The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-14


Those who are urging the acquisition of
the Philippines and other lands in the
tropics solely upon humanitarian grounds,
and who have glowing prophetic visions of
raising, by the power of our superior civil
ization, the inhabitants to a moral and in
dustrial plane which will rival ours, seem
not to have made themselves familiar with
the ordinary lessons of history. If they had
done so they should have learned that no
people residing in the tropical zone has
ever maintained the highest civilization CT
the succeeding ages any length of time,
even If they have attempted it. Where such
peoples have felt the influence of such
civilization it has been not of choice, but
as the result of conquest. To-day the torrid
zone is q belt of sem-barbarism. Its inhab-
itants resist the civilization of the temper
ate zones instinctively, because they have
not the mental and moral fiber to uphold it.
Civilization is the result OF effort; in the
temperate zones effort is necessary to
istence. To those peoples whose life is
protracted struggle for existence against the
forces of nature, civilization, which is the
other name for the subsection of the con-
ditions hostile to existence, is the final re-
ward. The struggle for existence, century
after century, has made out of wild men
the nations which control the world. Any
people which attains a position where
slant labor and energetic effort are not
necessary to existence. and which. in con-
sequence, ceases effort, will surely fall to
the rear and be labeled a decaying nation.
Trl.
obliged to struggle against the elements and
with stingy soil for existence. Clothing
is chiefly for ornamentation, and the indi-
vidual has but to put forth his hand to
pluck the fruit from the branches which
bend to his hand for his daily food. He has
no incentive to struggle for anything nee
essary to existence. He is overpowered by
languor which ressts all effort unless
spurred by the will of a ruler who has come
from other chimes. Any extended residence
of the civilized man in the tropics gradu-
ally saps his purpose and energy so hostile
is the climate to the activity which alone
gives physical and intellectual power.
1t is very doubtful if any considerable
portion of the torrid zone should be settled
by intelligent and Industrious people from
the northern climates, that they would re-
tain their vigor and maintain their civiliza-
ton long time. And yet with this belt of
invincible barbarism around the earths
center. enthusiastic people talk of carrying
the civilization of the United States, Great
Britain and Germany to the inhabitants of
the Philippines and with it propose to trans
form them into highly civilized people in
a comparatively limited space of time. Gil
mate and costless sustenance have, during
the centuries, made these people what they
are. and no great intellectual and industrial
advance can be expected until the condi-
tons are changed. Even if the inhabitants
of the torrid belt should be transplanted to
the sterner climates of civilized countries,
it is probable they would not possess the
stamina to bear the burdens which civiliza-
ton imposes.
Hawaii furnishes an illustration. When
the missionaries went there the islands were
populous, but as soon as they undertook to
adopt the civilization which the mission
aries took to them. the native population
began to diminish until to-day they are but
handful. This, it would seem, was be-
cause they had not the stamina to adopt the
robust virtues Of Christianity, but easily
succumbed to the vices which follow in the
wake of civilization.
The natives of the Philippines can be
made to accept the advantages of a govern
ment which will insure tranquility, and they
can doubtless be encouraged to work more
and produce more than they do, but to ex-
pect that they will accept eagerly the CIV
Hization of the United States is an error.
Race and climate, which modify if they do
not create race distinctions, make high
civilization in the tropics impossible