-beprntd MH1tt Win 2 CONDITIONS IN THE PHILI pINES. 2. Do you think that they would be more satisfied with independence than with annexation? 3. Is there anything that the American Government is doing which it should not do, or anything which it is not doing which it ought to do? 4. Why do you not cooperate with the government in the preparation of your people for self-government? 5. Give me your opinion of the friar question and the Aglipay movement. Replies to all these questions may be grouped under the following heads: 1. Economic problem. 2. Education. 3. *Religion. 4. Race prollem. 5. Character, capability, and aspirations of the people. 6t. Public morality. 7. Administration of law. S. Political problem. My personal views have undergone some changes. I have become convinced that Mr.. McKinley was actuated by the loftiest principles; that there was no other prudent course open to us except to take the islands front Spain; that the -Filipino people, while perhaps capable at this time of conducting a government on the level of a South American republic, will be benefited, and they themselves concede that they will be benefited, by a reasonable period of American tutelage; that the use of English in thQri schools.has not been a violence but a blessing to them; that the civil government of the Philippines is a justifiable expedient, permissible because -.mporary, and most praiseworthy on account of its broad and high'l, its self-sacrificing devotion to its duties and their interests; and- finally that my friends, the anti-imperialists, ought to be its supporters, both for the work it has done and for the enenies it has made.. In this statement I shall take up seriatim the above eight subjects, suppressing in general the names of the persons from whom I derived my information. A.-THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM. The burning question of the hour is this, Shall Chinese labor be brought into the islands or not? The Manila papers which are printed in English howl for it, and (the foreign commercial interests of Manila and Iloilo beg for it, but the civil government is averse to it, and the Filipino people are opposed to it and look on in dumb despair as they see the net slowly drawn about them. The Manila press which is printed in Spanish and Tagalog, does not ask for it; native commercial interests, like Yangco and Roxas, do not ask for it; native agricultural employers are not worrying about lack,of men, but of credit; and the working classes themselves, either in the cities or-in the provinces, are not complaining of overwork, but rather that their wages do not rise as rapidly as the cost of living and the demand for their selvices. Why then introduce Chinese labor? Because there is " not enough labor to do anything like the amount of work required to develop the resources of the islands as rapidly as desired." In this statement CONDITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 3, Professor Jenks means that there is not enough willing labor, for neither he nor anyone else can say that there are not enough workmen to do whatever work is required. Apart from the agricultural (hemp, sugar, copra, coffee, tobacco, rice, and perhaps timber) I fear that the resources have been much exaggerated; but it is at anyi rate apparent that routes of communication (wagon roads, steam rail-I roads, tramways, and interisland lines) are urgently needed. In its search for profit, capital looks first of all for security, then for markets, transportation facilities, supply and cost of labor, and stable currency. By establishing a stable currency, the civil government has removed the element of doubt as to profit which arises from fluctuations of the medium of receipts and payments. As to markets, the civil government is certainly pleading piteously enough to Congress to remove the tariff barriers that our country maintains against the Philippines, and which, more than anything (except the war and the visitations of Providence), are responsible for the general distress and disorder. Furthermore, the Commission is steadily and carefully providing for security of titles, though the moral security that comes from a general sense of law and order has not yet been attained. Hence it may be asserted that capital has not yet reached the bridge of labor, and that we need not cross it until the questions of markets and security are settled. In the matter of transportation, it is clear that the roadmaker fully as much as the school-teacher must be the evangelist of the Philippines. In all the provinces 1 passed through I watched the roads, and I spoke with not a few supervisors. Much has been done, but much more remains to be done in the matter of building roads, and especially of keeping them in repair. It occurred to me that the construction o roads and bridges might well be assumed by the civil government through a department of public works, and that the repairs could be left to the provincial officers. Steel bridge trusses of regulation sizes could be brought from the United States and used at places\where transportation would be practicable, and where stone could be iad for abutments. / Finally, the question of labor is the most difficult to handle, because it immediately affects the masses of the people, because it is so easily made a text for demagogues, and because it can be made a plaything of politics at home as well as in the islands. It was represented to me that the Filipino will not work; that even when willing he can not work adequately; that increase of wages merely enables him to enjoy more idleness, and that the introduction of Chinese labor would act as a stimulus and by competition compel him to work. I even met Americans (I am ashamed to, say) who, in their impatience at the slow-going Filipino, struck him or abused him with violent language, and boldly declared that the only thing to do is to exterminate him like the American Indian, replace-him by Chinese, and develop the country. And the case of the Benguet road was repeatedly cited to me as proof. This case refers to the construction of a wagon road in order to give better access to the health-giving hills of Benguet. The successful issue was delayed more perhaps by faulty engineering than by incompetency or lack of labor. During my visit another effort was made to push and complete the work, and it brought to pass a painful clash with the laboring people, as I shall 'explain below. 4 CONDITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. My professed friendship for the Filipinos and my indignation at such un-American conduct on the part of not a few of my fellowcountrymen compelled me to study this problem fully, and 1 have reached the following conclusions: I. In the Benguet affair the Filipino laborers have grave and just cause of complaint against us. " II. The Filipinos can and will work faithfully and properly when they are managed intelligently; that is to say, when their well-known family affection and "'costumbres" or national customs are duly considered. in. The Filipino can not work as hard as an American or as hard as we would like him to do, because he is not fed properly, and he is not fed properly because he is'not paid properly. IV. Neither Filipino nor American should work as hard in the Tropics as he could or should do in the temperate zones. The Ameri-can who begins, his tropical work with a rush either rapidly breaks down or is compelled to slow up. V. In any event the introduction of Chinese labor in any form would be a wrong to the Filipinos, a violation of sound political economy, and a crime against civilization and the true progress of mankind, I. THE BENGUET AFFAIR. THE FILIPINOS NOT TO BLAME. I am familiar withall the circumstances and have discussed them with Major Kennon, who is in charge of the road work; with Mr. Poblete, who contracted to supply a large portion of the labor, and with several of the workmen. It would be too long to narrate all the details,.but I can say(a) That the offer of 25 cents, gold, a day as wages to the Filipino and $2, go'd, a day to the American was not an equitable offer on the part of, the government. The Filipino laborer can certainly do more than one-eighth of an American's work. Mr. Higgins, of the Dagupan Rai]'oad, estimates the Filipino working power as one-half that of; the European. (6) Mr. Poblete did not let his men clearly understand that they were to receive only 25 cents, but he had permitted them to believe that thev would be paid like the Americans in the proportion that their work would measure against the American work; if they did half the work of an American they would receive half his pay. Mr. Poblete says he was so told,iand I feel sure that he was, but that tit statement was a loose, unbusinesslike one, meant to be either an apology for or a loophole from the poor pay actually offered. (c) When the first batch of laborers (about 250) had been transported to Dagupan on the railroad and had marched, carrying two days' rations and accompanied by their wives and children, to the place of work they found no shelter there. They were instructed to build their huts, but had not even their common working tool, the bolo. They slept on the ground the first night and next day it rained. Tired, cold, ill-fed, they crept for shelter under the raised huts of the American workmen already on the ground, but they were cruelly driven off by these latter. They became discouraged, and when they learned the truth about the pay they gave up and started Sack, of course without transportation or rations, all the long way to Manila. En route they CONDITIONS IN THE- PHELIPPINES. 5 met the second detachment, and these-likewise turned back, and the cry went up from the Manila press that the Filipino wouldn't work. Put American laborers in the same case, what would they have done? They-would most probably not only not have worked, but would pT-. haps also have mobbed the persons responsible for. their predicament. (d) This pitiable-event might have been avoided if we had used bhe simple expedient of handing to each. workman, when engaged, a card printed in. the vernacular and stating exactly the compensation aid conditions of work. II. THE FILIPINO CAN AND WILL wORK. First instae.-The quarries at Mariveles show that the- Filipino can and does work. This undertaking seemed doomed to faiure_ because many of the workmen disappeared after pay day. An astute manager discovered that they deserted not from love of idleness but because they wanted to go back to their wives and children. He established a village, brought the workmen's families to it, organized a band, cockpit, etc., and kept his men, Second instance.-I had to ford a swift stream in a narrow, deep gorge in Nueva Ecija where a number of Filipinos were constructing a bridge. The American engineer in charge told me that there are no better people for working id water or over water, because they have no fear of falling in. Third instanc.-The Dagupan Railroad'was built entirely by native labor and is manned entirely by nativei help. Foirth instance.-An employer of labor in Borneo and previously in India tells me that a number of Filipinos went to Borneo at the outbreak of our war. They have gradually increased to about 300. They are employed by the Government and the timber merchants and are found to be a law-abiding, thrifty, and industrious element, preferred to the Chinese who are poor woodsmen, and even to the-native Malays, whom they do not at all resemble physically, and who are much more indolent. What they can do in a foreign land with a fair chance can they not' do in their own country if they get a fair chance? m. FILIPIO LABOEBRS ILL FED AND ILL PID. In Panay the foreman in charge of the quartermaster's laborers (at Fort San Pedro No. 22), an- e I-soldier ho had been five years there, said to me: " When I see thim goo goo bucking up hay in that loft I know we're doing them dirt, f gr they ca't live on 3 pesetos a day (60. cents Mexican)." He then showed me hisrregular employees who get $7.50 gold a month and soldiers' ration and who are first-class. workmen. The difference in physique between the two sets of men was very marked. The same story was told me by the workman in the towns (who gets at best $30 Mexican a month) and by the Tao in the provinces (who) gets at best 50 cents Mexican a day). They figuredout for me the cost of fish, rice, rent, etc., and it was evidentthat they can notbea strong, people; that they can have only a scant, poor living, at those wages. So at bottom this labor question is oie of food and wages; and the Filipino can not work properly becauseihe is not fed properly, and he is not fed properly because he is not'paid properly. t\ CONDITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. IV. CLIMATE COMPELS A DIFFERENT STANDARD FOR WORK. A well-known American judge said to me. "Why, the Americans don't work in this country-they only swear at the Filipinos for not working." Experience shows that the American pace can not be kept up, but that results will be satisfactory if methods proven by experience and adapted to the climate are followed. V. CHINESE COMPETITION A CRIME AGAINST OUR WARDS. As to introducing the Chinese, first of all it should be remembered that the Filipino, after three centuries of Christian and Spanish influence, and after a considerable race intermixture with Spaniard and Chinese. is no longer a Malay. He really is the outpost of western civilization on the shores of the Orient. His ideals and aspirations are European; his views on the questions of Japanese rickshaws (the attWmpt to introduce which into Manila was defeated by a storm of popular indignation): of opium toleration (to which he is opposed); of Chinese labor, are certainly western. He is not hostile to strangers, burt, unlike the Malays of the Straits Settlements, etc., he does object to the incoming of Chinese to do his work. He is the only people in the Orient who dreams of or has attempted to establish a modern republican form of government. His social system is not based on clan, tribe, caste, or family. With the exception of aparceros (or share workers) in some provinces, his conception of labor and propertv is individualistic. Ile is fond of schools and welcomes with avidity the opportunity to learn English. The status of woman in the Philippines is entirely European and not Oriental-she is truly the helpmate and better part of her husband. For these reasons it is unjust to consider the Filipino as only semicivilized or as only worthy of being treated as England and Holland treat their M4ay subjects. On the other hand, the Chinaman's advent would lead to the practical exterminiation of the Filipino. He can underbid the Filipino, or even the American, in the race for work; he is not a fair tfader. His ideals ','e not at all Christian or ihodern; his vi6es are a curse to any land. ne seldom identifies himself with a country. He disarranges the money systemls and depletes the circulating medium by the spoil that he takes back to China, or if he remains he surely graduates from a coolie into a peddler, and from a peddler into a storekeeper, by his arts supplanting the native merchantand getting the natives into his powerthrough debts. Professor Jenks tells us that '"he gradually becomes the wealthy man of the village with almost absolute power of domination over a large proportion -of his neighbors." Do we want that done in the -Phllippines? Holland has had to place close restriction upon him in Java: Australia and New Zealand have shut him out; we are afiaid of hin in America. Why not in the Philippines? Is it humane to expose the inexperienced Filipino to the competition of those who are always unfair? In lloilo an American carpenter boss, who had about a dozen Filipino cabinetmakers working for him at rates of from 4 to 6 pesetas a day, said in answer to my question why he did not pay his men more: I can not pay more than $1 a day average wages, because I have to meet Chinese competition. The Chinese carpenter works for $1 a day for a Chinese contractor, but he asks $2 a day from me or any non-Chinese employer. I \CONDITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 7 In other parts of the world (e. g., in South Africa) the same cry for cheap labor goes up, and one could almost suspect that there is a universal conspiracy against the common man. It is not pertinent to this paper to argue that well-paid labor will bring more profit to capital by its larger purchasing power than could cheap labor; but it is not amiss for an American to proclaim that the salvation of the world lies in the plain working people, " who sow and sing and reap in the land of their birth." The Chinese are an imperium in imperio, unassimilable, exclusive toward and contemptuous of the non-Chinese; possessing business astuteness and industry, but not moral integrity; without a Sabbath or other day of rest; with sensibilities first stimulated and then blunted by opium. They do indeed work like horses, but not in the direction of lifting up the world. The Filipino people should make this question of Chinese labor their Thermopylae.. Better die fighting in that pass than slowly starve, sinking into industrial and moral degradation. TheManila manager of the largest financial institution ithe East, an Englishman, said to me that the Filipinos won't work add that we must have the Chinese. I answered him: "You have been out here many years making money. You have made it; last year you earned 30 per cent on your large capital. We Americans are going to make men and want to get our dividends in manhood." "But, Doctor," he said, "these Filipinos are not men; they are monkeys." My answer was: "God made them and we will show in a Christian and American way that they are men."To conclude this aubject: The American policy should be, first, to develop the Filipino man first; second, to- use him to develop the Fili-.-pino country; third, education, sufficient wages, the creation -of new tastes, will be sufficient stimuli without unfair competition being - introduced as a stimulus. The trouble with the Philippines is not the false fact that the peopie will not work, but the series of misfortunes that have followed the war (cholera, with 200,000 deaths; rinderpest, killing 90 per cant of cattle; locusts; drought; crop failure; fluctuation in silver, etc.), which have produced suffering, social unrest, and ladronism. There is the moral insecurity arising from the discontent of the people at all these misfortunes and at their uncertain political status, and there is the legal insecurity due to unsettled titles, which checks credit and prevents working of the land. Given these two securities, capital will invest, and it will find plenty of labor, provided it pays just wages; and just wages mean, wherever the American flag foats, something more than the rate of cheap Chinese-contract labor. B.-THE EDUCATIONAL. PROBLEM. When I left the United States I shared the opinion of Doctor Schur- ' mann, that it was both an unjust and a vain task to "force" a foreign language on a whole people, especially a resisting people. But I soon perceived that the adoption of English was an actual _ inspiration on the part of the civil government, and that the people lnot only did not resist it, but welcomed it, not on the ground of the diversity of their idioms (for they are not really diverse), but because their native vernacular at best could not open the world to them. 8 CONDITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. The welcome the Filipino people have given the schools and the English language is the best certificate of their character and the best guaranty of their future. I visited dozens of schools, and, with few exceptions, they would do credit to any country or any people. It put me in mind of hungry children gathering around a mother for bread. Even in suffering Albay, with its deserted fields and concentrated population, the schools at Tobaco, Tiwi, Legaspi, Daraga, Ca mlJ, and (Cuinabatan were flourishing, both day and night. And in some rrios along the road where there was no public school I saw little children seated on the steps or in'the shade of nipa huts, with books in hand, around some native woman teacher. In most places the school facilities were inadequate, but the enthusiasm was genuine. In Tiwi the children were gathered in the entry and along the stairs of the principal house in the town; in Malolos they were packed in a few wretched rooms in the upper part of the jail; in Santa Ana they occupied part of the padre's convent, etc. One thing, however, is absolutely sure, the Filipino is no opponent of schools or learning. A workman, speaking of the G3overnment's plan of sending a number of youths to American colleges, said enthusiastically: "Spain never diethat." That plan and its corollary, the sending of Filipino teachers to American summer schools, should be pushedvigorously. On the other hand, I met no one, American or Filipino, teacher or layman, who believes that English can become the vernacular of the country, and the authorities do not seem to expect that it can or will. On this account, I paid close attention to the dialects of the several provinces, compared their books, and gathered phonographic records of them. These seven or eight dialects are not essentially different:: they are only variations of Tagalog, and whoever knows one can easily. acquire the others. The recently published exhaustive Tagalog gram i mar of Lendoyro says: i The similarity between Tagalog and the other dialects is such as to make it eas-' for natives from different parts to understand each other by using their respective dialects for general conversational topics. 1 roughly calculate that half the words are identical in all and many of the other words have some resemblance, while the grammatical forms are the same. The mutual unintelligibility arises from variation in intonation and accent and from the difference in perhaps 40 per cent of the words. I made an appeal through my teacher, Mr. Lope K. Santos, Tagalog editor of El Renacimiento, to all native editors and writers to hold a conference and make an attempt to fuse these dialects! into a uniform or common one; first, by agreeing on the alphabet and ' spelling of words; second. by eliminating all Spanish words where a native substitute could be used; third, by collaborating and unifying the vocabularies of the dialects. This conference was held on SeptemJ ber 3, 1903, and will-doubtless result in some good. As strongly as I can I appeal to the Government, both in Washington and in Manila, to aid in this work of fusion. The editors to whom I spoke in Luzon and in the Visayas approved the movement. The publishers of the numerous popular books which are found for sale in every market place in the islands can easily be induced to cooperate. Men like Tolentino, who is in Bilibid prison pending his appeal on the charge of writing a seditious play, ought to be employed in such work. The constabulary can imprison such men, but I would win them and use them. Which is better politics? A.f CONDITIONS IN THE PHIPPINES. 9 I appeal to the goverrnment to encourage the study of the vernacular by its employees and teachers, and to influence them to translate books useful for the culture of the Filipinos. Perhaps no single influence contributed more to the regeneration of Japan than the translation of Western books (Stuart on Liberty, Smiles' Self Help, etc.) into Japanese by a few teachers. How can we ever become real! friends with the Filipinos if we have no common thoughts, no common speech? I appeal to the government to promote the establishment of small free municipal libraries, and especially of an English-Filipino newspaper (that is, partly English and partly vernacular) so as to better reach the masses of the people. As to the schools, push them ahead. I:am jealous about every cent of money spent in the Philippines that is not for education and roads. C.-RELIGION. The religious problem, which concerns the Government only in so far as it is an element in the popular discontent, and might become a factor in disorder, was studied as follows: FIRST. THE F'IARS. I found that the people in general dislike the friars and are opposed to their administration. The charge of immorality was not much insisted on, but stress was laid on the facts that they had been political agents of Spain and had choked the national aspirations and intellectual progress of the Filipinos. In addition, their status as owners of large estates by titles, which the people sometimes questioned, did not add to their popularity. The friars themselves (of whom I interviewed nine) say that the people are friendly, and that the opposition comes from the Federals and from a few Masons. Laymen, however, with few exceptions, gave their voice -against the friars. I interviewed seven Filipino priests, of whom five stated that there is no opposition to the friars on the part of the masses of the people; but of these five, three were in the southern islands, where the wholequestion is not very active, partly because there were never many friars there. Even those people who were not opposed to;the friars admitted that they were influenced by the consideration that the friars are now shorn of political power and have, besides, learned a sharp lesson. While my sympathies would naturally lean toward the friars, and while I hesitated long about making up my mind on this question, an interview I had with the Bishop of Jaro (in Panay), himself a friar, settled my mind. He told me that he had been over forty years among this people, and that he did not know them-could not understand them. He meant to impress upon me the difficulty of the task we Americans have before us, but 1 was judging him fromtnother standpoint, and the conviction flashed througi me that the friars (of whom this bishop is a very good specimen) are not the men to be spiritual guides for the Filipinos, especially in their new conditions. As to knowing or understanding the people, it is as simple as the Golden Rule. If one loves them and is just to them, they are both grateful and manageable. 10 CONDITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. SECOND. AGLIPAY ' MOVEMENT, I called three times to see Aglipay, but he was unfortunately out of town. However, I saw two of his bishops and about half a dozen of his priests. I learned from good Filipino sources that Aglipay is very little of a man, either intellectually or morally. His bishops gave me the following figures: Number of bishops, 6; priests, 200; followers ("to be within safe limits," they said), half the Filipino people. I attended service, or otherwise attended his churches, a few times. My own inquiries and observation show that in all the parts I viited he has but little following and no great influence. His movement was considered merely a protest against the monks, and it was thought if the monks retire from the islands that Aglipay and his people would return to the Catholic Church. v This latter opinion I do not share, but I think that the movement will die slowly of inanition, whether the monks do or do not leave. Its source of vitality is not any moral uprising of the Filipinos, but, rather, the insidious support of other i religious bodies which, as one of the American clergymen told me, aided it in order " to break the solid front of Rome." THIRD. PROTESTANTISM. There is no boom in this movement, but what little work has been accomplished seemed to be of a good class. I studied it among the natives both in Manila and in the provinces. A large part of the work is a mere distribution of Bibles. The clergymen I met were fine men, and in reply to my question why they came to evangelize a people that already knew Christ, they disclaimed any denominational zeal and asserted that they only desired to create a stronger moral fiber in the people. One clergyman in Negrop told me that in the beginning the better classeshad come to his church, but they were not sincere, being mere politicians, and had gradually dropped out, and that he was now working only among the poor. It is in my opinion quite unlikely that the-Filipinos will become Protestant to any extent. FOURTH. CATHOLOCISM. The condition of this old church, to which the Filipinos are indebted for whatever they have of Christian civilization, is at the present time deplorable. The vast bulk of the people are genuinely Catholic, yet they are in large part a flock deprived of shepherds. It is true they objected to the monk shepherds, and there were not enough of the others to go around. Hence the blame lies with themselves; or, rather, they had the choice of' two evils, bad shepherds or no shepherds, and are to be pitied, not blamed.. A priest in Nueva Ecija told me that his district now includes 13 barrios, each of which formerly had one or more friars, and that it-is physically impossible for him to cover the ground. I found many of the churches in partial ruins as a result of the war. I think that the Filipino clergy are justified in asking that at least one or two of their body should be made bishops, for, as the dozen priests with whom I breakfasted at Molo said, "It is incredible that among 700 native priests there should not be at least one good enough to be a bishop." Of the native priests whom I met (in all about two I / / CONDITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 11 dozen) I think that I was able to recognize true sacerdotal spirit in about one-third. In conclusion of this topic I will say that I advised my Filipino friends not to allow religious dissensions to creep in now, but rather to wrestle with their economical and political problems and postpone all religious disputes for future consideration. D.-BACE PROBLEM. The inhabitants of the Philippine Archipelago should be divided into three classes: (1) Filipino, or civilized; (2) Moro, or semicivilized; (3) mountain tribes, or uncivilized (Igorrotes Tinguanes, Aetas, etc.). The recent census gives the numbers of the first group as near 7,000,000 and that of the second and third groups together not more than 650,000. The first aid second groups are Malayan in origin, but the first group has been s6 altered and improved by Christian civilization and by race intermixture that it is no longer scientific to class it as Malayan. The Filipinos who have settled in Borneo are not easily.confounded with the indigenous Malayans. This Filipino race occu-;ies all the islands except Mindanao and the Sulu subarchipelago. -iwo-thirds of it are as civilized as the peasants in many parts of Europe, the Mexican greasers, or the Southern negro, while the other hird are fully civilized. The errors about these people have arisen.rom confounding them with the semicivilized Moros or the savage mountain tribes, to whom they have no other relationship than that of contiguity. The names Tagalog, Bikol, Bisayan, Ilocano, Pampangan, Pangassinan, and Cagayan are the names of provinces or provincial dialects of Filipinos, not the names of distinct tribes or peoples. I protested to Doctor Barrows, head of the bureau on non-Christian tribes, against his use of the word "tribes" in writing of the Filipinos, and when he admitted that the word is not correct and said that he did not know a proper word to use, I said: " Don't be afraid of facts. Call them a people." All these Filipinos of group 1 are alike in physique, manners, and dress; and in speech the difference is not anywhere greater than between low German and high German or between certain Italian or Spanish dialects. Furthermore, they all recognize one another as of one people, viz, Filipinos; and such few dislikes or antipathies as exist (for example, between the peopleof the town of Maccabebe and their fellow Tagalogs) are only local or personal fueds such as may be found among our Kentucky or Tennessee mountaineers. The census reveals the vast predominence of the Filipinos, even after the losses of the war and of cholera, and the relative unimportance of the Moros and the mountain tribes. - I may say here that I questioned several intelligent Filipinos (among them a woman who owns and manages a considerable estate in Nueva Ecija) as to the systematic or wholesale immigration of negroes from the United States. They are opposed to such a step and consider that intermixture with the African would be a deterioration of their stock. I cherish the hope that the ultimate conclusion of our oriental venture will be a coaling station in upper Luzon on the north, the retention for an indefinite time, of the Moro country on the south, and the establishment in the middle portion of a Filipino Republic or a State of the American Union. 12 CONDITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. We must not let preconceived notions or a false nomenclature o tribes,-etc., bias our judgment, fo any intelligent man who goes over theground must see that the ethnological and political condition is what I have found it to be and hiave stated above. E.-CHARACTER, ASPIRATIONS, AND CAPABILITIES OF THE FILIPINOS. En route to the Philippines and during the early part of my visit I was assured by many of my fellow-countrymen that the Filipinos are liars, thieves, loafers, cowards, tyrants, ingrates, gamblers, and that it would be a matter of only a few weeks until I would see with my own eyes the truth of these statements. It was grudgingly admitted that the Filipino is sober, clean, domestic, hospitable, and religious (at least in form).. It was insisted that he is stupid and that he will not work unless he is stimulated by " swift kicks" or "hot punches." The English and German foreigners in the 'islands have the same hostile feelings toward the native. My experience did not bear out all these unfavorable opinions.Nobody stole from me'ard the only people who lied to me were Amei-, icans. I found the Filipinos willing and anxious to be friends. Whe-" assured that I was friendly and that I could speak his language, hi:; heart opened and he was no longer suspicious or sullen. The above-stated opinions of Americans are usually founded on corna tact with muchachos (servants) and cocheros (coachmen), two classes not entitled to represent any society. No Filipino employee of the government has defalcated, and the only stealing that is done by Filipinos is of a petty character, and is usually the work of these muchachos, who (in accordance with the peculiar social system introduced by the-Spaniards) live in intimate contact in the home, see their masters' vices, suffer from his impatience or ignorance, and, being human, must often lose respect for him. The Filipino, of course, possesses faults and vices, but he averages up; if not as high as the Anglo-Saxon, at least as high as the majority of civilized races. Gambling is probably his leading vice and the parent of his thriftlessness. His improvidence and hopefulness cause him to incur debts lightly and his honesty makes him endure the custom of utang which prevails in some provinces. This custom permits children to enter into service, or to be placed in service, until their parents' debts are paid. They are in a manner hostages, but are taken care of and taught by their new masters. It is a custom that we-should take cognizance of and either regulate or, better, abolish. He is proud; but his pride is laudable while it keeps him self-repecting and above servility, but it becomes vicious when it makes him look down on manual labor or act the tyrant when placed in authority. He is not a beggar; and never having known abundance, he endures privation with stoicism. He is silent and uneffusive, but not stupid; he seems so only to those who ate stupid. A facetious friend asked me if I had ever seen a carabao laugh. Now, the carabao is the most solemn of animals, and I had not seen it laugh. "Well,'blsaid he, "the next time you hear an American storming in broken Spanish at a bewildered Filipino and then swearing at him for being stupid, if there is a carabao near just watch it grin, for it knows which is the stupid one." Seriously, I would in social contact or personal friendship prefer a CQNDITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 13 Filipino to a Chinaman, or a Japanese, or even to some occidental people. I was particularly impressed by the sense of justice Iossessed by even the humblest people. The Filipino occupies a stag, where not race generalizations but personal attributes must be the basis for judging him. As to his political aspirations, I have satisfied myself that with the exception of a small percentage of property owners all Filipinos desire the independence of their country. The ordinary tao desires-it as much as the educated man, and has a sufficiently clear idea of what it means. He does not forget that he bore the brunt of the fighting for it; and it is that sentiment in him which is appealed to by those foolish leaders who trouble the land with their haff insurrecto, half ladrone bands. I often asked Filipinos whether they would be satisfied with annexation, and the answer was that they would prefer independence, would be content with statehood, and would ever protest and strive against subjection in any form. With all that, not a few ofi their ablest men admitted that they are not at present able to go alone, and that they are not yet ready for independent self-governmenti Doctor Gomez made that statement to me on several occasions. In my judgment, they could at this time stablish an unstable third-rate republic on the level of certain South American republics, but after a limited period of American tutelage.hey will be able to form a government which will satisfy all their aspirations, bring happiness and prosperity to their people, be a credit to their teachers, and be a hatbinger of freedom to the oriental world. They understand our attitude and realize what we are doing and trying to do for them, and th ir fear is that each new benefit conferred may be an additional link bifding them to us or an additional argument against their ultimate! independence. A formal statement on the part of Congress, or perhaps a formal plank in the platform of our two national parties, promising to refer the question of independence or annexation to 4 plebiscitum after a certain number of years of the present experimental and educational system, would satisfy all minds and remove all doubts. Aguinaldo said to me: "Oh, all would be harmony"-no more doubt, no more sullen obedience, no more passive resistance, no more ladronism, but all hands working together to lift up the people. Why should Congress heStitate Such an experiment will be as reasonable as its other experiments and certainly will be consonant with fundamental justice. IIt may be natural for the Filipinos to doubt; it is not natural for Americans to be timid in hewing into the future. We make history; iftdoes not make us. F.-PUBLIC XORALITY, OPTux, SOCIAL EVIL, LADRONIM. In Manila and in the provices generally (except in Moroland, which does not belong to the Phili pine problem) life and property are safe. I would not dare leave the lower windows of my home in Chicago unprotected, but in the Philippines I always slept with-open windows and unlocked doors. I doult if there is anywhere in the world a city of 300,000 people in which public order is so good and the criminal/ element so sparse as in Manla. This is due not so much to the vigi-[ lance of the authorities asto the morale of'the inhabitants. The liquor question and social evil problem are both handled in a .-, - - ^ 14 CONDITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. rational way. I jaade diligent inquiry in all the places I visited and was informed that hardly any Filipinos use opium. This information was given me by police captains in Manila and by priests, officials, and physicians outside of Manila. As to the "querida" habit or concubinage, I was much interested as a sociologist in studying its origin and extent. In this paper I shall say no more than that it is - perhaps a nobler vice than the promiscuous or private pr:ostitution of occidental cities or the voshiwara system of Japan; that often it is practically a common-law marriage, and that not infrequently it terminates in a formal legal union. LAI)RON SM. I attended the trial of several of the ladrones in Manila, and I also spoke with people who either knew or were in sympathy with the men in the mountains. I even planned a visit to Simeon Ola. an outlaw in the nmountains of Albay, but was dissuaded from it by Colonel Bandholtz for special reasons. Of the bands of outlaws in the mountains some are fanatics, some arel ladrone s an(l some arle insurrectos. Papa Isio (Dionisio) in NeFrlos and Apong Ipe (Felipe) in )Pampanga are fanatics and do not enter int the study of the political problem. Other bands are purely robbe bands, and their existence is due either to the poverty and suffering oi the land or simply to the fact that there are some rascals in every commlunity; with theni the police have to deal. It can not, however, be denied that a number of the bands are purely insurrectionary and their existence isdue to the appeals of foolish irreconcilable or ambitious leaders to the patriotic sentiments of the people; these are a problem for statesmen To this latter class belong the bands of San Miguel in Rizal (recently slain, though some think that he escaped); Gasic in Minldoro. and of Simeon Ola in Albav. That these bands are insurrectionarv is evfdent from the facts that they have a paper governmient. collect taxes, wear uniforms, issue commissions, and are more anxious to acquire guns than other booty. The surest wax to invite attack is to let it be known that one is armed. It is against commnon sense that mere ladrones would bother about such things. Further, the people to a considerable' extent sympathize with them, and it is not conceivable that many people/would sympathize with mere robbers. It is true that these bands 4ttack Filipinos and only exceptionally Americans; but the special object of their hatred and revenge are the constabulary, whom no doubt they considertraitors. There may be political reasons for representing this unrest as merely agrarian, but my opinion is that it is largely political. To be sure, it is foolish, because it is hopeless, and because its leaders are really pushing away the hand of Providence that is trying to help them; but an-how it is insurrection. In medicine we try to find the cause in order, by removing it, to cure the disease. That is a good rule in politics. In my judgment, the cause of "ladronis'm" is the desire of the people for independence, and the best way to stop it is to fix satisfactorily their political status by promise of a plebiscitum at some definite future time. If the islands prosper under the American Government, why fear the outcome of a plebiscitum CONDITIONS -IN THE PHIIJ'PIlNES. 15 F.-THE ADMINISTRATION OF LAW. - The coexistence of Spanish substantive codes, both civil and criminal, with a criminal procedure introduced by the military government and a civil procedure introduced by the Civil Commission, besides a large number of special acts of the Commission, makes a mass of law that might well stagger a lawyer, let alone a layman like myself. I looked at it from the standpoint of the common man, and I have not been able to escape the conviction that his path to the attainment.of justice is difficult. His safeguards are not the rough public opinion - of a grand jury nor the fellow-sympathy of a petit jury, but the right of habeas corpus and of appeal to the supreme court, both of which are slow, expensive, and, in the circumstances of a foreign tongue aad a strange code, almost impracticablc. I saw three men in jail in Santa Ana, Pampanga, who had been two months confined without any formal charge. It was whispered to me that the justice of the peace was "afraid to turn down a constabulary case." These prisoners said they did not know what they were confined for, but the padre told me he thought they were innocent. As the town was unable to support them, they went out daily under guard and begged their food from door to door. I did not tell them to get out a writ of habeas corpus; they would have understood better had I told them to get a balloon and escape. The real hope of the accused lies in the good sense of the judgewhich, however, is not the spiritof American law. I sat through a number of trials, and I can testify that the overworked judges are as fair and sensible as could be desired. But it must be remembered that the punishments inficted by the Spanish laws are severe and those of the Civil Commission are not very lenient; that few of our officials know Spanish well and none know the vernacular; that the prosecutionwas not only zealous, but even (I say it deliberately) vindictive; that the questions and answers had usually to be translated from English into Spanish and from Spanish into Tagalog and back again, and that most of the courts were clogged by work in political offenses rather than in moral crimes. I have seen the error of a translator put a man in the shadow of treason. I have seen youths of 18 or 20 years sentenced to thirty to forty years for ladronism, convicted on the testimony of their chief who had led them astray. Political inquisition makes criminals; and we have a system of inquisition; a detective service "to prevent crime;" a constabulary that can arrest without warrant; a prosecuting attorney who can examine before trial a prisoner, a witness, or even a suspect under oath. This I submit is not American law-it is not even Spanish law. Our whole system is penal and not reformatory. The sense of justice, which every human soul has, is not touched in these prisoners. They don't inderstand why they are so treated. They go to prison like dumb, driven cattle. Bilibid Prison has now 3,000 inmates, but it will soon be filled to its capacity of 6,000. On'a boat coming from the south to Manila, the constabulary brought about 60 long-term prisoners for Bilibid. One died en route from beri-beri and another was so paralyzed from the same disease that a couple of his fellow-prisoners dragged him along like a sack of grain. The physician in me did not protest, for I 16 CONDITI IN THE PHILIPPINES. knew that his almost hopeles case would receive at least the care 01 the prison hospital, and 1 cOtented myself with slipping a coin into his hand so that he might buy somewhere a little pity from men. I stood on the-spot in Negros where Montgomery, the superintendent of education for that province, was killed. According to my information it was an ordinary highway murder for robbery, such as occurs sometimes in my own city of Chicago. What was the punishment? -The constables were given free hand, the barrio was burned, men were killed, some were tried and hanged, but the spirit was not that of American law, but rather of a mob blindly avenging crime. I drove through Albay Province, and I found 300,000 people reconceritrated, hemp 'rotting in the fields, homes empty, and not a human being qutside the lines-all-punished' because some 300 men are in the mountains as ladrones or insurrectos. I submit that this was not justice-that it was not even a justifiable war measure. With the exception of the courts the whole machinery of law is calculated to withdraw the substance of liberty while offering its form. The supreme court is in truth almost perfect; the courts of first instance are, on account of the personal worth. of the judges, very good; the justice courts are poor, perhaps because the compensation is in fees and the justices (who are natives) are not subject to civil-service rules. On the other hand, the secret-service bureau is an instrument for making a government of slabes by spies; the constabulary is' an instrument for terrorizing a crushed people, and the prosecuting attorney's office is an instrument for suppressing free speech and free thought. The law on sedition has created a reign of terror and the people are stricken dumb with fear. Coercion makes plots, and the way to the light is not by penal codes, but by just dealings. An American lawyer summed up the case in saying: "The Spanish legislation was good, but the administration was bad; our administration is good, but our legislation is bad." A leading American Protestant clergyman in Manila said to me: " The authorities use too fine a mesh; they make too much-of petty revolts and seditious plays which they might overlook." There is all through the Philippines the atmosphere of a conquered country; and that is not an American atmosphere. Surely something is wrong when the Filipino people are standing aloof from us. Surely something is wrong when suspicions are rife and espionage is the constant weapon of the law. Something is wrong where courts are occupied more with political than with common crimes. Something is wrong where agitation is forbidden. Something is surely wrong where the President's amnesty did not succeed in obliterating offenses from the memory of fhe law officers. It is a fact that the people hate the constabulary and the scouts as they in Spanish times hated the guardia civile. It is a fact that the constabulary and the scouts have the function and the methods of the guardia civile, and' it is probable or to be expected that many of the former members of the detested guardia have drifted back into the constabulary or the scouts. Is it that the people look upon these bodies as the instruments of a foreign and oppressing government? There may be something of that, for as long as we do not remove from the minds of the people the dread of colonial subjection we occupy that attitude in spite df our professions and our deeds.