Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1899-09-16

circuit of 1000 miles all south of Manila.
This gives some idea Of the difficulty Of
maintaining an effective blockade, as the
coastline of all the islands embraced
In the archipelago is many more thous-
ands of miles.
Second. the multiplicity and hetero-
genous nature of the tribes is something
astounding. Over 60 different Ian
guages are spoken in the archipelago,
and, though the majority Of the tribes
are small, there are at least half q
dozen each having over 25O,0OO members.
The languages Of these people are dis
inct from one another. so that the
speech of any one tribe Is unintelli-
gible to it's neighbors. These tribes are
all civilized and Christlanized. but small,
unciviiZed tribes, among whom the
Igorotes seem best known in America,
tnhabit the mountains In LuzOn. and
form a large part of the population Of
Mindanao. In this island also there Is
large Mohammedan population. which
Is independent of the Mohainmedans in
the neighboring Sulu archipelago.
Third, 1t is the Tagalogs inhabiting
some Of the provinces about Manila who
al c iCoistih6 thC oothoiNJ vi tiiS 'AiheVS
States. Other civilized Filipinos are
neutral, except where they are cOerced
by armed bands Of Tagalogs, who seized
upon their governments during the maxi
Ing and ratification Of our treaty Of
peace with Spain. 1t would be incor
rect 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 pros
perity. and the masses. when not stirred
up by the Tagalogs. recognize the ad-
vantages to them OF American sover-
eighty, ard so remain pasrively neutral.
although robber han' from time to
time descend from the mountains to
pl,lndcr and hurn the estates Of tie
peaceful inhabitants on thei plains.
Fourth. the insurrection. though Sc
rious enough. as eXperiei ce has proved
Is not a national uprising. Indeed. there
Is no Philippine nation. AS l have al
ready said. there Is :. multifarious col
lection of tribes. having only this /
common. that they belong TO the Ma
layan race. The inhabitants Of the
archipelago no more constitute a ma
tion than the inhabitants OF the CON
tinent Of Europe 10.
Fifth. the United States. having as
sumed. by a treaty nf peace with Spain.
sovereignty over the archipelago. be-
came responsible for the maintenance
of peace and order. the administration
of justice, the security of lie and prop
erty among all the tribes of the archi
pelago. This is an obligation which the
intelligent FilipinOs. not less than the
foreign nations. expect us to fulfil. Nor
will the national honor permit us to
turn back. In taking the Philippine
islands. we annexed gre at responsibility.
The fact that tho responsibility is
heavier than most people supposed 1t
would be is no excuse for failure to dis
charge it. repeat that the Philippine
question is essentially u question of ma
tional honor and obligations"
In reply to an inquiry whether any
thing was row left but to fight it out.
President Schurman said:
I'm my opinion, much good would be
done by a declaration on the part Of
congress CT the form Of government to
be esta blished in the Philippine islands,
or better still. let congress establish a
government for the Philippine islands
and have 1t put in force in all parts and
among all tribes hostile to the United
States. This would serve several pur.
poses. 1t would distinguish between
our friends and our enemies. and treat
the former according to their deserts.
It would also give to our enemies an
ocular demonstration OF free govern
ment on the American plan. a very i'm
.,ortant point when 1t Is remembered
that the TagalOgs claim 10 be fighting
for their liberty. And had better call
attention TO the fact that the govern