Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1920-07-09

"~~''' w. N~~"' "No, am not.
/ am Filipino" he replied.
Flows that7" asked the lady. II
thought they were all savages living in
the woods"
"Well, I'll tell you how came here"
he said. "A month before l left the
Philippines / 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 Eilipinos
and their ancestors have been civilized
and Christians for 800 years that the
nom 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
roming Of the Americans were school
buildings seen in the Islands, roads
Quilt, or substantial houses erected.
Do you know that for hundreds of
years the Filipinos have had colleges
and schools and that the University of
Sante Tomas is only twenty-five years
older than Harvard? That as early as
1865, out of a population Of 100000
people, there were S41 schools for boys
and 1893 for girls? That in 1892. eight
gears before the coming of the Ameri-
cans, 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 former President of the United
States during the Filipino-American
war. Exaggeration could be an excuse
at 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 on the spot-like John
Barrett Director of the Pan-American
Union, who compared 1t 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 II.
| Hoarf That before the coming of the
Americans they had produced national
heroes like the martyred Jose Rial,
pronounced by Republican congress
man, Representative Cooper, as the
noblest victim that has ever fallen into
the clutches of tyrannyf
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 orientf
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 or farms or property
of their own. Do you know that 10
1 per cent. of the people above ten years
of age can read and write and that this
percentage of literacy is almost as high
as some of the states of the Unioni
That 1t is higher than in any country
Of South America, higher than the lit
eracy of the Spanish people, and un
Questionably above that Of any 6 the
new countries recognized in Europe
Do you know that there are a million
and a half farms In the Philippines
and that 90 per cent. of these farms
are owned by Filipinos. In other words
that out of the 100000 Christian
Filipinos, $1,000 900 of them at least live
on. their own farms, with houses O
their own, independent of any absente'
landlord or foreign master? That 81
per cent. of the urban property con
sisting of houses and lands is owne'
by the natives Of the Philippines, AM
only per cent. is In the hands of for
eigners? Yet these are facts cabled b,
Acting Governor Charles Emmett Yea
ter to the War Department from tn
: recent census estimates.
Having solemnly promised the Fill
: pinos their independence and havin
, gone before the world as the champion
of self-determination the Filipino pee
> pie cannot understand how Americ
: can consistently refuse to make goo
] these promises.
3 favors and only ask at your hands
q careful search of my past, my quail