OCR Text |
Show j Impressions of the Philippines ! I Professor Briggs of the Catholic University of Washington Describes the Difficulties Americans Must Encounter , ' in Fruitless Efforts to Assimilate an Asiatic Race. f ! ? From the Catholic World Magazine. y It If exceedingly difficult for anyone f . t speak with accuracy of the state of qffn irF in the Philippines unless he has lnf n on the spot and has made an in- ( ; t:mate study of the conditions. Since ; r turning from the Philippines the vii!'-r has been requested so frequently ! 1". fii'-nds to publish something of his I impressions pained while there that he j I.-.h decided to submit a few observa- T I'g in with, it must be remem- li.-ivd ihat the natives of the islands ! i i' h i.ntals that is, their habits of life if, A of i bought are radically different I fr. ;n those prevailing among Oeci-I Oeci-I .i.-niql peoples; and it is not fair to i jwlge i hem by the standards of Europe ii irl America. . . I They have no conception that "pub-t "pub-t j;, nffice is a public trust'" or, indeed. I ti at it has any "raison d'etre" other ; tl ;n :lie emolumnet of the official. ' i When we speak of Filipinos, it means, i i the island vernacular. Christians, i wh'thM- Tagalogs. Visayans, Ilocanos ; or ivii.it not: the Moros are followers 5 of the prophet, and the pagans are des-! des-! grated only by the names of their parti, par-ti, ular tribe, as, for instance, the ; lrro? of northern Luzon, j The Filitiinos are not savages. They j a:'- not only Catholics, but devout, and j-::ssionately devoted to their religion: I lut i' will not do to measure their ' I'i.tholicity by that of an Irishman or fir American. Of dogma most of them f fcrow little, and apparently care less: ' : enionia 1 is the main thing: and this is much mixed with survivals of pagan Mii'eretitions and practices; still, it is w:i to remember that these people v.-re savages when the Spanish friars 1 t'k them in hand: and that the .iv- i!:zatkm to which they have attained i? not the American civilization of the nitv-t-enth century, but the Spanish i c.vi;izatkr.of the Ufleenth and sixteenth : onturies. and that there they practi-! practi-! (oily stand today. Th- Filipinos are not stupid far ft. m It: and in the matter of illiteracy tVy c.mj are favorably with the people if old S; ain. Many thousands of .them ; n rend and write, many hundreds are highly cultured: and all are intensely M .'! x:ius for duration. This does not el-ply. of course, to the Moros and ) jvcans: and the savage Negritos are ; out of the equation. , The Tagalogs ar the most numer-S numer-S us. the most intelligent and most im- r-;tant of the Filipino tribes: and they, ' through the "Katipunan." have been ti.M h"ad, front and center" of the in- surr.-, t ion. from its fir&t inception un-I un-I (.-: Spanish rule. It is a mistake, a great mistake, to 1. cmpaie them intellectually, for in-I in-I Fiance, with carabao bulls. i Tii.-- Filipinos are not only intelligent j n- contradistinguished from educated, Hit ;h-y are universally polite, nor-; nor-; ip.i'.'y orderly, and nervously sensitive. P p h brash '"rowdyism" as can be found in any American city nowhere 'x .-ts among them. They are most i Cr-.-tii-.nate in their family relations, ' ar- natural musicians, and are gifted v artistic tastes of no mean order, i In :Sne. with equal opportunities, they j v'oiiij stand on a par with the Japan- ic.c. , x.-ept in the matter of industry. T1 . F:jpjno is not industrious: he is : i ly lazy. i. T ! i -. Filipino is neither inherently bad r- '-adirallly viciouK: but is, leaving out I 'i " ii'.tured few, 300 years behind the I T r,-- Mi.ro is a Mohammedan of the I ..f Saladin: and the savage is a TH;; WuKlv fiF THK . SPANISH FU1 a its. inn. h has been swiid in vilification ' :!i e men, so much as to their al-' al-' i itnniorality so much as to their ' -'.'d "robbery" of the confiding na-: na-: t h;ii it is only fair to take a L at the other side of the picture, i. ut.thss individuals among them ' ' ;s'l from grace; unquestionably ' did acquiro wealth; certainly j i '...ipunan hates them; and perad- ''..'ure they are an anomaly under A n i. an rule. A glance in retrospect is p"t amiss. ' -s'-n the friars first went out to the J .ppinos, of the four great classes "' a 'Jinan society the islands contained j two, viz.: savages, subsisting by 1' - has.-, and herdsmen. Of husband-1 husband-1 with fixed habitations, there were Hi-nce. the first step in the title 1 ' nid. title to occupancy, had no ex-' ex-' No man owned a foot of land I ii i- very own. 'i savage hunters, and the wander- j ' - herdsmen, had no form of civil or-P or-P ' y.n'mn of a higher type than that ! ' 'h. tribe: and science teaches us while the germ of civil life ex-in ex-in the family, and progresses in 1 " 'Inn and tribe, those forms of hu-' hu-' : ' organization .are more economic ivil: and that civil society, dis-1 dis-1 ' i ' y as such, begins where the tribe '.' ck nff, and the jersonal loyalty to i ' r. patriarch. chief, becomes ; r -rKf.d in loyalty to city, state, nation I -a, irorai entity. Chop logic, p'ay upon I ' '). as we may. human society, in j ' iv';! order, is vastly different" from 1 o;i oan society in any other phase. The j f;iavS found the natives of the Philip- j V-nr-s ignorant of the art of agricul-"!-. devoid of the concept of individual individ-ual ownership of land. j p.y precept and example, they taught ""ip both: and that there are fertile "a- U- of cultivated lands in the islands 1x duo to the friars. In the Philippines in America, yfa. as they had done in "Kuropr, after the barbarian deluge, Hi"sp men of God taught by their own f xaipple they labored in the fields; , nd the natives were taught by them, not nlv how to cultivate the great "'aple crops, rice, cane, tobacco, hemp, (cotton, but the very idea that there l could he such a thing as the husband-I husband-I man's individual estate in the soil, j rather than the tribe's right to hunt lover, and the tribe's right to pasture , cattle upon, the forest and the plain! j Well may Governor Taft testify that the title of the friars to their lands is legally "unassailable!" Not only were they the earliest proprietors, but they positively carried with them to the isl-I isl-I ands the first notion of private owner-i owner-i ship! j Yet. notwithstanding their unbound -ed opportunities: notwithstanding the j fact that, for 300 years and more, they iwere the keystone, the base, the apex, j the. entire superstructure of Spanish J power . in the Philippines, the friars : own. today, less than one-tenth of the j cultivated lands in the islands! How much have the missionaries and their ; families left to the natives tn Hawaii? j The Filipinos, the Mestizos, the Moros, Mo-ros, the Pagans, some 10.000,000 stuong, ! live and subsist upon the soil of the I Philippines. Where are the Kanakas ! the missionaries found in Hawaii? Daily, frr four long weeks, in Manila, the writer listened to threats threats of American officials, civil and military, mili-tary, that the friars should be despoiled of the lands of which they had "robbed." (?) the Filipinos: but Judge Tat says their titl- is "Unassailable:" and Ide and Wright, at least, are honest hon-est trren. and capable lawyers. Besides this, the rights of private ownership are solemnly guaranteed by the treaty cf Paris: even if the congress has neglected, neg-lected, so far, to prov.ide an appeal to the supreme court of the United States, from the Insular courts a most lamentable la-mentable dereliction of "plain duty." . And so, from agriculture to the simple sim-ple mechanical arts, from Papanism to Christianity, from barbarism to a quaint, old-world civilization, from the tribal relation to an exceedingly "paternal" "pa-ternal" sort of quasi-civil, politico-military politico-military government, the sum of education." edu-cation." the sum of development, the sum of progress, the sum of administration, adminis-tration, rested upon the shoulders cf the friars. From the council of the governor general to the pettiest detail of village life, the hand of the friar was everywhere: and Spanish policy kept it there, in spite of the efforts of loo years to be relieved of the burden. The fat pickings of the customs, the rich judicial and notarial "honoraria," were in the hands of Spanish civilians; the "loot" ravished by violence went into the pockets of the soldiers of Spain. Beyond these, the friar was, will he nill he, directly or indirectly, in charge of all. His part it was to act. or advise, in the direct "squeezing" of the poor peasants; his to bear the odium and the hate! And then the crash came. KATIPUNAN!" So much has been written concerning thi" secret society that it is not worth while to discuss it extensively in this paper. Suffice it to say that, of Chinese or rather. Mestizo conception, in its origin, it first aimed at the friars, hen it went into the political arena, ppI up the alleged Filipino republic and was its soul, substance, life and guide. It still exists, although shorn of its glorv in many provinces; and it i hard indeed, to estimate its membership member-ship Its basic principle is murder! It has decreed the extermination of the white men in the islands: it controls con-trols the marauding operations of the ladrones. just as it controlled the doings do-ings of the insurgent government; it levies taxes (the writer was told by merchants in Manila that every bale o' hemp pays a tax to Katipunan): it exercises the power of life and death', whenever the American soldier is out of sight: and it is better served than the government, for its venegance is swift and sure, like unto that of Maffia. It dooms to death and torture, not only the native who accepts office under the American government without its-previous authorization but him also whom i suspects of leaning toward the Americans Amer-icans together with his family; and it is the brooding terror of the great mass of Filipinos, ui n& ua.-o u..s... we have positive evidence in the enactment en-actment bv the commission of the celebrated cele-brated "treason and sedition" act of Nov. i, 1S01. t , Now, the writer does not approve of that law; he was in Manila when it was enacted; and it was then roundly denounced by all the American lawyers in that city, not directly in "'fice. Nevertheless, the mere fact that l three men so eminently good, so eminently emi-nently just, so disinterestedly devoted to the well being of the Filipinos as a re Judges Taft and Ide. and General Wright, should deem it necessary or expedient to enact so tyrannical a statute is, of itself,' the very strongest proof that those men have no faith in their own expressed belief in the earlv pacification of the islands. From Aueu:-t until December the writer was constantly with officers and enlisted men of the army, during much of the time with civilian employes of the government, during part of the time in daily association with natives and Fur'opean residents of the islands: and, in all that time, from not one of them did he hear an expression of opinion ti the effect that the Filipinos are, in a mass, or In any considerable proportion propor-tion now one whit more reconciled to American rule, or one degree less obedient obe-dient to Katipunan than they were on the dav the so-called "republic" was proclaimed" at Malolos! It was Katipunan Kati-punan then, it is Katipunan now, the only difference being in the outward ; manifestation of the same thing; and I the fact is that the entire Tagalog pcpulation Is one vast conspiracy against American rule! How any intelligent in-telligent man could have lived in Manila Ma-nila in October and November last, have been a witness of the undeniable official "scare," and entertain any illusions illu-sions on this score, surpasses human understanding! Why not look the truth squarely in the face? THE FUTURE OF THE ISLANDS. Between the roseate optimism of Judge Taft and the gloomy pessimism of a discontented army; an optimism shared by not one civilian official with a salary of less than $5,000 per annum, a pessimism mainly the result of a strong disinclination to ".let go," it is a difficult, but not impossible, task to formulate an impartial judgment. To begin with, it is a radical error to form a concept that the ten or twelve millions of islanders constitute a homogeneous mass. That mistake Ic-rgely characterizes the congressional debates, even on the part of the supporters sup-porters of the administration; and is responsible for most of the confusion cf ideas. Apart from the crafty Mestizos (mixed breeds) there are three great distinct classes, Filipinos, Moros and pagans; these, again, are subdivided into distinct tribes; and, so far from anything like homogeneity between Filipino and Moro Moro and pagan, tribe and tribe, there are deep and inextinguishable hatreds. Even among the Filipinos, the Tagaland, the Macca-bebe, Macca-bebe, the Visayan and the llocano, are hereditary foes. In the old days, their normal state was that of war; and, but for the control of the white man, they would be at it today, "hammer and tongs," kris and bolo. Of natural cohesion, of national spirit spir-it and aspiration, they have absolutely none. With the Moros we have had no difficulty. dif-ficulty. They are ruled by their hereditary he-reditary chieftains (datos), under the nominal suzerainty of the sultan of Sulu and Mindanao, and, as the English En-glish do in the Straits Settlements, and the Dutch in Java, we have found it easy to make friends of the chieftains and to induce them to carry out our policy without friction. In fact, the nearest we have come to having trouble with the Moros arose out of the very proper refusal by the military authorities au-thorities of an offer of the sultan to levy three regiments, go up to Luzon and "wipe out" the Tagalogs. The pagans present no more trouble than do the Moros. Either they remain re-main within their mountain fastnesses, or, like the Igorrotes of Benguet, they hate and dread the Tagalog far more than they do the white man. The difficulty has been, and Is, entirely en-tirely with the Filipinos, and, here again, solely with the Mestizos and Tagalogs. CIVIC COHESION A NECESSITY. Are the Filipinos capable of main- taining a stoble. just, free civil govern-iment govern-iment among themselves?- - If hebe-lieved hebe-lieved they were, the writer would un-I un-I hesitatingly advocate the policy of j "scuttle," and at once. This, not half so much on behalf of the Filipinos, as for our own safety, and on behalf of the white men In the islands. He has seen enough of the high-handed brutality bru-tality of military practices, of the unmitigated un-mitigated despotism upon white men of our uncontrolled, irresponsible civil "officialdom," in the islands, as to welcome wel-come any relief from the intolerable conditions now masquerading under the name of "American" methods! Unfortunately, Unfor-tunately, to the development of political po-litical life, of a civil state, there must come from within some sort of civic virtue, some sort of civic cohesion; and of these, among the Filipinos, there is none, unless, indeed. Katipunan may he called such. Civil life is,- in its essence, es-sence, a determination from-disintegration and death; whereas Katipunan, itself, is a hybrid importation from China, the spirit of which is murder! The Spaniards deprived the Filipinos Ioi ineir ancient irioai organization ana i gave them absolutely nothing in its e I place; unless, indeed, the frair may be I said to have taken its place: and just j how these poor people, who have exercised exer-cised no sort of self-government for centuries, not even of the crudest tribal sort, can be declared fit to set up a civil state on their own behalf is incomprehensible to any sensible man who has visited the islands. It may do for home consumption, with an eye single to the political "main chance"; but as facts are. it is "an irridescent dream." There is no such thing as a Filipino nation, there is no such thing j as a Filipino people, there is no. such ! thing as "the people of the island of Luzon," although there are a lot of j people in Luzon and many peoples in the Philippines. ' Doubtless there are a sufficient num- , ber of intelligent, educated Filipinos to ' set up a fifteenth century despotism, : and to maintain fifteen century order, among the Filipinos, if we "scuttle," if Europe keeps hands off, and after the,i throats of all the white men in the- j islands have been duly cut; and, doubt-' j less, in the general shake-up Aguinaldoj 1 and his set would gain control; but; I there are international obligations upon j us which preclude the scuttle, or evenU the hope of a successful protectorate.! I What must needs be done must needs j i be done by us, unless we sell the is-r lands to a strong power, and conquests! do not move backwards. J THE TRUE SOLUTION. I Practically, to a man. the military officers believe that a return to absoi. lute military control, for fifty years tr so, is the only possible solution of tKe j problem. If this be so, God help thU I Filipinos. God help the civilian whitp t men in the islands. God help the futurje i of our own home institutions! I i The higher civil authorities are unani. ; imous in the belief that, while militarV ; despotism is a bad thing, the solutioi , lies in a transfer of despotic power tol i the civil administration, and that, what-i what-i with the department of public instruction, instruc-tion, -so far effective only as a top-heavy top-heavy bureaucratic machine, and a numerous and constantly increasing set ft departments of this and that, plus ' an obstinate retention of all the worst i : and most tyrannical features of the j I European continental system of "droit j administratis" that beautiful system J j which makes the government and its officials non-suable before the ordinary courts of law on the initiative of private pri-vate men, somehow or other, in some occult and unexplained way. American institutions are going to diffuse them-j them-j selves over the islands, and shed their benignant rays upon the Filipinos, not to mention the poor devils of whites who are "enjoying" American rule. A j pretty sort of American rule, truly, I where the civilian cannot, in districts ! where the civil courts are sitting, sue J out his habeas corpus against an arbitrary ar-bitrary arrest :by a military order, where a soldier cannot be haled before the ordinary courts for a common as- i I sauit and battery, where the civil official of-ficial cannot be brought to book in an action of "trespass" or "case" for an arbitrary excess of his authority! No! American institutions, American j civil liberty, and English institutions : and liberty before them, did not grow-out grow-out of the "droit adniinistratif," but j out of its opposite! And the Americania tion of the Phil-I Phil-I ippines depends entirely, in the judg- ment of the writer, upon our introduc- tion there of the opposite of the "droit ! administratis" to wit: "the rule of : law!" Save for the fact that military rule ' In time of peace is inherently bad and vicious, it does not so much mattc;-whether mattc;-whether the executive administration in the Philiopines is confided to military mili-tary or civilian officials. The real crux lien in providing a legal means of vindicating vindi-cating every private right, or redress-j redress-j ing every wrong, whether the insular government or its officials be involved or not: not only by the employment of the great writ of right, the habeas corpus, cor-pus, but by the ordinary actions of the law, at the suit of private men, and with appeals from the insular courts to the supreme court of the LTnited States! Let there be an enactment by the congress to this effect: and the courts and the lawyers will do the resi, as thev did it in England and in America! Amer-ica! The introduction of the "rule of law" is the true and only solution of the problem. "Officialdom" civil and military-will military-will oppose it, for the possession of uncontrolled un-controlled power is sweet to man; but until it is accomplished, neither the arbitrariness ar-bitrariness of the .sword nor that of civilian civil bureaucracy will bring peace and order, liberty and loyalty, to those beautiful islands! Washington, D. C. |