The times., 1901-03-10


sense to our State, county. and city gov
ernments, etc; and those, or at least the
most of them, have been destroyed by
our people; and only in Few cases
have we replaced them with anything
Along the northern and eastern cast
of the island Of MindanaO they had three
provinces, where they had In successIui
operation all the machinery OF govern
ment, courts. administrative Offices ana
municipal officeS-everythi 10 meet the
wants of a civilized people or community
And this state of things continued Tor Two
years. AT the end of that time we got
possession there. and at once shut every
thing down tight. and so 1t stands ana
has stood for nine months. with no Nlsi
bic indication whatever that II VIII ever
be different. Nobody is authorized 70
make conveyance. there Is no way 70
protest note; no possibility or trying
any kind of civil case whatever, no sort
Of means of administering an estate
nothing, absolutely nothing, TO enable the
people to attend to the affairs of ordi-
nary civilized life
And that Is not the worst of It, In
nearly all cases in those islands the
Americans in charge do not know that
these things are lacking. 1t IS astounding
to see the ignorance of such things among
Americans They do not know that these
things are lacking, because they do not
know of the things themselves and their
uses. Nearly all the army officers tnlnk
if you sweep the streets of the towns ana
make people keep the pigpens away from
their houses the people are well governed
The only thing they know OF governments
is bossing, or at best, commanding theh-
Not one in a thousand mas any Just Cum
ception of government.
go No Judge, these people are now
ready for elf-g0Vernment, but VIII never
be capable of being satisfactorily gov
erned BY people of the Western civliiza-
ton And for the same reason there
will never be a time when 1t would De
safe to admit them as states INTO our
Union. And it is also true that
v,-a them foreign ana
subject people without so stultifying our
selves in the matter of our professions or
principles of all true government as TO
endanger our own Government IN the
course of time. And we cannot govern
them as wen as they can govern them
selves And why do We want to govern
them at alp 1t has always DeeH
the policy and practice of the English
to represent to the world that the peo-
pie it is profitable to rob and destroy are
ignorant and vicious savages who amount
to national nuiSanceS. and curse 10 the
world, etc, and our nation have evident
ly made UP their minds TO adopt that
policy and practiCe-Or at least those VINO
run things and do things have-and
therefore it would not be popular to tell
the truth about the Filpinos. l could
write a book that would be interesting;
and that would possibly sell, If / could
get my own consent To join the process
sion. and write about the odd and curious
things over here, and so exaggerate these
as to make the whole work amount 10
tissue of lies. j nave not seen any tIiiiE
in print that was other than this, in the
form of books, speeches, etc Ana
official reports have lied for purposes had
in view.
school histories that We, at this day ami
time. were either vicious or crimlnaHy
ignorant. And. after ALL judge,
what do we want these lands for? Hyp-
ocritical cant among a certain class says
we want to ChristianiZe and properly civ
iliZe these people-they say We want 10
elevate them without using halter. But
that. of course, IS the NeFleSt DOSn- a
few religious cranks, who are entirely lg-
norant of the situation, may really tnlnA
this, but, of course, no one pays any at
tention to them. because all sensible peo-
ple know that that is not it. And then
again, others have been made TO believe
that God forced them onto uS-that CIR
cumstaDces that our people could not con-
troll placed them in our hands. etc
We got them on our hands be
cause we wanted them, and worked to get
them there: and it took lots of hard work
and scheming too. And it was not all
some investors of capital will probably
make money out of it. In fact army con
tractors and shipowners have already
done SO.
But for the common run of American
people there is absolutely nothing in 1t.
Nor will the islands serve as an
outlet for Americans: furnish homes Tor
people. In the first place. the 1siands al
mile than the United States has, and,
besides, they are more mountainous than
the Rocky Mountain region OF the tnlte1
States is. That is, not greater per cent
of them is inhabitable by man than there
is of the Rocky Mountain region OF the
United States. In short, they Cthe haD-
liable portions of them) are mucn worse
oYercrOwded now by the people that are
here than the worst overcrOwded State OF
the Union is by the people there. Ana
white people simply VIII not i've IN TINS
h1V~ 50 m a
age of the world; and why VIII people
persist in such nonsense as to suppose
that they will do so now or hereafter? L
know a great many think that HOngkOng
is a community Of white people, and that
there are white people at Shanghai ana
Singapore, and Penang and Molucca ana
Java and Sumatra ana Sandockan, but
they think this because they have not
read the authorities
They only have to read the books Of
the English to see that the English and
Dutch colonies in the Tropics are not
colonies AZ all; they are simply govern
n1ents by English and Dutch people of
tropical peoples. None of these sO-called
colonies have white people permanently
settled in them, or in them at all, except
such as are connected with the army or
the Government, or acting as agents Tor
commercial companies at home
In short. the English and Dutch have
not migrated to these colonies here IN
the Tropics. notwithstanding they (the
colonies) have been maintained for CEN
tUries. some of them three centuries. Ana
there are today almost no Spanish people
at all in the Philippines and there never
have been any except what were con-
nected with the army or the Government.
Spaniards have never migrated here.
"AmericanS who produce things could
not come here and enter into competition
with these people as producers. 1t is
conceded by all that these people can do
everything here Except govern their
country better and cheaper than Amer
To-. can.
But it is poorly worth while for me
TO try to give you, in a letter, any idea
of the Philippine situation II involves
too much, and as you say, the Philip
pine problem will not be settled for a
long time. Ii could be. We could settle
it in a year if We should say to the
people today, We will treat you as We
promised to treat the Cubans.' No Fill
pino asks more; and mighty few of them
will ever accept less, either willingly or
unwillingiy. They talk about the war
being over. There is more lighting going
on today than there has been at any
time since the first part or what may be
termed the beginning of the war; and we
have fewer real friends IN the ISLANDS
than we ever had before. and each day
sees the number diminish.
our great misfortune has been in the
'calibre' of the men that have been III
charge over here. Otis and his outfit of
incompetents. There has never been
time when they, in the slightest degree.
comprehcnded any part OF the siuatl0n
here One thing was that they thought
that all they had to do was 10 Whlp a
Filipino army. 1t never occurred TO them
that in doing so they would stir up FIJI
fpino people that would have TO be con
duered; and they are people that are
practically uncomfortable. The main rea-
son that they are practically uncouquer-
able is that their conditions OF life are
such and their view OF death ana small
regard for il so peculiar. that the things
that would unduestionably conquer any
people of the civilization that we under