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Show "All Is Not Gold That Glitters.', GOVERNOR W. H. TAFT, in a report re-port recently published, has his misgivings for the future prosperity pros-perity of the Filipinos. Their present condition and future outlook are gloomy. In his report the governor says: "Conditions in the Philippines have made it necessary to buy about $15,-000.000 $15,-000.000 worth of food on which to live. The bane of Philippine civilization civiliza-tion in the past was ladronism, and the present conditions are most favorable fa-vorable for its growth and maintenance. mainte-nance. Were there inducements to agriculture, were there prosperous conditions con-ditions in the country, it would not be a troublesome matter to deal with; but when want and famine are star ing trie people in the face, the life of the freebooter forms to the desperate and the weak a very great attraction. The natural discontent with the government gov-ernment when suffering is at hand, promoted as it has been by the cholera chol-era restrictions and the high prices of rice and other commodities, which have been greatly enhanced by the depreciation depreci-ation of silver, might well have caused a new breaking out of the insurrection. insurrec-tion. - It may be that as the conditions grow worse for they are likely to do so before they grow betterit bet-terit will be necessary in a province like Cavite, where ladronism seems inbred in-bred in the people, to proclaim martial law and even to call in the military finally to suppress it; but it is still hoped this may be avoided. On the whole, there is before us a year of the hardest kind of work relieving re-lieving the people from the hardship and suffering likely to follow the failure fail-ure of the rice crop, and suppressing ladronism and other disturbances due to economic distress." To ladronism he attributes the ills and voes of Philippine civilization. A ladrone is a robber; it also means a hireling, mercenary soldier. The term is generally applied to thieves, robbers, highwaymen and rogues. When the islands, about twenty in number, were discovered in 1521 by Magellan, he called them the Ladrones, because of the thievish disposition of the natives. So much by way of history. But why should' the present condition be favorable favor-able to ladronism? The governor says "want and famine are staring the people peo-ple in the face." The Philippine islands are now an integral part of the nation, na-tion, and their immediate wants should j be supplied. No kind father will be stow favors on foreigners and permit his own immediate , family' to starve. Our government paid out of the United Unit-ed States treasury $3,000,000 to Cuban soldiers. When Porto; Rico suffered from the effects of a hurricane in 1S99 mr citizens responded to an appeal by contributing liberally, whilst $1,000,-000 $1,000,-000 was taken from the national treasury treas-ury to aid those who were in need. The president, in a message to congress, con-gress, recommended that $3,000,000 be appropriated to meet the wants which Governor Taft says exist in those islands at present. The war secretary supplements the president's recommendation recom-mendation in very plausible reasoning. He said: "The occasion for relief in the Philippines Phil-ippines is now greater than it was in Cuba when congress appropriated $3,-(00.000 $3,-(00.000 for the payment of the Cuban f.oldiers out of the treasury of the United States, or than it was in Porto Rico when hundreds of thousands of dollars were contributed by the people of the United States and more than J.1,000,000 paid out of the national j treasury for the relief of the sufferers from the hurricane of August, 1899." Members of congress are too engrossed en-grossed with home affairs to pay any attention to our distant possession. I Their first ambition is to curry favor with their constituents in order that they might be re-elected after their term of office expires. Not a very laudable motive when their apathy to-I to-I wards a famine-strjeken people is tak-j tak-j en into consideration. This is very apt-j apt-j ly shown by the Springfield Republican, which says: "Suppose a state in the Union were in distress in any way comparable with conditions in the Philippines. The appropriation recommended would be passed within twenty-four hours. It was even so in the case of the French citizens of Martinique last spring when the volcanic eruptions swept away St. Pierre. Yet a week has passed without with-out heed being paid to the needs of I Ihe Filipinos. "The question naturally arises, 'Who cares?" Congress does not seem to. Congress tends to its own constitu- I onts. and has been engaged in passing a coal rebate bill, which its own lead- I ers say will amount to nothing, sim ply because the American people by a lew kicks could upset any party in control of the government. "But congress has no constiuents in the Philippines, the Philippines have no representatives in congress, and there is absolutely no Filipino public opinion in existence that can be concentrated con-centrated upon the final authority, fl.OOO miles away, that rules the far distant archipelago with absolute, unlimited un-limited power. "The languor, the apparent indifference indiffer-ence of congress to the measure of relief proposed by the secretary of war nnd the president, are highly illuminating. illumi-nating. The incident gives new point to J. S. Mill's remark that "the government gov-ernment of a people by itself has a meaning and a reality, but such a thing as a government of one people by another does not and cannot exist. One people may keep another as a warren or preserve for its own use, a place to make money in, a human cattle cat-tle farm ; but. if the good of the governed is to be the proper business busi-ness of government, jt i3 utterly im-1 im-1 ossible that a people should directly attend to it.' No people can do more than decently govern themselves." Governor Taft anticipates trouble. He is preparing to suppress it by the usual remedies,' namely, martial law, and I calling in the military finally to sun- press insurrection. These desperate remedies may include the water cure and looting of churches, which is a far worse species" of ladronism than , that which the governor tells "is bred In the people of Cavite," from whom the worst is expected. The bright promises prom-ises made to the natives before and after Admiral Dewey entered Manila bay have not been realized. They have seen some fine specimens of refined ladronism in the desecration and robbing rob-bing of churches, and the cruelties exercised ex-ercised in administering the water cure and other means of torture show them a higher order of civilization than they expected. Liberty is sweet, and civilization is a high-sounding and catching word, "but all is not gold that glitters." |