The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-05-20
W~HATISAMERICAN 0 y
If We Have no Policy Let US Say SO
and Stop Fighting.
TO TGHT FOR NO POLICY IS WICKED
We Shoot Down ~Filipinos Because Trey WIllNel
M What Ne Want and We Do No.
lei Them What We
Will Do.
FrCm the independently


Africa " was the old world saying. n
oar new world We have since 1898 petn
continnauv having something new from
tho philiDpines. Besides the deFeioF
,nants in the Investigations conducted oy
the senate Philippine Committee, WIZ"
would be more satisfactory TO the lLl-
partial investigator if they couiu n
divorced from partisan politics, We me-
had in rapid succession within the laat
foyy weeks the Gardener report, the
charges made in the Waller trial the
horrible admission of Gen. smith couh-
sci the testimony concerning the VI
turing of Filipinos by Americans, anu
the outbreak of hCstilities with some q
the Mohammedan tribes on the southern
coast of the great island OF Nlhoah"o'
The editor of the Independent mas uoho
me the honor Of asking my OPINION re-
garding the effect which the most recent
DEVELOPMENTS in the Philippine situation
win have. or should have, on the general
Philippine policy of the United states.
Now. in replying TO that question:, !
think it will be we'll to begin with the
recent fighting between our troops ana
the Moros. Every nation Is bould 10
~protect it's citizens and soldiers, ana ~
demand roparatiOn when they are a.
tackled or murdered. i mere SttliIS y ~
doubt that one or more Americans were
KILLED by Moros, If no satisfaction were
offered. if the act were not disaVoWed,
both the honor of our flag and the safety
of our people would seem TO call Tor
punishment. and among communities
tribally organized, as all the Mohamme-
dan and heather people of MindanaO
are, that punishment might from thelI
Doint of view be as properly corporate
as Observation-Disclosures, that Is to say, 1ail
with equal justice either upon the per
Sonal offender or the tribe or elan 10
which he belonged. The punitive eXpe-
dition dispatched by the American offcer
in command against the dattos and mem
bers Of the guilty tribes was IN ltsel1
considered no improper proceeding. Ana
If we were not responsible for any PRIOR
provocatiOn. | do not see that the course
firally adopted is fairly oper to criticism
Our soldiers and officials in the Philip
pines must be protected so long aG we
keep them there, and if their conduct
squares with our statutes. with the COM
mandments of morality, the rules of war
and the laws of nations. we must protect
them even at the cost of further war.
But | fear that we may have been
guilty of the original provocation which
ended in murderous retaliation. | have
read in the newspapers an order issued
by the officer in command requiring our
troops to explore the country of the
Mohammedan chieftains concerned. Now
these chieftains never recognized Span
iSh authority beyond the coast line.
Even in the island of Sulu (Jolo) the
Spaniard had no footing except in the
little walled coast town Of the same
name. With that exception the island
was governed by the sultan and his dat
tos, as though Spaniards had never
landed on its shores. AS inheritors of
Spanish sovereignty we have no rights
other than those which Spain enjoyed.
Why then should we send exploring ex-
petitions among the lake MOros in the
interior of Mindanao? Have we not
enough on our hands already, even if We
have the right. which | do not concede,
to force the Mohammedan and heather
chieftains to receive expeditions whom
they will certainly regard as enemies
coming to spy out and probably take
forcible possession Of their lands? AS
we have lived in peace since 1899 with
the fierce and dangerous people of those
southern Philippine islands by respect
ing their wishes and making amicable
agreements with them, by whose author
ity is this policy to be reversed? Does
the President, does Congress, does the
American nation desire a more extensive
jurisdiction in the Philippines and a
more intensive control over those au-
tonomous and practically independent
million or two M~ohammedans and heath
Ell in Mindanao. Sulu and Palawan? |
have heard nothing of it.
Why, then, should any American officer
in the Philippines have power to plunge
us into a bloody and inhuman war by
forcible entry into domains over which
Of we are technically sovereignty our
sovereignty amounts actually to the
most shadowy ~suzerainty? remember
wildly the expression Of naughty pride
with which the sultan of Sulu recounted
to me in 1899 the victories which his
people had won over Spain, compelling
her, as he said, to pay them tribute. For
in his estimate at any rate the annual
~alloWance paid to him and his dattoS by
Spain was not IN the nature of salary to
a subordinate, but of tribute to a proved
superior. Certainly he was supreme in
his own dominions. And the majority OF
the chieftains in Mindanao had probably
never heard of Spain. Why force upon
them a knowledge Of Spain's successor
in the sovereignty of the archipelago bv
what they Will regard as an Unlawful
invasion of their territories? Thanks
10 the cautious and far-seeing wisdom
Of President Roosevelt the danger of q
Mohammedan grafton, which was
imminent a few days ago, has perhaps
passed away. But the possibility of its
recurrence should be prevented. Our
people are sick Of bloodshed in the Phil
ippines. If the Moros are stirred up if
will be a bloody business for US. Let
us cry halt to the explorer and exploiter
In luZon and the Visayas, whose g.
800 900 people are civilized and Chris
TANNED tribal DETERMINATIONS hoe aino,