Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1904-09-23
" THE RECLAMATION
OF AN ANTI.IMPERlALIST."


been advanced by the so-called anti-im-
perialists against the policy of our gov
eminent in the Philippine islands. The
writer is David Gray, Democrat, who
up to the summer of 1902 was actively in
sympathy with the views of the anti-im-
perialists and was employed on the cd
itorial STAFF of a leading Democratic pa
per to oppose and denounce the policy of
the Republican administration in the
Philippine islands.
In the summer of 1902 he went to the
islands on an extended visit of personal
investigation, expecting to gain by this
means a great volume of facts with which
to prosecute his campaign for Filipino
emancipation. On arriving in the Islands
Mr. Gray took up his work in the most
thorough and systematic way, spending
several months there and gaining his in
formation of the condition of affairs at
first hand through native sources, by his
own observation, and not through the
channels Of the American occupation.
This is in brief what he says he found
out:
First, that the F'ilipinos have no ma
tionality with which to assume govern
are the Christian Tagalogs. the Christian
Matebeles. who murder Tagalogs as a
tribal virtue the non-Christian Igorrotes
various tribes of head hunters, and a mis-
cradle race called Negritos. In the Wis.,
ayan group is another tribal division
speaking a Malay dialect distinct from
Tagalog, and in the great island Of Mind
anao and in the Sulu and Tawi groups
are the Moros Mussulman savages con-
tinually warning among themselves. In
all the islands, according to the estimate
Of Senior Buencamno, Aguinaldos for
mer secretary of state, there are not more
than 25, 900 who speak any Spanish That
is to say, less than half OF one per cent.
of the population know the educated lam
guage which alone can be used for inter-
communication. Thus, without commu-
nifty of interest, tradition or language,
scattered sparsely over an archipelago
that would extend from Maine nearly to
Florida, inheriting immemorial tribal
enmities, part frankly barbarous, part
reared under the spiritual guidance of
the Christian church, but forbidden the
arts and liberal education. and subjected
to 300 years of military tyranny, the
wealth and commerce of their country
in the hands of Europeans and Chinese
what criminal folly to compare such a
situation with that in Cuba!
There are individual Tagalogs and
Visayans OF much intelligence OF some
culture and wealth: there are some who
possess what we call character. but the
class is lamentably small. In Manila, n
city of more than 200. 900 inhabitants, /
doubt II there be 200 Filipinos, men and
women, whom any Of you gentlemen
tanti-imperialstsl would or could ask to
your houses save out of an anthropo-
logical curiosity. In the country the per-
centage would be even smaller. Yet IL
you make the Philippines independent,
inlpnHUdanCa ia
ipinos, but to these Filipnos not to the
people, but to this small class; you put
the simple, half civilized villagers of Luz
ION and the Nisayan group under the
rule of an oigarchy modelled upon Span
ish military dcspotism and animated by
the spirit OF the Malay feudal system.
This was the form OF government which
Aguinaldo was endeavorinE to establish.
the only form OF government of which
either he or his associates could con-
ceive."
Mr.. Gray further says that on exam
ming the capacity of the Filipinos for
conducting governmental and international
relations, it win be found that the num-
Der of the educated upper classes who
have ever been out into the world and
enjoyed the education of travel and of
contact with the western world will not
exceed so in the whole archipelago THE
more intelligent among them realize this
national heplessness and view with ap-
prehension the possibility of abandon
ment by the United States. realizing that
they would ultimately be the prey of one
of the European military powers, and in
the meantime that the islands would be
torn with internal disorder and ladron-
ISM"
Il went to the Philippine islands,"
the writer continues. convinced that
our retention of them was an inter-
national crime; left them convinced
that any other course than that which
we are pursuing would be a breach
OF international humanity, comparable
to leaving a helpless infant to perish
in the storm. Right or wrong, we
have taken the islands. and must ac-
cept the responsibility for the people
whose blood We have shed and whose
lands We have laid waste This is
not theory, but a fact. When they
will be ready for self-government is
an interesting question, but at pres
ent is academic. 1t is a fact that they
are not ready or capable for it,
The argument that we are undermine
ing our own democracy by ruling pa
ternally an alien people is nullified by
the obvious moral requirements of
the situation. II is not a question
of what we should have done, or of
what we should like to do, but of
what We must do. To give them in
dependence for the purpose OF clean
ing the blood from our hands and
whitening our good name would have
the same merit as to abandon an IL
legitimate child in order to put away
the evidence of sim"
Upon this statement OF facts thus OBJ
tained lies the ground for Mr.. Gray's I'M
qualified assertion that "the nature of
the Philippine instruction against the
United States government was no more a
popular uprising to secure popular lib
erty than were the Wars of the Roses"
In addition to the foregoing we quote
the substance of the outlook writer's con-
clusions:
Whatever may be the other issues of
the campaign, the continuance OF the
present Philippine policy. involving as 1t
does the peace and welfare of 1000, 900
Filipinos, to say nothing of the, possible
cost to the United States which another
outbreak would entail, makes the Philip
pine issue paramount" Further than this,
he says that time alone can tell whether
the Fflipinos can eventually be devel-
oped into people capable of self-gov-
eminent or whether from their native ca
pacity and tropical environment they
must always remain a backward and sub
ject race. They are entitled however,
to every opportunity for self development,
and Mr. Gray says that 'if Providence
has ever specially interviewed to provide
adequate men for difficult work. 1t has
interviewed in the present instance in
fret Mr.