Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1902-08-06
PHILIPPINE PROBLEM
President Schurman on the Future
of tho Islands.
what Is to Be the Political Status of the
Civilized and ChrIstianized FiIIplnOs of
Luzon and the VIsayas? He

Chautauqua, N. Y, Aug. 4.-Presi-
dent Schurman of the Cornell univer-
sity Saturday delivered an address on
1.-THE Philippine Problem" before the
Chautauqua assembly. He said in
part:
The Philippine question has passed in
to a new stage, though the public seem
to be unaware of 1t, and the newspapers
have not noticed it. Certain matters of
great interest in the past have now been
definitely eliminated. 1t is idle now to
discuss the wisdom or the unwisdom of
our acceptance of SPANS ceSsion of
sovereignty over the archipelago. The
fact of our sovereignty is indisputably
established both by the force of treaty
and the force of arms. was one of
those who advocated leaving the archi-
pelago in the enfeebled grasp of Spain;
but the American people who made war
Spain for the emancipation of Cuba
would not consent, so President McKin-
ley felt, to leave the Filipinos the
close of the war, victims of the same
oppression. Whether by will or not the
Philippines are ours; the destiny of the
Filipinos is in our hands, and great as
our responsibility may be to humanity
and to Providence, our sovereignty itself
is absolutely unimpeachable. So, too,
we have no further concern with the
government set UP by Aguinaldo, nor
with Aguinaldo himself. Both are issues
that government represented the inhab-
itants of the Philippines not. 1t GER
tainly did not represent the Moros and
heather of the southern islands, and as
far as could make out in 1899 it did not
represent the majority of the Christian
inhabitants of Luzon and the Visayas.
The Christian Filipinos have undoubt-
eddy been drawn together by three years
of fighting against the white man. But
that fighting has gone on Independently
of Aguinaldos Philippine republic,
whose brief existence was entirely en-
braced within the year 1899. And, at that
period, as I have said, it appeared to be
less a national than a local. organization.
Let the dead past bury its dead. The
Philippine problem is no longer a ques-
ton of the conduct of the army, or of
few men in the army; it is no longer
question of the character of Aguinaldo;
1t is no longer a question OF the juris-
diction of the Philippine republic of
1893; 1T is no longer a question of the
validity of American sovereignty over
the archipelago or of the wisdom of the
policy ofSassuming it, These are all is
sues of the past. The pacifcation of the
archipelago, the official announcement of
termination of hostilities, the proclama-
ton of amnesty, and the substitution of
civil for military control, all bring us in
sight of war problems. At the heart of
them all think you will find this ques-
ton: What is to be the political status
OF the inhabitants of the Philippine Is
lands? Or, more particularly, what is
to be the political status of the 6,500000
civilized and Christianized FtliDinos of
Luzon and the Visayas?
There is another issue also which now
happily belongs to the past. During the
spring and early summer the newspaper
abounded in reported atrocities commit
ted by American officers and soldiers in
the Philippines. History shows that
whenever the white race, and especially
the Anglo-Saxon branch of it, come into
conflict with coIored race its bearing
&c a nf IN no MT md tom afIInT
and 1t seldom fails to repay the barbar-
tiles practiced by the enemy with fero-
cious cruelty. This tendency inherent
in the blood was fostered by the hard
ships of the Philippine campaign, the
intolerable climate, the elusive tactics
and the atrocious practices of some of the
insurgents. The American army as
whole chung to its ancient discipline and
maintained its untarnished honor; but
here and there an officer a private sue
cumbed. The natural and proper course
for all good citizens under the circum-
stances was to insist that the guilty be
punished and the good name of the army
and of the nation indicated thereby.
President Roosevelt, commander-in-
chief of the army, decided that all the
facts should be forwarded to him, with
no attempt to conceal anything to
spare anybody, and, after an exhaustive
and judicial investigation, he has exc
cuted the moral indignation of the ma
ton by the condign punishment of the
principal offenders.
I certainly am satisfied with the ac-
ton OF the president and congress in re-
gard to Philippine affairs. Everything
I asked for the Filipinos in my Boston
speech of January last, which was Sc
verely criticised by imperialists, has been
granted to them, with the exception of
gradually increasing home rule, culminat-
ing in independence, when the Filipinos
desired and were fit for independence,
which, by the very terms of the PROPOSE
ton, shows Itself a matter, not for the
present, but for the future.