Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-30

ANN LIN NAANSSNN IAN
lana purchase, and the government took
charge of the vast area inhabited
chiefly by Indian tribes, whose consent
to be governed had not been asked,
ly acquired territory. seeking homes and
fortunes in the great west. The Indians
resisted these entertainments, with the
net result that most of the ndian are
now dead. All this happened under
democratic rule, the Indian wars Of later
years being incident merely to the orig
inal causes. The pressure of civilization
from the rear, so to speak, forced the adj
vanced guard to do battle for the pos
session of the earth and the fulness
thereof.
1t has become necessary for the ex-
pansionist to justify his present position
by misrepresenting the past. and he
shows equal facility in juggling with the
conditions that prevail today. Having
pictured the American redmen as incon-
sequential at best. as we'll as few in num-
beers-as if that affected the moral side
of the questionable assumes that the
Filipino is a civilized being capable of
self government, and is in nc sense a pro-
totype of the continental savage. This
is a violent assumption.
When Magellan discovered the Philip
pt,e ic1a,,lc tbn ,,otiyhc y-ora ipfa11oct.
ually and otherwise far below the abor-
iginal American Indians. But the Span
lards, with a cruelty characteristic of the
race. permitted most Of the Filipinos to
live. that they might prove use
full in paying taxes for the support Of
the government. In this respect they
differed from the Americans in their
treatment Of the Indians. In this coun-
try it was found to be more profitable to
kill off the red men and let the white men
cultivate their lands and pay the taxes
themselves. The results may be summed
up in this way-while the Americans
have built up in the west a magnificent
population Of enterprising n highly
civilized white men, and have few Indians
left, the Spaniards, at the breaking out OF
the late war with this country, had COM
paratively few of their own people in the
Philippines. with a large assortment OF
barbarians on hand.
TIL only self-government ever prac-
ticed by the Filipinos ante-dated the dis
covery Of the islands by Magellan, and
was Of the crudest type. Three hun-
bred years Of %servitude under the imper-
ial heel Of Spain has educated some Of the
natives into an understanding of the ru-
dimentary forms of Civil government as
practiced by that nation, but it is 9
most violent distortion of the true .situa-
ton to claim that they are capable Of as
suming the entire responsibility of self
government. Compared with the tota
population very few have even a smat,
ter of the knowledge, or a moiety of the
judgment, required to administer the at
fairs of a country which through the oc.
cupancy of Spain has taken its place II
the commercial affairs of the world.
Attempts to secure what they were
pleased 10 call their independence have
utterly failed, just as such attempts fail
ed when made by the American Indians
for the reason that savage, barbarous O.
half-civilized tribes never can compete
with the cohesive conditions of civilization
1t is only through long years of cultiva
ton and growth, under the benign aus,
pieces of civilized men, that people of tina
type can take their place in the march o.
progress.
There is doubtless much of good in The
Filipino character, as there is in thu
American Indian. which can be utilized az
seeds of civilization when properly envir,
oned. But there is a predominating pro,
portion of the instincts of the savagt
which make local government a success
only when conducted along aborigina
lines, Such government can be tolerated
in Central Africa, where it does not di.
rectly interfere with the trend of civiliza
ton, but the Philippines nave for many
years occupied too prominent a place ir
the commercial world to tolerate witt
safety to vested interests a government
of that type.
Nine months have passed since the An,
aconda Standard declared that tn.