THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL ENDOWED BY THE DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETIES E18U .A 1 1901 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 10000861391 This book is due at the WALTER R. DAVIS LIBRARY on the last date stamped under "Date Due." If not on hold it may be renewed by bringing it to the library. DATE RET DUE DATE RET DUE : ll v. >. » -'•' '.Jtf f» 2 4 m. , _ j ; i ; ? 1QQ4 ■ *' *--> — rs— 159 v?*; "" t - J ' LlA 'J li jmsoexsaeBk &UG * <-• Mnrj^sfianu^^. B FH 1 19! 7 1 r . . j Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://archive.org/details/americasraceprobOOamer America's 3ftace problems; Jpjmerua's J^ace ADDRESSES AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SO- CIAL SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA, APRIL TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH, MCMI NEW YORK PUBLISHED FOR THE AMERI- CAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, BY McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. MCMI /Z°** 0TaHc 4* ^CHAP^^ CONTENTS PAGB PART I: THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC. C.THE NATIVES OF HAWAII: A STUDY OF POLYNESIAN CHARM. TITUS MUNSON COAN, A.M., M.D., NEW YORK CITY 9 C.THE RACES OF THE PHILIPPINES: THE TAGALS. REV. CHARLES C. PIERCE, D.D., CHAPLAIN U. S. ARMY. 21 CTHE SEMI-CIVILIZED TRIBES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. REV. OLIVER C. MILLER, A.M., D.D., CHAP- LAIN U. S. ARMY 43 PART II: THE CAUSES OF RACE SU- PERIORITY. EDWARD A. ROSS, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. . . 67 PART III: THE RACE PROBLEM AT THE SOUTH. {[INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY COL- ONEL HILARY A. HERBERT, EX-SEC- RETARY OF THE NAVY, WASHING- TON, D. C 95 iPAGB C.THE RELATION OF THE WHITES TO THE NEGROES. PRESIDENT GEORGE T. WINSTON, LL.D., NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND ME- CHANIC ARTS, RALEIGH, N. C. . . 105 CTHE RELATION OF THE NEGROES TO THE WHITES IN THE SOUTH. PROFESSOR W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS, PH.D., ATLANTA UNIVERSITY. 121 PART IV: THE RACES OF THE WEST INDIES. COUR RELATION TO THE PEOPLE OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO. HON. ORVILLE H. PLATT, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT. . 145 CTHE SPANISH POPULATION OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO. CHARLES M. PEPPER, ESO., WASHINGTON, D. C. 163 CREPORT OF "THE ACADEMY COM- MITTEE ON MEETINGS. . . .181 PART I : THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC (5) THE NATIVES OF HAWAII: A STUDY OF POLYNESIAN CHARM. BY TITUS MUNSON COAN, A.M., M.D., NEW YORK (7) JULY 1901 ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE THE NATIVES OF HAWAII : A STUDY OF POLYNESIAN CHARM. By Titus Munson Coan, A. M., M. D., Of New York. The eastern or brown Polynesian race, the Savaioris as they have been called, to distinguish them from other Oceanic races, have very definite characteristics, physical and mental. They are most nearly related to the Cambojan group, " their true affinities being with the Caucasians of Indo-China" (Keane). They are in noway, however dis- tantly, related to the negro. Their habitat is in the southern and eastern Pacific Ocean, where they occupy Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, the Marquesas, Tuamotu, Tokelau, Ellice, Rotuma, New Zealand, the eastern Fijis, Tarawa, Manega, Phoenix and Lagoon Islands, Easter Island, and in the north Pacific the Hawaiian group. In all these islands and groups, however widely separated geographically, we find a people that is essentially one in blood, language, usages, traditions and religion. They rank high among races. Keane says: " They are one of the finest races of mankind, Caucasian in all essentials; distin- guished by their symmetrical proportion, tall stature, aver- (9) io Annai^s of the American Academy aging five feet ten inches, and handsome features. Cook gives the palm to the Marquesas islanders, ' who for fine shape and regular features surpass all other natives.' " Lord George Campbell remarks: "There are no people in the world who strike one at first so much as these Friendly Islanders [Tongans]. Their clear, light copper-brown col- ored skins, yellow and curly hair, good-humored and hand- some faces, — their tout ensemble formed a novel and splendid picture of the genus homo; and as far as physique and appear- ance go they gave one certainly an impression of being a superior race to ours. ' ' The Savaioris are similarly described by most of the leading observers. They are also among the kindest, most gentle-mannered and generous people in the world, and but for the oppressions of their priests and kings would have been the happiest. What are the causes of this exceptional development? Under what conditions, material and psychical, has that development taken place? Only the briefest answer can be attempted here, and that only for one typical group, the Hawaiian. Some of the main conditions of this develop- ment were the following: i. Geography, orography, — The largest island, Hawaii, has an area of four thousand square miles; the group stretches four hundred miles from northwest to southeast, and all the principal islands had rival kings. Frequent wars, naval excursions and invasions were the result. The islands are all mountainous, offering secure fastnesses to the contending factions, and the ancient Hawaiians developed a good fighting physique. 2. Climate. — The Hawaiian climate is the most equable tropical climate in the world. It is never, as in other tropical islands, excessively hot. The usual range of tem- perature is from 70 to 8o° Fah. ; at the sea level it never falls below 55 Fah., nor does it ever exceed 90 . Hurri- canes and typhoons are absolutely unknown. This uniform- ity and this immunity are due to an ocean current from the The Natives of Hawaii ii north, which tempers the winds and laves the island coasts in an ever-flowing stream at a temperature of about 70 . The innocent Hawaiian climate favored the habit of outdoor life, which was almost universal, the native huts being used only for sleeping places and for protection from the rain. It also developed aquatic and seagoing habits. The nearness of the islands to each other, the gentle winds, the sea, never violently tempestuous, though often rough, these made the natives the most powerful and daring swimmers in the world, trained them in fishing and seagoing, and tempted them away on long ocean voyages — as far as to the Society Islands, 2,000 miles to the southward. In fishing, too, they became great experts. 3. The soil was in large part fertile. This, with the favoring climate, made but a few weeks' labor in the year necessary. The natives did not exert themselves toilsomely in agricul- ture. Their principal food was the root of the taro; this being nearly all starch, it produced great obesity, especially in the chiefs, who, having much to eat and not much to do, grew excessively fat. 4. Negative Conditions. — The total absence of wild beasts and noxious vermin, as well as of destructive tempests and temperatures, was favorable to the psychical development and the genial content of the islanders. Nature had no ter- rors for them; even the great volcanic eruptions of Mauna L,oa and Kilauea, exceeding in magnitude all others on record, were very seldom destructive of human life; nor did the violent earthquakes do more than jostle the grass cot- tages of the dwellers in this lotos land. The Hawaiians thus enjoyed, in the main, very peaceable conditions of existence. They were indeed harassed by the tabu and by the wars of their chieftains; but the struggle for life, as known in more densely populated countries, was not known to them. They found time for some forms of culture. They had no plastic art; metals were unknown, and they never attained more than a limited skill in mechani- 12 Annals of the American Academy cal arts: but in poetry there was an interesting development, in the form of sonorous chants or meles couched in a peculiar poetic diction; in these were embodied the exploits and the lives of their heroes, as well as their traditions, mythol- ogy, and even their astronomical, botanical and animal lore. They had a very acute eye for nature. Their language is full of terms for all visible things and doings; but it was little capable of expressing general conceptions, such as time, goodness, temperance, virtue; thus there were many syn- onyms for rain and sunlight, calm and storm, but no word for weather. This deficiency caused much trouble to the mis- sionaries in the task of translating the Scriptures into the native tongue. The things most valued by the natives in old times were the sticks of Oregon pine, which at long intervals came drifting to the islands from the northwest coast, and were eagerly seized to be fashioned into war canoes. It is said that when the translator came to the pas- sage in the Epistles, reading: ' ' Add to your faith knowledge, and to your knowledge temperance, and to your temperance virtue," he appealed to his native assistant for the Hawaiian word for virtue, which he described as the most desirable of all possessions. The native was puzzled; neither the con- ception of virtue, as we understand it, nor any correspond- ing word, existed in Hawaiian; but at last he said: " I understand ) r ou now," and gave the missionary a word which made the passage read: " Add to your faith knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance a stick of Oregon pine." Here then we have a community under most favoring conditions for happiness, a good climate and soil, an abound- ing sea, and freedom from the terrors of nature. Supported by a few days' labor in the month, the natives had leisure to cultivate poetry, dancing, games, and the social pleasures, together with the virtues of kindness, courtesy, and gener- osity. "The social and family affections," says Fornander, Thk Nativks of Hawaii 13 "were as strong iu the old Hawaiians as in any modern people, Christian or pagan. ' ' They divided their possessions with their friends, and took pleasure in doing it. L,azy and greedy persons were not wholly unknown among them ; but they had their punishment — they were stigmatized by such terms as hoapili mea at, a friend for the sake of a dinner. Briefly, here were a happy people. And why ? Because they were exempt from the regime of competition — there was food for all; in time of peace at least there was no strug- gle for life. But why, again, was this ? why this exemption from the usual fate of man ? The usual answer is that which we may seem to have given already — the fertile soil, the genial climate, the abounding sea, the entire absence of noxious natural forces. But this, like other usual answers, explains nothing; it is no answer at all. In countries like Java, Ceylon, and large parts of India and China we find natural conditions not indeed absolutely so favorable as these, yet nearly so ; but these are the very countries that have suffered terribly from overcrowding and famine. In Hawaii the conditions are those which elsewhere have produced over-population, and its resulting degradation ; yet in Hawaii there was no over-population; although they had their hard times they had no destructive famines. During the nineteen years of my residence there, there were sometimes shortages in the taro and sweet potato crops ; the natives went into the woods, and dug up a kind of fern that had a succulent, starchy root, and with this and a little fish they eked out an existence; but destructive famines are not in their record. What then is the explanation of the Polynesian immunity from the struggle for life, and from the misery and debase- ment that accompany it? Why were not these islands crowded, like countries under the old civilizations, with mil- lions of people whose entire energies are spent in the effort to earn, not a living, but half a living or less? The data for the answer have long been before the student, 14 Annai^s of the American Academy yet the true answer as I think has not yet been given. The ancient Hawaiian's exemption from the struggle for life, and the effect of this exemption on his character, were not due to climate, or to soil, or to any physical conditions ; none of these things gave the Samoan, the Tahitian, the Tongan, Hawaiian, his joyous temperament, his winning manners, his generous heart. Throughout Polynesia the struggle for life was evaded by restricting the ?iatural increase of population. By this restric- tion the population was kept down to the means of comfort- able subsistence ; there was food enough for all ; the com- munity lived under no economic stress ; and in consequence it attained, as we have seen, this remarkable development of genial and generous traits and of material happiness. Now this has a direct illustrative bearing, as it seems to me, on the greatest of social problems — the lessening of human suffering, the augmentation of human happiness. No sane thinker would advocate a resort to the barbarous and wasteful infanticide of the Polynesians; but in all over- populated communities to-day, and throughout the world in the not distant future, the great question must be this: How to limit the mere quantity, and how to improve the quality of the population. To some this problem seems to lack actuality, as long as any corner of the world remains uncrowded; and emigra- tion is proposed as a cure. But, in the first place, emigra- tion on a sweeping scale is an impossibility. Imagine the population of a great city being called upon to emigrate; where are the means to come from ? What would become of the people if deported in masses ? Few of them could attach themselves to the soil. In a word, the relief of emigration is not feasible except on a limited scale; for more reasons than one, it is impossible in a majority of cases. But suppose emigration were possible. How long would the relief thus given endure ? Only for a few years. As commonly after wars and famines, the population would The; Natives of Hawaii 15 spring tip more rapidly than before, and the gap would soon be filled. Neither in the old world nor the new has the poverty of crowded cities ever been cured by emigration. Now consider other schemes of alleviating misery, poverty, crime; put any other theory of reform to the test, and you meet the same difficulty. Some theorists regard a better education as a cure-all; some would seek relief in improved legislation, others in a better knowledge of the laws of health; others in finding employment for the poor, in wisely directed chari- ties; others say in morals, the Sermon on the Mount; others in religion, culture, philosophy. All of these are good and desirable, but none of them touch the essential point; none would prevent the overcrowding of the poorer population. Suppose any of these reforms actually carried out. Would any of them, would all of them together, materially check the multiplication of the unfit ? The eternal law of Malthus survives; its cruel action is little hindered by any of the popular philanthropies. They have been ineffectual in the past, they will be found ineffectual in the future. The only effective relief of human suffering will be found in checking the multiplication of the unfit— in the intelligent limiting of mere numbers, and the consequent improve- ment of quality. It is the most difficult of reforms, because both State, Church, and popular opinion (especially among men), are against it, yet it is a problem that grows in im- portance with each new generation. The restriction of population in France, while it is disadvantageous as long as a nation's virtue is measured by the size of its armies, is a step in the right way. The reform that is most needed in the world is one of a distant future; it is to look for quality, not mere quantity of life, and to put humane and scientific checks upon over-population. Only in this way will the cruel struggle for existence ever be lessened; only thus will future generations suppress poverty, disease and crime, the vicious circle which is the despair of civilization. 16 Annals of the American Academy At the conclusion of Dr. Coan's address the following col- loquy took place between him and persons in the audience: Dr. Martin: Has that restriction of population to the means of subsistence in the islands been continued ? Dr. Coan: No. Since the islands have passed under modern civilization, the condition which I mentioned no longer exists. For other reasons the native population is not increasing, but there is no longer that artificial restric- tion. Indeed, the native government of no long time ago encouraged the raising of large families. Mr. McGibboney: I have a friend who spent a number of years in Hawaii, who says they not only have no name for sexual virtue, but none of the principles of virtue. Is that true ? Dr. Coan: Technically that would be true. That is to say, the Polynesian idea of virtue is different from ours. Some one has said that virtue in Polynesia was regarded as an elegant accomplishment, but not as a necessity. Mr. McGibboney: Did that circumstance cause the decrease in population since the arrival of the whites ? Dr. Coan: I would not say that was the cause; it was due, as Darwin has pointed out, to infertility resulting from changed conditions of living. But the point that Mr. Darwin inquired about was regarding the prevalence of infanticide, and whether male or female children were more frequently sacrificed. Mr. Croxton: I would like to ask if the present decrease, or lack of increase of population, is not partly chargeable to their having put on clothing ? Dr. Coan: Undoubtedly; that was one of their changed conditions of living. The mischief came about in two ways. The docile natives were delighted with the idea of wear- ing clothes, and nothing gave them more pleasure than the bright-colored calico prints; these would not wash, so they would throw them off when the rain came down, and run into the church half-naked, or more than half, and nobody thought Thk Natives of Hawaii 17 anything of it. But they wore their clothes quite irregu- larly; their skins became tender, and, they were constantly catching cold. In my father's great church there was often such a tempest of coughing and sneezing that ycu could hardly hear his strong voice. Another vice of the clcthes- wearing habit was that the natives would not take off their garments when they got wet, and illness resulted from that cause. Epidemics of small-pox, measles, influenza, decimated the people. Pax vobiscum, said the priest to the native; pox vobiscum, said the sailor and trader. Yet these diseases were not the essentially destructive agencies ; they are not now more prevalent there than elsewhere, and the climate is exceptionally healthy. The passing away of the Hawaiians and of the other Polynesians was inevitable from the moment that the first European visitor stepped under the coconut groves. The island character, with its faults, its follies, and its charms, is disappearing under the total regime of the white man. Not until the world shall learn how to limit the quantity and how to improve the quality of races will future ages see any renewal of such idyllic life and charm as that of the ancient Polynesian. THE RACES OF THE PHILIPPINES: THE TAGALS. BY REV. CHARLES C. PIERCE, D.D., CHAPLAIN U. S. ARMY (19) THE RACES OF THE PHILIPPINES— THE TAGALS. By Rev. Charles C. Pierce, D. D., Chaplain U. S. Army. The program for this session is unusually accurate in com- parison with customary announcements, in that it refers to " The Races of the Philippines " rather than to "The Fili- pinos." The word " Filipino " is a misnomer unless it is used in the sense prevalent in Manila. Strictly speaking, a Filipino is one born in the Philippine Islands, regardless of parentage. The word is not definitive of race or nationality. In accurate use it merely marks the place of birth. In the same way it is inaccurate to refer to the " Filipino people,'" as has so often been done, with a display of vocal pyrotechnics, in the campaign against the American occu- pancy of the islands. When we speak of a "people," there is involved in the term some idea of political cohesion or national fusion. Such a condition may be developed during future decades if the paternal government shall foster the idea, but at the present time there is such a heterogeneous array of tribes, about eighty in all, that a " Filipino people ' ' cannot be said to exist. " The Races of the Philippines " is, then, a much more fitting denomination of the inhabitants of our far-off posses- sions, and in the debates upon the wisdom of annexation with which our people will amuse themselves for months to come, it were well to have this distinction between a people and an aggregation of races kept constantly in mind. For, given " a people," we are well on the road toward a discus- sion of the question of self-government; but, as in the present case, where the premise is unable to state the exist- ence of "a people," the argument for popular sovereignty cannot logically proceed. (21) 22 Annai,s op the American Academy There is a Tagal people, and it is of the Tagals that I am asked to speak, as one of the races of the Philippines; a people among whom I have lived for two and a half years. I do not remember having heard of any discussion of the desirability of granting independence to the Tagal people. So far as I have noted the alleged argument, it has been practically one in behalf of the propriety of giving the Tagals the right to govern all the tribes in the archipelago. In every discussion, the diversity of tribes and dialects must be borne in mind, as well as intertribal prejudices and animosities. So wide is the gap between the Tagals and the Macabebes, for instance, as to make the hatred hereditary, and our government, in using the latter as scouts, has but adopted a rule of warfare which racial antipathies have made advan- tageous and by which Spain had formerly profited. One of our house-boys at the headquarters house of the Fourteenth Infantry, who belonged to another tribe, accounted it a gross insult to be mistaken for a Tagal. Between the Visayans and the Tagals no love is lost. The Igorrotes, those mountaineer neighbors of the Tagals in Luzon, were so little influenced by the glimmer of Aguin- aldo's dictatorship that they steadily refused to make com- mon cause with him. When found, with their bows and arrows, facing American troops at the beginning of hostili- ties, they declared that this alleged Washington (?) had deceived them; having invited them down to a feast, only that they might encounter American bullets and so commit and entangle themselves as to be drawn into battle. The ruse failed and the breach between Tagal and Igorrote widened. The Tagal is not even the original possessor of the land. He is a Malay or of Malay descent; an alien. This con- sideration is also important, as it deprives him of the right to the sympathy sought in his behalf by those who have never seen him, on the ground that our government of the archipelago robs him of his political birthright. The Races of The Philippines 23 The Tagal tribe is not aboriginal. The first known inhab- itants were the Aetas or Negritos; a race of small stature, but otherwise much resembling the African negro. And the present tribes are the result of Malay incursions and prob- ably amalgamation between the native and the immigrant. If sympathy is to be shown on the ground of original claim to territory, it should be given to the Negritos, who still may be found, with their nomadic habits, or serving as menials in Tagal families. The fact that the Tagals were intruders, or the product of such intrusion, may deprive them of the right to some measure of sympathy heretofore accorded them in certain quarters, and yet their appearance on Philippine soil was doubtless one of the first steps leading to ultimate civiliza- tion; the Spanish conquest was another; and now the American occupation, with its breadth of ideas, its advance in ethics, and its adaptation to the wants of an aspiring population, is destined, we believe, to complete the evolution of civilization, and to weld a people, to prepare them for suffrage and to lead them on to the highest of civic attain- ments — the ability to govern themselves. The Tagals are not alone in the possession of the single island of Luzon. There are the Pangasinanes, numbering 300,000; the Pampangoes, with quite or nearly equal num- bers, the census of 1876 quoting their population as 294,000; and others. The Tagal population, mainly in Luzon, though found in some other islands also, numbers 1,500,000. The Visayan population in 1877, exclusive of the less domesti- cated tribes in the Visayan group, was 2,000,000. So that the right of the Tagal to dominate the politics of the archi- pelago must be further modified by the consideration that his race, with all its degrees of mixture, constitutes only one-sixth of the population. The discussion of native traits is made difficult by the fact that it is hard to find the original Tagal, unmixed in blood or influenced by racial environment. 24 Annals of the American Academy The advent of the foreigner has added a new factor to the racial problem, and the Mestizos, or people of mixed blood, are found in considerable numbers. It is a curious ethno- logical study, this mixture of Malay and Mongol, and the racial amalgamation which combines European and Asiatic characteristics in the same personality. The Mestizo-Espanol, or the mixture of Spanish and native blood, numbering not less than 75,000, and probably very many more, presents the type of native aristocracy — the people who measure their superiority by the lightness of their complexion, and who habitually refer to the pure- blooded natives in disdain or commiseration as ' ' Indios ' ' or Indians. Foreman, in a few words characterizes them: "We find them on the one hand striving in vain to disown their affinity to the inferior races, and on the other hand jealous of their true-born European acquaintances. A morosity of disposi- tion is the natural outcome. Their character generally is evasive and vacillating. They are captious, fond of litiga- tion, and constantly seeking subterfuges. They appear always dissatisfied with their lot in life and inclined to foster grievances against whoever may be in office over them." The Mestizo-Chino, or the mixture of Chinese and native, who represents a population of half a million in the archi- pelago and fully one-sixth of the population of the city of Manila, may be referred to as the commercial type, although many of the Spanish Mestizos have likewise achieved suc- cess in business. The Mestizo- Japones, or Japanese mixture, while repre- sented in much smaller numbers than either of the other classes, presents a famous type of quaint Oriental beauty. But it seems to be the ethnologic law that miscegenation involves an eclecticism in vices, and it is not strange to read from the pen of a Spanish writer that these mixtures have not yet accomplished much for the moral welfare of the people. He says: "We have now a querulous, discon- The Races of the Philippines 25 tented population of half castes, who, sooner or later, will bring about a distracted state of society and occupy the whole force of the government to stamp out the discord." Aside from the Mestizo element, it is hard to find the original characteristics of the Tagals. For instance, they are referred to as being an innately religious people, but the Roman Church has been among them for four hundred years, and it is not easy to say how much of this religious habit has been acquired. Certainly the form of its mani- festation is markedly so. The law under which the Tagal has lived has for centuries been either Spanish or that of the Roman Church, and the most gradual change must, in the lapse of these centuries, under this environment, have produced mighty modifications of native character. American opponents of annexation have in a few foolish cases painted the Tagal as measuring up with Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Penn or Lincoln, those phenomenal products of the highest civilization on earth. These men have seen a vision in some "iridescent dream." L,ife in the Philippines will dispel it. On the other hand, some who have suffered severely will proclaim everything bad in native character; that they would not believe a Filipino upon oath, nor trust him in a trifle. No race is as bad as its worst member nor as good as its best. The true type of Tagal, as we find him, is a com- posite of the good and the bad traits of character, either inherent or imitated. Looking at the subject more in detail, let us consider the Tagal: 1. Socially. — Entering a native dwelling, the stranger is always impressed with the hospitable spirit of its inmates. He is made to feel that his presence is an honor. And so universal is this trait of native character, that one always meets it, whether in the more pretentious case of the wealthy Mestizo or the little nipa shelter of the poor. All that the family can afford is ever at the disposition of the guest. 26 Annals of the American Academy Cigars or cigarettes are in every house, and with a few exceptions, are used by every native, regardless of sex or age, and an abundant supply will at once be forthcoming. Chips of the betel nut, wrapped in buyo leaf and smeared with lime (the native substitute for tobacco chewing), will ordinarily be presented unless it is known to be distasteful to the visitor. "Dulce," a generous name which covers every variety of sweets, preserves or confections, will also be provided beyond the capacity of the guest. Then some form of drink, — cervesa or beer, certain of the wines of Spain or Portugal, or anisada, that vile product of Philippine fermentation, will be placed before him. It will be a profitable reflection for those who are engaged in a laudable effort to prevent the bestialization of native races by foreign alcoholic importations, to consider that the gratification of Bacchanalian proclivities is very rarely dependent upon the question of importation. Most races have discovered for themselves some method of producing alcoholic stimulation. The Japanese make merry with their saki ; the Russians, with their vodka ; the Mexicans, with mescal and tiswin ; the Cheyennes, with a red berry which they guard most jealously ; the Apaches, with their too-dhlee-pah-ee ; the Igorrotes, with fermented cane-juice ; the Pampangoes, with a fermentation of the nipa palm ; and the Tagals, with this vicious fire-juice that bodes as great ill to the American as foreign liquors do to the Tagals. But regardless of the value of the offering, the spirit of generous hospitality is there and it is universal. The visitor is always impressed with the beautiful, glossy black hair of the natives, which, in the case of the women, is commonly very long, as well as with the regularity of their pearly teeth, the latter, alas, ruined in symmetry and soundness in the case of the inveterate betel-chewer, and taking on, successively, a stain from red to black. Great care is given to the hair, which is frequently washed with a native weed well worthy of American importation, The Races of the Philippines 27 and afterwards glossed copiously with cocoanut oil. The latter imparts a rather disagreeably rancid odor to the hair, but is undoubtedly of value, as the natives claim, in check- ing the ravages of an insect which has a short English name, but among the natives, is as formidable as the technical name of Pediculus Capitis would suggest. The sight is so common as to lose all novelty, as natives everywhere recipro- cate in attention to each other's hair, and without any sense of shame, in the communistic effort to suppress the ravages of this pest. The picture is so close a reproduction of the action of the monkeys, which likewise abound, as to suggest a Simian ancestry or tutorship for man. I have known Tagal women to manifest profound surprise when told that our American ladies are not all similarly beset, and to laugh most heartily at an intimation that they would be likely to go into mortified seclusion if one poor pest should trouble them. The beautifully erect carriage of the women, which attracts the attention of the traveler, is largely a contribution to their physical welfare by the character of their labor ; the custom of carrying water jugs and other burdens upon the head, necessitating the stiffening of the spine and a throwing back of the shoulders, as well as a proper elevation of the head. The Tagal woman goes to the opposite extreme from her Chinese sisters, and gives to her naturally small feet full play and development by wearing sandals that do not bind at any point. And, unlike the women of the Occident, she does not bind herself at the waist, nor is she physically injured by the fickle goddess of the fashion-plate, which requires her to change her shape every four or five years to fit the dresses which are built for her. Always erect and unfettered, nature builds her form, and her loose, flowing costume, while there may be variety in texture and adorn- ment, is of unvaried shape and will leave her at the end to go back into the hands of her Maker undeformed. 28 Annals of the American Academy I doubt if ever more quaintly beautiful costumes or a more attractive scene have been witnessed than at the Mestizo reception given by the first American commission at their home in Malate ; the scintillation of countless diamonds adding to the tropical splendor. These natives are great bathers, and while it would con- duce to more universal cleanliness if soap were always used, they stand, as a race, as close to godliness as water alone can place them. They seem almost to be amphibious. The washer- women stand waist deep in water all day long. The fisher, men walk about in the water, sometimes neck deep, as they ply their trade. The fish must have taught the people to swim, so naturally do they glide through the stream. Even the boys and the girls are often expert divers, and consider it an easy way to earn money, to dive for coins that are thrown in the water. I have seen the men descending a ladder from their boats to the bottom of a stream, with buckets for dredging, and emerging only when these were filled with mud. It has been reported of them that they have dived under ships to ascertain whether the keels have been dam- aged, and that in case of trouble they have gone under the water to repair defective sheets of copper, driving in two or three nails each time before emerging for a breath of air. The imitativeness of the people is both a tribute to their quickwittedness and also an acknowledgment of the supe- riority of the races whom the}' copy. The lavish use of face- powder, which, on occasion, turns perspiration into paste, has often seemed to me a pitiful appeal from the women for deliverance from racial inferiority. No sooner had American troops appeared, than the Tagal soldiers, by watching them, had learned our drill tactics and were applying them in the instruction of their recruits. The children, everywhere in the streets, were doing the same and many of them were soon able to faultlessly execute our manual of arms. This imitative ability, which is a very marked character- The Races of the Philippines 29 istic of the people, is an evidence of a lack of originality and suggests a present inability for the duties of self-govern- ment, and at the same time it is a most hopeful factor for the United States in the effort to exemplify the form of liberal government and to tutor the people until they shall be able to practice it. The gambling propensity of the people is not indicative of a desire to take life very seriously. They are exceedingly fond of games of chance. Lotteries and raffles are popular. I have seen their so-called billiard halls crowded with men day after day, while the women toiled at home to make good the monetary deficiency. Racing is everywhere preva- lent, not only on the race-courses but also on the streets. The ordinary native coachman cannot resist the temptation to have a race on the streets, even though his conveyance be a public one. But it is in cock-fighting that the native finds his most engrossing amusement, and the ' ' galleras ' ' or cock- ing-mains are always scenes of intense excitement and spirited betting. It is the commonest of sights to see the native carrying his favorite rooster with him when he goes to his place of work or for a visit. My own cochero, having invested in a game-cock of apparently good points, deemed me incom- prehensibly fastidious because I objected to riding through the streets of Manila to the palace of the governor-general with the bird perched on the dash-board in front of him. He afterward told me that his rooster had killed several combat- ants and had won $300. The old Spanish law permitted marriage between girls of twelve years and boys of fifteen. I know of one case where one of these young husbands became disgusted because his wife persisted in taking her doll to bed with her, and he broke the habit and the doll at the same time. The court- ship as a rule takes place in the presence of a chaperon. There is an utiwritten law that a young man and woman must not ride in the same vehicle unattended, but the natives were quick to commend the liberal spirit prevailing among 30 Annai& of the American Academy Americans in these matters, as soon as their astonishment had passed away. Civil marriage, though once decreed, was by some influ- ence rendered inoperative, and the ceremony always took place when, where, and as the priest willed. Each of the parties gave to the other a ring, and coin was also used symbolically in the ceremony to indicate the bride's endow- ment by her husband. It is somewhat puzzling to the American who may have legal dealings with the natives, that the married women customarily sign their maiden names. Should the husband die, the woman frequently adds to her own maiden name the words, ' ' widow of . ' ' A man adds his mother's maiden name to that of his father, after his own Christian name. Thus the recently captured dictator wrote on the visiting card which he gave me the name " Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy." Family ties are very dear to these people and their home life is of such sweet simplicity as to captivate the stranger. At the sounding of the vesper bell and the lighting of the tapers, the children all come to kiss the parents' hands and say good evening. Even as you ride along the streets, if it becomes dark enough to light the side lamps of your vehicle, so soon as they are lighted, even though he has been conversing with you a moment before, your coachman will lift his hat to you and say " good evening, sir." Just as I was leaving Manila it began to be noised abroad that the Americans, wearied with the vacillation and treach- ery of many of the surrendered insurrectos, and determined to end the inordinately long rebellion, were about to adopt the deportation policy and send the offenders to Guam. So great was the native consternation at the mere rumor, that it was very easy to foresee what has since become evident, that this threatened rupture of family ties would be most effective in promoting peace. 2. Industrially. — Industrially considered, the Tagal often proves a vexing person. That the land is not all cultivated, The Races of the Philippines 31 the existing industries fully developed and new ones started, and that the natives are not rushing with American energy to get at their tasks, are all facts, but there are ameliorating considerations which must lighten the severity of their con- demnation for indolence and shiftlessness. Their Malay ancestry would not naturally be prophetic of great physical vigor, and the climatic consequences of long- continued life in the tropics inevitably appear in a disposi- tion to take things easy. There is always a tropical tendency to make haste slowly, and to adopt the " manana spirit ' ' of putting off till to-morrow everything which inter- feres with present comfort. It is very easy, and equally wise, to fall into the siesta-habit and doze away in some protected spot the hours from noon till 2 p. m. When we first entered Manila and until the American energy forced a change, the stores were all closed during these hours and it seemed as if the world had gone to sleep. There must also be added to a consideration of the depres- sion and enervation of climate the fact that there was no incentive to industry under the old regime. So heavy was the tax upon improvements that the native did not care to make them. The land was made to enrich adventurers who were clothed with brief authority. The history of the tobacco monopoly from 1781 to 1882, more than a century, had we the time to relate it, would show a despicable brutality on the part of Spain and at the same time suggest a reason for the native failure hitherto to make much of the natural resources of the country. The people have my sympathy in their lack of industrial development, and I am sure that the next decade will wit- ness a marvelous advance because they are permitted to profit from their own labor. The substitution of paternalism for piracy on the part of the government will open the way for the development of industrious habits. And yet there has been industry already, commensurate with the promised gain. Various fabrics are manufactured, 32 Annals of the American Academy as well as hats of fine texture and quality. The culture of tobacco and the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes has already reached large proportions. The laborious culture of rice, when it is considered that every little blade in the paddy fields must be transplanted by hand, speaks volumes for the native patience. The fisher- folk, with their immense contributions to the popular diet, are worthy members of their craft. There are mechanics, too, — wheelwrights, black- smiths, turners, carvers, carpenters, painters, stonemasons, machinists, engineers, shoemakers and others — bread win- ners, and demanding recognition by the student of industrial capacity and development among this people. And, as else- where, woman has her function in the industrial salvation of her race, and, whether we find her as a fisherwoman, or vending the products of sea and land; taking her place in the padd)' fields or assisting in the culture of tobacco and its preparation for sale and use; as seamstress, or bending from early morning till late at night over the low frames in which her exquisite embroidery and drawn work are done; she is doing what she can and will do more when it becomes worth while. 3. Politically. — Viewing the Tagal politically we fail to see on what basis men can predicate his capacity for self-govern- ment. The idea of independence was unknown in the earlier insurrection, when Aguinaldo sold himself to Spain in the treaty of Biaknabato. That insurrection was caused simply by an overmastering desire to accomplish certain reforms, such as the ejection of the friars and the secularization of education, and yet there was no proposition to lower the Spanish flag. If the Tagal is capable of self-government, the knowledge must be intuitive, for he has had no tutorage, having been kept always in most subordinate places. He has had no example. There has been before him no type of enduring government. He has seen only a government that was fall- ing by the weight of its own clumsiness, and losing its grip The Races of the Philippines 33 on every colonial possession in the on-coming palsy of its own corruption. As a result of it, the native has never gotten beyond the idea of quid pro quo in government. He expected always to pay the American officials for every act of justice or consideration, as he had paid the Spaniards, and in so far as the insurrectionary Tagal has had control in IyUzon, the policy has been one of loot and taxation and oppression worthy of the days of Spain. He lives in the typhoon area, and even aside from the hopelessness of his governing the other tribes, his moral atmosphere is such as to produce revolutions within his own territory, — as may be inferred from Aguinaldo's changes, from general to dictator, from dictator to president, assassinating Luna to cut short his rivalry, and again becoming dictator before his capture. It is never wise to build theories and try them on men, but rather to measure the man and make theories that will fit him. 4. Religiously . — Formerly the natives were pagans, but nearly all are, at least nominally, members of the Roman Church. There is everywhere manifested a fatalistic spirit, and the native, when told that his friend must die, will shrug his shoulders and say " Dios quiere," "God wills," and that ends the discussion. Many superstitions cling to the people. The more igno- rant native trusts implicitly in some form of ' ' n'ting n'ting," or mysterious hieroglyphic which, if worn constantly on his person, will ward off disease and death. The Roman custom of wearing scapulars seems in some way connected in their minds with this primitive belief, and the women particu- larly, will often deck themselves with a half dozen scapulars, with an evident reliance on numbers. There must have been a popular belief that Aguinaldo possessed some choice bit of "n'ting n'ting," for I have been told by Tagals, with utmost solemnity, that he was absolutely impervious to bullets; that they would be deflected 34 Annai^s of the American Academy by his anatomy as readily as by a stone wall. His head- quarters have always been so far to the rear as to render tests impossible. Great reliance is placed on images and relics. One of my first offices was to secure for a native nun the hand of San Vicente, which had been placed in the custody of the provost marshal general for safe keeping. It has since been within reach of the people, who attribute to it miraculous ministry in behalf of the sick. Pilgrimages, too, frequently take place, the Tagals visiting mainly, although there are others, the Virgin of Antipolo, in search of certain physical and spiritual relief. It is not surprising that at least a nominal Christianity is prevalent. Ramon Reyes Lala, a native and a Roman Catholic, writes that he has ' ' often seen delinquent parish- ioners flogged for non-attendance at mass." And the supreme court edict in 1696 imposed a penalty of twenty lashes and two months' labor upon the Chinese- Mestizos and others who failed " to go to church and act according to the established customs of the village." The female delinquent endured a month's public penance. Many of the Tagals share the belief of the Tinguianes that the soul absents itself from the body during sleep, and that sudden awakening must be avoided, through the fear that the soul might fail to get back in time and so be com- pelled to wander alone. Like all partially civilized people, these are fond of display, adornment, and ceremonial, and the Roman Church has been thoughtful in this respect in providing a patron saint for every puebla and in arranging frequent fiestas. 5. Morally. — Morally, the Tagal has puzzled many stu- dents by his peculiar freaks. Foreman quotes from the testimony of a priest who had spent many years in Batangas province. He says: " A native will serve a master satisfac- torily for years and then suddenly abscond, or commit some such hideous crime as conniving with a brigand band to murder the famity and pillage the house." The Races of the Philippines 35 Duplicity, falsehood and theft abound. That the native conscience has not been better educated along these lines, is probably due to the fact that the Spanish colonial govern" ment, as they saw it, was constantly exemplifying the same vices. The Oriental characteristic of extortion is nowhere better illustrated than among the Tagals, who understand the "pound of flesh" theory, that they are to be paid exactly as nominated in the bond, and who are content with such payment, but when the indulgent employer offers even a trifle beyond, will clamor loudly for a great deal more. For any sort of service or commodity it is still the custom to make a racial distinction in prices. A native coachman once told me with smiling suavity that he should charge me one dollar for my short ride; that he would have charged a Spaniard fifty cents, and a native forty cents — every man according to his means; that Americans had plenty of money and could pay more. Under the Spanish law he was entitled to exactly twenty cents. The modesty of the women is marked, and yet there is no false modesty. Their attitudes are always decorous. Guests must never see them without the customary panuela or neck- erchief. And yet they talk innocently of many subjects that would shock the propriety of parlor gatherings in America. The pride of the women in child-bearing is notable, and a discussion of the matter among acquaintances is not at all inappropriate. Marital fidelity, at least on the part of the women, is the rule. Prostitution is not unknown, and instead of the civ- ilized system of divorce, they have a substitute, in the system of marriage by contract, under which the parties remain together, month by month, just so long as each is satisfied and the bills are paid. People living in this state are not looked upon with the same degree of disfavor as the ordinary prostitutes. Cruelty to animals is an unfortunate blot upon native 36 Annals of the American Academy character. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has fallen heir to a magnificent mission beyond the Pacific. 6. Educationally. — Reference has frequently been made in America to the slight percentage of illiteracy among the Tagals, and while it is true that large numbers of the people can read and write, it is also true that the whole educational system under Spanish auspices was very much of a sham. Very little of the ordinary common school curriculum in America found its way into a Tagal school. With a total outlay of $238,650 in 1888, for educational work in the whole archipelago, and the payment of about fifteen dollars Mexi- can, for a teacher's monthly stipend, it would seem that the real work of education had scarcely been attempted. The teaching of doctrine was the main result of the system, although there are three or four schools of excellent grade under the control of the church. The deficiency in the line of popular education is not due to any defect in the Tagal mind. Brilliant men were for- merly in danger of death or deportation. The desire of the Tagal children for a knowledge of Eng- lish is one of the most encouraging signs, together with the hope of the parents that they may be tutored to the very limit of their ability; a hope whose fulfilment is being pro- vided for by the very liberal appropriations of the Taft Com- mission and the able planning of the superintendent, Dr. F. W. Atkinson. The Tagals want the American public school, and it is destined to prove a mighty factor in their evolution and our peace. 7. Artistically. — The native wood-carving in the Jesuit Church in Manila and elsewhere, gives evidence of much ability. I have often looked at Luna's celebrated painting, " The Blood Compact, ' ' which became the property of the Spanish government, and could not wonder that his people regarded The; Races of the; Philippines 37 him as a master. Another masterpiece from this Tagal hand was purchased by the city of Barcelona, after having been awarded the second prize at the exhibition in Madrid. I have always held that no one can be regarded as hope- less who loves music. If this be true, there is everything to hope from the Tagal people, for their love of music is universal and their musical genius extraordinary. Herein is large opportunity for their imitative powers, and they make extensive use of it. A great many of them have learned to play by note, but a multitude of others make marvelous progress in simply playing what they hear. American and European ballads are heard in the majority of native homes. Occasionally one is found with some- thing of the genius of a composer, and if only the training could be added that would help the man to realize his con- ception, the world would begin to know it. Bands and orchestras everywhere abound. The bass drummer is the leader, and the ability to play by ear enables the musician to do as good work in the dark as in the light. One of my pleasantest remembrances of ante-insurrection- ary days is of a serenade from the Pasig Band of some seventy pieces, as they stood around the house in the dark and played for our pleasure one difficult selection after another, and as faultlessly as the most fastidious could desire. There is often a shortage in musical taste, as when an orchestra plays ' ' The Star Spangled Banner ' ' at the elevation of the host during mass, or when the band at a funeral strikes up "There '11 Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night." But it is all-important to have so universal a musical instinct. The matter of taste will receive attention and education from American enthusiasts later on. 8. Pathologically. — The ravages of disease among the Tagals often result from lack of care, lack of knowledge and neglect of the simplest principles of sanitary science. Small-pox has always been a scourge during the hot sea- son, or at the close of winter, but there was formerly no 38 Annals of the American Academy system of quarantine, and one might as easily meet a case in the street car as anywhere else. The American occupa- tion has resulted in greatly reducing the sick rate from this cause. I^eprosy has been of more frequent occurrence than was necessary. For, while certain leper hospitals were estab- lished, there was no very earnest effort at segregation. The Emperor of Japan sent a cargo of lepers to the islands at one time. The American authorities have been arranging for a leper settlement on one of the smaller islands and with careful handling of the subject will doubtless check the spread of the disorder. Death in child-birth is very common, and infantile dis- eases, during the first month, prove fatal in about 25 per cent of cases. Intestinal disorders are particularly to be dreaded because of their virulence and stubbornness. Anaemia and its results among women is a fruitful source of danger. In so many cases disordered menstruation fol- lows and its neglect saps the very foundation of health. Pulmonary disorders are of more frequent occurrence than is ordinarily supposed. Cutaneous diseases are exceedingly common, whether pro- duced by the prevalent fish diet, as is often claimed, or not. I have heard it stated many times that syphilitic disorders are very widespread. But I have seen so many of these alleged syphilitic sores healed by a free use of soap and water, or by some simple antiseptic preparation, as to convince me that in a majority of cases, they are caused by scratching mosquito bites or abrasions of the skin with an unclean finger-nail. Dobee itch — the name being derived from the Hindu word dhobi, signifying a washerman — is probably a common cause of the scratching habit among the natives, and has harassed many Americans of scrupulously cleanly ways. It is truly a washerman's itch, and is transmitted to the for- eigner by the hidden germs in his laundered clothing, clean The Races of the Philippines 39 as it may appear when it returns from the wash. The washer-folk, despite all advice to the contrary, will persist in using cold and often dirty water for all laundry purposes, and will not subject the linen to the boiling process. The result to the wearer of the clothing is often a maddening irritation of the skin, which will spare neither low born nor those of high degree. Verily, laundry in the Philippines is a lottery, and one never knows whether the remnants of his underwear which are brought to him after they have been clubbed and pound- ed on the rocks by his native laundryman are bringing him a heritage of cutaneous irritation and muscular activity or not. When American methods prevail, as one day they will, in Luzon, the itch of the dobees, like the oppression of «the Dons, will be but a dream of long ago. Much remains to be done for the Tagal from a medical point of view, but he has already been blessed with wonder- ful sanitary improvement since Manila became an American city. Conclusion. — Without any attempt at exhaustive treat- ment, for a very great deal remains to be said, I have endeavored to give some hints that may be helpful in form- ing an estimate of Tagal life and character. And now a final word as to this newest baby in our polit- ical famiby. We didn't expect him, but we have him. We don't like his complexion or his features, but he may out- grow them. He hasn't been a good baby thus far, and we've lost a lot of sleep on account of him. He's been a costly mortal, but that is not unusual. And, after all, we begin to like him just a little, and look forward to the time when we may take paternal pride in his achievements. THE SEMI-CIVILIZED TRIBES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. BY REV. OLIVER C. MILLER, A.M., D.D., CHAPLAIN U. S. ARMY (4i; THE SEMI-CIVILIZED TRIBES OF THE PHILIP- PINE ISLANDS. By Rev. Oliver C. Miller, A. M., Chaplain U. S. Army. Having spent over a year with the advance guard of our army in the Philippines, I had an opportunity to see much of the natives. From my deep interest in them, I always esteem it a privilege to write anything that will tend to make their condition better understood, and advance them in that development for which I have found them eminently fitted. It must be remembered that one cannot see the best of a people after they have been actively engaged for over four years in trying to throw off the oppressive Span- ish yoke, and who were, at the time I was among them, for the lack of a right understanding of the kindly intentions of our government, in a state of rebellion against our own flag. To see the people of any country one must go beyond the seaport towns, far into the interior. This I had an oppor- tunity of doing; often being with the first American troops. that had been seen in the land, from Northern Luzon to the Sulu group. I want to state at the very beginning of this article, that I have become very fond of the races of the Philippines. And, after traveling both in China and Japan I can truth- fully say that I prefer them to any foreigners I have ever visited. What makes them so interesting is that one is relieved of that sameness which is so manifest in other foreign countries. Each tribe, and, indeed, each section of the same tribe, presents something new. Our brave General Lawton, whose chaplain it was my privilege to be, well understood and loved these people. No man could fight them so hard, and none could excel him in their protection and right treatment when once they were. (43) 44 Annals of the American Academy subdued. He saw with prophetic eye the splendid suscepti- bilities of the people of the Philippines. And their love for him is still unceasing. The following incident tells of their devotion to him: A few months ago, while the writer was standing at his grave in our beautiful Arlington, a num- ber of visitors gathered around, and while speaking of our fallen hero there was no heart more moved with sorrow than that of a Filipino student who happened to be there. The races of the Philippines have their failings, but they have been dreadfully misrepresented. No one who has made a study of the human heart and acquired a God-like sympathy and compassion for the frailties of mortals, or who at all understands the Fatherhood of the race in God, or the brotherhood in His Son, can fail to see the uplifting, Divine mission of America in the Philippines. Our greatest danger is with ourselves, lest we fail in those excellencies of char- acter which qualify us to teach and lift up those who have not had the same opportunities. Our greatest need in these days of territorial expansion is charaderial expansion. The maintenance of our own integrity and uprightness of char- acter must qualify us to be teachers of others. The Spanish government has made mistakes enough along these lines to last for ages. While speaking of the semi-civilized tribes, we must not fail to mention the thousands of uncivilized people who look up to us for their first lessons. These are scattered over all the islands, and usually dwell upon the mountain tops. Chief among them are the Negritos, supposed to be the aborigines. They are very dark, with curly hair — a puny, stupid race of Negroid dwarfs, and capable of but little development; most likely destined to disappear before the advance of civilization. To this rule, however, the Igorrotes are likely to prove an exception, as they are a splendid race physically. In some localities they are already asking for English schools. These uncivilized tribes vary in different parts of the archipelago, and are usually of a low order; but Skmi- Civilized Tribes of the Philippines 45 rarely ever hostile to strangers, though frequently at war among their own tribes. They are found in great numbers, and are compelled by the semi-civilized tribes to seek the mountain tops for places of abode. Since the Igorrotes form the link between the uncivilized and the semi-civilized tribes it may be well for us to give a brief description of them. They are scattered about the mountain tops of the northern half of L,uzon. They are of a copper color, wear their hair long, have high cheek-bones, broad shoulders and brawny and powerful limbs. The men have strong chests and well-developed muscles of great strength and power of endurance. The women have well- formed figures and rounded limbs. Both sexes wear their hair cut in a fringe over their foreheads, reaching down to the eyebrows and covering the ears, and left long enough in the back to be gathered up into a knot. Their dress varies from a mere apron to a handsome jacket of blue, crim- son or white stripes. While the word Igorrote has come to be synonymous with heathen highlander, it must not be forgotten that this tribe in many places manifests some degree of civilization. Tattooing is very common among them, and in central Benguit, where they worship the sun, one can hardly find a man or woman who has not a figure of the sun tattooed in blue on the back of the hand. They manufacture quite a number of crude-looking articles, such as short, double-edged swords, javelins and axes. They are great smokers, and drink a beer made of fer- mented cane-juice, but have not adopted the Malayan custom of chewing buyo. There is a settlement of Christian Igor- rotes on the coast of Ilocos Sur. This, however, is the one exception to their constant determination to resist any effort on the part of the Catholic Church to convert them to Chris- tianity. They express no desire to go to the same heaven as the Spaniard, since the officers and men composing the expedition sent against them in 1881 so abominably abused their women. 46 Annai,s of the American Academy The richest man among them is usually made chief, and the wealthier families vie with one another in a display of wealth at their great feasts; the common people among them not being invited, but only allowed to assemble at beat of drum. Their houses are built upon posts above the ground, or supported by four trunks of trees, and thatched with canes or bamboo and roofed with elephant grass. They are much inferior to the houses of the domesticated natives, having no chimneys or windows; only a small door, the ladder to which is drawn up at night for protection against their enemies. Though superior in some respects to the Tagals, they are much inferior to them in regard to cleanliness. They neglect to wash their clothing or clean their houses. Each village has a town-hall, where the council assembles to attend to the litigation for the commu- nity, such as administering punishment to the guilty and hearing requests for divorces. At this place also the public festivals take place, and are very unique and interesting. Their language consists of several dialects, and some of their head men coming in contact with the Ilocanos have learned to speak and write their language for the purpose of trading. Some twenty years ago they conducted seven schools in Lepanto, which were attended by six hundred children, of whom one-sixth could read and write. Writers who know them best give them credit for great industry and skill in everything they undertake. They possess many manufac- tured articles, embracing uniforms, weapons of war, sword belts, medicine pouches, accoutrements for their horses, beautiful woven garments for the chief women, ornamented waterpots, great varieties of hats, and waterproof capes made of the leaves of the anajas. They abound in orna- ments, such as necklaces made of reeds, the vertebrae of snakes, colored seeds, coronets of rattan and of sweet- scented wood. The " chachang" is a plate of gold, used by their chiefs to cover their teeth at feasts or when they present themselves to distinguished visitors. They excel Semi-Civilized Tribes of the Philippines 47 in the manufacture of household articles and musical instru- ments. The Tinguianes dwell in the district of Elabra, Luzon ; and were under the Spanish control. In their advance toward civilization they surpass the Igorrotes, and are entitled to be classed among the semi-civilized tribes. They prefer to make their own laws and usually abide by them. The head man of the village is the judge, and upon assum- ing his office he takes the following oath: "May the destruc- tive whirlwind kill me, may the lightning strike me, and may the alligator devour me when I am asleep if I fail to do my duty." As a race they are very intelligent and well formed, many of them being really handsome. They are supposed to have descended from the Japanese, shipwrecked upon the Philippine coasts; like the Japanese, they wear a tuft of hair on the crown of their heads, tattoo their bodies, and blacken their teeth. They are very fond of music, and are pagans without temples, it being their custom to hide their gods in the mountain caves. They believe in the efficacy of prayer to supply material needs, — are mono- gamists, and their children are generally forced to marry before the age of puberty. The bridegroom or his father must purchase the bride. They live in cabins on posts or in trees, sometimes sixty feet from the ground. When attacked they throw down stones upon their enemies, and by this method of protection they can dwell quite securely. Like all head hunters, they adorn their dwellings with the skulls of their victims, carry a lance as a common weapon, and are without bows and arrows. They appear to be as intelligent as the ordinary subdued natives; and are by no means savages, nor entirely strangers to domestic life. Thus far their conversion to Christianity has proven impossible. In the Morong District of Luzon there is a race of people who are supposed to be descendants of the Hindoos who deserted from the British army during their occupation of Manila, and migrated up the Pasig River. Their notable 48 Annates of the American Academy features are black skin, aquiline nose, bright expression and regular features. They are Christians, law-abiding, and more industrious than the Philippine natives. They were the only class who paid their taxes, and yet, on the ground that generations ago they were intruders on the soil, they were more heavily laden with imposts than their neighbors. In addition to these a few Albinos are to be seen on the islands. The Pampangos are a most interesting tribe, dwelling mainly in the provinces of Pampauga and Tarlac. In 1876 they numbered 294,000. Their language differs from that of the Tagal, and many of the better class speak both lan- guages. This tribe is much like the Tagal in character, and the difference comes largely from environment and occupation. The Pampango excels in agriculture, is a good organizer of labor, rides well, is a good hunter, and makes a bold and determined sailor. The Spanish used them to great advantage as soldiers in fighting against the Moros, British and Dutch. They have many fine houses, and are a good class of natives. The traveler will never fail to find them hospitable. Their principal industry is the cultivation of sugar, and from it they make considerable money, notwithstanding the great disadvantages experienced on account of the unfavorable conditions imposed upon them by the government of Spain. When peace is once restored, hardly any people in the archipelago will be found to excel them in thrift, with the favoring opportunities given under American occupation. They are classed among domesticated natives, are converts of the established church, and manifest a considerable degree of civilization. These people and the surrounding half-savage tribes are, perhaps, the largest dealers in the most important product, nipa palm, used so extensively in house-building as a thatching, both for sides and roof. The juice of the plant is also fermented and dis- tilled, and produces abundant alcohol in the strongest form. The Pampangos may well be accounted the best horsemen among the natives. Some of them hunt the deer on ponies, Semi-Civiuzed Tribes of the Philippines 49 and chase at full speed up or down the mountains, no matter how rough, and often get near enough to throw or even use the lance in hand. Their saddles are of a miniature Mexi- can pattern, and their ponies, about twelve or thirteen hands high, are strong and enduring, as was shown by their carry- ing the heavily accoutred American cavalrymen, over what might be termed impassable roads, with almost as much ease as the large American horses. The women of this tribe deserve a word of special mention. So great is their faculty for business that the men rarefy venture upon a bargain without their help. They are fine seamstresses, very good at embroidery, and excel in weaving silk handkerchiefs with beautiful borders of blue, red and purple. They produce the celebrated Manila hat in its best form and texture, together with many other useful and beautiful articles of this kind. Their houses are kept clean, and are quite spacious ; the floors being made of close- grained hard wood, which makes them very desirable for dancing after having been polished. The Pangasinanes, dwelling in the province of Zambales, I,uzon, number about 300,000. They are not as hard working as the Ilocanos, and were subjugated by Spain and brought into the established church. They are a hardier race than the Tagals. Their chief occupation is the cultiva- tion of rice, which is the lowest class of agriculture and practiced by the poorest people. A little sugar is produced by them, but it is of poor quality. At one time they exported indigo and sapan wood. Their chief industry is the manufacture of hats, hundreds of thousands of which have been sent from Calasias to this country; they are made from " nito," or grass. The mountain streams are washed for gold by the women; but only a meagre supply is found. A writer who has studied them rather closely says: "Their civilization is only skin deep, and one of their decided characteristics is a propensity to abandon their villages and take to the mountains, out of reach of authority. " 50 AnnaIvS of the American Academy During all the time I was with the advance guard of our ar- mies in Luzon, under Generals Mc Arthur, Young and Law- ton, I found no people I liked as well as the Ilocanos. The following incident will show how teachable and trustworthy they are : While with the Fourth Cavalry guarding the town of Carringlan, a mountain pass separated by many miles from any other command of our army, two hundred bolo men came in to recapture the town; but they were soon taken by our men, disarmed and quartered in the village church. By means of interpreters I began to talk with them, told them of our kind intentions, and encouraged them to hold religious services according to their form. This they did regularly and devoutly. Before two days had passed they were our allies. And when fifty per cent of our men were taken ill with the dengue fever they proved very val- uable and willing helpers. The Ilocanos are a hard-working race dwelling in north- western Luzon, extending over the province of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and La Union, and branching into the surround- ing country. They are classed among the domesticated natives, and have for three centuries been under the control of the Catholic Church, to which they are very devoted. They are less inclined to insurrection, and it can safely be said that they have given the authorities of our country the least trouble. They are very tractable, and will doubtless excel most of the tribes of the archipelago when brought under the just administration to be given by the American people. The Ilocanos also make nets for fish and for deer and pigs; baskets of all sorts, and salacots or hats. They grow two kinds of cotton for textiles — the white and the coyote. Another kind, a tree cotton, from the boboy, is only used for stuffing pillows. They extract oil from the seeds of all three kinds. Like the other natives, they live principally on rice and fish, which they capture in large quantities. They have fine cattle, which they sell to the Igorrotes. It will be noted that the Tinguianes, on the Semi-Civilized Tribes of the Philippines 51 other hand, sell cattle to the Ilocanos. The ponies of Ilocos are highly valued in Manila, where there is a great demand for them. They are smaller than the ponies of other prov- inces, but are very hardy and spirited and travel at a great pace. Tulisanes formerly infested these provinces and found a read}' refuge in the mountains when pursued by the cua- drilleros, or village constables, who were only armed with bolos, lances and a few old muskets. But the creation of the civil guard, formed of picked officers and men, who were armed with Remingtons and revolvers, and whose orders were, ' ' Do not hesitate to shoot, ' ' made this business very dangerous, and the three provinces now suffer little from brigandage. Even in this hasty review the Cagayanes are worthy of mention. They inhabit the Babuyanes and Batana Islands, and the northern coast of Luzon from Point Lacaytacay to Punta Kscarpada and all the country between the Rio Grande and the summits of the Sierra Madre as far south as Balasig. They are spoken of as the finest race in the islands, and as having furnished the strongest resistance to the Spaniards. They were, however, early conquered and converted to Christianity. Of all the tribes the Macabebes are best known to the Americans, on account of their eagerness at the first oppor- tunity to fight under the Stars and Stripes. Their territory lies directly north of Manila Bay in the Province of Pam- panga. An old feud existing between them and the Tagals has to this day kept the tribes in bitter enmity. This has doubtless in a great measure influenced them in taking up arms with the Americans against the Tagals. They did excellent service as scouts in the advance made by General Lawton, under the leadership of Major Batson, proving themselves fearless and efficient. Many of them having been in the Spanish army were already drilled. They have proved themselves loyal and trustworthy, and now constitute a most efficient command known as the Philippine Cavalry. 52 Annai cation in submission, carelessness and stealing. After eman- cipation it was the plain duty of some one to assume this group leadership and training of the Negro laborer. I will not stop here to inquire whose duty it was — whether that of the white ex-master who had profited by unpaid toil, or the Northern philanthropist whose persistence brought the crisis, or of the National Government whose edict freed the bondsmen — I will not stop to ask whose duty it was, but I insist it was the duty of some one to see that these workingmen were not left alone and unguided without capital, landless, without skill, with- out economic organization, without even the bald protection of law, order and decency ; left in a great land not to settle down to slow and careful internal development, but destined to be thrown almost immediately into relentless, sharp com- petition with the best of modern workingmen under an eco- nomic system where every participant is fighting for himself, and too often utterly regardless of the rights or welfare of his neighbor. For we must never forget that the economic system of the South to-day which has succeeded the old regime is not the same system as that of the old industrial North, of England or of France with their trades unions, their restrictive laws, their written and unwritten commercial customs and their 126 Annals of the American Academy long experience. It is rather a copy of that England of the early nineteenth century, before the factory acts, the England that wrung pity from thinkers and fired the wrath of Carlyle. The rod of empire that passed from the hands of Southern gentlemen in 1865, partly by force, partly by their own petulance, has never returned to them. Rather it has passed to those men who have come to take charge of the industrial exploitation of the New South — the sons of poor whites fired with a new thirst for wealth and power, thrifty and avaricious Yankees, shrewd and unscrupulous Jews. Into the hands of these men the Southern laborers, white and black, have fallen, and this to their sorrow. For the laborers as such there is in these new captains of industry neither love nor hate, neither sympathy nor romance — it is a cold question of dollars and dividends. Under such a system all labor is bound to suffer. Even the white laborers are not yet intelligent, thrifty and well trained enough to maintain themselves against the powerful inroads of organ- ized capital. The result among them even, is long hours of toil, low wages, child labor, and lack of protection against usury and cheating. But among the black laborers all this is aggravated, first, by a race prejudice which varies from a doubt and distrust among the best element of whites to a frenzied hatred among the worst ; and, secondly, it is aggra- vated, as I have said before, by the wretched economic heritage of the freedmen from slavery. With this training it is difficult for the freedman to learn to grasp the oppor- tunities already opened to him, and the new opportunities are seldom given him but go by favor to the whites. Left by the best elements of the South with little protection or oversight, he has been made in law and custom the victim of the worst and most unscrupulous men in each community. The crop-lien system which is depopulating the fields of the South is not simply the result of shiftlessness on the part of Negroes but is also the result of cunningly devised laws as to mortgages, liens and misdemeanors which Relation of the Negroes to the Whites 127 can be made by conscienceless men to entrap and snare the unwary until escape is impossible, further toil a farce, and protest a crime. I have seen in the black belt of Georgia an ignorant, honest Negro buy and pay for a farm in installments three separate times, and then in the face of law and decency the enterprising Russian Jew who sold it to him pocketed money and deed and left the black man land- less, to labor on his own land at thirty cents a day. I have seen a black farmer fall in debt to a white storekeeper and that storekeeper go to his farm and strip it of every single marketable article — mules, plows, stored crops, tools, furni- ture, bedding, clocks, looking-glass, and all this without a warrant, without process of law, without a sheriff or officer, in the face of the law for homestead exemptions, and without rendering to a single responsible person any account or reckoning. And such proceedings can happen and will happen in any community where a class of igno- rant toilers are placed by custom and race prejudice beyond the pale of sympathy and race brotherhood. So long as the best elements of a community do not feel in duty bound to protect and train and care for the weaker members of their group they leave them to be preyed upon by these swindlers and rascals. y . This unfortunate economic situation does not mean the hindrance of all advance in the black south, or the absence of a class of black landlords and mechanics who, in spite of disadvantages, are accumulating property and making good citizens. But it does mean that this class is not nearly so large as a fairer economic system might easily make it, that those who survive in the competition are handicapped so as to accomplish much less than they deserve to, and that above all, the personnel of the success- ful class is left to chance and accident, and not to any intelligent culling or reasonable methods of selection. As a remedy for this, there is but one possible procedure. We must accept some of the race prejudice in the South as a 128 Annals of the American Academy fact — deplorable in its intensity, unfortunate in results, and dangerous for the future, but nevertheless a hard fact which only time can efface. We cannot hope then in this genera- tion, or for several generations, that the mass of the whites can be brought to assume that close sympathetic and self- sacrificing leadership of the blacks which their present situation so eloquently demands. Such leadership, such social teaching and example, must come from the blacks themselves. For sometime men doubted as to whether the Negro could develop such leaders, but to-day no one seriously disputes the capability of individual Negroes to assimilate the culture and common sense of modern civilization, and to pass it on to some extent, at least, to their fellows. If this be true, then here is the path out of the economic situation, and here is the imperative demand for trained Negro leaders of character and intelligence, men of skill, men of light and leading, college-bred men, black captains of industry and missionaries of culture. Men who thoroughly comprehend and know modern civilization and can take hold of Negro communities and raise and train them by force of precept and example, deep sympathy and the inspiration of common blood and ideals. But if such men are to be effective they must have some power — they must be backed by the best public opinion of these com- munities, and able to wield for their objects and aims such weapons as the experience of the world has taught are indispensable to human progress, Of such weapons the greatest, perhaps, in the modern world is the power of the ballot, and this brings me to a consideration of the third form of contact between whites and blacks in the South — political activity. In the attitude of the American mind toward Negro suff- rage, can be traced with singular accuracy the prevalent conceptions of government. In the sixties we were near enough the echoes of the French Revolution to believe pretty thoroughly in universal suffrage. We argued, as we Relation of the Negroes to the Whites 129 thought then rather logically, that no social class was so good, so true and so disinterested as to be trusted wholly with the political destiny of their neighbors ; that in every state the best arbiters of their own welfare are the persons directly affected, consequently it is only by arming every hand with a ballot — with the right to have a voice in the policy of the state — that the greatest good to the greatest number could be attained. To be sure there were objections to these arguments, but we thought we had answered them tersely and convincingly ; if some one complained of the ignorance of voters, we answered : " Educate them." If another complained of their venality we replied : ' ' Dis- franchise them or put them in jail." And finally to the men who feared demagogues and the natural perversity of some human beings, we insisted that time and bitter experi- ence would teach the most hardheaded. It was at this time that the question of Negro suffrage in the South was raised. Here was a defenseless people suddenly made free. How were they to be protected from those who did not believe in their freedom and were determined to thwart it ? Not by force, said the North ; not by government guardianship, said the South ; then by the ballot, the sole and legitimate defense of a free people, said the Common Sense of the nation. No one thought at the time that the ex-slaves could use the ballot intelligently or very effectively, but they did think that the possession of so great power, by a great class in the nation would compel their fellows to edu- cate this class to its intelligent use. Meantime new thoughts came to the nation : the inevitable period of moral retrogression and political trickery that ever follows in the wake of war overtook us. So flagrant became the political scandals that reputable men began to leave politics alone, and politics consequently became disreputable. Men began to pride themselves on having nothing to do with their own government and to agree tacitly with those who regarded public office as a private perquisite. In this 130 Annals of the American Academy state of mind it became easy to wink at the suppression of the Negro vote in the South, and to advise self-respecting Negroes to leave politics entirely alone. The decent and reputable citizens of the North who neglected their own civic duties grew hilarious over the exaggerated importance with which the Negro regarded the franchise. Thus it easily happened that more and more the better class of Negroes followed the advice from abroad and the pressure from home and took no further interest in politics, leaving to the careless and the venal of their race the exercise of their rights as voters. This black vote which still remained was not trained and educated but further debauched by open and unblushing bribery, or force and fraud, until the Negro voter was thoroughly inoculated with the idea that politics was a method of private gain by disreputable means. And finally, now, to-day, when we are awakening to the fact that the perpetuity of republican institutions on this continent depends on the purification of the ballot, the civic training of voters, and the raising of voting to the plane of a solemn duty which a patriotic citizen neglects to his peril and to the peril of his children's children — in this day when we are striving for a renaissance of civic virtue, what are we going to say to the black voter of the South ? Are we going to tell him still that politics is a disreputable and useless form of human activity ? Are we going to induce the best class of Negroes to take less and less interest in government and give up their right to take such an interest without a protest ? I am not saying a word against all legitimate efforts to purge the ballot of ignorance, pauper- ism and crime. But few have pretended that the present movement for disfranchisement in the South is for such a purpose ; it has been plainly and frankly declared in nearly every case that the object of the disfranchising laws is the elimination of the black man from politics. Now is this a minor matter which has no influence on the main question of the industrial and intellectual development Relation of the Negroes to the Whites 131 of the Negro ? Can we establish a mass of black laborers, artisans and landholders in the South who by law and public opinion have absolutely no voice in shaping the laws under which they live and work. Can the modern organiza- tion of industry, assuming as it does free democratic govern- ment and the power and ability of the laboring classes to compel respect for their welfare — can this system be carried out in the South when half its laboring force is voiceless in the public councils and powerless in its own defense ? To-day the black man of the South has almost nothing to say as to how much he shall be taxed, or how those taxes shall be ex- pended ; as to who shall execute the laws and how they shall do it ; as to who shall make the laws and how they shall be made. It is pitiable that frantic efforts must be made at critical times to get lawmakers in some states even to listen to the respectful presentation of the black side of a current controversy. Daily the Negro is coming more and more to look upon law and justice not as protecting safeguards but as sources of humiliation and oppression. The laws are made by men who as yet have little interest in him ; they are executed by men who have absolutely no motive for treating the black people with courtesy or consideration, and finally the accused lawbreaker is tried not by his peers but too often by men who would rather punish ten innocent Negroes than let one guilty one escape. I should be the last one to deny the patent weaknesses and shortcomings of the Negro people ; I should be the last to withhold sympathy from the white South in its efforts to solve its intricate social problems. I freely acknowledge that it is possible and sometimes best that a partially unde- veloped people should be ruled by the best of their stronger and better neighbors for their own good, until such time as they can start and fight the world's battles alone. I have already pointed out how sorely in need of such economic and spiritual guidance the emancipated Negro was, and I am quite willing to admit that if the representatives of the 132 Annals of the American Academy best white southern public opinion were the ruling and guiding powers in the South to-day that the conditions indicated would be fairly well fulfilled. But the point I have insisted upon and now emphasize again is that the best opinion of the South to-day is not the ruling opinion. That to leave the Negro helpless and without a ballot to-day is to leave him not to the guidance of the best but rather to the exploitation and debauchment of the worst ; that this is no truer of the South than of the North — of the North than of Europe — in any land, in any country under modern free competition, to lay any class of weak and despised people, be they white, black or blue, at the political mercy of their stronger, richer and more resourceful fellows is a temptation which human nature seldom has and seldom will withstand. Moreover the political status of the Negro in the South is closely connected with the question of Negro crime. There can be no doubt that crime among Negroes has greatly in- creased in the last twenty years and that there has appeared in the slums of great cities a distinct criminal class among the blacks. In explaining this unfortunate developement we must note two things, ( 1 ) that the inevitable result of eman- cipation was to increase crime and criminals, and (2) that the police system of the South was primarily designed to control slaves. As to the first point we must not forget that under a strict slave regime there can scarcely be such a thing as crime. But when these variously constituted human particles are suddenly thrown broadcast on the sea of life, some swim, some sink, and some hang suspended, to be forced up or down by the chance currents of a busy hurrying world. So great an economic and social revolution as swept the South in '63 meant a weeding out among the Negroes of the incompetents and vicious — the beginning of a differentiation of social grades. Now a rising group of people are not lifted bodily from the ground like an inert solid mass, but rather stretch upward like a living plant with its roots still clinging in the mold. The appearance, therefore, of the Negro criminal was Relation of the Negroes to the Whites 133 a phenomenon to be awaited, and while it causes anxiety it should not occasion surprise. Here again the hope for the future depended peculiarly on careful and delicate dealing with these criminals. Their offenses at first were those of laziness, carelessness and impulse rather than of malignity or ungoverned viciousness. Such misdemeanors needed discriminating treatment, firm but reformatory, with no hint of injustice and full proof of guilt. For such dealing with criminals, white or black, the South had no machinery, no adequate jails or reformatories and a police system arranged to deal with blacks alone, and which tacitly assumed that every white man was ipso facto a member of that police. Thus grew up a double system of justice which erred on the white side by undue leniency and the practical immunity of red-handed criminals, and erred on the black side by undue severity, injustice and lack of dis- crimination. For, as I have said, the police system of the South was originally designed to keep track of all Negroes, not simply of criminals, and when the Negroes were freed and the whole South was convinced of the impossibility of free Negro labor, the first and almost universal device was to use the courts as a means of re-enslaving the blacks. It was not then a question of crime but rather of color that settled a man's conviction on almost any charge. Thus Negroes came to look upon courts as instruments of injustice and oppression, and upon those convicted in them as martyrs and victims. When now the real Negro criminal appeared and, instead of petty stealing and vagrancy, we began to have highway robbery, burglary, murder and rape, it had a curious effect on both sides the color line ; the Negroes refused to believe the evidence of white witnesses or the fairness of white juries, so that the greatest deterrent to crime, the public opinion of one's own social caste was lost and the criminal still looked upon as crucified rather than hanged. On the other hand the whites, used to being careless as to the guilt or inno- 134 Annans of the American Academy cence of accused Negroes, were swept in moments of passion beyond law, reason and decency. Such a situation is bound to increase crime and has increased it. To natural vicious- ness and vagrancy is being daily added motives of revolt and revenge which stir up all the latent savagery of both races and make peaceful attention to economic development often impossible. But the chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals but the pre- venting of the young from being trained to crime. And here again the peculiar conditions of the South have pre- vented proper precautions. I have seen twelve- year-old boys working in chains on the public streets of Atlanta, di- rectly in front of the schools, in company with old and hard- ened criminals ; and this indiscriminate mingling of men, women and children makes the chain-gangs perfect schools of crime and debauchery, The struggle for reformatories which has gone on in Virginia, Georgia and other states is the one encouraging sign of the awakening of some commu- nities to the suicidal results of this policy. It is the public schools, however, which can be made out- side the homes the greatest means of training decent self- respecting citizens. We have been so hotly engaged recently in discussing trade schools and the higher education that the pitiable plight of the public school system in the South has almost dropped from view. Of every five dollars spent for public education in the State of Georgia the white schools get four dollars and the Negro one dollar, and even then the white public school system, save in the cities, is bad and cries for reform. If this be true of the whites, what of the blacks ? I am becoming more and more convinced as I look upon the system of common school training in the South that the national government must soon step in and aid popiilar edu- cation in some way. To-day it has been only by the most strenuous efforts on the part of the thinking men of the South that the Negro's share of the school fund has not been cut Relation of the Negroes to the Whites 135 down to a pittance in some half dozen states, and that move- ment not only is not dead but in many communities is gain- ing strength. What in the name of reason does this nation expect of a people poorly trained and hard pressed in severe economic competition, without political rights and with ludicrously inadequate common school facilities ? What can it expect but crime and listlessness, offset here and there by the dogged struggles of the fortunate and more deter- mined who are themselves buoyed by the hope that in due time the country will come to its senses ? I have thus far sought to make clear the physical eco- nomic and political relations of the Negroes and whites in the South as I have conceived them, including for the rea- sons set forth, crime and education. But after all that has been said on these more tangible matters of human contact there still remains a part essential to a proper description of the South which it is difficult to describe or fix in terms easily understood by" strangers. It is, in fine, the atmosphere of the land, the thought and feeling, the thousand and one little actions which go to make up life. In any community or nation it is these little things which are most elusive to the grasp and yet most essential to any clear conception of the group life, taken as a whole. What is thus true of all com- munities is peculiarly true of the South where, outside of written history and outside of printed law, there has been going on for a generation, as deep a storm and stress of hu- man souls, as intense a ferment of feeling, as intricate a writhing of spirit as ever a people experienced. Within and without the sombre veil of color, vast social forces have been at work, efforts for human betterment, movements toward disintegration and despair, tragedies and comedies in social and economic life, and a swaying and lifting and sinking of human hearts which have made this land a land of mingled sorrow and joy, of change and excitement. The centre of this spiritual turmoil has ever been the millions of black freedmen and their sons, whose destiny is 136 Annals of the American Academy so fatefully bound up with that of the nation. And yet the casual observer visiting the South sees at first little of this. He notes the growing frequency of dark faces as he rides on, but otherwise the days slip lazily on, the sun shines and this little world seems as happy and contented as other worlds he has visited. Indeed, on the question of questions, the Negro problem, he hears so little that there almost seems to be a conspiracy of silence ; the morning papers seldom mention it, and then usually in a far-fetched academic way, and indeed almost every one seems to forget and ignore the darker half of the land, until the astonished visitor is inclined to ask if after all there is any problem here. But if he lingers long enough there comes the awakening : per- haps in a sudden whirl of passion which leaves him gasping at its bitter intensity ; more likely in a gradually dawning sense of things he had not at first noticed. Slowly but surely his eyes begin to catch the shadows of the color line; here he meets crowds of Negroes and whites ; then he is suddenly aware that he cannot discover a single dark face ; or again at the close of a day's wandering he may find himself in some strange assembly, where all faces are tinged brown or black, and where he has the vague uncomfortable feeling of the stranger. He realizes at last that silently, resistlessly, the world about flows by him in two great streams. They ripple on in the same sunshine, they ap- proach here and mingle their waters in seeming carelessness, the}' divide then and flow wide apart. It is done quietly, no mistakes are made, or if one occurs the swift arm of the law and public opinion swings down for a moment, as when the other day a black man and a white woman were arrested for talking together on Whitehall street, in Atlanta. Now if one notices carefully one will see that between these two worlds, despite much physical contact and daily intermingling, there is almost no community of intellectual life or points of transference where the thoughts and feelings of one race can come with direct contact and sympathy with Relation of the Negroes to the Whites 137 the thoughts and feelings of the other. Before and directly after the war when all the best of the Negroes were domestic servants in the best of the white families, there were bonds of intimacy, affection, and sometimes blood relationship between the races. They lived in the same home, shared in the family life, attended the same church often and talked and conversed with each other. But the increasing civiliza- tion of of the Negro since has naturally meant the develop- ment of higher classes : there are increasing numbers of ministers, teachers, physicians, merchants, mechanics and independent farmers, who by nature and training are the aristocracy and leaders of the blacks. Between them, how- ever, and the best element of the whites, there is little or no intellectual commerce. They go to separate churches, they live in separate sections, they are strictly separated in all public gatherings, they travel separately, and they are beginning to read different papers and books. To most libraries, lectures, concerts and museums Negroes are either not admitted at all or on terms peculiarly galling to the pride of the very classes who might otherwise be attracted. The daily paper chronicles the doings of the black world from afar with no great regard for accuracy; and so on throughout the category of means for intellectual communication; schools, conferences, efforts for social betterment and the like, it is usually true that the very representatives of the two races who for mutual benefit and the welfare of the land ought to be in complete understanding and sympathy are so far strangers that one side thinks all whites are narrow and prejudiced and the other thinks educated Negroes dangerous and insolent. Moreover, in a land where the tyranny of public opinion and the intolerence of criticism is for obvious historical reasons so strong as in the South, such a situation is extremely difficult to correct. The white man as well as the Negro is bound and tied by the color line and many a scheme of friendliness and philanthropy, of broad-minded sympathy, and generous fellowship between the two has 138 Annals of the American Academy dropped still-born because some busy-body has forced the color question to the front and brought the tremendous force of unwritten law against the innovators. It is hardly necessary for me to add to this very much in regard to the social contact between the races. Nothing has come to replace that finer sympathy and love between some masters and house servants, which the radical and more uncompromising drawing of the color line in recent years has caused almost completely to disappear. In a world where it means so much to take a man by the hand and sit beside him ; to look frankly into his eyes and feel his heart beating with red blood — in a world where a social cigar or a cup of tea together means more than legislative halls and magazine articles and speeches, one can imagine the con- sequences of the almost utter absence of such social ameni- ties between estranged races, whose separation extends even to parks and street cars. Here there can be none of that social going down to the people ; the opening of heart and hand of the best to the worst, in generous acknowledgment of a common humanity and a common destiny. On the other hand, in matters of simple almsgiving, where there be no question of social contact, and in the succor of the aged and sick, the South, as if stirred by a feeling of its unfortunate limitations, is generous to a fault. The black beggar is never turned away without a good deal more than a crust, and a call for help for the unfortunate meets quick response. I remember, one cold winter, in Atlanta, when I refrained from con- tributing to a public relief fund lest Negroes should be discriminated against ; I afterward inquired of a friend : "Were any black people receiving aid?" "Why," said he, " they were all black." And yet this does not touch the kernel of the problem. Human advancement is not a mere question of almsgiving, but rather of sympathy and co-operation among classes who would scorn charity. And here is a land where, in the higher walks of life, in all the higher striving for the good Relation of the Negroes to the Whites 139 and noble and true, the color line conies to separate natural friends and co-workers, while at the bottom of the social group in the saloon, the gambling hell and the bawdy-house that same line wavers and disappears. I have sought to paint an average picture of real relations between the races in the South. I have not glossed over matters for policy's sake, for I fear we have already gone too far in that sort of thing. On the other hand I have sincerely sought to let no unfair exaggerations creep in. I do not doubt but that in some Southern communities conditions are far better than those I have indicated. On the other hand, I am certain that in other communities they are far worse. Nor does the paradox and danger of this situation fail to interest and perplex the best conscience of the South. Deeply religious and intensely democratic as are the mass of the whites, they feel acutely the false position in which the Negro problems place them. Such an essentially honest- hearted and generous people cannot cite the caste-leveling precepts of Christianity, or believe in equality of opportunity for all men, without coming to feel more and more with each generation that the present drawing of the color line is a flat contradiction to their beliefs and professions. But just as often as they come to this point the present social condition of the Negro stands as a menace and a portent before even the most open-minded : if there were nothing to charge against the Negro but his blackness or other physical peculiarities, they argue, the problem would be compar- atively simple ; but what can we say to his ignorance, shiftlessness, poverty and crime : can a self-respecting group hold anything but the least possible fellowship with such persons and survive ? and shall we let a mawkish sentiment sweep away the culture of our fathers or the hope of our children ? The argument so put is of great strength but it is not a whit stronger than the argument of thinking Negroes ; granted, they reply, that the condition of our masses is bad, there is certainly on the one hand adequate 140 Annans of the; American Academy. historical cause for this, and unmistakable evidence that no small number have, in spite of tremendous disadvantages, risen to the level of American civilization. And when by proscription and prejudice, these same' Negroes are classed with, and treated like the lowest of their people simply because they are Negroes, such a policy not only discourages thrift and intelligence among black men, but puts a direct premium on the very things you complain of — inefficiency and crime. Draw lines of crime, of incompetency, of vice as tightly and uncompromisingly as you will, for these things must be proscribed, but a color line not only does not accomplish this purpose, but thwarts it. In the face of two such arguments, the future of the South depends on the ability of the representatives of these opposing views to see and appreciate, and sympathize with each other's position ; for the Negro to realize more deeply than he does at present the need of uplifting the masses of his people, for the white people to realize more vividly than they have yet done the deadening and disastrous effect of a color prejudice that classes Paul L,awrence Dunbar and Sam Hose in the same despised class. It is not enough for the Negroes to declare that color prejudice is the sole cause of their social condition, nor for the white South to reply that their social condition is the main cause of prejudice. They both act as reciprocal cause and effect and a change in neither alo?ie will bring the desired effect. Both must change or neither can improve to any great extent. The Negro cannot stand the present reactionary tendencies and unreasoning drawing of the color line much longer without discouragement and retrogression. And the condition of the Negro is ever the excuse for further discrimination. Only by a union of intelligence and sym- pathy across the color line in this critical period of the Republic shall justice and right triumph, and •• Mind and heart according well, Shall make one music as before, But vaster. ' ' PART IV: THE RACES OF THE WEST INDIES (141) OUR RELATION TO THE PEOPLE OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO. BY HON. ORVILLE H. PLATT, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT (143) OUR RELATION TO THE PEOPLE OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO. By Hon. Orviixe H. Platt, United States Senator from Connecticut. We have undertaken the solution of a very difficult problem in Cuba. When we went to war with Spain we declared that the people of Cuba ought to be free and inde- pendent, and we therefore disclaimed any purpose to acquire the island, and promised that when its pacification should be accomplished we would leave it to its people. To this declaration and promise we are solemnly pledged as a nation. Reduced to its simplest terms our pledge is this : that the United States becomes responsible for the establish- ment and orderly continuance of republican government in Cuba. If, as some seem to suppose, the full performance of our obligation only requires us to see that a so-called republic is organized there, the task is comparatively easy, but if we are also bound to provide for the orderly continu- ance of a genuine republic it is by no means easy. That the latter duty is as imperative as the former, can scarcely be questioned. Indeed, it seems to be questioned only in a technical way. Certain self-constituted and viru- lent critics try to maintain that our promise to leave the island to its people as soon as it should be pacified meant that when we should have driven out Spain we would ourselves retire and have nothing further to do with its affairs, either by way of guiding the Cubans in the establish- ment of their government, or assisting them to maintain their independence. In other words, it seems to be supposed by these carping people that the United States has no interests to protect in the Island of Cuba and that no matter what its people may do, we are only to look on. But even these critics admit (i45) 146 Annaes of the American Academy that if conditions under the new government shall become intolerable, intervention will again be justifiable and imper- ative. They would have us at once terminate our military occupation leaving the future uncared for with the expecta- tion that, should troubles arise there, either by reason of for- eign demands or internal disorders, by which our interests are imperiled, we will return in force to set matters right again. It seems scarcely possible that such a policy should find advocates in any quarter. Unless we provide now for continued independence and peace in the Island of Cuba there is no way in which they can be assured unless, in case the necessity arises, we declare war and enter upon the business of subjugating and annexing it. It must be seen by all who have the real welfare of our country at heart that our only true policy is to see that a republican government is now established under conditions which recognize our right to maintain its stability and prosperity. Cuba has menaced our peace quite too long, and having once undertaken to remedy an intolerable condition there it would be inexcus- able folly to ignore the possibility and indeed probability of future trouble, or to fail to guard against its recurrence. All rights acquired by the act of intervention exist except so far as they are limited by the resolution of Congress, and the only limitation imposed by that legislation rightly con- strued is that we will not claim Cuba as a part of the United States. We took temporary possession of the island with a self-imposed trust which requires us to allow its people to establish a free and independent government, and also to assist in its maintenance as an orderly, stable, and beneficent one. The difficulty of the situation arises from the fact that it would be improper for the United States to dictate the provisions of the constitution which is to be the basis of the new government, except to an extent necessary for its own self-protection, and the discharge of obligations grow- ing out of its intervention. We have a right to insist that there shall be provisions in the constitution of Cuba, or People of Cuba and Porto Rico 147 attached to it by way of an ordinance, which will clearly de- fine the relations which are to exist between the two coun- tries, but all matters relating to the system and detail of government should be left to the people of Cuba alone. For instance, although we may feel that universal suffrage will result in trouble and difficulty, we manifestly have no right to prescribe the elective franchise. The framework of government must be left by us to the constitutional convention without dictation or mandatory suggestion. So far as the rights of the people are concerned they must be left absolutely free to declare them. So far as our rights are concerned, we may insist on their recognition without in any way impairing or interfering with the inde- pendence of Cuba. The war with Spain was undertaken to put an end to intolerable conditions not only shocking to humanity, but menacing our welfare, and our work was but half done when the authority of Spain was destroyed. We became responsible to the people of Cuba, to ourselves, and the world at large, that a good government should be estab- lished and maintained in place of the bad one to which we put an end. The practical question then is, in what way can the United States provide for a government in Cuba which shall not only secure the blessings of liberty there in their full exercise, but shall also secure to the United States the results of good government in a country so closely adjoining us ? The right to intervene for the abolition of a bad govern- ment, and the right to intervene for the maintenance of a good government in Cuba, rest upon the same foundation. It is as much our duty to exercise our power in the mainte- nance of an independent, stable and peaceful government there as it was to exercise it in the destruction of a mon- archical, oppressive and inhuman one. Duty and self-inter- est coincide in this respect. The extension of the principles and institutions of free government, wherever possible and practicable, is no less our duty than the protection of our 148 Annai£ of the; American Academy own citizens in all their rights and interests in a foreign country. By every consideration, then, which can bind a nation, we are committed and pledged to the policy of per- mitting the people of Cuba to establish, for and by them- selves, a republican government for the continuance and maintenance of which we are to be responsible. If the element of our responsibility were eliminated from the problem, it would be quite safe to say that the experi- ment of free government has never been attempted in the world under circumstances less favorable to permanent suc- cess. To insure the success of free government, certain con- ditions seem indispensable. There must be a homogeneous people possessed of a high degree of virtue and intelligence. A sentimental longing for liberty will not of itself insure the maintenance of a republic. Liberty is a word of quite elas- tic meaning. License is not true liberty. It is orderly lib- erty only which constitutes the sure basis of free govern- ment. That government only is really free and indepen- dent where liberty is restrained and buttressed by law r , and where the supposed rights of the individual are limited by the rights of all. To establish such liberty there must be an intelligent understanding of the social system and a compre- hension of the just principles upon which true government must always rest. The consent of the governed must be an intelligent consent. "Where the capacity to consent does not exist, no government can be permanently maintained upon such consent. Where a majority of voters neither under- stand nor respect the true principles of government, there may be a republic in name, but in fact it will only be a dic- tatorship, in which the purpose and power of its president control rather than the consent of the governed. Social, racial and economic conditions in Cuba do not at first sight promise well for the permanence of republican government. In passing, we must remember the fact that none of its people have had any experience in self-govern- ment, and the further fact that all their notions of govern- People of Cuba and Porto Rico 149 ment have been framed and moulded by the history and administration of one of the most arbitrary and corrupt the world has ever known. The lines which mark the divi- sion of classes are most distinctly drawn, and the interests of the different classes are most diverse. The census of Cuba recently taken fails to give us statis- tics in many important particulars. It informs us as to the proportion of the white and colored population, and of the native and foreign born. It shows that the number engaged in gainful occupations is somewhat larger comparatively than in the United States, but it fails to give us any statis- tics as to property and wealth. Cuba is essentially an agricultural state. Its soil is very fertile and its climate is such that a failure of crops is seldom known. It has hitherto had the disadvantage that its agri- culture industry was mainly concentrated in the production of two crops only, sugar and tobacco. While there is oppor- tunity for great diversification of agriculture, the profits arising from sugar and tobacco have been such that other products have been neglected. The foreign trade of the island, exports and imports combined, has amounted to $100,000,000 annually, and when we reflect that this foreign trade is from an island containing only a million and half of people, it is easy to see how profitable these two products have been under favorable conditions. As a result of these industries, there was, before the war with Spain, great wealth in Cuba. The distinction made between Spaniards and Cubans is simply that of birthplace, persons born in Spain being classed as Spaniards, and all persons born in Cuba, being classed as Cubans. The Spaniards are the wealthy class. They are commer- cial people. They carry on trade and business, loan money, but do not as a class acquire landed property. They are merchants, bankers, traders, money lenders ; they have all the commercial instincts' and characteristics of the Jew, derived perhaps from the Jewish population of Spain in 150 Annals of the American Academy former times. The proportion of Spaniards to the entire population is small — 130,000 only in round numbers, at the time of taking the census, out of a total population of 1,600,000, were Spaniards. About sixty per cent of this number, under the treaty of Paris, retained their alle- giance to Spain. The proportion of adult males among Spaniards is very much greater than that of any other class of the population, 86,000 out of 130,000 being males over twenty-one years of age. Most of the ready money of the island is controlled by these Spaniards. y The land of Cuba is owned, generally speaking, by white Cubans. The number of land-owners in proportion to the population is not given, but their number is comparatively small. Considerable quantities of land are owned by persons residing in Spain and other countries, but the cultivated part of the island has been owned very largely by these Cuban planters. In recent times, some Americans and other foreigners have acquired estates, but the percentage of land thus held is small. It may then be said that the wealth and property of the island is concentrated in the hands of the Spaniards and a comparatively few white Cubans. Small holdings by persons cultivating land, as in the United States, are practically unknown in Cuba. The larger proportion of the inhabitants, both white and colored, are not property- holders and have no direct interest in the soil or in the busi- ness of the island. The classes controlling wealth and property took little or no part in the revolution. The Spaniards, of course, were loyal to Spain, and most of the Cuban land-owners tried to preserve their neutrality as between the revolutionists and the Spanish government, often paying tribute to both sides in the hope of saving their estates from destruction. There is little sympathy between the wealthy and land-owning classes in Cuba and the great bulk of its population. The active revolutionary element consisted of white Cubans, who, as has been said, have little or no property interests People of Cuba and Porto Rico 151 at stake ; they were the officers of the insurgent forces ; the mulattoes constituted the rank and file, or fighting element of the revolution. <^ Naturally the conservative and property-holding class, and the radical and revolutionary class, thoroughly distrust each other. Property owners think property will not be safe if the revolutionary element shall be in control, and the radicals think that the property-owning and business element secretly favors annexation, in which it is encouraged by the United States. For this reason principally the radical leaders exhibit symptoms of hostility toward us. Those who own property in Cuba do look to the United States for protection; quite likely they are annexationists at heart. While there is little or no annexation sentiment in the United States, it is almost impossible to convince Cubans of that fact. The radicals think that we are not sincere when we tell them that annexation is the last thing desired by the United States, and the conservatives hope that in the end events may necessitate annexation. If the present Cuban leaders can be brought to understand and realize that the United States is as much opposed to annexation as they are, fully sympathizes with them in their desire for independence and has no intention of limiting or impairing that independence, their objection to the propo- sitions submitted to them by Congress, defining our future relations, will doubtless be modified. Cuban property own- ers felt the oppression of Spain but feared a government which would be established if the revolutionists succeeded, quite as much as they did the Spanish government. Such fear still continues, and as the) 7 are in a minority, they have hitherto refrained from any participation in the effort to establish a new government, confidently expecting the United States to protect them in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property. Politically, the people may be divided into five classes. First, Spaniards, including both those who have retained 152 Annaes of the American Academy. their Spanish allegiance and those who have become Cuban citizens ; second, Autonomists, or white Cubans, who re- mained loyal during the war and undertook the task of organizing government under the autonomy at last conceded by Spain ; third, white Cubans, who tried to preserve their neutrality ; fourth, white Cuban revolutionists ; and fifth, the colored class, a large proportion of which participated in the revolution. Between these different classes there is little of sympathy, much of distrust. Even the Spaniards and the Autonomists do not affiliate, and at present there seems little prospect that there can be any political union among those who may be called the conservative people of Cuba. Their interests would lead them to unite, but their prejudices and suspicions forbid. There remains, then, the larger proportion of Cuban citi- zens who may be classed as radical revolutionists. In the United States they would be called agitators. Delegates representing this class of the population appear to be in control of the Cuban constitutional convention. They seem to feel that by reason of the fact that they were revolutionists they alone are entitled to take part in the establishment and management of a new government. They have very imperfect ideas of the practical duties or responsibilities of a free government, but are intensely devoted to liberty as they understand it. Instead of being grateful to the United States for the part it took in the liberation of Cuba, the} r appear to cherish a spirit of hostility towards us because they have not already been put in actual possession of the government. Under the military govern- ment of the island they have held and still hold nearly all of the civil offices, but recognize very little obligation to that government. One thing must be understood. Every Cuban, whether a revolutionist or otherwise, is essentially Spanish in all his traits and characteristics. There are as yet no well-defined political parties in Cuba. The conservatives have not been able to affiliate sufficiently to organize a People of Cuba and Porto Rico 153 conservative party, and party divisions among the revolu- tionists are not based upon different policies or principles, but rather upon individual leadership. The social and economic conditions, thus briefly outlined, do not on their face promise much for permanence of republican govern- ment, but as time progresses, necessity and mutual interest may wear away prejudices and distrust, and permit some- thing like united effort by the more conservative classes. In addition to the difficulties enumerated, there is the inevitable race problem. There is not as yet a race issue in Cuban politics. Whether there will be, time only can determine. Prejudice on account of color is either less than in the United States or of a different quality. Certainly neither blacks nor mixed bloods are regarded as inferiors to the same extent as with us, and in the matter of social distinction color plays but a comparatively unimportant part. White and colored laborers work side by side without friction or contention. Maceo was honored and esteemed as perhaps the ablest revolutionary general, and Gualberto Gomez is regarded as one of the ablest delegates in the constitutional convention. Universal suffrage was adopted in the proposed constitution without a suggestion and pre- sumably without a thought that a colored man was not as \ much entitled to be a voter as a white man. The colored people, including blacks and mixed bloods, constitute about one-third of the population of Cuba. In some of the provinces like Santiago and Matanzas, the proportion is much larger ; in Santiago forty-five per cent, in Matanzas forty per cent, while in some of the provinces it is comparatively small, in Puerto Principe only twenty per cent. It is an illiterate population. Only twenty-eight per cent of the colored population of the island can read. True, the white population is also illiterate, only forty-nine per cent of which can read. These facts are very suggestive when we consider the possibility of maintaining a republican government. In the ascertainment of these statistics of 154 Annals of the American Academy. illiteracy it is assumed that all children under ten years of age attending school can read, so that the proportion of adult males who can read will be somewhat less than indicated. The colored population of Cuba differs essentially from that in the United States, or in the other West India Islands. The number of pure blacks is not given in the census. The proportion is small. In appearance they differ essentially from the negro of the United States. They are absolutely black, but their features are more European in cast. They are not thick-lipped, and, except for color, would be taken as splendid physical types of the Caucasian race. How this physical difference is to be accounted for we can only conjec- ture by assuming that the slaves imported into Cuba came from different sections of Africa than those imported into the United States. The blacks in Cuba appear to be of a supe- rior type as to capacity and efficiency, but the mulatto com- pares less favorably with the mulatto in the United States. This is accounted for probably both by blood and environment. Mulattoes in the United States are a mixture of the Anglo- Saxon and negro ; in Cuba, of the Spaniard and negro. The negro imitates the whites with whom he is brought up, so in the United States he imitates the character of the Anglo- Saxon ; in Cuba, the character of the Spaniard. In the United States he therefore naturally aspires to par- ticipate in government ; in Cuba he seems to have very little such aspiration. He is industrious, docile, quiet, and cares for little beyond his immediate domestic and industrial surroundings. The colored voter in Cuba is not likely to be a disturbing political element, unless under a sense of wrong and injustice his emotions are excited, then, indeed, he becomes a good fighter, as was proved in the late revolu- tion. He may possibly be influenced by the agitator and dema- gogue, but it will require a very deep realization of injustice to make him a dangerous factor in the politics of the island. That he will vote intelligently can scarcely be expected. His vote may aid in putting dangerous men in power, but he will People of Cuba and Porto Rico 155 not greatl3 r interest himself in the affairs of the govern- ment. The colored population of Cuba presents a most interest- ing sociological problem. The admixture of blood in his veins exceeds, perhaps, that of the mulatto in any other part of the world. The Spaniard himself is the result of an admixture of blood running through centuries, and the difference in appearance of Spaniards in Cuba is so great that the type is hardly perceptible. The race problem, as it appears in the white Cuban population, is quite as interesting as when con- fined to the colored population. The Spaniards in Cuba have come from the different sections of Spain, and the same is true of the ancestors of the white Cubans. Spaniards differ in appearance and characteristics more than the inhabitants of almost any other country. The history of Spain for a thou- sand years was that of conquest, of colonization and assimi- lation of its native people with its conquerors and colonies. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Goths, Moors and Jews suc- cessively occupied Spain, and with the exception of the Jews controlled its government and amalgamated with its people. Its different provinces have developed different types of manhood, and Cuba has received its immigration from every province. Its generals, officials, nobility, soldiery and its peasantry alike peopled Cuba. In the veins of the Cuban mulatto it is thus possible that there runs an infinitesimal current of the blood of Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Gothic and Moorish ancestors transmitted through its Spanish pro- genitors. We are ourselves becoming a very mixed popu- lation, and yet hardly more so than the population of Cuba which we have been wont to call Spanish. It will be seen, therefore, that the different classes of Cuban population have little in common, except a desire for liberty, as yet scarcely understood, and a pride of country. Whether these two common ties will be strong enough to insure an orderly, well-balanced, peaceful government remains to be seen. The elements of discord are in full play now, and if 156 Annaes of the American Academy these alone were regarded the outlook would not be very- hopeful. It is by no means certain, however, that the colored citizens in Cuba may not in the end ally themselves with the conservative rather than with the revolutionary and turbulent forces. A hopeful indication of this is found in the fact that in the province of Santiago, where the colored ele- ment is numerically stronger than in any other province, delegates in the convention have been instructed at mass meetings called for that purpose to accept the amendment proposed at the recent session of Congress. The results of education will not be immediately manifest, but perhaps the most hopeful sign of responsible and perma- nent government in Cuba is to be seen in the educational work already begun there. If the next few years can be tided over successfully, intelligence will doubtless come to the rescue. At present there is discord, ignorance, and, among the masses of the people, indifference. We must hope that prejudice and suspicion between those who have most at stake will be allayed, that the intelligent and con- servative element will more and more assert itself, and that the great need of Cuba for independence, peace and prosperity will unite a majority of its people to labor for that end. But the real hope for a free Cuba is to be found in the friendly advice and guidance, and, if necessary, the assist- ance of the United States. There will be no American colonization there in the strict sense of the word. That American capital will go there as soon as there is a govern- ment under which its safety is assured, there is no question ; that our American laborers will go there to any considerable extent is improbable, not that climatic conditions are such that it is impossible for them to work and live there, but that industrial conditions will not, for a long time at least, be such as to furnish inducements to the American who desires to support himself by his own labor to emigrate to Cuba. The island may easily support a population of five millions, or, as many think, a much larger number ; but the question of People of Cuba and Porto Rico 157 its increase of population depends largely upon where its laborers are to come from. There is little prospect that the colored race will increase proportionately from natural causes. The labor required to fully develop its agricultural industries must come from abroad. The American negro is no more likely to go there than the white laborer of the United States. Indus- trially, then, as well as politically, the future of Cuba depends largely upon its immigration, which at present comes from Northern Spain and the Canary Islands. These immigrants, amounting to 40,000 or more last year, are still Spaniards, but may be classified as Spanish peasantry. They seem adapted to the climate, and the wages which they can command far exceed what they can obtain in their home country. They are industrious, peaceable and domestic — in a word, calculated to make good citizens. If properly treated by the capitalists who employ them, they are liable to consti- tute not only a stable, but an influential part of the popula- tion. Four things, then, seem to promise good results : The guidance and aid of the United States, the education of Cuban children, the probable conservatism of the colored population, and the industrial and peaceful character of probable immi- grants. The revolutionary class will not at once abandon the idea that they alone are entitled to govern, and there will doubtless be more or less friction, contention and dis- turbance, but as time wears on, it is to be hoped that out of confusion order may come. The hands of the United States are indeed partially tied. There is a limit beyond which it may not go, and yet within the legitimate limits which it has prescribed for itself it can do much. It may not interfere with the liberty of the people of Cuba to establish an independent government, republican in form and fact ; it may, and must, for its own protection, and in the discharge of obligations from which it cannot escape if it would, see to it that the independence of Cuba shall not be overthrown, no matter from what quarter it may 158 Annals of the; American Academy be assailed, and that life, property and individual rights shall be as secure there as in the United States. That the relations which are to exist between the United States and the new government of Cuba must be closer than those between us and any other foreign country will be apparent to the dullest comprehension. So long as any doubt exists of the ability of Cuba to stand alone, the United States must be ready to support her. We must protect her against any demands which will impair her independence, and against any internal dissensions which may threaten the overthrow of republican government. In thus standing ready, and insisting upon our right to protect Cuba, we do not at all contemplate the establishment of a protectorate in any sense in which that term has been used in international law. Our relations with Cuba will be unique. We may best express them by saying that we claim the right to be recognized as the guarantor of Cuban independence and of the stability of its government. To require less than this would be an abandonment of both self-interest and duty. We propose to leave Cuba free to make treaties with foreign powers not inconsistent with her independence ; to enact all legislation which a free and independent government may enact, to manage her own affairs in her own way, provided only that she does not thereby imperil her own safety and our peace. And yet our right to intervene to save Cuba even from herself must be recognized. We cannot permit any foreign power to obtain a foothold in Cuba. We cannot permit disturbances there which threaten the over- throw of her government. We cannot tolerate a condition in which life and property shall be insecure. In all this our position is that of unselfishness. We do not seek our own aggrandisement ; we do not ask reimbursement for the lives and treasure spent in the effort to secure the blessings of liberty and free government to Cuba. We have undertaken to do for her people what no nation in all history has ever undertaken to do for another, namely, People of Cuba and Porto Rico 159 to overthrow an inhuman and iniquitous government in order that a just, humane and beneficent government may be established and maintained in its stead. Half of our work is accomplished, half of it remains to be done. We have no doubt that the remaining half of our duty will be performed in the same spirit and with the same unselfishness which has characterized our work from its commencement. Having put our hand to the plow, we may not, and will not, look back. It is a great and glorious work which we have undertaken. The difficulties and intricacies which confront us should only stimulate us to a more conscientious perform- ance of duty. In spite of all discouragement we look for a free and regenerated Cuba, for which we may with self- respect and even pride stand sponsor. THE SPANISH POPULATION OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO. BY CHARLES M, PEPPER, WASHINGTON, D. C, (161) THE SPANISH POPULATION OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO. By Mr. Charles M. Pepper, Of Washington, D. C. In any discussion of the natives of Cuba and Porto Rico, it is not possible entirely to separate the Latin from the African race. They exist together in those Islands and their future is woven together inseparably. Each race has kept its own identity, yet there has been a reciprocal or a mutual influence. The African has benefited by the toler- ance and kindlier consideration, the less pronounced antip- athy, of the Spaniard as compared with the Anglo-Saxon. Conversely the Negro has had a steadying influence, if I may so call it, on the Spaniard. I do not mean to say that this has been the result of racial intermixture, but rather that the Negro living side by side with the Latin race has modified the Latin temperament. It is well to have this knowledge at the outset as it also is well to recognize the status of the Negro. That the advance which has been made may be lost by a disproportionate growth of black population is the spectre of a brooding imagi- nation. Porto Rico has no room for newcomers of the laboring class. The present- day problem there is to find an outlet for an overcrowded population. Cuba can support six times the existing number of inhabitants, but economic and political causes have combined to discourage schemes of Negro colonization, while white immigration from Spain has been in progress for the last two j^ears and is certain to con- tinue. With a perception of these facts it is not necessary to controvert the presumption of the Caucasians in Cuba and Porto Rico being smothered by a black cloud. There will be no smothering of the African either, but there will (163) 164 Annals of the; American Academy be a white preponderance large enough to settle the race question. We may analyze and study the natives of Cuba and Porto Rico who are of Spanish stock with better understanding when we know that in each Island they comprise substan- tially two-thirds of the inhabitants, a little less in Porto Rico and a little more in Cuba. This is shown in the census compiled under the direction of the War Department by experts. It is a pleasure to refer to a government publica- tion so comprehensive, so well digested and so trustworthy as these volumes. They furnish an example of the value of utilizing trained intelligence. By this census we find that in Porto Rico out of a total of 953,243 the native-born inhabitants number 939,371, of whom 578,000 are white and 361,367 colored. In Cuba the proportion is 1,067,354 whites to 505,443 blacks and mulat- toes. That means a full million persons of Spanish birth or descent. ' ' We all know, ' ' says Walter Bagehot, ' ' how much a man is apt to be like his ancestors." This observation applies to the natives of both Islands, but with greater force, I think, to those of Cuba. In both instances we may be sure they take after their ancestors from Spain and its adjoining possessions. Nor is the ancestry remote. " Two hundred years," said a chronicler nearly a century ago in describing Porto Rico and her people, ' ' are lost in obscurity. ' ' For an understanding of the inhabitants of the present day it is not necessary to grope in darkness seeking to recover those lost pages of history. We know that as in Cuba the Indian race is extinct and that the Indian mixture of which some travelers have discoursed is an imaginary one. The ancestry of the present generation of Porto Rican natives need not be traced back more than a century and a quarter. Originally the immigration was from the southern part of Spain, Andalusia and Castile having the right to people the Island to the exclusion of the other provinces of Population of Cuba and Porto Rico 165 the Peninsula. Andalusia furnished the larger number and left the stronger impress, but in time the prohibition was raised and the emigrants mingled in one stream, which had its sources in all parts of Spain. Ultimately the stream became a swollen one and the little Island, through immigra- tion and natural increase, had all the inhabitants she could sustain. This happened a good many years ago, so it may be said that the major proportion of the natives of Porto Rico are of Spanish blood two or three generations removed. The result we have to-day is a thin-blooded people, living chiefly on vegetable diet and physically degenerated from their sturdy ancestors. It is an agricultural population, the bulk of which is called peons. The majority of the peons live worse than the field laborers, so far as I have been able to observe, anywhere else in the West Indies. Their dwell- ings are very small, thatched huts raised two or three feet from the ground and rarely containing more than one room, though sometimes there is a board or a canvas partition. The number of inmates seldom is less than half a dozen and more often is ten or twelve. They are prolific in their pov- erty. Most of them do not own their huts. These belong to the coffee, tobacco or sugar planters. It is a consequence of the old political conditions, which kept the peons practi- cally as serfs of the soil. The more general term for the Porto Rico countrymen is gibaros. The name implies a larger degree of personal independence than applies to the peons, for the gibaros often are small land owners. Both peons and gibaros are a peace- ful, easygoing people, guileless and trustful. As I have found them they are obliging and hospitable, though the population is too crowded for unstinted hospitality. The observer from the north always calls them lazy. Usually they are pictured by travelers as lolling in hammocks or twanging the gourd guitar while waiting for the bread-fruit, the orange or the cocoanut to drop from the overhanging tree into their mouths. Their amusements are sedentary, 1 66 Annals of the American Academy the cocking main being the chief one because it requires the least exertion. I am not going to lighten the shades of this picture, yet one or two observations may be in point. The indolence of the tropics is inherent. The visitor from the temperate zone who has had previous experience, if he wants to do anything calling for effort is wise enough to do it at once, for as the days pass he has less inclination for exertion, even where pleasure or entertainment is the object. If the reservoirs of energy stored up by the native of the north are so soon exhausted, how much should be expected from a people who must go back fifty, one hundred or one hundred and fifty years for their original storehouse of energy ? During the Spanish rule the government was placed so far above the people of Porto Rico that they are not to be blamed if, in the beginning, they abuse the broader privi- leges which have come to them under American institutions. Their first tendency was intolerance. When elections were held they applied literally the doctrine that the spoils belong to the victors. Perhaps American politicians would take this as evidence of a highly developed capacity for self- government. They proposed not only to fill the offices with their own friends, but also to make their enemies pay all the taxes. It was simply the rebound from conditions under which they had no part in filling the offices and no share in raising the taxes. The tendency to political abstractions may be noted as a part of the Latin temperament. An outcropping of it was seen in Porto Rico. When the American Congress remitted two million dollars of revenue to the Island, one enthusiast proposed that the sum should be expended in erecting a magnificent Temple of Justice. The practical American officials spent the money in building roads and school- houses. £- — In Cuba native-born persons, whether white or black, or of foreign parentage, are called Criollos, or Creoles. How- Population of Cuba and Porto Rico 167 ever, in common usage the term more often is applied to the white Cubans, and this means chiefly the inhabitants who are of Spanish descent. In the fierce protests against bad government the line between the Spaniards of to-day — that is those born in the Peninsula and its adjacent Islands — and the Spaniards of yesterday — that is those whose fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers were born there — some- times used to be drawn as if they were alien and antago- nistic races. But it does not need a scientific analysis to caution us against mistaking passing and justifiable political passion for racial antipathy when the race is one. Here I am reminded of what James Anthony Froude, the English historian, said when in his despairing survey of the British West Indies he turned aside to contrast them with the Spanish possessions. "We English," he wrote, "have built in those Islands as if we were but passing visitors wanting only tenements to be occupied for a time. The Spaniards built as they build in Castile and they carried with them their laws, their habits, their institutions and their creed. . . . Whatever the eventual fate of Cuba, the Spanish race has taken root there, and is visibly destined to remain. Spanish, at any rate, they are to the bone and marrow, and Spanish they will continue." We must go back to Catalonia, Andalusia and the shores of the Mediterranean ; to the Canaries and the Balearic Islands ; to Asturias, Galicia and the Basque provinces of Spain for the customs, habits, traditions, creed, amusements, language and tendencies of the natives of Cuba. Prefer- ably we should give the most attention to Catalonia, Galicia and Asturias, for it is from these three provinces that the major portion of the later immigration has come. A certain village in the far interior of Cuba was a hot- house of revolutionary agitation. I visited it at the close of the war when the American military authorities were concerned over the threat of reprisals against the Spaniards. The Cubans professed to hate the whole race and in those 1 68 Annai^s of the; American Academy days when long-restrained passion was finding vent they thought they did hate their own parent stem. They told me the two classes had nothing in common. Yet they had everything in common. The well from which the children were drawing water was of even more ancient origin than Spanish, for it was of the older Moorish construction known as the nana. That day there was a fiesta or church holiday. The baile, or dance, which was a feature of the evening cele- bration, and which I witnessed, varied only a shade from the representation of the customs of Galicia, which I had seen at the leading Spanish theatre in Havana a few evenings previously. The music was an air which had floated over from the Gulf of Biscay. The entertainment provided me at the posada, or inn, was such as I had read of in the pages of Gil Bias. The houses were like those in an eighteenth century print of Don Quixote. On a later day mass was celebrated by the priest for the repose of the soul of Antonio Maceo and other Cuban insurgents, and the ceremonial was that of the Spanish Church in the middle ages. After see- ing these things I did not give much heed to the Cuban's talk that they hated the whole Spanish race. Root and branch were too much alike for the hatred to endure. Then there is the guajiro, or countryman, seated at the door of his bohio, or palm-thatched cabin, playing his guitar. Usually he is portrayed in his broad straw hat with fringed edges, the front turned in a flap and exposing his honest face while the back slopes down over his neck. The hat is known as the sanjuanero, because of its universal use on the feast day of St. John the Baptist, a popular Spanish holiday. To the accompaniment of the guitar is sung a ballad, called a decima, or a cancion. All this is a character- istically Cuban picture. The traveler will see it wherever he goes throughout the Island. Yet it is a Spanish picture, too, and the decimas and canciones, though the subjects are local, are frequently mere repetitions of the provincial songs and ballads heard among the Spanish peasantry. Population of Cuba and Porto Rico 169 Differences are noted in the natives of the different prov- inces of Cuba, due chiefly to the immigration from which was drawn the original stock. The Spanish strain of blood is preserved in its greatest purity in the central region of Puerto Principe or Camagiiey. Though sparsely settled, three-fourths of the population of this section is white. For half a century the Camagiieyans were the most intense revolutionists. They vindicated their Spanish fighting ances- try by their armed opposition to Spanish government. Their free, open-air life and their isolation from the rest of the Island strengthened their independence of a governing coun- try across the seas, yet they kept unchanged Castilian tradi- tions and usages. Sometimes it has seemed to me that among these people could be traced the Moorish blood and a survival of the customs of Granada. The men are stronger physically and more responsive mentally than in other parts of Cuba, and of the women it has been said that they present the Spanish type slightly modified and perhaps embellished by the soft skies of the tropics. The inland city of Puerto Principe, with its narrow streets and over- hanging balconies is a perfect reproduction of many towns in Spain. I have been told by travelers that the houses might be mistakened for those of Seville or Cordova. And it must be said that heretofore the inhabitants of Camagiiey have shown themselves as unprogressive in public improve- ments, and as strongly opposed to innovations as the old towns of Spain. They have inordinate pride, a true Spanish trait, the mark of ignorance and isolation. This quality is redeemed by their courtesy and hospitality. We may be asked to believe that all the sturdy qualities of the Spanish peasantry have been lost in the transfusion of the tropics, like a flower that has gone to seed; but while allowance must be made for the modifications of tempera- ment due to climate and environment, I think we will find that the native Cuban of to-day, when the depths of his nature are sounded, is not materially different from his Cas- 170 Annates of the American Academy tilian forbear. It has been well said that the peasantry were the secret of Spain's greatness in the past, and perhaps may- be the secret of her greatness in the future; a peasantry who were noted for their freedom, independence, endurance and native nobility. In Asturias every toiler was a prince; in Castile every man was an hidalgo. Says a recent writer in treating of the Spanish people: "Proud, self-respecting- dignity; simple, sober habits; native good manners and kindness are the characteristics of all classes of the nation." How far have these characteristics been changed by trans- plantation to tropical surroundings ? The Spaniard in Cuba still prides himself that he is un hombre serioso, a serious- minded man. As for the native Cubans, during the last four years I have had the opportunity to observe them under all conditions, though more frequently in adversity than in prosperity. The traits described are of an agricultural people, and the Cubans are essentially an agricultural people, and must continue so. Of their hospitality no one who has traveled over the Island can entertain a doubt. It is simple and genuine. No conventional hypocrisy gilds it. It has been said that hospitality wanes as civilization advances. If that be true, whoever has known country life in Cuba will rejoice secretly over the slow advance of a supposedly superior civilization. Politeness and courtesy go with this hospitality. Then there is an obliging disposition and a goodnature which is one of the defects of character. The Cuban does not like to hurt your feelings by telling you unpleasant truths, so he is apt to agree with you. Though he knows you are wrong and will carry away wrong impressions, he will let you do so rather than contradict you. Another example of goodnature is seen in the blunted moral sensibility which has come from long training under corrupt government. The Cuban or Spaniard does not fully subscribe to the saying ' ' to rob the state is not to rob. ' ' When he knows of some one who is stealing he may remon- Population of Cuba and Porto Rico 171 strate privately with the thief. He even may give a hint of the peculation, yet he shrinks from open denunciation and from the inconvenience which may be caused to himself and to the thief by a public exposure. It is his goodnature that makes him recoil from the penalty of wrongdoing just as it causes him to sanction the wasting of public funds for the benefit of individuals. This goodnature is one of the obsta- cles to many reforms in government, or measures which appear to American eyes as reforms. To my own mind it always will be a question whether the jury system is a real palladium of liberty among a goodnatured people. The temperance and sobriety of all classes of the Cuban population are partly due to climatic influences, yet there is a moderation in methods of living and in recreation which is a Spanish inheritance and is not due to climate. It requires an effort on the part of the strenuous American to be temper- ate in an3'thing, but the Cubans are temperate without effort. Their peaceful disposition is universal. They are not quarrelsome among themselves or with strangers. A darker shade of their character may be found in the revengefulness with which supposed injuries are righted ; hence some- times the ambush, the knife in the dark, even the assassina- tion, and the burning of the sugar planter's cane for revenge. There is also the duplicity which is employed to foil policies and purposes. Duplicity is the weapon of the weak. Without it revolution against the superior power of Spain never could have succeeded. While it exists among native Cubans to an unpleasant extent it is offset by a high degree of trust in those who gain their goodwill. This is another trait of a people who can be led but not driven. Distrust and suspicion once aroused the sullen characteristics appear. These are one manifestation of passive or moral resistance. They are worthy the study of statesmen, for it was the passive resistance of the Cuban people, the natives of Spanish origin, which thwarted the government of Spain 172 Annals of the American Academy in the dying years of the nineteenth century and ended the glorious pageant of colonial history which was ushered in with the discoveries of Columbus. This positive resistance was illustrated in its highest form during the period of insurrection which was marked by the Weyler reconcentration. There is in the Spanish nature an indifference to physical suffering, of which the Inquisition, the cruelties of the Conquistadores, the extermination of the native Indians, are the black monuments of history. The passive manifestation was seen during the reconcentration, and was seen in heroic aspects, too. Stoic philosophy, inflexible determination were shown by a people conscious of their own doom of extinction, giving their moral support to a revolution which they were too weak to abet physically, and offering a passive opposition to the military measures of the Spanish government which was more potent than could have been an army in the field. When the campesinos, gjtajiros, or countrymen, endured all this, they were desig- nated as pacificos. The country inhabitants of Cuba to-day rightly might be called pacificos, for with anything like good government they are the most peaceful people in the world. Often I witnessed this same stoicism or physical endurance among the Spanish soldiers. The recollection of it causes me to smile when the effort is made to draw a fundamental distinction between the native Cubans and their Spanish ancestors. Seeing the peasant lads of Spain bearing the neglect and abuse of their officers with the patience of dumb brutes; watching them die by the thousands from the fevers; observing their distress scarcely less keen than that of the reconcentradoes, I wondered at their failure to mutiny and speculated on the processes which through the centuries had produced this docility, yet the one point always stood out and this was their capacity to sustain suffering. Cuban reconcentrado and Castilian soldier lad alike showed it, but on the part of the soldier it was passive endurance alone, Population of Cuba and Porto Rico 173 while with the mass of the Cuban population it was passive resistance. Moreover, on their side always were some bold leaders among whom the spirit of revolt was active, and with the Negro infusion they kept up an insurrectionary movement which dragged the pacificos, half doubtingly and half sympathetically, after them. Kindred to these quali- ties of endurance, which perhaps is only one form of fatalism, are others. They are apathy, lethargy, inertia, lack of the initiative faculty. It may excite surprise to characterize as sentimental a people who in their endurance and their resistance have so many elements of stoicism, yet the Cubans of all classes are sentimental in the highest degree. By sentiment I do not mean merely I^atin emotionalism, which is temperamental. With these people there is the deepest affection for their land. No one who has dwelt under its kindly skies, and who has experienced the impressiveness of the palm-tree landscape, can fail to sympathize with that feeling. The sentiment now is seeking for the realization of aspirations and ideals in the symbolism of a Cuban flag. That sym- bolism the United States is striving to guarantee under the lightest of restrictions and without thwarting the patriotic Cuban aspiration for independence which, however disap- pointing in its first results, is worthy of respect. From what has been stated of the characteristics and traits of the natives of Cuba, an idea may be had of the lines along which their development should be sought. It should not be by doing violence to customs, traditions, laws and institutions which have been inherited from their Spanish ancestors, or to sentiments which have sprung from the soil and have become part of their own being. The develop- ment of the Cuban people that is to be a homogeneous people is even more a social and industrial problem than a question of political government. Here we are likely to be met with the usual off-hand assumption that the indolence of the tropics bars progress. I think a more correct definition 174 Annals of the American Academy of this indolence of the tropics was that given by a Porto Rican author. He called it ' ' the negative inclination to work. ' ' When we approach the sociological side we may- have repeated to us Mr. Ingersoll's famous word picture of a colony of New England preachers and Yankee school- ma'ams established in the West Indies and the third genera- tion riding bareback on Sunday to the cock fights. On the industrial side it is the old idea of slave labor and later of coolie labor as the only mechanism which is capable of working under a burning sky. leaving out the human element in this manner, naturally we must exclude the stim- ulus and incentive to greater enjoyment and greater comfort in living. I am one of those who, from somewhat limited observation, believe that the negative inclination to work can be turned into a positive disposition to labor. In Hawaii, in Cuba, Porto Rico and other West India Islands it always has seemed to me a question of the management of men rather than of abstract deductions regarding labor in the tropics. That the human energies shall be exerted with the same fierce zeal or the same sustained effort as in the north we do not expect, but sustained effort is not impossible. Philosophical generalizations in dealing with this subject are so easy that I hesitate to descend from that high plane to the level of concrete instances which may controvert phi- losophy. Yet here are a few illustrations. We hardly need be told that in Porto Rico most of the natives go barefoot. An American official who was charged with penitentiary administration was distressed by the idle- ness of the convicts. He set them to work at various use- ful occupations. One of these occupations which they learned most readily was making shoes. Few of these con- vict shoemakers ever had worn foot-leather. When some of those whose sentences were light were released their first move was to seek work in order to earn money with which to buy shoes. The American official did not pretend to be a political economist, but when he got to thinking it Population of Cuba and Porto Rico 175 over he reached the conclusion that the Porto Rican natives would work harder whenever they became possessed with the notion that there was more comfort in wearing shoes than in going barefoot. I think he was right. American contractors who were building bridges, constructing roads and doing other work of that kind, always complained of the laziness of the natives, yet some of them would admit that when they put the incentive of more comfort before the peons or laborers they got better results. In Havana last winter an electric railway was being con- structed and much of the work had to be done under high pressure. It was in charge of a shrewd young American engineer who at one time had 2,700 men under him. Every- body predicted his failure in completing the contract. Every- body was sure that the white and the black Cubans and the Spanish peasants could not be relied on. The engineer did not argue the proposition. He knew human nature and he knew how to select good subordinates. They in their turn knew how to handle men. They urged the laborers by example and they set forth the inducements for hard work. The electric railway was finished on time. The young American told me that the labor capacity of the Havana individual workingman was as high as the labor capacity of the individual workingman in Pittsburg. On that calcula- tion he completed his contract. Some of us who had known Cuba in the days when the torches of the insurgents and the torches of the Spanish troops were rendering it a charred wilderness, were surprised this season to note everywhere the evidences of recupera- tion. All the planters were ruined and few of them were able to get the money with which to replant their estates, yet the sugar crop this year is larger than it has been for six years past. The bankers in Havana and the railway managers all over the Island, knowing the poverty of resources, have been surprised at the extent of the cane planting. Many of them told me that they hardly knew 176 Annai