Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-13

I
his "brotherhood" vary widely, while
his own opinions of the Americans are
contradictory and not altogether COM
plimentary. In Manila tho great ma
! iority of Americans are willing at any
time to join in the chorus of that fa-
nous song written by an anonymous
soldier, declaring:
He may be a brother of William H. Taft
But he amt no brother of mine!
However, there are other Americans
in the Philippines, the majority OF
those connected with the civil govern
ment and with the educational work,
who praise the Filipino unstintedly.
one who listens impartially to all sides
of this much mooted question must
inevitably arrive at the conclusion 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 treacherous
and cruel foe The massacres and am
bushes, the pitfalls and bolos, the
atrocious cruelty to prisoners and the
utter disrespect for the rules of civil
| lied warfare which marked the military
history of the Filipino insurgents will
never be blotted 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 some
times tempted to reprisals in kind nor
will that generation forget that the
war. which they charge to American
responsibility, devastated their lands
and reduced them to poverty.
Very few of those who take the radi-
cal anti-Filipino view are ectualy
acquainted with any Filipinos except
ailN.,
i'm 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 it 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 Fill
pino will not work
Undoubtedly that complaint may be
supported by tons of testimony. and
yet 1t is not altogether and absolutely
justified by the facts. The Filipino
will not work like a Chinese, or a
Japanese, or a Hindu. He never has
made of himself a beast of burden,
and he objects to any effort to place
him in that Grass. For centuries, while
the people of China and Japan and
India have been tilling the land with
their own muscle, and bearing their
burdens on their own backs, the Fiji
pinos have used cattle to draw their
plows and carts to carry their burdens.
1t does not occur to the Filipino far
mer to follow the example of the Chi
nese and hitch his wife and daughter
to the plow.
Furthermore, it isn't necessary for
! 4a
lives in land where he can obtain
practically 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 fifty-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,
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 Filiplnos must
work to get money to buy them.
Again, the educated Filipino has been
absorbing Spanish ideas for many gem
erations From that source he OBJ
tained the notion that manual labor
was disgraceful to an educated person
Hence a Filipino who could read and
write would not soil his hands with
any work that was not of clerical
character It will require long time
to eliminate this notion from the mlnds
of the Filipinos. They share it in COM
mon with the peoples of the Latin ma
tions of Europe and with our cousins
of England. A college-bred man may,
work in a machine shop in the United
States and nothing will be said of IT,
But it is only in the United States that
such a condition exists. In time the
Filipino will be brought to the Amer
| ican idea. perhaps. Already the boys
and girls in the schools have beer