East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1915-05-04
TO UNDERSTAND THE
FILIPINO We SHOULD
GET HIS VIEW POINT
RECENT COMMISSIONER AT
PHILIPPINES TRIES TO EX-
PLAIN PEOLE.
Natives Of Island Have Proved Their
Capacity in Many Ways, Although
Their standards Are Not Ours-We
should Let Him Develop His own
System of society.
BY BURTON X. sTANDIsH.
written for the United Press. ]

Z
Philippine progress and Philippine
readiness for self-goyernment from
the wrong standpoint, that is TO say
from the standpoint OF American in
stitutlons and western habit OF
thought.
The Filipinos are people of ori-
entail habits and type of mind, resi-
dent In the tropics and subject to
their own conditions of life and indus
try" says the commissioner. ut
J seems TO me that to expect them to
emulate the United States in all par
ticluars is gross perversion of the
teachings Of human experience or OF
any sound political philosophy"
Do not understand, however, that
DR.. Quezon considers the Filipinos
have failed Of proving their capacity
even If judged by our standards He
does not. He will offer you the rec
ord of the Filipino legislature and
cite the progress in government made
since a larger measure Of self-man-
agement was introduced by the pres
ent administration. BY our own
measuring stick, he asserts, the Fill
pino has proved himself to be of
mans size, and he should be left free
to work out his own destiny.
MANY of the conditions which ex-
list today in the United States are not
ideal, but they are the product OF
many years of labor and development.
They are intended to meet the pecul-
lar needs OF a highly industrialized So
ciety with a structure totally differ
ent from any that Is found in any
eastern country. l think the thought
full student of race development Will
concede that it is far better that a
nation should devolve its own type OF
culture and of government and should
fellow its own instincts in selecting a
path toward the attainment of a
higher civilization than 1t should be
made slavish imitator of any other
country or group of countries, how
ever, elevated may be the civilization
OF the latter. Even If such a nation
did not do as well IN the initial
stages of self-government as ii might
do with foreign preceptors, neverthe-
less the slower and less perfect pro-
gress was the more solid and stable
and therefore vastly to be preferred
Cannot Direct Nation.
Il question more seriously that any
nation can successfully direct the
course of development that must be
followed by another. The education
of the individual is most successful
when it affords the best vehicle for
self-expresslon; the education of the
nation or the race proceeds most nat
urally as a matter of internal evolu-
tion. Mistakes may be made; when
made they bring their own penalty
Now. as always, ii is true that ex-
perience is the best teacher, and that
only by endeavoring, aspiring and
striving can a government attain to
practical efficiency. That has been
conspicuously the history Of the An
glo-Saxon race. Magma Charta was
not bestowed by some friendly con-
queror, but was the product of long
years of struggle and effort. Ameri-
can constitutional government was
not the gift of Howe. CORVALLIS or
the King of England
"1s there not a way of national
progress from within as compared to
that stimulated from without that
hasty thinkers sometimes overlook?
Are we mindful of the fact that the
one priceless advantage of self-gov
ernment is that it proceeds along the
proper line, in accord with the ten
dencies, peculiarities and special abil-
tiles of the people; IN other words
that it is always a natural growth,
while progress imposed from without
may result in an unnatural type OF
evolution?
Americans Make Mistakes.
I without being over critical, let me
speak of this matter frankly. 1t is
fact that the work OF the Americans
in the Philippines has not been as
free from error as the former officials
of the Philippine government would
have us believe There have been
mistakes-mistakes that were very
costly to the Filipino taxpayer; there
have been injustices and wrongs. Some
things have been overdOne and other
things have been neglected. l do not,
however. on that account, underrate
the value Of the work as a whole and
l gladly reiterate that considering all
the circumstances the Americans have
done marvels, only wish to note
the fact that some or the mistakes
would not have been made by Fill
pinos acting for themselves.
'The Filipinos have shown that
they are amply capable of taking over
and assimilating the beneficial ideas
of western nations, adapting them to
their own use fitting them to the
needs OF their peculiar situation and
drawing intellectual sustenance there
from. This has been the history Of
successful civilization everywhere. It
is not progress but just the reverse If
nation is compelled to confine it
self to imitation of another and II IL
be debarred from selecting useful ele-
ments Of civilization, education. So
cial custom and government wherever
It can find them throughout the
world"