<0 fl 4 - ' ^ > v *i^L'* &*> a9 * ^ A> ; 1 4 o. «2* O N ,f 0" o -o . * * A ^ 4 Oa 1 > r*> « •^ V^ * s * * 8 ^ ^ ° . °o -^ a0 * h *°* v v . & * ^ ; ^ °^ if ,* ^ r. ** ■&> * av ^V . CTlS * «> °i> or ... .* V *°"k ^ 4 cl. --V a5 °^ « % ^ .,< o . » -r •5 b ^ " U - ^ V r o»S ^, v-^ ^ \ •^ ^ . N o ^ ^. > ^ .1^ ^0 < A o%M;s *' % - v « o, ^ ^ •>-'*-<. o. 4 .K THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE Chautauqua Society AJJGUST 11th, 1904, BY THE HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT, Secretary of War. THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE HAUTAUQUA IETY AUGUST 11th, 1904, BY THE HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT, Secretary of War. By transfer NOV 8 190? ADDRESS BEFORE THE Chautauqua Society AUGUST 11th, 1904. Ladies and Gentle?nen : I have been invited into this great community of study, discussion and education, to say something on the subject' of the Philippines. The problem which the government of the United States is attempting to work out in the Philippine Islands is one in the c'ourse of which it encounters the severe criticism of conscientious critics who occupy exactly opposite standpoints. The English student of colonial government is fixed in his view that we have pursued a wrong course in the Philippine Islands by conferring upon the people much more popular con- trol than was wise and by attempting to give them an education, which instead of tending to improve mat- ters, will tend to create popular agitation and dis- content and constant conspiracy and plotting against the government. On the other hand, our American critics, who' like to describe themselves as Anti-Im- perialists, condemn the course of the United States in the islands on the ground that sufficient self-govern- ment has not been extended to the Filipinos and that immediate preparation is not being made to abandon i'o the islands to an independent government. Now it sometimes happens that the concurrence in condemna- tion of one's course, of people having exactly opposite views is a fairly good indication that the course taken is somewhat near that golden moon- — that line of average good — which should be the object of all practi- cal legislators and governors. I venture to think it is so in the present case. The problem set before the United States in assum- ing sovereignty over the Philippine Islands and estab- lishing and carrying on a government there for the benefit of the Filipinos, can hardly be wisely or prop- erly considered without a fairly good knowledge of the history of the islands so that the character of the peo- ple, their customs, their traditions, their aspirations may be understood and a course adopted to remedy the deficiencies of their civilization, of their education and of their present capacity for self-government. Magellan, in search of spices, was the first Euro- pean navigator who landed in the Philippine Islands and lost his life near the present city of Cebu in 1521. The archipelago was not really taken possession of as a colony of Spain until 1565. This was in the reign of Philip II. The proposed colonization of the Philip- pines seems to have had its motive not in gain, but in the desire to extend the Christian religion. The Philip- pine Islands were indeed a Christian mission rather than a Christian colony, and this characteristic has affected their history down to the present day. It is true that Legaspi, the former alcalde of the City of Mexico, who was sent out with Friar Urdaneta of the Augustinian Order, was directed to examine the ports of the Philippine Islands and to establish trade with the natives, and that the importance of winning the friendship of the natives was emphasized as a means of continuing the trade, but the viceroy of Philip II ordered Legaspi to treat the clergy with him (he had five Augustinian friars) with the utmost respect and consideration, so that the natives should hold them with respect "since," as he wrote to Legaspi, "you are aware that the chief thing sought after by His Majesty is the increase of the Holy Catholic Faith and the sal- vation of the souls of these infidels." In previous expeditions the sum of money paid for the trip was paid by adventurers who contributed part of the fund and who were aided from the royal treasury, the understanding being that there should be an equitable division of the profits between the adventurer and the King. Here, however, there was no adventurer con- nected with the expedition. It was a governmental expedition sent out by order of Philip II and he paid all the expenses. It soon became known that the islands were not likely to become profitable in any pecuniary sense to the Crown, and a contemporary writer says that when the King was informed that the Philippines were not rich in gold and pearls and that their occupation might not be lucrative but the reverse, he answered, "That is not a matter of moment; I am an instrument of Divine Providence ; the main thing is the conversion of the kingdom of Luzon, and God has predestined me for that end, having chosen me His King for that purpose, and since He has intrusted so glorious a work to me and my crown, I shall hold the islands of Luzon, even though by doing so I exhaust my treasury." Again, in 1619, in the reign of Philip III, the suc- cessor of the founder of the Philippine missions, it was proposed to abandon the Philippines on the ground of their useless expense to Spain. A dele- gation of Spanish friars from the archipelago' implored the King not to abandon the 200,000 Christians whom they had by that time converted, and the order was countermanded. The occupation of the islands took on a different aspect from that of the ordinary seeker for gold and profit and did not assume the character of the con- quests of Pizarro and Cortez. The natives were treated with the greatest kindness and consideration. The priests exerted the greatest efforts to conciliate them. The government was first established at Cebu, subsequently at Iloilo in Panay, and finally at Manila in 1 571. There was some fighting at Manila, of a desultory and not very bloody character, but Legaspi pursuing the direction of his superior, at once entered into negotiations with the natives. He found that there was no great chief in command but that the country was made up of a large number of petty chiefs — a chief to each town. They were jealous of each other and were easily induced to admit allegiance to the King of Spain and to come under the influence of the active missionary efforts of the friars who accom- panied Legaspi. I do> not know of another instance in which sovereignty was extended over so large a terri- tory and so many people (for the islands must then have had half a million inhabitants) with less blood- shed. When Legaspi's lieutenant — Salcedo— first visited Manila, he found the town itself under the con- trol of a rajah, and his priests found evidence of the presence among the people of Mohammedan priests who had not established themselves firmly. Un- doutedly if Legaspi had not at that time come into the islands we should find today that all the peoples of the archipelago were Mohammedan, instead of five per cent of them. The willingness of the natives to embrace Christianity, their gentle natures and their love of the solemn and beautiful ceremonies of the Catholic Church enabled the friars to spread Christ- ianity through the islands with remarkable rapidity. It should be borne in mind that these are a Malay people, that that nowhere in the world, except in the Philippine Islands, has the Malay been made a Chris- tian. In other places where the Malay race is, Moham- medanism first took control of it and there is no con- dition of mind which offers such resistance to the inculcating of Christianity as that produced among the followers of the prophet of Mecca. The Philippine Islands were a very long distance from Spain. Until the opening of the Suez Canal it took a year to write a letter and receive an answer from the home country. Men who went toi the islands, and especially the Monks, therefore felt that they were cutting them- selves off from communication with home, and were going for a lifetime. The friars learned the various dialects of the natives and they settled down to live with them as their protectors and guardians. In the first two hundred years of Spanish occupation the Crown had granted to various Spanish subjects large tracts of land called encomiendas. To those who occu- pied the encomiendas it was intended to give the character of feudal lords. They of course came into contact with the natives and attempted to use the natives for the development of their properties. The history of the islands until 1900 shows that the friars who had increased in number from time to time were constantly exercising their influence to restrain abuse of the natives by the encomienderos or large land- owners, and their efforts are seen in the royal decrees issued at their request, which were united into what were known as the "Laws of the Indies." It is very probable that the encomienderos frequently violated the restrictions which were put upon them in dealing with the natives ; but there is nothing to show that the friars winked at this or that they did not con- tinue to act sincerely as the protectors of the natives down to the beginning of the past century. Under the law a native could not be sued unless there was made party to the suit an official who was ordinarily a friar, known as "The Protector of the Indians." The encomiendero who had to do with the natives was not permitted to live in a town on his own estates where the natives were gathered together under the eaves of the church and the rectory. The friars exerted their influence to bring together the natives into larger towns near to the church and the convento or parish house, because they thought, and properly, that this would bring the natives more fully "under the bells" as they called it, or within religious influence. So great and complete became the control which the friars exercised over the natives by reason of their sincere devotion to their interests and their lifelong attention to the work of Christianizing and teaching the natives, that Spain had not the slightest difficulty in policing the islands for nearly three centuries. They induced the people to form towns near the coasts, where they could be easily reached, or in the midst of un- usually fertile country available for agriculture. One of the friars laid down this rule, which was adopted by his Order and approved by the government as early as 1580: "1. It is proper that pueblos should be formed, the missionaries being ordered to establish them- selves at a certain point where the Church and the parish house (convento) which will serve as a point of departure for the missions, will be built. The new Christians will be obliged to build their houses about the Church and the heathen will be advised to do so. '2. Elementary schools should be established in which the Indians will be taught not only Christian doctrine and reading and writing, but also arts and trades, so that they may become not only good Christians, but also useful citizens." 1 1 . The Spanish military force in the Philippines in 1600 was 470 officers and men. In 1636 this had increased to 1,762 Spaniards and 140 natives. From 1828 to 1896 the Spanish forces varied from 1,000 to 3,000 officers and men. In 1896, just before the revo- lution, the army included 18,000 men, of whom 3,000 were Spaniards, and a constabulary of 3,500 men, most of whom were natives. The Spaniards, but not the natives, were until 1803, subject to the jurisdiction of the Inquisition. Idolatries, heresies and errors of belief committed by the natives were brought before the bishop of the diocese, but not before the Holy Office. Although the natives held slaves upon the arrival of the Spaniards, the custom was discouraged by a law forbidding Spaniards to hold natives as slaves and by prohibiting judges from deciding in cases of dispute, whether a man was a slave, so that a slave appearing before the court was ordinarily liberated. In Cavite the friars maintained a hospital for sick sailors ; in Manila, Los Banos and Caceres were hospitals for sick natives ; in Manila, Pila and Caceres were hospitals for Spaniards, the clergy and natives who could afford to pay. In Manila was main- tained a hospital for sick negro slaves. Between 1591 and 161 5, the friars of the Philippines had sent mis- sionaries to Japan, who devoted themselves to the succor of the poor and needy there and especially the lepers of that country, so that they had, when the ports of that country were closed, about 32 priests. Twenty-six of them were crucified or burned alive. When the Mikado expelled the Christians and closed his ports to the world, he sent to the Governor Gen- eral of the Philippines three junks laden with 150 lepers, with a letter in which he stated that as the Spanish friars were so anxious to provide for the poor and afflicted, he sent them a cargo of men who were really sorely oppressed. These unfortunates were taken ashore and housed in the leper hospital of San Lazaro in Manila, which is today used for a similar purpose. I draw much of what I have said from an introduc- tion by Captain John R. M. Taylor, of the 14th In- fantry, Assistant to the Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, who is engaged in compiling original docu- ments connected with the Philippines, with notes and introduction. Speaking of what the friars did in the islands, Captain Taylor says : "To accomplish these results required untiring energy and a high enthusiasm among the mission- aries, in whom the fierce fires of religious ardor must have consumed many of the more kindly attributes of humanity. Men who had lived among savages, trying to teach them the advant- ages of peace and the reasonableness of a higher life, who had lived among them speaking their tongues, until they had almost forgotten their own, when promoted to the high places in the religious hierarchy, must have felt that their sole duty was to increase the boundaries of the vine- yard in which they had worked so long. Spain had ceased to be everything to them ; their order was their country, and the cure of souls and the accumulation of means for the cure of souls was the truest patriotism. * * * They were shep- herds of a very erring flock. Spanish officials came and went, but the ministers of the church remained, and as they grew to be the interpreters of the wants of the people, in many cases their protectors against spoliation, power fell into their hands. * * * In 1719 the Governor General Fernando de Bustamente, was excommunicated by the Archbishop of Manila, whom in return he 10 imprisoned in Fort Santiago. A riot followed, in which the Governor-General and his son were murdered. The Archbishop was released by the people, took possession of the office of Governor- General, and held it for two years, when he was transferred to the charge of a diocese in New Spain." The influence of the friars was thrown against the investigation and development of the resources of the Philippines. The priests knew that the development of the mines in Peru and Mexico had meant suffering and death to many of the natives, and it was thought better to let the mines in the Philippines, if mines there were, lie undeveloped. There were but a few Spanish merchants who lived permanently in the islands, and these were chiefly engaged in the trans- shipment of Asiatic merchandise from Manila, and not much interested in Philippine merchandise as such, so that they assisted but little the internal development of the islands. Taxes were light, there was no money to make improvements on a large scale, or to establish many schools. One Spanish-speaking priest among three or four thousand natives could do little in spread- ing the knowledge of the language. Indeed it is prob- able that apart from the convenience, for purposes of administration, of the priest learning the language of his parish, rather than requiring the parishioners to learn his, it was deemed expedient from a religious point of view to keep the people isolated by their ignorance of a common tongue. To know Spanish meant contact with the outside world and the priests feared not civilization, but the evils of civilization. Material civilization, the modern progress with steam and iron, seemed to the Spanish missionaries of little worth, compared with keeping their people unspotted from the world. 11 A decree of the Governor-General of the Philippines in 1857 is cited as an example of legislation of a gov- ernment controlled by ecclesiastical authorities. This decree was promulgated for the purpose of suppressing the publications which were destroying good morals, and introducing the irreligious ideas which prevailed outside of Spain. A censor was appointed, and he was directed to see that no books entered the Philippines except through Manila. All writings were to be sub- mitted to the Archbishop of Manila, and nothing could be published without his authority. When his per- mission had been obtained, then that of the civil gov- ernment was necessary. It is evident that it was intended to deprive the people of the knowledge of both good and evil, and to secure in the Philippines a return to primeval simplicity and ignorance of things pernicious. This history of the establishment and maintenance of the control of the Philippine Islands and of the Philippine people by a thousand Spanish friars, more or less, at once prompts the question how it has come about that the Philippine people now manifest such hostility to those who were for 250 years their sincere and earnest friends and protectors. There were many circumstances leading to the change, but it will be sufficient to mention only two or three. The intimate and affectionate relation existing between the friars and their native parishioners had led to the education of a number of natives as priests, and to the accept- ance of a number of natives as members of the reli- gious, orders. Before 1800 it is stated that of the bishops and archbishops who had been appointed in the islands, twelve were natives ; but after the first years of the 19th century no' such places of preferment were offered to the natives ; and after 1832 no natives were allowed to become members of the religious 12 orders. In 1767 the Jesuits were, by the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles the Third banished from the islands, and their properties taken from them and con- fiscated. They were at the time very powerful and rich, and the thirty-two parishes which they had administered were now given over, through the influ- ence of a secular Archbishop, to native priests. The parishes were chiefly in Cavite, Manila and Bulacan. It is quite evident that by the beginning of the 19th century there began to be a feeling or a cleavage between the native secular clergy and the friars. The change in policy, by which the native clergy were denied a preferment in the hierarchy, and the exclusion of natives from the religious orders, heightened this feeling of antagonism. In 1852 the Jesuits were pei- mitted to return, and the order permitting their return directed that they should receive thirty-two parishes in the island of Mindanao. Those parishes had been occupied by Recolletos, the bare-footed branch of the Augustinian Order. The Recolletos demanded that if they were turned out of their parishes in Mindanao, they should be restored to the parishes occupied by the native secular clergy in Cavite, Manila and Bulacan which had been originally Jesuit parishes. This pro- posal was resisted by the native secular clergy, but was nevertheless carried into effect. The bitterness of feel- ing thus engendered in the native clergy toward the friars spread easily among the people. Secondly, the friars had become, generally by pur- chase, large land owners. They held land enough to make up 250,000 acres in the-Tagalog provinces in the immediate neighborhood of Manila. This land which was rented by them to thousands of tenants was the best cultivated land in the islands, and was admirably suited for the cheap conveyance of the crops to market. Charges were made that the friars were collecting 13 exorbitant rents, and agrarian difficulties arose, which however unjust they may have been, contributed very decidedly to the .growing feeling on the part of the native people against their former friends and pro- tectors. Finally, the construction of the Suez canal brought the islands into comparatively close communi- cation with Spain, and hordes of Spanish adventurers came to the islands. Republican or liberal political views which were then rife in Spain, leading later to the formation for a time of a republic, reached Manila, and found lodgment among the educated Filipinos, and led to an uprising and so-called insurrection of 1870. In the absence of troops, the Spanish government looked to the parish priests, who were most of them friars, to do what was necessary in the way of policing the islands. By custom, and subsequently by law, the parish priest was given complete supervisory power over his municipal government. His civil functions became very many, and his chief duty seems to have been to report to the authorities the persons in his parish, or any persons whose political views or actions were hostile to the Spanish regime. By reason of the antagonism of the native priests, and the spread of views hostile to the government among the people, the friars were driven into a reactionary policy and attitude, which placed them in opposition to the people, and led the people to make them responsible for the severity with which the Spanish government in the islands punished any expression of liberal political opinions. In other words, by the necessities of the situation, the friars were made political factors of the greatest importance in support of the Spanish regime. This it was, taken with their attitude as land owners and their opposition to the native priests, that created such a hostility against them on the part of the Fili- pino people. So bitter was this hostility that in th« 11 revolution of 1898 there were forty friars killed and 300 imprisoned, and they were only released by the advance of the American forces, and the capture of the towns in which they were confined. I have at various times discussed the dilemma which was presented to the United States after the battle of Manila Bay and the taking of the City of Manila, the signing - of the protocol, and when the question arose as to what form the Treaty of Peace should take. It is not my purpose now to review the discussion, which has convinced me that the course which was taken, to- wit, that of assuming sovereignty over the islands, was the only course which was honorabty open to the United States. The transfer of a people from a sover- eignty like that of Spain, in which the church and the government and the state were so closely united that the possessions and functions of each it is at times very difficult to distinguish, to a sovereignty like that of the United States, in which the church and state must be separate, has presented a number of most interesting questions for readjustment and settlement, and these questions have been much complicated by the political bearing which the hostility of the people toward the friars and the friars' ownership of large agricultural holdings had upon the situation. I should like, if time would permit, to discuss what has been done in the settlement of these religious questions, and to show, as I could show, how they are being satisfactorily ad- justed, due to the patience, liberality and absence of narrow sectarian prejudice on the part of Catholics and Protestants alike interested in the matter, but my present paper cannot include this interesting history for lack of time. I have reviewed the peculiar history of the Philippine people with a view of explaining what is necessary in their education to make them self-gov- erning, and I have written this paper to show why I 15 think the problem is one possible of solution. What I should like to emphasize is the peculiar character of the Filipino people due to this history of theirs which I have summarized. The Spanish statistics show that / about 7 per cent of the people speak Spanish, and that the remainder speak some local dialect. One of the most reliable authorities on the subject is Mr. Barrows, present General Superintendent of Education in the islands. He was for some time the Chief of the Bureau of Ethnological Survey, and he has probably done more than anyone else since our advent to the islands, cer- tainly in investigating and learning the diversity of language, race and customs of the natives. In his last report, the one for 1903, he points out that in the terri- tory occupied by the Christian Filipinos there are twelve different dialects. He says : "The question has been frequently raiseol whether these Filipino languages are sufficiently related so as to fuse into one common tongue, and the bureau of education has received its most vigorous criticism in the United States because of its alleged attempt to supplant and destroy what might, in the opinion of absentee critics, become a national and characteristic speech. Such critic- isms could onlv proceed from a profound ignor- ance of' the nature of these languages and the peo- ple who speak them. All of t hese Hialec tg_helong to onecojmniin N ^aJ J a^an stock. Their grammati- cal structure is the same. The sentence in each one of them is built up in the same way. The striking use of affixes and suffixes which gives the speech its character is common to them all. There are, moreover, words and expressions iden- tical to them all. A hundred common words could readily be selected which would scarcely vary from one language to another ; but the fact stilJ Id remains different in vocabulary — so different that two members of any two differ ent tr ibes brought together are unable to converse, or at first even make themselves understood for the simplest steps of intercourse. The similarity in structure makes it very easy for a Filipino of one tribe to learn the language of another, but nevertheless these lan- guages have preserved their distinctions for more than three hundred years of European rule and in the face of a common religion and in spite of con- siderable migration and mixture between the dif- ferent tribes. This is true where different popu- lations border one another as elsewhere. In no case is there any indication that these languages are fusing. The Filipino adheres to his native dialect in its purity, and when he converses with a Filipino of another tribe ordinarily uses broken Spanish. These languages are not destined to dis- appear or to fuse, nor are they destined to have a literary development." The people whose means of communication are limited to a native dialect, with little or no literary knowledge, confined to a few provinces, even if they are able to read and write in that dialect, are so limited in their opportunity for obtaining information that they cannot be said to be in communication with the modern world at all. 'Now the Spanish estimate is that about 93 per cent of the people of the islands are unable to speak Spanish, and are therefore confined to their own dialects. They are Christians. They are gen- erally sincere Christians. Under the theocracy which the friars maintained in the islands they were generally simple, 'attentive to their religious duties, lovers of their families, with the Oriental weakness for gamb- ling; but they were temperate, law-abiding and respectful of authority. They were not overly indus- 17 trious, but they were used to work at the direction of their encomienderos, or under the influence of their parish priest. They had learned a little catechism, and they were in a state of Christian pupilage. I am now describing the great body of the people who are to be distinguished from the illustrados, or educated mem- bers of the community. That great body of the people I think certainly may be fairly estimated as 90 per cent. Of the 90 per cent a part may read and a part may read and write their native dialects, but they do not know Spanish, and they are so separated from modern civil- izing influences that their ignorance, their capacity for being led and controlled by others can hardlv be under- stood by those of us who< have lived in an atmosphere of freedom and civil liberty. With the friars gone, and no control exercisable through them, they are subject to influence by any one of their people who has wealth and education. jThey can be led about by the nose. During the disturbed conditions in the islands when war prevailed during the years from 1898 to 1901 the most atrocious crimes were committed by taos, hum- ble, ignorant, but apparently peaceable and non-vicious persons, simply because they were told by rich and wealthy Filipinos, or Filipinos of official position, that they must do so. They proceeded to bury people alive, or to cut their throats, or to chop them into pieces, with the imperturbability of the Oriental, supposing that they were entirely relieved from responsibility be- cause of the direction given them by their superiors in education and wealth of their own people. This is what is called caciqueismo. It is the subjection of the ordi- nary uneducated Filipino to a boss or master who lives in his neighborhood, and who by reason of his wealth and education is regarded as entitled to control by the ignorant tao. There is, however, no fixed feudal rela- tion. The population is mobile. First one leader, then 18 another can take control and lead in any direction, pro- vided he understands the people, knows how to appeal to them, and is looked upon by them as an educated and wealthy Filipino. Though the Christian Filipinos are divided into ten or twelve different tribes, which means that they speak different dialects, there is a strong racial resemblance and there is also* growing stronger each year a racial or national feeling among them. Without exactly understanding its difficulties or its benefits, they aspire to ultimate independence. Of course the more ignor- ant the person, the less active is this feeling, but it is quite easy for an educated Filipino to arouse this senti- ment among his ignorant fellow countrymen. They have no caste among them, no traditions which pre- vent the development of the people along European and American lines-. Their Christian education has led them to understand and embrace, when sufficiently educated, European and American ideals. Those who are educated and wealthy among them adopt European customs, European dress, European manners with eagerness. The children of the poorest and most ignorant learn with ease and their parents are ambi- tious that they should learn. They value the advant- age of education almost too highly in that they yield to the influence of educated men of their own race abjectly, and without restraint. The presence of Euro- peans among them for 300 years and the birth of many mestizos, that is, children of the mixed blood, followed by the natural interest of the Europeans in the mesti- zos, led to the education of the mestizos even before the Indios,. and so we find that the wealthy and edu- cated Filipinos are generally of the mixed blood. Taking their views from the Spaniards they have favored liberty in the abstract and equality and fratern- ity. But there is a very decided feeling on the part of 19 the wealthy educated Filipino that he is far removed from the, ordinary tao or ordinary workman or farmer. This is not true, for the ordinary ignorant Filipino taken as a child can be educated and made quite as much of a civilized being as the wealthy Filipino that we find today. In other words the capacity for development of the ninety per cent of ignorant Fili- pinos is fairly shown in the education and refinement that we find in the comparatively small educated class in the islands. This educated class is quick, bright, full of courtesy, brave, looks down on manual labor, theoretically in favor of civil liberty, patriotic, most sensitive in respect to criticisms of his class or people, but on the whole anxious to receive and accept new ideas, in dress, in education or in government. They are natural speakers, fluent, graceful and composed. They enjoy dealing in the glittering generalities and exalt always liberty and independence. As we know liberty is not a matter of phrases ; it is not brought about by mere pronunciemento or declaration of law; it is secured to the individual through certain second- ary methods of machinery, by which the individual can himself set the law in motion to protect him in the rights fundamentally declared. Now the Filipino naturally has no familiarity with that ancillary machinery by which rights are secured to an indi- vidual. When he establishes a government he knows no' other method than to place the power in the chief executive and to look to that chief executive to remedy wrong to secure progress, and to help the general wel- fare. Let me illustrate what I say : Several weeks after I reached Manila and before the Commission began work as a legislative body I was called on by an old Tagalog who did not speak Spanish, who' pre- sented to me a petition asking that his son, who had been confined in Bilibid Prison for six years under the 20 Spanish regime be released on the ground that he had never been tried on the charge for which he was arrested. There was present at the time this petition was handed to me a distinguished lawyer of the Philip- pines who had taken part in the preparation of the so- called Constitution of Malolos. He had been one of the draughtsmen of that instrument. I called his atten- tion to the petition and suggested that he take steps to assist the old man. He asked me what he could do. I told him to get out a writ of habeas corpus, because provision for that writ had been made by General Otis. He asked me what the Writ of Habeas Corpus was and when I told him, asked me if I would prepare a petition for him. I did so, he took the petition, went to the prison and learned that there were about ninety prison- ers who were in exactly the same situation as the son of the petitioner. He presented a petition for habeas corpus in each of the cases and the ninety were released. Now this illustrates the difference between a general declaration in favor of liberty and the practical operation of laws which secure the liberty thus declared. The Spanish law was full of declarations of liberty, in favor of the citizen, but it afforded no instru- mentality to be used by the citizen himself to assert his right and secure it. The declarations in favor of liberty were operative upon the judge or upon the executive officer, and if he disregarded them there was no means by which the individual could enforce in a court of justice a hearing of his wrong and a remedy of it. The Anglo-Saxon liberty has been fought out on the basis of protection to the individual, and our ancestors were very acute to secure to the individual the means of asserting the rights which the Magna Charter declared were inviolable. Another distinction between the English and Ameri- can systems of government and administration of jus- 21 tice and the Filipino system, is in the sense of respon- sibility that each citizen and person in the community feels in the enforcement of the rights of the public as against an individual who violates them. The right of the sheriff to call to his aid bystanders to assist him in enforcing the law is a right to invite them to do that which the ordinary Anglo-Saxon is prone to do at any rate — to see that the law is upheld. The Latin or the Spaniard and so, even more so, the Filipino, looks upon the action of the government as the action of something different entirely from the individual, not as an entity made up of individuals and representing the rights of all, but as a distinct entity — the State — which must protect itself. No Filipino would think of rushing to the assistance of a public officer attempting to arrest a known thief; would think of complaining of the commission of a crime unless that crime affected him in his person or property ; so that we find among the Filipinos, especially this large ignorant majority, first, a lack of knowledge as to what their rights are, and second, a lack of knowledge even if they know what their rights were, as to how they could assert them, and third, an entire absence of any responsibility for the action of the government in preserving order or enforcing law. These characteristics show the difficulty that exists in the Philippine Islands in granting to the great ignorant majority civil rights. They may be granted on the statute book but they are too ignorant to under- stand what they are or how they can be asserted. Then they are in exactly as subject a condition as if the rights were not granted to them. It therefore becomes the duty of a government like that we are establishing among them, to see to it that the people are educated sufficiently to know what their rights are and are advised as to how such rights can be asserted. And 22 this education, this training- in the assertion of their own rights, is even more essential when we come to the proposition that there shall be extended to the peo- ple at large, any measure of self-government and especially if we intend to introduce among them the system of jury trial. The power of self-government is not a government of self alone, but is a government of other people. Self-government is only possible when there is implanted in the breast of those who partake in it some sense of responsibility as to the government of all. With respect to the system of jury trial, that requires on the part of the people among whom it is to be introduced, a sense of public responsibility which will enable the jurymen to sit in a judicial frame of mind, weighing the rights of the individual as. against the public interest in a just punishment of crime. The jury trial has failed in Porto Rico because it has not been found possible as yet to instill in the minds of the people who sit on the juries, any sense of respon- sibility in regard to the -punishment of the defendant. The juror empannelled there does not understand that the jury is a tribunal upon the just operation of which depends the welfare of society and that if he votes to free every defendant, crime will be rife and the vicious will prey upon the community. It is the failure to identify themselves with the government as part of it and as responsible for its proper administration, and as interested in its proper administration, that renders the great body of the Filipino people at present unfit for complete self-government and the introduction of the system of jury trial. Education is necessary and not only education by primary schools and secondary schools, but a training in partial self-government such as to teach the individual governmental responsibility and to make him understand that public offices should be administered for the benefit of the public and not 23 - merely as the property of the individual, a lesson which I regret to say he rarely learned under the Spanish regime as it existed in the Philippines. And this lesson of public responsibility which a man must have either as a citizen or as a public officer among people well fit for self-government, is a lesson which the wealthy and the educated class among the Filipinos have yet to learn. They are learning it by actual experience in taking part in the government, but it requires a con- siderable period. Now, another thing is needed in successful and satis- factory self-government, and that is the existence of a reasonable, intelligent public opinion. Today in the Philippines this is altogether absent. The ninety per cent of' the Filipino people who are separated from knowledge of the modern world by ignorance of any civilized language, and who must learn all that they do learn through the very insufficient communication to them in their own dialect of what is going on, and of modern ideas, cannot be expected to exercise that tremendous instrument which is the most potent factor in self-government, operating as a restraint upon even the most brazenly dishonest administrator of public office. To have such a public opinion, with a manifest solidarity that shall give it force, the people must be educated to think alike and in a common language to express the thoughts that they have on the subject of good government. They must first be taught to know how important good government is to their wel- fare and secondly, to express their opinion in the various ways open to them and in a language which shall be common to them, against malversation and abuses in office and in the carrying on of the govern- ment. It seems to me that I have said sufficient now, first, to show that we had in the Philippine Islands when we 24 went there, a people who were tractable, capable of education, with proper ideals, free from obstructive caste and unprogressive traditions, who would form good material for the making of them a self-respecting, self-governing community, provided that we furnish to them the education necessary for their development. You will observe that they differ utterly from all the material which England has had in her tropical col- onies and dependencies. They are the only Orientals who have accepted Christianity and embraced it with real sincerity as a people. They are the only Orientals that have no other ambitions and ideals than those fur- nished them by European models. They are the only Orientals that aspire to civil liberty, as shown in the western world, and the problem of what we shall do with them is therefore immensely easier than it would be if they were Mohammedans or Buddhists and as separated from us in their ideas as the inhabitants of India are from the ideas of an Englishman or the peo- ple of Java from the ideas of a Dutchman. They, therefore, in their government require different treat- ment. We in America believe in popular self-govern- ment. We believe in it because in the long run we are sure that each man can be depended on with reasonable intelligence to protect his own interest more con- stantly, that he can be trusted to look after the interests of another. Hence the problem which the United States has had set before it is the question of how best to educate the Filipino people to be a self- governing people. It was determined that the first step was the educa- tion of the present generation of children in the prim- ary and secondary schools and in English. The gov- ernment was convinced that no greater benefit could be conferred upon these people than to have a common means of communication, and that, one that will enable 26 them to be at home anywhere in the East, for English is the language of the Orient. Moreover it is the language of free government; it is the language of Anglo-Saxon freedom ; it is the language through which they can read the histor)'- of the hammering out by our ancestors of the heritage of liberty which we have had conferred upon us. Secondly, it was thought wise to extend to the Filipinos as large a measure of self-government as was consistent with reasonably good administration in order that by actual practice* >■ in self-government they might become skilled in it and sufficiently skilled to have the measure of self-govern- ment increased from time to time. Thirdly, it was determined to establish among them a judicial system which should secure to' them absolute justice and which should teach them not only the possibility of its administration but should accustom them to the atti- tude of impartiality of the just judge, and enable them by constant example to acquire the habit of being just and impartial themselves especially with respect to governmental matters and in the exercise of their func- tions as citizens. The educational system of the Philippine Islands is one of very rapid growth, and it is even now by no means' adequate, as I shall explain. Long before the civil government was established in the islands, the military commanders of the United States forces were impressed with the necessity of introducing even while war was flagrant, schools for the education of the children of the Filipinos. So it was that from each company' there was detailed at least one teacher, who was directed to open schools in all the towns whether infected with sedition and insurrection or not. Of course, the soldiers who were detailed for this purpose were, many of them, not educated teachers, and the system thus inaugurated in its nature was temporary 26 and full of defects. Nevertheless, it showed the genius of the American people that even among their soldiers, waging a war to subdue insurrection among the Fili- pino people, there should be found an earnest desire and effort to better the people by education. When the civil government was established a much more comprehensive educational system was adopted. It was determined to bring from the United States a thousand school teachers and to spread them over the islands, first, to teach school and second, to teach Fili- pino teachers English, and how to teach English. It was an ambitious plan and one which was carried through with remarkable celerity. The hurry in the selection of the teachers and the rapidity of organiza- tion of course left much to be desired. At first, the novelty of the teaching attracted all the Filipinos and there was a rush to the schools. Then when it was found that the learning of English and the studies which were taught required constant attendance and work on the part of the pupils, the . enrollment and attendance fell off. Then too, the Filipino people, a large majority of them, are Catholics. They had been accustomed to the teaching of religion in the schools organized under the Spanish regime. Many of the American teachers were Protestants and the devout parents of the Filipino children had suspicions that the schools might be used as proselyting instruments. Provision was made, however, in the school law for the teaching of religion after hours to the pupils and in many places it has been arranged so that while the pupils attend the secular school in the morning they attend the church school in the afternoon. Both enrollment and attendance has fallen off in the year 1902 for the reasons given, but there was renewed interest in the schools in the latter part of 1902 and the year 1903, until in August September, 1903, the total 27 enrollment of pupils reached in the islands 173,000 with a percentage of attendance of 73 or 74 per cent. This was 13 per cent of the youth of school age of the Fili- pino Christians, not including the night school attend- ance. The number of American teachers had been reduced by illness, withdrawal and resignation from 950 to 700, but the school authorities have been engaged in filling the quota (1,000) during the present year. The Ameri- can teachers are centered in 338 towns out of the 934 total towns in the entire archipelago. It will be seen that we could use 3,000 American teachers if we had the money to pay for them, but the revenues are limited, and we must cut our clothes to suit our cloth. There are in the islands about 2,000 primary schools in operation. These employ the services of upwards of 3,000 Filipino teachers. Instruction is given wholly in English. The only texts used are English texts, and the teaching approximates American methods. The subjects taught are English language, primary arithmetic and primary geography, with supplementary reading in Philippine and American history, and in elementary humane physiology. The schoolhouses are crowded to the very limits of health and efficiency, and Filipino teachers are teaching on an average of 40 pupils. We are also engaged in teaching the Filipino teachers. There are now 400 well-advanced pupils in the Normal School at Manila, which is a school in con- tinuous operation, and then there are held in all the districts normal institutes in which the native Filipino teachers receive instruction for two or three months during the year. The percentage of attendance upon these normal institutes is remarkably high. In the Province of Batangas there were 301 who attended the eight weeks' sessions of the normal institute, and the average attendance was 296. There were two schools, 28 one at Lipa and one at Batangas. From iSfto ioo candidates were refused admittance at each school, because they were not able to fulfill the requirements for entrance. The candidate for a teacher's position and for admittance to the school must have had some previous instruction in English, as much at least as a term in a day school, or its equivalent in night school work, or elsewhere. Second, the candidate must be readfy to accept a position as teacher immediately on finishing the course. Third, the candidate must be not less than 16 years of age nor more than "K. Fourth, the candidate must attend regularly and study. This last requirement proved unnecessary, as there was great enthusiasm and steadfastness on the part of all. This picture of the Batangas Summer Institute for teaching teachers is repeated in every district in the islands, and furnishes, together with the very great enthusiasm of those who attend the 'Normal School in Manila, where they obtain of course a much more thorough education, the right to suppose that the pre- paration of the needed 10,000 Filipino 1 teachers for teaching the primary English studies throughout the islands is a matter of only a few years. I may stop, incidentally, to say that the influence of the American teachers spread throughout the im- portant towns of the islands has been most beneficial. They are the almoners' of the government's bounty. They collect no taxes, but they merely confer a benefit upon the people. Coming in this guise they are able to exert a tremendous influence over the Presidente, the municipal council, and the principales of the com- munity in which they live, if they exercise tact and show real enthusiasm and interest in work. They exert a further influence by opening night schools to which only adults are admitted. It is a very common thing to find in a town of thousands of inhabitants that 29 the American teacher is at night engaged in teaching a class which includes the Presidente of the town and several of his family, and perhaps a number of the municipal councillors, who are anxiously studying English with a view to its use for governmental and business purposes. This relation thus established between the American teacher and the people of influ- ence in each community has worked great good in inducing the people to believe that the intention of the Government is benevolent toward the Filipino people. We are expending about two. millions of dollars annually from the central treasury of the islands for education. In addition to this, one-fourth of the money raised for municipal purposes is devoted to the primary public schools. Now in addition to the primary schools it has been found necessary to> establish secondary schools. This was made necessary in order to secure the attendance of the children of the wealthy and educated classes in addition to those of the poor fam- ilies, because they were desirous that their children should obtain a higher education. The only schools in which they could obtain this higher education, if secondary schools were not established by the Govern- ment, were the Jesuit schools in Manila, where they teach Spanish and not English. The secondary schools are extremely popular. They have been established in nearly all the provinces, and are doing remarkable work. Of course their standard is not as high as that of our high schools and a graduate from one of them would hardly be fitted to enter Yale or Harvard, but they are being taught English thoroughly. They are getting a substantial academic education. In order to ■ support the provincial schools a part of the taxation for provincial purposes is appropriated. The establish- ment of a secondary system of schools is preliminary- only to the establishment of a university in Manila. 30 This, however, has been delayed for want of funds, but is a great necessity. It is an opportunity for any wealthy American who takes an interest in the Fili- pinos to perpetuate his name and do an immense amount of good. . It is doubtful whether the university ought to be in the City of Manila or whether it should be in the town of Baguio in Benguet, where the climate is SO' much more healthful. In Benguet at an altitude of 5,500 feet the thermometer ranges only from 45 to 75. The whole country is covered with green grass and groves of fine pine trees, and the air is as invigorat- ing as at Bar Harbor or Murray Bay. It forms an ideal site for a university if it can be made easily acces- sible to Manila. A railroad now runs from Manila in the direction of Baguio 120 miles, and a continuance of that railroad for 55 or 60 miles up a road which the Government is now constructing would bring one to Baguio in seven or eight hours from Manila. Still it is possible that it will be thought better to establish the university in the largest city of the islands. In addition to the normal schools and normal insti- tutes, and secondary schools, in the preparation of Filipino teachers the government has also entered upon the course of sending one hundred Filipino students each year to America to prepare themselves in the schools, colleges and universities of America for teach- ing engineering or some other useful profession. The first hundred pupils have been here for nearly a. year and have made remarkable progress. They drink in, of course, in America, the spirit of our institutions and carry back to their home country something of the atmosphere of constitutional liberty. When the American teachers first came into the islands and were sent out into the interior many of them had to undergo hardships. The machinery of administration was not oiled and there were a good 31 many inconveniences due to a lack of efficient adminis- tration that led to loud complaints on the part of some of the teachers. A great many of these defects have been removed, and more than that most of the teachers have become acclimated and used to life in the Philip- pines. It was supposed last year when the contracts of the teachers originally brought there for two years had expired that we should lose more than half of them, but the event did not justify the anticipation. A great majority of the teachers remained, and remained because they were interested in their work and had found a sphere of action in which they were able to see their success. The teachers had been selected by reference to the heads of the universities and colleges of America and I am glad to> testify to the average ex- cellence of that band of teachers of nearly one thousand souls who came to the Philippines under the inspira- tion of the first call. They have done great work, and while there have been knaves and fools among them, whose delinquencies were reported in sensational papers, as a body they reflect great credit on the young graduates of the universities and colleges of America, and exemplify the wonderful adaptability that our American life inculcates in our sons and daughters. For years we shall have to keep in the islands a con- siderable number of American teachers to carry on our normal schools, and our secondary schools, and the university, if it be established, but as you will see from what I have said, the hope of the system is the prepara- tion of 10,000 Filipino teachers to teach the primary schools and possibly in the secondary schools. In no one feature of our present system is there so much reason for encouragement as in the enthusiasm and application of the Filipino teachers in seeking to fit themselves as English teachers. When they become properly prepared they will naturally be able to accept 32 a much less compensation than the American teachers, and this will enable us to use the money which can be devoted to educational purposes to- educate a great many more pupils than are now enrolled in the public schools. I am far from saying that the public school system in the Philippine Islands today is perfect. No one feels its defects more than I do, but I do asseverate with emphasis and confidence that the system has been carried sufficiently far to show that if the principles which have heretofore been established are carried out, and the plans which have been made for the future shall be followed, there will be in the Philippine Island a system of education which will revolutionize the character of the next generation, will introduce Eng- lish as a common language of all the tribes, and it will constitute a long step in the direction of fitting the people for self-government. I now come to the second step in the education of the people to be a self-governing people, and that is in making them a part of the government as it is. In the X year 1901 we established about 900 municipalities in the islands under a municipal code, which gave corrj^- pktf autonomy to the people of the municipality. The code was framed with a view to the customs of the people and with the knowledge of their previous muni- cipal administration, but was assimilated as far as pos- sible to the ordinary municipal code of the United States. It extended the franchise of voting to persons who had previously 'filled municipal office, to those who spoke and wrote English or Spanish, and to those who paid upon their property not less than $15 a year taxes. So limited is the education of the people that this rule of eligibility excludes all but about 15 per cent of the voters. I never heard any criticism what- ever upon this line of ^eligibility, but of course it shows a very wide departure from a universal franchise or 33 vl manhood suffrage. The fact that it is acquiesced in so generally is a confirmation of the view that from 85 to 90 per cent of the people of the Philippine Islands are wholly unfitted to exercise governmental political control. Indeed, the experience with those voters who come within the rule of eligibility is such as conclusively to show that there are many who vote who- need much additional experience and education before they can be said to be fitted for self-govern- ment ; but we did not prepare the municipal code with the idea of securing the most efficient municipal gov- ernment only. Had we done so we might not have made the officers elective at all, as they are all now elective, but we considered the municipal government as the cradle of general self-government and we felt sure that in that school the best lessons of how a peo- ple can properly govern their governors could be taught. ' Next, we organized the forty or more provinces of the archipelago. We provided a provincial board, in which two members should be appointed and one elected, that the Governor of the province. The pro- vision for his election is an election by a convention of the municipal councilmen of the towns of the province who themselves were elected by the people. Then by order of President McKinley there were added to the Commission charged with the duty of legislating for the islands three Filipino members, in order that the Filipino people might have representation therein. he Act of Congress of July 2, 1902, provides for the aking of a census in the Philippine Islands. This census has been taken. It provides that within two years after the publication of the census, which will take place between now and the first of January, there shall be elected a popular assembly by the qualified voters of the Christian provinces of the Filipino peo- ple. This popular assembly becomes a part of the law- 34 making power. The Commission acts as one house and the popular assembly as another. In this way the peo- ple, by electing members to an actually law-making body will get further experience in the business of governing themselves. In this way, has the promise of McKinley been carried out, that self-government would be extended to the people as rapidly as they show themselves fit for it. As a third step in the education of the people in self- government, we have instituted a jucb^ckaxv partv of Filipino judges and partly of American judges. We have provided that in the court of First Instance the judge may summon to his aid as advisers upon the facts two assessors from the citizens of the province. We have established a judiciary which has adminis- tered justice without fear or favor in every province of the islands. Americans and Filipinos, malefactors, delinquent criminal officials, or whatever their offense, have been brought to trial and punished without respect to race or color. The entire absence of parti- alitv by the courts toward the Americans has more than any other one thing in the islands, I think, con- vinced the Filipinos of the good intention of the gov- ernment and has illustrated to them actual justice according to their ideal. Such administration cannot but be the healthiest education to the people in learn- ing how to govern themselves and to administer gov- ernment for themselves. How long it shall be required to accomplish the object of those who instituted these processes of edu- cation of the people, is mere conjecture. Certainlv it ought to continue long enough under American aus- pices to insure its continuance and maintenance under the auspices of the Filipino people if they should see fit to establish independent government. If, however, the government were now turned over to the Filipino people without American guidance, then we can be 35 *907 sure that the whole fabric of the educational system established by the American government in those islands would fall to pieces. The self-sacrifice, the patience and the knowledge necessary to the continu- ance of such a system of education are not to be found now even among the intelligent classes of the Filipino people. They are not sufficiently charged with the importance of maintaining all these instruments that I have described, for the purpose of elevating the poor and the common people. They are quite content with a government of the few. I was visited by a delegation of gentlemen wh® desired independence at once and who made an argument in its favor based on the ground which they solemnly stated that they had counted the number of the gente illustrada or educated people in the islands, and they had figured out the number of offices to be filled and had found that the number of educated people in the islands was more than double the offices to be filled. They reasoned, therefore, that as the offices could be filled twice — first by one party and then by the other party, by educated incumbents, the country was ready for self- government. I pointed out to them that the security and stability of a popular self-government depended upon the existence of free, intelligent public opinion, and that as long as ninety per cent of their people were in hopeless ignorance and in a mere state of Christian pupilage, subject to being led about by every wealthy educated demagogue, that should raise his voice, they could not expect the coming of firm or stable self- government from such a condition, and I say the same thing here. If the policy shall be followed which shall take away from the hands of the American government the power to do this people an infinite good by carry- ing out thoroughly the plan of education which I have outlined, it will be to every one who really knows the situation, a source of infinite regret. 36 82^ <> " " ° V* * 0v ^ "flics ^°^ ^ ° N ° ,<* % ;- **o« • o «J> > %/ V " K^ .^ [ o <>* ^"»- v*cv * V o <> V ^-^ T 4 A, » o 5 \ * i^ \>* t "d- ^ 0" '. ^^ ^»£>* '^^ 5°^ v ; ^'*V* "V*^V \" : ^^\^ % i* V **' O *° • * * A G o <.°" c « *t A' v • o o « a o s ^ *»««»> A^ ^ ".^' J A v *o ^Trr* a % r°^ o^S ^o .A .- 4 O ° a ** > ^ a^ o^yR^* a^, v> *'7^s* A * *;w^ A <^ ,y ^X V * » n o ° V \ x L ' A^ o V' o I * _»- <^ aO - s " 4? ^^. ^> ^ * A ^* 0^ >> kV * *o -^XT^ A O