The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1904-09-02

ultimate richness OF these new posses
sions. of the United States, while the
mining products, the sections of lum-
Der, the exhibit Of hemp in all stages
Of manufa cture, and other things col
lected by the United States Government
are all displayed there to show the peo-
pie Of this country that under proper
direction and with faithful assistance,
the people of the Philippines can, in the
long years to come, demonstrate their
capacity and their fitness to be consid-
cred among the peoples of the earth.
The Savage Tribes.
Over in another corner of the reserva-
ton one may find savage tribes brought
to st. Louis as types of the people who
still roam over the islands, who have
never been properly classified, who make
no returns to census officers, who were
never controlled by the Spanish Govern
ment, and who are the people above all
others over whom the United States
must extend the genius of its own civili-
cation.
1t was the Sunday after the hysteri-
cal convention of the Democratic party
had closed it's labor. The gates of the
big Fair were barred to all but the priv
ileged officials Of the Exposition. In the
Igorrote village the 1.-the, active, dog
eating savages were amusing Themselves
after their own fashion in their weekly
holiday. There were no crowds to In
terrupt them. They roamed around the
reservation as free from care as II in
their own forest. The youngsters car
ried OF a sham battle, and the older men
and women Of the tribe smoked and
] aughed and enjoyed themselves in their
simple, savage fashion.
On the steps Of the headquarters
house sat the shrewd, ~good-natured, ex-
Yankee soldier, who had secured the
concession and brought these savages to
st. Louis where they have since been,
the most interesting feature Of a most
interesting exposition. He had just in-
ished reading a newspaper which con-
tanned a cop Of the Democratic plat
form, pledging that party to the ulti-
mate independence Of the Filipinos, and
as he laid down the elanc-.
ing from time to time over his brown
skinned charges, whom he had learned
to love and who looked up to him as q
father, he expressed himself with nat
ural quaintness as to political situations:
AhdASCu lhSlI oplIllOuOe
Look at those people now. They are
amiable. good-natured, tractable saw
ages but they are savages just the same
1t seems foolish to talk of independence
for people who don't wear any moro
clothes than they dc. | went out to tho
Islands in a regiment which had a whole
lot Of Democrats in it, but there were
mighty few Democrats came back, be-
cause we were in a place where we had
it put up to us every day how danger
Gus it was to talk of independence among
people who were wholly untitled to I'M
derstand the responsibility of political
freedom. What do you suppose those
people over there, who are now enjoy
ing themselves throwing stones at each
other, and saving themselves from in
jury with their shields, would do if they
were turned loose on the streets of st.
Louis, and told to hustle for themselves7
In fifteen minutes after they had been
attacked by some street Arabs. there
would be the biggest row you ever so ",
and all the statute laws from here to
Washington wouldn't keep those nice,
little, brown men from sticking a knife
into every white man they saw. l stayed
a Democrat more time than most Of our
regiment, but | am done with it now.
This talk of Independence, if persisted
in, will sooner or later provoke a bloody
revolution in the Islands. A promise of
immediate independence is a serious
thing. The Finipinos themselves viii
think they are entitled to liberty before
we do. and the result would be a differ
ence Of opinion which would mean blood.
| for one dom propose to belong to
any party which deliberately shuts its
eyes to the great duty of the American
people, which is to meet the conditions
as We find them now, to educate the peo-
pie Of the Philippines up to a condition
Of comparative civilization, and then to
let the future be determined by the fu-
ture."