The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-09-15

Ithaca, Sept 14.-.President Schur-
man has returned to his office i'm Cor
nell University. He gave out the fol-
lowing statement to the Associated
Press on Philippine affairs:
at is very important that the public
should know the actual facts of the
situation. Things are what they are
and the American public should under
stand them, whether they agree with
or run counter to the public's wishes.
"First-It requires some effort TO
realize the vastness of the archipelago,
which extends in triangular form from
Formosa to Borneo and Ceebes
through sixteen degrees Of latitude.
Never going out into the Pacific coast
on the east, nor the China sea on the
west, I made a circuit of 1000 miles,
all south of Manila. This gives sOm1
idea of the difficulty of maintaining an
effectivS blockade, as the coast line of
all the islands embraced in the archi-
pelago is many more thousands OF
miles.
"Second-The multiplicity and het-
erOaeneous, nature of the tribes is
something astounding. over sixty diff
fcrent languages are spoken in the
archipelago and, though the majority
of the tribes are small there are at
least half a dozen, each of which have
over a quarter of million members.
The languages of these people are as
distinct from one another as French
and Spanish or Italian, so that the
speech of one tribe is unintelligible to
fits neighbors These tribes are all civ
ilized and Christianized, hut small un
civilized tribes. among whom the Igor
rotes seem best known to America, in
habit the mountain in Luzon and form
n part of the population of Mindarrao.
in this island, also, there is a large
Mohammcdan population, which is in.
dependent of the Muhammedans i'm the
neighbOring Sulu archipelago.
"Third-lt is the TagalOgs that in
habit some of the provinces about Ma
nila who are resisting the authority
Of the United States. Other civilized
Filipinos are neutral except whhre
they are coerced by armed bands os
Tagalogs, who seized upon their gov
ernments during the making and the
ratification of our treaty Of peace with
Spain. 1t would be incorrect to as
sumo. however, that these tribes are
allies of ours. They are not. Indeed,
they are not without SUSPICION of tho
white race. of which they have had eS-
perience only through Spain. but they
are men Of intelligence and property,
and the masses when not stirred up
by the Tagalogs recognize the ad-
vantage to them Of American SOver-
eighty and so are impassably neutral.
although rOhber bands from time il
time descend from the mountains II
punder and burn the estates of the
peaceful inhabitants on the plains.
"Fourth-The insurrectiOn. though Sc
riOus enough, as experience has proven,
is not national uprising Indeed.
there is no Philippine nation. As
have already said, there is a multi
farious collection of tribes having only
this I'm common, they belonging to the
Malayan race. The inhabitants Of the
archipelago no more constitute a ma
tion than the inhabitants cf the con-
tinent of Europe do.
"Fifth-The United States having
assumed by a treaty of peace with
Spain, sovereignty over 'qe archipal-
ago. became responsible = the main
tcnance of peace and ordu,I the admin
istratiOn of justice, the security Of
life and property among all the tribes
of the archipelago. This is an obliga-
tion which intelligent Filipinos, not
less than foreign nations expect us to
fulfill. Nor will the national homo,
permit us to turn back. In taking thr
Philippine islands We annexed great