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VOLUME 6, NUMBER 16
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of gratitude, than to ave them awaiting an
opportunity for insur.Xion. ,i,
I liavo already rdlotred to the danger which
may come to the principle of self-government in
the United States from the systematic denial of
self-government to the Filipinos. As our officials
can only explain their continued presence in the
Philippines hy alleging incapacity in the Fili
pinos, they ilnd themselves unconsciously sur
rendering the governmental theories which were
until recently universally accepted in our coun
try. Wo cannot ovorlook the influence that
theso changed opinions may have upon the
politics of our own country if a colonial policy is
Indefinitely continued.
Neither can wo ignoro the fact that our
prestigo as a teacher of tho principles of repub
lican government must bo impaired if we hold
colonies under the law of force and defend our
selves by using the arguments employed by kings
and emperors as an excuse for denying self-government
to their own people. ,W tmfc preach
that governments dpHvo their just powers from
tho consent o the governed and at the same
tlmo adopt a different principle in practice.
Jt is worth while also to remember that
foreign service is more or less demoralizing on
our troops. Our soldiers are good, average men,
but all men are more or less influenced by en
vironment, and our soldiers cannot be expected
to maintain as high a standard of morality when
far away from home and tho influences of home,
as when their good purposes are strengthened
by the presence of mothers, sisters and friends.
The hospital records show the extent to which
our soldiers yield to the temptations which sur
round tho post, and the saloons that follow our
army speak forcibly of the dangers which at
tend foreign service. Can wo afford to subject
the morals of our young men to such severe
tests unless thero is some national gain com
mensurate with the loss?
If our nation would at once declare its in
tention to treat tho Filipinos living north of
Mindanao as it treated tho Cubans, and then
proceed, first, to establish a stable government,
patterned after our own; second, to convert that
government Into a native government by the
substitution of Fillnhio offlcials as rapidly as
possible; third, to grant independence to the
Filipinos, reserving such harbors and naval sta
tions as may be thought necessary; and, fourth,
to announco its purpose to protect the Filipinos
from outside interferences while they work out
their destiny if our nation would do this, it
would save a largo annual expense, protect its
trade interests, gratify tho just ambition of the
Filipinos for national existence and repeat the
moral victory won in Cuba.
In return for protection from without the
Filipinos would agree, as the Cubans did, that
in their dealings with other nations they would
not embarrass us.
The reservations retained could be con
verted into centers for the extension of Amer
ican influence and American ideals, and bur na
tion would increase its importance as a real
world power. Unless our religion and our phi
losophy aro entirely wrong, moral forces are
more permanent and in the end more potent
than physical force, and our nation lias an op
portunity to prove that a nation's greatness,
like the greatness of an individual, is, measured
by service. It also has an opportunity to prove
that the Oriental can be lod by advice and im
proved by example and does not need to be
coerced by military power.
Our reservations ought to contain model
schools, with a central college, experimental
farms and institutions in which the people could
bo trained in the arts and industries most
suited to the natural resources of the country,
pur nation is unfitted by history and by tradi
tion to exploit tho tropical countries according
archies of Europe. To hold people in subjec
tion requires a larco militsirv nM.(iH,. t
we were to
attemnt in mnlrn mi m,r. i
bear such a burden, they would soon protest
If we were to make tho Filipinos bear it it
would crush them. The Filipinos would resist
such a policy, if employed by us, more bitterly
tuan if it were employed by a European coun
try, because they have learned from us the
lessons of liberty. Subject peoples are not will
ing laborers and our country would not endorse
a system of compulsory labor. Education too
ia iitcuuBiBient wun a permanent colonial svs
tern and cannot be carried far without danger
to tho ruling power. aUfaCi
We must choose, therefore. iiAfwA i
cies, and the sooner the choice is made the
better. As we cannot adopt the European l nollov
withou a radical departure from mir ideaiT
and ultimately from our form of government
The Commoner.
at home, we are virtually forced to adopt a plan
distinctly American a plan in which advice, ex
ample and helpfulness shall be employed as
means of reaching the native heart. Some of
the European nations have been content to seize
land and develop it with European capital and
Chinese labor; our plan must be to develop the
natives themselves by showing them better
methods and by opening before them a wider
horizon. At our. reservations there would bo
religious freedom freedom of speech, freedom of
the press, self-government and public instruction
for all, and every uplifting influence would have
free play. If we believe that right makes might
and that truth has within itself a propagating
power, we cannot doubt the spread of American
civilization from these American centers.
While the Philippine Islands are under
American authority, the government ought to be
administered for the benefit of the Filipinos, in
accordance with Secretary Taft's promise. If
they are to be subject to our tariff laws when
they buy of other nations, they ought to have
free trade with us, but the Philippine Islands
are so far from us that it would be more just
to allow the Philippine tariff to be made by the
Philippine assembly soon to be established. The
Filipinos belong to the Orient and their deal
ings must be largely witli the countries of the
Orient; unless they are in a position to have
their tariff laws conform to their geographical
position, there must necessarily be friction and
injustice. . -
So important are geographical considerations
that Americans who see fit to take up their resi
dence upon such reservations as we retain for
harbors, coaling stations and a naval base ought
to ' be freed from the fetters of our tariff laws
and shipping laws. I even venture to suggest
the creation of an Oriental territory, to be com
posed of such stations and reservations as we
may now have or hereafter acquire in the Orient.
This territory should have a delegate in con
gress like other territories, but should be free
by constitutional amendment from our tariff
laws and permitted to legislate for itself upon
the subject. Tc could thus establish free ports,
if it chose, and give to its people the trade ad
vantages enjoyed by those who live in Hong
Kong, Singapore and other open ports.
In what I have said about independence and
self-government in the Philippines, I have been
speaking of Luzon and the, other islands north
of Mindanao. As I have already pointed out,
the conditions existing in Mindanao and the Sulu
archipelago are so different from those existing
.in the northern Islands that the two groups must
be dealt with separately. It would not bo fair
to deny independence to the Christian Filipinos
living in the north merely because the Moros
have never shown any desire to adopt a re
publican form of government. (They live under
a sort of feudal system, with sultan and datu
as the ruling lords.)
But while the work of establishing a stable
government among the Moros is a more difficult
one and will proceed more slowly, the same
principles should govern it. Tho Moros have
furnished a great many pirates for the southern
seas, and the influence of the adventurer and
free-booter is still felt in Moroland. Then, too,
they have an unpleasant way of killing Christians,
on the theory that by doing so, they not only
insure an entrance into heaven, but earn the
right to four wives in their celestial home.
Occasionally a Moro takes an oath to die kill
ing Christians (he is called a juramentado), and
after a season of fasting and prayer, and gen
erally with shaven eyebroAvs, he goes forth to
slay until he himself is slain. Besides those who
deliberately take human life by retail or by
wholesale, there are religious fanatics who act
under frenzy. All in all, the Moro country Is
far below the northern islands in civilization
whether the civilization is measured by a ma
terial, an intellectual, a political or a moral
standard. But even among the Moros I believe
it. is possible to introduce American ideas. Al
ready some progress is being made in the estab
lishment of schools, and Governor Findley has
succeeded in interesting the natives in exchanges
where trade is carried on according to American
methods. While polygamy is still permitted
slavery is being exterminated and the natives
are being shown the advantage of free labor
I believe that even among- them our work can
be advanced by assuring them of ultimate in
dependence, to be granted as soon as a govern
ment is established capable of maintaining order
and enforcing law. By educating young Moros
and then using them in official position, we can
convince the Moros of the sincerity of our friend
ship, and these officials will 'exert an i crealinir
influence for good. In the meantime we shoSd
establish experimental stations and by the use
of native labor train the people to make the
best use of the resources o-their country. I
believe General Wood is already planning for
an experimental farm near Zamboanga.
While the Moros are a fierce people and
accustomed to bloodshed, they have enough good
qualities to show the possibility of improvement.
They are a temperate people, abstaining en
tirely from intoxicating liquors, and while they
practice polygamy and add concubinage to plu
rality of wives, they carefully guard the chastity
of their women. They have their system of
laws, with courts for the investigation of crim
inal charges and for the imposition of fines. The
existing code in the Sulu archipelago, while
lamentably below our penal code, shows a de
sire for the establishment of justice between
man and man. Dr. Saleeby has published a
translation of the existing code, together with
the code (not yet adopted) prepared by the
present prime minister of the sultan, and a
comparison of tho two shows distinctly that
American influence is already being felt.
While I do not believe that any large num
ber of Americans can be induced to settle per
manently in Mindanao (and Mindanao seems to
be the most inviting place), there will be ample
time to test this question while a government
is being established among the Moros. It is more
likely that the waste lands will be settled upon
by emigrants from the northern islands and that
in time the Christian Filipinos will be sufficiently
numerous to control the islands, and they can
then be annexed to the northern group.
The leaven of American ideas is already
spreading. At Zamboanga we met Datu Mandi,
who has adopted the American dress and opened
one of his buildings for a Moro school for girls.
He is manifesting an increasing interest in the
American work. Datu Mandi's brother was one
of the. Moros taken to the World's Fair and he,
too, has abandoned the native dress. I have
already referred to the desire expressed by Datu
Piang to have his sons attend school in America.
This is a good sign, and money spent In edu
cating them would reduce military expenditures
in that part of the island. The Sultan of Sulu
also wants to visit America, and a trip would
do him more good-than- a year's salary. As
soon as we convince these people that our pur
pose is an unselfish one, they will become will
ing pupils, and in the course of time they will
find the home more congenial than the harem
and the ways of peace more pleasant than the
war path.
While our plans should be unselfish, they
would probably prove profitable in the end, for
friends are better customers than enemies, and
our trade is apt to develop in proportion as we
teach the natives to live as we do. When Solo
mon came to the throne, instead of choosing
riches or long life, he asked for wisdom that
he might govern his people aright, and he re
ceived not only wisdom, but the riches and the
length" of days which he had regarded as less
important. May we not expect a similar reward
if we choose the better part and put the wel
fare of the natives above our own gain?
After all, the test question is, have we "faith
in the wisdom of doing right?" Are we willing
to trust the conscience and the moral sense of
those whom we desire to aid?
Individuals have put Christianity to the test
and have convinced themselves that benevolence
unarmed is mightier than selfishness equipped
with sword and mail, but nations have as yet
seldom ventured to embody the spirit of the
Nazarene in their foreign policy. Is it not an
opportune time for our nation to make the trial?
Our president has recently been hailed as a
peacemaker because he took the initiative in
terminating a great war, but this involved no
sacrifice upon our part. May we not win a
greater victory by proving our disinterested
concern for the welfare of a people separated
from us not only by vast waters but by race, by
language and by color.
Caiiyle in concluding his history of the
French revolution declared that thought fs
stronger than artillery parks and that back of
every great thought is love. This is a lofty
platform, but not too lofty for the United States
of America.'
Copyright.
Speaker Cannon announces that 191 members
constitutes a quorum of the house. If the 191
members will just bo present at roll call and sit
still, Speaker Cannon can accomplish quite a bit
of legislation.
The spectacle of San Francisco "Phoenixing"
will be watched by applauding and admiring
millions.
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