The Rice belt journal., 1920-03-20

""H'"'' w. N"'""' mo, I am not.
/ am Filipino" he replied.
"Hows that2" asked the lady, Il
thought they were all savages living in
the woods"
"Well, I'll tell you how | came here"
he said. "A month before | 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 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 100000 Filipinos
and their ancestors have been civilized
and Christians for 800 years; that the
non. 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 seen in the Islands, roads
built, or substantial houses erected.
Do you know that for hundreds Of
years the FiIipinos 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 899 for girls? That in 1892 eight
years before the coming Of the Ameri'
cans, there were 2,137 schools2.
"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 former President Of the United
States during the Filipino-Americar
war. Exaggeration could be an excuse
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 tht
! American occupation of the Islands
had the approval of prominent Ameri
cans who were on the spot-like JOIN
Barrett, Director of the Pan-Americar
Union, who compared it favorably witt
the Japanese government? That Ad
miral Dewey considered the Filipino!
better fitted for Self-goVernment thar
the CubanS? That they had drafted {
constitution at Malalos which eliciteC
the approval of distinguished Repub
licans like the late Senator George f
Hoar? That before the coming Of th'
Americans they had produced nationa
heroes like the martyred Jose Riza|
pronounced by Republican congress
man, Representative Cooper, as tn
Doblest victim that has ever fallen int
the clutches of tyranny?
And do you know that the Filipino
have not had for hundreds of years an
caste system, blood distinction or rOya
families. and that, unlike their orienta
sisters, they are the only Christian pee
pie in the orient?
People have pictured an ignoran
mass Of Filipinos, illiterate, poor, liz
ing a life of servitude for fey
wealthy land owners and foreigners
with no houses or farms or prOpert
of their own. Do you know that z
per cent. of the people above ten year
: of age can read and write and that thl
percentage Of literacy is almost as hig
as some of the states of the Union
That it is higher than In any c0unti
of South America, higher than the Ii
eracy of the Spanish people, and III
questionably above that of any Of tn
new countries recognized In Europe
Do you know that there are millio
and a half farms in the Philippine
and that 96 per cent. of these farm
are owned by Filipinos, In other word
that out of the 100000 Christia
' Filipinos, 100000 of them at least li0
I on their own farms, with houses
! their own, independent Of aty absent'
y landlord or foreign master? That
d per cent. of the urban property co
sisting of houses and lands is own'
|, by the natives Of the Philippines, al
only per cent is in the hands Of fo
r eigners? Yet these are facts cabled ]
I Acting Governor Charles Emmett Ye
q ter 10 the War Department from t
recent census estimates.
a Having solemnly promised the Fl
/. pinos their independence and havi
gone before the world as the champi
Of self-determination, the Filipino p'
pie cannot understand how Ameri
can consistently refuse to make go
these promises.