Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1920-03-04

cIIHcpnfSy De OnlueSe, SHE
>>''''0 W. '>''0 mo, am not.
1 am a Filipino he replied.
"How's that?" asked the lady. II
thought they were all savages living in
the woods"
well, III tell you how l came here"
he said "A month before | 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 mere.
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 Filpinos have had colleges
and schools and that the University of
SantO Tomas is only twenty five years
older than Harvard? That rs early as
1866, out Of a population of 100000
people, there were 81 schools for boys
and 1913 for girls7 That in 1892, eight
years before the coming of the Ameri-
cans, there were 2,137 schools?
ITO grant selfgove rnment 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
eTican 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 faVorahly with
the japanese government? That Adj
miral Dewey considered the Fiipinos
better fitted for SeIf-governmeut than
the Cubans? That they had drafted a
constitution at MalaiOs which ELECTED
the approval Of distinguished Repub-
| leans 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 II 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 orient2
People have pictured an ignorant
mass Of Filipinos, illiterate, poor, liv-
ing a life of Servitude for few
wealthy land owners and foreigners,
with no houses or farms or property
Of their own. Do you know that 20
per cent of the people above ten years
Of age can read and write and that this
percentage of lteracy 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
pracy Of the Spanish people, and I'M
QUeSuOnably above that of any Of the
new countries recognized in Europe?
DO you know that there are a million
md n half farms in the Philippines
md that SO per cent. of these farms
are owned by 1ilpinos. In other words.
hat out OF the 100000 Christian
'ilipnos, S,OOO0JO Of them at least live
m their own farms, With houses of
lueir own, independent of any absentee
andlOrd> or foreign master? That 81
Der cent. Of the urban property con
listing 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
Ncting Governor Charles Emmett Yea
or to the War Department from the
ecent census estimates.
Having s0lemnIy promised the Fill
mos their Independence and having
one before the world as the champion
+ differentiation, the Filipino PEG.
lie cannot understand how America
an consistently re fuse to make good
hese promises.
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