The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-05-30
FACTS and FANCIES
ABOUT PHILIPPINES
Ten Millions of Fill
pinos Comprise a
Wealthy Country
WANT FREEDOM

the Philippine Mission
WASHINGTON.-A certain lady
at the st. Louis exposition saw at 9
ball room brown complexioned man
clad in faultless evening dress, and
accOSted him with the inquiry, 81
| suppose you are Japanese, sir?'
The man addressed replied, mo
madam"
Then you must be Chinese" sire
said.
mo, l am not; / am Filipino
he replied.
''How's that?" asked the lady. 81
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 cover.
nor decided to catch as many wild
men as possible, train them, and
send them over here. So the Ameri-
can forces were Immediately set in
motion, we were taken from the
woods and kept for month at the
dress and speak little English, and
then sent over here. So here l 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 10000
900 Filipinos and their ancestors
have been civilized and christians
for 800 years; that the non-christain
population, according to the census
of 1918, is only 500, 900.
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 hun
dreds of years the Filipinos have had
colleges and schools, and that the
University of Santo Tomas is only
twenty-five years older than Har-
ward? That as early as 1866, out of
a population of 100000 people,
there were S41 school for boys and
! 833 for girls? That in 1892, eight
years before the coming Of the
Americans there were. 2137 schools?
ITO grant self-government to
Luzon under Agunialdo would be
like granting self-government to an
| Apache reservation under some local
chief" Thus spoke former presi-
dent of the United States during the
Filipino-American war, Exaggera-
ton could be an excuse at a time
when the dignity of the American
people demanded the extinction of
Filipino opposition; but do you know
that the Philippine Republic. before
the American occupation of the
islands, had the approval OF promin-
ent Americans, who were on the
spot, like John Barrett, director Of
| the Pan-American union,z who COM
pared it favorab.y with the Japanese
government? That Admiral Dewey
considered the Filipinos better fitted
for self-government than the Gu
bans? That they had drafted a con-
stitution at Malolos which ELECTED
the approval of distinguished Re-
publicans 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 writer,
Ferdinand Blumentritt, as the great
est man the Malayan race has pro-
duced, and pronounced by Repub-
lican congressman, Representative.
Cooper, as the noblest victim that
has ever fallen into the clutches of
tyranny?
Possibly the geographical situa-
ton of the Philippines had something
to do with the fanciful estimate the
st. Louis lady had. The Philippines
are just next door to Borneo, where
scientists have hunted in vain for
Darwins missing link between the
monkey and the supermonkey. They
are close to Java, where the small
country of Holland has ruled for
hundreds of years thru system of
native princes and royal families
steeped in medieval ideas of govern
ment. Farther east is India with her
teeming millions. Divided up into
scores of native states and by almost
impossible caste barriers. But do
You know that the Filipinos have not
had for hundreds of years any caste
system, blood distinction, or royal
families, and that, unlike their
Oriental sisters, they are the only
Christian people in the Orient?
People have pictured an ignorant
mass of Filipinos, illiterate, poor, liv-
ing a life of servitude for a few
wealthy land owners and foreigners,
with no houses and farms or prop
erty of their own. Do you know that
70 per cent of the people above ten
years of age can read and write, and
that this percentage of literacy is al
most as high as some Of the states
of the union? That it is higher than
in any country of South America,
higher than the literacy Of the Span,
ish people, and unquestionably
above that Of any of the new
countries recognized in Europe? Do
you know that there are million
and half farms in the Philippines,
and that So per cent of these farms
are owned by Filipinos? In other
words, that out of the ten million |
Christian Filipinos, eight million of
them live on their own land, with
houses of their own, independent of
any absentee landlord or foreign
master? That 81 per cent of the
urban property consisting Of houses
and lands is owned by the natives OF
The Philippines, and only 8 per cent
s in the hands of foreigners? Yet
hnca ora 70 cfc which hovo iuo& bao,, |