BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-09-12

and retained such qualities as their
race can boast unmarried by contact
with Europeans Until that time The
Dutch have been in full enjoyment of
most Of their colonies in the archipelago
for more thana century. and, though
the condition of the race subject to
them is not such as to excite the
enthusiasm of an Englishman. the
people of the islands have undoubtedly
undergone something in the nature of
a hardening process during their long
intercourse with, and administration by,
the tough stubborn children of the
Netherlands.
The native of the Philippines, on the
other hand, whose subsection by Spain
began as early as 1866, have been for
the best part of three centuries under
the sway of Latin people, itself in its
ater phaseslone of the most indolent
and positive of European races. The
effect of Spanish influence upon the
soft Malayan character of the Fill.
ipinos has been very marked, and it
has intensified those very failings which
make the lover of the brown man
despair of his future. Therefore, l
maintain, it is exceedingly doubtful
whether the Filipinos, as race, possess
today the ability to work with any
degree of steadfastness, even if they
were to be forced to do so by some
system analogous to that devised by
the Dutch colonists, and, since they are
sprung from Malayan stock, their
unwillingness TO toll, if that may by
any contrivance be avoided, does not
need to be insisted upon Accordingly,
in considering the labor supply of the
Philippines, the Filipinos must be
excluded from the calculation, and, as
1.-THE prosperity and development of such
a country as Americas new possessions
depend srnainly upon an ample, cheap
and s'eady stream of coolies, upon
which capital can draw at need, the
United States is in the unpleasant
position of having to decide either to
postpone indefinitely the material well
fare of the islands, or to smother
prejudice, and permit the thrush of the
Chinese to which so many theorists
more versed in home than in Asiastic
problems, are iercely opposed.
One of the favorite cries of the ex-
cellent publicists and philanthropists
above referred to is "The Philippines
for the Fi1ipino!' and a theory which
finds great favor with many politicians
in the United States is that, by the
sovereign remedy of education. the
natives of the new colonies will shortly
be transformed into white men, in all
save color, and will thenceforth take
their place as full-blown American
citizens. As regards the first part of
the theory-viz., that the Philippines
should be kept sacred for the use Of the
natives, the answer is that there is
room for all: that the wants Of the
Filipino are not extravagant, and that
he can supply them without everlasting
his energies, which is the one thing he
really breads To those who object
that the incursion Of large numbers Of
Chinese would result in the gradual
disappearance of the Filipinos, it may
be replied that the Malays show no
signs of dying out in the British posses
sions, though they do not multiply at
any alarming rate, and further, that no
aItlnclal props can serve to SnOre up a I
people doomed to extinction. SuchI
things are governed by an inexorable +
law of nature, the operation of which
may sesm cruel, and may excite our
human sympathies for its victims, but
a law, none the less, against which the
strategy of politicians cannot in the end I.
prevail; for, do what we will, the unfit
will perish and the filter will thrive and
multiply.