The Minneapolis journal., 1902-07-05
A, GREAT TAGAL


Philippines was DR.. Rizal who was exc
cuted by the spaniards on Dec. 80, 1896.
His memory is held in the greatest ven
Grafton by athea people of the Philippines
Rizal was note'a soldier, and was prob
ably never ii arms nor in conspiracy
man the Tagalog race has ever produced,
man competent to associate with the
worlds best .ihtellects. The Spaniards
put him to death because of his ability
and his race patriotism. They regarded
him as a dangerous man because he was
so great man. He was mild-mannered,
tolerant brilliant, studious, indefatigable
in research, had Travelled much, had Wis
tied the United States and had completed
his education in France, Germany and
England. He wrote two novels, one of
which, 'Noli Me Tangere,'' is said to be
an extraordinary work, which has been
republished in the United States under
the title, "The Eagles Flight" 4
He was. doubtless, with his wisdom and
his culture, a man who, had his life been
spared, would have accomplished great
things for his people. of whom he was
proud. :
Understanding, as he did, what an incu-
bus Spanish government and modes of
life and thought were upon the Tagals
and being such cosmopolitan, it is more
than probable that Rizal would have well
coined the American occupation as the
salvation of his people,: Had he lived
there might never have been any strug-
gle between the Americans and the
Tagals, and the regeneration Of the Phil
ippines would have been much further
advanced than it now is. It is heart
rending to think that the greatest man a
race has produced in all its history
should have been SO unnecessarily taken
away from it and from life when he was
yet young and not come to the full real
ization of his great powers. . e. F.,
The story Of his chief life work is as
pathetic as that of his death. 1t was the
Investigation of the problem of race diff
ferences. AS a boy at school, he expert
enced the contempt of his Spanish COM
rades. He felt that he was their equal.
He compared his mental operations with
theirs, and those of other Filipino boys
at school. He found there were dull
Spaniards and bright spaniards and dull
Filipinos and bright Filipinos. He soon
came to feel great delight in any
academic victory he might win over his
Spanish fellows, because he viewed it as
sort OF raoe triumph. At one time in
his youth he even came to the conclusion
that the Tagals are intellectually supe-
rior to the Spaniards, because boys of his
race had to master the medium Of knowl-
edge, Spanish, at the same time that they
were competing with the Spanish boys in
the various branches of knowledge.
In later years in Europe he pushed his
astrological studies further. In an arti-
Gle which appears in translation in the
Popular Science Monthly, Professor
Blumentritt tells of Rizal's motives in
seeking to demonstrate to his own salts
faction that the Tagals were not inferior
to the Spaniards, and gives his conclu-
sions. Rial satisfied himself that though
the races Sof mankind differ in outward
appearance and in the structure of the
skeleton they do not differ in psychical
qualities. Races, he said, exist only fo1
the anthropologfst. For a student of the
customs Of people there are only social
strata Just as there are some noun
tains that do not reach the highest strata
Of the geological system so there are