The Republican journal., 1920-03-18

I am a Filipino" he replied.
Flows that?" asked the lady. II
thought they were all savages living in
the woods"
"Well, I'll tell you how l came here"
he said "A month before l left the
Philippines I 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 / 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 300 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 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 S41 schools for boys
and 1913 for girls? That in 1892, eight
years 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 government to an Apache res
ervation under some local chief" Thus
spoke former Pre- sident 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-Iike John
Barrett, Director of the Pan-American
Union, who compared it favorably with
the Japanese government? That Ad-
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 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,
with no houses or farms or property
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 almost as high
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 un-
questionably above that of any of the
new countries recognized in Europe!
Do you know that there are a million
and a half farms in the Philippines
and that SO per cent Of these farms
are owned by Filipinos. In other words
that out of the 100000 Christian
Filipinos, 100000 of them at least live
on their own farms, with houses OF
their own, independent of any absentee
landlord or foreign master? That 81
! per cent. of the urban property con.
| sisting Of houses and lands is owned
~ the natives of the Philippines, and
| My 9 per cent is in the hands of for
| igners? Yet these are facts cabled by
| Acting Governor Charles Emmett Yea
| er to the War Department from the
ecent census estimates.
Having solemnly promised the Fill
| mos their independence and having
one before the world as the champion
| self-determination, the Filipino PEG
| lie cannot understand how America
an consistently re fuse to make gool
hese promises.