The Irish standard., 1903-02-14

AZ ICCCul mectAuE III tuS SICaaI AdAA
of Cooper Union, New York, President
Schurman of Cornell University, de-
livered an eloquent address on the
Philippine Islands which created great
enthusiasm and was both applauded
and cheered. In the course Of his ad-
dress he said:
think no man will charge me with
Misrepresentation if I say that the
heart-reiding spectacle on which our
latest sun has just risen in Luzon and
the visayas-the universal devasta-
ton of long and ruthless war, the
complete obliteration of towns and
villages, the transformation Of fruit
full plains and valleys into desolate
wastes and hcwling wildernesses, the
vast, uncounted loss of human life,
the destruction Of nearly all farm
animals, the annihilation Of capital,
the paralysis Of agriculture, trade and
commerce, the arrangement Of the
currency, the dread specters of pow
erty, famine, cholera and the pesti-
lence that walketh at MONDAY, men,
women and children-brethren of ours
and fellow-C Christians, perishing like
wanton flies in summer, and the whole
nation sick at heart, sullen in temper,
unreconciled to American rule, and,
though disarmed and overma stored by
force, yet resolutely determined to
achieve national independence, which
we still deny them-this, say, is an
accumulation of calamities that must
touch our hearts with the profoundest
pity and combination of problems
that must awaken in our minds the
gravest anxiety and concern, not un-
mingled, perhaps, with self-reproach
or even remorse.
After speaking of the remedies pro-
posed by President Roosevelt and
Governor Taft and urging some tenn
porary relief for the Filipinos, Presi-
dent Schurman continued:
This is the immediate duty. But it
is not our only obligation to the Fill
pinos; it is not the only demand their
condition makes upon us. We must
reckon with the spirit and temper of
these people as we'll as make provision
for their material welfare. Among
freemen, however it be with slaves,
their state of mind is far more vital
matter than mere bodily condition.
Men will despise comforts. and fling
away life itself, in pursuit Of some
moral ideal or political end. Now
there are two facts which will serve
to interpret to us the political senti-
ments Of the Filipinos.
First, there is not, believe, a sim
gle man Of them who will consent
that his country should be permanent
ly dependency or colony Of the Unit
ed States. which is the policy of our
imperialists. This circumstance. which
all recent information confirms, I
noted in the report of the first Philip
pine commission, explicitly stating
that even those Filipinos who were
supporting American sovereignty-the
minority, indeed-did SO in the ex-
pectation that, after an interval Of
American training and tutelage. the
Filipinos should be granted their inde-
pendence.
And. secondly. of that vast majority
who were compelled by force to ac-
quiesce in American sovereignty,
thousands have died and hundreds of
thousands are still ready to die in the
cause of Philippine independence.
Here is another crucial fact:
Our war with the Filipinos has
made a nation of them; they are no
longer Tagalogs or Visayans or 1lo-
canos, but one people with a single
national consciousness and single
national heart. If the idea of fnde-
pendence was originally the dream of
Aguinaldo and the Tagalogs. it is to-
day the hope, the goal, and the reso-
lutte determination of a nation OF
6,5OOOOO united Filipinos.
The question now is not whether the
Filipinos deserve praise or blame for
their spirit of freedom and fndepend-