The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-04-05
A PROCLAMATION
TO THE FTLTPTNOS
Commission Assures Them Of Cordial
Good Will.
ae.
THE MAINTENANCE OF ORDER
And Civil and Religious Freedom is to
Be Guaranteed.
ADVANCEMENT OF The NATIVES
Is the One Aim of the United States
and All Our Endeavors Will
Be Directed Toward
That End.
THE MAINTENANCE OF ORDER
ADVANCEMENT OF The NATIVES

New York, April 4-The Journals Manila
correspondent cables the text of the United
States Philippine commissioners proclama-
ton, issued today.
The commission desires to assure the
people of the Philippine islands of the cor
dial good will and fraternal feeling which
is entertained for them by the president of
the United States and by the American
people. The aim and object of the Ameri-
can government, apart from the fulfllment
of the solemn obligation it has assumed
toward the family of nations by its ac-
ceptance of sovereignty over the Philippine
islands, is the well being, prosperity and
happiness of the Philippine people and
their elevation and advancement to a posi-
ton among the most civilized peoples of
the world.
The president believes that this felicity
and perfection~of the Philippine people is
TO be brought about by the assurance and
good order, by the guarantee of civil and
religious liberty, by the establishment of
justice, by the cultivation of letters, science
and the liberal and practical arts by the
enlargement of intercourse with foreign
nations, the expansion of Industrial pur-
suits, by trade and commerce, by multi
plication and improvement of the means of
international communication, by develop
ment with the aid of modern mechanical
inventions of the great natural resources of
the archipelago, and in a word, by the I'M
Interrupted deYQti9n of the people to the
pursuit of useful objects and the realization
of those noble ideas which constitute the
higher civilization of mankind.
Purposes Misinterpreted
Unfortunately these pure aims and
purposes of the American government and
people have been misinterpreted to some of
the Inhabitants of certain islands, and as a
consequence the friendly American forces
have without provocation or cause been
openly attacked. And why these HOSTILE
ties" What do the best Filipinos desire?
Can 1t be more than the United States is
ready to give? They are patriots and want
liberty.
In the meantime the attention of the peo-
pie of the Philippines is invited to certain
regulative principles by which the United
= States will be guided in it's relation with
them.
These are deemed to be the points of car
dinal Importance:
First-The supremacy of the United
States must and will be enforced through
out every part of the Archipelago, and
those who resist it can accomplish no end
other than their own ruin.
Second-To the Philippine people will be
granted the most ample liberty and self
government reconcilable with the MAIN
tenance of wise, just, stable, effective
and economical administration of public
affairs and compatible with the sovereign
and international rights and the obliga-
tons of the United States.
Third-The civil rights of the Philippine
people will be guaranteed and protected to
the fullest extent; religious freedom will be
assured, and all persons shall be equal
and have equal standing in the eyes of the
law.
Welfare and Advancement
Fourth-Honor, justice and friendship
forbid the use of the Philippne people on
the island they inhabit as an object or
means of exploration. The purpose of the
American government is the welfare and
the advancement of the Philippine people
Fifth-There shall be guaranteed to the
Philippine people an honest and effective
civil service in which, to the fullest extent
to which 1t is practical, natives shall be
employed.
Sixth-The collection and application of
all taxes and other revenues will be placed
upon sound, economical basis and the
public funds, raised justly and honestly,