The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-14

Manifa.-our little brown brother
 the Filipino. Is the perpiexing feature
 of the situation In the Philippines.
 Opinions concerning hm and the mat
 ter of hs "brotherhood' vary widely
 while his own opinions of the Ameri.
 cans are contradictory and not Alto
 gether complimentary. In Manila the
 great majority of Americans are wiil-
 ing at any time to join in the chorus
 of that famous song written by an
 anonymous soldier. declaring:
 He may be brother of William Ii.
 But he ain't no brother O miner
 However, there are other Americans
 in the Philippines the s,s msll0fIi'y el0Ii roV. V.
 ernment and with the educational
 work. who praise the Filipino unstint-
 edly. One who listens impartialiy to all sides of this much-mooted question
 must inevitably arrive at the conclu- sion that the difference Is altogether in the point of view.
 The soldier cannot forget nor can he be expected to forget. the fact that the Filipino insurrecto was a treach- erous and cruel foe. The massacres and ambushes. the pitfalls and bolos. tnc dIT0CiOuS CId0ttg to e~~-N the utter disrespect for the rules of civilized warfare, which marked the military history of the Filipino in- surgents will never be plotted out from the minds of the American soldiers who served in the insular campaigns. Nor will the present generation of Filipinos forget that the American soldiers were sometimes tempted to reprisais in kind. nor will tfat generation forget that the war. which they charge to Ameri- can responsibility. devastated their lands and reduced them to poverty.
 Therefore, one hears the soldiers in the Philippines, especially the younger oficers. complaining bitterly against the civil government. declaring that the military rule was ended two de- cades to soon, swearing that the Gov ernment Is spelling the Filipino by coddling him, and asserting that the Filipino will never be good untl he IS dead. This radical view is reflected in the conversation of many Manila business men, some of whom were formerly in the army. The same posi- ton is taken by that type of man. fa- miliar everywhere. who believes that education of the lower cl6sses means ruin for the upper classes. he esteem- ing himself as one of the chief sup ports of the "top-side" crowd.
 Very few of those who take the radical anti Filipino view are actually with any Filipinos except in the capacity of servants or enemies In battle. They complain that their servants will insist on going to night school six times a week, and in the same breath say that the Filipino doesn't want education and 1t Is sin to waste money on him. The grava- men of their complaint. however, is the statement which one hears scores of times every day in Manila: The Filipino will not york;
 Undoubtedly that complaint may be supported by tons of testimony, and yet 1t Is not altogether and absolute ly Justified by the facts. The Fili- pino will not work like a Chinese, or a Japanese, or a Hindu. He never as made of himself a beast of bur den. and he objects to any effort to place him in that class. For centu- ries. while the people of China and Japan and India have been tilling the land with their own muscle, and bear Ing their burdens on their own backs. the Filipinos have used cattle to draw their blows and cart to carry their burdens. It does not occur to the farmer to, follow the example of the Chinese and hitch his wife and daughter to the blow.
 Furthermore, 1t isn't necessary for the Filinino to work very hard. He lives in a land where he can obtain enough to eat from the lavish hand of nature .and working one. day a week will supply all of his wishes and desires. If an American could obtain everything on earth he wished for in return for hfty-two days work in a year. how many Americans would work more than that? But the American occupation Is teaching the Filipinos to want more things, and as their wants increase they must work more to satisfy them. Filipinos did not wear shoes in the old days. Dewey's guns in Manila Bay were the signals for the people of the islands to clothe their feet. The increase in the use of shoes Is enormous, and Filipinos must work to get money to buy them.
 Again, the educated Filipino has been aborbing Spanish ideas for many gen. From that source he ob- tained the notion that manual labor was disgraceful to an educated person. Hence Filipino who could read and write would not soil his hands with any work that was not of a clerical character. It will require a long time to eliminate this notion from the minds of Filipinos. They share 1t in com. mon with the peoples of the Latin