Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-20

Continued from First Page)
der Spanish rule. and If not nominal indie
pendence at least firyner and surer self
government than their own Philippines re-
public could ever guarantee.
The congress. cabinet and president of the
Philippine republic decided in 1899 to accept
the American sovereignty and peace on the
basis of the proclamation of the Schurman
commission; but Luna, the general COM
m&nding the army. frustrated the plan. ar
resting peace delegates, accusing them OF
treason. and sentencing some to imprison-
ment and others to death.
The insurgents in arms were ready to
sacrifice everything to their own selfish am
bition. ignorance and insane folly The Of
f1cerS would not abandon their high posi-
lions to sink into their former !nsignificance
In the civil community; and the soldiers
preferred living on others to working for
themselves Military power released from
civil authority always lapses into selfisf.
or remorseless tyranny, and nowhere Is this
law more logically illustrated than in the
Philippines. Such unholy carnival of
! miltarism, despotism, brigandage. cruelty
and wholesale Intimidation of peaceful and
unoffending inhabitants as the disorganized
insrgent bands have since enacted in diff
ferent parts of the Philippine Islands is
without parallel in occidental history-and
finds a parallel In Asia alone. The poor
Philippine republic was not only dead, but
what is equally important in oriental poll
tlcs-it never again pretended to be alive
In America, indeed. honest and patriotic
but sadly misinformed citizens still talked
of the new republic of the orient and that
youthful father of his country, Aguinaldo
But the cold fact is that since those tragic
happenings in the province of Nueva Ecija
In the month of May, 1899. there has not
been even the semblance of Philippine re-
public; all clean gone are its congress- cabi-
net, president and other civil officers; while
the opposition to the establishment of Amer
lean sovereignty has proceeded not so much
from the patriotism of the people as from
the selhshness of individuals, from the lust
of military power and oppression, from the
spirit of robbery and brigandage."
The Filipinos were absolutely unfit for in
dependence in 1899. The Mahometan tribes
In the southern islands-more than a third
of the archipela go-had no desire or con-
ception of It,
In the Christianized Philippines, namely,
Luzon and the Visayas. there was no po-
habitants-the defunct Philippine republic
was almost altogether a Tagalog organiza-
tion-on whom the trust OF sovereignty
might have been devoved. There was not
even single military leader whom all ac-
cepted. Thus at the present time 19O2)
General Lukban, who is fighting us In Sa-
mar, and General Malvar in southern LII
zon' are playing Independently their own
hands What reasonable man, indeed
could have expected harmonious co-opera-
ton from Visayans Tagalogs Vicolst TO-
canos and the other peoples of Luzon and
the Vfsayas. who was aware of their an
cient rivalries and jea lousies their mutual
ly unintelligible languages and the isola-
ton in which they lived in consequence of
the lack of decent means Of communica-
tion?'
The people generally did not want i'm
mediate independence. Among Intelligent
Fflipinos ultimate independence-after an
underlined period of American training-was
their aspiration and goal
While the peoples of the Philippine Is
lands ardently desire a full measure of
rights and liberties they do not in the ontn
ion of the commission generally desire indie
pendence. Hundreds of witnesses testified
on this subject to the commission and its
Individual members and though they rep
resented all possible varieties of opinion-
many OF them being in sympathy with the
lnsurgents-they were uniform In their
testimony that in view of the ignorance and
political inexperience of the masses of the
people, the multiplicity of Languages the
Emergencies OF culture and mode of life.
ana the obstacles to intercommunication an
Independent sovereign Philippine state was
at the present time neither possible nor de-
Slrable, even If it's poverty and interna,
weakness and lack of conference would not
| invite and the dissatisfa elton of aliens en-
tan the intervention Of foreign powers with
the inevitable result of the division of the
archipelago among them and the disappear-
ance forever of the dream and hope of a
united and self-governing Philippine com
monwealth."
There being Philippine nation. but
only collection of different peoples, there
Is no general public opinion in the archi-
pelago; but the men of property and educa-
ton who alone interest themselves in nuh
! lie affairs in general recognize as indispen-
! sable American authority. guidance and
protection $500" an 1900
the masses Of the people seemed to be in
/ ulHerent to the outcome OF the contest be-
tween the TaSalog insurgents we were then
hghting and the forces of the United States
AS one OF them said to me in Cebu they did
not care so long as they had their rice and
| fish, anu
The Prophet of Ultimate Independence
The conclusion reached by Schurman unon
the basis of his own evidence and in re-
lance upon his own observations and ex
perlence was that the United States ex
erc1sing its full sovereignty In the Philip-
pines. should give the archipelago the bene-
mt of long and thoughtfully- planned period
OF American tutelage with ultimate Filipino
independence In view; that the nations OBJ
legation was and is to make of the Philip
pines an Asiatic republic after the Ameri-
can model. to develop such government to
fit the FSipinos for it, and finally. after
ga eiio period or train
Ing to be determined by the United States.
TO cut loose from the new republic and per
nit the latter to go alone
Their own organic life being recognized
as ser-contained and inviolable, when it
reaches a degree of maturity Qualifying
them 1or independence, new republic may
arise In Asia without any shock to the
United States of America. For IL under
American training the Fiipinos come to
ut themselves for sovereign independence
L have no doubt Americans will grant If
II the Fflipinos then desire it"
Progressive liberty must from the nature
or the case issue in sovereign Independence
after the fashion of the really true nations
II indeed the F'ilipinos desire that boon
when they have reached the stage of politi-
cal acknowledgment qualifying them to as
sumo It, l make this implication explicit
because though the goal may be distant I
think 1t desirable to form a clear notion Of
what II really is
Thus il you look beyond the present and
the near future you descry in the distance
an Independent and sovereign Philippine re-
public daughter republic of ours-a
new birth of liberty on the other side of