The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-11-09
Progress Made in
the Philippines

Correspondence OF the Associated press.)
Manila, PI., Sept. o.
- HERE is nothing visible here in the in,mc.
diatc political future to prcsage radical
change in the status Of the revolution. The
conditions which require the United States
to have 6i,000 troops in the Islands can be main
tained Ivy the Filpnos for long time to come,
should they want to do so.
With the commissions advent into the field
OF governmental control there were hopes among
the Filipinos o! a change OF American policy and
particularly of concessions to themselves. TO.
day the intentions ard purposes of the civil col.
mission are better realized that Judge Taft will
not declare the Filipino people to be intepend
ent, and that he does not carry in his vest pocket
proclamation granting them the fulflment OF
their widest and most idealistic hopes and am
bitions. Before the commission arrived at Ma.
Mia, it was awaited by certain Filipino poll.
tcians with an uncxprcsscd intention of asccr-
tanning how gullble the new crowd might be.
Today the commission has shown itself both
hard to deceive and as a firm supporter OF the
Washington administration policy.
The Filipnos have been slow to learn that
the commission acts in accord with the army;
that these two branches OF governmental control
Co o'opcratc In the fulhlmcnt of the same idea.
Negotiations between the army and the Filipinos
during the last eighteen months can be described
briefly as follows: The army has always said:
'Surrender first and then will talk" while
the Filipinos have continually said to the army:
Let us first talk and then maybe we'll stop
fishtings" With each party to the negotiations
firm in its attitude, nothing could be, nor has
been, accomplished The fact that the com.
mission maintains the army's position in this
question Of negotiations is being forced with con.
vcton into the minds of certain ambitious native
leaders, and the truth is disappointing to their
cherished intrgues. They had hoped the com.
mission would be amenable to their ways of
doing business, and for an example OF this is
cited Paterno's efforts, with his "love fcast' in
commemoration of the amnesty proclamation. by
which he tried to get the commission to lend
the color of their presence to statements and
conditions distinctly untrue. Paterno almost
succeeded in dragging the army into this clever
trap; but he learned the commission could not
be easily deceived, and the knowledge has been
sore disappointment, not only to Paterno, but
to Others of his kind.
The commissions methods and ways of enter.
ing upon those duties Of government clearly out.
lined in its instructions from President Mckinley,
have been disappointing to those Filipnos and
foreigners who expected the millennium on the
first OF September. In the administration OF Phil.
ippine civil affairs by the army there has always
been noticeable the fact that the army has knows
its civil duties to be incidental and temporary;
that it would sooner later be relieved from
these duties by properly constituted civil au-
thority. and consequently the army is said to
have indulgcd in expedient and makcshift. As
an example of this, reference is made to the
Philippine Municipal Code and the revision of
the Criminal Code, issued by General Otis just
prior to his departure for the United States, and
made law by stroke of his pen. Both these
revisions bear trace OF hasty and temporary
- 1,1s. al..r
dent that General Otis hammered them out hast
lily at the last moment in order to get on rec
ord as having taken, on his own initiative, these
radical steps toward the establishment of civil
Philippine government These two codes OF
General Otis today being thoroughly revised
by the commission, which is the properly con-
situtcd civil authority that General Otis, rep.
resenting the army, knew would succeed him in
civil administration. Army measures in the
past, having been more or less in the nature OF
temporary eypedient and without wise col,sid
Grafton of future effect distinctly opposed
to the course OF action now being pursued by
the commission. The measures taken by the
commission consider the eventual establishment
OF a central Philippine civil government, with
tho needed details of provincial administration,
and they are as lasting as anything that can be
done in these Islands until the time when con-
gress shall determine the future of the Philip
pines. The commissioners, in taking specific
action, consider its advisabilty and its effect
upon the completed fabric Of government they
Instructed to erect. They build for all time,
and hence they build carefully and with due
consideration OF the effect of every stone they
put into their structure; nor can they afford to
indulge in eNpedient and makeshft. The com.
mission became tho supreme lawmaking power
in the archipelago Sept. 1, and there is no one
to question the prGpriety Of the measures they
adopt nor their right to enact laws. This is
their beginning, and thus they have put them.
selves upon firm footing for their future work.
BY this action of Sept. I, the commissioners
have established the beginnings OF government
in which they are empowered to determine and
settle the questions OF Oriental camplexity which
will constitute the good government OF the Phil
ippincs. Ii the commission is to do good work.
it is but right they should begin this work WE'LL
yet some people, Fipnos as we'll as foreigners
and Americans, claim the commission has not
reduced taxation and custom imposts, permitted
the people of Manila to be abroad after II
o'clock at night or opened up some narrow
street to market vendors
In Filipino newspaper OF Sept. there ap.
pears the following: eve had all of us hopcd
that commission OF civilians, free from the pre-
possessions imposed by the very nature OF mill
tary obligations, would have easily found so.
luton OF the peace problem" And this pretty
well expresses the disappointment OF tine Fill |
pinos at large. They persist in seeing "rrob. |
lens' to he solved. and they still seem to hopo |
the United States government will treat with the
men who are opposed to it by force Of aims.
certain statement, remarkably clear and exact. |
as to what the commission purposes. has been !
made public; and, although tho commissioners |
have shown most conciliatory desire to permit |
the Filipinos to ask for notifications and ars |
always ready to hear their wants as regards |
ptatn Nnnn ntt,t1 nj .llI
likely at present that the primary condition OF |
Surrender first and then talk" will bo departed |
from to any great degree.