The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-09-14
No Experience In Self
Government.
\ Declaration BY Congress
Night Help Matters.

| Ithaca. ny September 13 President
Schurman returned today TO his office In
Cornell university. He gave out the fol-
lowing statement to the Associated Press
On Philippine affairs;
''It Is very iinportans that the public
should know the actual facts Of the stu.
alton. Things are. what they are, and the
American public should understand
them, whether they agree with or Iun
counter to the puhlic's wishes.
First, 1t requires some effort to realize
the yastness Of the archipelago which ex-
tends In triangular form Troms msFormoga to
Bosneo aud Celebss through sixteen de-
krees OF latitude. Never going In the
Pacific onean on the east nor the China
sea on the west, made circuit of two
thousand miles all E7uth OF Manila This
giyes some idaa Of the difficulty of main
taining an effective blockade, as the coast
line OF all tns islands mbraced in the
archipelago Is many more Thousands of
miles.
Second, the multiplicity and hetero-
genous nature OF the tribes Is something
astounding. Over sixty different lam
guagss are spoken in the archireiago,
and, though the majority OF the tribes
are small, there are at least half q dozen
each having ovsr q quarter of million
mem bers. Ehe languages Of these peopls
(, are as distinct from one another as
Erench and Spanish or Italian, so that
tbs speech OF any one tribe is unintslligi-
BILE TO its neighbors. These tribes are all
civilized and Chrlstianlzsd but small
unciyilized tribes, among whom the
Igorotes seem best known in America.
inhablt the mountains In Luzon and
form part OF ths population OF Minda-
mao. In this island, also there Is large
Mohamnedan population, which Is inde-
pendent of the Mohammedans In the
neighboring Snlu archipelago.
"Ihird. it is tho Tasalogs inhabiting
some of the provinces about Manila who
are resisting the authority of the United
States. Other civilized Filipinos are
neutral, except where they are coerced
by armed bands of Tagalogs who seized
upon their governments during the max
ing and ratification of our treaty of peace
with Spain. 1t would be incorrect TO as
lnAdiCb ARWOttAk NAab tIuAo tELLHB lL6 lillEs
Of ours. They ara 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 in
| telligsnce aud property, and the masses,
when not stirred up by the Tagalogs rec
ognize the advantage to them of Amsri-
can sovereignty and SO remain passivesy
neutral although ronber bands from time
Co time descend from the mountains TO
plumber and burn tho estates Of the peace
ful Inhabitants on the plains.
Fourth, the insurreotion. though seri.
Gus enough, as experience has proven, Is
not national uprising. Indeed, tnere is
no Philippine nation. AS nave already
said. there Is multlfarious collection of
tribes having only this in common, that
they belong to the Malayan race. The
inhabitaLts of the archipelago no more
oonstitu nation than the inhabitants
OF the continent of Europe do.
Fifth, the United States, having as
sumsd, by a treaty of peace with Spain
sovereignty over the archipelago, became
responsible for the maintenan5e Of peace
and order. the administration of Justice.
the security OF Life a I'd property among
all the tribes of the archipelago. This
is an obligation which Intelligent Filipi-
nos. not less than foreign nations, expect
us to fullIll. Nor will the national honor
1 permit US to turn back. In taking the
philippine islands, we annexed great
responsibility. The fact that the respon-
athtlttv ia haavtar than most p3onia sun-
| posed 1t would be is no excuse for failure