The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1899-03-11
FOREIGN MISSIONS.

The assimilation of the Fihpinos
goes merrily on. These benight-
ed people are hard to teach, some
how, but they are learning.
They have been taught to use
smokeless powder and new cannon
instead of bows and arrows, but
there is one thing they are singu-
larly slow to learn. They don't
know they are whipped. They
will not retreat further than the
water works, and no matter how
often Dewey shells the woods and
Otis advances" with "terrible
loss to the insurgents" the Filipi-
nos seem to be still there and ready
for another determined assault"
on the water works. These same
water works appear TO be sort of
Corpse of Patroclus or Sarpedon,
and Weyler and Sagasta "sit and
smile in secret" as they watch the
struggle for their possession.
The Philippine war does recall a
somewhat similar business of a
year ago, when daily battles were
reported from Cuba, with the
same ''heayy losses to the insurg-
ents" and killing of one or two
men on the Spanish side We
laughed at Weyler's type writer
then, but we know how it is our
selves now. In the course of time
we shall " civilize and christian
ize 1.-THE Filipinos, even if we have
to assimilate them all in order to
do SO.
The London Times, in o com.
forting editorial on this subject,
takes the following cheerful view
of the situations:
"What Lord Salisbury calls "a
stricken field is a potent argu-
ment all the world over. Agon-
clio has been Boosting that the
United States haye a ten years
war before them in the Philip
pines, but 1t does not follow that
he believes it, still less that the
forecast is accurate. We can quite
understand that these interesting
people entertain a rooted objection
to government of any kind. But
we presume that the Americans
will not be in a hurry to establish
all the apparatus of government in
every corner of the islands. They
will make themselves secure of
important points, and will leave
the rest to time. The Filipinos
will tire of knocking their heads
against a brick wall, and, by de-
grees, will find out that life is
quite tolerable under American ad
mlnistratlon. 1t may be a few
years before outlying districts are
thoroughly organized on a salts
factory basis, but they will not be
years of war. They will only be
years of waiting for the conquest
of barbarism by civilization.
When the gentlemen outside have
blazed away the rest of their am
munition, and find that the Ameri-
can ships lie just where they did
and that American troops push
forward Just Is far as they want
to, they will bow more or less
gracefully to the DEGREES of des-
tiny. Then by degrees the police
man will extend his beneGcent in
fuence over the islands; he will be
followed in due course by the
other agencies of civilization; and,
though the Filipinos may never
become quite the noblet speci-
mems of the human race, a few
American Civil servants will prob
ably suffice to give them as much
blessedness as their nature per-
mits.
1t is all very we'll for Continent
al journals to exult in the difficult
ties in front of the Americans,
but we have done SO much work
of that kind that VIC are perhaps
better Judges of the issues. En-
glishmen would never entertain a
doubt of their capacity to reduce
the Philippines to order wsthin a
reasonable tim, and they will Just
as little question the capacity of
the Americans. These uruly but
essentially feeble characters have
first to be convinced that they have
met their masters, then that these
masters are essentially just, and
finally that, SO long as they yield
obedience to certain broad rules
of conduct, their own customs,
habits, and peculiarlties will be
let alone"