THE PHILIPPINE PROBLEM--Continued.
In speaking of the Philippine independence I have presented some
of the reasons given by Filipinos for desiring it, but there are
arguments which ought to appeal especially to Americans. If it were
our duty to maintain a colonial policy, no argument could be made
against it, because duties are imperative and never conflict. If,
on the other hand the Filipinos desire independence and are capable
of self-government, we cannot justify the retention of the islands
unless we are prepared to put our own interests above theirs, and
even then we must be satisfied that our interests will be advanced
by a colonial policy.
In the beginning of the controversy there were many who believed
that the Philippine Islands would become a source of profit to the
United States. It was confidently predicted that a multitude of
Americans would flock to the islands and find rich reward in the
development of their resources. These hopes have not been realized.
Except in Mindanao, of which I shall speak later, there is no
evidence of any present or future colonization by Americans. There
are a few Americans engaged in business in Manila and at other army
posts, but these are insignificant in number and the business done
by them is nothing as compared with the cost of colonialism to the
United States. We are maintaining about twelve thousand American
soldiers in the island and five thousand native scouts, officered
by Americans and paid for by the United States. Besides this outlay
for the army, our Philippine policy has been made the excuse for a
large increase in our naval expenditures. While it is difficult to
determine accurately the annual cost of our Philippine policy to
the people of the United States, it is safe to say that it exceeds
the value of all the merchandise that we export to the Philippine
Islands and all the money made by Americans in the islands,
including salaries paid to Americans from taxes collected in the
Philippines--and the expenses are borne by all the people while
the benefits are received by a mere handful. No one, therefore, can
justify the holding of the Philippines on the ground that they are a
pecuniary advantage.
If it is argued that we need the Philippine Islands as a base for
the extension of our trade in the Orient, I answer that it is not
necessary to deny the Filipinos independence in order to hold a
sufficient number of harbors and coaling stations to answer all
the requirements of trade. The Filipinos are not only anxious to
have the advantage of our protection, but they recognize that to
protect them we must have harbors and a naval base. In return for
the services we have rendered them we have a right to ask, and they
would gladly grant, such reservations as we need. These reservations
could be properly fortified and would furnish coaling stations
both for our navy and for our merchant marine. It goes without
saying that in case we had war with an oriental nation, it would be
infinitely better to have the Filipinos supporting us, in their own
interest as well as out of gratitude, than to have them awaiting an
opportunity for insurrection.
[Illustration: CARABAO CART AND DRIVER.]
I have already referred to the danger which may come to the
principle of self-government in the United States from the
systematic denial of self-government to the Filipinos. As our
officials can only explain their continued presence in the
Philippines by alleging incapacity in the Filipinos, they find
themselves unconsciously surrendering the governmental theories
which were until recently universally accepted in our country. We
cannot overlook the influence that these changed opinions may
have upon the politics of our own country if a colonial policy is
indefinitely continued.
Neither can we ignore the fact that our prestige as a teacher
of the principles of republican government must be impaired if
we hold colonies under the law of force and defend ourselves by
using the arguments employed by kings and emperors as an excuse
for denying self-government to their own people. We cannot preach
that governments derive their just powers from the consent of
the governed and at the same time adopt a different principle in
practice.
[Illustration: HARVESTING SUGAR CANE.]
It is worth while also to remember that foreign service is more or
less demoralizing to our troops. Our soldiers are good, average
men, but all men are more or less influenced by environment, and
our soldiers cannot be expected to maintain as high a standard of
morality when far away from home and the influences of home, as when
their good purposes are strengthened by the presence of mothers,
sisters and friends. The hospital records show the extent to which
our soldiers yield to the temptations which surround the post, and
the saloons that follow our army speak forcibly of the dangers which
attend foreign service. Can we afford to subject the morals of our
young men to such severe tests unless there is some national gain
commensurate with the loss?
If our nation would at once declare its intention to treat the
Filipinos living north of Mindanao as it treated the Cubans, and
then proceed, first, to establish a stable government, patterned
after our own; second, to convert that government into a native
government by the substitution of Filipino for American officials
as rapidly as possible; third, to grant independence to the
Filipinos, reserving such harbors and naval stations as may be
thought necessary; and, fourth, to announce its purpose to protect
the Filipinos from outside interferences while they work out their
destiny--if our nation would do this, it would save a large annual
expense, protect its trade interests, gratify the just ambition of
the Filipinos for national existence and repeat the moral victory
won in Cuba.
[Illustration: THE RICE HARVEST.]
In return for protection from without, the Filipinos would agree, as
the Cubans did, that in their dealings with other nations they would
not embarrass us.
The reservations retained could be converted into centers for the
extension of American influence and American ideals, and our nation
would increase its importance as a real world power. Unless our
religion and our philosophy are entirely wrong, moral forces are
more permanent and, in the end, more potent than physical force, and
our nation has an opportunity to prove that a nation's greatness,
like the greatness of an individual, is measured by service. It also
has an opportunity to prove that the Oriental can be led by advice
and improved by example and does not need to be coerced by military
power.
Our reservations ought to contain model schools, with a central
college, experimental farms and institutions in which the people
could be trained in the arts and industries most suited to the
natural resources of the country. Our nation is unfitted by history
and by tradition to exploit the tropical countries according to
the methods employed by the monarchies of Europe. To hold people
in subjection requires a large military expenditure; if we were to
attempt to make our own people bear such a burden, they would soon
protest; if we were to make the Filipinos bear it, it would crush
them. The Filipinos would resist such a policy, if employed by
us, more bitterly than if it were employed by a European country,
because they have learned from us the lessons of liberty. Subject
peoples are not willing laborers, and our country would not endorse
a system of compulsory labor. Education, too, is inconsistent with a
permanent colonial system and cannot be carried far without danger
to the ruling power.
We must choose, therefore, between two policies, and the sooner the
choice is made, the better. As we cannot adopt the European policy
without a radical departure from our ideals, and ultimately from
our form of government at home, we are virtually forced to adopt
a plan distinctly American--a plan in which advice, example and
helpfulness shall be employed as means of reaching the native heart.
Some of the European nations have been content to seize land and
develop it with European capital and Chinese labor; our plan must
be to develop the natives themselves by showing them better methods
and by opening before them a wider horizon. At our reservations
there would be religious freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the
press, self-government and public instruction for all, and every
uplifting influence would have free play. If we believe that right
makes might and that truth has within itself a propagating power, we
cannot doubt the spread of American civilization from these American
centers.
While the Philippine Islands are under American authority, the
government ought to be administered for the benefit of the
Filipinos, in accordance with Secretary Taft's promise. If they
are to be subject to our tariff laws when they buy of other
nations, they ought to have free trade with us, but the Philippine
Islands are so far from us that it would be more just to allow the
Philippine tariff to be made by the Philippine assembly soon to be
established. The Filipinos belong to the Orient and their dealings
must be largely with the countries of the Orient; unless they are in
a position to have their tariff laws conform to their geographical
position, there must necessarily be friction and injustice.
So important are geographical considerations that Americans who
see fit to take up their residence upon such reservation as we
retain for harbors, coaling stations and a naval base ought to be
freed from the fetters of our tariff laws and shipping laws. I
even venture to suggest the creation of an Oriental territory, to
be composed of such stations and reservations as we may now have
or hereafter acquire in the Orient. This territory should have a
delegate in congress like other territories, but should be freed
by constitutional amendment from our tariff laws and permitted to
legislate for itself upon the subject. It could thus establish free
ports, if it chose, and give to its people the trade advantages
enjoyed by those who live in Hong Kong, Singapore and other open
ports.
In what I have said about independence and self-government in the
Philippines, I have been speaking of Luzon and the other islands
north of Mindanao. As I have already pointed out, the conditions
existing in Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago are so different from
those existing in the northern islands that the two groups should
be dealt with separately. It would not be fair to deny independence
to the Christian Filipinos living in the north merely because the
Moros have never shown any desire to adopt a republican form of
government. (They live under a sort of feudal system, with sultan
and datu as the ruling lords.)
But while the work of establishing a stable government among the
Moros is a more difficult one and will proceed more slowly, the same
principles should govern it. The Moros have furnished a great many
pirates for the southern seas, and the influence of the adventurer
and free-booter is still felt in Moroland. Then, too, they have an
unpleasant way of killing Christians, on the theory that by doing
so they not only insure an entrance into heaven, but earn the right
to four wives in their celestial home. Occasionally a Moro takes an
oath to die killing Christians (he is called a juramentado), and
after a season of fasting and prayer, and generally with shaven
eyebrows, he goes forth to slay until he himself is slain. Besides
those who deliberately take human life by retail or by wholesale,
there are religious fanatics who act under frenzy. All in all, the
Moro country is far below the northern islands in civilization
whether the civilization is measured by a material, an intellectual,
a political or a moral standard. But even among the Moros I believe
it is possible to introduce American ideas. Already some progress
is being made in the establishment of schools, and Governor Findley
has succeeded in interesting the natives in exchanges where trade is
carried on according to American methods. While polygamy is still
permitted, slavery is being exterminated and the natives are being
shown the advantage of free labor. I believe that even among them
our work can be advanced by assuring them of ultimate independence,
to be granted as soon as a government is established capable of
maintaining order and enforcing law. By educating young Moros and
then using them in official position, we can convince the Moros of
the sincerity of our friendship, and these officials will exert an
increasing influence for good. In the meantime, we should establish
experimental stations and by the use of native labor train the
people to make the best use of the resources of their country. I
believe General Wood is already planning for an experimental farm
near Zamboanga.
While the Moros are a fierce people and accustomed to bloodshed,
they have enough good qualities to show the possibility of
improvement. They are a temperate people, abstaining entirely from
intoxicating liquors, and while they practice polygamy and add
concubinage to plurality of wives, they carefully guard the chastity
of their women. They have their system of laws, with courts for the
investigation of criminal charges and for the imposition of fines.
The existing code in the Sulu archipelago, while lamentably below
our penal code, shows a desire for the establishment of justice
between man and man. Dr. Saleeby has published a translation of the
existing code, together with the code (not yet adopted) prepared by
the present prime minister of the sultan, and a comparison of the
two shows distinctly that American influence is already being felt.
While I do not believe that any large number of Americans can be
induced to settle permanently in Mindanao (and Mindanao seems to
be the most inviting place), there will be ample time to test this
question while a government is being established among the Moros.
It is more likely that the waste lands will be settled upon by
immigrants from the northern islands and that in time the Christian
Filipinos will be sufficiently numerous to control the islands, and
they can then be annexed to the northern group.
The leaven of American ideas is already spreading. At Zamboanga we
met Datu Mandi, who has adopted the American dress and opened one
of his buildings for a Moro school for girls. He is manifesting an
increasing interest in the American work. Datu Mandi's brother
was one of the Moros taken to the World's Fair and he, too, has
abandoned the native dress. I have already referred to the desire
expressed by Datu Piang to have his sons attend school in America.
This is a good sign, and money spent in educating them would reduce
military expenditures in that part of the island. The sultan of
Sulu also wants to visit America, and a trip would do him more good
than a year's salary. As soon as we convince these people that our
purpose is an unselfish one, they will become willing pupils, and in
the course of time they will find the home more congenial than the
harem and the ways of peace more pleasant than the war path.
While our plans should be unselfish, they would probably prove
profitable in the end, for friends are better customers than
enemies, and our trade is apt to develop in proportion as we teach
the natives to live as we do. When Solomon came to the throne,
instead of choosing riches or long life, he asked for wisdom that
he might govern his people aright, and he received not only wisdom,
but the riches and the length of days which he had regarded as less
important. May we not expect a similar reward if we choose the
better part and put the welfare of the natives above our own gain?
After all, the test question is, have we "faith in the wisdom of
doing right?" Are we willing to trust the conscience and moral sense
of those whom we desire to aid?
Individuals have put Christianity to the test and have convinced
themselves that benevolence, unarmed, is mightier than selfishness
equipped with sword and mail, but nations have as yet seldom
ventured to embody the spirit of the Nazarene in their foreign
policy. Is it not an opportune time for our nation to make the
trial? Our president has recently been hailed as a peacemaker
because he took the initiative in terminating a great war, but
this involved no sacrifice upon our part. May we not win a greater
victory by proving our disinterested concern for the welfare of a
people separated from us not only by vast waters but by race, by
language and by color?
Carlyle in concluding his history of the French revolution declared
that thought is stronger than artillery parks and that back of every
great thought is love. This is a lofty platform, but not too lofty
for the United States of America.