful indifference and-implacable
hostility.
Philippine nationalty, Philippine
self-government, is a dream will long
remain a dream. Economically and
politically rpeaking, we had no need of
those Islands. We may indeed have
paid dearly for them quite aside from
tho twenty millions of money. But
should not the meaning of the nreaant
situation q sought not in what we
need but rather in what they need?
Says the visitor above quoted: "I
went to the Philippine islands con
vinced that our retention of them was
an international crime: I left thorn
convinced that any other course than
that we are pursuing would b a breach
of international humanity, comparable
to leaving a helpless Infant to perish
in the storm. When they will be ready
for self-government is ah interesting
question, but at present it is acade
mic. It is a fact that they are not
ready or capable for it." He quotes
Stenor Buencamino as saying: "The
Filipinos have three great needs, and
none of them is independence. The
first is schools, the second V mr
schools, and the third is more schools."
If the peoph of the United States the
Christian people, especially fail to
heed a plea like that, then they have
departed from their traditions.
We have written thus because this
constant atritation in favor of grant
ing the Filipinos immediate indepen
dence, while in one senso the discus
sion of a purely academic matter, has
In another a very serious practical side.
Tt plavs into the hands of irresponsible
and ambitious agitators in those is
lands whose wish is not to see their
neople free, but to be themselves left
free to exnloit them. It hampers the
administration of government thereby
mariner uelv , restive the itrnorant
and half-trained ponnlation, adding to
the unhanninefis of all concerned and
waTrinsf-'Sn obv.ionpiv difficult situa
tion farVmore difficult"
$17,000,000,000. It does not seem pos
sible that any very great decrease
can have taken place since 1896?
Germany is believed to have about
half as much money invested abroad
aa Franco,. or twice, as much as Bel
gium, but German wealth and Gorman
enterprise are alike fast gaining
ground, and these proportions will
soon bo radically changed. Russia is
tho great debtor nation of Europe, and
in that country billions of dollars of
French, Belgium and German money
nas round employment, xt renter or
less risk, and with widely varying re
turns. Ex.
The South' Attitude
Referring to he prospective visit by
Mr. Roosevelt to the South, the Hous
ton Post says that "if it is necessary
that anything be done, rather let the
president exhibit a spirit of broad na
tionality and repair the mischief he
has done so far as he can. Personally,
he know3 little about the S'outh, its
institutions, its civilization, its prob
lems, except what he has gained from
sectional partisans and an unfriendly
press. Let bim inform himself thor
oughly and act with wisdom, and it is
in his power to restore the conditions
which .McKinley brought about. Let
him look the South over and see if he
cannot revise the opinion he holds of
us as set forth in his writings and
manifested by his acts. He has the
power to correct his own mistakes; it
is not within southern province or
power. The South will hold to its self
respect and look to the future for the
vindication of its position and for the
justice and fair dealing which ought
never to be withheld from any state
nor any section. In the meantime;
the South is busy." " '.
ferently charged earth strata or bodies
with conductors that would givo tS
electric current an easier road than
it now has. He suggested that too
Jl mIlr0ad properly connocSd
t t. mo ucl a8 a conductor
, J s connectlon may bc' recalled
the belief of many wesern pioneers
that the building of railroads has in
creased rainfall. That belief is per
sistent in maiiy observing and crediblo
men. The truth behind it probably
is that since railroads have been built
across the western prairies their rain
fall ha3 become more equally diffused
tnrougn tne year. The rails have, per
haps, acted as electrical equalizers,
lessening the difference of electric
tension, and so breaking up the occas
ional violent electric storms which
brought rain upon the unbroken plains
into more frequent and less violent at
mospheric disturbances, with a conse
quence diffusion of rainfall.
Whether Mr. Guanni's suggestion
will lead to any practical results In
the way of prevention of earthquakes
or of lessening their violence it is im
possible to predict. The task pro
posed is so vast and so far beyond
what would seem the limits of human
power that speculation on the subject
would, be idle. But it a striking illus
tration of the range and scope of
science that its sober votaries should
even venture to suggest that the pre
vention of earthquakes to any extent
may bo within human power. Chicago
Inter-Ocean.
Subscribe' Advertising Department
Nations Lend Monty . -
A German authority estimates the
country having 6,000,000 inhabitants
and about one-quarter as large an area
as Ohio, at no less than $1,500,000
000. In proportion to the numerical
natural resources these figures make
the $6,000,000,000, or thereabouts,
which represents French capital put
into Investments outside? of France
look small, and they compare well
with the largest .current estimates
of Great Britain's Investments beyond
the narrow limits of the British isles.
Authorities differ wlrioiv .
Ing the amount of British money put
as $6,000,000,000, not counting British
possessions, like India, and British
colonies. To include those favorite
fields for British enterprise might
double the figures given. "Rnf im,,
j not many years since the Tvmvinn
stock exchange calculated tho prob
S1toti,.?.f,the foreIn investments
Ul " iwiuan people at more than
Can Earthquakes be Prevented
In an address before tho "RoiP-inn
Astronomical society recently Mr.
Gaurini made an interesting sug
gestion about earthquakes. .It was
that if the theories of Dary and
Plante with regard to tho cause of
these disturbances are correct, then it
may be within human. power to lessen
their violence.
Reduced to untechnical language,
the theories of Dary and Plante are
that earthquakes are' subterranean
electric storms, similar in character
to those of the atmosphere.' Different
strata of the earth become electrically
charged at different tensions, as the
earth and the atmosphere, or strata
of the atmosphere, become charged
at different tensions before an elec
trical storm.
In an effort to find an easier road,
the electric current leans from tho
body under high electrlc pressure to
that under low pressure. When this
happens between the earth and the
atmosphere We call the leap a bolt of
lightning; When the same leap oc
curs .between strata of the earth we
call the resulting shock an earth
quake. That is the theory. Accepting, this
theory as correct; it iseasy to see how
it, might be possible for man to give
tWoarth. currents, to a certain extent
an easier road, just as he. gives the
atmospheric currents easier roads to
the earth with lightning rods and by
jjxuuuug ireea.
For it is well known that a light
ning rod does not actually arrest the
thunderbolt when it comes. Whatever
service it performs is by so drawing
off the electricity from the air above
luo uimumg mat tnunderbolts are less
likely to occur there. That trees per
form a similar service is believed from
the observation that when large
desert tracts are reclaimed electric
storms seem to decrease in violence
there.
Mr, Guarini suggested that the vio
lence of subterannfnn ainnf.in .
I might be lessened by connecting dif-
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