Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1920-03-18

"a~'"0 NJ "aia~' "No, I am not.
I am a Filipino" he replied.
SLOWS that?" asked the lady. II
thought they were all savages living In
the woods"
swell, I'll tell you how I came here"
he said. "a month before I left the
Philippines l was living in the woods,
but the American Governor decided to
catch as many wild men as possible,
train them and send them over here.
So here I 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 civilized
and Christians for 800 years; that the
non-C Christian population, according to
the census Of 1918, is only 100000, and
even these are not all uncivilized.
Another fancy is that not until the
coming of the Americans were school
buildings seer 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 a population of 100000
people, there were S41 schools for boys
and S33 for girls? That in 1892, eight
years before the coming of the Ameri.
cans, there were 2,137 schools?
"To 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 United
States during the Filipino-American
war. Exaggeration could be an excus
at a time when the dignity of the Am.
erican 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 prominent Ameri-
cans who were IN the spot-like John
Barrett, Director of the Pan-American
Union, who compared it favorably with
the Japanese government? That Adj
miral Dewey considered the Filipinos
better fitted for self-government than
the Cubans? That they had drafted a
constitution at Malalos which ELECTED
the approval Of distinguished Repub-
licans like the late Senator George F.
Hoar? That before the coming Of the
Americans they had produced national
heroes like the martyred Jose Rial,
pronounced by a Republican congress
man, Representative Cooper, as the
noblest victim that has ever fallen into
the clutches of tyranny?
And 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 peo'
pie 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
of their own. Do you know that 7(
per cent. of the people above ten years
of age can read and write and that thi:
percentage of literacy is almost as higf
as some of the states of the Union
That it is higher than in any country
of South America, higher than the Lit
eracy of the Spanish people, and I'm
questionably above that Of any of thu
new countries recognized in Europe
Do you know that there are a million
and a half farms In the Philippine
and that SO per cent. of these farm
are owned by Filipinos. In other words
that out of the 100000 Christian
Filipinos, 100000 of them at least liv
on their own farms, with houses o
their own, Independent of any absente
landlord or foreign master? That 8
per cent. Of the urban property cor
sisting of houses and lands is owne
by the natives Of the Philippines, an
only 9 per cent. is in the hands of fol
eigners? Yet these are facts cabled b
Acting Governor Charles Emmett Yes
ter to the War Department from th
recent census estimates.
Having solemnly promised the Eli
pinos their independence and havin
gone before the world as the champio
OF self-determination, the Filipino pc,
pie cannot understand how Americ
can consistently refuse to make goo
these promises.