The Springfield herald., 1900-08-17
THE MORO's MORALS.
CONDITION OF SLAVES - NOT
BAD.
Some Of the Chlefs Have Many Wivss-
These Two Practices Could Probably
BE Put = q Stop to.

At the town of Iligan, OH the island
of Mindanao, there is slave market
where boys and girls were sold. did
not see, says n correspondent OF the
Chicago Record. anybody sold, but
was asked whether l cared to buy a
girl or boy, and was told that the
Moros would sell either If l cared to
invest. l priced them. A young girl is
more valuable than boy, the value OF
the former being between $50 and S1OO,
Mexican, to $50 or $50 for boy. The
sensation of being offered the absolute
ownership of a human being for less
than $50 in gold is very novel to any
one from free country. There is
flavor of the old Moorish slave days,
such as we read of in "Robinson Cru
soe," but l can hardly imagine seeing
any fair, fearful Moro girl standing on
the block. The Moros in lligan seem
too stolid and unromantlc to display
emotion of any kind, particularly the
fearful sort.
A great many people predict that
when our government attempts to stop
slavery and polygamy in the southern
islands there will be immediate war.
From my own observation of the Mo-
ros, I'm inclined to doubt it. Every
thing will depend upon the tact OF the
officer who handles the question. Gen
eral Bates probably could arrange 1t
amicably. more so than any other man
in the Philippines. for he knows the
Moros and has won their respect and
confidence. He is also tactful. patient,
honest-hearted and of broad cnliber.
Besides these qualities, he knows well
what most of us know who are famil-
lar with southern conditions-that the
slavery and polygamy of the Moros is
not nearly as bad as the words imply.
It Is the name that stings.
Most of these Moro slaves are al
lowed practically the same freedom as
anybody else, and under present condi-
tiOns there are probably very few of
the slaves who know or care whether
some one has bought them or not The
system Is similar to the peon system in
Mexico. Perhaps, If the Moro dattas
knew they would be ns much shocked
at some of our international marriages
as we are at their slave buying.
There Is no very pronounced form
Of religious worship among the Moros
of Mindanao. BY common consent they
are credited as being Mohammedans,
but their consummation of that religion
comes very far from being real Mo
hammedanism. 1t is true that the
koran is largely used among the better
educated, but, beyond that, their form
of worship Is a mere travesty on the
great teachings of the prophet. In the
Mohammedan religion a man Is al
lowed four wives only. Down in Min
danao man can have as many as he
wants or can get. Old Datto Uttu,
eighty-two years old, has sixteen, and
the other dattos have numbers rang
ing from half dozen up to 100 or
more. By patient and diplomatic pro-
cess, not too abrupt or hurried, l am
inclined to think that the Moros could
be induced peaceably to contine them
selves to one wife. ut least as far as
the strict letter of the law goes.
A war with the Moros would not be
as one race against another, but as one
race against many tribes, all of which
would carry on a separate fight with
out regard to unity or organization.
There are no ties that bind all the
Moro tribes together. In each district
there are dattos who rule absolutely
those people directly under them. The
Sultan Is merely n figurehead, who
sometimes exacts tribute from the dat
tos when the latter are complacent,
but beyond this he is supposed to have
no power which could be strong enough
to amalgamate all those little warning
tribes into one wieldy body to fight any
strong external foe.