The Snowflake herald., 1920-03-12
"a


,no FtIipno." he replied
a1 .rIov,s hat?" asked the lady. Il
e.r.5t tbey were all savages living in
mau I'll tell you how l came here"
.ofd "A month before | left the
osr;onires | was living in the woods,
-'. ,tbo American Governor decided to
..b as many wild men as possible,
a.a Them and send them over mere.
=. gp Toro am, just as you see And
tFo St Louis lady actually believed
him.
That is what you would call fancies
.toyt tbe Philippines. The fact is,
SoTavor how that the 100000 Filipinos
and their ancestors have been civilized
and Christians for 800 years; that the
ror-r,rtstian population. according to
tfa census Of 1918, is only 100000, and
aron these are not all unciyilized.
Another fancy is that not until the
comfre of the Americans were school
bnH1.pgs seen in the Islands, roads
hrfI+ or substantial houses erected.
In YOU know that for hundreds Of
Years the FilfDinoS have had colleges
end schools and that the University of
2an+o Tomas is only twenty-five years
alder than Harvard? That as early as
H5 out Of a population Of 100000
reonIe. there were S41 schools for boys
and S33 for girls? That in 1892, eight
years before the coming of the Ameri-
cans. there were 2137 schools?
80 grant self-government to Luzon
under Aguinaldo would be like grant
Ing self-goyernment to an Apache res
erati0D under some local chief" Thus
spoke former President of the United
States during the Filipino-American
war. Exaggeration could be an excuse
at a time when the dignity of the Am
acan people demanded the extinction
dFi.ipinO opposition, but do you know
that the Philippine Republic, before the
American occupation OF the Islands,
bad the approval Of prominent Ameri-
cans who were on the spot-like John
Barrett Director Of the Pan-American
Union, who compared it favorahly with
the japanese government? That Ad-
niraI Dewey considered the Filipinos
better fitted for self-goyernment than
the Cubans? That they had drafted
constitution at Malalos which ELECTED
Zoe approval of distinguished Repub-
leans like the late Senator George F.
EoT? That before the comm. Of the
Americans they had produced national
heroes like the marnred Jose Rial,
FoHomced by a Republican congress
man, Representative Cooper. as the
doaeSt victim that has ever fallen into
ue clutches Of tyranny?
And do YOU know that the Filipinos
nave not had for hundreds Of years any
caste system, blood distinction or royal
FAMILIES, and that, unlike their oriental
aSeiS' they are the only Christian peo-
pie in the orient?
People have pictured an ignorant
IaSS OF FiIipinos initerate, poor, liy-
ls life Of seryitude for a few
wealthy land owners and foreigners,
o.I no houses or farms or property
u 'nelf own Do you know that 20
ps' cent of the people above ten years
'se can read and write and that this
r'''enIage Of literacy is almost as high
To T9 some of the states Of the Union?
..o la' IS higher than in any country
'Oulu America, higher than the lit
' ol the Spanish people, and un-
ra, r',ra''OuaOIy above that Of any Of the
countries recognized in Europe?
you know that there are a million
NalI farms in the Philippines
Ola' 10 per cent Of these farms
n.. V"ned by Fil.pnos. In other words.
Fn, pS Out Of the 100000 Christian
~pnos' S.OO0000 of them at least live
fhlt-
b.,. .uslr own farms, with houses of
brn1' Own' Independent of any absentee
rar l'OIu @ or foreign master? That 81
astins sD' q the urban property CON
m n VI houses and lands is owned
mIr lI9 o natives Of the Philippines, and
eroo.-o per cent is in the hands Of for
1s-ie IsIst Yet these are facts cabled by
fer fe 70 governor Charles Emmett Yea
recant NJ 'ne war Department from the
pi1os rs'i1g n soIemnly promised the Fill,
Gone mel nelr Independence and having
Of salfas4 l2l Ihe world as the champion
BE can' nu'e'ermination, the Filipino peo-
can olnol understand how America