The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-05-09
FACTS AND FANCIES
ABOUT THE PHILIPPINES
(By Maxine M. Kalaw, Secretary of
the Philippine Mission.)

DIV at the st. Louis Exposition saw at
ball room brown complexioned man
clad in faultless evening dress, and
accosted him with the inquiry, II sup
pose you are Japanese, sir?"
The man addressed replied, mo,
madam"
"Then you must be Chinese" she
said.
mo, l am not; I am Filipino" he
replied. ~,
thought they were all savages living
in the woods"
"Well, I'll tell you how I came
here" he said. "a month before /
left the Philippines / was living in the
woods, but the American governor de-
cided to catch as many wild men as
possible, train them, and send them
over here. So the American forces
were Immediately set in motion, we
were taken from the woods and kept
for month at the Governors palace,
taught how to dress and speak lit
tie English, and then sent over here.
So here | am, just as you see." And
the st. Louis lady actually believed
him.
That is what you would call fancies
about the Philippines. The fact is,
however, that the 100000 Filipinos
and their ancestors have been civil
lied and Christians for three hundred
years; that the non-C Christian popula-
ton, according to the census of 1918,
is only 100000
Another fancy is that not until the
coming of the Americans were school
buildings seen in the Islands, roads
built, or substantial houses erected.
Do you know that for hundreds Of
years the Filipinos have had colleges
and schools, and that the University
of Santo Tomas is only twenty-five
years older than Harvard? That as
early as 1866, out of population OF
100000 people, there were 84l
schools for boys and 1913 for girls?
That in 1892, eight years before the
coming of the Americans, there were
2,137 schools?
ITO grant self-government to Luzon
under Aguinaldo, would be like grant
ing self government to an Apache res
ervation under some local chief" Thus
spoke a former President of the Unit
ed States during the Filipino-Ameri-
can war. Exaggeration could be an
lexcuse at time when the dignity OF
! the American people demanded the eX-
tinction of Filipino opposition, but do
you know that the Philippine Repub-
lie, before the American occupation
of the Islands, had the approval of
prominent Americans who were on the
IL.
the an-American Union, who COM
pared it favorably with the japanese
Government? That Admiral Dewey
considered the Filipinos better fitted
for self-government than the Cubans
That they had drafted a Constitution
at Malolos which elected the approval
of distinguished Republicans like the
late Senator George f. Hoar? That
before the coming of the Americans
they had produced national heroes
like the martyred Jose Rial, who has
been proclaimed by an Austrian writ
er, Ferdinand Blumentritt, as the
+ greatest man the Malayan race has
produced, and pronounced by Re-
! publican Congressman, Representative
Cooper, as the noblest victim that has
ever fallen into the clutches of ty-
. ranny?
|; Possibly the geographical situation
, of the Philippines had something to do
: with the fanciful estimate the st.
) Louis lady had. The Philippines arc
/ just next door to Borneo, where
: scientists have hunted in vain for
= Darwin's missing link between the
e monkey and the supermonkey. They
: are close to Java, where the small
= country of Holland has ruled for hun
e dreds of years through system OF
S native princes and royal families
: stepped in medieval ideas of gov.
n eminent. Farther east is India with
G her teeming millions, divided up into
scores of native States and by almost
a impossible caste barriers. But dc
Il you know that the Filipinos have moi
e had for hundreds of years any caste
O system, blood distinction, or roya
It families, and that, unlike their ORR
e entail sisters, they are the only Chris
v titan people in the Orient?
t People have pictured an ignoran
i mass of Filipinos, illiterate, poor, liv
= ing a life of servitude for few
It wealthy land owners and foreigners
5, with no houses and farms or propert,
= of their own. Do you know that sew
l. enty per cent of the people above tel
J. years of age can read and write, AM
= that this percentage of literacy is al
d most as high as some of the State
Y of the Union? That it is higher thai
y. in any country of South America
II higher than the literacy of the Span
4, ish people, and unquestionably abov
n that of any of the new countries rec
K, ognized in Europe? Do you know
&c that there are a million and hal
4. farms in the Philippines, and that 9
l. per cent of these farms are owned b,
" Filipinos? In other words, that GU
" of the ten million Christian Filipinos
n eight million of them at least live O.
,e their own farms, with houses of thei
lie own, independent Of any absente
ID land lord or foreign master? That 8
n per cent of the urban property con
L sisting of houses and lands is owne
ID by the natives of the Philippines, an
l. only nine per cent is in the hands 0
a foreigners? Yet these are fact
h which have just been cabled by Act
N ing Governor General Charles En-
. NETT Yeater to the War Department