[A Homogeneous People]
The Filipinos are a homogeneous people. An American, Dr. Merton Miller,
former chief ethnologist of the Philippine Bureau of Science is the
foremost authority for the claim that:
"From the extreme northern end of the Archipelago to its
southernmost limits, with the exception of the few scattered
Negritos, the people of the Philippines, pagan, Moro and Christian
are one racially. There is some reason for believing that they
migrated into the islands at two different times. But in all
probability they came from the same general region and have a
common ancestry.
"There are many different languages or dialects in the Philippines
but all are closely related one to another, the pronunciation
and mode of speech vary but little from one section of the
Philippines to another and the majority of the words are common
to two or more of the Philippine languages. These languages,
whether spoken by pagan, Moro or Christian, belong to the great
Malayo-Polynesian family, branches of which are found in Sumatra,
the Hawaiian Islands, Madagascar and on many islands between."
Ex-President Taft has the following to say about Filipino homogeneity:
"The word 'tribe' gives an erroneous impression. There is no
tribal relation among the Filipinos. There is a racial solidarity
among them undoubtedly. They are homogeneous. I can not tell the
difference between an Ilocano and a Tagalog or a Visayan.... To
me all the Filipinos were alike."
While Governor General Harrison, before a joint committee of Congress,
expressed himself thus:
"To my way of thinking, they are very remarkably homogeneous,
quite as much so as any nation in the world to-day with which
I have any acquaintance. From one end of the Philippine Islands
to the other the people look very much alike; their manners are
very much the same; their style of living is about the same;
and they are being generally educated along the same lines by
the government and by the private schools, which are coöperating
with the government. So that I think they already have one of
the prime requisites to a nationality, namely, a general and
universal feeling that they belong to the same race of people."
[Total Population]
The total population of the Philippine Islands according to the
Census of 1918 is 10,350,640. Of this number 9,495,272 are Christians,
while 855,368 are non-Christian so-called. The non-Christian element,
therefore, represents 8.2 per cent of the total population. In this
number are included the Mohammedans of the South and the Igorots and
other mountaineers, who have been so widely advertised abroad and
often represented as typical Filipinos.
FOREIGN POPULATION OF THE
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
American 6,405
Spanish 4,015
English 1,063
German 312
French 218
Swiss 451
Chinese 45,156
Japanese 6,684
All others 1,111
Total 65,415