CHAPTER XXXVI

IS PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE NOW POSSIBLE?

This question is one of great importance to the people of the United States, for national honour is involved in finding its true answer.

Both of our great political parties are committed to the policy of granting independence when the Filipinos are ready for it. Are they ready now? If so, the promise should be kept. If not, we should be guilty of an unjust and cowardly act if we withdrew our protection and control.

I have already called attention to the fact that the Filipinos [197] are divided into a number of peoples, sometimes called tribes. The census of 1903 recognizes the following: Visayans, numbering 3,219,030; Tagálogs, 1,460,695; Ilocanos, 803,942; Bicols, 566,365; Pangasináns, 343,686; Pampangans, 280,984; Cagayans, 159,648; Zambalans, 48,823.

The loose use of the word "tribe" in designating these peoples is liable to lead to very grave misapprehension. Their leaders vigorously, and very properly, object to the idea that they have at present anything resembling a tribal organization. The truth is that they are the descendants of originally distinct tribes or peoples which have gradually come to resemble each other more and more, and to have more and more in common.

The very large majority of them have been brought up in the Catholic faith. In physical characteristics, dress and customs they resemble each other quite closely. They are alike in their dignity of bearing, their sobriety, their genuine hospitality, their kindliness to the old and the feeble, their love of their children and eagerness to obtain for them educational advantages which they themselves have been denied, their fondness for music, their patience in the face of adversity, and the respect which they show for authority so long as their passions are not played upon, or their prejudices aroused, by the unscrupulous. These are admirable characteristics and afford a good foundation on which to build. Such differences as exist between these several peoples are steadily diminishing. This is especially true of the Tagálogs and the numerically comparatively unimportant peoples lying immediately to the north and west of their territory, namely, the Pampangans, Pangasináns and Zambalans. The Tagálogs, Ilocanos, Cagayans, Bicols and Visayans are distinguished by much more marked differences.

In general, the Tagálogs tend to become the dominating Filipino people of the islands, and successfully attempt to assert themselves in their dealings with all the other Christian peoples except the Ilocanos, who are quite capable of holding their own. The Ilocanos have a reputation for orderliness and industry which the Tagálogs lack. The Cagayans are, as a people, notoriously lazy and stupid, although there are of course numerous conspicuous individual exceptions to this rule. The Visayans are comparatively docile and law-abiding. Many of the Bicols are energetic and capable, and they seem to be possessed of a rather keen sense of humour, which their neighbours lack.

Two things tend to keep the several peoples apart. The first is the present lack of any common medium of communication. There are more quite sharply distinct dialects than there are peoples. The Visayans, for instance, speak Cebuano, Ilongo and Cuyuno. The language difficulty is of least importance among the peoples immediately north of Manila where the use of Tagálog is generalized to a considerable extent, but even here it is serious.

Mr. Justice Johnson of the Philippine Supreme Court tells me that when he was serving in Zambales as a judge of first instance the examination of a family of four persons necessitated two interpreters, one for the father, and another for the mother and two step-children, while in the trial of seven men charged with a murder it was necessary to read the complaint in four different dialects.

Taylor cites the following typical instances of practical difficulty growing out of the multiplicity of dialects:--

"In December, 1898, General Macabulos was the commissioner in Tarlac Province. At Camiling the orders prescribing how the elections were to be carried on were read in Spanish and then translated into Ilocano. General Macabulos next delivered in Tagálog a speech informing the assemblage of their duties under the new form of government. This was translated into Ilocano, as the people did not understand Tagálog any more than they did Spanish. [198] When on July 6, 1898, a junta of men in favour of the independence of the Philippines met at Gerona, Tarlac, to elect among themselves the civil officials for the town, the decrees of Aguinaldo, of June 18 and 20, were read in Ilocano, in Tagálog, in Pampanga, and Pangasinán, all of which languages were spoken in the town." [199]

The head of the town of Antipolo, Morong Province, wrote to the secretary of the interior on October 21, 1898, that his delay in executing orders had been caused by the fact that they were written in Tagálog, which he did not understand. He recommended that Spanish be always used by the central government. [200] Mabini himself at one time proposed that English be made the official language. The constitution of the "Republic," while making Tagálog the official language, provided for instruction in English. [201]

There is no literature worth mentioning written in the native dialects, nor do they open a way to the fields of science, the arts, history, or philosophy. Their vocabularies are comparatively poor in words, and they do not afford satisfactory media of communication, especially as words of generalization are almost entirely lacking. This latter fact conclusively demonstrates the stage of mental evolution attained by the peoples which have developed these several languages. Not long since I heard a keen student of Philippine affairs remark that the trouble with the Filipinos was that none of them were more than fourteen years old! There is truth enough in the statement to make it sting.

The use of Spanish never became common, and knowledge of this language was limited to the educated few. After fifteen short years English is far more widely spoken than Spanish ever was. When English comes into comparatively general use, as it will if the present educational policy is adhered to, one fundamental difficulty in the way of welding the Filipinos into "a people" will have been largely done away with.

The second important barrier between the several Filipino peoples is built up of dislikes and prejudices, in part handed down from the days when they were tribally distinct and actively hostile; in part resulting from the well-marked tendency of the Tagálogs and the Ilocanos to impose their will upon the others. The actual differences between a Tagálog and a Visayan are not so great. The important thing, from the American view point, is that every Tagálog and every Visayan really considers them very great.

There would have been no insurrection of any importance in the Visayas and Mindanao if the Tagálogs had kept their hands off. We have seen how they worked their will on the people of the Cagayan valley and the Visayas, and what bitter animosities they provoked. We have also seen how on various occasions the Ilocanos opposed the Tagálogs as such, and even planned to kill them, while the Visayans did kill them on various occasions. However much politicians may declaim about a united Filipino people, certain uncomfortable but indisputable facts reduce such claims to idle vapourings.

At the time when there was great excitement in Manila over the Jones Bill, and many Filipinos believed that independence was coming on July 4, 1913, there took place at the house of General Aguinaldo a very significant gathering of former insurgent generals and colonels. There was then much interest in the question of who would be appointed president of the coming Philippine Republic. It was officially announced that the object of this meeting was to unite those who attended it in an effort to aid in the maintenance of a good condition of public order. I learned from a source which I believe to be thoroughly reliable that one of the conclusions actually reached was that no Visayan should be allowed to become president of the republic, and that one of the real objects of the meeting was to crystallize opposition to the candidacy of Señor Osmeña, the speaker of the assembly. But the undesirability of giving publicity to such factional differences at this time was promptly realized and this attitude on the part of Aguinaldo's supporters was not publicly announced.

Troubles between Ilocanos and Cagayans continue in Cagayan, Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya up to the present day. Several years since, when investigating the cause which lay behind a petition from certain people of the latter province for an increase in the educational requirement precedent to the exercise of the franchise, I discovered that the whole thing resolved itself into an effort to disfranchise the Ilocanos, who always voted together and already controlled elections in several townships.

Without going further into the differences which separate the several civilized peoples, I will say emphatically that the great mass of Filipinos do not constitute "a people" in the sense in which that word is understood in the United States. They are not comparable in any way with the American people or the English people. They cannot be reached as a whole, and they do not respond as a whole. In this they agree with all other Malays. Colquhoun has truly said: [202]--

"No Malay nation has ever emerged from the hordes of that race, which has spread over the islands of the Pacific. Wherever they are found they have certain marked characteristics and of these the most remarkable is their lack of that spirit which goes to form a homogeneous people, to weld them together. The Malay is always a provincial; more, he rarely rises outside the interests of his own town or village."

More important than the differences which separate the Tagálogs, Ilocanos, Cagayans, and Visayans as such, are those which separate the individuals composing these several groups of the population. Very few of the present political leaders are of anything approaching pure Malayan blood. To give details in specific cases would be to give offence, and to wound the feelings of men who certainly are not to blame for their origin. Suffice it to say that with rare exceptions, if one follows their ancestry back a very little way he finds indubitable evidence of the admixture of Spanish, other European or Chinese blood. The preëminence of these men is undoubtedly due in large measure to the fact that through the wealth and influence of their fathers they had educational advantages, and in many instances enjoyed broadening opportunities for travel, which were beyond the reach of their less fortunate countrymen. To what extent their present demonstrated abilities are due to these facts, and to what extent they are due to white or Mongolian blood, will never be known until the children of the common people, who are now enjoying exceptionally good educational opportunities, arrive at maturity and show what they can do. [203]

Meanwhile there is more or less thinly veiled hostility between the mestizo class and the great dark mass of the people. For a time we heard much of Filipinos de cara y corazon, [204] and while because of political expediency there is less of this talk now than formerly, the feeling which caused it persists, and will continue to endure. Throughout the Christian provinces the same condition exists everywhere. The mestizo element is in control. Until the common people have learned to assert themselves, and have come to take an important part in the commercial and political development of their country, anything but an oligarchical form of independent government is impossible.

There has been complaint from politicians and others of the mestizo class that American men are, as a rule, disinclined to increase it by marrying its women and breeding mestizo children.

Juan Araneta, a very intelligent Visayan of Negros, put the matter brutally to me by saying that white blood was the only hope for his people, and that if he had his way he would put in jail every American soldier who did not leave at least three children behind him.

Blount pretends to find an obstacle to American control in the fact that American women will not marry Filipinos, and in the further fact that those American men who do marry Filipinas soon find themselves out of touch with their former associates. He says that this is not as it should be. [205] He adds that many Filipinos are sons or grandsons of Spaniards, and therefore have a very warm place in their hearts for the people of that nation.

He neglects to mention the fact that the vast majority of the Spanish mestizo class were born out of wedlock.

I believe that the attitude of American women on this subject is eminently proper and that American men, who expect ever again to live in their own country, as a rule make a grave mistake if they marry native women. Even when they are to remain permanently in the islands, such a course is in my opinion usually most undesirable. I have known a limited number of happy mixed marriages of this sort, but in the large majority of cases which have come under my observation they have led to the rapid mental, moral and physical degeneration of the men concerned. While some of the children born of such marriages are very fair, there are occasional reversions to the ancestral type of the mothers, and the lot of dark-skinned children is not a happy one, as even their own mothers are almost sure to dislike them.

The mestizo class is now large enough, and the problems which its existence presents are grave enough, to render undesirable its further growth. Finally, while the light-skinned mestiza girl almost always seeks a white husband, the real typical Filipinos, who are brown, are quite content to mate with each other, and do not dislike whites for declining to marry their daughters. The people of this class are friendly toward Americans, if they have actually come in contact with them and learned how much they are indebted to them, and are hostile if their ignorance is so great that they can be led, by unscrupulous politicians, to believe that Americans are responsible for any ills from which they happen to be suffering, such as cholera, which they have often been told is due to our poisoning their wells!

Blount says [206] it is a "verdict of all racial history ... that wheresoever white men dwell in considerable numbers in the same country with Asiatics or Africans, the white men will rule."

Certainly Spanish and other European mestizos dwell in considerable numbers in the Philippines. Are individuals with three-fourths to thirty-one thirty-seconds white blood white men or Asiatics? They certainly would determine what form of government should be established were independence now granted, and it is interesting to determine what they consider to be the requisites for the establishment of a government by them. One of these men in an address made at the time the congressional party visited the islands, with Mr. Taft, put the case as follows:--

"If the masses of the people are governable, a part must necessarily be denominated the directing class, for as in the march of progress, moral or material, nations do not advance at the same rate, some going forward whilst others fall behind, so it is with the inhabitants of a country, as observation will prove.

"If the Philippine Archipelago has a governable popular mass called upon to obey and a directing class charged with the duty of governing, it is in condition to govern itself. These factors, not counting incidental ones, are the only two by which to determine the political capacity of a country; an entity that knows how to govern, the directing class, and an entity that knows how to obey, the popular masses."

The conditions portrayed might make a government possible, but it would assuredly not be a republic. The advocates of this view are hardly in harmony with the one so eloquently expressed at Rio Janeiro by Mr. Root:--

"No student of our times can fail to see that not America alone but the whole civilized world is swinging away from its old governmental moorings and intrusting the fate of its civilization to the capacity of the popular mass to govern. By this pathway mankind is to travel, whithersoever it leads. Upon the success of this, our great undertaking, the hope of humanity depends."

If what is needed to make a just and stable government possible is "an entity that knows how to obey, the popular masses" and an entity that thinks it "knows how to govern, the directing class," then we might leave the islands at once, if willing to leave the wild tribes to their fate, but we have work to do before the civilization of the Filipinos can safely be intrusted to "the capacity of the popular mass to govern."

Blount has said:--

"Any country that has plenty of good lawyers and plenty of good soldiers, backed by plenty of good farmers, is capable of self-government." [207]

Do the Philippines fulfill even these requirements? Filipino lawyers are ready speakers, but have their peculiarities. When the civil suit which I brought against certain Filipinos for libel was drawing to its close, and the prosecution was limited to the submission of evidence in rebuttal, important new evidence was discovered. To my amazement, my lawyers put the witness who could give it on the stand. They asked him his age, his profession and a few equally irrelevant questions, and then turned him over to the lawyers for the defense, who promptly extracted from him the very testimony it was desired to get on record. Their very first question drew a most unjudicial snort of laughter from the judge, but even this did not stop them.

I was later informed that Filipino lawyers could usually be depended upon to do this very thing, and that their American colleagues habitually took advantage of this fact. The truth is that few of the Filipino lawyers are good, if judged by American standards.

I have elsewhere stated my views as to the excellence of the Filipino soldier, but no military leaders have as yet arisen who were capable of successfully carrying on other than guerilla operation.

The farmers of the islands are as a class anything but good. They are ignorant and superstitious, underfed, and consequently inclined to indolence, and are a century behind the times in their methods.

There are certain undesirable characteristics which are common to a large majority of the people correctly designated as Filipinos. Ignorance and superstition are still to be met at every turn. At the time of the census of 1903 the percentage of illiteracy in the Philippines was estimated to be 79.8. More than half of the persons counted as literate could read and write only some native dialect, and often did even that badly.

More recent, and therefore more interesting, as showing present day conditions, are the statistics obtained in connection with the elections of June 4, 1912. Ability to read and write English or Spanish entitles a male citizen of the Philippines, who is twenty-three or more years of age, to vote.

The total number of registered votes was 248,154 only, of whom slightly less than one-third had the above-mentioned qualifications. In Manila 14 per cent of the voters were illiterate, and in the provinces 70 per cent. This lack of education opened wide the door to fraud and was one of the chief reasons why there were 240 protested elections out of a total of 824, made up as follows: municipal, 709; provincial, 34; for delegate to assembly, 81.

The proportion of literate electors to total population in the territory in question was 1.47 per cent.

One of the easiest kinds of business to start in the Philippines, and one of the most profitable to conduct, is the establishment of a new religion.

We have recently had the "colorum," with headquarters on Mt. San Cristobal, an extinct volcano. People visited this place and paid large sums in order to persuade the god to talk to them. A big megaphone, carefully hidden away, was so trained that the voice of the person using it would carry across a cañon and strike the trail on the other side. If payments were satisfactorily large the god talked to those who had made them in a most impressive manner when they reached this point in their homeward journey.

We have also had the Cabaruan fiasco in Pangasinán, in the course of which a new town with several thousand inhabitants sprang up in a short time. There was a place of worship where the devout were at prayer day and night. There was also a full-fledged holy Trinity made up of local talent. Unfortunately, some of the principal people connected with this movement became involved in carabao stealing and other forms of public disorder, and on a trip to Lingayen I saw the persons who had impersonated God the Son and the Virgin Mary in the provincial jail. We have had "Pope Isio" in Negros, who was in reality the leader of a strong ladrone band, and we have had various other popes elsewhere who occupied themselves in similar ways.

Hardly a year passes that miraculous healers do not spring into ephemeral existence in the islands, and the people invariably flock to them in thousands. Conspicuous among this class of imposters was the "Queen of Taytay," whose exploits I have already narrated.

The belief of the common people in asuáng and in the black dog which causes cholera has also already been mentioned. A very large percentage of them are firmly convinced of the efficacy of charms, collectively known as anting-anting, supposed to make the bodies of the wearers proof against bullets or cutting weapons. Within the past year a bright young man of Parañaque, a town immediately adjacent to Manila, insisted that a friend should strike him with a bolo in order that he might demonstrate the virtues of his anting-anting, and received an injury from which he promptly died. Again and again the hapless victims of this particular superstition have gone to certain death, firm in the conviction that they could not be harmed.

The worst of it is that even the native press does not dare to combat such superstitions, if indeed those who control it do not still themselves hold to them.

La Vanguardia, commonly considered to be the leading Filipino paper in the islands, published the following account of the event referred to above:--

"Basilio Aquino, a native of Parañaque, and Timoteo Kariaga, an Iloko residing in Manila, made a bet as to which of them had the better anting-anting, and to settle it Kariaga allowed himself to be struck twice on the right arm and once on the abdomen, but as they say,--Miracle of miracles! Although Aquino used all of his strength and the bolo was extremely sharp, he did not succeed in making the slightest scratch on Kariaga. In view of that, Aquino invited his rival to submit him to the same test. Kariaga was reluctant to do so, for he was sure he would wound Aquino, but the latter insisted so much that there was nothing to do but please him, and at the first cut his right arm was almost severed, and he died from loss of blood two hours later. The wounded man would not report the occurrence to the authorities, but the relatives of the victim were compelled to do so in view of his tragic end."

From the report of this occurrence in El Ideal, a paper believed to be controlled by Speaker Osmeña, I quote the following:--

"The trial was made in the presence of a goodly number of bystanders, all of them townsmen, connections and friends of the actors.

"Timoteo Kariaga, that being the name of one of the actors, an Ilocano resident of Manila, was the first to submit to the ordeal. His companion and antagonist, named Basilio Aquino, from Parañaque, bolo in hand, aimed slashes at the former, endeavouring to wound him in the arms and abdomen, without success, the amulet of Kariaga offering apparently admirable resistance in the trial, so that the bolo hardly left a visible mark upon his body."

A very interesting and highly instructive book might be written on Filipino superstitions, but I must here confine myself to a few typical illustrations:--

The following extract from a narrative report of the senior constabulary inspector of the island of Leyte, dated April 3, 1913, is not without interest. It deals with a murder which it describes as follows:--

"Basilio Tarli had given the bolo thrust that killed the deceased, with a small fighting bolo belonging to Pastor Lumantal, who had given Basilio the bolo for this purpose. The deceased had the reputation of being a sort of witch doctor, and Pastor thought that his wife, Maria Subior, who was pregnant, had a dog or other animal in her womb instead of a child, placed there by the deceased. For this reason Pastor arranged with Basilio Tarli and Cecilio Cuenzona to kill the deceased."

Lieutenant George R. F. Cornish, P. C, stationed at Catubig in Samar, reported on "Pagloon" as follows during August, 1913:--

"Pagloon, a method of overcoming certain weak traits in children, is practiced by most of the inhabitants of Samar. If, for example, a father who is not in the military service, shoots a man, superstition has it that his child will shortly become sick. The father, to prevent this, uses a method known as 'pagloon,' which, being interpreted, means 'to vaporize,' 'to make clean.' He places the stock of the gun that did the shooting, along with a branch of a cocoanut tree that has been sanctified in incense by the padre of the Catholic church in a fire. The padre furnishes these incense leaves only once a year. The hands are dipped in water and then placed in the smoke. The vaporous healing incense that collects on the hands, from placing them in the fire, is rubbed on the child from head to foot. This operation is repeated three nights in succession and then the child ought to be free from any danger."

Serious trouble was made for men investigating the mineral resources of the island of Cebú by the circulation of a tale to the effect that they needed the blood of children to pour into cracks in the ground.

The following is an extract from a narrative report of the senior constabulary inspector of Pampanga for April, 1913:--

"April 9.--Between 2 and 3 P.M. in the barrio of San Pedro, Manilan, the two sisters (old women) Maria and Matea Manalili were cut up with a bolo by Hermogenes Castro of the barrio of Santa Catalina of the same town, resulting in the instant death of Matea. Maria, whose right hand was cut off, died on the 21st instant. Castro gave up and on the 10th instant was remanded to the Court of First Instance charged with murder. The two sisters were known in the locality as 'mangcuculan,' or witches, and were charged by Castro with having cast a spell on him, causing a stiff neck, which spell the sisters refused to remove."

A number of comparatively reputable Filipino physicians, in the city of Manila itself, have confessed that they have to pretend to depend, to some extent, on charms and exorcisms, in order to get and keep practice.

In this connection I quote the following decision of the Philippine Supreme Court in the case of the United States vs. Mariano Boston, rendered November 23, 1908 (10 Philippine Reports, p. 134).

"The accused in this case was convicted in the Court of First Instance of the Province of Pangasinán of the crime of abortion as defined and penalized in paragraph 3 of article 410 of the Penal Code.

"The guilt of appellant is conclusively established by the evidence of record, the testimony of the witnesses for the prosecution leaving no room for reasonable doubt, despite the fact that there are some inconsistencies and discrepancies in their statements. Counsel for appellant insists that the evidence does not conclusively establish the fact that he intentionally caused the abortion, because there is no evidence in the record disclosing the character and medicinal qualities of the potion which the accused gave to the mother whose child was aborted. The evidence clearly discloses that the child was born three months in advance of the full period of gestation; that the appellant, either believing or pretending to believe that the child in the womb of the woman was a sort of a fish-demon (which he called a balat), gave to her a potion composed of herbs, for the purpose of relieving her of this alleged fish-demon; that two hours thereafter she gave premature birth to a child, having been taken with the pains of childbirth almost immediately after drinking the herb potion given her by the appellant; that after the birth of the child the appellant, still believing or pretending to believe that the child was a fish-demon which had taken upon itself human form, with the permission and aid of the husband and the brother of the infant child, destroyed it by fire in order to prevent its doing the mischief which the appellant believed or affected to believe it was capable of doing. These facts constitute, in our opinion, prima facie proof of the intent of the accused in giving the herb potion to the mother of the child, and also of the further fact that the herb potion so administered to her was the cause of its premature birth. The defence wholly failed to rebut this testimony of the prosecution, and we are of opinion, therefore, that the trial court properly found the defendant guilty of the crime with which he was charged beyond a reasonable doubt.

"The sentence imposed is in strict accord with the penalty provided by the code, and should be and is hereby affirmed, with the costs of this instance against the appellant. So ordered."

It is claimed that the Filipinos are a unit in demanding their independence. As a matter of fact, the bulk of the common people have little idea what the word really means. In this connection the following extract from the report of Colonel H. H. Bandholtz, later director of constabulary, of June 30, 1903, on the bandit Rios, is of interest:--

"Rios represented himself to be an inspired prophet and found little difficulty in working on the superstitions of the extremely ignorant and credulous inhabitants of barrios distant from centres of population. So well did he succeed that he had organized what he designated as an 'Exterior Municipal Government' (for revenue only) with an elaborate equipment of officials. He promoted himself and his followers in rapid succession, until he finally had with him one captain-general, one lieutenant-general, twenty-five major-generals and fifty brigadier-generals and a host of officers of lower grade. In appreciation of his own abilities he appointed himself 'Generalissimo' and 'Viceroy' and stated his intention of having himself crowned 'King of the Philippines.' Titles like these not proving sufficient, he announced himself as 'The Son of God,' and dispensed 'anting-antings,' which were guaranteed to make the wearer invulnerable to attack. Of the ladrones killed during this period, few were discovered who were not wearing one of these 'anting-antings.'

"The dense ignorance and credulity of the followers of Rios was clearly shown by the fanatical paraphernalia captured by Captain Murphy, P. C, on March 8, near Infanta. Among these was a box, on the cover of which was painted the word 'Independencia,' and the followers of Rios profoundly believed that when they had proven themselves worthy the box would be opened and the mysterious something called independence for which they had so long been fighting could be secured, and that when attained there would be no more labour, no taxes, no jails, and no Constabulary to disturb their ladrone proclivities.

"When this mysterious chest was opened it was found to contain only some old Spanish gazettes and a few hieroglyphics, among which appeared the names and rank of the distinguished officials of the organization."

The affair is typical of an endless series of similar occurrences.

The ordinary Filipino dearly loves mystery, and misses no opportunity to join a secret society. It matters little to him what its supposed object may be, and that end is, as frequently as anything else, the organization of an insurrection. All sorts of fees are collected from the ignorant poor by the leaders of such movements, who are almost invariably of the educated and intelligent classes. At the opportune time they get away with the funds, leaving their ignorant followers to blunder along until caught and lodged in jail. The American government has dealt very gently with such poor dupes, most of whom have been released without any punishment. Within the past few days [208] I have had an interview with an exceptionally intelligent Filipino justice of the peace who sometimes gives me interesting information, in the course of which I asked him what was going on at present. He laughed and told me that the Filipinos in the vicinity of Manila believed that Mr. Harrison, the new governor-general, was coming to give them independence, and that a lot of smart rascals, who pretended to be organizing the army that would be necessary to maintain it, were selling officers' commissions at a peso each to any one who would buy them, and were doing a thriving business.

Until it ceases to be so readily possible to prey on the superstitions, the credulity and the passions of the common people, efforts on the part of the Filipinos to establish and maintain unaided a stable government are not likely to be crowned with very abundant success.

In general it may be said of the Filipino that he is quick to learn, but needs a teacher; is quick to follow, but needs a leader. He is ready to do the things he is taught to do. He accepts discipline, orders, rules. He has a great respect for constituted authority. He lacks initiative and sound judgment.

Let Americans beware of judging the Filipino peoples by the men with from one-half to thirty-one thirty-seconds of white blood, who so often have posed as their representatives.

More important than the interrelations of the several Christian peoples inter se are those between the several Christian peoples on the one hand and the non-Christian tribes on the other. This subject has already been discussed at length, so I will limit myself to a brief summary statement.

The Filipinos dislike and despise the non-Christians. They take advantage of their ignorance and helplessness to rob or cheat them of the fruits of their labour, and often hold them as slaves or peons. The non-Christians in turn hate them, and the more warlike wild tribes do not hesitate to take vengeance on them when opportunity offers. The Filipinos as a whole are afraid of the Moros, and with good reason. The Moros frankly assert that if a Filipino government were established, they would resume their long-abandoned conquest of the archipelago, and this they would certainly do. Although the non-Christians are numerically few, as compared with the Christians, they are potentially important because they have the power to make an amount of trouble wholly disproportionate to their numbers. The Filipinos could not rule them successfully, and the probable outcome of any attempt on their part to control them would be the inauguration of a policy of extermination similar to that which Japan is following with certain of the hill men of Formosa. Because of the inaccessible nature of the country inhabited by many of the Philippine wild tribes, they would be able to hold their own for many years, and there would result a condition similar to that which has prevailed for so long in Achin, while the Moros with their ability to take to the sea and suddenly strike unprotected places would cause endless suffering and loss of life.

Under the Spanish régime the penalty which followed a too liberal use of "free speech" was very likely to be a sudden and involuntary trip to the other world. There was no such thing as a free press. A very strict censorship was constantly exercised over all the newspapers. The things that are now said and written daily without attracting much attention would at that time have cost the liberty or the lives of those who voiced them.

It is hardly to be wondered at that an Oriental people which had never had a free press or liberty of speech should have mistaken liberty, when it finally came, for license, and have gone to extremes which conclusively demonstrated their initial unfitness properly to utilize their new privileges.

Governor-General Smith once told a delegation of leading Filipinos that it was all very well to have freedom of speech and of the press in a country ruled by the United States government, which was strong enough to maintain order in the face of manifold difficulties, but that if the islands ever secured their independence the first official act of those in power should be to do away with the one and the other, for the reason that such a government as they would establish could not exist if either continued.

While the curtailing of freedom of speech or of the press under American civil rule is almost unthinkable, it is nevertheless true that the attitude of many of the politicians who do the talking, and who control the native press, has been poisonous.

A very intelligent student of Philippine affairs has truly said that nothing more is necessary to demonstrate the present unreadiness of the country for self-government than a careful study of the attitude of the native press toward important public questions. From the beginning until now there has been one long and almost uninterrupted series of lies, innuendoes, sneers and diabolically ingenious misrepresentations. Practically every important policy of the government has been viciously attacked, and the worst of it is that the people primarily responsible for this are not honest, or misled. They know perfectly well what they are doing and why they are doing it. They embitter that portion of the common people who are reached by newspapers at all, and doubtless many of their dupes really believe that the established government is a rotten farce, and that its highest officials are steeped in iniquity.

Certainly no people are more skilful than are the Filipino politicians in pretending to write one thing with the certainty that another and very different one will be read between the lines. In the matter of libel, they are adepts at skating on thin ice. Rare indeed is the occurrence of a decent attitude on the part of any native newspaper toward any important public question. [209]

The history of the municipal and provincial governments is worthy of very careful consideration.

It has been found necessary to exercise close supervision over them in order to correct a constant tendency on the part of those having authority to abuse it.

Practically all the time of three lawyers in the executive bureau is taken up in examining evidence and reports of administrative investigations of charges against municipal officials and justices of the peace, of whom about two hundred are found guilty each year. Half that number are removed from office. One of the commonest charges against these officers is "abuse of authority," and one of the most difficult and endless tasks of the American administrative officers is to impress on the elective native official a sense of obligation toward his "inferiors," that is, the plain people who elected him.

He expects obsequiousness and even servility, and if they are lacking, endeavours to get square. [210]

Surely I have given enough illustrations of the ferocious brutality with which Filipino officials treated the common people in the days of the "Republic." Such brutality would again be in evidence were there to be any failure to hold officers strictly accountable.

The following case, called to my attention by a reliable American woman, illustrates the fact that provincial governors are sometimes swayed by other than humanitarian motives:--

"In 1902 when I was living at Capiz, a very pretty little fellow, a child of 7 or 8, often came begging to my house. Finally he ceased to come and I saw nothing of him for several months. Then I met him one morning, stone blind, his eyes in frightful condition. I made inquiry and learned that the people with whom he lived (his parents were dead) not finding him a remunerative investment had decided that he must be made more pitiful looking to bring in good returns as a beggar. So they filled his eyes with lime and held his head in a tub of water. I took the child to the Governor (the late Hugo Vidal) to make complaint. The Governor listened to my story, and then exclaimed, 'You are mistaken. I have known this child for years and he has been like this all the time.' The local sanitary chief agreed with him, and I was forced to give up all hope of having the inhuman wretches that had tortured the child punished."

The attitude of provincial and municipal officials toward very necessary sanitary measures has often been exceedingly unfortunate.

In 1910 the officials of the town of Bautista, Pangasinán, voted to have a fiesta, in spite of the fact that the health authorities had informed them that this could not be done safely, owing to the existence of cholera in the neighbouring towns. The town council preferred the merry-making to the protection of the lives of the people, and voted to disregard the warnings of the Bureau of Health, with the result that several of the neighbouring municipalities were infected with cholera, and many lives were needlessly lost. The governor of the province, himself a Filipino, was lax in attention to duty in this instance or the town council would have been suspended before, instead of after, this action on its part.

For a long time municipal policemen were commonly utilized as servants by the town officials, and were nearly useless for actual police work. To put firearms into their hands was little better than to present them outright to the ladrones. At present the constabulary exercise a considerable amount of control over municipal police, and there has resulted very material improvement in their appearance, discipline and effectiveness.

Municipal councils in the majority of cases voted all of the town money for salaries, leaving nothing for maintenance of public buildings, roads and public works, with the result that streets in the very centres of towns became impassable even for foot passengers. They were often indescribably filthy, cluttered with all sorts of waste material, and served as a meeting ground for all the horses, cattle, dogs, pigs, hens and goats of the neighbourhood.

In many instances, the first use made of their newly acquired powers by provincial governors and municipal presidents was to persecute in all sorts of petty ways those who had opposed their election, while the latter displayed marked disinclination to accept the will of the majority.

It is not to be expected that the Filipino should understand modern democratic government. Where could he have obtained knowledge of it? Under Spanish rule he saw officials habitually enriching themselves at the expense of the communities they were supposed to govern. He saw a government of privilege where the work of the many benefited the few. How could he have gained experience in modern and enlightened administration for the benefit of the people rather than for the benefit of the administrators? Not only must there be knowledge on the part of officials that this is the proper way to govern, but there must be a demand on the part of the people for such a government, and until the people know and understand that such a government is their right there will be no such demand. There is not yet a sufficient proportion of the Filipino people literate to make approval or disapproval felt.

Incidentally it should be remembered that in the Philippine Islands any provincial or municipal officer may be suspended by the governor-general, or removed for failure properly to perform his duties, for disloyalty, or for other causes. The provincial governors also hold same power over the municipal presidents. Existing conditions are therefore not comparable with those which would arise without such control. I would as soon say that an automobile could go without a driver because it runs fairly well when there is a driver directing it as that the administration of the municipalities and provinces of the Philippine Islands would go as well as it now does under a system which does not provide for strong central control. It is one thing to administer when you are carefully supervised, and when the power of removal is held directly over you by a superior officer watching your every move, and another to administer equally well when the reins are not firmly held.

Serious consideration must be given to another group of facts in considering the fitness of the Filipinos for independence. It is undeniably true that they have progressed much further in civilization than has any other group of peoples of Malayan origin. It is just as indubitable that their development has not been a natural evolution, but has resulted from steady pressure brought to bear during three and a half centuries by Spain, and during the last decade and a half by the United States. What would happen were this pressure removed? One may judge, within limits, from what has happened where it has been removed. Take, for instance, Cagayancillo; which is an isolated town on a small island southwest of Panay. Here the Spanish friar was the sole representative of governmental authority in bygone days. Cagayancillo was then a thriving town, with a strong stone fort for defense against the Moros, a beautiful, large church with splendid wood carvings ornamenting its interior, and a fine masonry convento of most original architecture, with long rows of giant clam shells embedded in its outer walls. There were a good municipal building and a stone schoolhouse, also excellent for their day. I first visited the place shortly after Palawan was made a province under civil rule. No priest had been there for three years. The town and its inhabitants reeked with filth. The wits of the two or three exceptionally intelligent men of the place were befogged with opium. The church and convento were falling into ruin. The fort had already gone to the bad. The presidencia [211] was a wreck, and so was the schoolhouse. There were no teachers for the children. The people were rapidly lapsing into barbarism.

In 1910 I visited the town of Malaueg, situated in the province of Cagayan. It was one of the first mission stations in northern Luzón. I found there the walls of an immense church and convento. These walls were approximately forty inches thick, and were intact, though roofs and floors had disappeared, in part from decay and in part from the stealing of the boards. Over the door of the church was a thick hardwood beam on which were carved in raised letters Spanish words signifying that the church was rebuilt in 1650. The walls of Manila were built about 1590. When was this church constructed to require rebuilding sixty years later? And what must then have been the size of the town which furnished the necessary hands to erect such a huge structure?

The Spanish friar in charge had left during the revolution against Spain some time subsequent to 1896, and as a result the town had gone to pieces after so many centuries of life. Nothing remained but a small collection of grass huts. The men had reverted to the breechclout, and were again adopting the head-axe. Many of them had already taken to the mountains.

The Spaniards compelled Filipinos to live in towns, or at least to have houses there. Under our form of government we allow them to do as they please, with the result that in provinces like Palawan our utmost efforts do not avail to keep them from forsaking settlements and scattering out through inaccessible mountain regions, where they are rapidly gravitating back to the state of barbarism from which they originally emerged. I might multiply instances of this sort of thing.

In the early days of civil government the commission in many instances combined municipalities which lay immediately adjacent to each other and could readily enough be administered from a common governmental centre. This action was taken in the interest of economy, and in the belief that the resulting saving in salaries would make possible the employment of more school-teachers, and the construction of better school buildings.

In many, if not most, cases such fusion of municipalities proved a mistake. The town which happened to become the new seat of government prospered. There were spent the taxes collected in the other formerly independent centres of population, which, deprived of their autoridades, [212] promptly became insanitary, disorderly and unprogressive.

I am firmly convinced that the Filipinos are where they are to-day only because they have been pushed into line, and that if outside pressure were relaxed they would steadily and rapidly deteriorate.

It is not necessary that there should be much retrogression to cause serious trouble. I have discussed the character and attitude of the present Filipino legislative body. I have shown indubitably what sort of a government the Filipinos themselves established while they had a free hand. I agree absolutely with Blount's contention that they would again establish precisely the same sort of a government if left to their own devices. There would follow, first aggression against the property of foreigners, and then attacks upon their persons, which would not only excuse, but would necessitate, intervention by other governments to protect their citizens. Some of the more intelligent Filipino leaders would set their faces against such conduct as firmly as they did during the rule of the so-called Insurgent government, but now, as then, would be powerless to restrain either the more unprincipled among the intelligent, or the great body of the ignorant rank and file, and nothing more than a fairly plausible excuse would be needed to start the ball of foreign intervention rolling.

Many Americans may, in their present deep ignorance of the value of their most recently acquired possessions, agree with that distinguished representative who announced on the floor of the House of Representatives that the Philippines were "a lemon," but agents and spies of Japan have worked throughout the entire archipelago and she knows better. England and Germany have had their business men in the islands for many years, and they know better also.

The Filipinos are not yet fit to govern themselves, much less to govern the Moros and other non-Christian tribes, even if let alone, and they would not be let alone should we turn their country over to them.

Philippine independence is not a present possibility, nor will it be possible for at least two generations. Indeed, if by the end of a century we have welded into a people the descendants of the composite and complex group of human beings who to-day inhabit the islands, we shall have no cause to feel ashamed of our success.

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