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Show SOME FACTS AND FUNCiES ABOUT THE PHILIPPINES There Has Becn Much Misrepresentation Misrepre-sentation in America About People and Conditions. By MAXIMO M. KALAW, Secretary of the Philippine Mission. A certain Indy nt the St. Louis KipoK'Ulim saw at u ballroom a brown complex-loinvl complex-loinvl man In fnult-lt fnult-lt evening drei and icroslcd him with the Imiulry, "I supnoKi you are Jspanese, sir" The msii ad-dressed ad-dressed re pi led, "No, nmdam." "Theu you mmt iuniMr he Chinese," sha Maxim. M.K.Lw. "J, , not I nm a Filipino," he replied. "Mow's that?" askrd tho lady. "I thought they were all savages living In thr wuoA-i." "Well, I'll tell yon how I cam here," ha said. "A mouth before I left tho Philippines I was living la the woods, bet the American (Governor decide' to catch ss many wild men as possible, train them mid send them over here. Hn here I am, Jmt as you see." And the St. Louis lady actually believed hi Illy , That 11 what you would call fancies about the Philippines. The fact Is, houever, Hint the ll.OOO.IMM) Filipinos and their ancestors have been civilized and Christians for .".00 years; thnt the non-Clirlstlaii population, according to tho census of l!)18, Is only .ri0O,U()O, and een these nre not all uncivilized. Another fancy Is that not until the coming of the Americans were sihool buildings seen In the Island, muds built, or hubstnutlal lionsos erected. Do you know that for hundreds of jonrs tho Fillilnos huve had colleges and schools and that the University ot S.uito Tomas Is only twenty-five years older than Ilarvurd? That ns early ns I SCO, out of n population ot 4,000,000 people, there were S4l schools for boys and 8:t3 for glrls7 That In iSllL', eight ears before tho coming of tho Amcrl i fans, there were 2,137 schools? ' "To grnnt-self-goeriiinent to Luzon I under Agulnaldn would be like granting grant-ing self-government to an Apache reservation res-ervation under some local chief." Thus poku n former President of the United State during the Filipino-American -ar. Kxuggerntlon could be uu excuso at a time when tho dignity of the American Am-erican people demanded the extinction of Filipino opposition, but do you know that the Philippine Itepuhllc, befoie the American occupation of the Islands, had the approval of prominent Aiuprl-rans Aiuprl-rans who were on the spot like John Barrett, Director of tho Pan-American Union, who compared It favorably wllh illie Japanese government? Thut Ad-'mlral Ad-'mlral Dewey con&ldcivd tho Filipinos , Hotter fitted for self-government thnn he Cnh ins? Thnt they had drafted a constitution at Mululos which elicited Ihe approval of distinguished Republicans Repub-licans like the late Senator George F. Hoar? That before lho coming of tho Americans they had produced national heroes liko the martyred Jose Itlzal, nroMOUnced llV a Itemihllrnil mni-rM.. pronounceu ny a Itepubllcan congressman, congress-man, ltepresentathe Cioper, as the noblest victim thnt has ever fallen Into Ihe clutches of tjrnnny? , And do jou know thatthe Filipinos hnve not had for hundreds of years any asle system, blood distinction or royal 'families, and that, unlike their oriental listers, they ure the only Christian eo-ple eo-ple in the orient? People hnvu pictured on Ignorant mass of Filipinos, Illiterate, poor, liv-Ing liv-Ing a life of servitude for a few wealthy land owners nnd foreigners, with no houses or farms or property 'of their own, Do ou know Hint 70 per cent, of the people above ten years of age can read and write nnd that this percentage of literacy is nlmost us high as boine of the states of the Union? Thnt It Is higher thnn In any country ot South America, higher than tho literacy lit-eracy of the Spanish people, and unquestionably un-questionably above Hint of nny of tho new countries rvungnlzetl In Ihirope? D you know that there ure n million and a half farms In the Philippines and that SKI per cent, of these farms are owned by Filipinos. In other words, that out of thu 11,01)0,001) Christian Filipinos, 8,000,000 uf them at lenut IIo on their own farms, with houses of their own, ndeendent of nny absentee landlord or foreign ninster? That 01 per cent, of the urban property consisting con-sisting of houhes nnd lands Is. owned 'y tho nalles of the Philippines, and iinly !) per cent. Is in ,i hands of for-ilgners? for-ilgners? Yet these nrtt farts cabled by cting Coventor (.'buries Einmett Yen-er Yen-er to the 'War Department from the .mill census ellinuts. Having fcolcmnl)' promised tho Fill-il-los their Independence 'npiihavlilg one before thd world ns thp champion f M'lf-iletermlnntlon, tho Filipino poo-ilu poo-ilu cannot umlerstuml how America an consistently refuse to make good hoe promises. |