Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1920-02-27

mo, l am not.
l am a Filipino" he replied.
"How's that?" asked the lady. ~
thought they were all savages living in
the woods"
well, I'll tell you how l came here"
he said. "a month before | 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 II, 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 u~ncivilized.
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 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?
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 a 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
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 it ~favOrably with
the Japanese government? That Adj
miral Dewey considered the Filipinos
better fitted for self-government than
the Cubans2 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 Fflipinos
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 orient2
PEOPLE have pictured an ignorant
mass of Filipinos, i%lliterate. poor, hv-
ing q 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 ~
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 thar the lit
eracy of the Spanish people, and I'M
o~uestionably 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 90 per cent. Of these farms
are owned by Filipinos. In other words,
that out of the IL, 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
ner cent. of the urban property con-
sisting of houses and lands is owned
NV tbe natives of the Philippines, and
only o per cent. Is in the hands of for
eigners? Yet these are facts cabled by
Acting Governor Charles Emmett Yea
ter to the War Department from the
recent census estimates.
Having solemnly promised the Fill
ni,os their independence and having
rome before the world as the champion
Of characterization, the Filipino peo-
nile cannot understand how America
can consistently refuse to make good
these promises.