The Washington herald., 1915-01-16
Reforms in the Philippines.

The delegation of Methodist ministers who ap-
peaIed to the Senate Committee to amend the
Philippines bill with archipelago-wde prohibition
were more complimentary to the Filipino wards oi
the nation than they to the citizens of the
ton, when they said that wherever the white man
had gone colonize, he had carried the whisky bot
tie with him. The wags OF an earlier day made this
same comment on the missionaries sent out to con-
vert the heather. The profane jokesmiths have
however, long ago ceased to speak disrespectfully
of the missionaries and the ministers and the taboo
ought to become reciprocal, for the first American
missionaries to the Philippines carried Krags in
stead of hymn books.
If Methodist brethren had consulted the
first report of the Taft commission they would
have learned that the United States soldiers were
pretty successful temperance advocates and partial
prohibitionists. When the occupation of Manila
began, there were 1000 shops in the city where
native wines and liquors sold without licenses
regulation or tax. All grocery and drug stores
were native saloons, and when Gen. Merritt took
possession he found 1000 of these places. Within
six months he had reduced the 1000 to 400 one
tenth the number, wiping out 5000 saloons in hall
year or at the rate of 600 month or 20 each
day
The American soldier introduced other reforms
such licensing, taxing and regulating the saloon
fixing penalties for violation OF regulations, pro-
hibiting the sale of liquors to minors and intoxi-
Gated men, fixing hours for closing the saloons, and
prohibiting the soldiers from patronzing the native
wine shops The Taft commission considered these
reforms especially important because thc socalled
wines (vinos) arc concocted by mixing strong and
often impure alcohol with various oils and flavor
ing extracts, and in most instances harmful in
the extreme if imbibed in any considerable guam
tity."
In reply to a cable inquiry from the Hon. Elhu
Root then Secretary of War, as to the condition in
Manila the commission replied that there was less
drunkenness and disorder in that city than in any
American city of the same population, that the
regulations of the liquor traffic with the soldiers
and with the natives, worked we'll, and that there
was strict prohibition against either patronizing
the drinking places of the other This report is all
the official history we have as to how the white
man from the United States went into Manila, and
our Methodist brethren ought to read it before they
present such arguments as that to the Senate Com
mittee on Friday.
1t is not apparent that the American soldiers in
troduced alcohol into the Philippines whatever the
kind of whisky they may have taken with them.
The alcohol was there and had been there for gen.
erations and the native dccoctions were considered
so dangerous to the American soldier that he was
prohibited from patronizing the native shops where
they were sold.
Whatever the views of men as to the legislation
for the Philippines, we ought not to pervert his
tory as to how the Americans went into the archi-
pelago But if the Philippines are to be given in
dependence, why prohibition by an act of Con-
gress? Why stop there? Why not have Congress
enact prohibition for Japan and China for Germany
and England in fact for all the world, outside the
Jurisdiction of the United States Lincoln once
remarked that any one could say that sleeps tail
sleeps leg, but it would still remain tail.
Congress could make the law but it would not
have leg to stand upon 1t would still be sleeps
tail and such appendages usually cut off as
entirely useless.