CORRIGENDA
I trust that the foregoing incomplete outline of what has been
accomplished toward bettering the condition of the non-Christian
tribes of the Philippines has at least sufficed to convey some
idea of the nature of the task which has confronted us and of the
spirit in which it has been approached. Before considering further
the difficulties which have been successfully met and the problems
which still remain unsettled, I will correct some of the numerous
misstatements which have been made relative to the unimportance
of the non-Christian tribes, the nature of the work done for them,
and the motives of some of those who have engaged in it.
I once heard it said that the trouble with Blount's book was that
it contained five thousand lies, that the correction of each would
require, on the average, two pages of printed matter, and that no
one would read the resulting series of volumes!
I have not counted the misstatements of this author. They are
sufficiently numerous to make it impracticable to answer them all in
detail. It is hard to know just what to do in such a case, as one must
run the risk of giving undue importance to them by noticing them, or of
creating the impression that they cannot be answered by ignoring them.
Under all the circumstances it has seemed to me well to reply somewhat
fully to his more important allegations relative to non-Christian tribe
matters, for the reason, among others, that many of his statements
embody the more important claims of the Filipino politicians relative
thereto; and to add that it would be equally easy to riddle his
contentions relative to most other matters which he discusses. He
says:--
"Professor Worcester of the Philippine Commission has for the last
twelve years been the grand official digger-up of non-Christian
tribes. He takes as much delight at the discovery of a new
non-Christian tribe in some remote, newly penetrated mountain
fastness, as the butterfly catcher with the proverbial blue
goggles does in the capture of a new kind of butterfly." [31]
I have never had the good fortune to discover even one new tribe,
the net result of my explorations and studies having been to reduce
the number of such tribes claimed to inhabit the Philippines from
eighty-two to twenty-seven, and to throw serious doubt on the validity
of several of those which I still provisionally recognize. Blount
adds:--
"Professor Worcester's greatest value to President Taft, and also
the thing out of which has grown, most unfortunately, what seems
to be a very cordial mutual hatred between him and the Filipinos,
is his activities in the matter of discovering, getting acquainted
with, classifying, tabulating, enumerating, and otherwise preparing
for salvation, the various non-Christian tribes." [32]
It is quite true that the Filipino politicians have bitterly resented
my making known the facts relative to the existence of numerous
uncivilized peoples in the islands, but to the charge that I hate
the Filipinos I must enter an emphatic denial.
Fifteen years ago I expressed my opinion of them in the following
words:--
"The civilized native is self-respecting and self-restrained to a
remarkable degree. He is patient under misfortune, and forbearing
under provocation. While it is stretching the truth to say that
he never reveals anger, he certainly succeeds much better in
controlling himself than does the average European. When he does
give way to passion, however, he is as likely as not to become
for the moment a maniac, and to do some one a fatal injury.
"He is a kind father and a dutiful son. His aged relatives are
never left in want, but are brought to his home, and are welcome
to share the best that it affords to the end of their days.
"Among his fellows, he is genial and sociable. He loves to sing,
dance, and make merry. He is a born musician, and considering the
sort of instruments at his disposal, and especially the limited
advantages which he has for perfecting himself in their use,
his performances on them are often very remarkable.
"He is naturally fearless, and admires nothing so much as bravery
in others. Under good officers he makes an excellent soldier,
and he is ready to fight to the death for his honour or his home.
"With all their amiable qualities it is not to be denied
that at present the civilized natives are utterly unfit for
self-government. Their universal lack of education is in itself
a difficulty that cannot be speedily overcome, and there is much
truth in the statement of a priest who said of them that 'in many
things they are big children who must be treated like little ones.'
"Not having the gift of prophecy, I cannot say how far or how
fast they might advance, under more favourable circumstances than
those which have thus far surrounded them. They are naturally
law-abiding and peace-loving, and would, I believe, appreciate
and profit by just treatment.
"In the four months which separate May 1, 1898, from the day
when the manuscript for this volume leaves my hands, important
events have crowded on each other's heels as never before in the
history of the Archipelago. Whatever may be the immediate outcome,
it is safe to say that, having learned something of his power, the
civilized native will now be likely to take a hand in shaping his
own future. I trust that opportunities which he has never enjoyed
may be given to him. If not, may he win them for himself." [33]
This opinion, which I trust will not be considered unkindly, has
not been modified in its essentials as a result of many additional
years of life in the Philippines. I have unexpectedly had a hand in
giving to the Filipinos opportunities which they had never before
enjoyed. I drafted the act under which the municipalities of these
islands to-day govern themselves; the act creating the College of
Medicine and Surgery where young Filipino men and women may receive
the best of theoretical and practical instruction; the act creating
in the Bureau of Lands a school of surveying as a result of which
the present dearth of Filipino surveyors will soon end; the provision
of law creating and providing for the Philippine Training School for
Nurses, which is preparing hundreds of young Filipino men and women to
practise a useful and noble profession. I drafted the legislation which
created a forest school, where many bright Filipino lads are now being
trained for the government service. I drafted the provision of law
which gives to all Filipinos the right to make personal use of timber
from the government forests without paying a cent therefor, and the act
which makes it possible for municipalities to have communal forests,
reserved for the special and exclusive benefit of their citizens.
I fought for eight years to get the money for the Philippine General
Hospital, where nearly ninety thousand patients, the vast majority
of whom are Filipinos, are treated annually either in beds or at the
several clinics; I have approved, and indeed compelled, the appointment
of a staff for that institution largely made up of Filipinos, and
I have steadily supported the Filipino members of that staff when
insulted or unjustly accused, as I regret to say they sometimes have
been, as a result of race prejudice with which I have no sympathy.
I am the official ultimately responsible for the establishment and
maintenance of a health system which indisputably saves the lives of
hundreds of thousands of Filipinos every year, and has practically
rid their country of smallpox, plague and cholera.
All of the employees of the Weather Bureau, which comes under my
executive control, are Filipinos.
I could name a score of other important measures, having for their
sole object the betterment of the condition of the Filipinos, and
extension to them of increased opportunity to demonstrate their
capacity, which I have originated. I have never knowingly opposed a
measure which would produce this result.
I frankly admit that I have declined to approve the appointment of
a Filipino to any position under my control simply because he was
a Filipino. I have insisted that appointees have higher and better
reasons to claim consideration, among which may be mentioned decent
character and ability to do the work of the positions to be filled. No
living man entertains more genuinely kindly feelings toward the peoples
of these islands, Christian and non-Christian, than do I. An allegation
that I hate the Filipinos comes with especially bad taste from a man
who himself never ceased to criticize them, and to denounce them as
utterly incompetent and worthless throughout his Philippine career,
but who finally experienced an eleventh-hour conversion on the eve of
a presidential election which was likely to bring into power another
political party.
Blount has worked out a theory, peculiarly his own, to the effect
that the non-Christian peoples have been set aside as a field for
purely Protestant missionary activities, and that I am a party to
this scheme. In this connection he says:--
"It seems that the Catholic and Protestant ecclesiastical
authorities in the Islands get along harmoniously, a kind of
modus vivendi having been arranged between them, by which the
Protestants are not to do any proselyting among the seven millions
of Catholic Christians. So this field of endeavour is the one
Professor Worcester has been industriously preparing during the
last twelve years. [34]
"Obviously, every time Professor Worcester digs up a new
non-Christian tribe he increases the prospective harvest of the
Protestants, thus corralling more missionary votes at home for
permanent retention of the Philippines. [35]
"But neither Bishop Brent nor any one else can persuade him [36]
that it is wise to abandon the principle that Church and State
should be separate, in order that our government may go into
the missionary business. Since it has become apparent that the
Philippines will not pay, the Administration has relied solely
on missionary sentiments....
"The foregoing reflections are not intended to raise an issue
as to the wisdom of foreign missions. They are simply intended
to illustrate how it is possible and natural for President Taft
to consider Professor Worcester 'the most valuable man we have
on the Philippine Commission.' The Professor's menagerie is a
vote-getter." [37]
The first passage quoted has the merit of being ingenious, and embodies
a half truth. Bishop Brent deems it inadvisable to try to proselytize
Catholic Christians, and outside of Manila his co-workers confine
their efforts to the conversion of persons other than Filipinos. They
conduct missions for non-Christians at Sagada and Bontoc in Bontoc,
at Baguio in Benguet, and at Zamboanga in the Moro Province.
In Manila they conduct a mission for Filipinos in connection with
a hospital which does most valuable work, but they mean to leave
Catholic Filipinos alone.
The Catholics recognize no corresponding limitations. They conduct
missions for the Benguet-Lepanto Igorots at Baguio, Itogon, Kabayan,
Cervantes and elsewhere; for the Bontoc Igorots at Bauco and Bontoc
and for the Ifugaos at Quiangan.
The other Protestant denominations having missions in the Philippines
work chiefly among the Catholics.
I have absolutely no connection with any such enterprises except that
I have helped to make them possible in the wild man's territory by
the establishment of law and order there, and have sometimes made both
Catholic and Protestant missionaries my agents for administering simple
remedies to sick persons who might otherwise have perished miserably.
To this extent, and to this extent only, has our government gone into
the missionary business.
I am proud to count Bishop Brent and Archbishop Harty among my personal
friends. I am in complete sympathy with the purposes which actuate
both of them in prosecuting Christian missions. I have sometimes
disapproved, personally, of methods employed by their subordinates
in this work, and have felt free to tell them so!
Blount complains bitterly over the exhibition of members of
non-Christian tribes at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. For a wonder
he admits that Tagálog and Visayan Filipinos were also exhibited. He
fails to record the fact that a commission of highly educated and
cultured Filipino men and women were sent to the exposition and
travelled quite widely in the United States, so that they were seen,
and heard of, by great numbers of people who never visited St. Louis
at all. Of the exhibition of wild men, he says:--
"I think no deeper wound was ever inflicted upon the pride of
the real Filipino people than that caused by this exhibition,
the knowledge of which seems to have spread throughout the
islands." [38]
And he rather ingeniously gives it to be understood that I was
responsible for this exhibition, although he carefully avoids stating
that this was the case.
I am quite as strongly opposed to the exhibition of members of the
Philippine non-Christian tribes as is Blount himself, but for very
different reasons hereinafter set forth. As such peoples constitute an
eighth of the population of the Islands, I also object to the attempt
of certain Filipino politicians to conceal the fact of their existence,
and to the efforts of certain misguided Americans to minimize the
importance of the problems which their existence presents. Let us
look the facts in the face. The Moros are as "real" as the Tagálogs.
The average Filipino does not object in the least to the exhibition of
wild people. On the contrary, he is just as much interested in them as
is the average American, and goes to see them whenever the opportunity
offers. It is only the Filipino politician who pretends to see any
actual immodesty in scanty costumes worn with the innocence with
which Adam and Eve were endowed before the fall. The truth is that
the politician himself does not really object to this semi-nudity,
to which he is already sufficiently accustomed among his own people
in his own native town, but he plays it up for political effect.
The pedigree of the average Filipino politician very frequently runs
back to white or Chinese ancestors on the father's side. In his heart
of hearts he resents his Malay blood, and he particularly objects to
anything which reminds him of the truth as to the stage of civilization
which had been attained by his Malay ancestors a few centuries ago.
If he be a member of the Philippine Assembly, he further and bitterly
resents his lack of authority to legislate for the Moros and other
non-Christian tribes, and is ever ready to support his frequently
reiterated demand for such authority by arguing the unimportance
of these peoples, and that of the problems which their existence
presents. Up to the time when the assembly was established and was
denied the power to legislate for the non-Christians, my occasional
illustrated lectures on the wild peoples, given at Manila, were very
liberally attended by Filipinos, not a few of whom I am glad to say
still continue to patronize them when occasion offers.
My own attitude toward the exhibition of non-Christians, and my reasons
therefor, are set forth in the following official correspondence,
with which I will this phase of the subject:--
(Telegram.)
"Pack [39] Bontoc, Manila, Dec. 4, 1909.
"Schneiderwind is back with his Igorots some of whom have as
much as two thousand pesos due them. Am trying to arrange to
have this money put in postal savings bank to protect them from
themselves. Schneiderwind is after another party of wild people
to take to Europe. Has asked about Ifugaos and Apayaos. Have told
him strongly opposed to taking these people to other countries
for exhibition purposes and will place all possible obstacles in
his way if he attempts to do so. If after this warning he enters
Mountain province to secure people for exhibition purposes give him
no assistance but use every legitimate means to prevent his getting
them. Give proper and seasonable instructions to your subordinates.
"Worcester."
On April 22, 1910, in returning to the Governor-General a petition
dealing with the exhibition of wild people I placed upon it this
indorsement:--
"Respectfully returned to the Honourable, the Governor-General.
"The undersigned is strongly opposed to the sending of members of
wild tribes to the United States or to other civilized countries
for exhibition purposes. Apart from all other considerations
experience shows that the men and women thus taken away from their
natural surroundings are apt to be pretty thoroughly spoiled and
to be trouble makers after their return.
"The undersigned has recently informed Mr. R. Schneiderwind that
he would, if necessary, do everything in his power to prevent the
latter gentleman from taking another set of Igorots away from the
Philippines for exhibition purposes. This, too, in spite of the
fact that Mr. Schneiderwind has apparently been very considerate
in his treatment of the Igorots whom he has taken to the United
States for exhibition purposes.
"The undersigned would assume the same attitude toward any other
person endeavouring to obtain Igorots for exhibition purposes."
The advocates of the "united people" theory for these islands are
forced to insist on the unimportance of the non-Christian tribes and
it is needless to say that Blount does this. His contentions on the
subject are rather concisely stated in the following passage:--
"You see our Census of 1903 gave the population of the
Philippines at about 7,600,000 of which 7,000,000 are put down
as civilized Christians; and of the remaining 600,000 about half
are the savage, or semi-civilized, crudely Mohammedan Moros,
in Mindanao, and the adjacent islets down near Borneo. The other
300,000 or so uncivilized people scattered throughout the rest
of the archipelago, the 'non-Christian tribes,' which dwell in
the mountain fastnesses, remote from 'the madding crowd,' cut
little more figure, if any, in the general political equation,
than the American Indian does with us to-day." [40]
If there were ten million American Indians who were in undisputed
occupation of half the territory of the United States, this statement
might in a way approximate the truth. Blount's ten-year-old population
figures are a trifle out of date, but before demonstrating this I
wish to show certain peculiarities in his method of manipulating
them. He says:--
"That the existence of these wild tribes--the dog-eating
Igorrotes and other savages you saw exhibited at the St. Louis
Exposition of 1903-4--constitutes infinitely less reason for
withholding independence from the Filipinos than the American
Indian constituted in 1776 for withholding independence from us,
will be sufficiently apparent from a glance at the following table,
taken from the American Census of the Islands of 1903 (vol. ii.,
p. 123):--
Island Civilized Wild Total
Luzón 3,575,001 223,506 3,798,507
Panay 728,713 14,933 743,646
Cebu 592,247 592,247
Bohol 243,148 243,148
Negros 439,559 21,217 460,776
Leyte 357,641 357,641
Samar 222,002 688 222,690
Mindanao 246,694 252,940 499,634
"I think the above table makes clear the enormity of the injustice
I am now trying to crucify. Without stopping to use your pencil,
you can see that Mindanao, the island where the 'intractable
Moros' Governor Forbes speaks of live, contains about a half
million people. Half of these are civilized Christians, and the
other half are the wild, crudely Mohammedan Moro tribes. Above
Mindanao on the above list, you behold what practically is the
Philippine archipelago (except Mindanao), viz. Luzón and the six
main Visayan Islands. If you will turn back to pages 225 et seq.,
especially to page 228, where the student of world politics was
furnished with all he needs or will ever care to know about the
geography of the Philippine Islands you will there find all the
rocks sticking out of the water and all the little daubs you see
on the map eliminated from the equation as wholly unessential to a
clear understanding of the problem of governing the Islands. That
process of elimination left us Luzón and the six main Visayan
Islands above as constituting, for all practical governmental
purposes all the Philippine archipelago except the Moro country
Mindanao (i.e. parts of it), and its adjacent islets. Luzón and
the Visayan Islands contain nearly 7,000,000 of people, and of
these the wild tribes, as you can see by a glance at the above
table constitute less than 300,000, sprinkled in the pockets of
their various mountain regions. Nearly all these 300,000 are quite
tame, peaceable and tractable, except, as Governor Forbes suggests,
they 'might possibly mistake the object of a visit.'" [41]
This is all very well unless you take the Judge at his word and turn
to the page of the census report referred to, but if you do this
a rude shock awaits you, for instead of the table above quoted the
following is the table which you will find:--
Table 1.--Total Population, Classified as Civilized and Wild, by
Provinces and Comandancias.
Province or Comandancia Total Population Civilized Wild
Philippine Islands 7,635,426 6,987,686 647,740
Abra 51,860 37,823 14,037
Albay 240,326 239,434 892
Ambos Camarines 239,405 233,472 5,933
Antique 134,166 131,245 2,921
Basilan 30,179 1,331 28,848
Bataán 46,787 45,166 1,621
Batangas 257,715 257,715 ----
Benguet 22,745 917 21,828
Bohol 269,223 269,223 ----
Bulacán 223,742 223,327 415
Cagayán 156,239 142,825 13,414
Cápiz 230,721 225,092 5,629
Cavite 134,779 134,779 ----
Cebú 653,727 653,727 ----
Cotabato 125,875 2,313 123,562
Dapitan 23,577 17,154 6,423
Dávao 65,496 20,224 45,272
Ilocos Norte 178,995 176,785 2,210
Ilocos Sur 187,411 173,800 13,611
Iloílo 410,315 403,932 6,383
Isabela 76,431 68,793 7,638
Joló 51,389 1,270 50,119
La Laguna 148,606 148,606 ----
La Union 137,839 127,789 10,050
Lepanto-Bontoc 72,750 2,467 70,283
Leyte 388,922 388,922 ----
Manila City 219,928 219,928 ----
Marinduque [42] 51,674 51,674 ----
Masbate 43,675 43,675 ----
Mindoro 39,582 32,318 7,264
Misamis 175,683 135,473 40,210
Negros Occidental 308,272 303,660 4,612
Negros Oriental 201,494 184,889 16,605
Nueva Ecija 134,147 132,999 1,148
Nueva Vizcaya 62,541 16,026 46,515
Pampanga 223,754 222,656 1,098
Pangasinán 397,902 394,516 3,386
Paragua 29,351 27,493 1,858
Paragua Sur 6,345 1,359 4,986
Rizal 150,923 148,502 2,421
Romblón 52,848 52,848 ----
Sámar 266,237 265,549 688
Siassi 24,562 297 24,265
Sorsogón 120,495 120,454 41
Surigao 115,112 99,298 15,814
Tarlac 135,107 133,513 1,594
Tawi Tawi 14,638 93 14,545
Tayabas [43] 153,065 150,262 2,803
Zambales 104,549 101,381 3,168
Zamboanga 44,322 20,692 23,630
From this it will be apparent to the reader that the Judge takes some
rather unusual liberties even with such information as was available
nine years before he finished his book. I have quoted the actual
table in full, as it is useful for reference.
In the middle of the page referred to by Blount there begins another
table showing "Total Population, Classified as Civilized and Wild,
by Islands." This table occupies four and one-half solid pages, and
therefore does not closely resemble the one foisted on the public
by him.
It includes 323 islands, from which the Judge has selected eight which
happened to suit his purpose, giving it to be clearly understood
that the islands which he has not included are "rocks sticking out
of the water" and "little daubs you see on the map" "eliminated from
the equation as wholly unessential to a clear understanding of the
problem of governing the Islands."
Among the "rocks" and "little daubs" thus eliminated are Mindoro with
an area of thirty-eight hundred fifty-one square miles, and Palawan
with an area of four thousand twenty-seven square miles. Of the
islands included, Leyte has twenty-seven hundred twenty-two square
miles; Cebu, seventeen hundred sixty-two square miles; and Bohol,
fourteen hundred eleven square miles. Incidentally, neither Leyte,
Cebu nor Bohol have any non-Christian inhabitants at all, while all
of Mindoro and Palawan, with the exception of narrow broken strips
along the coast are populated by wild people, hence it is convenient
for him to ignore them.
In spite of his suggestion that it is not necessary to use the pencil
in connection with his table, I ventured to do so, in connection
with his statement that "Luzón and the Visayan Islands contain nearly
7,000,000 of people." On his own showing they contain 6,158,311.
And now for the real facts. At the time the census enumeration was
made Apayao had been crossed by a white man only once and that
more than a hundred years ago. Extensive portions of Ifugao and
Bontoc, and the greater part of Kalinga, were unexplored, as were
the interior of Mindoro and most of the interior of Palawan, to say
nothing of immense regions in Mindanao. As a matter of fact, we do
not to-day know with any accuracy the number of Mangyans in Mindoro,
nor the number of Tagbanuas in Palawan, but it has been conclusively
demonstrated that the latter were greatly underestimated by the census
enumerators. There will be found in the appendix [44] a table giving
in detail the present accepted estimate of the non-Christian population
of the islands, which numbers at least a million seventy thousand.
It is reasonably certain that the necessary corrections in the figures
for several provinces for which the present estimates are admittedly
too low will raise the total slightly.
Blount has made a further statement relative to the non-Christian
population of Luzón which is indeed extraordinary. He says:--
"Of the 7,600,000 people of the Philippines almost exactly
one-half, i.e. 3,800,000, live on Luzón, and these are practically
all civilized." [45]
The table on the opposite page, giving the census estimate of the
non-Christian population of Luzón and the present accepted estimate,
shows how erroneous is this statement.
It will be seen that the census estimate of non-Christian inhabitants
in the province of Luzón was 224,106 and the present accepted estimate
is 440,926.
In explanation of his extraordinary statement that practically all of
the people of Luzón are civilized Blount has inserted the following
foot-note:--
"223,506 is the total of the uncivilized tribes still extant in
Luzón, Philippine Census, vol. ii., p. 125, but they live in the
mountains, and you might live in the Philippines a long lifetime
without ever seeing a sample of them, unless you happen to be an
energetic ethnologist fond of mountain climbing." [46]
Province or Census Present Accepted
Subprovince Estimate Estimate
Abra 14,037 14,037
Albay 892 892
Amburayan -- 10,191
Ambos Camarines 5,933 5,933
Apayao -- 23,000
Bataan 1,621 1,621
Batangas 000 000
Benguet 21,828 28,449
Bontoc -- 62,000
Bulacan 415 415
Cagayan 13,414 15,000
Cavite 000 000
Ilocos Norte 2,210 2,210
Ilocos Sur 13,611 13,611
Ifugao -- 125,000
Isabela 7,638 (?)
Kalinga -- 76,000
La Laguna 000 (?)
La Union 10,050 000
Lepanto -- 31,194
Lepanto-Bontoc 70,283 000
Nueva Ecija 1,148 862
Nueva Vizcaya 46,515 6,000
Pampanga 1,098 1,098
Pangasinán 3,386 3,386
Rizal 2,421 2,421
Sorsogon 41 41
Tarlac 1,594 1,594
Tayabas 2,803 2,803
Zambales 3,168 3,168
Total 224,106 440,926
Also you might live in the Philippines a long lifetime and never
see anything but wild people. The question of where they live is not
intimately connected with that of their number, which is the point
under discussion.
Blount devotes considerable space to alleged newspaper accounts
of "a speech" said by him to have been delivered by me in the
Y. M. C. A. auditorium at Manila. I delivered two illustrated
lectures there, entitled respectively "The Non-Christian Tribes of
the Philippines," and "What has been done for the Non-Christian Tribes
under American Rule."
In the course of the latter discourse I made the point that Filipinos
who claim that conquest confers no right of sovereignty are hoist
with their own petard, for the simple but sufficient reason that
the Negritos were the aborigines of the Philippines and were later
conquered and driven out of the lowland country into inaccessible,
forested mountain regions by the Malay invaders who were the ancestors
of the present Filipino claimants not only to the territory thus
conquered, but to territory which was held up to the time of the
American occupation by wild tribes whom they now propose to conquer
and rule if given the opportunity!
My shaft struck home and called forth a howl of rage from the
politicians, which was the louder because I further expressed with
entire frankness my firm belief that the Filipinos were unfit to
govern the non-Christian tribes, whether or not they were fit to
govern themselves.
In the course of further reference to the above-mentioned lecture,
Blount says:--
"Another of the Manila papers gives an account of the speech, from
which it appears that the burly Professor succeeded in amusing
himself at least, if not his audience, by suggestions as to the
superior fighting qualities of the Moros over the Filipinos,
which suggestions were on the idea that the Moros would lick
the Filipinos if we should leave the country. (The Moros number
300,000, the Filipinos nearly 7,000,000.) The Professor's remarks
in this regard, according to the paper, were a distinct reflection
upon the courage of the Filipinos generally as a people." [47]
Here, as is so often the case, he finds newspaper statements more
suited to his purpose than cold facts. I yield to no one in my
admiration for the courage of Filipinos, and have expressed it on a
score of occasions. In my first book on the Philippines I made the
following reference to it:--
"I once saw a man in Culion who was seamed and gashed with horrible
scars from head to foot. How any one could possibly survive such
injuries as he had received I do not know. It seemed that his
wife and children had been butchered by four Moros while he was
absent. He returned just as the murderers were taking to their
boat. Snatching a machete, he plunged into the water after them,
clambered into their prau, and killed them all. When one remembers
the sort of weapons that Moros carry, the thing seems incredible,
but a whole village full of people vouched for the truth of the
story." [48]
This was not the only tribute which I paid to the courage of the
Filipinos [49] and I have never made a statement intended to reflect
on it in the slightest degree. It is true that their fighting ability
is on the average far below that of the Moros, and I may add that
the same thing holds for Americans on the average.
It is really funny to see how Blount sometimes tells the truth in spite
of himself. He takes me to task for amusing myself "by suggestions as
to the superior fighting qualities of the Moros over the Filipinos,"
and here is what he says on the same subject:--
"Again, because the Filipinos have no moral right to control
the Moros, and could not if they would, the latter being fierce
fighters and bitterly opposed to the thought of possible ultimate
domination by the Filipinos, the most uncompromising advocate of
the consent-of-the-governed principle has not a leg to stand on
with regard to Mohammedan Mindanao." [50]
"Consistency, thy name is not Blount!"
The Moros are religious fanatics. I have known one when bayoneted to
seize the barrel of the gun and push the bayonet through himself in
order to bring the man at the other end within striking distance,
cut him down, unclasp the bayonet and, leaving it in the wound to
prevent hemorrhage, go on fighting. I have known two Moros armed
with bamboo lances to attack a column of two thousand soldiers armed
with rifles. It is an historic fact that Moro juramentados [51] once
attempted to rush the walls of Joló and kept up the fruitless effort
until they blocked with their dead bodies the rifle slits, so that it
became necessary for the Spanish soldiers to take positions on top
of the walls in order to fire. I have known a Moro, shot repeatedly
through the body and with both legs broken, to take his kriss in his
teeth and pull himself forward with his hands in the hope of getting
near enough to strike one more blow for the Prophet.
The Filipinos are afraid of the Moros and they have the best of reasons
to be. The relative numerical insignificance of this little Mohammedan
tribe of desperate fighters has little to do with the question under
consideration. Their number has for centuries borne substantially
the same proportion to the total population of the Philippines which
it now bears, yet no one can deny that it is but a short time since
they harried the archipelago from south to north and from east to
west. The shores of Northern Luzón and the neighbouring islands are
to-day dotted with the forts which were built for defence against
them. The town of Polillo, on the northernmost island off the east
coast of Luzón, is still surrounded by a high wall built to protect
its inhabitants from the Moros. The churches at Cuyo, Agutaya, Culion,
Linapacan and Taytay stand inside of strong stone fortresses in which
the people took refuge when the Moros descended on their towns. Back
of Bacuit a cave high up in a cliff was kept provisioned that it
might serve a similar purpose. Not only were the Filipinos unable to
protect themselves against these bloodthirsty pirates of the south,
but the Spaniards were for nearly two and a half centuries unable to
afford them adequate protection. When I was in Tawi Tawi in 1891 the
Moros of that island were still actively engaged in taking Filipino
slaves and selling them in Borneo.
With all of our resources we have not as yet been able to establish a
decent state of public order in the little island of Jolo. No serious
minded person, familiar with the facts, with whom I have ever talked,
believes for a moment that the Filipinos could establish an effective
government over the Moros, or could keep them at home. They are
wonderful boatmen and when once at sea in the little crafts of their
own building are liable to strike the coast of the Philippine Islands
at any point. When it is remembered that this coast is longer than
that of the continental United States, the impossibility of adequately
protecting the whole of it becomes immediately manifest. It would
be always possible, under Filipino rule, for the Moros to strike
defenceless towns, and where they struck the only resource of the
inhabitants, whether Filipinos, Europeans or Americans, would be in
speedy flight. It should be borne in mind that one Mohammedan who
is earnestly desirous of being killed while fighting Christians can
chase a good many unarmed citizens into the tall timber, brave though
they may be!
I venture here once more to express the deliberate opinion that if
American control were withdrawn from these islands and some other
civilized nation did not interfere to restore a decent state of public
order, the Moros would resume the conquest of the Philippines which
they were so actively and effectively pushing when the Spaniards
compelled them to abandon it, and would slowly but none the less
surely carry it through to a successful termination.
The inaccuracy of Blount's statements regarding matters covered by
absolutely conclusive documentary evidence is well typified by the
following:--
"The Philippine Assembly, representing the whole Filipino people,
and desiring to express the unanimous feeling of those people
with regard to the Worcester speech, unanimously passed, soon
after the speech was delivered, a set of resolutions whereof the
following is a translation." [52]
The resolution which he quotes was never passed by the Assembly
which on February 3, 1911, four months after my Y. M. C. A. lecture,
[53] and while I was absent in the United States, passed another and
quite different one criticizing language "ascribed" to me, without
ever making any effort to ascertain from me what was really said. I
might quote the two in parallel columns, but I grow weary of showing
the details of Blount's false or mistaken statements, and refer those
interested to the official records which he perhaps did not take the
precaution to consult.
I gave the Assembly and every one else interested in the matter
a chance to attack me by incorporating in my annual report for 1910
every important statement made at the lecture in question and by adding
various new ones for good measure, but there was no response! It is
a time-honoured procedure, but one of somewhat doubtful real value,
to build up a man of straw in order to have the pleasure of tearing
it to pieces. I must decline to assume responsibility for statements
which I did not make.
Blount says he thinks that Nueva Vizcaya is my
"'brag' province, in the matter of non-Christian anthropological
specimens, both regarding their number and their variety." [54]
With regret I must call attention to the fact that he thinks
wrong. In Nueva Vizcaya as originally constituted there were
representatives of three non-Christian tribes, to wit, the Ifugaos,
numbering approximately a hundred and fifteen thousand; the Ilongots
numbering perhaps five thousand; and the Isinayes, who were numerically
unimportant.
Years before Blount wrote his book the number of wild tribes was
reduced to two and that of their individuals to approximately seven
thousand by changes in the provincial boundary. As we have seen,
there are slightly more than one million non-Christian inhabitants in
the archipelago. These facts are of interest chiefly for the reason
that they show how grossly unreliable are his statements.
Finally he seeks to convey the impression that the hill people are
a rather harmless and lamb-like lot. He says:--
"... while I was there, [55] though we knew those people were up in
the hills, and that there were a good many of them the civilized
people all told us that the hill tribes never bothered them. And
on their advice I have ridden in safety, unarmed, at night,
accompanied only by the court stenographer, over the main high-road
running through the central plateau that constitutes the bulk of
Nueva Vizcaya province, said plateau being surrounded by a great
amphitheatre of hills, the habitat of the Worcester pets." [56]
Had Blount taken this ride before the time when the American government
established control over the Silipan Ifugaos there might have been
a different story to tell needing some one else to tell it, for the
Ifugaos were not by any means the gentle and harmless people that one
would infer them to have been from reading the above-quoted statement.
At Payauan, a strongly held point within the plateau referred to,
they annihilated a Spanish garrison. At Aua, further back in the
hills, they did the same thing. The Spaniards never established
control over the Ifugao country, into extensive portions of which they
never even temporarily penetrated. On the main trail which connected
the town of Bagabag, in Nueva Vizcaya with the nearest town in the
province of Isabela, over which Blount rode, the Spaniards found
it necessary to maintain two garrisons. There were also garrisons
at the terminal towns on this trail and it was prohibited to travel
it without military escort. Even so, parties were repeatedly cut up
by the Silipan Ifugaos, and the very soldiers who constituted their
guard were again and again caught sleeping and butchered.
It is only very recently that the murderous raids of wild men on the
Filipinos of Isabela have been finally checked.
Many a time have the Filipinos of Bagabag, in Nueva Vizcaya,
thanked me for making their lives and property safe by quieting the
Ifugaos. Ilongots killed Filipinos in the outskirts of Bayombong,
the capital of Nueva Vizcaya, long after Blount left the province,
and during a period shortly preceding his arrival conditions were
very bad throughout the Cagayan valley.
On August 29, 1899, the Insurgent governor of Nueva Vizcaya reported
[57] that he had only a few rifles, that the "Igorrotes" were preparing
to attack the towns, and that he had been forced to kill and wound a
number of them. On September 6, General Tirona in Cagayan asked that
General Tinio be ordered to give him some of his rifles to protect
the people, as the "Igorrotes" were cutting off heads and the towns
were in danger. Tirona said that he had nine hundred rifles; Tinio
thought that he himself had some two thousand and could spare two
hundred as the conditions along the coast were not as serious as the
conditions inland with the savages preparing to attack. [58]
In July, 1899, the governor of Benguet asked that orders should be
given prohibiting "Igorrotes" from leaving their own towns as they
were growing restless and would probably soon become dangerous. The
Benguet people are the most pacific of all the hill men.
In October, 1899, the Ilocanos of Lepanto petitioned Aguinaldo to send
them arms with which to defend themselves against the people of the
hills, who objected to being forced into paying what the governor of
Benguet Province called "voluntary contributions" for the support of
the war. When an attempt was made to collect, they abandoned their
towns and took refuge in the hills. Next to the Benguet Igorots,
those of Lepanto have the best reputation for quiet and orderliness.
From Simeon Villa's diary, heretofore referred to, we learn that
Aguinaldo's armed escort was attacked again and again by Ifugaos,
Kalingas and Bontoc Igorots when he passed through their country.
The people of these three tribes, and the Ilongots, and the wild
Tingians of Apayao, were fierce, war-like, unsubdued head-hunting
savages at the time of the American occupation.
Friendly as is our present relationship with the former head-hunters
of Luzón, and excellent as is now the condition of public order in
their territory, we still often have the fact brought home to us that
the blood-lust of these sturdy and brave fighters is only dormant. A
steady hand must be held on them for many a year to come.
The problems which the primitive peoples of the Philippines present
are neither few nor simple. We shall not get far by ignoring them or
misrepresenting them. Let us look them squarely in the face.