The record-union., 1899-09-14

ITHACA IN. Y), Sept. 13.-President
Schurman returned to-day to his office
in Cornell University. He gave out
the following statement to the Asso-
ciated Press regarding Philippine al
fairs:
1T is very important that the pubic
should know the facts of the situation.
Things are what they are and the
American people should understand
them, whether they agree or run coun-
ter to the spublic's wishes.
''First-It requires some effort to
realize the Vastness of the archipelago,
which extends in triangular form from
Formosa to Borneo and CelebS, through
sixteen degrees of latitude. Never
going out into the Pacific Ocean on the
east or the China Sea on the west, L
made a circuit of 1000 miles, all south
of Manila. This gives some idea of the
difficulty of maintaining an effective
blockade, as the coast line of the ISL
ands embraced in the archipelago is
many more thousands of miles.
"Second-The multiplicity and hetero-
genous nature of the tribes is some
thing astonishing. Over sixty different
languages are spoken in the arch1pei-
ago, and though the majority OF the
tribes are small, there are half a dozen
each having over a. quarter of mill
ion members. The languages OF these
people are as distinct from another as
French and Spanish or Italian, so that
the speech of anyone tribe is unintell1-
gible to it's neighbors. These tribes
are all civilized and Christianized, but
small uncivilized tribes, among them
the Igorotes seem best known in Amer
lea, inhabit the mountains in Luzon
and form a large part of the popula-
ton, which is independent of the Mo-
hammedanS in the neighboring Sulu
archipelago.
"Third-It is the Tagalos inhabiting
some of the provinces about Manila
who are resisting the authorities of the
United States. Other civilized Fill
pinos are neutral, except where they
are coerced by armed bands of Tagalos,
who seized upon their government dur
ing the making and the ratification of
our treaty of peace with Spain. 1t
would be incorrect to assume, however,
that these tribes are allies of ours.
They are not; indeed, they are not
without suspicion of the white race, of
which they have had experience only
through Spain. But there are men of
intelligence and property, and the
masses, when not stirred up by the
Tagalos, recognize the advantage to
them of American sovereignty, and so
many remain neutral
"Fourth-The insurrection, though
serious enough, as experience has
proven, is not a national uprising. In
deed, there is no PHILIPPINE nation. AS
I have already said, there is a multiple
ity of tribes having only this in COM
mon, that they belong to the Malay
race. The inhabitants of the archipel
ago no more constitute a nation than
the inhabitants of the Continent Of Eu
rope do.
''Fifth-The United States having as
sumed by a treaty of peace with Spain,
sovereignty over the archipelago be-
came responsible for the maintenance
of peace and property among all the
tribes of the archipelago This is an
obligation which intelligent Filipinos not
less than foreign nations expect US to
fulfill Nor will the national honor per-
init US TO turn back. In taking the re-
sponsibility we annexed responsibility.
The fact that the responsibility is
heavier than most people supposed it
would be is no excuse for failure to dis
charge it, / repeat that the Phlllp-
pines question is essentially ques-
tion Of national honor and obligation.
In reply to a question as to whether
anything was now left but to fight it
out, President Schurman said:
In my opinion. much good would be
done by a declaration on the part OF
Congress of the form of government
to be established in the islands, or bet
ter still, let Congress establish a gov
ernment for the Philippines, and have
it put in force in all parts and among
all tribes hostile to the United States
This would serve several purposes. 1t
would distinguish between our friends
and our enemies. and treat the former
according to their deserts. 1t would
also give to our enemies a demonstra-
tion of free government on the Ameri-
can plan, very important point, when
Il is remembered that the Tagalos
claim to be fighting for their liberty