The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-02
INCIDENTS WHICH HAVE
 FORGED THE FILIPINO
 QUESTION TO THE FRONT
Chicago Tribune.

Cn1CaEo Tribune.
 President J. G. schurman of Cornell University. at banquet of the Boston Reform Club on January 20. delivered 8 speech on the Filipino question which received widespread publication because of his former official position as Presi- dent of the first commission to the Phil ippines. One of his remarks was so rad- ical and open to so much possible mis- curacy The Tribune wired President Schurman for confirmation of the ut- terance and received and published on January 2 the following reply: BoSon, Mass. Jan. 2l.-(Editor of The Tribune. .)-The report that have joined the anti-imperialists, and that at din- | ner last night sad "The Filipinos must have independence" and that 'McKinley | so tntended is not correct. I have not | joined the ariti-imperiaists. I was a | guest of the Boston Reform Club last ! night, and after dinner spoke on the
 Philippine question. My speech was | fore Cornell University. which Is now in
 the press of Charles Scribner's Sons. I l must refer for details to that publication, which will appear in e few days. Tn the | une: When President Mckinley invited me to accept the Presidency of the first ! Philippine commission he said the sole | object of taking the Philippines was the | humanitarian one of carrying them the | blessings of liberty. Our commission re- ported that the intelligent Filipinos, though recognizing the neeQ or tempo rary American intervention and tutelage. all desired and hoped for ultimate inde- pendence. and our progressive plants of | liberty and home rule must eventuate in ! Independence. and it is American septi- ment and Philippine sentiment that must dnslly settle the question.
 Jacob Gould Schurman. The speech occasioned widespread com ment. was cabled to Manila, and was fol- lowed on January 2s by dispatches from there of which the following. published in The Tribune of January 24, was the sa- lient feature:
 Department of the North Philippines, says men have been sent to prison here for remarks such as those of Professor Schurman, and that if what he advocates were accomplished it would mean the ex- penditure of much treasure and the she'd ding of blood like water. Now. as before, he adds. 5e.000 soldiers are needed here and will be required in these islands for sible to form government based on that of the colonies of Holland and Great Britain. they having proved the most
 In reply to this criticism by General Wheaton, President Sohurman issued a signed statement on January 2s. as fol- toYsS
 I said in Boston that if the Christian Filipinos of Luzon and Visayas wanted independence and showed themselves fis to use 1t. believed the American people U. the Philippines was purely Humanitarian.
 General Wheaton Is reported to have said that in the Philippines men have been sent to prison for such remarks as these. If that be true 1t is the saddeAt and most discouraging truth that has come to us for a long time from the Philippines. Without freedom of speech civil government yin never win the sup
 l do not know what General wheateA had in mind when he said that my poll cy would mean the expenditure of. much treasure and the shedding of blood like water for the fact is that the policy evils
 General Wheaton wants 5000 soidiers for five years and then a colonial gov ernment based on those which England and Holland have framed for Oriental races But General Wheat0n's Command er-in-chief. President Roosevelt. said in his message to Congress that We were ee do for the Filipinos far more than any other nation had done fer a tropical peo- ple and that we were to fit them for self-government after the fashion of the really free nations.
 I am with President Roosevelt and against General Wheaton. And go fur ther and say that as the American peo- tion of final Philippine policy, it is as proper for me to advocate eventual inde- pendence as for General Wheaton to rec ommend colonial servitude like that of Java or India
 J. G. Shurman.
 General Wheaton's free speech" was consid, red officially at a cabinet meet ing after it had stirred up an acrimon- ious debate in the Senate over the ques- tlon of censurlng him. It was decided that he had not overstepped the bounds of propriety.
 This chronological summary of a series of incidents which have brought the Fil- ipino question strongly before the public is designed to make clear the exact facts which have been obscured in the contro-