The Springfield herald., 1904-09-09
PHILIPPINE PROBLEM.
OUR DUTY Is PLAIN AND 1T WILL
BE PERFORMED.
United States Will Properly Educate
the Natives of the Archipelago for
eelf-Government A Responsibility
that Will Not Be shirked.-

The problem of the Philippines ~ how
most thoroughly and quickly to teach the
people of the great archipelago of the
Pacific self-government; such self-gov-
crnment us Americans enjoy, first, in the
territories, and then in the States OF the
Union.
The essayists and agitators who are
weeping and wailing over our new east
ern possessions are the representatives of
that self-distrust which weakens individ-
uals and nations.
What are we going to do with the
Philippines?" shrieks the sentimentalist
OF the arm chair and slippers?
1--WE are going to do as we would be
done BY" answers the sturdy spirit OF
American manhood.
But the Philippines should be inde-
pendent"' moans voice choked with
emotion
I'VE are teaching them self-govern-
ment," is the rcjoinder.
The American people are not quit
ters." Nor are they subject to the emo
tional distress and anaemic apprehen-
sions of hysterical or senie persons. We
have n plain duty before US in the Phil
ippines NOW. To do our work there to
the best of our present ability is our
task. We can trust the future to the
sons and daughters of the American ma
ton.
What if the Revolutionary fathers had
stopped in the midst of their war for
independence to debate whether their de-
scendants would worthily acquit them
selves in the new liberty to be granted
them? What if the liberators of millions
OF slaves had stayed their God-directed
hands to listen and reply to arguments as
to the fitness of the colored people for
lives as human individuals?
The great forces which rule the uni
verse work by human means. The in.
struments are imperfect, but guided by
great ideals man has accomplished won.
ders for his race. The Spanish war
threw upon the grent American republic
an unexpected. even unwelcome, burden
of responsibility. A vast country, peo.
pied like our own, by inhabitants ranging
from high civilization to naked savagery.
came into our possession, and with II
came immense responsibility. To shirk
that responsibility is impossibly un-Amer.
lean. We have taken it upon us, and we
shall carry it as bravely and hopefully
as 1t IL our custom to carry the trusts
laid upon us as a nation.
To teach self-government there, as We
understand it in the United States, Is
our task. We are building and opening
free public schools; teaching sanitary sci
ence and the necessary rules for public
health; showing the way to complete re.
ligious freedom and tolerntion: fighting
savage tribes in remote districts, to pro-
tect the lives and property of all who
live within the borders OF our national
authority. Such is our work to-day.
Upon the ancient growth of Spanish
civilization, in the towns and cities we
nre engrafting the new life of American.
ism. Does anyone doubt the ultimate
effects of such a process, after what has
been done upon our own continent within
the last hundred years?
The dealing with the natives of the ISL
ands is serious and puzzling affair, but
who is better fitted than our nation, nour-
ished, as it is, by great ideals, for such
work? The world has come to see
that the savage is but man in his child
hood; that like a child he must be pro-
tected. tnught, borne with and led into
the larger life of maturity. In Ameri.
can life are the elements for the saving
md civilization of the most remote tribes
of the Pacific islands; let us trust our.
selves, and give ear no longer to the
Ruguries and omens of those who have
faith neither in God nor man, but who
continually cry out upon all that is done,
pr wished or noped Tor by the workers of
the world.
One thing at a time and every day for
its work, is good rule in government, as
1t is in the life of an individual. The
shing to do with the Philippines is to
help them forward in the world-to in.
spire, guide and govern them in accord
lnce with American ideals and traditions.
AS to the future we can trust future
Americans and future Filipino Ameri.
sans. This is the full extent of our impe-
rialism there.