Evening star., 1926-04-25
BY RALPH STOUT,
Managing Editor. Kansas City star


MI most gracious Father. stay
WI Thou the hand that would
4 Smite our liberties. We pray
Thee, O Lord. grant us grace
TO forgive those who seek to destroy
our freedom
Thus prayed thousands of Filipino
men and women and children, assem-
hled throughout the islands under
thelr religious leaders, Catholic and
Protestant, on Washington's birthdaG
For weeks the Solemn day of
prayer had been worked up by the
politicoS who direct the agitation for
Filipino independence. 1t was entirely
Tor United States consumption. to in
fuence sentiment there toward the
Filipino desire. 1t ccntered in Manila,
where 10000 persons, including school
children. We're marched to the plazas,
where mass was said and the PRAYER
uttered. Among the people little was
heard about il. 1t lacked the aspect
OF an outburst of feeling from an ag.
grleved' people. Gov. Gen. Woods
only expression was to compliment
tanned on the day.
few days before the speaker of
the lower house of the Filipino Legis-
Ature had advocated before university
students and before returned Filipino
graduates of American universities a
boycott OF members of the America n
business community who had contrib
uted TO fund to make known to their
countrYmen the condition of American
sovereignty in the islands. The Fill
plnos themselves raise each year a
fund for independence propaganda in
the United States. but for Americans
mere to do the same thing was for
elSn business men meddling in Phil
ippine affairs"
The purpose of the Americans was
to make known a home the gradual
recession of American prestige of re-
Spect for the United States Govern
ment under the long continued policy
Of inattention: the American Congress
unheedlng of President Coolidge'S call
IN his last message to pass legislation
to strengthen the hand of the .Ameri-
can Governor General. Leonard Wood.
Even the threat of a boycott had i'm
mediate effect on few of the Ameri-
can business community. It stopped
their activity.
L. =. Prestige DwindleS
This dwindling of American pres.
tige is a long story. 1t started back
In the administration of Gov. Taft.
American prestige had its hardest
blow under the incumbency of Fra nCis
Burton Harrison as Governor General.
n period recalled with shame by the
bulk of the Americans in the islands.
Since 1920 there has been a continu-
ing policy of drifting, of inattention
TO appeals from Americans in the
Islands. 1t has gone on until the
Americans, many of them men who
came here with the troops in 1898,
who risked their lives to put down
Aguinaldo's rebellion, whose comrades
died here in battle, respond to the
slogan, Govern or get OUT
To get the idea that American SOW
ereignty is at a low ebb does not re-
quire a prolonged stay or deep re-
search You get it the day you land
at the port of Manila. In the early
morning your ship Steams by the is
land of Corregidor at the entrance to
Manila Bay. You follow the route of
Commodore Dewey and the American
squadron that May morning 2S years
ago. when we destroyed the Spanish
fleet. High up on Corregidor over the
fortifications built by the American ms.
the Stars and Stripes float. You sail
on past the American navel base at
CaVite, with the high wireless towers
that receive MESA ges from the Ameri
Can territory of Hawaii. 1000 miles
away. Twenty-odd miles further on
down Manila Bay you go through the
hreakwater and inside see 25 or more
In size from battle cruiser to Subma-
rine. Soon the American vessel that
brought you from San Francisco is
stationary at the dock, the end of its
1000 mile journey. You are asked to
go into the smoking room and prove
to a Filipino inspector. by passport or
by naturalization papers. that you are
a citizen of the United States.
InsurrectO Flag I'm Evidence.
You pass through a customs exami-
nation by a gOod-natured Filipino, who
is quite nice about it all, and go out
side There you see the Stars and
Stripes, but, except at military posts,
where it is alone. 1t customarily is
flown above the Filipino flag, the old
flag of the insurrectos. Sometimes the
two are on separate staffs side by side,
but with the American flag always on
the right.
You try to talk to the cab driver.
What is it?" you ask, for his answer
is English which has a strangely un-
familiar pronunciation. 1t is favored
either with Spanish of Tagalog. You
wonder about the shiploads of Ameri-
can school teachers who came years
ago to teach the F'ilipinos and par
ticularly to instruct them in the Ian
guage of the United States.
But InpSe are merely surface tnlDSS
and hasty conclusions are generally
wrong conclusions: also Manila is by
no means the Philippine Islands. 1t
has $4,000 people and is predOmi-
nantly Tagalog and Spanish and Chi
nese half-caste. the preponderating
mestizo class. Also there are 11,O0O.-
600 people in the islands speaking 81
dialects. Round-tne-world ships stop
here frequently. The passengers see
the Manila Hotel. drive on the Luneta
along the bay, visit the walled city, the
chief shopping street, the Escolta and
a few more of the show places. In "a
to as hours they are gone. They have
been to the Philippines.
Undercurrent of Hostility.
However, 4S hours in Manila is suf-
fcent to sense Enthusiastically the
strong undercurrent of hostility to
continuance of American sovereignty,
of the yearning Of "the Philippines for
the Filipinos." 1t found expression
months ago in the statement on the
floor of the insular government that
"Filipinos prefer a government run
like hell by Filipinos to one run like
heaven by Americans"
The newspapers give the idea that
the one thing above all others that
the people are interested in Is inde-
psndence. Some of the Americans
will tell you that the agitation for in
dependence is always on and that
newcomers fancy it is at fever heat
at the particular moment of their ar
rival. 1t has been on for years. 1t
is continuously the chief topic in the