Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-20

The drift of events In the Philippines is
very encouraging. The latest outgivings
from Archbishop Chapeile and news from
secular sources indicate that the friars are
not to be restored to the parishes, and are
L be retained to a certain extent in Manila
only for educational purposes. If this de-
cisiou has been reached, the most difficult
of the Philippine probe has been solved.
That for which the Fnipinos have repeat
eddy fought with Spain. and for which
under a misrepresentation of the facts most
of those in arms have been fighting the
United States is won by them. The first
and vital requirement of their revolution
airy DroClamations, deliverance from the
friars has been attained. The kindred
question of disposal of the friars' lands is
also i'm course of intelligent settlement.
Impartial tribunals are to pass upon ques-
tons of title, and lands found to belong to
the monastic orders are to be purchased
by the government and sold or leased In
small holdings to actual tenants. No sys-
TEN of alien landlordism is to curse Luzon.
AguinaldO's manifesto will further tend to
eliminate well-meaning Filpinos from the
armed bands. and to reduce the latter to
the banditti condition of the period of
Spanish rule.
The bandits will be followed up and pun
ished with a vigor to which this gentry is
totally unaccustOmed. Severity should be
the rule for the robbers; consideration for
the peaceful and law-abiding Among our
own people thieves in the government serv-
i've should be locked up or deported. and
not critical editors. Conditions are now
rapidly approaching the peaceful reason
ably settled stage when the wisest policy
of handling the Philippines problem can
Wi1NpO1 1har ha iaI AS
The Star said last year in editorial cor
respOndence:
Two paths of policy open before us. We
can accept the Philippines as a trust i'm
posed by Providence to be administered
for the benefit of the millions of people
who inhabit the islands. In this case we
shall side with the Filipino against the
Spaniard. with the Filipino against the
friar, with the Filipino against the China
man, and in each of these controversies We
shall make the cause and interest of the
Filipino people our own. On the other
hand. We may accept these islands the
spoils of war. unaccompanied by any OBJ
legations whatsoever to the people who
happen to live upon them
In which case We may enter upon the
broad and apparently smooth way of the
policy which merely substitutes our mas
terry for that of the Spaniards. indorses and
adopts the Spanish system of government,
taxation and general treatment of the ma
tiN es, recognizes the friars as the owners
of the land and the masters of the people
and utilities the reliable Chinaman as the
universal workingman of the islands I'm
der this policy should reserve deSpotic
government of the Philippines to ourselves,
turn over the land to the friars and the
labor to the Chinese and consign the Fill
pinos to the tender mercies of a large
American standing army, extensively
transported for many thousand miles to
the scene of distasteful and un-Ameri-
eau task.
''Onr ultimate with reference to
the Filipinos will determine our wisest
policy in the labor problem If it is con-
ceivable that We should in the end abandon
in despair the idea of working In partner
ship with the refractory FilipinOs. and
should devote ourselves exclusively to the
task of amassing the greatest possible
profit fro1, the productive soil of the Phil
ippines, regardless of the welfare of their
present inhabitants, We would in that event
do well to flood the islands with several
million Cinnamon. These invaders. grad
ually depriving the natives of the means
by which life is sustained. would destroy
the Filipnos more completely and more
surely than the largest army and the
strongest navy which we could send against
them.
eff. on the other hand we succeed in
convincing the Filipinos that our interests
are Identical with their own, and that our
desire IL To move forward hand in hand
with them to the development of the is
lands and into an era of common pros
perity. our policy will be to shut out for
the present the threatening Chinese flood
and so to regulate incoming labor in the
I'ture as both to protect the people of the
Philippines in their opportunities to secure
l:te-sustaining work and to develop to the
fullest extent the resources of the islands
a task essential to the welfare of both
FiiipinOs and Americans
The teaching Of the Dutch and English
policies in the Java and Ceylon of today
Is that American welfare and that of the
FilipinOs coincide and are promoted to-
u adv h.
rial interests of the Philippines will bene-
nj the republic also. and that the nation
cannot permanently and with success sell
fShly separate its interests from those. of
the islands. but must profit by sharing In
the local prosperity, which in Cooperation
with the FIlipinos it will create and de-
yelOp.