Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-20
BlGELOW ON PHILIPPINES
Says he Believes in Expansion Unde,
Proper Conditions.
Islands Are Immensely Valuable, hut
Good Government by Intelligent
Officials Only Can Succeed.

In an interview with the London CORE
spondent of the New York Herald, Poult-
ney Bigelow, the well-known writer and
traveller, had this to say of the Philippines
I'VE Americans have succeeded as colo
nists because we started as Englishmen
about two hundred and fifty years ago. and
If after that lapse of time we confess to the
world that we cannot do little more colo
nizing it is time we held an inquiry into the
cause of our degeneracy.
You ask me about our future manage
ment OF the Philippines, and in answering
l will have to incur the odium of being a
5ingo. although by education and taste l
am free-trade democrat. believe in hold
ing the Philippines. while conscious that we
are repeating blunder upon blunder and will
probably have a disastrous experience with
the natives before we learn to live in peace
with the subject races.
Colonial Government a Business.
Colonial government is a business and
the best business men are none too good for
the job. England has learned to send her
best business talent to the administration
of her colonies and she succeeds.
We have sent to conquer and administer
the Philippines men with no business ca
pacity, men who do not command the re-
spect of average Americans at home men
who would make failure of any CONNER
Gal enterprise and who cannot without
miraculous Intervention, succeed in making
the American name respected in the far
east.
The volunteers who are attempting to
pacify that colony are splendid individual
men, but the staff officers are not compe-
tent soldiers and in most cases owe their
positions exclusively to political influence.
Suspicious of American Rule.
eff military success is to follow such lead
OBJ
Point and recruit our officers from Tam
many Hall and kindred political schools
THE Filipino is neither negro nor savage,
but man of acute oriental perceptions
quick to recognize justice and power. He
would welcome the British flag because
propinquity to Hong Kong has taught him
that British administration means local
self-Sovernment and liberty. He is sus-
piclous of American rule because so far he
has seen no evidence that the stars and
stripes represent either good adminstra-
ton or the local independence he has a
right TO expect.
He sees in our volunteers little more
than stalwart day laborers. who have come
with rather indefinite military or political
aims. and what he has seen of our officers
and officials has not inspired him with any
desire to surrender what little military adj
yantages he possesses.
This is humiiating confession for an
American to make but we can expect no
The Immediate Necessities.
mo relation with the Philippines can be
successful unless it means good American
administration. We must guarantee the
building of roads, railways and telegraph
lines, the dredging of the rivers and harbors
and in every other way develop the material
resources of that country as England does
those of India. The Filipinos cannot do
TINS. They have neither money nor organ
fzing capacity, and fast as we do this
We shall command their respect and al
legiance, for there is no missionary in the
far east comparable to the locomotive or
the steam dredger.
The Islands Rich.
THE Philippines are enormously rich and
practically wilderness. The so-called rebel
leaders represent but a very small fringe Of
artificial civilization on the edges of a vast
wilderness of natives, to whom the Span
iards. Americans and Aguinaldo's followers
are matters of equal indifference. The
strength of the rebels is considerable, but
1t is as nothing compared TO the millions of
natives who are to be the future wage
earners of that rich colony
THE traveller in the Philippines is in a
savage country within half days canoe
padding from Manila. The word Savage
however, has no reference to the inveterate
hatred of work characteristic of our red
Indian or the helpless barbarism of the
kaffir.
The native Filipino suggests strongly
Japanese ancestry, and though 800 years of
Spanish rule have not opened up more than
one-tenth of the Philippines, there is no
good reason why in the next generation
these whom we now call 'savages' should
not be worthy of a very liberal local fran
cEiSe.
Suggests Two Measures.
There are two measures 1 consider of
vital and immediate Importance. The first
is that Manila be declared a free port in
the fullest sense of the term, as, for in
stance. Hong Kong and Singapore. Second
The Chinese should be encouraged to set
tie, for they are most excellent elements
in the development of every eastern colony.
handicap"