IS PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE NOW POSSIBLE?
This question is one of great importance to the people of the United
States, for national honour is involved in finding its true answer.
Both of our great political parties are committed to the policy of
granting independence when the Filipinos are ready for it. Are they
ready now? If so, the promise should be kept. If not, we should be
guilty of an unjust and cowardly act if we withdrew our protection
and control.
I have already called attention to the fact that the Filipinos [197]
are divided into a number of peoples, sometimes called tribes. The
census of 1903 recognizes the following: Visayans, numbering 3,219,030;
Tagálogs, 1,460,695; Ilocanos, 803,942; Bicols, 566,365; Pangasináns,
343,686; Pampangans, 280,984; Cagayans, 159,648; Zambalans, 48,823.
The loose use of the word "tribe" in designating these peoples
is liable to lead to very grave misapprehension. Their leaders
vigorously, and very properly, object to the idea that they have at
present anything resembling a tribal organization. The truth is that
they are the descendants of originally distinct tribes or peoples
which have gradually come to resemble each other more and more,
and to have more and more in common.
The very large majority of them have been brought up in the Catholic
faith. In physical characteristics, dress and customs they resemble
each other quite closely. They are alike in their dignity of bearing,
their sobriety, their genuine hospitality, their kindliness to the
old and the feeble, their love of their children and eagerness to
obtain for them educational advantages which they themselves have
been denied, their fondness for music, their patience in the face
of adversity, and the respect which they show for authority so long
as their passions are not played upon, or their prejudices aroused,
by the unscrupulous. These are admirable characteristics and afford a
good foundation on which to build. Such differences as exist between
these several peoples are steadily diminishing. This is especially
true of the Tagálogs and the numerically comparatively unimportant
peoples lying immediately to the north and west of their territory,
namely, the Pampangans, Pangasináns and Zambalans. The Tagálogs,
Ilocanos, Cagayans, Bicols and Visayans are distinguished by much
more marked differences.
In general, the Tagálogs tend to become the dominating Filipino people
of the islands, and successfully attempt to assert themselves in their
dealings with all the other Christian peoples except the Ilocanos, who
are quite capable of holding their own. The Ilocanos have a reputation
for orderliness and industry which the Tagálogs lack. The Cagayans
are, as a people, notoriously lazy and stupid, although there are of
course numerous conspicuous individual exceptions to this rule. The
Visayans are comparatively docile and law-abiding. Many of the Bicols
are energetic and capable, and they seem to be possessed of a rather
keen sense of humour, which their neighbours lack.
Two things tend to keep the several peoples apart. The first is the
present lack of any common medium of communication. There are more
quite sharply distinct dialects than there are peoples. The Visayans,
for instance, speak Cebuano, Ilongo and Cuyuno. The language difficulty
is of least importance among the peoples immediately north of Manila
where the use of Tagálog is generalized to a considerable extent,
but even here it is serious.
Mr. Justice Johnson of the Philippine Supreme Court tells me that
when he was serving in Zambales as a judge of first instance the
examination of a family of four persons necessitated two interpreters,
one for the father, and another for the mother and two step-children,
while in the trial of seven men charged with a murder it was necessary
to read the complaint in four different dialects.
Taylor cites the following typical instances of practical difficulty
growing out of the multiplicity of dialects:--
"In December, 1898, General Macabulos was the commissioner in Tarlac
Province. At Camiling the orders prescribing how the elections
were to be carried on were read in Spanish and then translated into
Ilocano. General Macabulos next delivered in Tagálog a speech informing
the assemblage of their duties under the new form of government. This
was translated into Ilocano, as the people did not understand Tagálog
any more than they did Spanish. [198] When on July 6, 1898, a junta of
men in favour of the independence of the Philippines met at Gerona,
Tarlac, to elect among themselves the civil officials for the town,
the decrees of Aguinaldo, of June 18 and 20, were read in Ilocano,
in Tagálog, in Pampanga, and Pangasinán, all of which languages were
spoken in the town." [199]
The head of the town of Antipolo, Morong Province, wrote to the
secretary of the interior on October 21, 1898, that his delay in
executing orders had been caused by the fact that they were written
in Tagálog, which he did not understand. He recommended that Spanish
be always used by the central government. [200] Mabini himself at
one time proposed that English be made the official language. The
constitution of the "Republic," while making Tagálog the official
language, provided for instruction in English. [201]
There is no literature worth mentioning written in the native dialects,
nor do they open a way to the fields of science, the arts, history,
or philosophy. Their vocabularies are comparatively poor in words, and
they do not afford satisfactory media of communication, especially as
words of generalization are almost entirely lacking. This latter fact
conclusively demonstrates the stage of mental evolution attained by the
peoples which have developed these several languages. Not long since
I heard a keen student of Philippine affairs remark that the trouble
with the Filipinos was that none of them were more than fourteen
years old! There is truth enough in the statement to make it sting.
The use of Spanish never became common, and knowledge of this language
was limited to the educated few. After fifteen short years English
is far more widely spoken than Spanish ever was. When English comes
into comparatively general use, as it will if the present educational
policy is adhered to, one fundamental difficulty in the way of welding
the Filipinos into "a people" will have been largely done away with.
The second important barrier between the several Filipino peoples
is built up of dislikes and prejudices, in part handed down from
the days when they were tribally distinct and actively hostile; in
part resulting from the well-marked tendency of the Tagálogs and the
Ilocanos to impose their will upon the others. The actual differences
between a Tagálog and a Visayan are not so great. The important thing,
from the American view point, is that every Tagálog and every Visayan
really considers them very great.
There would have been no insurrection of any importance in the Visayas
and Mindanao if the Tagálogs had kept their hands off. We have seen
how they worked their will on the people of the Cagayan valley and the
Visayas, and what bitter animosities they provoked. We have also seen
how on various occasions the Ilocanos opposed the Tagálogs as such,
and even planned to kill them, while the Visayans did kill them on
various occasions. However much politicians may declaim about a united
Filipino people, certain uncomfortable but indisputable facts reduce
such claims to idle vapourings.
At the time when there was great excitement in Manila over the
Jones Bill, and many Filipinos believed that independence was
coming on July 4, 1913, there took place at the house of General
Aguinaldo a very significant gathering of former insurgent generals
and colonels. There was then much interest in the question of who
would be appointed president of the coming Philippine Republic. It
was officially announced that the object of this meeting was to unite
those who attended it in an effort to aid in the maintenance of a good
condition of public order. I learned from a source which I believe to
be thoroughly reliable that one of the conclusions actually reached was
that no Visayan should be allowed to become president of the republic,
and that one of the real objects of the meeting was to crystallize
opposition to the candidacy of Señor Osmeña, the speaker of the
assembly. But the undesirability of giving publicity to such factional
differences at this time was promptly realized and this attitude on
the part of Aguinaldo's supporters was not publicly announced.
Troubles between Ilocanos and Cagayans continue in Cagayan, Isabela
and Nueva Vizcaya up to the present day. Several years since, when
investigating the cause which lay behind a petition from certain
people of the latter province for an increase in the educational
requirement precedent to the exercise of the franchise, I discovered
that the whole thing resolved itself into an effort to disfranchise the
Ilocanos, who always voted together and already controlled elections
in several townships.
Without going further into the differences which separate the several
civilized peoples, I will say emphatically that the great mass of
Filipinos do not constitute "a people" in the sense in which that
word is understood in the United States. They are not comparable in
any way with the American people or the English people. They cannot
be reached as a whole, and they do not respond as a whole. In this
they agree with all other Malays. Colquhoun has truly said: [202]--
"No Malay nation has ever emerged from the hordes of that race,
which has spread over the islands of the Pacific. Wherever they
are found they have certain marked characteristics and of these
the most remarkable is their lack of that spirit which goes to
form a homogeneous people, to weld them together. The Malay is
always a provincial; more, he rarely rises outside the interests
of his own town or village."
More important than the differences which separate the Tagálogs,
Ilocanos, Cagayans, and Visayans as such, are those which separate the
individuals composing these several groups of the population. Very
few of the present political leaders are of anything approaching
pure Malayan blood. To give details in specific cases would be
to give offence, and to wound the feelings of men who certainly
are not to blame for their origin. Suffice it to say that with
rare exceptions, if one follows their ancestry back a very little
way he finds indubitable evidence of the admixture of Spanish,
other European or Chinese blood. The preëminence of these men is
undoubtedly due in large measure to the fact that through the wealth
and influence of their fathers they had educational advantages,
and in many instances enjoyed broadening opportunities for travel,
which were beyond the reach of their less fortunate countrymen. To
what extent their present demonstrated abilities are due to these
facts, and to what extent they are due to white or Mongolian blood,
will never be known until the children of the common people, who are
now enjoying exceptionally good educational opportunities, arrive at
maturity and show what they can do. [203]
Meanwhile there is more or less thinly veiled hostility between
the mestizo class and the great dark mass of the people. For a
time we heard much of Filipinos de cara y corazon, [204] and while
because of political expediency there is less of this talk now than
formerly, the feeling which caused it persists, and will continue to
endure. Throughout the Christian provinces the same condition exists
everywhere. The mestizo element is in control. Until the common
people have learned to assert themselves, and have come to take an
important part in the commercial and political development of their
country, anything but an oligarchical form of independent government
is impossible.
There has been complaint from politicians and others of the mestizo
class that American men are, as a rule, disinclined to increase it
by marrying its women and breeding mestizo children.
Juan Araneta, a very intelligent Visayan of Negros, put the matter
brutally to me by saying that white blood was the only hope for his
people, and that if he had his way he would put in jail every American
soldier who did not leave at least three children behind him.
Blount pretends to find an obstacle to American control in the fact
that American women will not marry Filipinos, and in the further fact
that those American men who do marry Filipinas soon find themselves
out of touch with their former associates. He says that this is not as
it should be. [205] He adds that many Filipinos are sons or grandsons
of Spaniards, and therefore have a very warm place in their hearts
for the people of that nation.
He neglects to mention the fact that the vast majority of the Spanish
mestizo class were born out of wedlock.
I believe that the attitude of American women on this subject is
eminently proper and that American men, who expect ever again to live
in their own country, as a rule make a grave mistake if they marry
native women. Even when they are to remain permanently in the islands,
such a course is in my opinion usually most undesirable. I have known
a limited number of happy mixed marriages of this sort, but in the
large majority of cases which have come under my observation they
have led to the rapid mental, moral and physical degeneration of the
men concerned. While some of the children born of such marriages are
very fair, there are occasional reversions to the ancestral type of
the mothers, and the lot of dark-skinned children is not a happy one,
as even their own mothers are almost sure to dislike them.
The mestizo class is now large enough, and the problems which its
existence presents are grave enough, to render undesirable its further
growth. Finally, while the light-skinned mestiza girl almost always
seeks a white husband, the real typical Filipinos, who are brown,
are quite content to mate with each other, and do not dislike whites
for declining to marry their daughters. The people of this class are
friendly toward Americans, if they have actually come in contact with
them and learned how much they are indebted to them, and are hostile
if their ignorance is so great that they can be led, by unscrupulous
politicians, to believe that Americans are responsible for any ills
from which they happen to be suffering, such as cholera, which they
have often been told is due to our poisoning their wells!
Blount says [206] it is a "verdict of all racial history ... that
wheresoever white men dwell in considerable numbers in the same
country with Asiatics or Africans, the white men will rule."
Certainly Spanish and other European mestizos dwell in considerable
numbers in the Philippines. Are individuals with three-fourths to
thirty-one thirty-seconds white blood white men or Asiatics? They
certainly would determine what form of government should be established
were independence now granted, and it is interesting to determine
what they consider to be the requisites for the establishment of a
government by them. One of these men in an address made at the time
the congressional party visited the islands, with Mr. Taft, put the
case as follows:--
"If the masses of the people are governable, a part must
necessarily be denominated the directing class, for as in the
march of progress, moral or material, nations do not advance at
the same rate, some going forward whilst others fall behind, so
it is with the inhabitants of a country, as observation will prove.
"If the Philippine Archipelago has a governable popular mass
called upon to obey and a directing class charged with the duty of
governing, it is in condition to govern itself. These factors, not
counting incidental ones, are the only two by which to determine
the political capacity of a country; an entity that knows how to
govern, the directing class, and an entity that knows how to obey,
the popular masses."
The conditions portrayed might make a government possible, but it
would assuredly not be a republic. The advocates of this view are
hardly in harmony with the one so eloquently expressed at Rio Janeiro
by Mr. Root:--
"No student of our times can fail to see that not America alone
but the whole civilized world is swinging away from its old
governmental moorings and intrusting the fate of its civilization
to the capacity of the popular mass to govern. By this pathway
mankind is to travel, whithersoever it leads. Upon the success
of this, our great undertaking, the hope of humanity depends."
If what is needed to make a just and stable government possible is
"an entity that knows how to obey, the popular masses" and an entity
that thinks it "knows how to govern, the directing class," then we
might leave the islands at once, if willing to leave the wild tribes
to their fate, but we have work to do before the civilization of the
Filipinos can safely be intrusted to "the capacity of the popular
mass to govern."
Blount has said:--
"Any country that has plenty of good lawyers and plenty of
good soldiers, backed by plenty of good farmers, is capable of
self-government." [207]
Do the Philippines fulfill even these requirements? Filipino lawyers
are ready speakers, but have their peculiarities. When the civil suit
which I brought against certain Filipinos for libel was drawing to its
close, and the prosecution was limited to the submission of evidence
in rebuttal, important new evidence was discovered. To my amazement,
my lawyers put the witness who could give it on the stand. They
asked him his age, his profession and a few equally irrelevant
questions, and then turned him over to the lawyers for the defense,
who promptly extracted from him the very testimony it was desired
to get on record. Their very first question drew a most unjudicial
snort of laughter from the judge, but even this did not stop them.
I was later informed that Filipino lawyers could usually be depended
upon to do this very thing, and that their American colleagues
habitually took advantage of this fact. The truth is that few of the
Filipino lawyers are good, if judged by American standards.
I have elsewhere stated my views as to the excellence of the Filipino
soldier, but no military leaders have as yet arisen who were capable
of successfully carrying on other than guerilla operation.
The farmers of the islands are as a class anything but good. They
are ignorant and superstitious, underfed, and consequently inclined
to indolence, and are a century behind the times in their methods.
There are certain undesirable characteristics which are common
to a large majority of the people correctly designated as
Filipinos. Ignorance and superstition are still to be met at every
turn. At the time of the census of 1903 the percentage of illiteracy
in the Philippines was estimated to be 79.8. More than half of the
persons counted as literate could read and write only some native
dialect, and often did even that badly.
More recent, and therefore more interesting, as showing present
day conditions, are the statistics obtained in connection with the
elections of June 4, 1912. Ability to read and write English or Spanish
entitles a male citizen of the Philippines, who is twenty-three or
more years of age, to vote.
The total number of registered votes was 248,154 only, of whom slightly
less than one-third had the above-mentioned qualifications. In Manila
14 per cent of the voters were illiterate, and in the provinces 70
per cent. This lack of education opened wide the door to fraud and
was one of the chief reasons why there were 240 protested elections
out of a total of 824, made up as follows: municipal, 709; provincial,
34; for delegate to assembly, 81.
The proportion of literate electors to total population in the
territory in question was 1.47 per cent.
One of the easiest kinds of business to start in the Philippines,
and one of the most profitable to conduct, is the establishment of
a new religion.
We have recently had the "colorum," with headquarters on Mt. San
Cristobal, an extinct volcano. People visited this place and paid large
sums in order to persuade the god to talk to them. A big megaphone,
carefully hidden away, was so trained that the voice of the person
using it would carry across a cañon and strike the trail on the other
side. If payments were satisfactorily large the god talked to those
who had made them in a most impressive manner when they reached this
point in their homeward journey.
We have also had the Cabaruan fiasco in Pangasinán, in the course
of which a new town with several thousand inhabitants sprang up in
a short time. There was a place of worship where the devout were
at prayer day and night. There was also a full-fledged holy Trinity
made up of local talent. Unfortunately, some of the principal people
connected with this movement became involved in carabao stealing
and other forms of public disorder, and on a trip to Lingayen I saw
the persons who had impersonated God the Son and the Virgin Mary in
the provincial jail. We have had "Pope Isio" in Negros, who was in
reality the leader of a strong ladrone band, and we have had various
other popes elsewhere who occupied themselves in similar ways.
Hardly a year passes that miraculous healers do not spring into
ephemeral existence in the islands, and the people invariably flock to
them in thousands. Conspicuous among this class of imposters was the
"Queen of Taytay," whose exploits I have already narrated.
The belief of the common people in asuáng and in the black dog which
causes cholera has also already been mentioned. A very large percentage
of them are firmly convinced of the efficacy of charms, collectively
known as anting-anting, supposed to make the bodies of the wearers
proof against bullets or cutting weapons. Within the past year a
bright young man of Parañaque, a town immediately adjacent to Manila,
insisted that a friend should strike him with a bolo in order that
he might demonstrate the virtues of his anting-anting, and received
an injury from which he promptly died. Again and again the hapless
victims of this particular superstition have gone to certain death,
firm in the conviction that they could not be harmed.
The worst of it is that even the native press does not dare to
combat such superstitions, if indeed those who control it do not
still themselves hold to them.
La Vanguardia, commonly considered to be the leading Filipino paper
in the islands, published the following account of the event referred
to above:--
"Basilio Aquino, a native of Parañaque, and Timoteo Kariaga, an
Iloko residing in Manila, made a bet as to which of them had the
better anting-anting, and to settle it Kariaga allowed himself to
be struck twice on the right arm and once on the abdomen, but as
they say,--Miracle of miracles! Although Aquino used all of his
strength and the bolo was extremely sharp, he did not succeed in
making the slightest scratch on Kariaga. In view of that, Aquino
invited his rival to submit him to the same test. Kariaga was
reluctant to do so, for he was sure he would wound Aquino, but the
latter insisted so much that there was nothing to do but please
him, and at the first cut his right arm was almost severed, and
he died from loss of blood two hours later. The wounded man would
not report the occurrence to the authorities, but the relatives
of the victim were compelled to do so in view of his tragic end."
From the report of this occurrence in El Ideal, a paper believed to
be controlled by Speaker Osmeña, I quote the following:--
"The trial was made in the presence of a goodly number of
bystanders, all of them townsmen, connections and friends of
the actors.
"Timoteo Kariaga, that being the name of one of the actors,
an Ilocano resident of Manila, was the first to submit to the
ordeal. His companion and antagonist, named Basilio Aquino, from
Parañaque, bolo in hand, aimed slashes at the former, endeavouring
to wound him in the arms and abdomen, without success, the amulet
of Kariaga offering apparently admirable resistance in the trial,
so that the bolo hardly left a visible mark upon his body."
A very interesting and highly instructive book might be written
on Filipino superstitions, but I must here confine myself to a few
typical illustrations:--
The following extract from a narrative report of the senior
constabulary inspector of the island of Leyte, dated April 3, 1913,
is not without interest. It deals with a murder which it describes
as follows:--
"Basilio Tarli had given the bolo thrust that killed the deceased,
with a small fighting bolo belonging to Pastor Lumantal, who had
given Basilio the bolo for this purpose. The deceased had the
reputation of being a sort of witch doctor, and Pastor thought
that his wife, Maria Subior, who was pregnant, had a dog or
other animal in her womb instead of a child, placed there by the
deceased. For this reason Pastor arranged with Basilio Tarli and
Cecilio Cuenzona to kill the deceased."
Lieutenant George R. F. Cornish, P. C, stationed at Catubig in Samar,
reported on "Pagloon" as follows during August, 1913:--
"Pagloon, a method of overcoming certain weak traits in children,
is practiced by most of the inhabitants of Samar. If, for example,
a father who is not in the military service, shoots a man,
superstition has it that his child will shortly become sick. The
father, to prevent this, uses a method known as 'pagloon,' which,
being interpreted, means 'to vaporize,' 'to make clean.' He places
the stock of the gun that did the shooting, along with a branch of
a cocoanut tree that has been sanctified in incense by the padre of
the Catholic church in a fire. The padre furnishes these incense
leaves only once a year. The hands are dipped in water and then
placed in the smoke. The vaporous healing incense that collects
on the hands, from placing them in the fire, is rubbed on the
child from head to foot. This operation is repeated three nights
in succession and then the child ought to be free from any danger."
Serious trouble was made for men investigating the mineral resources
of the island of Cebú by the circulation of a tale to the effect that
they needed the blood of children to pour into cracks in the ground.
The following is an extract from a narrative report of the senior
constabulary inspector of Pampanga for April, 1913:--
"April 9.--Between 2 and 3 P.M. in the barrio of San Pedro,
Manilan, the two sisters (old women) Maria and Matea Manalili
were cut up with a bolo by Hermogenes Castro of the barrio of
Santa Catalina of the same town, resulting in the instant death
of Matea. Maria, whose right hand was cut off, died on the 21st
instant. Castro gave up and on the 10th instant was remanded to
the Court of First Instance charged with murder. The two sisters
were known in the locality as 'mangcuculan,' or witches, and
were charged by Castro with having cast a spell on him, causing
a stiff neck, which spell the sisters refused to remove."
A number of comparatively reputable Filipino physicians, in the city
of Manila itself, have confessed that they have to pretend to depend,
to some extent, on charms and exorcisms, in order to get and keep
practice.
In this connection I quote the following decision of the Philippine
Supreme Court in the case of the United States vs. Mariano Boston,
rendered November 23, 1908 (10 Philippine Reports, p. 134).
"The accused in this case was convicted in the Court of First
Instance of the Province of Pangasinán of the crime of abortion
as defined and penalized in paragraph 3 of article 410 of the
Penal Code.
"The guilt of appellant is conclusively established by the
evidence of record, the testimony of the witnesses for the
prosecution leaving no room for reasonable doubt, despite the
fact that there are some inconsistencies and discrepancies in
their statements. Counsel for appellant insists that the evidence
does not conclusively establish the fact that he intentionally
caused the abortion, because there is no evidence in the record
disclosing the character and medicinal qualities of the potion
which the accused gave to the mother whose child was aborted. The
evidence clearly discloses that the child was born three months
in advance of the full period of gestation; that the appellant,
either believing or pretending to believe that the child in the
womb of the woman was a sort of a fish-demon (which he called a
balat), gave to her a potion composed of herbs, for the purpose of
relieving her of this alleged fish-demon; that two hours thereafter
she gave premature birth to a child, having been taken with the
pains of childbirth almost immediately after drinking the herb
potion given her by the appellant; that after the birth of the
child the appellant, still believing or pretending to believe that
the child was a fish-demon which had taken upon itself human form,
with the permission and aid of the husband and the brother of the
infant child, destroyed it by fire in order to prevent its doing
the mischief which the appellant believed or affected to believe
it was capable of doing. These facts constitute, in our opinion,
prima facie proof of the intent of the accused in giving the
herb potion to the mother of the child, and also of the further
fact that the herb potion so administered to her was the cause
of its premature birth. The defence wholly failed to rebut this
testimony of the prosecution, and we are of opinion, therefore,
that the trial court properly found the defendant guilty of the
crime with which he was charged beyond a reasonable doubt.
"The sentence imposed is in strict accord with the penalty provided
by the code, and should be and is hereby affirmed, with the costs
of this instance against the appellant. So ordered."
It is claimed that the Filipinos are a unit in demanding their
independence. As a matter of fact, the bulk of the common people
have little idea what the word really means. In this connection
the following extract from the report of Colonel H. H. Bandholtz,
later director of constabulary, of June 30, 1903, on the bandit Rios,
is of interest:--
"Rios represented himself to be an inspired prophet and found
little difficulty in working on the superstitions of the extremely
ignorant and credulous inhabitants of barrios distant from centres
of population. So well did he succeed that he had organized what
he designated as an 'Exterior Municipal Government' (for revenue
only) with an elaborate equipment of officials. He promoted himself
and his followers in rapid succession, until he finally had with
him one captain-general, one lieutenant-general, twenty-five
major-generals and fifty brigadier-generals and a host of officers
of lower grade. In appreciation of his own abilities he appointed
himself 'Generalissimo' and 'Viceroy' and stated his intention of
having himself crowned 'King of the Philippines.' Titles like these
not proving sufficient, he announced himself as 'The Son of God,'
and dispensed 'anting-antings,' which were guaranteed to make the
wearer invulnerable to attack. Of the ladrones killed during this
period, few were discovered who were not wearing one of these
'anting-antings.'
"The dense ignorance and credulity of the followers of Rios was
clearly shown by the fanatical paraphernalia captured by Captain
Murphy, P. C, on March 8, near Infanta. Among these was a box,
on the cover of which was painted the word 'Independencia,'
and the followers of Rios profoundly believed that when they
had proven themselves worthy the box would be opened and the
mysterious something called independence for which they had so
long been fighting could be secured, and that when attained there
would be no more labour, no taxes, no jails, and no Constabulary
to disturb their ladrone proclivities.
"When this mysterious chest was opened it was found to contain
only some old Spanish gazettes and a few hieroglyphics, among
which appeared the names and rank of the distinguished officials
of the organization."
The affair is typical of an endless series of similar occurrences.
The ordinary Filipino dearly loves mystery, and misses no opportunity
to join a secret society. It matters little to him what its supposed
object may be, and that end is, as frequently as anything else, the
organization of an insurrection. All sorts of fees are collected from
the ignorant poor by the leaders of such movements, who are almost
invariably of the educated and intelligent classes. At the opportune
time they get away with the funds, leaving their ignorant followers to
blunder along until caught and lodged in jail. The American government
has dealt very gently with such poor dupes, most of whom have been
released without any punishment. Within the past few days [208]
I have had an interview with an exceptionally intelligent Filipino
justice of the peace who sometimes gives me interesting information,
in the course of which I asked him what was going on at present. He
laughed and told me that the Filipinos in the vicinity of Manila
believed that Mr. Harrison, the new governor-general, was coming to
give them independence, and that a lot of smart rascals, who pretended
to be organizing the army that would be necessary to maintain it,
were selling officers' commissions at a peso each to any one who
would buy them, and were doing a thriving business.
Until it ceases to be so readily possible to prey on the superstitions,
the credulity and the passions of the common people, efforts on the
part of the Filipinos to establish and maintain unaided a stable
government are not likely to be crowned with very abundant success.
In general it may be said of the Filipino that he is quick to learn,
but needs a teacher; is quick to follow, but needs a leader. He is
ready to do the things he is taught to do. He accepts discipline,
orders, rules. He has a great respect for constituted authority. He
lacks initiative and sound judgment.
Let Americans beware of judging the Filipino peoples by the men with
from one-half to thirty-one thirty-seconds of white blood, who so
often have posed as their representatives.
More important than the interrelations of the several Christian
peoples inter se are those between the several Christian peoples on
the one hand and the non-Christian tribes on the other. This subject
has already been discussed at length, so I will limit myself to a
brief summary statement.
The Filipinos dislike and despise the non-Christians. They take
advantage of their ignorance and helplessness to rob or cheat them of
the fruits of their labour, and often hold them as slaves or peons. The
non-Christians in turn hate them, and the more warlike wild tribes do
not hesitate to take vengeance on them when opportunity offers. The
Filipinos as a whole are afraid of the Moros, and with good reason. The
Moros frankly assert that if a Filipino government were established,
they would resume their long-abandoned conquest of the archipelago,
and this they would certainly do. Although the non-Christians are
numerically few, as compared with the Christians, they are potentially
important because they have the power to make an amount of trouble
wholly disproportionate to their numbers. The Filipinos could not
rule them successfully, and the probable outcome of any attempt on
their part to control them would be the inauguration of a policy of
extermination similar to that which Japan is following with certain
of the hill men of Formosa. Because of the inaccessible nature of the
country inhabited by many of the Philippine wild tribes, they would
be able to hold their own for many years, and there would result a
condition similar to that which has prevailed for so long in Achin,
while the Moros with their ability to take to the sea and suddenly
strike unprotected places would cause endless suffering and loss
of life.
Under the Spanish régime the penalty which followed a too liberal use
of "free speech" was very likely to be a sudden and involuntary trip
to the other world. There was no such thing as a free press. A very
strict censorship was constantly exercised over all the newspapers. The
things that are now said and written daily without attracting much
attention would at that time have cost the liberty or the lives of
those who voiced them.
It is hardly to be wondered at that an Oriental people which had never
had a free press or liberty of speech should have mistaken liberty,
when it finally came, for license, and have gone to extremes which
conclusively demonstrated their initial unfitness properly to utilize
their new privileges.
Governor-General Smith once told a delegation of leading Filipinos
that it was all very well to have freedom of speech and of the press
in a country ruled by the United States government, which was strong
enough to maintain order in the face of manifold difficulties, but that
if the islands ever secured their independence the first official act
of those in power should be to do away with the one and the other,
for the reason that such a government as they would establish could
not exist if either continued.
While the curtailing of freedom of speech or of the press under
American civil rule is almost unthinkable, it is nevertheless true
that the attitude of many of the politicians who do the talking,
and who control the native press, has been poisonous.
A very intelligent student of Philippine affairs has truly said that
nothing more is necessary to demonstrate the present unreadiness of
the country for self-government than a careful study of the attitude
of the native press toward important public questions. From the
beginning until now there has been one long and almost uninterrupted
series of lies, innuendoes, sneers and diabolically ingenious
misrepresentations. Practically every important policy of the
government has been viciously attacked, and the worst of it is
that the people primarily responsible for this are not honest, or
misled. They know perfectly well what they are doing and why they
are doing it. They embitter that portion of the common people who
are reached by newspapers at all, and doubtless many of their dupes
really believe that the established government is a rotten farce,
and that its highest officials are steeped in iniquity.
Certainly no people are more skilful than are the Filipino politicians
in pretending to write one thing with the certainty that another and
very different one will be read between the lines. In the matter of
libel, they are adepts at skating on thin ice. Rare indeed is the
occurrence of a decent attitude on the part of any native newspaper
toward any important public question. [209]
The history of the municipal and provincial governments is worthy of
very careful consideration.
It has been found necessary to exercise close supervision over them
in order to correct a constant tendency on the part of those having
authority to abuse it.
Practically all the time of three lawyers in the executive bureau
is taken up in examining evidence and reports of administrative
investigations of charges against municipal officials and justices of
the peace, of whom about two hundred are found guilty each year. Half
that number are removed from office. One of the commonest charges
against these officers is "abuse of authority," and one of the most
difficult and endless tasks of the American administrative officers
is to impress on the elective native official a sense of obligation
toward his "inferiors," that is, the plain people who elected him.
He expects obsequiousness and even servility, and if they are lacking,
endeavours to get square. [210]
Surely I have given enough illustrations of the ferocious brutality
with which Filipino officials treated the common people in the days
of the "Republic." Such brutality would again be in evidence were
there to be any failure to hold officers strictly accountable.
The following case, called to my attention by a reliable American
woman, illustrates the fact that provincial governors are sometimes
swayed by other than humanitarian motives:--
"In 1902 when I was living at Capiz, a very pretty little fellow, a
child of 7 or 8, often came begging to my house. Finally he ceased
to come and I saw nothing of him for several months. Then I met
him one morning, stone blind, his eyes in frightful condition. I
made inquiry and learned that the people with whom he lived (his
parents were dead) not finding him a remunerative investment had
decided that he must be made more pitiful looking to bring in good
returns as a beggar. So they filled his eyes with lime and held his
head in a tub of water. I took the child to the Governor (the late
Hugo Vidal) to make complaint. The Governor listened to my story,
and then exclaimed, 'You are mistaken. I have known this child for
years and he has been like this all the time.' The local sanitary
chief agreed with him, and I was forced to give up all hope of
having the inhuman wretches that had tortured the child punished."
The attitude of provincial and municipal officials toward very
necessary sanitary measures has often been exceedingly unfortunate.
In 1910 the officials of the town of Bautista, Pangasinán, voted
to have a fiesta, in spite of the fact that the health authorities
had informed them that this could not be done safely, owing to the
existence of cholera in the neighbouring towns. The town council
preferred the merry-making to the protection of the lives of the
people, and voted to disregard the warnings of the Bureau of Health,
with the result that several of the neighbouring municipalities
were infected with cholera, and many lives were needlessly lost. The
governor of the province, himself a Filipino, was lax in attention to
duty in this instance or the town council would have been suspended
before, instead of after, this action on its part.
For a long time municipal policemen were commonly utilized as servants
by the town officials, and were nearly useless for actual police
work. To put firearms into their hands was little better than to
present them outright to the ladrones. At present the constabulary
exercise a considerable amount of control over municipal police,
and there has resulted very material improvement in their appearance,
discipline and effectiveness.
Municipal councils in the majority of cases voted all of the town money
for salaries, leaving nothing for maintenance of public buildings,
roads and public works, with the result that streets in the very
centres of towns became impassable even for foot passengers. They
were often indescribably filthy, cluttered with all sorts of waste
material, and served as a meeting ground for all the horses, cattle,
dogs, pigs, hens and goats of the neighbourhood.
In many instances, the first use made of their newly acquired powers
by provincial governors and municipal presidents was to persecute
in all sorts of petty ways those who had opposed their election,
while the latter displayed marked disinclination to accept the will
of the majority.
It is not to be expected that the Filipino should understand modern
democratic government. Where could he have obtained knowledge of
it? Under Spanish rule he saw officials habitually enriching themselves
at the expense of the communities they were supposed to govern. He saw
a government of privilege where the work of the many benefited the
few. How could he have gained experience in modern and enlightened
administration for the benefit of the people rather than for the
benefit of the administrators? Not only must there be knowledge on the
part of officials that this is the proper way to govern, but there must
be a demand on the part of the people for such a government, and until
the people know and understand that such a government is their right
there will be no such demand. There is not yet a sufficient proportion
of the Filipino people literate to make approval or disapproval felt.
Incidentally it should be remembered that in the Philippine
Islands any provincial or municipal officer may be suspended by the
governor-general, or removed for failure properly to perform his
duties, for disloyalty, or for other causes. The provincial governors
also hold same power over the municipal presidents. Existing conditions
are therefore not comparable with those which would arise without such
control. I would as soon say that an automobile could go without a
driver because it runs fairly well when there is a driver directing
it as that the administration of the municipalities and provinces of
the Philippine Islands would go as well as it now does under a system
which does not provide for strong central control. It is one thing
to administer when you are carefully supervised, and when the power
of removal is held directly over you by a superior officer watching
your every move, and another to administer equally well when the
reins are not firmly held.
Serious consideration must be given to another group of facts in
considering the fitness of the Filipinos for independence. It is
undeniably true that they have progressed much further in civilization
than has any other group of peoples of Malayan origin. It is just as
indubitable that their development has not been a natural evolution,
but has resulted from steady pressure brought to bear during three and
a half centuries by Spain, and during the last decade and a half by
the United States. What would happen were this pressure removed? One
may judge, within limits, from what has happened where it has been
removed. Take, for instance, Cagayancillo; which is an isolated town on
a small island southwest of Panay. Here the Spanish friar was the sole
representative of governmental authority in bygone days. Cagayancillo
was then a thriving town, with a strong stone fort for defense against
the Moros, a beautiful, large church with splendid wood carvings
ornamenting its interior, and a fine masonry convento of most original
architecture, with long rows of giant clam shells embedded in its outer
walls. There were a good municipal building and a stone schoolhouse,
also excellent for their day. I first visited the place shortly after
Palawan was made a province under civil rule. No priest had been there
for three years. The town and its inhabitants reeked with filth. The
wits of the two or three exceptionally intelligent men of the place
were befogged with opium. The church and convento were falling into
ruin. The fort had already gone to the bad. The presidencia [211]
was a wreck, and so was the schoolhouse. There were no teachers for
the children. The people were rapidly lapsing into barbarism.
In 1910 I visited the town of Malaueg, situated in the province of
Cagayan. It was one of the first mission stations in northern Luzón. I
found there the walls of an immense church and convento. These walls
were approximately forty inches thick, and were intact, though
roofs and floors had disappeared, in part from decay and in part
from the stealing of the boards. Over the door of the church was a
thick hardwood beam on which were carved in raised letters Spanish
words signifying that the church was rebuilt in 1650. The walls of
Manila were built about 1590. When was this church constructed to
require rebuilding sixty years later? And what must then have been
the size of the town which furnished the necessary hands to erect
such a huge structure?
The Spanish friar in charge had left during the revolution against
Spain some time subsequent to 1896, and as a result the town had gone
to pieces after so many centuries of life. Nothing remained but a small
collection of grass huts. The men had reverted to the breechclout,
and were again adopting the head-axe. Many of them had already taken
to the mountains.
The Spaniards compelled Filipinos to live in towns, or at least to
have houses there. Under our form of government we allow them to do
as they please, with the result that in provinces like Palawan our
utmost efforts do not avail to keep them from forsaking settlements
and scattering out through inaccessible mountain regions, where they
are rapidly gravitating back to the state of barbarism from which they
originally emerged. I might multiply instances of this sort of thing.
In the early days of civil government the commission in many instances
combined municipalities which lay immediately adjacent to each other
and could readily enough be administered from a common governmental
centre. This action was taken in the interest of economy, and in the
belief that the resulting saving in salaries would make possible the
employment of more school-teachers, and the construction of better
school buildings.
In many, if not most, cases such fusion of municipalities proved
a mistake. The town which happened to become the new seat of
government prospered. There were spent the taxes collected in the
other formerly independent centres of population, which, deprived
of their autoridades, [212] promptly became insanitary, disorderly
and unprogressive.
I am firmly convinced that the Filipinos are where they are to-day
only because they have been pushed into line, and that if outside
pressure were relaxed they would steadily and rapidly deteriorate.
It is not necessary that there should be much retrogression to cause
serious trouble. I have discussed the character and attitude of the
present Filipino legislative body. I have shown indubitably what sort
of a government the Filipinos themselves established while they had a
free hand. I agree absolutely with Blount's contention that they would
again establish precisely the same sort of a government if left to
their own devices. There would follow, first aggression against the
property of foreigners, and then attacks upon their persons, which
would not only excuse, but would necessitate, intervention by other
governments to protect their citizens. Some of the more intelligent
Filipino leaders would set their faces against such conduct as firmly
as they did during the rule of the so-called Insurgent government,
but now, as then, would be powerless to restrain either the more
unprincipled among the intelligent, or the great body of the ignorant
rank and file, and nothing more than a fairly plausible excuse would
be needed to start the ball of foreign intervention rolling.
Many Americans may, in their present deep ignorance of the value
of their most recently acquired possessions, agree with that
distinguished representative who announced on the floor of the House
of Representatives that the Philippines were "a lemon," but agents
and spies of Japan have worked throughout the entire archipelago and
she knows better. England and Germany have had their business men in
the islands for many years, and they know better also.
The Filipinos are not yet fit to govern themselves, much less to govern
the Moros and other non-Christian tribes, even if let alone, and they
would not be let alone should we turn their country over to them.
Philippine independence is not a present possibility, nor will it
be possible for at least two generations. Indeed, if by the end of a
century we have welded into a people the descendants of the composite
and complex group of human beings who to-day inhabit the islands,
we shall have no cause to feel ashamed of our success.