The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-11-04

y
| cation or experience.
..The masses of the people are. uned-
ucated. That intelligent public opin-
! ion on which popular government rests
does not exist in the Philippines. and
II cannot exist until education has ele-
waited the masses, broadened their in
teIIectual horizon and disciplined their
faculty of judgment. And even then
/ the power of self-gOvernment cannot be
assumed without considerable previous
training and experience under the guild
ance and tutelage of an enlightened
and liberal foreign power. For the bald
fact is that the Filipinos have never
had any experience in governing them
selves
The report shows that this inability
for self-government is due to the old
Snan5sb regime, which gave the Fill
pinos little or no part in governing
! themselves. After reviewing this Span
ish system. the commission sums up
on this point:
Cannot Govern Themselves.
This is all the training in seIf-gov-
eminent which the inhabitants of the
Philippine islands have enjoyed. Their
lack of education and political expert
ence. combined with their racial and
linguistic diversities, disqualify them
in spite of their mental gifts and dem
ocratic views. to undertake the task of
governing the archipelago at the pres
ent time.
The most that can be expected of
them is to cooperate with the Amer
leans in the administration of general
affairs from Manila as a center, and
to undertake. subject to American con-
troll or guidance (as may be found nee
essary) the administration of provin-
cial and municipal affairs Fortunate
ly, there are educated Filipinos,
though they do not constitute a large
proportion of the entire population,
and their support and services will be
of incalculable value in inaugurating
and maintaining the new government.
AS education advances and experience
ripens the natives may be entrusted
with larger and more important parts
of the government-self-gov government is
constantly kept in view as a goal. In
this way, American sovereignty over
the archipelago will prove a great DO
litical boon to the people.
should our power by any fatality be
withdrawn, the commission believes
the government of the Philippines
which would excuse, if it did not neces-
state, the intervention of other powers
and the eventual division of the island
among them.
only through American occupation,
therefore, is the idea of a free self-gov-
eminent and united Philippine COM
monwealth at all conceivable. And the
indispensable need from the Philippine
point of view of maintaining American
sovereignty over the archipelago is
recognized by all intelligent Filipinos,
and even by those insurgents who de-
sire an American protectorate. The
latter, it is true, would take the reVen-
ues and leave US the responsibilities
Nevertheless they recognize the in
dubitable fact that the Filipinos can
not stand alone.
Thus the welfare of the Filipinos
comedies with the dictates of national
honor in forbidding our Abandonment
of the archipelago We cannot, from
any point of view, escape the response
bilities of government which our sover-
eighty entails, and the commission is
strongly persuaded that the perform
ance of our national duty will prove
the greatest blessing to the peoples of
the Philippine islands,
One of the closing chapters of the
report is devoted to a tribute to 'our
soldiers and sailors in the war
The commission dismisses the reports
of the desecrating of churches, the
mudering of prisoners and the COM
hitting of uncomfortable crimes and
say they are glad to express the belief
that a war was never more humaneIy
conducted, saying;
IF churches were occupied it was
only as a military necessity, and fire.
quently after their use as forts by the
insurgents had made it necessary. to
train our artillery upon them. Prison
erS were taken whenever opportunity
afforded, often to be set at liberty
after being disarmed and fed. Up to
the time of our departure, although
numerous spies had been captured. not
a single Filipino had been executed.
the commission gives a general view
of the value of the islands, their gen.
eral richness in agricultural and forest
products, their mineral wealth and
their commanding geographical posi-
ton.
Commerce Will Increase.
They state that the Philippines
should soon become one of the great
traders of the east. Manila is already
connected by new steamship lines with
Australia, India and Japan and she
will become the natural terminus of
many other lines, when a ship canal
connects the Atlantic with the Pacific.
1t cannot be doubted that commerce
will greatly increase and the United
States will obtain. large share in this
treatment. The report concludes:
Our control means to the inhabit-
ants Of the Philippines internal peace
and order, guarantee against foreign
aggression and against the dismember-
ment of their country, commercial and
industrial prosperity and as large
share of the affairs Of government as
they shall prove willing to take. When
peace and prosperity shall have been
established throughout the archipelago,
when education shall have became gen
eral, then. in the language of a leading
Filipino, his people will, under our
guidance, become more Americans
than the Americans themselves
The report is signed by j. G. Schur-
man, George Dewey, Charles DENLY,