The Philippines Past and Present
Peace and Prosperity.
This chance photograph showing General Emilio Aguinaldo as he is
to-day, standing with Director of Education Frank L. Crone, beside a
field of corn raised by Emilio Aguinaldo, Jr., in a school contest,
typifies the peace, prosperity, and enlightenment which have been
brought about in the Philippine Islands under American rule.
The Philippines Past and Present
By
Dean C. Worcester
Secretary of the Interior of the Philippine Islands 1901-1913;
Member of the Philippine Commission, 1900-1913
Author of "The Philippine Islands and Their People"
In Two Volumes -- With 128 Plates
Volume I
1914
CONTENTS
VOL. I
Chapter
I. View Point and Subject-Matter
II. Was Independence Promised?
III. Insurgent "Coöperation"
IV. The Premeditated Insurgent Attack
V. Insurgent Rule and the Wilcox-Sargent Report
VI. Insurgent Rule in the Cagayan Valley
VII. Insurgent Rule in the Visayas and Elsewhere
VIII. Did We Destroy a Republic?
IX. The Conduct of the War
X. Mr. Bryan and Independence
XI. The First Philippine Commission
XII. The Establishment of Civil Government
XIII. The Philippine Civil Service
XIV. The Constabulary and Public Order
XV. The Administration of Justice
XVI. Health Conditions
XVII. Baguio and the Benguet Road
XVIII. The Coördination of Scientific Work
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOL. I
Peace and Prosperity
Fort San Antonio Abad, showing the Effect of the Fire from Dewey's
Fleet
Felipe Buencamino
The San Juan Bridge
Insurgent Prisoners
Typical Insurgent Trenches
Inside View of Insurgent Trenches at the Bagbag River
General Henry W. Lawton
Feeding Filipino Refugees
The First Philippine Commission
The Second Philippine Commission
The Return of Mr. Taft
Governor-general James F. Smith with a Bontoc Igorot Escort
Governor-general Forbes in the Wild Man's Country
The Philippine Supreme Court
An Unsanitary Well
A Flowing Artesian Well
An Unimproved Street in the Filipino Quarter of Manila
An Improved Street in the Filipino Quarter of Manila
Disinfecting by the Acre
An Old-style Provincial Jail
Retreat at Bilibid Prison, Manila
Bilibid Prison Hospital
Modern Contagious Disease Ward, San Lazaro Hospital
Filipina Trained Nurses
Staff of the Bontoc Hospital
A Victim of Yaws before and after Treatment with Salvarsan
The Culion Leper Colony
Building the Benguet Road
Freight Autos on the Benguet Road
The Famous Zig-zag on the Benguet Road
A Typical Baguio Road
One of the First Benguet Government Cottages
Typical Cottages at Baguio
A Baguio Home
The Baguio Hospital
Government Centre at Baguio
A Scene in the Baguio Teachers' Camp
The Baguio Country Club
The Bureau of Science Building, Manila
The Philippine General Hospital
The College of Medicine and Surgery, Manila
An Old-style Schoolhouse, with Teachers and Pupils
A Modern Primary School Building
Old-style Central School Building
Modern Central School Building
Typical Scene in a Trade School
An Embroidery Class
Philippine Embroidery
Filipino Trained Nurses
A School Athletic Team
Filipina Girls playing Basket-ball
University Hall, Manila
Bakídan
In Hostile Country
Travel under Difficulties
Dangerous Navigation
A Negrito Family and their "House"
A Typical Negrito
Typical Kalingas
Settling a Head-hunting Feud
Entertaining the Kalingas
An Ifugao Family
Ifugao Dancers
An Ifugao Dancer
Ifugao Rice Terraces
THE PHILIPPINES PAST AND PRESENT
CHAPTER I
View Point and Subject-Matter
It is customary in Latin countries for a would-be author or orator to
endeavour, at the beginning of his book or his speech, to establish
his status. Possibly I have become partially Latinized as the result
of some eighteen years of residence in the Philippines. At all events
it is my purpose to state at the outset facts which will tend to
make clear my view point and at the same time briefly to outline the
subject-matter which I hereinafter discuss.
As a boy I went through several of the successive stages of collector's
fever from which the young commonly suffer. First it was postage
stamps; then birds' nests, obtained during the winter season when no
longer of use to their builders. Later I was allowed to collect eggs,
and finally the birds themselves. At one time my great ambition was to
become a taxidermist. My family did not actively oppose this desire
but suggested that a few preliminary years in school and college
might prove useful.
I eventually lost my ambition to be a taxidermist but did not lose my
interest in zoölogy and botany. While a student at the University of
Michigan I specialized in these subjects. I was fortunate in having
as one of my instructors Professor Joseph B. Steere, then at the
head of the Department of Zoölogy. Professor Steere, who had been a
great traveller, at times entertained his classes with wonderfully
interesting tales of adventure on the Amazon and in the Andes, Peru,
Formosa, the Philippines and the Dutch Moluccas. My ambition was
fired by his stories and when in the spring of 1886 he announced his
intention of returning to the Philippines the following year to take
up and prosecute anew zoölogical work which he had begun there in
1874, offering to take with him a limited number of his students who
were to have the benefit of his knowledge of Spanish and of his wide
experience as a traveller and collector, and were in turn to allow him
to work up their collections after their return to the United States,
I made up my mind to go.
I was then endeavouring to get through the University on an allowance
of $375 per year and was in consequence not overburdened with surplus
funds. I however managed to get my life insured for $1500 and to
borrow $1200 on the policy, and with this rather limited sum upon
which to draw purchased an outfit for a year's collecting and sailed
with Doctor Steere for Manila. Two other young Americans accompanied
him. One of these, Doctor Frank S. Bourns, was like myself afterwards
destined to play a part in Philippine affairs which was not then
dreamed of by either of us.
We spent approximately a year in the islands. Unfortunately we had
neglected to provide ourselves with proper official credentials and
as a result we had some embarrassing experiences. We were arrested by
suspicious Spanish officials shortly after our arrival and were tried
on trumped-up charges. On several subsequent occasions we narrowly
escaped arrest and imprisonment.
The unfriendly attitude of certain of our Spanish acquaintances
was hardly to be wondered at. They could not believe that sensible,
civilized human beings would shoot tiny birds, pay for eggs the size
of the tip of one's little finger more than hens' eggs were worth,
undergo not a few hardships and run many risks while living in the
simplest of native houses on very inadequate food, unless actuated by
some hidden purpose. At different times they suspected us of looking
for gold deposits, of designing to stir up trouble among the natives,
or of being political spies.
When Doctor Bourns came back with the American troops in 1908 and
I returned as a member of the first Philippine Commission in 1909,
this last supposition became a fixed belief with many of our former
Spanish acquaintances who still remained in the islands, and they
frankly expressed their regret that they had not shot us while they
had the chance.
Over against certain unpleasant experiences with those who could
not understand us or our work I must set much kind and invaluable
assistance rendered by others who could, and did.
All in all we spent a most interesting year, visiting eighteen of
the more important islands. [1]
Throughout this trip we lived in very close contact with the Filipinos,
either occupying the _tribunales_, the municipal buildings of their
towns, where they felt at liberty to call and observe us at all hours
of the day and night, or actually living in their houses, which in
some instances were not vacated by the owners during our occupancy.
Incidentally we saw something of several of the wild tribes, including
the Tagbanuas of Palawan, the Moros of Joló, Basilan and Mindanao,
and the Mangyans of Mindoro.
We experienced many very real hardships, ran not a few serious risks
and ended our sojourn with six weeks of fever and starvation in the
interior of Mindoro. While we would not have cut short our appointed
stay by a day, we were nevertheless delighted when we could turn our
faces homeward, and Doctor Bourns and I agreed that we had had quite
enough of life in the Philippines.
Upon my arrival at my home in Vermont a competent physician told my
family that I might not live a week. I however recuperated so rapidly
that I was able to return to the University of Michigan that fall
and to complete the work of my senior year. I became a member of the
teaching staff of the institution before my graduation.
Little as I suspected it at the time, the tropics had fixed their
strangely firm grip on me during that fateful first trip to the Far
East which was destined to modify my whole subsequent life. I had
firmly believed that if fortunate enough to get home I should have
sense enough to stay there, but before six months had elapsed I was
finding life at Ann Arbor, Michigan, decidedly prosaic, and longing
to return to the Philippines and finish a piece of zoölogical work
which I knew was as yet only begun.
Doctor Bourns, like myself, was eager to go back, and we set out to
raise $10,000 to pay the expenses of a two-years collecting tour, in
the course of which we hoped to visit regions not hitherto penetrated
by any zoölogist.
Times were then getting hard, and good Doctor Angell, the president
of the university, thought it a great joke that two young fellows
like ourselves should attempt to raise so considerable a sum to be
spent largely for our own benefit. Whenever he met me on the street he
used to ask whether we had obtained that $10,000 yet, and then shake
with laughter. One of the great satisfactions of my life came when,
on a beautiful May morning in 1890, I was able to answer his inquiry
in the affirmative.
He fairly staggered with amazement, but promptly recovering himself
warmly congratulated me, and with that kindly interest which he has
always shown in the affairs of young men, asked how he could help
us. Through his kindly offices and the intervention of the State
Department we were able to obtain a royal order from the Spanish
government which assured us a very different reception on our return
to the Philippines in August from that which had been accorded us on
the occasion of our first visit to the islands.
There was now revealed to us a pleasing side of Spanish character
which we had largely missed during our first visit. Satisfied
as to our identity and as to the motives which actuated us, the
Spanish officials, practically without exception, did everything
in their power to assist us and to render our sojourn pleasant and
profitable. Our mail was delivered to us at points fifty miles distant
from provincial capitals. When our remittances failed to reach us
on time, as they not infrequently did, money was loaned to us freely
without security. Troops were urged upon us for our protection when we
desired to penetrate regions considered to be dangerous. Our Spanish
friends constantly offered us the hospitality of their homes and
with many of them the offer was more than _pro forma_. Indeed, in
several instances it was insisted upon so strongly that we accepted
it, to our great pleasure and profit.
Officials were quite frank in discussing before us the affairs of
their several provinces, and we gained a very clear insight into
existing political methods and conditions.
During this trip we lived in even closer contact with the Filipino
[2] population than on the occasion of our first visit. Our rapidly
growing knowledge of Spanish, and of Visayan, one of the more important
native dialects, rendered it increasingly easy for us to communicate
with them, gain their confidence and learn to look at things from
their view point. They talked with us most frankly and fully about
their political troubles.
During this our second sojourn in the Philippines, which lengthened to
two years and six months, we revisited the islands with which we had
become more or less familiar on our first trip and added six others
to the list. [3] We lived for a time among the wild Bukidnons and
Negritos of the Negros mountains.
After my companion had gone to Borneo I had the misfortune to contract
typhoid fever when alone in Busuanga, and being ignorant of the nature
of the malady from which I was suffering, kept on my feet until I
could no longer stand, with the natural result that I came uncommonly
near paying for my foolishness with my life, and have ever since
suffered from resulting physical disabilities. When able to travel,
I left the islands upon the urgent recommendation of my physician,
feeling that the task which had led me to return there was almost
accomplished and sure that my wanderings in the Far East were over.
Shortly after my return to the United States I was offered a position
as a member of the zoölogical staff of the University of Michigan,
accepted it, received speedy promotion, and hoped and expected to
end my days as a college professor.
In 1898 the prospect of war with Spain awakened old memories. I fancy
that the knowledge then possessed by the average American citizen
relative to the Philippines was fairly well typified by that of a
good old lady at my Vermont birthplace who had spanked me when I was a
small boy, and who, after my first return from the Philippine Islands,
said to me, "Deanie, are them Philippians you have been a visitin'
the people that Paul wrote the Epistle to?"
I endeavoured to do my part toward dispelling this ignorance. My
knowledge of Philippine affairs led me strongly to favour armed
intervention in Cuba, where similar political conditions seemed to
prevail to a considerable extent, and I fear that I was considered
by many of my university colleagues something of a "jingo." Indeed,
a member of the University Board of Regents said that I ought to be
compelled to enlist. As a matter of fact, compulsion would have been
quite unnecessary had it not been for physical disability.
My life-long friend and former travelling companion, Doctor Bourns,
was not similarly hampered. He promptly joined the army as a medical
officer with the rank of major, and sailed for the islands on the
second steamer which carried United States troops there. As a natural
result of his familiarity with Spanish and his wide acquaintanceship
among the Filipinos, he was ordered from the outset to devote his
time more largely to political matters than to the practice of his
profession. He did all that he could to prevent misunderstandings
between Filipinos and Americans. He assisted as an interpreter at
the negotiations for the surrender of Manila on August 13, 1898,
after taking part in the attack on the city. Later he was given
the rather difficult task of suppressing a bad outbreak of smallpox
among the Spanish prisoners of war, which he performed with great
success. He was finally made chief health officer of Manila, although
he continued to devote himself largely to political matters, got
numberless deserving Filipinos out of trouble, and rapidly increased
his already wide circle of Filipino friends. Through his letters I
was kept quite closely in touch with the situation.
Meanwhile I decided that the Philippines were not for me, asked for
and obtained leave for study in Europe, and in December 1898 set
out for New York to engage passage for myself and my family. I went
by way of Washington in order to communicate to President McKinley
certain facts relative to the Philippine situation which it seemed
to me ought to be brought to his attention.
I believed that there was serious danger of an outbreak of hostilities
between Filipinos and Americans, and that such a catastrophe, resulting
from mutual misunderstanding, might be avoided if seasonable action
were taken. I have since learned how wrong was this latter belief. My
previous experience had been almost exclusively with the Visayans and
the wild tribes, and the revolution against the United States was at
the outset a strictly Tagálog affair, and hence beyond my ken.
President McKinley very kindly gave me all the time I wanted, displayed
a most earnest desire to learn the truth, and showed the deepest and
most friendly interest in the Filipinos. Let no man believe that then
or later he had the slightest idea of bringing about the exploitation
of their country. On the contrary, he evinced a most earnest desire
to learn what was best for them and then to do it if it lay within
his power.
To my amazement, at the end of our interview he asked me whether I
would be willing to go to the islands as his personal representative.
I could not immediately decide to make such a radical change in my
plans as this would involve, and asked for a week's time to think
the matter over, which was granted. I decided to go.
Meanwhile, the President had evolved the idea of sending out a
commission and asked me if I would serve on it. I told him that I would
and left for my home to make preparations for an early departure. A
few days later he announced the names of the commissioners. They were
Jacob Gould Schurman, President of Cornell University; Major-General
Elwell S. Otis, then the ranking army officer in the Philippines;
Rear-Admiral George Dewey, then in command of the United States fleet
in Philippine waters; Colonel Charles Denby, who had for fourteen
years served as United States Minister to China, and myself.
Colonel Denby was delayed in Washington by public
business. Mr. Schurman and I reached Yokohama on the morning of
February 13, and on arrival there learned, to our deep regret, that
hostilities had broken out on the fourth instant. We reached Manila on
the evening of March 4, but Colonel Denby was unable to join us until
April 2. Meanwhile, as we could not begin our work in his absence,
I had an exceptional opportunity to observe conditions in the field,
of which I availed myself.
I served with the first Philippine Commission until it had completed
its work, and was then appointed to the second Philippine Commission
without a day's break in my period of service.
The members of this latter body were William H. Taft of Ohio; Luke
E. Wright of Tennessee; Henry C. Ide of Vermont; Bernard Moses of
California, and myself. Briefly stated, the task before us was to
establish civil government in the Philippine Islands. After a period
of ninety days, to be spent in observation, the commission was to
become the legislative body, while executive power continued to be
vested for a time in the military.
This condition endured until the 4th of July, 1901, on which
day Mr. Taft was appointed civil governor. On September 1, 1901,
each of the remaining original members of the commission became
an executive officer as well. Mr. Wright was appointed secretary
of commerce and police; Mr. Ide, secretary of finance and justice;
Mr. Moses, secretary of public instruction, and I myself, Secretary
of the Interior. On the same day three Filipino members were added
to the commission: Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, Sr. Benito Legarda and
Sr. José R. de Luzuriaga.
Until the 16th of October, 1907, the Commission continued to serve as
the sole legislative body. It is at the present time the upper house
of the Philippine Legislature, the Philippine Assembly, composed of
eighty-one elective members, constituting the lower house.
I have therefore had a hand in the enactment of all legislation put
in force in the Philippine Islands since the American occupation, with
the exception of certain laws passed during my few and brief absences.
As secretary of the interior it fell to my lot to organize and
direct the operations of a Bureau of Health, a Bureau of Govermnent
Laboratories, a Bureau of Forestry, a Bureau of Public Lands, a Bureau
of Agriculture, a Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes, a Mining Bureau
and a Weather Bureau. Ultimately, the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes
and the Mining Bureau were incorporated with the Bureau of Government
Laboratories to form the Bureau of Science, which continued under my
executive control. The Bureau of Agriculture was transferred to the
Department of Public Instruction in 1909.
I was at the outset given administrative control of all matters
pertaining to the non-Christian tribes, which constitute, roughly
speaking, an eighth of the population of the Philippines, and until
my resignation retained such control throughout the islands, except
in the Moro Province, which at an early day was put directly under
the governor-general.
I participated in the organization of civil government in the several
provinces of the archipelago, and myself drafted the Municipal Code
for the government of the towns inhabited by Filipinos, as well as
the Special Provincial Government Act and the Township Government
Act for that of the provinces and settlements inhabited chiefly by
the non-Christian tribes.
At the outset we did not so much as know with certainty the names
of the several wild and savage tribes inhabiting the more remote and
inaccessible portions of the archipelago. As I was unable to obtain
reliable information concerning them on which to base legislation
for their control and uplifting, I proceeded to get such information
for myself by visiting their territory, much of which was then quite
unexplored.
After this territory was organized into five so-called "Special
Government Provinces," some of my Filipino friends, I fear not
moved solely by anxiety for the public good, favoured and secured a
legislative enactment which made it my official duty to visit and
inspect these provinces at least once during each fiscal year. I
shall always feel indebted to them for giving me this opportunity to
become intimately acquainted with some of the most interesting, most
progressive, and potentially most important peoples of the Philippines.
When in 1901 I received the news that a central government was soon to
be established, I was in the Sub-province of Lepanto on my first trip
through the wilder and less-known portions of northern Luzon. During
each succeeding year I have spent from two to four months in travel
through the archipelago, familiarizing myself at first hand with
local conditions.
I have frequently taken with me on these inspection trips
representatives of the Bureaus of Forestry, Agriculture, Science
and Health to carry on practical investigations, and have made it my
business to visit and explore little known and unknown regions. There
are very few islands worthy of the name which it has not been my
privilege to visit.
The organization of an effective campaign against diseases like bubonic
plague, smallpox, Asiatic cholera and leprosy in a country where no
similar work had ever previously been undertaken, inhabited by people
profoundly ignorant of the benefits to be derived from modern methods
of sanitation, and superstitious to a degree, promptly brought me
into violent conflict with the beliefs and prejudices of a large
portion of the Filipino population.
A similar result followed the inauguration of an active campaign for
the suppression of surra, foot and mouth disease, and rinderpest,
which were rapidly destroying the horses and cattle.
From the outset I was held responsible for the enforcement of marine
and land quarantine regulations, which were at first very obnoxious
to the general public.
When the Pure Food and Drugs Act adopted by Congress for the United
States was made applicable to the Philippines without any provision for
its enforcement, this not altogether pleasant duty was assigned to me.
I did not seek appointment to the Philippine service in the first
instance. The political influence at my command has never extended
beyond my own vote. During a period of twelve years my removal was
loudly and frequently demanded, yet I saw President Schurman, Colonel
Denby, General Otis, Admiral Dewey, Commissioner Moses, Governor Taft,
Governor Wright, Governor Ide, Governor Smith, Secretary Shuster,
Commissioner Tavera, Commissioner Legarda and Governor Forbes, all my
colleagues on one or the other of the Philippine commissions, leave
the service, before my own voluntary retirement on September 15, 1913.
I had long expected a request for my resignation at any time, and
had often wished that it might come. Indeed I once before tendered
it voluntarily, only to have President Taft say that he thought I
should withdraw it, which I did. I am absolutely without political
ambition save an earnest desire to earn the political epitaph,
"He did what he could."
During my brief and infrequent visits to the United States I have
discovered there widespread and radical misapprehension as to
conditions in the Philippines, but have failed to find that lack of
interest in them which is commonly said to exist. On the contrary,
I have found the American public keenly desirous of getting at the
real facts whenever there was an opportunity to do so.
The extraordinary extent to which untrue statements have been accepted
at their face value has surprised and deeply disturbed me. I have
conversed with three college presidents, each of whom believed that
the current expenses of the Philippine government were paid from the
United States Treasury.
The preponderance of false and misleading statements about the
Philippines is due, it seems to me, primarily to the fact that it is
those persons with whom the climate disagrees and who in consequence
are invalided home, and those who are separated from the service in
the interest of the public good, who return to the United States and
get an audience there; while those who successfully adapt themselves to
local conditions, display interest in their work and become proficient
in it, remain in the islands for long periods during which they are
too busy, and too far from home, to make themselves heard.
Incidentally it must be remembered that if such persons do attempt to
set forth facts which years of practical experience have taught them,
they are promptly accused of endeavouring to save their own bread and
butter by seeking to perpetuate conditions which insure them fat jobs.
When I think of the splendid men who have uncomplainingly laid down
their lives in the military and in the civil service of their country
in these islands, and of the larger number who have given freely of
their best years to unselfish, efficient work for others, this charge
fills me with indignation.
The only thing that kept me in the Philippine service for so long
a time was my interest in the work for the non-Christian tribes and
my fear that while my successor was gaining knowledge concerning it
which can be had only through experience, matters might temporarily
go to the bad. It has been my ambition to bring this work to such a
point that it would move on, for a time at least, by its own momentum.
I am now setting forth my views relative to the past and present
situation in the islands because I believe that their inhabitants
are confronted by a danger graver than any which they have before
faced since the time when their fate wavered in the balance, while the
question whether the United States should acquire sovereignty over them
or should allow Spain to continue to rule them was under consideration.
It is my purpose to tell the plain, hard truth regardless of the effect
of such conduct upon my future career. It has been alleged that my
views on Philippine problems were coloured by a desire to retain my
official position. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed,
no man who has not served for long and sometimes very weary years
as a public official, and has not been a target for numerous more
or less irresponsible individuals whose hands were filled with mud
and who were actuated by a fixed desire to throw it at something,
can appreciate as keenly as I do the manifold blessings which attend
the life of a private citizen.
I trust that I have said enough to make clear my view point, and
now a word as to subject-matter. It is my intention to correct some
of the very numerous misstatements which have been made concerning
past and present conditions in the Philippines. I shall quote, from
time to time, such statements, both verbal and written, and more
especially some of those which have recently appeared in a book
entitled "The American Occupation of the Philippines, 1898-1912,"
by James H. Blount, who signs himself "Officer of the United States
Volunteers in the Philippines, 1899-1901; United States District
Judge in the Philippines, 1901-1905."
Judge Blount has indulged so freely in obvious hyperbole, and has made
so very evident the bitter personal animosities which inspire many
of his statements, that it has been a genuine surprise to his former
associates and acquaintances that his book has been taken seriously.
It should be sufficiently evident to any unprejudiced reader that in
writing it he has played the part of the special pleader rather than
that of the historian. He has used government records freely, and as
is usually the case when a special pleader quotes from such records,
the nature of the matter which he has omitted is worthy of more than
passing attention. I shall hope to be able to fill some of the gaps
that he has left in the documentary history of the events which he
discusses and by so doing, very materially to change its purport.
As public documents have been so misused, and as a new administration
is bestowing on Filipinos political offices, and giving them
opportunities, for which they are as yet utterly unprepared, thus
endangering the results of years of hard, patient, self-sacrificing
work performed by experienced and competent men, it becomes necessary
to strike home by revealing unpleasant facts which are of record
but have not heretofore been disclosed because of the injury to
reputations and the wounding of feelings which would result from their
publication. In doing this I feel that I am only discharging a duty to
the people of the United States, who are entitled to know the truth if
the present possibility of Philippine independence is to be seriously
considered, and to the several Filipino peoples who are to-day in
danger of rushing headlong to their own utter and final destruction.
At the outset I shall discuss the oft-asserted claim that the Filipino
leaders were deceived and betrayed by American officials whom they
assisted, and that this unpardonable conduct led to the outbreak of
active hostilities which occurred just prior to the arrival at Manila
of the first Philippine Commission.
I shall then show that these leaders never established a
government which adequately protected life and property, or gave
to their people peace, happiness or justice, but on the contrary
inaugurated a veritable reign of terror under which murder became a
governmental institution, while rape, inhuman torture, burying alive
and other ghastly crimes were of common occurrence, and usually went
unpunished. The data which I use in establishing these contentions
are for the most part taken directly from the Insurgent records,
in referring to which I employ the war department abbreviation
"P.I.R." followed by a number.
I next take up some of the more important subsequent historical events,
describing the work of the first Philippine Commission, and showing
in what manner the government established by the second Philippine
Commission has discharged its stewardship, subsequently discussing
certain as yet unsolved problems which confront the present government,
such as that presented by the existence of slavery and peonage, and
that of the non-Christian tribes. For the benefit of those who, like
Judge Blount, consider the Philippines "a vast straggly archipelago of
jungle-covered islands in the south seas which have been a nuisance to
every government that ever owned them," I give some facts as to the
islands, their climate, their natural resources and their commercial
possibilities, and close by setting forth my views as to the present
ability of the civilized Cagayans, Ilocanos, Pampangans, Zambals,
Pangasináns, Tagálogs, Bicols and Visayans, commonly and correctly
called _Filipinos_, to establish, or to maintain when established,
a stable government throughout Filipino territory, to say nothing
of bringing under just and effective control, and of protecting and
civilizing, the people of some twenty-seven non-Christian tribes which
constitute an eighth of the population, and occupy approximately half
of the territory, of the Philippine Islands.
I wish here to acknowledge my very great indebtedness to Major
J. R. M. Taylor, who has translated and compiled the Insurgent [4]
records, thereby making available a very large mass of reliable
and most valuable information without which a number of chapters of
this book would have remained unwritten. Surely no man who bases his
statements concerning Filipino rule on the facts set forth in these
records can be accused of deriving his information from hostile or
prejudiced sources.
Of them, Major Taylor says:--
"No one reading the Insurgent records can fail to be
impressed with the difference between the Spanish and
the Tagálog documents. Many of the former are doubtless
written with a view to their coming into the hands of the
Americans, or with deliberate purpose to have them do so,
and are framed accordingly. All Tagálog documents, intended
only for Filipinos, say much that is not said in the Spanish
documents. The orders of the Dictator [5] to his subjects
were conveyed in the latter series of documents."