The San Francisco call., 1899-08-15
MINGLING DIVERGENT MANKIND
Can the Contact of Two Races in the
Philippines Result Benefeially to
Either
III,


the black race and the yellow
race. Their experience with these
forms of social contact has not
been satisfactory or encoura ging. Nearly
all that our people are really ashamed OF
in their history is comprised in the In
dian problem, the negro problem and the
Chinese problem. Yet with all these evil
and even disgraceful results recorded dis
tinctly in our brief history, the people of
the United States are now apparently
considering with favor the proposition of
intermingling with the only remaining
race with which they can experiment.
Having tried living with the red, the
black and the yellow, and made wretch
ed failure in every experiment, they must
now try the brown men of the Philip
pines.
The idea of expansion as ii is now
advanced in this country, does not merely
mean the requirement of new territory
and the establishment of greater bound
aries. A mere extension of area might
not be necessary, but it might not be in
FURIOUS. The real danger of the policy
of expansion is in the new population
which is to be added to and form part
of our nation.
The condition at present is quite DIFF
ferent from that involved in the acquire
ment of the Louisiana purchase and the
Mexican territory. In each of these cases
We acquired contiguous territory, thinly
populated by people whose location
would have given US as much trouble had
we not acquired the territory as it ac-
tually did after we. acquired it. The curse
of race contact did not become greater by
the expansion, although it continued as
before
The retention of the Philippines, how
ever, will be vastly different. They are
not contiguous to our own country; their
climate is such that they do not become
desirable homes for the white race, and
their average population to the square
mile is already four times as great as the
United States now sustains. In acquiring
the territory west of the MISSISSIPPI we
obtained a fine land thinly populated,
lying in the temperate zone adjacent TO
our own country and fitted in every way
for permanent occupancy. In acquiring
the Philippines we do not get a square
mile of territory that a white man Will
want to cultivate. We merely acquire the
responsibility and danger of associatng
with 1000 ,000 of Malays and Chinese, with
whom we cannot intermarry, ana against
whom we will necessarily wage inter-
mittent warfare till we either separate
from them or exterminate them. The re-
suits cannot fail to be similar TO those
arising out of our contact with the In
dianS the negroes and the Chinese. 1t is
not a question Of location but of race con-
tact. for ii matters not whether the
whites and Malays come together in this
country or in the Philippines, the result
is sure TO be disastrous and shameful TO
both.
If we permanently retain the Philip
pines we must either control the people
by despotic military government or else
admit them to participation in our ma
tional affairs, first as one or more Terri
tories, afterward as States. In the first
case we shall have abandoned, by adopt
ing military rule, all our theories about
the rights of self-government and the
desrability of republican institutions and |
democratic ideals. We shall have as subj
stitutes for these the imperialistic forms |
of ancient Rome and modern England; /
rulers of other men, without any neceS- |
sity for such action, instead of a body of |
and progressive institutions, demanding |
freedom for ourselves and extending it TO |
others. We shall have taken the path /
which led to the dissolution of ancient |
Rome. Our people have for years de- |
nounced the military despOtism which |
Great Britain has extended over, weaker |
people in all parts of the world, and /
take it for granted that they do not be- |
lieve that this is to be their own future.
On the other hand. if we admit the Fill /
pinos to participation in our govern /
mental affairs as a part of the republic |
we shall lower our average national |
the admixture of 600 900 of Malays and |
Chinese, most of them ignorant and en- /
tirely unfamiliar with the ideals OF our |
aries will be enlarged to include the /
islands and their people and the result |
will be not greatly different from admit
ting 1000 900 of these races as immigrants,
to become a part of our nation in that
way. There is something curtously abb
surd in the present position of our peo-
Pile A few years ago they were SO hostile |
to the Chinese becoming a part of this
nation that they were almost prepared
to raise armies and drive them into the
sea. Now the same people are actually
raising armies for the purpose of com
pelling Malays and Chinese to come into
the nation and unite with US. 1t should
be obvious to all that we cannot expect
from contact with the brown race any
better results than we have secured from
association with the others.
All sorts of ideas exist with regard to
our duty toward the Filipinos. There is
the chiValrous American who considers
A Aguinaldo patriotic George Washing
ton fighting for the liberties of his coun-
try There is the money making expan-
sionist who thinks he sees commercial
advantage in the retention of the islands.
and who cares not a nickel about the
rights and wrongs of the question. There
Is the pious reformer who loves his fellow
creatures so much that he advances upon