The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1904-10-20
JUDGE PARKER'S SPEECH
The Independent Chicago Trl.
bune Says lie Cuts Himself
off From Spirit Of the
Age.

Shall the people of the Phil
lippine islands be free and indie
pendent or dependent and en-
shaved?
This is the way in which Judge
Parker put the question in his
speech at Esopus day before yes
terday. He would have shown
less reverence for Jefferson and
more susceptibility to fact if he
had put it like this:
Shall the people of the Phillip
pine islands be independent and
enslaved or dependent for the
moment and free?
Today, under the direction of
the United States, the people of
the Philippine islands enjoy a
larger measure of freedom than
they ever have enjoyed before in
the whole course of their history.
In the first place, they are
freer personally There is some
little law and order now in the
archipelago. There is govern
ment. There is constabulary.
Theft and murder are punished.
A farmer can plant his crop with
some prospect of reaping it. A
merchant can order a consign-
ment of goods and expect that it
will travel to him without falling
into the hands of brigands. The
man with gun in his hand po
longer has right to everything
that he sees. He is no better
now than the man without a gun.
There are courts. There is jus.
tice. There is equality. There
never had been equality before
the Americans came. There was
slavery then, slavery to privilege
slavery to violence.
But if personal freedom is
nothing, if it is a mere mess of
pottage, degrading the man who
accepts it in place of his political
rights, it still remains true that
the Filipinos are infinitely better
off now than in the days before
the American occupation. The
average Filipino now has a hun
dred times as many political
rights as he had then.
Judge Parker assumes that ma
tive rule means freedom. This
exactly what it does not mean. 1t
means-and the proof is open to
any one who will read the history
of the islands-it means the SUBJ
jugation of the many to the few,
of the millions of the weak to the
hundreds of the strong, of the
peaceful to the rapacious, of the
agricultural and commercial
workers to the military adven-
turers. Independence for the
Philippines at the present time
would constitute freedom for a
small kaleidoscope group of 10
cal despots and entire loss of
both personal and political rights
for the mass of the people. The
United States has swept away
the local despots and is giving the
rank and file Filipino citizen his
first training in democratic self
government.
Judge Parker's assumption
that independence would mean
freedom is logically connected
with his assumption that there is
such a thing as Filipino nation,
Assumptions aside, the Philip
pine islands are really inhabited
by a multitude of mutually hos
tile tribes absolutely incapable
of establishing a national organi-
zation.
Passing from theories about
freedom and from assumptions
about the existence of a nation
because of the existence of a
name, Judge Parker cones to al
legged facts and says that the
work of handling the Philippines
has cost the United States $67O, :
O0O 600. Yet Secretary Taft,
formerly governor of the Philip
pines, proved the other day that
the total cost of the work in ques-
tios was only $199. 600, 600. It
hardly BELTS a candidate for the
presidency to repeat a misstate-
ment after it has been authorita-
lively corrected.
But when Judge Parker slips
back from suggestions about gov
erning the Philippines into sug-
gestions about giving up govern
ing them, he cuts himself off
from the spirit of the age. Not
only are the Filipinos happier,
and freer, and more prosperous
with us than alone, but we our
selves are safer. The center of
the international politics of the
world is now China. Our inter
est in preserving freedom of trade
in China against the aggressions
of European powers is beyond
~ 1o.,1o <so,, ~ xmo Nj h n 1s<xxrx