Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-01-11
BEVERIDGE'S SPEECH.
The Indiana Senator's Address on
The Philippines.
He Gives the Conclusions which His
observations Competitive should
Not Repudiate Our Duties
in the Far East.
CONTINUED from Wednesdays Leader.)

duct of the war has been cruel. Sena-
tors, il has been the reverse. | have
been in our hospitals and seen the
Filipino wounded as carefully, ten
derly cared for as our own. Within
our lines they may plough and SOW
and reap and go about the affairs of
peace with absolute liberty. And yet
all this kindness was misunderstood
or rather not understood. Senators
must remember that we are not deal
ing with Americans or Europeans.
We are dealing with Orientals. We
are dealing viii Malays instructed in
Spanish methods. Iney mistake kind
ness for weakness; forbearance for
fear. 1t could not be otherwise unless
you could erase hundreds or years of
savagery, other hundreds of years of
Orientalism and still other hundreds
of years of Spanish character and
custom.
"The Blood of Our Soldiers"
Mr.. President, reluctantly and only
from a sense of duty, am forced to
say that American opposition to the
war has been the chief factor in pro-
longing it. Had Aguinaldo not un-
derstood that in America, even in the
American congress, even here in the
senate, he and his cause were support
cd; had he not known that it was
proclaimed on the stump and in the
press of faction in the United States,
that every shot that his misguided fol-
lowers fred into the breasts of Ameri-
can soldiers was like the volleys fired
by Washington's men against the SOL
diers of King George, his insurrection
would have dissolved before it entirely
crystallized. The utterances of Amer
lean opponents of the war are read
to the ignorant soldiers of Aguin-
aldo, and repeated in exaggerated
form among the common people.
Arms and ammunition were shipped
from Asiatic ports to the Fill
pinos by wretches claiming American
citizenship; and these acts of infamy
were coupled by the Malays with
American assaults on our government
at home. The Filipinos do not under
stand free speech, and therefore our
tolerance of American assaults on the
American president and the American
government, means to them that our
president is in the minority or he
would not permit what appears to
them such reasonable criticism
FiIipInOs Are Incapable of SeIf-GOv-
ernment.
But, senators, it would be better to
abandon this combined garden and
Gibraltar of the Pacific, and count our
blood and treasure already spent a
profitable loss, than to apply any aca-
demic arrangement of self-government
to these children. They are not ca
pable of self-government. How could
they be? They are not of self-gov-
erning race. They are Orientals, Ma
lays, instructed by Spaniards in the
latter's worst estate. They know
nothing of practical government eX-
cept as they have witnessed the weak,
corrupt, cruel and capricious rule of
ploy to dissolve in their minds and
characters those impressions of gov
ernors and governed which three cen
turies of misrule has created?
No Competition With Our Labor.
Example for decades will be neces-
sary to instruct them in American
ideas and methods of administration.
Example, example; always example;
this alone will teach them. As race,
their general ability is poor. Educa-
tors, both men and women, to whom /
have talked in Cebu and Luzon, were
in the opinion that in all
Sond and useful education they are,
as people, dull and stupid. In SNOWY
things, like carving and painting, or
or music, they have APP
parent aptitude, but even this is SUI
perticial and never thorough. They
have facility of speech, too. The three
best educators on the island at diff
ferent times, made to me the same
comparison, that the common peo-
pie, in their stupidity, are like their
carbon bulls. They are not even good
agriculturalists. Their waste of cane
is ineXcusable. Their destruction of
hemp fibre is childish. They are in
curably indolent. They have no con-
tinuity or thoroughness of industry.
They will quit work without notice
and amuse themselves until the money
they have earned is spent. They are
like children playing at mems work.
No one need fear their competition
with our labor. No reward could
beguile, no force compel these chill
Il If 4 : l.
fling lives for the fierce and fervid
industry of high-wrought America.
The very reverse is the fact One
great problem is the necessary
labor to develop these islands, to
build the roads, open the mines, clear
.he wilderness, drain the swamps,
lredge the harbors.
In Paluan, the natives are primitive.
In Sulu and Mindanao, the Moros are
igorous and warlike, but have not the
most elementary notions of civiliza-
ion. For example, they do not under
stand the utility of roads. Nothing
'xists but paths through the jungle.
have ridden for hours in Sulu over
he most primitive paths, barely dis
,ernable in the rank grass. They have
not grasped the idea of private and
permanent property in land. And yet,
here is no loyelier spot, no richer
and, no better military and naval
base than the Sulu group. In Paluan,
5ulu and Mindanao, the strictest mill
Lary government is necessary, ;hdefi-
nitely. The inhabitants can never be
made to work, can never be civilized.
Their destiny can not be fortold. But
whether theY will Withstand eiyiliza.