The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-10


power. II we are willing 10 go TO war
rather than let England have few feet
of frozen Alaska, which affords no market
and commands none, what should we not
do rather than let England. Germany:
Russia or Japan have all the Philippines!
And no man on the spot can fail TO see
that this would be their fate if we retired.
PHILIPPINE CLIMATE.
The climate is the best tropic climate
in the world. This is the belief of those
who have lived in many tropic countries,
with scores of whom 1 have talked on this
point. My own experience with tropical
conditions has not been exhaustive. yet,
speaking from that experience, / testify
that the climate of Iloilo. Sulu, Cebu. and
even of Manila, greatly surpasses that of
Hong-Kong. And yet on the bare and burn
ing rock Of Hong-Kong our constructing
race has builded one of the noblest cities
Of all the world. and made the harbor it
commands the focus of the commerce of
the East. And the glory of that achieve
ment illumines with rarer splendor than
IL, for, from Hong-kong' heights civiliza-
ton is irradiating all the Orient. If this
be Imperialism, its final end will be the
empire of the Son of Man.
Yet, fifty years ago, this English out
post of empire was a smooth and tree
less mountain, blazing like a ball of fire
beneath the tropic sun; the Philippines
are beautiful and rich, with the healing
seas pouring round and through them and
famed by a thousand winds. Even in the
hottest season, under severest conditions, l
found the weather tolerable and often de-
lightful, and in LuZon. Panay, Cebu, Ne
gros and Sulu, / have been in the sun and
rain without protection from either for
hours at time, travelling from place to
place on horseback, on foot or in a boat,
rising at dawn, retiring at midnight, week
after week, without injury to health. Gen.
Macarthur, fighting continuously for three
months and under fire practically every
hour. was in excellent health every time
i saw him at San Fernando. General Law
ton, that perfect soldier. whom l have
seen ride, order. plan and execute all day
and then ride, order, plan and execute all
night, told me that his health was per-
feet. General Otis, that devoted servant
of the Republic. who tolls ceaselessly, does
not fall ill., nor grow weary, nor complain.
l have seen correspondents exert them
selves in all kinds of weather without food
or sleep in a way that would PROSTATE
them in the hottest days of our summer
in Chicago or New York. Major Hoyt.
chief medical officer with Macarthur, told
me that San Fernando is as healthy as
the average American town. The European
business men of Cebu, Iloilo and Manila
work as hard and as many hours a day
as those of New York, and a finer body
OF physical manhood cannot be gathered
at random in America. This proves that
this garden of the seas is not the swelter-
ing, steaming. miasmatic swamp II has
been described
CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE
1t will be hard for Americans who have
not studied them to understand the people
They are a barbarous race, modified by
three centuries of contact with a decadent
race. The Filipino is the South sea Malay,
put through a process of three hundred
years of superstitution in religion. dishon-
esty in dealing, disorder in habits of in
dustry. and cruelty. caprice and corrup-
ton in government 1t is barely possible
that one thousand men in all the archi-
pelago are capable of self-government in
the Anglo-SaXon sense. My own belief is
that there are not one hundred men among
them who comprehend what Anglo Saxon
self-government even means; and there are
over 100000 people to be governed. 1 know
many clever and highly educated men
among them, but there are only three COM
handing intellects and characteristics
lano, Mabini and Aguinaldo. Arellani, the
chief justice of our Supreme Court, is a
profound lawyer, and a brave incorrupti-
bic man. Mabini is the highest type Of
Subtlety and the most constructive mind
that race has yet produced. Aguinaldo is
clever popular leader, able brave. re-
sourceful, cunning, ambitious, unscrupu-
lous and masterful He is full of decision,
fidence of the masses. He is a natural die
tator. His ideas of government are absolute
orders, implicit obedience or immediate
death. He understands the character of his
countrymen. He is a Malay Sylla; not a
Filipino Washington.
These conclusions were forced upon me
by observing the people in all walks of
life In the different islands, and by con-
versationS with foreign merchants, priests,
mestiZos, pure Filipinos, and every variety
OF mind, character and opinion from San
Fernando in Luzon, on down through the
entire archipelago to the interior of Sulu.
These conversations were had informally
at dinner tables. on journeys, and the like.
and always under conditions favorable TO
entire frankness and unreserve. Their chief
value is that they are the real opinions of
their authors and not prepared and
guarded statements. 1 will read to the
Senate salient points from my notes OF
these conversations, reserving the names
of the persons interviewed, except that of
Pablo Malta, of Cebu, who was assassi-
mated week after / met him, and whose
fate 1 will not risk bringing down on
here in this book, and will be gladly given
to any senator or to the Senate in executive
session.
Senator Beveridge then read to the SEN
| ate extracts from great number of inter
views with natives and merchants in each
of the islands. These interviews are print
ed elsewhere. After reading the interviews
Senator Beveridge continued as follows:
Here then, senators, is the situation. Two
years ago there was no land in all the
world which we could occupy for any pur-
pose. Our commerce was daily turning
| toward the Orient, and geography and
trade development made necessary our
commercial empire over the Pacific. And
| in that ocean we had no commercial, naval
or military base. To-day we have one OF
| the three great ocean possessions of the
globe, located at the most commanding
commercial, naval and military points in
the eastern seas, within hail of India
shoulder to shoulder with China, richer in
| its own resources than any equal body OF
| land on the entire globe and peopled with
a race which civilization demands shall be
| improved. Shall we abandon it? That man
| little knows the common people of the Re-
public, little understands the Instincts OF
our race, who thinks we will mot hold II
| fast. and hold ii forever, administering Just
government by simplest methods. We may
| trick up devices TO shift our burden and
| lessen our opportunity: they will avail us
| ditions by applying academic arrangements
| of self-government to a crude situation
| their failure will drive us to our duty in the
| end.
MILITARY SITUATION.
| The military situation, past, present and
| prospective, is no reason for abandonment
| Our campaign has been as perfect as pos
| sible with the force at hand. We hav,
been delayed. first. by failure to compre
| bend the immensely Of our acquisition, and
second. by insufficient force, and third, by
| our efforts for peace. In February, afte
the treaty of peace, Otis had only S.722 of
1 n l..