The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-02-15
ANGLICIZING THE rILIpIN0s.

Judge Taftst evidence before the
Senate Committee last week calls
for serious attention OH the part of
all who prize the rights of self-gov-
eminent for themselves The Judge
described his methods of home rule
for the people Of the Philippines with
apparently full confidence in their ac-
ceptability to the American public.
Tle natives are to choose their town
and provincial governments by popu-
lar election, as here, and the Judge
was eloquent in his tribute to the
value of American institutions as a
means of moral elevation, says the
San Francisco Monitor.
So far well, but the limitation
which, quite innocently, he laid down
for the number of natives who
might vote. puts a very strange mean
ing OH his ideas of American self.
government. All Filipinos may vote:
first, if they pay the substantial sum
of fifteen dollars taxes; secondly, if
they have already held public Office,
and lastly, if they can read and write
Though not equal to the universal
suffrage prevalent in America, this
looks fairly wide at first sight, but an
innocent looking addition practically
excludes nearly every Filipino from
any share in his own government.
The reading and writing qualifica-
tons are required, not in the native
languages used by nearly the whole
Filipino people and commonly taught
in their schools under Spain. but either
in Spanish or English. Only this and
nothing more, Judge Taft gently
states, is required to give to every ma
tive the right to voice in his village
government. 1t is hard to recall a
more plausible attempt to rob a race
Of it's freedom under pretext of for
warding its schooling.
To read and write seems a not I'M
natural test of intelligence in a coun-
try where most Of the children at
tend common schools. To read and
write in a foreign language, such rs
English and Spanish are in the Phil
ippines, is test not of education but
of nationality. Are Germans or
Frenchmen unfit to vote for their
own governments because they cannot
read or write English? If n similar
test We're applied in our own country
it would be the practical end of pop
ular government. 1t is not certain
that such result would be displeas-
ing to theorists like Judge Taft, who
would measure human capacities by
the tests of American common school
teaching.
The use Of its own language is as
much natural right of every people
as the ownership of it's soil. To in
terfere with it by law, as the Russian
Tsar is doing in Poland, and as Judge
Taft and his commission are trying to
do in the Philippines, is direct as
sert1on that the bulk of mankind are
made to be governed without any con-
sent of their own. How far such an
idea agrees with the American Consti-
tuition is easily told. How power
less political legislation is to change
the natural course of language, the en-
ample of Russia and Prussia to-day
points out as warning. There is no
armed rebellion in either but the at
tempt to force foreign languages on the
Polish subjects of Tsar and Kaiser is
sufficient to keep up a bitterness Of
feeling scarcely less than rebellion
itself.
Let any sane man compare the eff
feet obtained by England from her
attempt to root out the Irish Ian
guage in Ireland, with Judge Taft's
policy for the Tagals and visayas.
Are the English-speaking Irish so re-
markable for their love of English in.