The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-03-26
OUR DUTY IN THE PHILIPPINES.

The New York Evening Post has devoted
much of its editorial space within the past
few months to abuse Of the Mckinley adj
ministration for its course in retaining pos
session of the Philippines and to the asser-
ton that the Filipinos are even more ca
pable of self-government than are Ameri-
cans Either the editor is off duty tempo
rarily or the different departments of the
paper fail to pull together, for letter from
a Manila correspondent which knocks the
undation from under all it's arguments
finds place in its columns. This writer ex-
plains that after a week of fighting he is
enabled TO complete his diagnosis of the
Filipino character. which he had previously
studied through six months of peace and
preparation for war. He finds the Filipinos
very deceptive in an intellectual way, being
quick of apprehension, even precocious in
childhood and youth, but not capable of
deep cogitation or continued logical thought.
''Such a thing as acting upon settled con-
illusions from logical deductions is not pos
sible to them" he says All the leaders in
the movement for independence are young
men scarcely past their majority, and many
of Aguinaldo's generals and lesser officers
would still be high-school students I'm this
country. There are no wise heads among
them to give them pause. This absence of
mature years in their counsels is not due,
says the correspondent. Ito a wise resolve
of the older men TO hold aloof from the
revolutionary movement, but to the utter
absence Of wise old men. There seems to
no mid Of int
them. The mental alertness of youth is
gradually conquered by the instinct of in
dolence. until. when middle age is reached,
ambition is extinct, the fires of youth have
burned out, and there is only left a man
| satisfied to eat and sleep until such time as
death may claim him.
Treachery is universal trait. THE Fill
pinO," the writer continues, lis by inher-
itance servile, treacherous, possessed of low
cunning, and entirely devoid of the sturdy
| manhood of the Anglo-Saxon. In power he
| is a tyrant. To one stronger than himself
| he is cringing slave. He recognizes the
| strong hand of authority, but not the voice
| of reason. His instincts in war are those
of the assassin Cruelty is another Of his
| instincts He abuses his animals and has
the Indians pleasure in the mutilation of
| his enemies
There is good deal more to the same
| effect and the letter concludes with this
| paragraph: Whether people such as this
could conduct republican form of govern
ment successfully. guarantee to all citizens
their rights of person and property, respect
the laws they themselves enacted and give
| loyal support to their own government, are
| questions it scarcely seems necessary to
| ask"
| 1t is not necessary to ask and has not
been asked by anyone familiar with the
conditions. Only ill-informed persons and
papers antagonistic to the administration
have assumed that the Filipinos were ca
| pable of self-government. 1t may be that
| in thus printing the truth concerning them
the Post wished only TO show their unfitness
to be American citizens in the sense of hav-
ing a voice in their own government, but in
| so doing 1t proves too much. 1t shows the
unsoundness of its own argument that oul
government should abandon the islands anC
leave the people to their own devices. Tn
der Spanish rule natives attained a degree
of civilization. but with the traits they pos
sess and with all outside influences and re
straints removed they would soon revert Il
savagery. The United States will not max,
citizens of them, but it will hold them un
der its control; to do less would be to fai
in its duty to the world.