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 THE CORNER-STONE OF 
 PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE 
 A NARRATIVE OF SEVEN YEARS
 
 FRANCIS BURTON HARRISON 
 Governor-General of Philippine Islands, October, 1913 February, 1921
 
 THE CORNER-STONE OF 
 PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE 
 
 A NARRATIVE OF SEVEN YEARS 
 
 BY 
 FRANCIS BURTON HARRISON 
 
 GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, 
 OCTOBER, 1913 FEBBUAHY, 1921 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH 
 PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE CENTURY CO. 
 
 1922
 
 Copyright, 1922, by 
 THE CENTUEY Co. 
 
 Printed in U. S. A.
 
 To 
 
 THE HON. MANUEL L. QUEZON 
 
 FILIPINO PATRIOT 
 
 AND 
 LOYAL FRIEND
 
 PREFACE 
 
 IS the United States Government imperialistic? 
 The American people, upon the whole, are not, but 
 under our system of government a state of war may 
 be forced upon the people and, as a result, foreign 
 territories annexed without any clear understanding 
 of the issue on the part of the voters. It is not the 
 peculiar privilege of the Anglo-Saxon peoples to pro- 
 fess one principle and practise another, but, unfortu- 
 nately, the other nations of the world already look 
 with distrust upon our designs. Certainly our neigh- 
 bors to the south and across the Pacific have their 
 doubts as to our intentions. To them the acquisition 
 of the Philippines and Porto Rico, Hawaii, Samoa, 
 Guam, and the Virgin Islands ; our virtual protectorate 
 over Cuba and Panama; our military expedition to 
 Siberia, and the invasion by our marines of Hayti and 
 the Central American States in recent years seem to 
 justify suspicion. The average American citizen is 
 usually not consulted in these matters; if he is, it is 
 always our " honor" which is involved, or we are said 
 to be acting in an unselfish desire to benefit the people 
 whose country we invade. These, also, are the argu- 
 ments used by the statesmen of the frankly imperial- 
 istic governments of Europe for their annexations of 
 territory. If the United States is really embarked upon 
 a course of empire, our people are entitled to know 
 the truth and to express an opinion upon the policy. 
 The cost in armaments is already prodigious ; the ill- 
 will toward us of the other nations of the world is 
 growing. The price we may have to pay in foreign 
 wars in the future may prove our ruin. Let us at least 
 
 rii
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 consider, before it is too late, where the path will lead 
 upon which our Government has taken the first steps. 
 
 The Philippines may well be the test case in this 
 problem. We have thus far acted with unparalleled 
 generosity toward the Filipinos, in giving them self- 
 government and promising them their independence. 
 They believe in us and in our promises ; they were ab- 
 solutely loyal to us during the war; they have made 
 astonishing progress in self-government; they desire 
 independence. The time is close at hand when we 
 must redeem our promise, or else forfeit their con- 
 fidence and good-will, and break our given word. 
 
 The following pages have been written in the hope 
 of conveying to those at home who may read them an 
 idea of what the Filipinos have done with the self- 
 government we granted them in 1916. The purpose of 
 the book is to portray their ideals and ambitions, their 
 trials and problems, their accomplishments and de- 
 velopment, rather than to describe the achievements 
 of our fellow-countrymen in the islands. The writer 
 is convinced that the Filipinos are now ready for inde- 
 pendence, that they have already set up the stable 
 government required of them by the Jones Act as a 
 prerequisite, and that, in the words of President Wil- 
 son in 1920, in his last annual message to Congress, 
 "It is now our liberty and our duty to keep our 
 promise to the people of those islands by granting them 
 the independence which they so honorably covet. ' ' 
 
 FRANCIS BURTON HARRISON. 
 
 Caithnes shire, Scotland, 
 September 10, 1921
 
 CONSENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAflB 
 
 I INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 II THE FILIPINO KACE 10 
 
 III EARLIER YEARS OP AMERICAN OCCUPATION 31 
 
 IV THE NEW ERA 50 
 
 V FILIPINOS IN CONTROL OP THE LEGISLATURE 60 
 
 VI FILIPINIZATION 75 
 
 VII THE MOROS 92- 
 
 VIII CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN MOROLAND 105 
 
 IX THE HILL TRIBES OP LUZON 123 
 
 X THE AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES .... 143 
 
 XI INCIDENTS OF WAR TIMES 169 
 
 XII FILIPINO LOYALTY DURING THE WAR - . . 182 
 
 XIII THE JONES ACT 192 
 
 XIV THE NEW FILIPINO GOVERNMENT 202 
 
 XV THE FILIPINO LAWMAKERS 216 
 
 XVI IN THE PROVINCES 231 
 
 XVII NEW VENTURES IN COMMERCE AND FINANCE .... 250 
 
 XVIII THE FILIPINO ATTITUDE TOWARD FOREIGNERS .... 269 
 
 XIX THE INDEPENDENCE OP THE PHILIPPINES 285 
 
 XX THE JAPANESE "MENACE" 306 
 
 XXI EFFECT OP THE AMERICAN POLICY IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 UPON THE EUROPEAN MASTERS OP ASIA . 320
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Francis Burton Harrison Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Part of the famous Zig-Zag, Benguet Road 32 
 
 Pagsanhan Falls, Laguna Province 33 
 
 Naguilian Road to Baguio 48 
 
 Pasig River Front, Manila 49 
 
 A bird's-eye view of the Luneta, Manila 96 
 
 The Sultan of Jolo and other prominent Moros 97 
 
 Government pier, Jolo 112 
 
 Moro "Datos" or District Officials 113 
 
 An old masonry bridge 128 
 
 Typical modern concrete bridge 129 
 
 Gilbert Bridge, Laoag, Ilocos Norte 160 
 
 After a tropical rain 161 
 
 A typical busy market-place 176 
 
 Primary school pupils of the public schools of the Philippine Islands 177 
 
 Hon. Manuel L. Quezon 208 
 
 Hon. Sergio Osmena 208 
 
 Old Council of State of Philippine Islands, July, 1920 .... 209 
 
 New Council of State of Philippine Islands, July, 1920 .... 209 
 
 Cocoanut rafts, Pagsanhan River, Laguna 224 
 
 Gathering nipa sap 225 
 
 Marienda at home of Mauro Prieto in Mariquina 272 
 
 Transplanting rice 273 
 
 William Jennings Bryan and Francis Burton Harrison .... 288 
 
 Columbian Association, Manila, February, 1921 289
 
 THE CORNER-STONE OF 
 PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE 
 
 A NARRATIVE OF SEVEN YEARS
 
 THE CORNER-STONE OF 
 
 PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE 
 
 A NARRATIVE OF SEVEN YEARS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 WHY shouldn't you be governor-general, your- 
 self?" asked Manuel L. Quezon, delegate to 
 Congress from the Philippines. This was on August 
 18, 1913, at the end of a long conversation in his office 
 in the House of Representatives in Washington. I 
 had been trying to persuade Mr. Quezon to support 
 the candidacy of a friend whom I thought eminently 
 qualified for the position. It appeared, however, that 
 the President did not look with favor upon his can- 
 didacy. The idea of my own appointment struck me 
 with amazement, as I was then engaged in an entirely 
 different kind of work, in the House of Representatives 
 during the revision of the tariff. 
 
 Mr. Quezon at once enlisted the support of Mr. Wil- 
 liam A. Jones, the veteran Representative from Vir- 
 ginia and Chairman of the Committee on Insular 
 Affairs, who in turn interested Mr. Bryan, Secretary 
 of State, and four days later President Wilson sent my 
 name to the Senate, which body, out of courtesy to a 
 member of Congress, suspended the rules and at once 
 confirmed the nomination. So in less than a week 
 
 3
 
 4 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 after the first suggestion was made I found myself 
 destined to immediate departure from all my cus- 
 tomary surroundings and occupations and to an en- 
 tirely novel service as the chief executive of the Philip- 
 pines, twelve thousand miles away. 
 
 At a meeting of Members of Congress, a few eve- 
 nings later, at the Washington home of Eepresentative 
 Kent of California, I was presented, through the genial 
 offices of the Speaker, Champ Clark, with a souvenir 
 from the House of Representatives as a token of good- 
 will. Speeches were made by leaders of the different 
 political factions, including the Republican minority 
 leader, James A. Mann, and Eepresentative Victor 
 Murdock from Kansas, for the Progressives. 
 
 I then made the acquaintance of General Frank Mc- 
 Intyre, Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, a 
 stanch and true friend in many an hour of subsequent 
 political trial, and of Major-General Wood, who was 
 cordiality itself. A few days later I met my immediate 
 chief, Mr. Garrison, the Secretary of War, who had 
 been absent on a tour of the army posts of the West 
 at the time of my appointment. On the tenth of Sep- 
 tember my party sailed from San Francisco on the 
 Pacific Mail liner Manchuria, westward bound. 
 
 These personal incidents are introduced to show 
 the atmosphere of kindly good-will in official circles 
 which surrounded my venture into this new line of 
 public service, an atmosphere from which political 
 partizanship was entirely lacking, and which left me 
 utterly unprepared for the political hornets' nest into 
 which I stepped upon arrival in Manila. The distant 
 horizon seemed very bright. To be sure, I was con- 
 scious of the possibilities of international troubles to
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 come, for I remember my farewell to my lifelong 
 friend James W. Gerard, just appointed Ambassador 
 to Germany, when I told him that he and I were going 
 to the two places in the world where something was 
 likely to happen. It happened to him ! 
 
 My experiences in the Philippines, while of an un- 
 expected nature, were only such as any man should 
 be prepared to face if charged with putting into effect 
 in a remote station a policy which runs counter to the 
 wishes or ambitions of his fellow-countrymen on the 
 spot. All through my service I received generous 
 support from the President and in Congress, where 
 there was no disposition to play politics with Philip- 
 pine administration. When, later on, the Republicans 
 gained control of Congress, nothing was ever done by 
 them to embarrass or interfere with the Philippine 
 situation. From Americans in the islands I received 
 very little support. 
 
 President Wilson, with his fine inspiration for 
 political liberties, and in accordance with the succes- 
 sive pronouncements of Democratic platforms, was 
 determined to bring self-government to the Filipinos 
 and hasten the day of their independence. He would 
 not appoint any American resident of the Philippines 
 to the Philippine Commission. In a long conversa- 
 tion, the Sunday morning before I left Washington, he 
 gave me in general terms his instructions as to Philip- 
 pine self-government. I found him wonderfully well 
 informed as to Philippine conditions, as I had pre- 
 viously found him a master of the intricacies of tariff 
 revision. He was then, as always, when I have been 
 privileged to meet him, of the most charming courtesy. 
 In after years, thinking over this conversation with
 
 6 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 him, I could find only one point upon which he seemed 
 to me to have been misinformed. He told me that the 
 Filipinos were so afraid of the Moros that one Fili- 
 pino regiment had thrown down its arms and refused 
 to go into action against them. I was never able to 
 trace that story to its source, and all my own observa- 
 tion leads me to believe that the Filipino, equally well 
 armed and reasonably well led, is the match for the 
 Moro in any circumstances. 
 
 Upon leaving the White House, I met at the Metro- 
 politan Club the Hon. Charles E. Magoon, formerly 
 Governor of the Canal Zone and of Cuba. He told me 
 of his ' ' instructions ' ' upon his last appointment. Pass- 
 ing through Washington, he was invited to the White 
 House to dinner. As he greeted Mr. Eoosevelt, the 
 President put his finger on Magoon 's shirt stud and 
 said: "You to Cuba." "What instructions do you 
 give me, Mr. President? ' ' Mr. Roosevelt replied : " Go 
 see Boot." Next morning Governor Magoon reported 
 to Secretary Boot for instructions, and the secretary 
 said, "Oh, well, I have no instructions; just go gov- 
 ern." This was as laconic as President Grant's ad- 
 vice to the Japanese, when, during his trip around the 
 world, they asked him how they could learn the art of 
 self-government. "Govern yourselves!" was the 
 reply. 
 
 Few judges elected to executive office make success- 
 ful administrators; their inclination is to spend all 
 their time weighing the pros and cons of every ques- 
 tion, when what is needed are decision and despatch. 
 Few legislators find their previous experience partic- 
 ularly useful in executive office; their training is all 
 toward talk, and then more talk, and divided responsi-
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 bility ; they have, however, one characteristic of prime 
 advantage in a democratic as opposed to an autocratic 
 system: they have a proper appreciation of that pe- 
 culiar psychology known as the legislative mind, and 
 an earnest disposition to learn public opinion. The 
 great danger to an executive, after all, is that he shall 
 come to rely more and more exclusively on his own 
 opinion, and lose touch with the public. In my farewell 
 call upon Secretary Bryan I expressed the hope that 
 with the great powers given by law to the Governor- 
 General of the Philippines I should not become auto- 
 cratic. That hope and my desire to bring all the lib- 
 erties possible to the Filipino people were my qualifi- 
 cations for the office with which President Wilson and 
 the Senate had entrusted me. 
 
 There is no room in the United States Constitution 
 for colonies ; officially speaking, we have none. Alaska 
 and Hawaii are territories; Porto Rico and the Phil- 
 ippines dependencies, or insular possessions. Guam, 
 Samoa, the Virgin Islands, the Canal Zone all are 
 naval or military stations. There are few traditions 
 of colonial service in the United States. Perhaps that 
 very freedom from fixed ideas and red-tape has enabled 
 our Government to make a swifter development of 
 policy than is possible in the European colonial offices. 
 There is no great body of " elder statesmen" returning 
 home after a lifetime of colonial service with hidebound 
 opinions as to how things should be done, determined 
 to resist any and all changes in their ideas of colonial 
 management. The arguments in favor of a permanent 
 Colonial Civil Service are, after all, similar to those in 
 behalf of a permanent body of diplomatic officers ; the 
 drawbacks are the same. Such permanent officials
 
 8 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 imbibe, in the one case, a rigid caste attitude toward 
 the "subject races," and in the other they are affected 
 by the atmosphere of ceremonial court intrigue and 
 do not keep up with the progress of thought in the 
 home land. The British, an intensely practical race, 
 select for viceroy of their greatest possession, India, 
 not a member of the Indian Civil Service, but some man 
 fresh from active public life at home. 
 
 Up to 1913, the only traditions of Philippine service 
 known in the United States were those of the "Taft 
 dynasty," as it became known, which began with Mr. 
 Taft 's inauguration as civil governor in 1901 and con- 
 tinued in unbroken succession through his terms as 
 Secretary of War and President. The generous sym- 
 pathies and wise liberalism of his earlier management 
 of the Philippine problem, which won over many Fil- 
 ipinos to support American policies, seem to have 
 dwindled and vanished as he grew older and as he fell 
 out of personal touch with the Philippines. Later 
 a bureaucracy was built up around his policy, assum- 
 ing toward the subject race all the hard and patroniz- 
 ing superiority typical of European colonial adminis- 
 trators of modern times. Distrust of the Filipino and 
 a determination to see him kept as a dependent as long 
 as possible were the new features of the policy. The 
 governors-general who succeeded Mr. Taft were as 
 able and conscientious a set of administrators as our 
 country could wish for, but the Filipinos were becom- 
 ing yearly more restless and dissatisfied, and the Chief 
 of Constabulary, General Harry H. Bandholtz, had 
 predicted in his report for 1912 the probability of dis- 
 turoances in the provinces. Growing distrust and ill- 
 feeling between the two races were more evident each
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 year. The Taft dynasty, which had done so much for 
 the Filipinos, and made such a contribution to the prob- 
 lem of colonial government, seemed to have reached 
 the end of its rope. Its representatives could not go 
 backward, and were unwilling to move forward; they 
 had started a national movement in the Philippines, 
 and then wished to arrest it in mid-career; they had 
 found that such principles as liberty and self-govern- 
 ment cannot be turned on and off like water from a tap, 
 however benevolent the hand in control. An explosion 
 was to be expected soon.
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 THE FILIPINO RACE 
 
 WHAT are the Philippines, and where are they? 
 These were the questions asked by the average 
 American when news came that the United States had 
 acquired title to these strange and far-away lands, by 
 the Treaty of Paris in December, 1898. It was ex- 
 plained that they are a group of about three thousand 
 islands, half-way around the world from us ; that they 
 had been held by our recent foes, the Spanish, for more 
 than three and a half centuries; and, above all, that 
 Manila Bay was the scene of the naval victory which 
 brought undying fame to Admiral Dewey. They 
 looked very small upon the map of the Eastern Hemi- 
 sphere, and it was difficult to believe that their land 
 surface was as large as New York, New Jersey, Penn- 
 sylvania, and Delaware combined; as large as Great 
 Britain and slightly smaller than Japan. The islands 
 were known to contain a population larger than about 
 twenty of the modern states of the world. Concerning 
 the inhabitants of these scattered islands virtually 
 nothing was then known in the United States. It is 
 true that Dewey had reported that the Filipinos were 
 more fit for self-government than the Cubans, but oth- 
 ers described them as ferocious head-hunting savages. 
 The best-known expression of Filipino sentiment was 
 the farewell hymn of patriotism written by Dr. Jose 
 Rizal the night before his execution by the Spanish in 
 
 10
 
 THE FILIPINO RACE 11 
 
 1896, which had caused a stir of sympathy around the 
 world. But the chief source of our knowledge were 
 Spanish writers who were evidently anxious to justify 
 their administration of the islands, and, so far as the 
 native inhabitants were concerned, their chronicles of 
 later centuries were mainly the type of literary effort 
 which a jailer might be expected to produce concerning 
 prisoners behind the bars. The writings of Eizal and 
 of European scientists and travelers such as La Gir- 
 oniere, Jagor, and Blumentritt, were virtually un- 
 known in America. 
 
 It is not my purpose, of course, to write a history 
 of the Philippines; others far better qualified than I 
 are producing, year by year, "histories" of the past. 
 But it is fair to enquire, What is history? Is it any- 
 thing more than the deduction a certain man makes 
 from certain (or uncertain) facts? Do not most his- 
 torians start with a concrete thesis, and then develop 
 it to suit themselves ? Were we not all brought up to 
 worship at the shrine of Napoleon, Alexander, and 
 Caesar? And now comes H. G. Wells and outlines all 
 three as unmitigated curses to the human race; the 
 third Napoleon, he says, was a much abler and more 
 astute man than the first; Alexander was a vain and 
 drunken adventurer. Ferrero tells us that the his- 
 toric romance of Antony and Cleopatra was merely a 
 political alliance to dominate the eastern half of the 
 Roman Empire. Even statistics, as every legislator 
 knows, can often be used to prove opposite arguments 
 upon the same point. The people of each great nation 
 are convinced that their own culture is superior to 
 that of all others and their own flag the only real 
 symbol of justice and honor.
 
 12 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 In attempting a very brief review of the history of 
 the Philippines, I wish to admit my own bias, which 
 has been acquired not by deliberate intent but 
 through nearly eight years of effort to understand the 
 Filipino people, and from many travels in other lands : 
 it is that possession of national characteristics by acci- 
 dent of birth is a fallacy; that pride of race is justly 
 based only upon the training and collective circum- 
 stances of existing racial life, not upon inherited race 
 instinct; that men are all, by nature, very much the 
 same, with similar mental processes, wants, and ambi- 
 tions, given a similar training and environment; that 
 the brotherhood of man is a fact, and that a profound 
 philosophical truth is embodied in the statement that 
 "all men are created equal." Nothing arouses so 
 much fury and resentment among a certain class of 
 writers as the phrase just quoted from our Declaration 
 of Independence. The inequality of men comes from 
 their training and education, not from their physical 
 birth. Our fetters, mental and political, are imposed 
 upon us by our fellow-man; our failures to attain a 
 moderate level of civilization are due to lack of oppor- 
 tunity, or to the selfishness, rapacity, egotism, bigotry, 
 or superstition of others. 
 
 Most of the travelers' tales of the great age of 
 modern exploration, the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries, are replete with purely superficial observa- 
 tions upon the different races of man. The ordinary 
 modern of European descent regards any difference 
 from his own type as not only a mark of inferiority but 
 an absolute offense. He cites differences of the sort 
 as arguments why such people as exhibit them should
 
 THE FILIPINO RACE 13 
 
 be either exterminated or else subjected and made to 
 work for his benefit. Least of all is he willing to admit 
 that these peoples are capable of adopting or assim- 
 ilating his own standard of civilization. Finally, he is 
 usually ignorant concerning the facts of the immediate 
 past of his own nation, and is not told how very recent 
 is anything like general education among the peoples 
 of the Western world. There is a fascinating and as 
 yet almost unexplored field of theory and conjecture as 
 to the striking resemblances of custom and adornment 
 of ancient mankind, in all widely different portions of 
 the world. Historically speaking, the marked differ- 
 ences in the races of modern man are acquired, not 
 inherent. As James Bryce says in his recent great 
 work on ' ' Modern Democracies " : " All fairly normal 
 men have like passions and desires. They are stirred 
 by like motives, they think upon similar lines." 
 
 The Filipinos are of Malay descent. In the dim ages 
 of the past, their ancestors came from the nest of the 
 human races in central Asia. A stream of Mongoloid 
 emigration poured down in successive waves from 
 behind the mountains of eastern Tibet, and over what 
 is now southern China, Siam, Burma, the Malay Pen- 
 insula, and the Dutch East Indies. The Filipino of 
 to-day is first cousin to the natives of Java and Su- 
 matra, and second cousin to the Siamese. These pre- 
 historic emigrants were quick to take up the life of the 
 water, since, in the impenetrable jungles along their 
 route, the rivers and tidal shores offered the easiest 
 means of travel. They became hunters and fishermen, 
 perforce abandoning the pastoral life of their ances- 
 tors, and bold sailors, slipping from land to land across
 
 14 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 the eastern seas. Their type of village was not unlike 
 that of the ancient lake-dwellers in Switzerland, the 
 houses built on tall piles, out over the water, for pur- 
 poses of protection as well as sanitation. A perfect 
 type of these ancient villages survives to-day in 
 Brunei, a British protectorate in west Borneo, but the 
 city is fast dwindling and will soon be gone forever. 
 
 The government of these people was purely patri- 
 archal, like that of their far-away forebears in central 
 Asia. Their villages were largely self-governing com- 
 munities, presided over by a chief whose office had 
 become hereditary. At different times these villages 
 combined in confederacies, or were conquered and 
 bound into a kingdom. The village communities were 
 self-sustaining, and travel was impelled chiefly by de- 
 sire for conquest or because of over-population. Com- 
 merce was brought to them by the Chinese or the 
 Arabs, and agriculture by the natives of India. The 
 free and adventurous spirit of the hunter and the rov- 
 ing fisherman developed a brave and reckless type 
 which in later ages came to be known for a guerilla 
 warfare by sea that stamped them as pirates. Those 
 who so called them had, themselves, possibly as good 
 a title to the name. 
 
 The Philippine Islands were settled by adventurous 
 voyagers who made their way thither in small 
 boats, from the islands of Java and Sumatra. We 
 can picture them in their long, slender vintas with 
 bamboo outriggers, the paddles beating in unison, 
 the warriors chanting, with sword and spear ready 
 at hand; we can see their eager faces as they leap 
 ashore from the sparkling waters of Manila Bay
 
 THE FILIPINO RACE 15 
 
 to found the nucleus of a nation which now, long 
 ages after, is growing to manhood. So the invading 
 Danes, Angles, and Saxons, a little later on in history, 
 must have appeared to the terrified inhabitants of 
 early Britain. Early Chinese and Arabic chronicles 
 refer to large settled communities in what are now 
 the islands of Jolo, Mindoro, and Luzon as long 
 ago as the fourth century. Through the Middle 
 Ages infusions of Chinese and Japanese blood from 
 the north and of Hindu from the south were marked, 
 and many evidences of such ancestral strains are visi- 
 ble to-day. Nor, when these Malay wanderers first 
 reached the islands, were they uninhabited. The orig- 
 inal native type known to-day as the Negrito, a very 
 small black man with woolly hair, had already been 
 forced to take to a nomadic life, in the dense forests 
 of the higher mountains, by the Indonesians, who were 
 bolder, better armed, and better organized. They in 
 turn were the ancestors of the peoples known to-day as 
 the Igorots and Ifugaos, and were later on driven into 
 the mountains by the successive waves of Malay immi- 
 gration. There are to-day in the Philippines about 
 70,000 Negritos * of more or less pure blood, and about 
 400,000 other mountaineers of non-Malay types, in 
 whom, however, there is a strong infusion of Malay or 
 Polynesian blood. Most of the remaining population of 
 the islands, totaling 10,300,000 in the census of 1918, 
 
 1 Professor H. Otley Beyer, in "Population of the Philippine Islands 
 in 1916," gives the following figures: 
 
 Unclassified Pagan Peoples (mostly aboriginal primitive types) : 
 
 1. Distinct Negrito and Negroid types 35,926 
 
 2. Non-Negroid or Semi-Negroid types 46,015 
 
 Total 81,941
 
 16 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 are of a fairly uniform Malay type. 1 They are of me- 
 dium stature, with brown complexion and straight black 
 hair and virtually no beard or mustache ; their eyes are 
 black or dark brown, set rather slanting under an in- 
 telligent brow ; their muscular development is excellent, 
 with broad shoulders, slender waists, and small hands 
 and feet. They are brave, active, graceful, and inured 
 to a hardy outdoor life, and still devoted to the chase 
 and fond of living on or near the water. An indica- 
 tion that the race, before entering the tropics, was 
 originally much lighter in color may be found in the 
 fact that the new-born infants are generally paler of 
 complexion than their parents. 
 
 It is the custom to deny to the Malay people the 
 traditions of great organized government. The indi- 
 vidualism of isolated village life is an obstacle to cen- 
 tralized power. But many times in recorded history 
 empires vast in territory but sparse in population have 
 been founded by Malay chieftains, formed from shift- 
 ing groups of lesser kingdoms. Many of their royal 
 families to-day, shorn of their powers, still claim de- 
 scent from such heroes of antiquity as Alexander and 
 Mohammed. The greatest of all their efforts at em- 
 pire was that of Madjapahit of Java, for the history of 
 which in relation to the Philippines I am indebted to 
 Professor H. Otley Beyer of the University of the 
 Philippines. 
 
 1 In the Philippine Census of 1920 the population of the islands is 
 estimated as follows: 
 
 Christian population 9,463,731 
 
 Mohammedan 394,964 
 
 Pagans 437,622 
 
 Other religions 54,413 
 
 Total 10,350,730
 
 THE FILIPINO RACE 17 
 
 In a quarrel between princes of the leading house in 
 Java in 1292, Raden Widjaya appealed to the Chinese 
 Emperor Kublai Khan for aid; the Great Khan sent 
 two of his ablest generals, with a large fleet and twenty 
 thousand troops. With their assistance, Raden Wid- 
 jaya established himself upon the throne and then 
 turned upon his Chinese allies, driving them out of 
 Java with a loss of more than three thousand men. 
 From them he had learned the use of firearms, which 
 explains his subsequent success in founding a large 
 empire and subjugating all his neighbors. The great- 
 est of the line of rulers of Madjapahit was the fourth, 
 named Hayam Wuruk, and it was during his reign of 
 fifty years in the fourteenth century that the empire 
 attained its greatest dimensions, including the whole 
 Malay Archipelago, Borneo, Celebes, and the Phil- 
 ippines, as well as Java and Sumatra. The kin- 
 dred races in Siam and Cambodia were rendered trib- 
 utary. Indian- Javanese culture spread rapidly 
 through the empire, and many evidences of it survive 
 to-day. In the Philippines the chief centers of the 
 imperial power, as mentioned in their records, were on 
 Manila Bay, near Lake Lanao in Mindanao, and in 
 Sulu. There and in many other places traces of their 
 culture survive ; even among such primitive peoples as 
 the pagan Mangyans of Mindoro, the inhabitants to- 
 day communicate with one another in the old Indian 
 syllabic writing. The imperial federation was finally 
 overthrown by the Mohammedan incursions from the 
 west. To them and to the first Spanish priests is due 
 the destruction of the ancient culture of the people of 
 the Philippines. 
 
 In considering the Philippines, the importance of
 
 18 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 this long membership in the empire of Madjapahit, 
 lasting nearly two centuries, is not often appreciated. 
 This was the time of greatest civilization in ancient 
 Java. The reforms of Buddha, revived in India by the 
 great King Asoka, and soon stifled there by the priest- 
 craft, had flourished in Java for many centuries. The 
 best ideas of early Hindu culture, the traditions of 
 prehistoric Aryan ideas, and many words of Aryan 
 origin, were thus disseminated through the islands of 
 the East Indies. The Philippines received their share, 
 and to-day many of the personal traits or manners of 
 simple village life there, especially the very things 
 which strike Americans as peculiar, are also to be 
 noted by the most casual observer in India. It is not 
 too much to state that the long-cherished traditions of 
 Hindu culture as apart from religion, surviving almost 
 without effort or intention through the ages, are to-day 
 the key to Filipino character. "The very name of the 
 most numerous division of the Filipinos Visayans 
 is the Vishaya, or merchant and landowning class of 
 the Aryan Eig-Vedas. Fortunately for the Filipinos, 
 the grotesque religious customs of the modern 
 Brahmin priests seem never to have reached them; 
 their instruction was received from the purer, more 
 spiritual, and infinitely more decent priesthood of the 
 reformed Buddhistic schools in Java. 
 
 Then came the great wave of Mohammedan con- 
 quest. It was carried to Mindanao and Sulu by the 
 petty kings of Sumatra, the Malay Straits, and Borneo. 
 By the fifteenth century, Mohammedanism was firmly 
 established in Sulu and Mindanao. Proselyting with 
 fire and sword was being carried forward zealously, 
 from island to island. Then came the Portuguese and
 
 THE FILIPINO RACE 19 
 
 the Spaniards, and under the latter the Cross and 
 Crescent met in combat in the southern islands of the 
 Philippines, and continued in fierce conflict at inter- 
 vals down to the very days of American occupation. 
 Like the Christian invaders of a later day, the Moham- 
 medans brought monotheism to the Philippines, but 
 they also taught abhorrence of idolatry, and estab- 
 lished, among all true believers, a rough form of social 
 democracy. 
 
 The year 1521 is one of the great dates of Philippine 
 history, in fact, the first authentic date of European 
 records. Then it was that Fernando Magellan, the Por- 
 tuguese navigator in the employ of the King of Spain, 
 landed at Cebu, and thus ended his immortal voyage of 
 adventure, and, incidentally, lost his life. The peoples 
 of Malaysia were not without a rough kind of armor, 
 indeed, not without cannon. But the Spanish arms and 
 equipment were superior. Cautious negotiations with 
 the King of Cebii led to a few conversions to Chris- 
 tianity. To strengthen the impression already made, 
 Magellan offered to attack and subdue the petty rival 
 of the King of Cebu across the narrow straits, on Mac- 
 tan Island; he boastfully insisted that he could do it 
 with only a handful of his own men. He promptly 
 met his death, overwhelmed by numbers. When his 
 one surviving ship completed the voyage around the 
 world, the King of Spain remarked that it was lucky 
 for Magellan that he had lost his life when he did, 
 adding that he would have received worse than death 
 if he had returned home, because of his conduct in the 
 newly ''discovered" lands. 
 
 It was not until the arrival of Legaspi in 1565 that 
 Spain really tried to colonize her new possessions in
 
 20 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 the East Indies. This really great man extended the 
 sway of his sovereign through most of the Visayas and 
 Luzon by peaceful and sympathetic negotiations, and 
 his work was ably carried on by his grandson, Juan 
 Salcedo. From that day until the surrender of Manila 
 to the American forces, Spain held the Philippines 
 under her dominion, except for a brief interval in 1792 
 when England occupied the islands. 
 
 Many volumes have been written concerning the 
 three hundred and fifty years of Spanish rule in the 
 Philippines, but comparatively little about the Fil- 
 ipinos of those days. In other words, the Filipinos are 
 generally referred to scornfully as "Indies" (In- 
 dians), while pages are devoted to glorification of 
 Spanish exploits and achievements. The best that can 
 be said of Spain in the islands is that she christianized 
 them, and thus set up the only Christian country in 
 the Orient, with much of Christianity's modern out- 
 look upon life. To the women, particularly, Christian- 
 ity brought dignity and freedom from Hindu and Mo- 
 hammedan degradations. 
 
 While the Spanish conquistadores of the vast em- 
 pire in America held the sword in the right hand and 
 the cross in the left, their chief interest was economic. 
 Millions of unhappy Indians perished around the 
 shores of the Caribbean to satisfy the Spanish adven- 
 turers' lust for wealth, as the good Father las Casas 
 testifies. The Spanish Viceroy Toledo, in Peru, esti- 
 mated that in the seventeenth century there were eight 
 million Incas living; in two hundred years these had 
 been reduced to eight hundred thousand. Fate was 
 kinder to the inhabitants of the Philippines. Here 
 were little gold and no silver, no precious stones, ex-
 
 THE FILIPINO RACE 21 
 
 cept pearls, no mines to be worked. To be sure, the 
 Spanish arms and military organization in the early 
 days in the Philippines destroyed much of the existing 
 culture; forced labor was pitilessly imposed in the 
 shipyards and in construction of the monumental 
 churches which still exist; conscript service in the 
 army for purposes of further conquest broke up thou- 
 sands of homes; the priests in zealous rage against 
 paganism destroyed all existing records, all writings 
 and works of art, as they did in Mexico, in the belief 
 that all that was not Christian must be anti-Christian. 
 One Spanish priest boasted of having destroyed more 
 than three hundred scrolls written in the native char- 
 acters. Early Spanish writers admit that literacy was 
 fairly wide-spread when they took the Philippines, 
 more than could be said of the Spain of, that day; 
 certainly the literacy of the "Indios" was greater 
 than that of the contemporary Incas of Peru or the 
 Aztecs. Few pre-Spanish records survive to-day. 
 However much we may lament this destruction of a 
 culture, we must admit that in its place the Spanish 
 gave, to a limited number of Filipinos at least, access 
 to the splendid tongue of old Castile, and through 
 that to all the glories and traditions of European 
 civilization. Those interested in the pre-Spanish cul- 
 ture of the islands may find much of interest in the 
 publications of Professor Austin Craig of the Uni- 
 versity of the Philippines. 
 
 S'panish administration of tne Philippines, measured 
 by modern standards, was a failure. The colony was 
 poor and far from the source of government. Seldom 
 could the Spanish Crown induce the best men to go to 
 Manila; many of those who went, it is to be feared,
 
 22 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 were induced by the hope of clearing up a great for- 
 tune outside their official salaries. Governmental pol- 
 icies, on the economic side especially, were monopo- 
 listic, narrow, and foolish in the extreme. Once a year 
 a galleon sailed from Acapulco, Mexico, to Manila, and 
 then sailed back with the change in the monsoon. For- 
 eign traders were jealously excluded. China regularly 
 drained the Philippines of the Mexican currency 
 brought over by the galleons ; very little progress was 
 made in developing the islands, or in educating and 
 elevating the people. To sum it all up, it might almost 
 be said that the Philippines sank into a deep sleep, to 
 be awakened at last by Dewey's guns. 
 
 It was, however, as a field for missionary endeavor 
 that the Philippines were chiefly valued through these 
 centuries by His Most Catholic Majesty. The govern- 
 ment soon became theocratic in substance, if not in 
 form. The Archbishop of Manila was nearly always 
 the real power. A governor-general who did not sub- 
 mit to the archbishop and the religious orders was soon 
 recalled to Spain. Governor-General Bustamante, in- 
 deed, in 1719, tried to reform the religious orders, and 
 was killed on the steps of his own palace by agents of 
 the priests. In the provinces, each village was under 
 the actual rule of a priest. So absolute was the con- 
 trol of the priesthood that no large army was needed 
 to keep the people in subjection. 
 
 It is easy enough to point out instances of malfea- 
 sance on the part of these ecclesiastical authorities. 
 Religious rule in civil affairs will hardly ever with- 
 stand the searching tests of modern criticism; too 
 much is done by favor, and too little with justice; 
 character is stifled, and dogma is substituted for intel-
 
 23 
 
 ligence. Progress is difficult and independence of 
 thought savagely stamped out. Nevertheless, accord- 
 ing to their lights and measured by the standard of 
 their day and generation, most of these priests did the 
 best they could for their flocks. Many of them were, 
 indeed, men of integrity and piety; many, moreover, 
 gave their people new forms of agriculture and indus- 
 try. For two hundred and fifty years we hear of few 
 attempts at general revolt. There are few black deeds 
 to record such as stain the pages of other colonial 
 histories. Nevertheless, these long years of priestly 
 domination are musty with the dust of a stationary 
 civilization. The priests imposed their religion upon 
 the people, but in turn imbibed some of their supersti- 
 tions and gave them back others. 
 
 The present Archbishop of Manila, Monsignor 
 O'Doherty, a man of learning and piety, agrees with 
 me, unqualifiedly, upon the advantages of the present 
 separation of Church and State. 
 
 In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, the 
 Spanish sovereignty in the Philippines showed unmis- 
 takable evidences of decay and weakness. How differ- 
 ent Philippine history might have been if the present 
 popular and enlightened King Alfonso XIII had then 
 been on the throne ! Exercise of autocratic power by 
 the governors, both civil and ecclesiastical, had led to 
 gross abuses of power. In the decades from 1850 
 onward greed and arrogance marked the religious 
 orders, which had absorbed most of the riches and the 
 best lands. The meager recognition of the people, on 
 the part of the Government, grew less and less. The 
 formation of secret societies among the people was 
 discovered and led to savage reprisals. The last Span-
 
 24 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 ish archbishop, Nozaleda, was the most bloodthirsty 
 of the ecclesiastics. The Filipino poet Eizal was exe- 
 cuted for his supposed responsibility for revolutionary 
 movements, though his books, which were then not 
 allowed to be circulated, show that his main protests 
 were against the excesses of the priests, and his chief 
 demand was that the people should be educated. The 
 insurrection of 1896 broke out under Andres Bonifacio 
 and the Spanish authorities were unable to suppress it. 
 Aguinaldo soon became the military leader of his peo- 
 ple. A compromise followed, which left matters in a 
 state of suspended animation until the war with the 
 United States burst upon unhappy Spain soon after- 
 ward. 
 
 In wealth, in education, in political rights, the mass 
 of the Filipinos had advanced but little in the three and 
 a half centuries of Spanish rule. In each locality, it 
 is true, the sons of the leading men were selected for 
 education at Santo Tomas University (founded in 
 1611) and the other church colleges in Manila. The 
 more ambitious were sent later by their parents to 
 complete their education in Spain, France, and Ger- 
 many. Groups of these young men took part in the 
 various liberal movements of nineteenth-century 
 Europe. They wrote and spoke in behalf of liberal 
 institutions for their countrymen at home, in terms 
 which would have cost them their lives in the Philip- 
 pines; Eizal was put to death upon his return to his 
 native land. 
 
 In Spain several of these young Filipinos rose to 
 eminence in the public service, a right which was de- 
 nied them at home except in a few cases in the minor 
 judiciary. In the eighties and nineties a brilliant
 
 THE FILIPINO RACE 25 
 
 group of young men of which Rizal, the painter Juan 
 Luna, M. H. del Pilar, Lopez Jaena, and Dr. Pardo de 
 Tavera were the leading spirits made a deep impres- 
 sion in the literary and artistic circles of Madrid, 
 Paris, and Berlin. A newspaper was founded by them 
 in Madrid to further their political views. Although 
 proscribed in the Philippines, their books and articles 
 were circulated sub rosa in the islands and helped to 
 consolidate the growing unrest. The secret society 
 "Katipunan" added thousands to its rolls. The Ma- 
 sonic Order was particularly hated and suspected by 
 the Government. At the time of the revolution of 1896 
 against Spain, scores of prominent Masons were as- 
 rested on the instigation of the church authorities and 
 imprisoned in Fort Santiago ; many of them were led 
 before the firing-squad on the old Bagumbayan, now 
 the Luneta, in Manila. 
 
 Twenty years later, I had the pleasure of entertain- 
 ing about eight hundred Masons in Malacanan Palace, 
 the very spot from which the execution of so many 
 members of the order had been decreed. In Tondo, 
 the poorer quarter of Manila, there stands a monu- 
 ment to these Masonic martyrs, in charge of one of the 
 survivors of those days, Timoteo Paez. I asked him 
 recently whether those whose lives had been given in 
 the days of revolution would be satisfied if they were 
 alive to-day, and he answered simply: "En este dia, 
 estabamos 'Indies'; hoy dia, somos Filipinos. [In 
 that day we were 'Indians'; now, we are Filipinos.]" 
 
 In Spain itself the attitude of the court and people 
 was not unfriendly to the Filipinos. The Spaniard at 
 home has little of what the Anglo-Saxon races know 
 as race prejudice. At one time delegates from the
 
 26 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 Philippines were admitted to the Spanish Cortes, but 
 subsequently this privilege was withdrawn. Promises 
 of liberal reforms were made from time to time, and 
 then promptly forgotten. Liberal governors-general 
 were sent out occasionally, only to fall before the 
 reactionary stand of the Church in the islands, backed, 
 as it probably was, by the united body of Spanish resi- 
 dents. Such liberals were succeeded by conservatives 
 of the strictest kind, such as General Weyler, known 
 to us as " Butcher Weyler" from his government in 
 Cuba just before the Spanish-American War. At the 
 behest of the friars Weyler terminated a dispute be- 
 tween tenants and landlords of the friar lands in 
 Calamba by sending out the artillery and shooting 
 down the tenants. 
 
 The pitiful decline in the ability of Spanish govern- 
 ment in the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries, so dra- 
 matically portrayed by Buckle in his History of Civil- 
 ization, had, of course, its reflex action in the Philip- 
 pines. Vanished was the class of zealous, inspired 
 priests and bold military adventurers who had been 
 sent to the Philippines in an earlier age. Priests were 
 too often drawn from the most ignorant type of peas- 
 ant family, except, of course, those of the Jesuit Order, 
 of whom there were always very few in the islands. 
 Governors, too, were often needy noblemen, sent out 
 to recoup their fortunes; lesser government officials 
 too frequently favorites or parientes of persons influ- 
 ential at court, without any qualifications for colonial 
 service, indeed, sometimes entirely illiterate. With 
 men of these types a haughty and arrogant suppres- 
 sion of the Filipinos was due not, perhaps, to race 
 prejudice, but to a secret determination to assert for
 
 THE FILIPINO RACE 27 
 
 the Spanish race a superiority which, in their own 
 hearts, they knew they did not individually possess. 
 At any rate, social equality was rarely accorded even 
 to the educated Filipino, and to the governors talk of 
 political equality was, of course, rank treason. When 
 the storm burst, all classes of Filipinos, from the high- 
 est to the lowest, joined in the insurrection, and the 
 fight was of the fiercest nature. 
 
 One of the leaders of those days, General Juan 
 Cailles of Laguna, known later to the American Army 
 as a gallant and courtly opponent, told me recently of 
 the violent hatred of the Spaniards with which the 
 Filipinos went into battle. His forces would fire four 
 or five rounds from the fifty odd rifles they possessed 
 and then his five thousand men would close in at a rush 
 with the bolo, absolutely irresistible except to well- 
 placed artillery. No wonder the feeble and inefficient 
 Spanish Government was unable to suppress the insur- 
 rection. 
 
 And what of the great mass of Filipinos during these 
 centuries? The novels of Jose Eizal, sympathetically 
 translated into English as "The Social Cancer" and 
 "The Reign of Greed," give a profoundly touching 
 picture of the wrongs and oppressions of his fellow- 
 countrymen, at least, of those upon the vast friar 
 estates. He paid with his life for these books, but if 
 he foresaw coming events he must have felt that the 
 sacrifice was well worth while. 
 
 It would be idle, however, to assert that all the gov- 
 erning class throughout the islands were of the type 
 portrayed by Eizal, or that this excess of greed and 
 arrogance on their part had been of very long stand- 
 ing; no people would have long endured it, least of
 
 28 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 all the proud and self -respecting Filipinos ; indeed, the 
 insurrection was their answer to it. The greater part 
 of the Filipino people during these centuries, espe- 
 cially in the less settled regions, were performing 
 their daily round of agricultural toil under more or 
 less the same conditions as had their ancestors for gen- 
 erations in the past, a few hectares of rice land, or 
 coffee-bushes, a cool and pleasant bamboo house in a 
 grove of glorious mango-trees, the patient carabao to 
 do the plowing and take the grain to market, here 
 and there roads and bridges to connect the little farm 
 with the outer world, and monumental churches for 
 hours of religion, art, and social life. Patriarchal or 
 feudal life in the remote districts was still the order 
 of the day. Authority, always of powerful influence 
 in Malay history, was elevated to the rank of a religion. 
 In the villages a modified form of self-government was 
 permitted, though the local priest was always the 
 power behind the throne and the court of last resort. 
 Schools were maintained by the padres, and instruction 
 given in the native tongue, in rare instances in Span- 
 ish. These schools were, however, skilfully used by 
 the Spanish to accentuate and develop the differences 
 in local dialects. Theirs was the principle " Divide 
 and rule." Originally all speaking the Malay tongue, 
 the Filipinos were encouraged through these centuries 
 to enlarge and enrich the local differences of pronun- 
 ciation, until to-day the Ilocano, the Tagalog, and the 
 Visayan can hardly converse with one another except 
 through English or Spanish. The grammars written 
 by the priests accomplished their purpose. Writing 
 was discouraged by them except upon the religious 
 themes prescribed by the priest himself. Dr. Niewen-
 
 29 
 
 haus, the head of the youthful but rapidly growing 
 Educational Department of Java, upon his second visit 
 of inspection to the Philippines recently, told me that 
 in Java, in twenty years, the people had broken down 
 the differences between their five dialects and fused 
 them all again into one Malay tongue ; it was his opin- 
 ion that we could, with our much larger public-school 
 system in the Philippines, amalgamate the large num- 
 ber of local dialects into one tongue within five years 
 of teaching in the primary grades. 
 
 Finally, the rule of Spain came to an abrupt end 
 through a joint assault by American and Filipino arms. 
 More than three centuries of human life had been 
 passed in a dream of religious government. The 
 civitas dei which animated the noblest souls of medi- 
 eval Europe reached a qualified reality in the Philip- 
 pines. The final abuses of power and departure from 
 the earlier and higher standards naturally brought 
 their own punishment. Her Oriental empire is for- 
 ever lost to Spain, and to-day comparatively little of 
 Spanish influence and Spanish culture remains to test- 
 ify to her long domination of the Philippines. With 
 the older generation this in turn will pass away before 
 the practical directness of the American school system. 
 Only in the Church, invigorated and reformed, will 
 the Spanish heritage long endure. 
 
 It is the custom among many Americans to refer 
 carelessly to the Filipinos as Spanish- Americans. 
 They have never been truly Spanish, and are not Amer- 
 ican by race. They might have, in a truer sense, pos- 
 sessed the Spanish culture of the past, had their mas- 
 ters educated them in the beautiful idiom of Castile, 
 but this the Spaniards refused to do. Many Filipino
 
 30 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 intellectuals to-day still prefer and admire the Latin 
 culture, but this was always denied to the common 
 people. A few traces of the Spanish social system 
 still prevail in customs, in manners of expression, and 
 in ceremonies. Far stronger and more enduring, how- 
 ever, is the Filipinos ' own culture ; and the simple and 
 dignified customs of village life to-day do not, in all 
 probability, vary substantially from those handed 
 down to these people by tradition from the remote 
 past. Nothing is so quick to destroy memory and 
 family tradition as wide-spread education. I remem- 
 ber attending the pagan religious ceremonies of the 
 rice harvest in an Ifugao village in the mountains of 
 Luzon ; the head of the house was chanting the names 
 of his ancestors, of whom he could enumerate thirty- 
 five, a modern imitation of the Book of Genesis! 
 There were five old men in that village who could re- 
 peat without differing from one another the whole 
 saga of the Ifugaos, though the poem took three days 
 to recite. When these remote mountaineers have 
 learned to read and write, these marvelous feats of 
 memory will have disappeared, together with the neces- 
 sity for them. The great mass of Christian Filipinos 
 were left uninspired and untaught during all the gen- 
 erations of sleepy Spanish rule. Into this land of 
 dreams America burst with astonishing energy; in 
 twenty years American ideas have worked a social 
 revolution.
 
 CHAPTER HI 
 
 EARLIER YEARS OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION 
 
 OUR occupation of the Philippines was the most 
 unexpected result of our war with Spain ; it was 
 purely fortuitous in the beginning, and simply the 
 logical result of Dewey's brilliant victory in Manila 
 Bay on May 1, 1898. No doubt, the final disposition 
 of the Philippine Islands was the subject of much dip- 
 lomatic intrigue and international jealousy. Germany 
 had, to her ultimate complete undoing, recently aban- 
 doned Bismarck's precepts concerning colonization 
 and had shared in the division by other European 
 powers of vast African territories. She had purchased 
 from Spain the Caroline and the Ladrone Islands a 
 few months before the Spanish-American War began, 
 and is believed to have been negotiating for the Phil- 
 ippines. When war was declared, the United States 
 had but one friend among the European powers, 
 Great Britain. Immediately after Dewey's annihila- 
 tion of the Spanish fleet at Cavite, a German warship 
 drew alongside Commodore Dewey's ship in a pro- 
 voking and arrogant manner; Dewey's firm stand, 
 and the openly expressed friendship of the British 
 commander, Captain Chichester, who promptly placed 
 his own ship facing the German, probably averted 
 aggressive action on the part of the kaiser. 
 
 Indeed, it seems entirely probable that Admiral von 
 Diedrichs came to Manila Bay as the result of some 
 
 31
 
 32 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 negotiations then pending with Spain, and it seems 
 equally probable that some one high in authority in the 
 United States Government had previously, in a pos- 
 sibly unauthorized exercise of power, expressed to 
 Germany our acquiescence in her ambitions. 
 
 Our country thrilled with pride in Dewey 's victory ; 
 our people, naturally enough, were carried on a wave 
 of patriotic imperialism by our easy successes in arms. 
 I have but little doubt that the British Government 
 urged our own to keep the Philippines, so 'that the 
 islands should not fall into the hands of her rivals. 
 American armies arrived a few weeks later and Manila 
 was taken after the firing of a few shots by the Span- 
 ish commander to save his honor, and under ^previous 
 arrangement with the American general. The rest of 
 the Spanish forces throughout the islands promptly 
 surrendered, wherever possible, to our flag. But a 
 new and embarrassing element had entered into the 
 situation. Aguinaldo, the military leader of the recent 
 insurrection against Spain, had been recalled by 
 Dewey from his pro-forma exile in Singapore. To him 
 the American commodore gave the stand of thirty 
 thousand rifles captured in the Naval Arsenal at Ca- 
 vite. Aguinaldo states that the commodore promised 
 him the independence of the Philippines; this Dewey 
 subsequently denied. 
 
 It is incontrovertible that the Filipino Army, which 
 quickly gathered under the old insurrecto leaders, 
 thought they were invited to take over the sovereignty 
 of the islands from Spain. The small outposts of the 
 Spanish Army resisted the Filipinos as best they 
 could ; in the village of Baler, on the remote east coast 
 of Luzon, the handful of Spaniards fortified them-
 
 PART OF THE FAMOUS ZIGZAG, BENGUET ROAD
 
 PAGSANHAN FALLS, LAGUNA PROVINCE
 
 EARLIER YEARS OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION 33 
 
 selves in the old church and put up a gallant defense 
 for many months. Many Spanish priests were cap- 
 tured by the Filipinos, and while a few were severely 
 abused in reprisal for the wrongs committed by their 
 class, the greater part were kindly and considerately 
 treated as prisoners. 
 
 The Filipinos took part in the assault on Manila 
 in August, 1898, but were kept outside the city by 
 agreement of our general with the surrendered Span- 
 iards. For five months the Americans within the city 
 and the Filipinos drawn up in a semicircle around it, 
 with forces on both sides rapidly increasing, lay face 
 to face. The Filipinos gradually became convinced 
 that our army would never give over the country to 
 them; relations became more and more strained, and 
 in January, 1899, the inevitable conflict burst forth. 
 For a year the war progressed with more and more 
 decisive victories for our arms; the Filipinos were 
 gradually pushed northward from Manila, and finally 
 scattered, and their general, Aguinaldo, fled to the re- 
 mote mountains of the east coast where he was finally 
 captured by General Funston through a daring and 
 dramatic ruse. At no time did the Filipinos have more 
 than forty thousand rifles, and they had virtually no 
 artillery. They were divided in their own councils be- 
 cause of the jealousy of Aguinaldo, who finally put to 
 death his best soldier, General Luna, through treach- 
 ery. 
 
 We had at one time 85,000 troops engaged in the 
 campaign, and the showing they made was excellent, 
 considering the difficult nature of the country. Their 
 achievement is better appreciated when we remember 
 that the British Army employed to subdue the Boers
 
 34 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 reached a total of 300,000, the same figure reached 
 by their expeditionary force in German East Africa, 
 where they failed to subdue Von Lettow's force of 
 15,000 in a five-years ' campaign. It is only a pity that 
 we were obliged finally to resort to "reconcentration" 
 to subdue provinces near Manila, the very system we 
 had so energetically denounced when it was used by 
 Spain in Cuba. Aguinaldo's short-lived republic soon 
 collapsed under the pressure of our military forces. 
 His government had been rather generally accepted 
 in theory by the Filipinos throughout the archipelago, 
 but it never had a chance to demonstrate its ability 
 except in the fortunes, or misfortunes, of war against 
 a superior foe. 
 
 Much time is spent, by those seeking an excuse to 
 criticize the Filipino people, in denouncing Aguinaldo's 
 government. The truth is that the insurrectionists had 
 adopted a liberal, democratic form of constitution 
 which never had any opportunity of going into effect. 
 I have known a number of the men, both military and 
 civil, who surrounded Aguinaldo as his advisers at 
 that critical time, and esteem them as intelligent, well- 
 educated, and conservative men of affairs ; even in the 
 arena of an adverse war Aguinaldo would have pros- 
 pered better with his government had it not been for 
 defects in his own character. He was unwilling to take 
 advice from the very men he had selected for that 
 purpose, and the practical existence of martial law all 
 through these months enabled him to do as he pleased. 
 After his surrender, the war collapsed, and a period of 
 the customary guerilla warfare continued until the 
 partizan leaders still under arms were persuaded, 
 largely by their own countrymen, to surrender to the
 
 inevitable. The war had been fought on their side 
 with spirit and determination, but without hatred and 
 bitterness against us such as had inspired them 
 against the Spaniards. Reconciliation was not so dif- 
 ficult in the circumstances, and gradually came to pass 
 under the wise liberalism of American policy. Agui- 
 naldo retired to private life on his farm in Cavite, 
 where he has ever since maintained a dignified and 
 conciliatory attitude toward the American Govern- 
 ment ; he has been loyally faithful to his oath of allegi- 
 ance to the United States in every sense of the term. 
 Meanwhile, in the United States the Philippine ques- 
 tion had caused the most profound anxiety and search- 
 ing of conscience. Anti-imperialism was the chief 
 issue of Mr. Bryan in his campaign of 1900, and upon 
 that issue he was defeated. Nevertheless, -the Anti- 
 imperialist League contained in its membership many 
 of the most independent and respected citizens, espe- 
 cially in New England, and the public conscience was 
 uneasy. How were we to reconcile the holding of the 
 Philippines with our Constitution? what had become of 
 our fundamental requirement of the " consent of the 
 governed " ? I have no doubt that President McKinley 
 and his cabinet were seriously concerned over this, 
 but saw no other way out of the embarrassing situation 
 thus presented than to hold tightly to the newly ac- 
 quired Oriental domain, and do the best they could for 
 its inhabitants. To be sure, the first Philippine Com- 
 mission sent out by President McKinley was presided 
 over by President Jacob Gould Schurman of Cornell, 
 who reported in favor of Philippine independence, and 
 even went so far as to argue that the worst government 
 of Filipinos by Filipinos was better than the best gov-
 
 36 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 eminent of them by Americans. But there was the 
 perplexing international situation to consider, and 
 when reports began to come in from our army in the 
 Philippines, the verdict of the American officers was 
 to the effect that the Filipinos were not fit to govern 
 themselves. Military men are seldom inclined to be- 
 lieve that any people can govern themselves: their 
 whole training is a negation of the principle of self- 
 government. So the government in Washington de- 
 cided to hold on, and to make the best of it. The 
 Philippine policy of President McKinley as expressed 
 in his pronouncement, supposed to have been drafted 
 by Secretary Boot, is a model of wise statesmanship. 
 He expressed the hope in January, 1899, that the com- 
 missioners would be received as bearers of the richest 
 blessings of a liberating rather than a conquering 
 nation "and that the Philippines are ours, not to 
 exploit but to develop, to civilize, to educate, to train 
 in the science of self-government. This is the path of 
 duty which we must follow or be recreant to a mighty 
 trust committed to us." This fairly represented the 
 real and honest intentions of all classes of Americans 
 at that time, once it had been decided to hold the 
 Philippines; it is the basis on which developments of 
 policy have since been built. Nevertheless, the fact 
 remained that we had by force of arms overthrown 
 self-government in the Philippines and established 
 there an autocratic government of our own. This has 
 always been a matter of deep concern to conscientious 
 and liberal-minded people in our country, and was 
 always the cause of the insertion in Democratic na- 
 tional platforms of a plank in favor of Philippine 
 independence. It was made clear that the exercise of
 
 EARLIER YEARS OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION 37 
 
 imperial autocracy in those far-away islands was not 
 only inconsistent with our own Constitution, but a 
 danger of corruption to our own ideals and principles ; 
 in the words of Abraham Lincoln: "This nation can- 
 not exist half slave and half free." 
 
 The president of the second Philippine Commission, 
 and first civil governor, was the Hon. William H. Taft. 
 He arrived on June 3, 1900, when the islands were still 
 under military rule. General Otis had already given 
 the Philippines a fairly liberal code of laws, and the 
 war was virtually over. A few months later the gov- 
 ernment was turned over to Mr. Taft and the civil 
 commission, an executive board entrusted also with 
 legislative powers. The commission set to work to 
 restore law and order, to liberalize still further exist- 
 ing laws, to settle outstanding questions with the Span- 
 ish, and to make friends with the Filipinos. But the 
 situation was greatly complicated by the virtual re- 
 fusal of the American military officers to recognize the 
 new civil government. Many clashes between civil and 
 military officials occurred which would have been 
 ludicrous had they not been so embarrassing to Mr. 
 Taft and the new commission. This was in the ' ' days 
 of the Empire," when every white man, especially in 
 the military service, was a sort of petty king; the 
 islands were full of adventurous and rough-and-ready 
 young Americans who had stayed on after the war, 
 enchanted with the easy life of the tropics, or looking 
 for a new means of livelihood. Some of the discharged 
 soldiers of that day, who had saved up perhaps six 
 months' pay, started in businesses which have since 
 made them rich men ; others, falling under the spell of 
 the unaccustomed languor of the tropics and of the
 
 38 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 native gin, sank down to the level of beachcombers, 
 living upon the poorer class of native women, until 
 rounded up and deported by the authorities as va- 
 grants. 
 
 Life in Manila was gay and irresponsible ; the streets 
 were full of uniforms. The reaction from the hard- 
 ships of campaigns in the field was natural. The 
 Americans had beaten the Filipino, and meant that 
 never for one second should he forget it. Many topical 
 songs and verses have come down from those boister- 
 ous days, and many an elderly man still sighs for the 
 ' ' days of the Empire. ' ' Into this paradise of military 
 power and prestige came Mr. Taft and his colleagues, 
 talking of the rights of the Filipinos in a community 
 which was interested only in the rights of Americans. 
 "He may be a brother of William H. Taft, but he 
 ain't no brother of mine," they sang. Resistance to 
 Mr. Taft's efforts to conciliate the Filipino and extend 
 greater civil rights to him was encountered not only 
 from military officials, but from virtually all the white 
 population. Finally the governor lost his temper, and 
 in a speech in Iloilo told the Americans that they were 
 neurotic and that if they did not like the government 
 they could take the first boat home. The sting of this 
 remark is still smarting in the hearts of the survivors 
 of the days of the Empire in the Philippines, there 
 is no such thing as a statute of limitations upon 
 hatred ! 
 
 Mr. Taft's efforts met with immediate response 
 from the Filipinos ; he associated with himself as mem- 
 bers of the Philippine Commission Messrs. Trinidad 
 Pardo de Tavera, Benito Legarda, and Jose E. Lu- 
 zuriaga, and traveled throughout the islands speaking
 
 EARLIER YEARS OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION 39 
 
 to excited and enthusiastic crowds of Filipinos. His 
 theme was "The Philippines for the Filipinos." The 
 new government was soon generally accepted and set- 
 tled down to the works of peace. One of the first acts 
 was the importation from America of a boat-load of 
 one thousand school-teachers and schoolmarms, the 
 beginning of a public-school extension which is to-day 
 justly considered one of America's greatest achieve- 
 ments in the islands. Many of these devoted teachers 
 ventured forth into lonely and remote regions, not yet 
 entirely pacified, and several paid with their lives for 
 the noble ideals which inspired them. 
 
 One of Mr. Taft's problems was the settlement of 
 the dangerous agrarian question concerning the friar 
 lands. It has already been shown that the friars as 
 landlords had been largely responsible for the insur- 
 rection against Spain. They held title to enormous 
 tracts of the best lands, and the question as to the 
 disposition of these lands was acute. Mr. Taft went 
 to Rome as unofficial ambassador for Mr. Roosevelt 
 in an effort to settle this question, and arranged on 
 behalf of the Philippine Government to purchase these 
 lands for $7,000,000, for which amount the "Friar 
 Land Bonds" of the Philippines were issued. To the 
 success of his mission was attributed much of the 
 strong support given to Mr. Roosevelt's candidacy in 
 1904 and to Mr. Taft's in 1908 by the Roman Catholic 
 voters in America. The friar lands have been gradu- 
 ally sold by the Government upon easy instalments to 
 the tenants; the pity is that all the friars' holdings 
 were not bought at that time. Large tracts still re- 
 main in their hands, and are to-day a source of much 
 discontent and occasionally a menace to public order.
 
 40 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 Mr. Taft not only was discharging a wise public duty, 
 but was clever enough to recognize what some of the 
 people of the islands do not seem to realize, even to- 
 day, the great influence and practical value to the 
 Government of the support of a friendly church in 
 the Philippines. 
 
 Mr. Taft and his colleagues also adopted for the 
 Philippines such parts of the public law of the United 
 States as they thought applicable, and combined them 
 with existing Spanish law to form the admirable sys- 
 tem of jurisprudence existing there to-day. One mem- 
 ber, inspired by the beauty of the municipal code of 
 his native town in New England, tried to introduce 
 it in toto in Manila, even including the ordinance for 
 the prompt removal of snow from the sidewalks ! The 
 outstanding controversy in regard to the legal system 
 in the Philippines, among American observers and vis- 
 itors, concerns the absence of the jury system ; in that 
 respect the commissioners left unchanged the Spanish 
 system, which, indeed, exists in all the Latin countries 
 of Europe, where the Judge of First Instance decides 
 both the facts and the law. While obvious injustices 
 occasionally occur, it is not clear that they are so fre- 
 quent as under the jury system in the United States. 
 As a former law clerk in the office of Mr. Joseph H. 
 Choate, then the acknowledged leader of the American 
 Bar, I remember his sarcastic denunciation of the 
 jury system; and he later made one of his annual 
 addresses to the American Bar Association upon that 
 thesis. The worst that can be said against the Phil- 
 ippine Code in that respect is that the errors in judg- 
 ment for which a sole judge is responsible are more 
 likely to be made to the disadvantage of the prisoner
 
 EARLIER YEARS OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION 41 
 
 at the bar, while in America the gross injustices of 
 the jury are generally in his favor. It is my belief that 
 the jury system will soon be introduced in the Philip- 
 pines, although the Bench and Bar at present are in- 
 clined to oppose such a proposition. 
 
 In 1904, Mr. Taft was made Secretary of War in Mr. 
 Roosevelt's cabinet, in which position he was by law 
 still charged with supervision over Philippine policies. 
 He continued his active interest in the progress of the 
 Philippine policy, and in 1907 went to Manila with 
 a large party of officials, to install the Philippine As- 
 sembly, an elective lower house of the Legislature 
 newly created by authority of Congress. Upon 
 that occasion he placed his hand upon the shoulder 
 of Sergio Osmena, the first Speaker of the Assembly, 
 and said that hereafter he would be the second man 
 in the islands. This ranked the Speaker officially over 
 the commanding general, the admiral, and the (sub- 
 sequently created) vice-governor, and has been gen- 
 erally observed ever since, until the creation of the 
 Philippine Senate. President Quezon of the Senate 
 still accords social precedence to the Speaker, but the 
 Senate is jealous of any assertion of official priority 
 on the part of the House of Representatives. 
 
 Politically, Mr. Taft was not so fortunate as he was 
 both administratively and in his legislative character 
 as president of the commission. He strongly believed 
 that the Filipinos could be won over to complete ac- 
 quiescence in American domination; that they would 
 be so well satisfied with the liberal and generous treat- 
 ment he accorded them that all national longings would 
 gradually disappear. This was an entire misconcep- 
 tion of the feelings of conquered races toward the
 
 42 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 invader. In Porto Eico, for example, where we have 
 granted to the inhabitants the gift of American citizen- 
 ship with the logical implication that the island will 
 one day be a State in our Union instead of grasping 
 eagerly the great advantages this confers upon them, 
 the people are now clamoring for independence. In 
 the Philippines Mr. Taft founded a "Federalista" 
 political party for closer political relations with the 
 United States; a number of their leading men were 
 induced to join, and were appointed to high office, to 
 their own great subsequent discomfiture. Meanwhile, 
 as soon as it was clearly perceived by the Filipinos 
 that the right of assembly and of free speech was guar- 
 anteed to them, the "Nacionalista" party was openly 
 organized with great vigor. The chief, if not the only 
 real aim of the Nacionalistas from that day to this 
 has been and is the independence of the Philip- 
 pines, and they have gradually drawn into the party 
 most of the brains and talent as well as most of the 
 voters of the archipelago. This evidently surprised 
 and disconcerted Mr. Taft and his associates, who had 
 hoped to perfect a permanent settlement of the Philip- 
 pine question without independence. 
 
 From that time on, as Secretary of War and as 
 President, he grew colder in his attitude toward the 
 Filipinos. No doubt he thought them ungrateful after 
 all that he had done for them; as if the surrender of 
 human liberty were a matter of gratitude! At all 
 events, he entered the lists of controversy against 
 Philippine independence, and in arguing against the 
 feasibility of it he was drawn into a more and more 
 critical and unfriendly position regarding the Filipinos 
 themselves. His popularity in the Philippines gradu-
 
 EARLIER YEARS OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION 43 
 
 ally vanished. Absence from the islands and acces- 
 sibility to the whispered advice of that numerically 
 small but influential section of our citizens who desire 
 to hold the Philippines indefinitely for the financial 
 advantage of the United States doubtless influenced 
 his mind. Was he not described when President as a 
 large body entirely surrounded by men who knew 
 exactly what they wanted? Then, too, as Secretary 
 of War, he soon forgot his desperate struggle to take 
 over civil control of the islands from the military 
 rulers of earlier days, and in the agreeable atmosphere 
 of the War Department he was only to hear contemp- 
 tuous criticisms of, and remarks derogatory to, the 
 Filipinos. The continuity of policy of the military, the 
 cohesiveness of army sentiment, is a very real power, 
 especially in the retired corridors of a government 
 department. Some military officers are still longing 
 for the "days of the Empire"; many of them still 
 refer to the Philippine Government as the ' ' Civil Gov- 
 ernment," as if there still existed out there, also, a 
 "military government" which had temporarily stepped 
 aside, but was ready at any moment to resume its' 
 rightful place. At all events, Mr. Taft, who had re- 
 stored civil rights to the Filipinos, appointed several 
 of them to high office, encouraged their national senti- 
 ments and self-respect by his maxim, ' l The Philippines 
 for the Filipinos," given them the first stage of self- 
 government by the creation of the Assembly, soon 
 became known as the most prominent opponent of 
 Philippine independence. He must have thought that 
 in the islands he had raised up a Frankenstein against 
 himself. When confronted with the moral issue as to 
 whether the United States could justly hold the Fil-
 
 44 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 ipino people in subjection against their will, he ex- 
 pressed the vague idea that they might be fit for in- 
 dependence ''in some generations." The Filipino 
 people had for thirteen years been accustomed to look 
 to Mr. Taft as the source of all authority on Philippine 
 questions, and as an overwhelming majority of them 
 were actively engaged in formulating the demand for 
 independence, it was plain to all that a very compli- 
 cated and disagreeable situation was rapidly coming 
 to a head. 
 
 One of the most serious causes of complaint was the 
 failure to carry out President McKinley's instructions 
 and repeated subsequent promises of American repre- 
 sentatives that, wherever possible, the government 
 offices should be filled by Filipinos. As the attractions 
 of Philippine life grew upon the American officials, so 
 grew their willingness to believe in the incapacity of 
 the Filipinos for office. In 1913 only one Chief of 
 Bureau, Manuel Tinio, was a Filipino, and he was in 
 charge of the smallest and least important bureau, 
 Labor. In fact, it seemed to all that a determined 
 attempt was being made to build up a permanent 
 colonial civil service on the model of that in India. But 
 in 1913 the Americans in the Philippine Civil Service 
 numbered 2600, with half as many more in the un- 
 classified or temporary lists. When it is realized 
 that the British Indian Civil Service which directly 
 or indirectly governs 319,000,000 people, consists of 
 only about 1200 officials from England, the situation 
 seems extraordinary. Many Americans were em- 
 ployed in merely clerical positions, and many others 
 in offices for which they had little training or aptitude. 
 They were encouraged to invest in the Philippines
 
 EARLIER YEARS OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION 45 
 
 what money they had, that they might take a per- 
 manent interest there, and American party politics 
 was rife among the American employees at times 
 of national elections at home. It seems quite cer- 
 tain that the colonial policy of Lord Curzon and 
 Lord Cromer was the model upon which they were 
 building. The American official did not, it is true, 
 assume the air of haughty superiority toward the 
 "native" which marks the British "raj" (rajah, i.e. 
 king) as the ordinary Briton is known in India ; such a 
 manner does not come easy to an American. In their 
 attitude toward the Filipino most of them were cour- 
 teous and considerate enough in official life, but there 
 was virtually no social intercourse between the two 
 races. At official receptions, of course, the Filipinos 
 attended in force, but the governor-general who went 
 further and included Filipinos in his private entertain- 
 ments was discreetly but pointedly chaffed by his in- 
 timates. Around the American supper-table the 
 matter went much farther; every possible story, real 
 or fabricated, which stirred up hatred of or heaped 
 ridicule upon the Filipino people was told there with 
 gusto, and all were probably carried forth and re- 
 peated by the patient-looking and apparently uncom- 
 prehending Filipino muchachos (servants) who waited 
 upon table. 
 
 The exhibition of the Filipino flag, under which 
 they had fought their war against us, was made by 
 statute a criminal offense. Patriotism was never en- 
 couraged in the schools, nor ideas which tended to 
 arouse their own national consciousness. Everything 
 which might help to make the pupils understand their 
 own race or think about the future of the country was
 
 46 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 carefully censored and eliminated. Nevertheless, the 
 good sound stock of American ideas which they re- 
 ceived instructed them inevitably in our own demo- 
 cratic ideals, and in our pride in our own liberties. 
 Their teachers could not well be surprised that they 
 thought of freedom themselves. 
 
 It was fashionable among Americans to explain that 
 the demand for independence came only from a few 
 agitators or hotheads or demagogues working for their 
 own advantage. Those who are familiar with any 
 struggle for human rights, the world over, will recog- 
 nize the terms. 
 
 One of the commonest stories of those days was of 
 the American official's question to a simple farmer in 
 the country, "Well, you want independence. What are 
 you going to do with it?" When the farmer could not 
 give a concise and satisfactory answer, the story went 
 round that the Filipinos think independence is some 
 sort of toy that will be given them in a box. 
 
 The United States Government was succumbing 
 rapidly to the accepted standards of European colonial 
 administrators, of which the incapacity of the "na- 
 tive" was the principal article of faith, and the invin- 
 cible superiority of the white man in every human 
 affair a religious tenet to be maintained at any cost and 
 in any way. The Filipinos soon saw that they had 
 helped to oust the Spanish merely to fasten other 
 masters upon their necks. They freely admitted the 
 advantages in many ways of this change of masters, 
 but they wanted to be their own masters, certainly 
 no ignoble ambition, and one with which every Amer- 
 ican should sympathize. 
 
 One of the greatest safety-valves of those days was
 
 EARLIER YEARS OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION 47 
 
 the presence in Washington, as one of the two dele- 
 gates from the Philippines in the House of Represen- 
 tatives, of the Hon. Manuel L. Quezon. These dele- 
 gates have no vote, but they are given a voice in the 
 House, and the voice of Mr. Quezon was worth many 
 votes. His attractive personality and personal good 
 looks, his popularity with the membership of the House, 
 his remarkable command of English, acquired since 
 his arrival in Washington, gained him an immediate 
 hearing. His brilliant speeches made an impression 
 upon Congress, and every American Representative 
 who heard him felt sympathy for this young man so 
 ably pleading for the independence of his race. His 
 most famous speech was that in which he thanked the 
 United States for what she had done for his people, 
 but declared the unwillingness of the Filipino to re- 
 main as ' ' a bird in a gilded cage. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Quezon's activities in behalf of independence 
 provoked the wrath of Mr. Taft's adherents; the then 
 Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs called him in, 
 one day, and told him that he was stirring up too much 
 trouble, and they were going to get rid of him. Mr. 
 Quezon replied that he was only representing the Fili- 
 pino people, who had, through their Legislature, sent 
 him to Washington, and that he would continue his 
 campaign for independence. Mr. Taft himself, speak- 
 ing at the same banquet as Mr. Quezon, lost his temper 
 completely. 
 
 Mr. Taft's four immediate successors as governor- 
 general were constantly in direct communication with 
 him as their superior executive officer, either in the 
 War Department or the White House. They exhibited 
 the same energy and good- will he had shown in working
 
 48 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 for the welfare and development of the islands ; they 
 were men of the highest caliber, and of the best Ameri- 
 can traditions. Each of them was personally liked and 
 respected by the people they were sent to govern. 
 The school system rapidly extended until six hundred 
 thousand children were enrolled ; a splendid road and 
 bridge system was initiated and two thousand miles of 
 first-class road constructed. A breakwater was built 
 off the city of Manila, and the old moat of Fort San- 
 tiago was filled and turned into a park and playground. 
 
 There is no evidence that any of my predecessors 
 differed in any respect from Mr. Taft in their views 
 on the Philippine question ; only, he had assigned them, 
 in the circumstances, an almost impossible task: you 
 cannot create a national sentiment and then arrest it 
 half-way. In 1911 and 1912, quarrels developed be- 
 tween the American-dominated commission (upper 
 house) and the all-Filipino Assembly, resulting in a 
 dead-lock and the failure to pass the appropriation 
 bill (budget). The governor-general, in default of 
 funds with which to run the government, decreed the 
 renewal of the appropriations for the year before, a 
 power given by Act of Congress about five years later. 
 Irritations, political and social, began to appear above 
 the surface. Had it not been for the conservative and 
 responsible Filipino leaders, particularly the Hon. 
 Sergio Osmeiia, president of the Nacionalista party 
 and Speaker of the Assembly, affairs would have rapid- 
 ly gone from bad to worse. 
 
 Thus superficially I have stated the forces on two 
 sides contesting the Philippine question at the time 
 when Woodrow Wilson was elected President. From 
 his speeches and from the party platform upon which
 
 EARLIER YEARS OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION 49 
 
 he stood, the people of the Philippines expected a sub- 
 stantial change in their fortunes. Fifty thousand Fili- 
 pinos paraded the streets of Manila in a drenching 
 rain-storm the day the news of the election of Mr. 
 Wilson was received.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE NEW ERA 
 
 ON October 6, 1913, our steamer passed the fortress 
 of Corregidor Island and crossed the waters of 
 Manila Bay. The navy had provided an escort of four 
 destroyers, and the army a military escort at the pier. 
 We were met by a small group of government officials, 
 who conducted us through immense crowds to the 
 Luneta, where a stand had been prepared for the 
 speeches. I delivered there a message from President 
 Wilson to the people of the Philippines, which reads 
 as follows: 
 
 "We regard ourselves as trustees acting not for the advantage 
 of the United States, but for the benefit of the people of the 
 Philippine Islands. 
 
 Every step we take will be taken with a view to the ultimate 
 independence of the Islands and as a preparation for that 
 independence. And we hope to move towards that end as 
 rapidly as the safety and the permanent interests of the 
 Islands will permit. After each step taken experience will 
 guide us to the next. 
 
 The administration will take one step at once and will give 
 to the native citizens of the Islands a majority in the 
 Appointive Commission, and thus in the Upper as well as in 
 the Lower House of the Legislature a majority representation 
 will be secured to them. 
 
 We do this in the confident hope and expectation that im- 
 mediate proof will be given in the action of the Commission 
 under the new arrangement of the political capacity of those 
 native citizens who have already come forward to represent 
 and to lead their people in affairs. 
 
 50
 
 THE NEW ERA 51 
 
 The significance of this promise from the President 
 was at once apparent, and was received with enthu- 
 siasm by the people. The Philippine Commission was 
 the upper house of the Philippine Legislature, and 
 was appointed by the President with the consent of 
 the United States Senate. It then consisted of five 
 Americans (three with portfolios) and four Filipinos 
 (one with portfolio). Serious legislation had become 
 impossible because of the dead-lock between these five 
 Americans and the Assembly, or lower house, com- 
 posed entirely of elected Filipinos. It is probable that 
 the impartial historian will decide that in all the points 
 at issue the reasonable side had been taken by the As- 
 sembly, but the struggle was deeper than the mere 
 questions of appropriations : it was a fight for absolute 
 control of the purse-strings of the Government. The 
 dead-lock was now to be broken, and the Filipinos to 
 be given control of their own Legislature. 
 
 The announcement of this fact confirmed the worst 
 fears of the American official organization : the Ameri- 
 cans were no longer to run the Philippines as they 
 pleased, but the Filipinos were to have a voice. Sus- 
 picions as to some such radical change had preceded 
 me upon my journey across the Pacific, although I had 
 carefully refrained from making any statement what- 
 ever about Philippine policies or politics until that 
 moment on the Luneta. Before leaving Washington I 
 had been frankly told by a former editor of a Manila 
 newspaper, now employed by one of the greatest bank- 
 ing firms in Wall Street, that if I did not govern to 
 suit the American financial interests in the Philip- 
 pines, matters would go hard with me. I told him that
 
 52 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 I had become accustomed to threats like that, during 
 the tariff revision. 
 
 The campaign began before I left America; it was 
 well organized and well managed, and apparently con- 
 ducted without any scruples ; it would be "weary, stale, 
 flat, and unprofitable" to recount here all of its fea- 
 tures. No misrepresentation was too gross and no 
 rumor too wild for transmission to those in the United 
 States who knew how to make use of them effectively 
 upon the platform and in the press. I was constantly 
 on the defensive, replying by cable to requests for ex- 
 planations from the Secretary of War, Mr. Garrison, 
 as to what was going on in the Philippines, especially 
 during my first year of office. The * ' organization ' ' had 
 determined that I must go, the sooner the better, but 
 they counted without the indomitable will of President 
 Wilson, who then and always, during my nearly eight 
 years of service in the islands, permitted nothing to 
 deflect his generous and loyal support of me as gover- 
 nor-general. 
 
 The attacks and exaggerations during those first few 
 months became so extreme that finally the War Depart- 
 ment grew chary of listening to the complaints of "in- 
 dignant business men." The chief effect of the cam- 
 paign, which, as the years passed, gradually dwindled 
 down to the activities of a few recalcitrants, was to 
 discredit the Philippines as a field for American in- 
 vestment, and to discourage commerce with the islands. 
 Capital is naturally timid, and it had never to any 
 considerable extent sought the field in the Philippines, 
 from the beginning of American occupation. The noisy 
 campaign of 1913-15 made capital stand aghast. The 
 nationals of European countries in Oriental ports were
 
 THE NEW ERA 53 
 
 delighted with the chance to ridicule American at- 
 tempts at colonial government. Even the steamship 
 lines on the Pacific joined in, and emphatically advised 
 travelers not to go to the Philippines, although the 
 islands are a perfect wonder-world of natural beauty 
 for the tourist. "Old Manila residents" spread the 
 bad tidings to all the quarters of the wind. An active 
 lobby was maintained in the Manila Hotel which seized 
 on each traveler upon his arrival and filled him full of 
 race prejudice and gloom; strangers were told that 
 the Democratic administration was turning over the 
 islands to a mob of irresponsible, dishonest Filipino 
 politicians who were headed toward chaos and dis- 
 order. 
 
 The after-effects of that campaign are still holding 
 back the islands to-day. Upon his visit to Manila in 
 1919, I asked Dr. George Vincent, President of the 
 Rockefeller Foundation, why his institution did not 
 undertake some of its excellent work for the improve- 
 ment of health conditions in the Philippines ; he hesi- 
 tated and then explained that "conditions are so un- 
 settled here"! The Foundation is putting its money 
 instead into such "settled" countries as China and 
 Nicaragua. Above all, I was generally charged by the 
 "organization" with ruining American prestige in the 
 East. Well might Mr. Montagu, Secretary of State 
 for India in the British Government, say of the word 
 "prestige": 
 
 Oh, India, how much happier would have been your history 
 if that word had been left out of the English vocabulary! 
 But there you have Conservative Imperialism at its worst. 
 . . . We do not hold India by invoking this well-mouthed 
 word ; we must hold it by just institutions, and more and more, 
 as time goes on, by the consent of the governed.
 
 54 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 It is of little profit to recount all this to-day, the 
 fight was the kind which any public man must face if 
 he undertakes to place human rights above the claims 
 of big business ; or if he values the man above the dol- 
 lar. One of the most frequent charges I heard was 
 that Woodrow Wilson was not a 1 1 real American Presi- 
 dent" and that I was "anti-American." It somewhat 
 lessened the blow to learn that some of the most active 
 in charging this were German and Austrian Jews doing 
 business in Manila! 
 
 My constant effort during all these years was not to 
 " answer back" in similar terms, not to engage in 
 personal controversy with my opponents. Indeed, I 
 have always hesitated to participate in newspaper con- 
 troversies, and never wrote a magazine article so long 
 as I was in office. My purpose now is not to revive the 
 memory of those days of acrimony, but to present to 
 those who may have the patience to read this book, the 
 difficulties with which the Filipino people must contend 
 to get their case before the generous American public. 
 If any reactionary policy as to the Philippines is ever 
 determined upon by an administration in Washington, 
 the American public has little chance of knowing the 
 real facts. The Filipino people will be virtually help- 
 less before the campaign of misrepresentation which 
 will be launched against them. Having, myself, a 
 slight personal acquaintance with Mr. Melville A. 
 Stone, head of the Associated Press, I obtained through 
 the Secretary of War the removal of the Associated 
 Press Manila representative, an Englishman, for gross 
 misrepresentation of the situation as to Filipinos in 
 the auditor's office. 
 
 Through it all I never failed to understand the rea-
 
 THE NEW ERA 55 
 
 son for the attitude of those conducting this campaign, 
 although I seldom agreed with their judgment as to 
 the results. The existing American political organiza- 
 tion in the islands had come to believe that the Philip- 
 pines were theirs to have and to hold ; they must treat 
 the Filipinos gently and with justice, but must never 
 forget that they were only "little brown children"; 
 American prestige was built up, for them, by the as- 
 sertion of the strong arm, which was backed by an 
 army always at hand. 
 
 These are sentiments natural to men of European 
 descent, and are accepted as gospel truth by the greater 
 part of the white race, which derives its opinions from 
 propaganda in eulogy of the colonial administrations 
 of Lord Cromer, Lord Curzon, Lord Kitchener, and 
 Lord Milner, a noble band of which Kipling is the 
 poet laureate. To them democracy is an odious neces- 
 sity for the white races, but must never be applied to 
 the "inferior" natives of the tropics. A paternal jus- 
 tice, tempered with kindness, must be administered 
 with condescension to these unhappy wards, who do 
 not know what they want, themselves, and must be 
 firmly told what to want, by those who are better 
 qualified to think for them. Cavour said that any one 
 can govern by martial law, and he might have added 
 that that way also lie honors, preferment, promotion, 
 and the plaudits of the crowd; the results are an- 
 nounced to cheering audiences, flattered by the asser- 
 tion of the physical domination of their sovereignty. 
 
 That splendid body of officials the English in the 
 Indian Civil Service, have just experienced a revolu- 
 tion in all their accepted ideas and standards through 
 the introduction of reforms of self-government in Brit-
 
 56 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 ish India at the instance of the British Government. 
 Members of the civil service were all, apparently, op- 
 posed to the new idea; some of them bitterly so, but 
 they seem to be determined to carry out generously the 
 policy of the home government, now that the change 
 has been instituted. To Americans it is always a 
 source of great surprise and admiration to find the 
 British scattered throughout the world standing so 
 solidly in support of the home government, and so 
 loyally expressing a common opinion upon foreign and 
 colonial policies, once those matters have been settled 
 at home. Our system is infinitely more individualistic : 
 the American sticks to his own opinions through thick 
 and thin ; he does not consider it necessary, even before 
 outsiders, to support his President if he happens to 
 disagree with him ; he is violent in his denunciation of 
 the current of home affairs, even in mixed groups of 
 foreigners all through the treaty ports of the Orient. 
 Is it not. possible that so much washing of dirty linen 
 in public is incomprehensible to the rest of the world? 
 
 It was not until August 29, 1916, when Congress 
 passed the Jones Act by almost unanimous vote, that 
 the new Philippine policy, thus confirmed and extended, 
 was generally accepted by American residents in the 
 far East. Up to that time, for nearly three years, they 
 seemed to consider President Wilson's Philippine 
 policy as the vagary of an irresponsible and theoret- 
 ical visionary, put into execution by a governor- 
 general who was, to say the least of it, without sense 
 of responsibility and ignorant, and bound to be over- 
 whelmed sooner or later by the results of his folly. 
 
 I cannot, however, conclude this disquisition without 
 expressing my deep gratitude to those few Americans
 
 THE NEW ERA 57 
 
 in the Philippines who supported me through all the 
 years of storm and stress ; to those American officials, 
 of whom there were many, who did try their best, pos- 
 sibly despite their own opinions, to put the new policy 
 into efect, and to those personal friends who did so 
 much to make happy the leisure hours of a political era 
 of high feeling. 
 
 It was frequently stated that I was filling up the 
 offices with Democratic politicians from the United 
 States. I brought six appointees over from America 
 in all my years of office, four of whom might perhaps 
 be called political, in the sense that they were recom- 
 mended by party leaders ; the other two were selected 
 not for party reasons, but because of special fitness for 
 the positions they occupied: Dr. Bernard Herstein, 
 who had won the high esteem of the Ways and Means 
 Committee in Washington for his work as a tariff 
 specialist, I appointed Collector of Customs; and 
 Stephen Bonsai, the well-known author, I chose as my 
 secretary. Five of my six appointees from home were 
 soon driven from the Philippines and out of the service 
 by the hostility and bitterness of their fellow-Ameri- 
 cans in Manila. Even at the very end of my service a 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, the 
 Hon. Percy M. Moir, who for many years previous to 
 my arrival had been in the islands as a judge, and was 
 honored by the general public, resigned with the state- 
 ment to me that he could no longer stand the hatred 
 and abuse of his fellow-Americans, whose animosity 
 was caused by the fact that he was a Democrat. 
 
 Race prejudice is one of the most poisonous growths 
 of modern times. It was unknown in the Eoman Em- 
 pire, when citizenship was conferred upon all annexed
 
 58 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 populations ; an African of negro descent, indeed, once 
 ascended the imperial throne at Rome. Throughout 
 the middle ages there are few evidences of race preju- 
 dice. Educated men generally spoke Latin in those 
 days and a man of position was at home in any country. 
 With the rise of the principle of nationality, the domi- 
 nant note of the last two hundred years, has come also 
 a tendency on the part of each nation to distrust if not 
 dislike the citizens of all others. Even to-day race 
 prejudice drawn upon the color line is not aggressive 
 in those countries of Europe which once formed the 
 backbone of the Roman Empire. Outside the Anglo- 
 Saxon races, it is hardly known in other portions of 
 the world. Among our people it is probably based 
 upon our experiences with negro slavery, an institution 
 which was the curse of the United States until 1865, 
 and has left behind the heritage of hatred and passion. 
 The Filipinos are in no single respect, as far as I can 
 observe, like the negro race. Yet the American living 
 in the Philippines and among other large Oriental 
 populations shows that prejudice against color is the 
 most deep-seated of his racial instincts. It is a matter 
 concerning which no argument can be sustained and no 
 calm judgment exercised. It is there, as a part of 
 American racial inheritance, and it raises a question 
 as to our qualifications for government or control of 
 vast colored populations. Many Americans in the 
 Philippines in fact most of them really like the Fili- 
 pinos individually, since the latter are courteous, self- 
 restrained, and refined in their social deportment ; they 
 are intelligent, modest, and agreeable personally. 
 Sexual crimes are extremely rare between the races 
 and, fortunately, intermarriage has not been of suffi-
 
 THE NEW ERA 59 
 
 cient frequence to complicate the situation. Both 
 races, Americans and Filipinos, disapprove of inter- 
 marriage, and interracial unions are not likely to be 
 happy ones, with the pressure of both communities in 
 opposition. In fact, among the Filipinos there have 
 been fewer marriages with Americans than with any 
 of the European peoples. The Filipinos contend that 
 the Germans have made the best husbands of any of the 
 white races, more faithful and more considerate. But 
 let no one approach a discussion of the Philippine prob- 
 lem without considering this delicate matter, the race 
 question, which is apt at any moment, and in the most 
 unexpected manner, to crop up and baffle the plans and 
 policies of all those who are in good faith wrestling 
 with public issues.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 FILIPINOS IN CONTROL OF LEGISLATURE 
 
 IT is not my intention to write here a history of the 
 Philippine Government during the past eight years. 
 As a participant in the work of that administration I 
 could not, in all probability, write impartially of it. 
 The records are all there, and it is too soon to pro- 
 nounce final judgment. Those of us who have been 
 connected with the administration have many times 
 given public expression to our purposes and public 
 record to our explanations. Most of it is already 
 embalmed in the mortuary of government reports on 
 file in Washington and Manila. Some Filipino his- 
 torian in the years to come will probably, from the 
 angle of vision afforded those who come after us, go 
 through the musty records of the past, and give to this 
 period a few chapters in a history of the Philippines. 
 My hope is that in this volume I may contribute 
 something of interest to the world-wide discussion 
 concerning the capacity of the tropical races for self- 
 government, as observed by one who has been engaged 
 in giving to the Filipinos the fullest possible oppor- 
 tunity to demonstrate such capacity. If for this pur- 
 pose government records and statistics are quoted, 
 it will be in the endeavor to show to what an extent 
 the Philippines have developed politically, economi- 
 cally, and otherwise materially, under their own 
 
 government. 
 
 60
 
 FILIPINOS IN CONTROL OF LEGISLATURE 61 
 
 It is impossible, however, to avoid frequent refer- 
 ence to the governor-general and his relation to the 
 general situation ; his position is by tradition the very 
 nerve-center of Philippine administration, and he is 
 given by law very full powers of supervision and con- 
 trol. It was one of my purposes to assign gradually to 
 the proper functionaries the responsibilities which 
 should be theirs. 
 
 The Governor-General of the Philippines receives a 
 salary of $18,000 a year from the Insular Treasury, 
 and the residence known as Malacanan Palace in 
 Manila is set aside for his use. The salary had been 
 $21,000, but was reduced, at my insistence and against 
 the wishes of members of the Legislature, during my 
 first weeks of office, when for reasons of vitally neces- 
 sary economy other salaries were being -cut. The 
 salaries of the Governor of Hong-Kong and the Gover- 
 nor-General of Java are about three times as high ; of 
 the Governor-General of British India about four or 
 five times as much. It costs the Governor-General of 
 the Philippines from twice to four times his salary to 
 live in Malacanan, according to his disposition in the 
 matters of entertaining and general style of living. 
 No motor-car is furnished him, and no servants, but he 
 has free light and water and a cottage allowed him in 
 the mountains in Baguio, known as the Mansion House. 
 Free music is provided for entertainments in Manila, 
 furnished by the Constabulary Band. Before leaving I 
 was instrumental in arranging that the appropriation 
 bill should provide for the "entertainment of dis- 
 tinguished guests" out of the $100,000 appropriated in 
 the General Purpose funds, when "approved by the 
 Council of State." This should lighten the financial
 
 62 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 burden of my successor. It was made use of once in 
 my last few months of office to the amount of about 
 $3000, to pay for the extraordinary expenditures neces- 
 sary for entertainment at Malacanan of the visitors 
 who were members of the Congressional party. 
 
 Malacanan Palace is one of the most comfortable and 
 delightful homes in the tropics. The Spaniards were 
 the best of all the European races as builders in the 
 hot countries, perhaps because they learned how to 
 build in their own. The English make themselves 
 miserable in the tropics by reproducing in every re- 
 spect possible the houses and methods of life of their 
 own cold climate. Malacanan was originally purchased 
 by the Spanish Government about a century ago as a 
 casita or country house, and has been added to from 
 time to time until it has now a huge floor space of old 
 hand-hewn hardwood, and is admirably fitted for large 
 entertainments. The balcony projects over the swiftly 
 flowing Pasig River, and there is generally a pleasant 
 breeze there, even during the hottest weather. The 
 thermometer in my room generally stood at 83, and 
 seldom went below 76 or above 89. The gardens 
 along the river are noted for the fairy-land illumina- 
 tion displayed at evening entertainments. Malacanan 
 has been greatly enlarged and modernized in the last 
 few years, and a beautiful new executive office build- 
 ing in the garden has just been completed. 
 
 In the disastrous earthquake of 1865 the big stone 
 palace of the governor-general, on what is now Plaza 
 McKinley, was totally destroyed, and the governor- 
 general moved temporarily into Malacanan; like so 
 much else that the Spanish intended as temporary, it 
 has become his permanent residence. When I settled
 
 FILIPINOS IN CONTROL OF LEGISLATURE 63 
 
 in Malacanan I was the ninety-fifth governor-general, 
 and served in that position for seven and a half years, 
 or longer than any one of the forty-four who had 
 directly preceded me, dating back to the eighteenth 
 century. The governor-general has an office in Mala- 
 canan, but when he was also President of the Philip- 
 pine Commission, which sat daily during the Legis- 
 lative sessions, it was customary for him to go to the 
 Ayuntamiento, or City Hall, every day for his office 
 work. 
 
 It was frequently charged that in my first months of 
 office I would not consult with "the Americans"; so 
 far as I am aware, I saw all Americans who wished 
 to advise with me, indeed, gave hours to that service, 
 day after day, year after year. The reai difficulty 
 was that I did not always take the advice, not of "the 
 Americans," but of certain Americans who had com- 
 posed what had been popularly known as the "kitchen 
 cabinet," or "polo cabinet" of recent years. Few of 
 them held official positions, and many of them seemed 
 to me to be inspired by private financial interests 
 rather than the public interest. Any one who has ever 
 held public executive office will know how very great a 
 part of his time is occupied in seeing people and re- 
 ceiving advice. This is particularly so in the Philip- 
 pines, where for ages a paternal government had been 
 conducted, with the governor-general, whether by law 
 or custom, the head and center of it all. Week after 
 week my time was occupied with receiving complaints, 
 advice, or requests, often from the same people again 
 and again. Finally I came to feel that my office was 
 not unlike that of a medical man : persons came to me 
 only when in trouble, and for consultation and relief.
 
 64 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 At the very beginning I made of record the fact 
 that I had come to govern the islands in consultation 
 also with the Filipinos. I was thus brought into im- 
 mediate and daily contact with Mr. Sergio Osmena, the 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives, president of 
 the Nacionalista party and the leading representative 
 of the Filipino people. This remarkable man had 
 already been Speaker for five years, and still holds 
 that office. I found him extremely well informed, not 
 only about Philippine affairs, but about American his- 
 tory and Constitutional law. Wise, astute, and cau- 
 tious, of an impressive personality, he was also pos- 
 sessed of most remarkably courteous good manners, 
 which never failed him. For the past thirteen years 
 he and Mr. Quezon have been the dominant personal- 
 ities in Philippine politics. I have never heard either 
 of them speak a word of criticism or ill-will against the 
 United States or the American people, and only very 
 rarely against an individual American. They have 
 always had a faith in our country and an appreciation 
 of what our country has done for their people far above 
 the petty level of political and racial feelings in 
 Manila. 
 
 Our first duty was to select for recommendation to 
 the President the names of the new Filipino majority 
 in the commission which was promised by his message. 
 Mr. Osmena furnished a list of a dozen names, and we 
 proposed to submit them for approval to the Philip- 
 pine Assembly, so that all the elected representatives 
 of the people might have a share in the selection, but 
 this plan was vetoed by the Secretary of War. I then 
 consulted Chief Justice Arellano, Resident Commis- 
 sioners Quezon and Earnshaw, and Colonel Harbord,
 
 FILIPINOS IN CONTROL OF LEGISLATURE 65 
 
 Chief of Constabulary. The five names agreed upon 
 were cabled to the Secretary of War, and the com- 
 missioners were shortly nominated by the President 
 and confirmed by the Senate, as follows: Victorino 
 Mapa of Iloilo as Secretary of Finance and Justice; 
 Rafael Palma of Manila, for several years already a 
 member of the commission, for reappointment ; Vi- 
 cente Ilustre of Batangas ; Jaime de Veyra of Leyte ; 
 and Vicente Singson-Encarnacion of Ilocos Sur. 
 Palma and De Veyra were members of the Nacion- 
 alista party, Mapa sympathetically inclined to that 
 party, Ilustre an independent, and Singson the leader 
 of the Progresista party in the House of Representa- 
 tives. For nearly three years, until the change of 
 government under the Jones Act, we worked. together 
 through seasons of political excitement and turmoil 
 with perfect harmony and mutual good-will. It may 
 serve to illustrate the types of older Filipino leaders to 
 describe these commissioners here. 
 
 Secretary Mapa, who sat for twelve years upon the 
 Philippine Supreme Court bench, is short of stature 
 and dignified in demeanor. He served in Spanish days 
 as Alcalde (or Mayor) of the City of Iloilo. His cour- 
 tesy and modesty are so great that none but his intimate 
 friends know his rare sense of humor and fund of 
 anecdotes and proverbs. Some of his best stories are 
 of playing tresillo (cards) with Governor-General 
 Weyler, who was a short man like himself, with a ter- 
 rific military reputation and menacing gestures; Mr. 
 Mapa incidentally points out that General Weyler in 
 all his long life had never once been under fire himself. 
 As a member of the commission, Mr. Mapa's services 
 were invaluable; nobody in the islands has a better
 
 66 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 legal mind, and he was constantly appealed to by his 
 colleagues for his opinion on all legal points, never 
 offering his advice in general discussions until it was 
 asked. He was generous and kindly always, but in a 
 parliamentary fight, once he had made up his mind, 
 he was absolutely fearless, a veritable little Lion of 
 Justice. His face is like an engraving of a French 
 statesman of the seventeenth century, and his sense 
 of honor and fair play are above all party or political 
 considerations. He was recently made Chief Justice of 
 the Supreme Court, to succeed the late Chief Justice 
 Cavetona Arellano, but had to resign his position be- 
 fore a year of incumbency, on account of ill-health. 
 
 Rafael Palma is generally considered the third man 
 in Filipino politics. His somewhat severe and melan- 
 choly face frequently lights up with an unexpected and 
 sunny smile, as his sense of humor is pronounced. He 
 has a good legal mind, rare literary ability, and a 
 talent for public speaking ; and he speaks in the choic- 
 est Spanish. He is modest and industrious, and a loyal 
 party man, upon whom a large part of the burden of 
 party management was placed by Speaker Osmena. 
 His service in the House of Representatives, the com- 
 mission, the Philippine Senate, and on the Board of 
 Regents of the University of the Philippines has been 
 marked by absolute integrity and by a devotion to the 
 cause of public instruction. As Secretary of the In- 
 terior he handled successfully many of the most deli- 
 cate problems of the Government. Just and fair, he 
 is popular with Americans and Filipinos alike. Being 
 a very poor man, he has recently retired from the 
 cabinet to enter business, as he has, in the Filipino 
 fashion, a large and growing family.
 
 FILIPINOS IN CONTROL OF LEGISLATURE 67 
 
 Jaime de Veyra was governor of the great province 
 of Leyte during the troublesome days of the uprising 
 of the pulajans, or outlaws, about fifteen years ago. 
 His literary ability is marked, and illuminates his re- 
 ports and papers, as he served an apprenticeship as a 
 newspaper editor. He has held office in the House of 
 Representatives and the commission and as Secretary 
 of Commerce and Police, and then as Executive Secre- 
 tary of the Government. His charming wife is a great 
 asset to him, with her facility for making and keeping 
 friends among the American Congressional ladies, 
 since Don Jaime is now one of the two Representatives 
 in Congress from the Philippines. He is of a thick-set 
 figure, somewhat darker than his colleagues, and of a 
 very serious turn of mind, rarely smiling or talking 
 except when he has something to say, when he develops 
 a rather unexpected eloquence. He is extremely tender- 
 hearted and inclined to sentiment. 
 
 Vicente Hustre has dark and handsome features, 
 and is possessed of much dignity and grace of manner. 
 He served as a member of the Revolutionary Junta in 
 Hong-Kong during the insurrection, and since then has 
 practised law and watched over his sugar plantations 
 in Batangas. He came from private life to the commis- 
 sion, where he did arduous and valuable work in draft- 
 ing the laws for the reformation of the Justice of the 
 Peace service, and also the new code for the govern- 
 ment of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, in 
 1914. He, like Mr. Mapa and Mr. Singson, has consid- 
 erable wealth, and lives in a luxurious home surrounded 
 with all comforts and with works of art. Mr. Ilustre 
 was always something of an insurrecto in politics, and 
 though he gained a seat for the short term in the Sen-
 
 68 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 ate, in 1916, lie was ousted by his opponent in 1918 and 
 has since practised law. He is rather more suspicious 
 of the intentions of the United States than are his col- 
 leagues, and is aggressively in favor of the immediate 
 independence of his country. His education was com- 
 pleted in Madrid in the later days of Spanish domina- 
 tion, and he has imbibed there some of the old-world 
 cynicism as to the promises and agreements of nations. 
 
 Vicente Singson is a tall, slow-moving figure of 
 the mestizo type. He is an able public speaker, and 
 has served in the House of Representatives, the com- 
 mission, and the Senate. He is a Conservative and his 
 interests are largely those of business and finance. 
 Humor seldom disturbs his dignity, but his manners 
 are affability and courtesy personified. His talents are 
 those of the world of commerce, rather than of legisla- 
 tive halls, but he is ready and able to advance his 
 views and defend his opinions on all occasions. His 
 presence strengthened the business side of the com- 
 mission. Like Mr. Palma, he has been to the United 
 States twice, and seems to like American customs and 
 ideas. 
 
 I find on reading over these descriptive sketches of 
 my first Filipino colleagues that I have stressed the 
 dignity of them all ; they are all of the older type and 
 generation, and of them only Mr. Palma speaks Eng- 
 lish readily ; none have had an American public-school 
 education. Dignity of demeanor is essentially an 
 Oriental characteristic, dignity with ian impassive 
 tinge. In the expression of most of the older Filipinos 
 there is a trace of melancholy, as there is in all the Fili- 
 pino music of older days, the mark of centuries of 
 service as a subject race. Men of the younger genera-
 
 FILIPINOS IN CONTROL OF LEGISLATURE 69 
 
 tion, already coming upon the stage in business and 
 public affairs, look full of hope, ambition, and Ameri- 
 can hustle. Upon first acquaintance, Americans are 
 not aware of the sense of fun of the Filipinos; their 
 solemnity is an affair of manner rather than of mind. 
 I remember several meetings of the all-Filipino Coun- 
 cil of State in which the bursts of laughter must have 
 disconcerted the officials on the other side of the swing- 
 doors. Loyal friends, good companions, dependable 
 advisers I regret leaving them all. 
 
 In public affairs I found them ever conscientious 
 and patriotic, with a fine sense of the respect owed 
 the United States Government, and a due consciousness 
 of obligation to their own people. Never was an anti- 
 American measure introduced intentionally. They 
 realized that the Filipinos were on trial, and that they 
 themselves were the representatives of their fellow- 
 countrymen before the world. Hardly a possible prob- 
 lem of government but came before the commission or 
 the Council of State during these years. I found them 
 in debate, and in the care with which they cast their 
 votes, as full of responsibility and of intelligent under- 
 standing as any legislators I have known anywhere. 
 Those departments of government which they had 
 never possessed before, and which were therefore new 
 to them, were studied with the utmost care and delib- 
 eration. In later chapters I shall discuss the develop- 
 ment of Filipino governmental abilities. 
 
 Within a few months the membership of the Philip- 
 pine Commission was completed by President Wilson, 
 and there arrived from the United States the new 
 American members, Vice-Governor Henderson S. 
 Martin, a progressive Democrat from Kansas, genial 

 
 70 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 and sunny-tempered, with a decided leaning toward all 
 liberal and democratic ideas; Winfred T. Denison, 
 Secretary of the Interior, sensitive and high-minded, 
 one of the Progressive Bepublicans from New York, 
 loyally devoted to the principle of Filipino self-gov- 
 ernment; and Clinton L. Biggs of Baltimore, Secre- 
 tary of Commerce and Police, a Democrat of the most 
 conservative type, whose bias in favor of the generally 
 accepted standards of colonial government soon earned 
 for him among the resident Americans the nickname 
 of "the White Hope." 
 
 General Biggs was a most charming social com- 
 panion, and a most difficult colleague in government. 
 He was, from the very beginning, out of sympathy with 
 the new policy in the Philippines, and, I think, came 
 out with the idea of replacing me when my removal 
 was accomplished by the campaign then under way. 
 He was closely in the confidence of the Secretary of 
 War, who also was greatly disturbed at the reports 
 coming from the Philippines ; and although Secretary 
 Garrison subsequently became disgusted with the mis- 
 information about the Philippines which was being dis- 
 seminated through the United States, and in a spirit 
 of generous indignation entered into a sharp contro- 
 versy with Mr. Taft in the public press in defense of 
 my administration, I am sure he would, himself, say 
 that he never really sympathized with our radical plans 
 in the Philippines; indeed, it will be remembered 
 that his resignation as Secretary of War was based 
 partly upon his dissatisfaction with the speedy prepa- 
 rations for Philippine independence. General Biggs 
 stood firmly upon his interpretation of the law which 
 gave the governor-general only "supervision" of the
 
 FILIPINOS IN CONTROL OF LEGISLATURE 71 
 
 other department secretaries ; he told me that l l super- 
 vision" gave only an advisory power, and no right of 
 interference in his department, which included the 
 Philippine Constabulary, of which by law the governor- 
 general was commander-in-chief. The Jones Act of 
 1916 cleared up this controversy by giving the gover- 
 nor-general "supervision and control" over all depart- 
 ments of government. During the eighteen months of 
 our controversy, General Riggs and I, after the fashion 
 of Anglo-Saxons, managed to remain, personally and 
 socially, good friends. He went home ill in the summer 
 of 1915, and his resignation was accepted by the Presi- 
 dent in December of that year. 
 
 Poor Denison was the official who suffered most from 
 the troublesome political storms of those early days; 
 his was a spontaneous, frank, and sincere nature, and 
 he was genuinely inspired with a desire to bring self- 
 government to the Filipinos. He was not of the stern 
 stuff necessary to face public criticism and abuse. 
 Within his first few months he made a speech at the 
 City Club in Manila in which he advocated giving the 
 Filipinos their rights, or, as he phrased it, "give them 
 what they want. ' ' He at once became the target for a 
 veritable bombardment of ridicule and abuse from the 
 "organization," and his spirit was completely shat- 
 tered. He left the Philippines a year later, in a most 
 melancholy frame of mind, absolutely broken on the 
 wheel of the "organization's" criticism. 
 
 Vice-Governor Martin, of a serene and well-balanced 
 disposition, rode the waves successfully and rendered 
 excellent service in the commission. His chief work 
 was in the public schools, in founding the Rural Credit 
 Association system, and in drafting and forcing
 
 72 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 through, the charter of the Philippine National Bank. 
 He resigned in the autumn of 1916, and I think has 
 since regretted that he did not remain to carry on the 
 work he liked so well. He was a valuable and much 
 valued pillar of support in our Philippine policy. He 
 was succeeded in June, 1917, by Vice-Governor Charles 
 E. Yeater of Missouri, at the present writing acting 
 Governor-General of the Philippines. 
 
 To the Filipinos, the majority upon the commission 
 meant that the dead-lock as to appropriations and 
 other important measures would be broken instantane- 
 ously, and that in the selection of their higher officials, 
 such as bureau chiefs, and judges of the First In- 
 stance, they were to have the controlling vote in the 
 commission, to which, by existing law, such nomina- 
 tions were sent for confirmation. Long-standing 
 grievances which they wished to remove were now in 
 their hands for settlement. Above all, the new policy 
 was a recognition of their political rights and race 
 dignity, for which they showed immediate gratitude. 
 The morning after the announcement of the new step 
 forward, "La Vanguardia," the leading Filipino 
 paper, theretofore a very resolute opponent of Amer- 
 ican policies in the islands, expressed in Spanish the 
 general sentiment editorially under the heading 
 "Dawn of the New Era" as follows: 
 
 MAGICAL EFFECT OF PRESIDENT'S GRAVE AND 
 
 DIGNIFIED MESSAGE . . . 
 
 COMPLETE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALL HITHERTO EXISTING 
 PREJUDICES AND A GREAT IMPROVEMENT IN 
 
 POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 Much has already been said and written in regard to the 
 necessity of a better understanding, of harmony and coopera- 
 tion, but, hitherto, results have been always negative and all
 
 FILIPINOS IN CONTROL OF LEGISLATURE 73 
 
 efforts seemed fruitless. Matters went from bad to worse. 
 Now, however, it has been sufficient for the chosen represen- 
 tative of President Wilson to make a simple and frank state- 
 ment of policy, and the situation as a result is completely 
 changed. These statements have been sufficient to revive in 
 a most admirable and complete manner the faith of Filipinos 
 in the justice of the American people, and all prejudices and 
 misunderstandings that have grown up in the past have been 
 immediately wiped away. As a result, it can be said that 
 since the decided views of the Democratic Administration 
 have been announced never before in our mutual history have 
 respect and consideration of American sovereignty been as 
 firmly rooted in these islands as it is now. 
 
 The editor of the * * Vanguardia, " Mr. Alejandro 
 Roces, the most influential and independent daily pub- 
 lisher in the islands, maintained the same attitude un- 
 swervingly during my whole administration. His un- 
 selfish patriotism and determined freedom from any 
 official connections lent weight to his opinions. 
 
 Upon the day after the delivery of the first message 
 to the Legislature October 16, 1913 the Philippine 
 Assembly gave official expression to similar views in a 
 resolution, reciting the firm stand of the Filipino people 
 for immediate independence from the day of the insur- 
 rection against Spain in 1896, through all trials and 
 vicissitudes, and their patient confidence that ultimate- 
 ly the United States Government would redress ''all 
 errors and injustices." The resolution concluded as 
 follows : 
 
 We believe that, happily, the experiments of imperialism 
 have come to an end, and that colonial exploitation has passed 
 into history. The epoch of mistrust has been closed. ... A 
 few days have sufficed to bring about a good understanding 
 between Americans and Filipinos, which it had been impos- 
 sible to establish during the thirteen years past. We are 
 convinced that every onward step, while relieving the Amer-
 
 74 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 lean Government of its responsibilities in the Islands, will, 
 as in the past, fully demonstrate the present capacity of the 
 Filipino people to establish a government of its own and 
 guarantee in a permanent manner the safety under such 
 government of the life, property and liberty of the residents 
 of the Islands, national as well as foreign. We do not wish 
 to say by this that there will not be difficulties and embarrass- 
 ments. Nor do we even expect that the campaign, open or 
 concealed, of the enemies of the Filipino cause will cease soon, 
 but we feel sure that through a conservative use of the powers 
 entrusted to us, the Filipino people will, with God's favor 
 and the help of America, emerge triumphantly from the test, 
 however difficult it may be. 
 
 A few days later, when the Filipino majority was 
 appointed to the commission, the new commissioners 
 cabled their thanks to the President, accepting the 
 offices in order to ' ' aid the work of laying down a basis 
 for a stable, free Filipino Government." A joint 
 meeting of the Legislature on October 31, 1913, resolved 
 "that the principle of immediate action has taken the 
 place of the announcement of promises." These quo- 
 tations have been given not only to show the response 
 of the Filipino mind to the new policy, but for the light 
 they cast upon past history in the islands. For a cen- 
 tury at least the home government, first of Spain and 
 then of the United States, had, in moments of liberal 
 impulse, promised reforms and made political profes- 
 sions, and then turned to other matters and left the 
 field to the forces of reaction and inaction.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 FlLIPINIZATION 
 
 A Filipino majority on the commission was re- 
 garded by the Americans in the service as a 
 weapon aimed straight at them. At one stroke they 
 had lost their power of complete domination. They 
 still held control, however, of the executive branches 
 of the Government. To be sure, of the nine thousand 
 members of the Classified Civil Service in 1913, only 
 twenty-six hundred were Americans, but the latter held 
 all but half a dozen of the higher offices. This was one 
 of the chief sources of resentment on the part of the 
 Filipino people. How were they to prove their capac- 
 ity if they were not given a responsible share in the 
 administration? There were in 1913 actually more 
 Americans in the Civil Service than in 1907 or 1908. 
 The resentment of the Filipinos over this state of af- 
 fairs has a respectable precedent in our own history. 
 The Declaration of Independence says of George the 
 Third : "He has erected a multitude of new offices, and 
 sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, 
 and eat out their substance." 
 
 Some bureaus, such as the Customs, were full of 
 Americans in merely clerical positions. What, asked 
 the Filipinos, had become of the instructions of Presi- 
 dent McKinley thirteen years before? He had laid 
 down the rule to the second Philippine Commission 
 ' ' that in all cases the municipal officers, who administer 
 
 75
 
 76 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 the local affairs of the people, are to be selected by 
 the people, and that wherever officers of more ex- 
 tended jurisdiction are to be selected in any way, 
 natives of the islands are to be preferred, and if 
 they can be found competent and willing to per- 
 form the duties, they are to receive the offices in prefer- 
 ence to any others." What, moreover, had been done 
 in the enforcement of Section 6 of the existing Civil 
 Service Act, which required the appointing officer to 
 select, "where other qualifications were equal, first, 
 Filipinos ; secondly, honorably discharged persons from 
 the American military or naval service; thirdly, citi- 
 zens of the United States? This had been one of the 
 long-standing issues between the Filipinos and the then 
 administration, this and the high salaries paid to the 
 more important officials, a subject which was accen- 
 tuated by the dangerous financial position of the Gov- 
 ernment. I heard it recently stated in the British 
 House of Commons that the insurrection of 1920 in 
 Mesopotamia was directly caused by the policy of em- 
 ploying too many British officials in that new state. 
 
 In these circumstances it was highly desirable to 
 gain the confidence of the Filipino people by some 
 move to show them the sincerity of the new administra- 
 tion. They were tired of oft-repeated promises, so 
 slow in fulfilment. There was an undercurrent of feel- 
 ing among them that the existing organization would 
 be too strong for us ; while local American sentiment on 
 the matter was that I should not dare to take any 
 further steps, and should soon be relieved of office in 
 any event. The Filipinos in responsible positions, such 
 as Messrs. Osmena and Quezon, were in a difficult sit- 
 uation. They were pledged to the policy of Filipiniza-
 
 FILIPINIZATION 77 
 
 tion, and yet were fearful of the opposition which would 
 be aroused in the United States with all the existing 
 danger of having the true state of affairs misunder- 
 stood and misrepresented there. Nevertheless, we de- 
 cided to cut the Gordian knot, though we understood 
 perfectly that this was the most difficult and perplexing 
 task before us. The administration for the past dec- 
 ade had been carried on by an organization of some 
 fifty chiefs and assistant chiefs of bureaus and offices, 
 who were not in the Classified Civil Service, being ap- 
 pointed by the governor-general and confirmed by the 
 commission. The bureau chiefs were the active agents 
 who carried out the policies of the administration 
 Their power had increased to such an extent in certain 
 instances that they had assumed an attitude of rivalry 
 and antagonism toward one another, if not toward the 
 Government itself, like the feudal barons of old ; their 
 " prestige" was all-important, and they were generally 
 inspired with a disbelief in the ability of the Filipinos 
 to carry on any important work of government. They 
 stood together upon that issue, like the Old Guard at 
 Waterloo, ready to die, but never to surrender. If 
 not in accord with the policy of the department heads 
 and of the Legislature, they could block to a very large 
 extent the working out of any reform. The new policy 
 would be impossible if bureau chiefs were to perform 
 political sabotage with the official machinery. Only 
 two of the chiefs or assistant chiefs of bureaus were 
 then Filipinos. The problem of Filipinization of the 
 bureaus was, therefore, one of the first magnitude, and 
 bound to cause strife. 
 
 The first step taken was to give a majority of Fili- 
 pinos upon the Municipal Board of the City of Manila,
 
 78 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 then chiefly appointive; the mayor is nominated by 
 the governor-general, so this reform was but following 
 in the footsteps of the Washington administration in 
 the appointment of the new Philippine Commission. 
 In the bureaus of the Insular Government, it was de- 
 cided to retain Americans as chiefs, for the most part, 
 and appoint Filipinos as assistant chiefs whenever 
 vacancies occurred, for a period of probation ; this was 
 done in the bureaus of Internal Revenue, Prisons, Agri- 
 culture, and Health, during the first year. 
 
 Among the half-dozen resignations I asked in the 
 directorships or assistant-directorships of bureaus, 
 only one was asked for political reasons, that is, in 
 the sense of American politics. The Republican Na- 
 tional Committeeman was chief of an important bu- 
 reau, and I believed it would be difficult to carry out the 
 new policy with him in that influential position. The 
 resignation of th,e Director of the Bureau of Lands was 
 requested because he had been sponsor for the sale of 
 large tracts of public lands to corporations in contra- 
 vention of the wishes of the Filipino people and the 
 views of my party in Washington. In his place I ap- 
 pointed Manuel Tinio, a capable Filipino, then Di- 
 rector of Labor. The Assistant Director of the Bureau 
 of Lands, an American, at once resigned, stating that 
 he would not serve under a Filipino. 
 
 Insubordination immediately developed in the Bu- 
 reau of Printing, through the director and assistant 
 director. They had read in the local papers a state- 
 ment that salaries were to be cut, and wired to Wash- 
 ington and to the Typographical Union in the United 
 States. Had they come to me I could have assured 
 them that the Legislature had under consideration only
 
 FILIPINIZATION 79 
 
 the reduction of salaries above $3000, and that their 
 employees would not be affected. Instead, they secret- 
 ly attempted to array the great power of one of the 
 most important American labor unions against the ad- 
 ministration. I therefore accepted their resignations 
 immediately, and appointed a subordinate in their 
 office, E. E. Gessler, one of the strongest union men in 
 the service, as Director of Printing. The Director of 
 Printing thus relieved, John S. Leech, had while in 
 Washington caused much trouble to President Roose- 
 velt, and since his transfer to the Philippines had fre- 
 quently proved a storm-center in Manila. 
 
 The resignation of the Chief of Police of Manila 
 and of the prosecuting attorney of the city were re- 
 quested for purely administrative reasons; the As- 
 sistant Chief of Police, an American, was promoted, 
 and Filipinos appointed as prosecuting attorney and 
 city attorney ; two of the bureau chiefs, F. W. Taylor, 
 Director of Agriculture, and Mortimer L. Stewart, 
 Director of Prisons, soon voluntarily resigned, much 
 against my wishes, the former to return to the United 
 States and the latter to become editor of a local news- 
 paper. Judge Crossfield voluntarily resigned from 
 the Court of First Instance, to my great regret, in or- 
 der to enter private practice. Other changes were 
 chiefly promotions in the service. Solicitor-General 
 George E. Harvey was appointed to the bench, and 
 Eafael Corpus, a Filipino, made Solicitor-General. A 
 vacancy occurring in the position of Executive Secre- 
 tary of the Government, Attorney-General Ignacio 
 Villamor, a Filipino, was appointed to that important 
 position, virtually the head of the bureau chiefs, and 
 Judge Ramon Avancena of the Court of First Instance
 
 80 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 was made Attorney-General. The Deputy Collector of 
 Internal Eevenue, an American, whose usefulness was 
 somewhat impaired by superannuation, was displaced 
 by the appointment of General Venancio Concepcion, 
 a Filipino. 
 
 These, then, were the principal steps in Filipiniza- 
 tion in the early months of the administration. In only 
 five cases in the insular service and four cases in the 
 service of the City of Manila were resignations forced 
 upon officers of the Government. Not a very radical 
 move, one might think, but sufficient to arouse a whirl- 
 wind of criticism on the part of the local American 
 political junta. The papers in the United States were 
 filled with charges that I was destroying the Govern- 
 ment in the Philippines, and even that I was giving all 
 official positions to " deserving Democrats," a charge 
 which was soon dropped, however, for entire lack of 
 foundation, and this despite the enormous mass of 
 requests for appointments from my many personal 
 acquaintances in Congress. Disorganization of the 
 Civil Service and ''wholesale removals" therefrom 
 were alleged. In answer I quote from a statement of 
 November 13, 1913, by Dr. Bolivar L. Falconer, who 
 soon thereafter left the post of Philippine Director of 
 Civil Service for serious reasons of health, and is now 
 Secretary of the United States Civil Service Commis- 
 sion for New England. He reported: "You have not 
 removed any American from the classified Civil Serv- 
 ice. Unquestionably the letter and spirit of the Civil 
 Service Act and Rules have been strictly observed 
 during the period October 6, 1913, to date. ' ' 
 
 There had, in the past, been little permanency in the 
 American personnel of the Philippine Civil Service;
 
 FILIPINIZATION 81 
 
 in the ten preceding years an average of 646 Ameri- 
 cans had each year left the Classified Civil Service, 
 for voluntary or involuntary reasons, some 22 per cent, 
 of the total. For the period of a year from the date of 
 my arrival, the number was 716, but their places were 
 filled by Filipinos, not by Americans brought over for 
 the purpose. 
 
 Comparatively few of the Americans, from the 
 very beginning, had been trained for the service. 
 Many of them were ex-officers or soldiers of the volun- 
 teer army of invasion of the Philippines ; many others, 
 young men lured to the tropics by the hope of adven- 
 ture or of making a career there. Many of them had 
 developed into useful and unselfish public servants; 
 some of them were men of truly remarkable ability; 
 others had merely ''hung on" in clerical positions. 
 The truth is that the Americans in the Philippine 
 service have always been a shifting body of restless, 
 ambitious, and adventurous young men. 
 
 The rapid progress of Filipinization, however, led 
 to genuine alarm among American officials and em- 
 ployees. To some of them it really seemed as if the 
 immediate end of the official life of them all was at 
 hand, especially upon reading President Wilson's ref- 
 erence to the Philippine situation in his Message to 
 Congress of December 2, 1913, in which he said, refer- 
 ring to his creation of a Filipino majority on the com- 
 mission: 
 
 I believe that in this way we shall make proof of their 
 capacity in counsel and their sense of responsibility in the 
 exercise of political power, and that the success of this step 
 will be sure to clear our view for the steps which are to follow. 
 Step by step we should extend and perfect the system of self-
 
 82 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 government in the Islands, making test of them and modifying 
 them as experience discloses their successes and their failures ; 
 that we should more and more put under the control of the 
 native citizens of the Archipelago the essential instruments 
 of their life, their local instrumentalities of government, their 
 schools, all the common interests of the communities, and so 
 by counsel and experience set up a government which all the 
 word will see to be suitable to a people whose affairs are 
 under their own control at last. I hope and believe that 
 we are beginning to gain the confidence of the Filipino peoples. 
 By their counsel and experience rather than by our own we 
 shall learn how best to serve them and how soon it will be 
 possible and wise to withdraw our supervision. Let us once 
 find the path and set out with firm and confident tread upon 
 it and we shall not wander from it or linger upon it. 
 
 The nervousness of Americans in the service in- 
 creased from week to week for the first few months ; the 
 excitement among them was continually fed by the 
 skilful efforts of opponents of the new policy, in the 
 press and on the platform. Secretary Garrison, on 
 July 22, 1914, felt it necessary to answer one of the 
 many statements put forth by the imperialists. He 
 said : 
 
 In some papers statements were made that as many as 
 500 Spanish-American War veterans had been discharged 
 by the new administration in the Philippines. This whole 
 statement is so wide of the truth that I desire to state the 
 facts. 
 
 He then pointed out that during the first four months 
 of the new administration, instead of five hundred, 
 there had been dropped, of ex-soldiers or ex-sailors, 
 
 ... a total of 22, not half of whom were Spanish War vet- 
 erans. Of this number, four have been transferred to the 
 United States Civil Service in the Islands, and six were trans- 
 ferred to the United States Civil Service at home. This total
 
 FILIPINIZATION 83 
 
 of ten who were transferred to the civil service included every 
 man on the list who applied for transfer. 
 
 Other rumors which were widely circulated by the 
 press at this time were as far removed from the facts 
 as the foregoing. Eeports of business depression and 
 of the abandonment of the annual Manila carnival were 
 spread broadcast, but the carnival that year was a rec- 
 ord-breaker ; and as the Philippines soon entered upon 
 a period of unprecedented prosperity, another weapon 
 had to be discarded. 
 
 Next, rumors of destitution among Americans as a 
 result of the policy of Filipinization began to appear 
 in the press. Upon investigation, it was reported by 
 the Chief of Police, Colonel George Seaver, that there 
 were fewer destitute Americans in Manila than at any 
 previous time in American occupation, and that no 
 American was in want. Americans "out of a job" 
 were mostly discharged employees of the Quartermas- 
 ter's Department of the United States Army, and not 
 of the Insular Government. Although a number of 
 Americans during these months left the service to enter 
 private business, it was for the most part greatly to 
 their own ultimate pecuniary advantage. Those who 
 failed did so principally because they were unfitted 
 for a life of work in the tropics. An example of this 
 was the fate of the Agricultural Colony at Momungan 
 in Mindanao, founded in 1914 by government subsidy 
 as a method of employment for deserving cases of the 
 humbler class of Americans out of work, mostly those 
 with Filipino wives and families. The location selected 
 was excellent, the soil was good, access to markets was 
 provided, and the altitude of eleven hundred feet in-
 
 84 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 sured a reasonably good climate for outdoor labor. At 
 the end of three years all the Americans had left and 
 Filipinos were settled in their places. 
 
 One reason for the exodus of Americans from gov- 
 ernment service into private business was the prosper- 
 ity in commercial circles during the years 1915-19 ; an- 
 other, no doubt, was the new regulation put into effect 
 in December, 1913, absolutely prohibiting government 
 officials and employees from engaging in private busi- 
 ness enterprises. This well-established rule of the 
 British colonial service had not been in effect in the 
 Philippines, and in several instances its omission had 
 led to scandal. In many others private interests had 
 at the very least distracted the attention of the official 
 from his public duties. When faced with a choice a 
 number of the office-holders elected to keep their busi- 
 ness and retire from the public service. They have in 
 general made a genuine success in business, and are 
 now thankful for the step then taken. 
 
 All Americans who left the insular service with a 
 good record were entitled to certain payments by way 
 of accrued leave or otherwise. In February of 1916 
 the civil retirement act known as the Osmena Law was 
 adopted, by the terms of which those who applied be- 
 fore a certain date (since extended from year to year) 
 became entitled to a bonus of one year's salary for ten 
 years of service, in addition to their accrued leave; 
 those who had served less than ten years but more than 
 six years were entitled to a proportionate amount. 
 During the five years from 1916 to 1920 (inclusive), 
 913 Americans availed themselves of this privilege, 
 receiving Pesos 3,474,923 in gratuities, and 212 Fili- 
 pinos receiving Pesos 261,010.
 
 FILIPINIZATION 85 
 
 The echoes of the vigorous local fight against Fili- 
 pinization resounded down through the succeeding 
 seven years, and have colored much of the ''informa- 
 tion" given the American public during this period. 
 The policy was not accepted by the local Americans 
 generally until the passage by almost unanimous vote of 
 Congress of the Jones Act of August 29, 1916, con- 
 firming the state of progress in Filipinization and ad- 
 vancing it a step further. Even after this many "old- 
 timers" in Manila kept up the fight, more or less sub 
 rosa, though the American business houses generally 
 adopted this policy in their own office forces. 
 
 After the first few months, the process of trans- 
 ferring the offices to the Filipinos was accomplished 
 without any convulsive effort, effected naturally by the 
 simple means of filling the offices as they became vacant 
 through natural routine causes, by nomination, gen- 
 erally by promotion, of Filipinos. This process was 
 greatly accelerated when the United States entered 
 the war and a large proportion of the splendid Ameri- 
 cans then left in the service hastened to join the United 
 States Army. During these five years the Govern- 
 ment was gradually transformed from one of Ameri- 
 cans aided by Filipinos, to one of Filipinos assisted by 
 Americans. The act of transfer was sealed, signed, 
 and delivered by the passage by the United States Con- 
 gress of the Jones Law. 
 
 To the hundreds of Americans who accepted the 
 changes and stayed in the government service, promo- 
 tion was rapid, and was made without any reference 
 whatever to their home political affiliations; in fact, 
 far more Eepublicans than Democrats held office and 
 were promoted to higher posts under my administra-
 
 86 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 tion, owing, no doubt, to the fact that the overwhelm- 
 ing majority of Americans in the Philippines, both in 
 and out of the public service, are members of the Re- 
 publican party. 
 
 By 1921, with the exception of the bureaus of Edu- 
 cation, the Mint, Prisons, Forestry, Science, Weather, 
 the Quarantine service, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 
 and the Metropolitan Water District, the other thirty 
 bureaus and offices of the Government had Filipinos 
 either regularly appointed as chiefs or acting as such, 
 and in virtually all cases Filipinos were assistant 
 chiefs, in training for future greater responsibilities. 
 No disposition was shown at any time by the Filipinos 
 to desire offices of a technical nature, such as those 
 enumerated above, for which they had no men of suffi- 
 cient experience or training. It seems probable that 
 in the event of independence they will make an effort 
 to secure the services of American advisers or di- 
 rectors for bureaus of a scientific or technical nature, 
 after the manner of Japan during the first thirty years 
 of her entry into modern forms of government. 
 
 In the University of the Philippines, for example, 
 after Don Ignacio Villamor was appointed from the 
 presidency to the Supreme Court bench, a great effort 
 was made to secure a capable American to succeed 
 him; Jacob Gould Schurman and Professor John 
 Dewey of Columbia were among those approached for 
 the purpose ; finally, Dr. Guy Benton was selected. In 
 the Philippine National Bank, the first two presidents 
 were Americans, the next a Filipino, and now an Amer- 
 ican is again in charge. In tfye Bureau of Science, no 
 Filipino has as yet endeavored to secure appointment 
 as assistant chief, and in the Weather Bureau a Span-
 
 FILIPINIZATION 87 
 
 iard remains as chief and another has just been ap- 
 pointed assistant. As will be noted presently, Ameri- 
 cans were appointed managers of the two largest 
 government-ownership enterprises, the Manila Bail- 
 road Company and the National Coal Company. 
 
 Regarding the policy of Filipinization announced by 
 our Presidents from McKinley to "Wilson, and of the 
 specific provisions of the Jones Act, it will be seen that 
 while Filipinos have by now come to occupy most of 
 the posts of tactical or administrative power, they have 
 shown prudence in approaching the scientific or tech- 
 nical branches of office-holding, and they manifest a 
 genuine appreciation of the services of those Ameri- 
 cans who have continued to work for their welfare and 
 the development of their country. 
 
 It was customary for enthusiastic Americans under 
 prior regimes to claim for the United States all the 
 credit for the achievements of earlier years ; no men- 
 tion was made of the eagerness in cooperation of the 
 great numbers of Filipinos in subordinate positions 
 and in the provincial and municipal service. So, in the 
 later years of trial under the new form of government 
 granted by the Jones Act, it has been the custom for 
 patriotic Filipinos to claim for their own people all 
 the substantial accomplishments of the new adminis- 
 tration. This was natural enough in view of the situa- 
 tion ; they had been by American policies deliberately 
 put on trial as to their capacity. The fact is, how- 
 ever, that part of the credit was due to Americans who 
 so wisely and devotedly served the new government. 
 If mistakes have been made, and mistakes there have 
 been, here as elsewhere, criticism therefore should be 
 impartially distributed.
 
 88 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 It is customary to attribute to Filipinization an im- 
 pairment of efficiency of administration; it would be 
 only just to say that in many respects efficiency had 
 been gained, in that the new government had the sup- 
 port and cooperation of the people to a marked degree, 
 thus making much easier the task of administration. 
 The distribution of executive power and the exercise 
 of more genuine authority by many officials, the grad- 
 ual withdrawal of the central Government from minute 
 inspection and direction of minor functions in other 
 words, the extension of self-government and the 
 spread of democracy may in themselves have im- 
 paired somewhat the efficiency of administration. If 
 so, that disadvantage is more than offset by the gain 
 in contentment of the people, the growth of respect 
 and friendship for the United States, and the valuable 
 lessons in self-government secured by the Filipinos. 
 
 In a later chapter, more extended reference will be 
 made to the American policy of Filipinization, and the 
 profound effect it has had upon the relations of the 
 Filipinos to our country, as well as upon the colonial 
 policy of various European governments. 
 
 At the present time, with the change of administra- 
 tion in the United States, and consequently in the 
 Philippines, a great discussion is under way as to 
 whether the Filipinos have succeeded in their new 
 responsibilities; it is difficult for. political partizans 
 upon either side to state the case impartially; to pass 
 a fair judgment upon the situation requires freedom 
 from political bias and from race prejudice. With that 
 freedom, an impartial observer will, it is certain, be 
 struck with the real success attained by many if not
 
 FILIPINIZATION 89 
 
 most of the Filipino officials charged with heavy re- 
 sponsibility in an age of world-wide disturbance. 
 
 It is not unusual, in our own country, for a certain 
 type of campaign orators to claim for the party in 
 power all credit for the sunshine and the rains, for the 
 good crops and the prosperity of the people. It would 
 be difficult for a scientific observer to state in any 
 given case how much the well-being of the people of 
 any country is to be attributed to the activities and 
 policies of government, and how much to the people 
 themselves and to extraneous influences. It would 
 perhaps be invidious to claim for the Filipinos the 
 credit for the unprecedented prosperity of the islands 
 during the years 1917-19; it would be equally unjust 
 to blame them for the recession of prosperity in 1920- 
 21. It can, however, be positively stated that Ihe wave 
 of general satisfaction with their government and 
 with the United States made it much easier for the 
 Filipinos to meet and sustain the changes of prosperity 
 and depression. Of the great material advantage to 
 the United States of having during the war a loyal and 
 contented population in the Philippines, there can 
 be no doubt. 
 
 As to what concrete achievements are to be credited 
 to the Filipino officials, both in the Legislature and 
 in administrative branches, during these past eight 
 years, in which they have increasingly taken charge of 
 the government, more detailed analysis will presently 
 be made. This chapter might best be concluded with a 
 brief statement of the progress in certain lines from 
 1913 to 1921. It matters less what particular official, 
 American or Filipino, is to be credited with a specific 
 accomplishment than it does to note the spirit of the
 
 90 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 whole governmental body, admittedly under Filipino 
 control, both as to appropriations and as to policies 
 during this period. Within these eight years the mile- 
 age of first-class roads more than doubled, increasing 
 from 2233 kilometers to 4698 kilometers; 1620 per- 
 manent (concrete or steel) bridges were constructed; 
 725 permanent government buildings were built, in- 
 cluding schools, public markets, hospitals, provincial 
 capitols, and large and beautiful edifices for the uni- 
 versity and the Insular Government ; a nework of wire- 
 less stations was erected throughout the provinces; a 
 vast program of improvements in port works was 
 launched, and a bond issue of ten million pesos was 
 sold in the United States for harbor improvement in 
 Manila alone ; irrigation works estimated to cost about 
 ten million pesos, and designed to benefit 150,000 
 acres of land in sixteen different localities, were in- 
 itiated; 949 artesian wells in the different provinces, 
 an average of one to each municipality, were drilled 
 at a total cost of nearly two and one half million 
 pesos, and 55 new waterworks systems were installed 
 with 36 more under active construction, to cost more 
 than three million pesos. The artesian wells and new 
 waterworks are providing excellent water for approxi- 
 mately one and one half million persons who had 
 always previously been supplied with more or less 
 contaminated surface water. 
 
 The progress in agriculture, of which fuller men- 
 tion will presently be made, was remarkable; the 
 point of interest here is that the placing of Filipinos 
 in control of the agricultural departments greatly en- 
 larged the power of the Government to influence the 
 people to increased production. Of rice alone 625,000
 
 FILIPINIZATION 91 
 
 acres more were planted during these eight years ; 528 
 rural-credit societies were established, and cooperation 
 in agriculture, a new spirit among the farmers, en- 
 couraged and explained. In education the program 
 was enlarged by appropriations which were increased 
 from Pesos 7,600,000 in 1913 to Pesos 18,000,000 in 
 1920, thus allowing 300,000 more children to enter the 
 public schools ; taxation was revised and increased, and 
 the government revenue, which in 1913 had been only 
 Pesos 22,000,000, rose to Pesos 80,000,000 in 1919; 
 there are twelve banking institution in the islands now, 
 instead of only six, and the money in circulation has 
 risen from Pesos 50,000,000 in 1914 to three times that 
 figure. To conclude this list, last but not least must 
 be mentioned the legislation and administration during 
 these years which established friendship and mutual 
 understanding between the Christian Filipinos and 
 their non-Christian kinsmen, a movement carried out 
 with the same spirit of altruism as that which had 
 guided their American predecessors. This brief and 
 partial summary constitutes a record of which no peo- 
 ple need be ashamed.
 
 CHAPTER VH 
 
 THE MOBOS 
 
 WITHIN recent years in the United States, the 
 Moros have monopolized ninety-five per cent, 
 of the discussion of the Philippine problem, although 
 constituting but four per cent, of the population of the 
 Philippines. At the census of 1918 there were 358,968 
 Mohammedans (Moros) in the islands, while in the 
 same Department of the Philippines there lived 159,- 
 132 Christians and 205,555 pagans. About nine mil- 
 lion Christians inhabited the islands to the north. I 
 was obliged to make an important decision in the Moro 
 problem in the first two months after my arrival in 
 Manila. 
 
 The fame of the Moros was wide-spread through the 
 American army officers, who had fought them in many 
 a tight corner and had effected the conquest over 
 them which Spain had for three centuries sought in 
 vain. An amusing picture of Moro life was given to 
 the American public at home by George Ade 's operetta 
 "The Sultan of Sum." The personality of the Moro 
 is picturesque ; his history is stained with blood. 
 
 The Moro is of the same racial stock as the Christian 
 Filipino, of a later migration, perhaps, but a blood 
 brother, all the same. The chief difference is that 
 he is a Mohammedan, while ninety-two per cent, of the 
 Filipinos are Christians. The Moro Province, as con- 
 stituted in 1913, contained most of the great islands 
 
 92
 
 THE MOROS 93 
 
 of Mindanao, nearly as large as Luzon, and the Suhi 
 Archipelago, stretching right across to the shores of 
 Borneo. This region, potentially the richest part of 
 the Philippine Islands, is very sparsely settled, and 
 almost undeveloped, owing to the intractable nature 
 of the Moros, and their peculiar history. 
 
 At intervals during nearly three hundred years the 
 Spanish had sent expeditions against the Moros, and 
 succeeded only in maintaining a few garrisons on the 
 coast. The old walled city of Jolo (Sulu) looks like a 
 scene from an opera, but death awaited the luckless 
 outsider who ventured beyond its walls, until Wood and 
 Pershing broke the power of the Sulu Moros. 
 
 Instead of overcoming the Moros, the Spaniards, 
 who gave them that name in remembrance of the Mo- 
 hammedan Moors with whom they had for centuries 
 contended in the home peninsula, only made a bad situ- 
 ation worse. For their own purposes and protection, 
 they had completely disarmed the Christian Filipinos, 
 and left them defenseless against the sea-pirates of 
 the southern islands. Again and again the Moros sal- 
 lied forth in small, swift-sailing vessels, in bands of 
 two or three hundred well-armed warriors, and raided 
 the coast villages to the north for plunder and for 
 slaves. The Spaniards were utterly unable to cope 
 with them. Their raids were to a great extent stopped 
 by Dutch and English gunboats in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, and finally the United States, in the twentieth 
 century, broke their military power. As late as 1870 
 Moro raids were suffered in the Straits of San Ber- 
 nardino, at the southern end of Luzon. All along the 
 shores of the Philippines stood little stone watch- 
 towers and the cry "Hay Moros en la costal" caused
 
 94 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 a panic in the near-by towns and a hurried flight to 
 the mountains. Constant intermarriage with the 
 women raided from the northern islands kept alive the 
 kinship with the Filipinos. 
 
 The "treacherous Malay" of the novels is the type 
 we know as the Moro. The first really authentic de- 
 scription we have of him is in the story of the voyage of 
 Captain William Dampier at the end of the seventeenth 
 century. He spent nearly a year with the Sultan of 
 Maguindanao, and was treated by the Moros with the 
 same mixture of urbanity and rapacious treachery for 
 which they were known to the Spanish and earlier 
 Americans. The history of their scattered strongholds 
 in Mindanao and Sulu is one long weary tale of blood- 
 shed and intrigue. Settlement of the lands harried 
 by them was impossible except under arms and with 
 constant vigilance. The story is not unlike that of our 
 own two hundred years of struggle with the Indians of 
 the Atlantic coast. The population was kept down by 
 incessant warfare, and vast areas of the richest lands 
 in that part of the world lay uncultivated. Even to- 
 day there are only about a half-million people in 
 Mindanao, while in the island of Java to the south, 
 of about an equal area, there are about thirty-four 
 million inhabitants. As Norman Angell has said of 
 the red Indians of our own country, "A hundred thou- 
 sand ' ' of them ' ' starved in a country where a hundred 
 million modern Americans ' ' have abundance. 
 
 To-day, the Sultan of Maguindanao has surrendered 
 all pretensions to leadership and lives quietly in a vil- 
 lage near Zamboanga. The Sultan of Sulu has kept 
 alive the traditions of petty royalty, but has now made 
 friends with the Filipinos as well as with the Amer-
 
 THE MOROS 95 
 
 leans, and when he dies, there will die with him a 
 dynasty of six hundred years of power. The Moro 
 Province is now fundamentally and essentially a part 
 of the body politic of the Philippines, and it is to be 
 hoped that we may never hear again the suggestion, 
 current twenty years ago, that the Moro Archipelago 
 be separated from the Philippine Islands ; this sugges- 
 tion aroused the cupidity of various European powers, 
 and was even advanced by anti-imperialistic Americans 
 in an attempt to solve the Philippine question, upon 
 the supposition that the Filipinos could never control 
 the Moros if they were given their independence. 
 Every year now makes it more probable that this polit- 
 ical question at least has been fairly settled. The Fil- 
 ipinos are determined that fractional minority of their 
 eleven millions of inhabitants shall not be used as an 
 excuse to deprive them of one of the richest parts of 
 their heritage. The story of how this adjustment of 
 the apparently insoluble Moro problem came about is 
 worth the telling in some detail. 
 
 The military command of the Moro Province was, 
 up to 1914, one of the great prizes of the army admin- 
 istration. It brought with it the governorship of the 
 province under the Insular Government, and offered a 
 life of excitement and achievement. The position had 
 been held by such distinguished officers as General 
 Leonard Wood and General Bliss, and the governor 
 when I arrived was the famous John J. Pershing. Both 
 Generals Wood and Pershing had fought sanguinary 
 battles with the Moros in Jolo (Sulu) in which thou- 
 sands of Moros had been killed. Minor skirmishes by 
 the score had necessitated that our scattered detach- 
 ments always keep their "powder dry" and their bayo-
 
 96 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 nets bright. Finally General Pershing had virtually 
 accomplished the disarmament of the Moros and the 
 foundations of civil government were fairly laid. He 
 had gradually relieved many of the military officers 
 from administrative posts under him and filled those 
 positions with civilians, especially officers of the con- 
 stabulary. 
 
 Soon after my arrival in Manila, I received word 
 from General Pershing that he wished to be relieved 
 after four years of service as Governor of the Moro 
 Province. I earnestly requested him to remain, but the 
 condition of his health absolutely forbade that. So, in 
 November, 1913, accompanied by the commanding gen- 
 eral, the late Major-General J. Franklin Bell, Major 
 (later Brigadier-General) Herman Hall, and Dr. N. 
 M. Saleeby, an American physician at Manila, who 
 was a recognized expert on Moro dialects, and had dur- 
 ing his previous residence in Syria learned Arabic, a 
 language which the Moro leaders generally understood, 
 I joined General Pershing at Zamboanga for a tour 
 of inspection. 
 
 Zamboanga, the capital of the southern islands, is 
 the most attractive of the coast towns of the Philip- 
 pines, and is a port of call for a few Australian and 
 Singapore steamers. Indeed, as in culture and tradi- 
 tions the southern islands are closely connected with 
 the parent stem of the Malay world, the commerce and 
 associations of the petty rulers of those islands had 
 for generations been chiefly with Singapore. As public 
 order gradually became more assured in Mindanao, 
 Zamboanga became the point of debarkation for an 
 increasing number of immigrant Visayans from Cebu 
 and Bohol, and there was also a mixture of descendants
 
 1 * 
 
 3 
 x & 
 
 H 
 02 
 H
 
 THE MOKOS 97 
 
 of Tagalogs from Luzon, four hundred miles to the 
 north, whence their grandfathers had been deported by 
 the Spaniards, chiefly for so-called political offenses. 
 Even Eizal was for some time a political prisoner, hav- 
 ing been deported to Dapitan on the north coast of 
 Mindanao. From year to year the trade and political 
 relations of the great islands of Mindanao had drawn 
 more and more closely to those of the North. Although 
 only four degrees above the equator, Zamboanga is 
 blessed with cooling breezes from three points of the 
 compass, and, owing to an equable rainfall and freedom 
 from typhoons, it is one of the garden spots of the 
 archipelago. There General Pershing had his head- 
 quarters as Governor of the Moro Province. The near- 
 by Moros were friendly and their chief or dato, Mandi, 
 was loyal to the Government up to the day of his 
 death. 
 
 In physical characteristics the Moros are very much 
 like other Filipinos. In dress they are infinitely gayer 
 and more picturesque. Their petty sultans lived in 
 much style in past generations, and when their power 
 was broken a great number of small chieftains set up 
 their claims to local leadership over more or less sav- 
 age followers. Their dignity of bearing is notable, as 
 is their personal vanity. Decked in bright colors and 
 with pearls from the near-by Sulu Sea, they imitate 
 in a feeble way the magnificence of the Indian rajahs. 
 The only gold coins in circulation in the Philippines 
 were gradually collected by the Moros to make buttons 
 for their gay silk jackets. Gaudy head-dresses and 
 skin-tight trousers complete their costume, while a 
 murderous-looking kris, or wavy-bladed short sword, 
 and a dagger with handle of carved ivory and gold
 
 98 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 adorn the dato. The greater the dato, the larger, of 
 course, his following of personal attendants, the more 
 important his umbrella of state or decorated walking- 
 stick. A servant behind him carries his buyo box, 
 made by some Moro artisan, of finely chased silver and 
 inlay work, and containing lime, betel-nut, and leaves 
 for chewing. 
 
 The Moro are men of great personal valor, as they 
 showed in many a hand-to-hand combat with cold steel 
 over the ramparts of their little forts ; a rush of these 
 warriors armed with the kris was almost irresistible 
 by a party of men advancing single-file through the 
 high cogon grass. The three or four hundred thou- 
 sand Moros scattered over this great territory have 
 made as much trouble in the past as ten times their 
 numbers of more peaceful and tractable people could 
 have made. Their sheer courage made them popular 
 with our military men. 
 
 There is something in Mohammedanism, especially 
 of Arab tradition, which renders the followers of the 
 Prophet difficult to deal with. Their religious train- 
 ing, which consists merely in committing to memory 
 the verses of the Arabic version of the Koran, inclines 
 them to live in an atmosphere of tribal hostility and 
 restless intrigue, like their cultural ancestors in the 
 days of Mohammed. How much of the present-day 
 spirit of hatred, revenge, and jealousy even among 
 the nations of Europe is due to the direct teachings 
 of the Old Testament? The Moros are difficult to in- 
 fluence with modern ideas, but the American school 
 system is now operating vigorously to leaven the mass. 
 The Moros have plenty of panglimas, or priests, but 
 no hierarchy through which the Government might
 
 THE MOROS 99 
 
 reach and control them ; there are many hadjis, men 
 and women who have performed the pilgrimage to 
 Mecca, but they are, perhaps, the most ardent up- 
 holders of the old system. The Moro is a poor Mo- 
 hammedan, after all, and practises chiefly the super- 
 stitions of a faith of which he is intensely proud with- 
 out having a true understanding of its spiritual en- 
 lightenment. As Governor Carpenter has said, 
 " . . . he is still a pagan with a veneer of Moham- 
 medanism. ' ' His religion is not of the militant type, he 
 does not make any effort to impose his faith on others, 
 and is entirely tolerant of other beliefs. He apparently 
 values Islam as a superior caste to which he is proud 
 to belong. 
 
 The chief settlements of the Moros are in Jolo and 
 Siasi, in Zamboanga, in Cotabato, in Lanab, and in 
 southern Palawan. All of these places were visited on 
 our first trip of inspection. Public meetings were held 
 in each locality, and the native speeches (duly inter- 
 preted for our benefit) were often picturesque with 
 Oriental imagery and enlivened with brief conventional 
 outbursts of real or simulated passion. The Moro is 
 a great boaster, but, like many more primitive races, 
 he is an accurate and shrewd reader of character. His 
 tendency is to tell the vistor just what he thinks the 
 person addressed will like. Military men are generally 
 treated to many references to the bloodthirsty valor of 
 the Moros, and are told these brave warriors would as 
 soon cut off the head of a Filipino as eat breakfast. 
 Filipino officials, on the contrary, are addressed with 
 much sentimental talk of friendship and brotherhood. 
 The Arab merchants of earlier days, and the modern 
 wandering Arab priests are their teachers. The un-
 
 100 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 reliability of the Arab is proverbial; only the other 
 day, in the British House of Commons, I heard a frank 
 statement, made by a recognized expert on Arabian 
 politics, of how completely Sir Percy Sykes was "taken 
 in" by the Arab chiefs in Damascus in 1920. 
 
 At every meeting the most important question 
 raised by the Moros was whether or not the Govern- 
 ment intended to interfere with their religious cus- 
 toms. We always assured them, to the contrary, that 
 the United States Government did not interfere in 
 matters of religion. Eeligious interference was the 
 historic cause of the failure of Spain with the Moros : 
 the aim of the Spanish Government was conversion to 
 Christianity, and every Moro was willing to fight to 
 the death for his religion. The disheartening failure 
 of our own American colonists to deal peaceably, or 
 even honorably, with the Indians (except in Pennsyl- 
 vania for seventy years under Quaker rule) was due to 
 the land hunger of our race. The Spaniards had no 
 success in dealing with the Moro because they insisted 
 upon religious conversion. Under American rule, once 
 the religious question was out of the way, the path 
 was cleared for a policy of conciliation and attraction. 
 
 There is always the possibility of confusion in the 
 mind of the Moros between religion and custom, their 
 sultans being the religious heads of a people over whom 
 too often rule meant the right to steal cattle and en- 
 slave women. Lord Cromer, in his first meeting 
 with the beaten chieftains of the Soudan and after his 
 promise to respect their religion, was confronted with 
 English public opinion at home. Did that mean to 
 permit slavery? The main source of trouble with the 
 Moros now is the question of polygamy. While that
 
 THE MOROS 101 
 
 is not, strictly speaking, a religious tenet of the Mo- 
 hammedans, and is not enjoined by the Koran, it is 
 universally permitted by their religion. When the 
 Jones Bill came before Congress, I wrote Secretary 
 Garrison that a law already existed in the Philippines 
 against polygamy, but if the Government wanted some- 
 body to enforce that statute among the Moros, it would 
 have to find another governor-general, since the Moros 
 were reduced to order for the first time in history, and 
 I knew of no issue upon which I was sure that all of 
 them could unite except that of polygamy. As an ex- 
 ample of the petty war which might result, I cited to 
 him the forty years of fighting just terminated in North 
 Sumatra between the Dutch and the Achinese. As I 
 then stated, the only way successfully to stamp out 
 polygamy among the Moros is to educate them in the 
 public schools, especially the girls. The process of 
 education is now going on, though meeting with some 
 resistance on the part of the older datos, as was evi- 
 denced by the affray at Pata, near Jolo, in December, 
 1920, when the constabulary killed thirty-three Moros 
 in a fight growing out of local resistance to the attend- 
 ance at school of some Mohammedan girls. It seems 
 certain that when they are educated, the women them- 
 selves will oppose the practice of polygamy. Many 
 of the younger men, too, would probably welcome a 
 change. There are not enough women to go around, 
 now that piratical raiding of near-by communities has 
 been stopped. The peculiar Malay practice of running 
 amuck, or going juramentado (oath-taken), in which 
 the individual dedicates himself to death in a mad 
 frenzy of killing right and left all whom he meets, is 
 often due to rage on the part of the young men because
 
 102 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 the young women are brought up for the harems of the 
 chiefs. 
 
 Our visit to Jolo gave us an opportunity of meeting 
 the sultan, Hadji Mohammed Jamalul Kiram, and his 
 1 ' prime minister," Hadji Butu, later on appointed 
 senator in the Philippine Legislature. The sultan is 
 a small man, of less impressive personality than others 
 of his caste whom I have met in Borneo and Java. He 
 had a gay time on Broadway, on his visit to New York 
 several years ago, and was famous on the "Great 
 White Way" for his pearls. He is well disposed 
 toward Americans, for the Moro is an intensely prac- 
 tical man when it comes to a final recognition of over- 
 whelming force; he has of late years made friends 
 with the Filipinos. Had he been a stronger man, he 
 would have been of great use to the Government, but 
 his rule had always been disputed even in Jolo, where 
 two or more factions have generally existed through 
 the generations. 
 
 Generals Bell, Pershing, and Hall accompanied me 
 on a motor trip across the island of Jolo, past the 
 little mountain of Bagsak, where five months before 
 Pershing had broken the Moro power in a pitched bat- 
 tle in which thousands of fighting Mohammedans, men 
 and women, were killed. Some years later, I met a 
 young lady who was one of the few survivors of that 
 Moro camp ; she was then teaching school at a little vil- 
 lage on the other side of the island. General Pershing 
 had been much criticized by good people at home for 
 the killing of women in this battle, but, as he explained 
 to me, the women fought in the front ranks with the 
 men, and one could not tell men and women apart be- 
 hind the trenches. It is a curious fact that the Moro
 
 THE MOROS 103 
 
 men and women are often indistinguishable ; the men 
 have no beards nor mustaches, and both sexes wear the 
 hair long. Many of their fiercest warriors are slender 
 men with a feline or feminine countenance. On this 
 same inspection trip, on the road to Lanao, General 
 Hall stopped an individual who was passing and asked 
 if it were a man or woman ; the person addressed re- 
 plied with a smile that he was a man and a fighter ! His 
 smile and his sense of humor are the most pleasing of 
 the Moro's characteristics. 
 
 Our motor trip across the island of Jolo was intended 
 to prove the pacification of that much-vexed region. 
 Until recently, no visitor had ever ventured outside the 
 walls of the city of Jolo without an armed escort. A 
 few months before, that splendid young American, 
 Governor Vernon I. Whitney of Jolo, a former foot- 
 ball star from Iowa then just recovering from a 
 wound received in storming a cota, or fort was walk- 
 ing outside the walls of Jolo when he was suddenly at- 
 tacked by two Moros armed with bolos. He managed 
 to "tackle" one of them, emptied his small revolver 
 into the other, then took the bolo from the man he held 
 and literally cut him in two. 
 
 In all engagements against the Moros, even when 
 entrenched, Filipinos have fought under our officers 
 with great zeal and valor alongside the American sol- 
 diers, generally taking the positions by storm. The 
 last pitched engagement against the Moros was the 
 reduction of the Bayan Cota, the remaining fort on 
 the south shore of Lake Lanao, in 1917. About fifteen 
 hundred Moros, in revolt against the Government be- 
 cause of opposition to the schools and to the land sur- 
 vey, had gathered there and refused to give up their
 
 104 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 guns. That time the constabulary borrowed from the 
 army a battery of mountain machine-guns, or "mule 
 guns," an officer, and forty Scout soldiers, and posi- 
 tive orders were given to restrain the Filipino constab- 
 ulary forces from storming the cota. Instead of suf- 
 fering the usual severe casualties, the government 
 forces sustained the loss of only one Filipino officer 
 and one soldier wounded, and the machine-guns utterly 
 broke up the resistance and drove the Moros from the 
 cota. 
 
 The peace we found upon our visit to Jolo in 1913 
 was that of subjugation, for few persons were visible, 
 and little cultivation was to be seen on the surrounding 
 hills. Just three years later, on the same spot, with a 
 small party of government officials and friends, I had 
 a delightful two days in camp with about seven hun- 
 dred armed Moros, when we went deer-hunting with 
 spears on horseback. Our party was unarmed and 
 without escort. This second trip across the island 
 was through fields of grain and banana plantations. 
 But for the work of General Pershing, civil govern- 
 ment could not have been instituted in Jolo; and but 
 for civil government, Jolo would still be unsafe for 
 the visitor.
 
 CHAPTER VIH 
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN MOROLAND 
 
 THE impending departure of General Pershing for 
 home necessitated an immediate decision on the 
 appointment of his successor, which involved the ques- 
 tion of installing at once a civil government in Moro- 
 land. The War Department had already proposed to 
 me the name of a well-known general as Pershing's 
 successor, but my predecessor as governor-general 
 had, I understood, intended that the next governor of 
 the Moro Province should be a civilian, and that was 
 my own earnest desire. A long-continued government 
 of military men is in itself an invitation to war. Men 
 who had just come through many a hard-fought skir- 
 mish with and surprise attack from the Moros could 
 hardly be expected to believe them fit for civil govern- 
 ment. Such regarded them as untamable wild animals, 
 and the custom, along the Lanao Military road at least, 
 was to take a pot-shot at any Moro seen on the hill- 
 sides. The military manner in administration, more- 
 over, leads to all sorts of irritation and sometimes to 
 reprisals. The recent rebellion of Dato Ali and his 
 men was an illustration in point. In 1905, at the head- 
 waters of the Cotabato Eiver, a region never brought 
 under effective government control until about 1917, 
 lived several thousand Moros who had taken to the 
 mountains in defiance of established order. Their 
 chief was Ali, who claimed he had never submitted to 
 
 105
 
 106 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 any man. One day, Dato All came slipping alone up 
 to the military headquarters at Cotabato, to present 
 some grievance to the Government. The American 
 sergeant-in-charge had some dispute with him and end- 
 ed by kicking him down the stairs. A very picturesque 
 little war resulted, lasting several months, and costing 
 a number of lives and much money. Dato Ali and 
 many of his followers were killed in battle. 
 
 Both General Bell and General Pershing recom- 
 mended to me the appointment of a civilian as gov- 
 ernor; and General Bell stated that he wished to re- 
 move all white American troops from the province. 
 Both policies were agreed upon, and promptly carried 
 out. We canvassed names for the office of Governor 
 of the Moro Province, and the two generals could agree 
 on only one man, Frank W. Carpenter, the then Chief 
 of the Executive Bureau, in Manila. The wisdom of 
 their judgment was proved by the event. I cabled to 
 the Secretary of War the result of these conferences 
 and that ''Peace is established throughout the province 
 and is liable to be permanent if properly managed." 
 This opinion was entirely justified by the outcome, but 
 largely because of the tact, courage, and skill of one 
 man, the new Governor of the Moro Province, who 
 was for seven years to preside over the destinies of 
 its much discussed and restless population. 
 
 Mr. Carpenter was at first somewhat reluctant to 
 abandon the forum of his fifteen years of activity in 
 the seat of government in Manila, but on December 
 15th he became the governor, "believing with me," as 
 I cabled home, * ' that now the time has come to inaugu- 
 rate a policy among the Moros which will thereby 
 greatly increase peace and prosperity in these re-
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN MOROLAND 107 
 
 gions." On December 20, 1913, the name of the Moro 
 Province was changed to " Department of Mindanao 
 and Sulu," and the special-government provinces in 
 Mindanao, such as Agusan and Butuan, which under 
 the Secretary of the Interior had been the source of 
 endless administrative friction, were included in the 
 new department, of which the land area was now 36,500 
 square miles, about one third of that of the entire 
 Philippine Islands. 
 
 Three months later I again inspected these same 
 regions; Governor Carpenter was in full control of 
 matters, and his extraordinary ability and incessant 
 activity were already producing results. Meanwhile, 
 Commanding-General Bell had withdrawn all the white 
 soldiers from the department and had left garrisons 
 of Philippine Scouts (Filipinos) at Overton and Keith- 
 ley in Lanao, at Ludlow Barracks in Cotabato, and at 
 the barracks in the towns of Zamboanga and Jolo. The 
 strength of the constabulary in the department had 
 been increased to sixty officers (partly American) and 
 nine hundred and seventy- two men, all Filipinos, under 
 Colonel Peter E. Traub of the United States Army. 
 Colonel Traub during three years (1914-1917) con- 
 tinued the policy of General Pershing as to disarma- 
 ment, and confiscated one thousand firearms without 
 serious resistance from their possessors, often being 
 helped by the Moros themselves, who were tired of 
 being harried and robbed by their own outlaw des- 
 perados. Later on, when our country entered the World 
 War in 1917, even the Scout garrisons were withdrawn 
 from the department, except one battalion at Pettit 
 Barracks, Zamboanga. 
 
 On March 26, 1914, 1 was able to cable to the Secre-
 
 108 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 tary of War: "Just returned from an inspection trip 
 Department of Mindanao and Sulu. Conditions gen- 
 erally excellent. Agriculture extending materially 
 Lanao and Jolo. Peace conditions improving there 
 and particularly in mountains head Cotabato Valley." 
 And again on May 21, 1914 : ' ' Report peaceful surren^ 
 der yesterday Cotabato famous Moro outlaw Alamada 
 with more than 3000 men. Alamada outlaw chieftain 
 since Spanish days." The next winter Alamada ac- 
 companied Governor Carpenter, with other datos, to 
 the Manila carnival. He seemed to me like a wild bird, 
 poised for instant flight, and supremely uncomfortable 
 among the large crowd of officials at Malacanan Pal- 
 ace; his hand was cold from suppressed nervousness 
 and embarrassment. He had agreed to come to Manila 
 upon the assurance that he could carry his kris at all 
 times, and that he would not be obliged to wear 
 "Christian" clothing. Before the end of his first day 
 in Manila he had discarded his kris and surreptitiously 
 procured an American suit of clothes. Upon his return 
 to Cotabato, he became insistent in his demands for 
 schools. There were many similar cases in the records 
 of these years. 
 
 All of Governor Carpenter's reports are to be found 
 printed in full, in the Bureau of Insular Affairs in 
 Washington. No extended analysis of his great work 
 is intended here. He kept on terms of friendship with 
 all the varied elements of an uneasy and perplexing 
 population. His daily conferences were with Moro 
 datos, American navy and army officers, investors or 
 speculators of a dozen different nationalities, bishops 
 and missionaries of the Christian churches, Arab 
 priests, Filipino and American officials, tourists and
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN MOROLAND 109 
 
 visitors, Japanese hemp-planters and merchants, 
 Chinese traders and smugglers, newspaper men and 
 emissaries from the near-by ports of Borneo and Cele- 
 bes, and shy, pagan men from the forest-clad moun- 
 tains of Mindanao. That he was able to reconcile all 
 those diverse and potentially antagonistic elements 
 speaks for itself; he did more: he brought them into 
 some sort of cohesion and cooperation to work for the 
 development of that vast territory and for the estab- 
 lishment of public order. He was particularly kind 
 and patient in his dealings with the suspicious and 
 " jumpy" Moro datos. He received much assistance 
 from the ladies of the family of the Sultan of Sulu, 
 who, as is so often the case among the Mohammedans 
 (as for example in Afghanistan to-day), were the real 
 managers of the sultan's affairs. He exercised the 
 utmost care in encouraging in the Moro chieftains a 
 sense of social ease and conventionality, even teaching 
 hands accustomed only to the sword and spear how to 
 use the complicated machinery of the modern tea-table, 
 against the day when they should visit Manila. Above 
 all, he was firm, as firm as any military commander 
 could be, when military operations were necessary; 
 but his firmness was finely tempered with tact and 
 understanding of human nature. 
 
 The history of his negotiations with the Sultan of 
 Sulu gave him an opportunity for the display of his 
 diplomatic talents. The House of Sulu had indeed 
 come upon unprofitable days. Their genealogy of six 
 hundred years now served them to no greater purpose 
 than their claim to descent from Alexander the Great. 
 To be sure, the sultan was treated as a monarch when 
 he visited Singapore or that portion of Borneo which
 
 110 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 he had leased to the British North Borneo Company. 
 There, at least, he flew his own flag and received a sa- 
 lute of twenty-one guns. But in the Philippines his 
 position was anomalous. Under Spain he had exer- 
 cised de-jure and de-facto sovereignty in the Sulu 
 Archipelago, except in the ports of Jolo, Siasi, and 
 Bongao. He was then a "protected" sovereign. He 
 never opposed the United States in arms, and never 
 surrendered to our army. He had executed a treaty 
 in 1899 with General Bates which failed of adoption by 
 the United States Senate because it recognized polyg- 
 amy. This "treaty" was abrogated by President 
 Eoosevelt on March 2, 1904, because the sultan had 
 failed to keep order in Sulu, according to his agree- 
 ment. He replied that the Americans had insisted 
 upon the disbanding of his army, and he had never 
 surrendered his claim to sovereignty. To say the least, 
 the legal position of the sultan and of the lands in the 
 Sulu Archipelago was unsettled. 
 
 Governor Carpenter undertook to straighten out the 
 tangle. On March 11, 1915, after eleven days and 
 nights of negotiation, with which I was kept in touch 
 by cable, he signed an agreement with the sultan by 
 which the latter, for himself and his heirs, renounced 
 temporal sovereignty over the Sulu Islands, including 
 the "right" to collect taxes, the right to decide law- 
 suits, and the reversionary right to all the lands. In 
 exchange, he was recognized by the Government as 
 head of the Mohammedan Church in the Philippines, 
 his pension of Pesos 12,000 was continued for life, and 
 he was given a grant of land in Jolo. He was wise 
 enough to accept the substance, however small, for the 
 shadow, however great. So ends the Sultanate of Sulu.
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN MOEOLAND 111 
 
 One clause of the agreement states that "The Sultan 
 of Sulu and his adherents and people of the Moham- 
 medan faith shall have the same religous freedom had 
 by the adherents of all other religious creeds, the prac- 
 tice of which is not in violation of the basic principles 
 of the laws of the United States." This bars 
 polygamy. 
 
 If Governor Carpenter had been a citizen of one of 
 the European colonizing powers, he would have been 
 loaded with honors by the home government ; as it is, 
 his name is unknown to one per cent, of the American 
 public. He has been given a substantial pecuniary 
 grant by the Philippine Legislature, and is still active 
 in the service in Manila. 
 
 His chief agents in Mindanao and Sulu were, first, 
 the constabulary as patrols and, later, when the hinter- 
 land was gradually brought under control as perma- 
 nent posts ; next, medical men or Filipino practicantes 
 who set up their little dispensaries in the most remote 
 regions ; and finally the public-school teachers, also, for 
 the most part, Filipinos. The shyest tribesman quickly 
 gave his confidence to the medical man. In the course 
 of a few years the leading Moros were clamoring for 
 public schools in widely separated districts. In fact, 
 the demand for schools, in view of these people's oc- 
 casional antagonism later on to compulsory school 
 attendance, is hard to understand. Certainly, nothing 
 has been done by the school-teachers to offend their 
 prejudices. Perhaps it is, as Governor Guingona ex- 
 plained in his report for 1920, because the older Moros 
 believed that the schools "were good only if those who 
 were educated in the same could be immediately em- 
 ployed in the public service." Perhaps, however, the
 
 112 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 parents were zealous enough in theory for the educa- 
 tion of their children, but in practice were made un- 
 comfortable by the new ideas brought home by the 
 younger generation. Very little had been done for 
 non-sectarian education prior to 1914. In that year 
 the Insular Legislature made its first contribution for 
 that purpose to the department funds, Pesos 204,523. 
 Later on, Pesos 1,000,000 was voted for primary 
 schools among the non-Christians. By the end of 1919 
 there were 30 American and 785 Filipino teachers in 
 the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, and 32,438 
 pupils in the public schools, of whom nearly one half 
 were girls. The church missionaries, American, Dutch, 
 and Spanish, helped on the good work with their own 
 schools. Bishop Brent had both schools and hospitals. 
 My own relations with Governor Carpenter were, 
 of course, those of utmost confidence in his adminis- 
 tration. At a distance of four hundred miles across 
 the Sulu and Visayan seas, I recognized the impossi- 
 bility of constant interference with his work. I tried 
 to give him the same freedom of judgment and action 
 as was accorded me by Washington. If the Secretary 
 of War felt at times uneasy over the rapid progress I 
 made in Filipinization, I had the same sentiment of 
 doubt about the Filipinization of Mindanao and Sulu 
 by Governor Carpenter. It had been a frequent boast 
 of the Moros that they would kill any Filipino officials 
 sent to govern them. I was truly apprehensive of the 
 effect of any disaster of that nature. While it is true 
 that they had killed the Filipino village officials who 
 took charge of Cotabato during the early days of Amer- 
 ican occupation of the Philippines, their killing seemed 
 to be indiscriminate ; they had also killed Spanish and
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN MOROLAND 113 
 
 Americans whenever possible. When I was at Lanao 
 in 1915, my aide-de-camp, Major George S. Holmes, 
 who had served there before in the years of " excur- 
 sions and alarums," met an old Moro friend who said: 
 
 " You see how well we treat the Filipinos now? Why, 
 a Filipino could lie right down to sleep beside us and 
 we wouldn't kill him!" 
 
 A reassuring state of progress; was it not? 
 
 The Philippine Commission had the exclusive power 
 of legislating for the non-Christian population of the 
 islands down to the time of the passage of the Jones 
 Law in August, 1916, when general legislative powers 
 as to all parts of the archipelago were given to the 
 Legislature. Up to October, 1914, the commission, as 
 we have seen, was controlled by an American major- 
 ity. Thus the Filipinos had not yet been entrusted 
 with the control of the non-Christian minorities. The 
 idea seemed to be that they would exploit them or neg- 
 lect them for their own selfish advantage. When the 
 change was made to Filipino control on the commission 
 in 1914, and later in the whole Legislature, I never 
 observed a single act of discrimination or lack of gen- 
 erosity on the part of the Filipino officials toward 
 their less advanced kinsmen. On the contrary, they 
 seemed anxious to prove their qualification for guard- 
 ianship over the welfare of the non-Christians. A great 
 deal of care and energy was expended by them in these 
 matters, and they showed the greatest concern in the 
 progress and development of the Mohammedans and 
 pagans, and a determination to assimilate them as 
 rapidly as possible into the general body of citizens. 
 Few cases of oppression or lack of justice in dealing 
 with the inferior populations came to my attention
 
 114 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 during these years; on the whole, this is one of the 
 brightest pages in the history of the decade, and one 
 of the most substantial accomplishments of American 
 ideals and example. 
 
 The commission had entrusted the Hon. Vicente 
 Ilustre as a sub-committee with the work of drafting a 
 new code of laws for the Department of Mindanao and 
 Sulu. This was worked over with the greatest care and 
 circumspection, and passed in the summer of 1914, 
 effective September 1st of that year. Although it is 
 never easy to legislate in general terms for a popula- 
 tion composed of varying strata of civilization, this 
 new code was a substantial accomplishment. The main 
 idea was to break <Jown the barriers which had kept 
 the inhabitants of Mindanao and Sulu apart as wards 
 or children, and give them the privileges of the gen- 
 eral laws of the islands in so far as that was then 
 possible, to begin in earnest the process of assimila- 
 tion. The all-important question of the attitude of the 
 Filipino leaders toward their less-advanced brethren 
 can best be expressed in their own language, in the 
 preamble of the new code for Mindanao and Sulu (No. 
 2408, Philippine Commission, July 23, 1914) : 
 
 WHEREAS it is the desire of the people of the islands to pro- 
 mote the most moral, social, and political development of the 
 inhabitants of said department in order to accomplish their 
 complete unification with the inhabitants of other provinces 
 of the Archipelago ; and 
 
 WHEREAS for the accomplishment of this purpose the exten- 
 sion thereto of the general laws of the country and of the 
 general forms and procedures of government followed in other 
 provinces under certain limitations in harmony with the spe- 
 cial conditions now prevailing in said department, is among 
 other measures advisable and necessary, but always with the 
 understanding that such limitations are temporary and that
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN MOROLAND 115 
 
 it is the firm and decided purpose of the Philippine Com- 
 mission to abolish such limitations together with the depart- 
 mental government, as soon as the several districts of said 
 region shall have been converted into regularly organized 
 provinces; now, therefore, . . . 
 
 It is gratifying to be able to report that the Philip- 
 pine Legislature in 1921 redeemed the promise of that 
 last clause; the Department of Mindanao and Sulu 
 was then by law abolished, and the constituent prov- 
 inces absorbed into the general body politic. 
 
 When the new department government was organ- 
 ized on January 1, 1914, the governor, the secretary, 
 Edward Bowditch, Junior, the attorney, William M. 
 Connor, Junior, the engineer, H. F. Cameron, the Su- 
 perintendent of Schools, C. E. Cameron, and the health 
 officer were all Americans, the last-named being the 
 brilliant and efficient Major E. L. Munson of the Army 
 Medical Corps, who was soon relieved for wider work 
 with the Insular Government. A year later, on Jan- 
 uary 1, 1915, Governor Carpenter's organization con- 
 sisted of a Filipino secretary, Isidro Vamenta, a Fil- 
 ipino attorney, Ponciano Reyes, a Filipino delegate 
 (deputy governor), Doroteo Karagdag, and a Filipino 
 health officer, Jacobo Fajardo. The administration of 
 the schools and public works had been transferred to 
 the Insular Government under the new code. 
 
 On September 1, 1914, the new code was put into 
 effect, and the new provincial government of Zam- 
 boanga installed with a Christian Filipino as provin- 
 cial governor, an American as secretary-treasurer, and 
 a Mohammedan as third member. At the same time a 
 Moro was made third member of the Provincial Board 
 of Cotabato. These were the first high offices given
 
 116 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 to Mohammedans, and they were thoroughly appreci- 
 ated by the leaders of that faith as an evidence of the 
 "square deal." Americans were then governors of 
 the provinces of Sulu, Cotabato, and Lanao (the Moro 
 provinces), and Filipinos as governors of Agusan, 
 Bukidnon, Davao, and Zamboanga, only the last men- 
 tioned containing any large Moro population. The 
 21 organized municipalities and 178 municipal districts 
 of the department had generally Christian Filipinos, 
 Mohammedans, or pagans as presidents. 
 
 Governor Carpenter stated in his annual report for 
 the year 1914: 
 
 The Mohammedans are beginning to realize that the Chris- 
 tian Filipinos holding government offices are rather devoting 
 their time to the fulfilment of their duties for the benefit and 
 welfare of all the inhabitants under their control, regardless 
 of the religious beliefs of the latter. . . . 
 
 This was the opening wedge in the campaign to win 
 the confidence and cooperation of the Mohammedans 
 for the Christian Filipinos. In the course of six or 
 seven years the whole of the Department of Mindanao 
 and Sulu was gradually placed under Filipino officials, 
 from the acting department governor down to the hun- 
 dreds of teachers, except for the local chief of con- 
 stabulary, Colonel Waloe, the department superintend- 
 ant of schools, Mr. Moore, and the Governor of Jolo, 
 Paul Rogers. The last-named had married a Moro 
 lady of high rank and much personal charm and edu- 
 cation, and during the last year of my administration 
 he kept pressing me for permission to retire from the 
 service, to go into business in Jolo. I persuaded him 
 to stay as long as I did, because it could be truthfully 
 said that there was real peace in Jolo under Governor
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN MOROLAND 117 
 
 Rogers for the first time in generations ! During all 
 these years of Governor Carpenter's administration 
 no violence was offered to a single Filipino official 
 throughout the department, except that several con- 
 stabulary officers were killed or wounded in appre- 
 hending outlaws. The most dangerous district of the 
 Moro regions to-day, potentially, is Lanao, where the 
 vast regions of the interior offer an easy avenue of 
 escape to disturbers of the peace. The datos of that 
 region are proud and may at any moment become 
 turbulent. The present Governor of Lanao, Captain 
 Santos, a young Filipino constabulary officer, is cool, 
 intrepid, tactful, and vigilant. No better man could 
 be found for that position. 
 
 Of Governor Carpenter's chief lieutenants in the 
 work of civilization and organized government, besides 
 those already named, special mention should be made 
 of Captain Allen S. Fletcher, of the Scouts, who dur- 
 ing 1914-15 controlled the almost unexplored regions 
 between Lanao and Cotabato; Henry Gilsheuser, ex- 
 colonel of Constabulary, former Governor of Lanao 
 and now in business there; C. B. Carter, ex-major of 
 constabulary and Governor of Cotabato, retired; Ex- 
 Governor Posadas of Zamboanga, now Deputy Col- 
 lector of Internal Eevenue in Manila; Colonel Waloe, 
 the wise and kind local chief of constabulary since 
 1917 ; W. S. Coverston, in his turn Governor of Lanao ; 
 and Ex-Governor Teopisto Guingona of Agusan, for 
 years Governor Carpenter's chief deputy and acting 
 governor in his place, a Filipino of extraordinary 
 field ability, an incessant traveler, of keen powers of 
 understanding and prompt decision. Mr. Guingona is
 
 118 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 now a senator in the Philippine Legislature for the 
 Moro regions. 
 
 The permanent policy for the future is to turn the 
 local governments in the Moro regions over to the 
 Moros themselves just as quickly as fit instruments 
 for administration are educated and developed among 
 them. Young Mohammedans are rapidly coming on 
 through the public schools and will soon be ready for 
 responsible positions. The Moros themselves recog- 
 nize their lack of training for modern, democratic gov- 
 ernment. Their representatives in the Legislature 
 have not taken an active part there. Senator Hadji 
 Butu and Representatives Dato Benito, Dato Tampu- 
 gaw, and Dato Piang regard their residence in Manila 
 during the sessions as a sort of exile. I remember 
 seeing Dato Piang, the powerful "boss" of Cota- 
 bato Valley, sitting one afternoon at the window of his 
 residence in Manila. His old face was expressive of 
 unhappy longing for his wide rice-fields and herds of 
 carabao in the Cotabato Valley. To these older men 
 the "Manila Government" is something far away from 
 the needs and realities of everyday Moro life ! They 
 have, however, a wholesome respect and admiration 
 for their young men who are educated in the American 
 school system. Behind all their self-assertion there 
 is a safe and sane understanding that their followers 
 must perforce forever abandon the old life of inces- 
 sant warfare, and that now the only way for them to 
 protect their rights is to square themselves with mod- 
 ern conditions and a modern system of government. 
 
 Governor Carpenter's "personally conducted" an- 
 nual tours of Moro chieftains to Manila have worked 
 a wonderful change in their comprehension of the
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN MOROLAND 119 
 
 powers and resources of the Philippine Government. It 
 has also brought to them a secret sense of embarrass- 
 ment and a desire for the education which will bring 
 them social ease and equality. 
 
 The department government founded an agricultural 
 colony in the wide and fertile valley of the Cotabato, 
 and transported there steamer-loads of emigrants 
 from the Visayas. There are about three thousand 
 Mohammedans and twenty-five hundred Christians 
 now living in peace and order in this colony, competing 
 side by side in the growing of rice. In 1918 the Gov- 
 ernment brought twelve thousand Christian immi- 
 grants into Mindanao. 
 
 During 1918-20 Governor Carpenter was detained 
 in Manila a great part of the time by his duties as head 
 of the Bureau of non-Christian tribes, and Teopisto 
 Guingona was generally in charge of the department, 
 as acting governor. By that time, it will be observed, 
 almost all the instruments of administration in active 
 contact with the Mohammedan population were Chris- 
 tian Filipinos, and the transition had been accepted 
 by the followers of Islam with good-humored acquies- 
 cence. 
 
 I have before me a statement made on February 28, 
 1920, before the Secretary of the Interior, by Senator 
 Hadji Butu, for twenty years the Prime Minister of the 
 Sultan of Sulu. He says: 
 
 I can assure you that the people of Sulu are entirely satis- 
 fied with the actual state of affairs and always will be so if 
 the government of Suln should be entrusted to Filipino hands. 
 Those of Suln prefer that the governor of the province should 
 be a Filipino, because if a Moro were nominated he might be 
 partial in his administration. My people wish for and are in 
 conformity with independence [of the Philippines], and when
 
 120 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 that is conceded, I can assure you that nothing will happen 
 between the Moros and the Christians, not only now while the 
 majority of the Moro race is uncivilized, but also when the 
 Moros shall have embraced civilization. 
 
 He then suggests that whenever a Christian Filipino 
 is made governor of a Moro province, the secretary 
 should be a Moro, and, vice versa, when a Moro is gov- 
 ernor, there should be a Christian as secretary. This 
 quotation is offered as showing how far, in six years, 
 the good-will and understanding between the Moros 
 and their Christian fellow-Filipinos had proceeded. 
 It is to be hoped that no exigencies of American pol- 
 itics in the future may be found as a reason for reviv- 
 ing the distrust and antagonism of past years between 
 the two peoples. 
 
 From time to time delegations of their datos came 
 to Manila to see for themselves what was going on 
 there. One such party came after the passage of the 
 Jones Act by Congress in 1916, when the air was 
 resounding with vivas because self-government by the 
 Filipinos had been installed throughout the archipel- 
 ago. The datos came in some perturbation, but their 
 anxiety was merely to know whether or not their re- 
 ligion was to be interfered with, and they went back 
 to the southern islands completely reassured. 
 
 The Jones Act provided for the appointment by the 
 governor-general of two senators and nine representa- 
 tives to represent those non-Christian territories not 
 yet considered sufficiently advanced for general elec- 
 tions. The idea of the Secretary of War was that I 
 should appoint "persons in my confidence" to these 
 posts, but I thought it wiser to give recognition where 
 possible to the non-Christians themselves. Among
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN MOROLAND 121 
 
 those appointed were Senator Hadji Butu, and Datos 
 Piang of Cotabato and Benito of Lanao. They were 
 allowed by the Legislature to take the oath of office 
 upon the Koran, which was considered by their con- 
 stituents a very significant concession. In fact, all 
 visiting Moros in Manila during these years were 
 treated with marked consideration and hospitality by 
 the Christian Filipino leaders, and the suspicions and 
 hostility of former years were gradually being re- 
 placed by mutual good-will and confidence. How sig- 
 nificant the change is can perhaps be appreciated only 
 by those who handled this problem during the earlier 
 days of conflict and distrust between the adherents of 
 the two religions. 
 
 Governor Carpenter's last report as Governor of 
 the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, written on 
 March 26, 1918, concludes with the following" epilogue, 
 which should be, and is, adopted by those who control 
 affairs in the Philippines as a part of their political 
 creed : 
 
 Law and order now obtain throughout Mohammedan Philip- 
 pine territory, but popular compliance and cooperation are as 
 yet only tentative and easily lost. They may be firmly estab- 
 lished only in the course of time and by constancy in the 
 present policies of responsible authorities in Manila, consci- 
 entiously and correctly executed by local officers who establish 
 themselves in the hearts of the people through invariable 
 kindness, respect for local customs, religious ceremonies, and 
 faith, absolute honesty, and justice in both official and private 
 relations. Neither Mohammedan nor pagan Filipino has 
 national thought or ideals. They are now yielding to a policy 
 of attraction directed at them as substantive Filipinos, and if 
 they do not come directly into increasing and eventual abso- 
 lute homogeneity with the highly civilized Filipino type the 
 fault will be of the latter. The more intelligent leaders of 
 these Mohammedans and pagans have a glimmer of light as
 
 122 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 to the advantages and necessity for unity on a more compre- 
 hensive basis, without religious distinctions, approximating 
 national existence. 
 
 Before me as I write lies a beautiful dagger, with 
 ivory handle and scabbard of gold-and-silver work- 
 manship, one of the best examples of Moro art. On it 
 Governor Carpenter has had inscribed. " . . . the 
 deadly weapons of the Mindanao and Sulu Moros have 
 become mere souvenirs." I hope he may prove as 
 sage as a prophet as he is as an administrator. At 
 least the foundation is laid, and the Filipinos them- 
 selves must build upon it. With tact and wisdom such 
 as they have already shown, the "Moro problem" may 
 be permanently solved. Although sporadic local dis- 
 turbances may at any time occur in Lanao or Sulu, or 
 in the islands to the south, no general uprising of the 
 Moros is to be expected. To bring that about, a policy 
 of incredible foolishness is needed. They are to-day 
 better off than they have ever been before ; freed from 
 the internecine warfare of the past, and from the 
 tyranny and abuse of their own chieftains, Mindanao 
 and Sulu have entered upon a real era of agricultural 
 and educational development.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE HILL TRIBES OF LUZON 
 
 OUTSIDE of Mindanao and Sulu, the principal 
 center of non-Christian population is in the 
 mountain range running from north to south of Luzon 
 like a backbone. According to the census of 1918, there 
 were some 250,000 pagans 1 scattered throughout this 
 region, principally in the Mountain Province. They 
 were under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Philippine 
 Commission until the Jones Law of August 29, 1916, 
 gave complete control to both houses of the Legisla- 
 ture. The Secretary of the Interior is administratively 
 in charge, though in 1917 the Bureau of non-Christian 
 Tribes was, by direction of the Jones Law, reestab- 
 lished in his office. Scattered groups of non-Christians, 
 chiefly Negritos, about nine thousand in number, live 
 in the mountains of Zambales, Tarlac, and Bataan on 
 the west coast of Luzon, the first land sighted by 
 travelers approaching Manila from Japan or Hong- 
 Kong. Another group of 13,044, roughly classed as 
 Mangyans, live in the island of Mindoro, directly south 
 of Manila. 
 
 The pagans of Luzon are of intense interest to the 
 ethnologist and anthropologist. Politically, their sit- 
 uation has been frequently used in argument by those 
 Americans who were campaigning against Philippine 
 
 1 According to the Philippine census for 1920, the pagans of the islands 
 number, in all, 437,622. 
 
 123
 
 124 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 independence, in an effort to prove that the Filipinos 
 would abuse or exploit these primitive people if put in 
 charge of them; this argument was based upon the 
 tradition that pagans had originally fled to the moun- 
 tains to escape from persecution at the hands of the 
 early Malay immigrants, also upon cases of individual 
 ill-treatment and exploitation by Spanish, Filipino, 
 and Chinese merchants and contractors in later times. 
 The response of Congress to these arguments was to 
 give, in the Jones Act, the control of these peoples, 
 together with that of all the non-Christians of the Phil- 
 ippines, over to the Philippine Legislature. A Fil- 
 ipino Secretary of the Interior has been in adminis- 
 trative charge of their affairs since October, 1916, first 
 Eafael Palma, and during the last year, Teodoro 
 Kalaw. The Bureau of non-Christian Tribes was, after 
 1917, presided over by Frank W. Carpenter, in ad- 
 dition to his duties as Governor of the Department 
 of Mindanao and Sulu, until in 1920 he became chair- 
 man of the Finance Commission of the Government and 
 Teopisto Guingona was placed at the head of the 
 bureau. 
 
 The governors of all the provinces concerned have 
 of late years been Filipinos, either elective or appoint- 
 ive, except in the sub-province of Ifugao, where Major 
 F. E. Dossor of the constabulary still holds his post 
 as governor with much credit. Until 1914 an aggres- 
 sive effort was made to keep the Filipinos from all 
 interference with or control over these pagans of the 
 mountains, and to accentuate in every way possible 
 the separation of the races. Territorial changes were 
 even made, taking away strips of land from organized 
 Christian provinces, to give to the Mountain Province
 
 THE HILL TRIBES OF LUZON 125 
 
 access to the seas to the north and west, after the 
 fashion of empire-builders in Europe. Whether or not 
 it was hoped by this means to secure a final separation 
 of these portions of Luzon from an independent Phil- 
 ippines is not known. The Americans in charge, in 
 these days under the Department of the Interior, have 
 accomplished a truly great work in the pacification and 
 conciliation of these hill people; for the first time in 
 history inter-tribal warfare has been stopped, and the 
 mountains have been opened up to travel and develop- 
 ment. This is one of the chief points of interest to 
 traveling Japanese officials, who have utterly failed 
 to deal successfully with the similar wild tribes of the 
 island of Formosa, where their policy seems to be one 
 of extermination. 
 
 The Philippine administration had succeeded in 
 winning the confidence of the pagans of the Mountain 
 Province and establishing order throughout hereto- 
 fore inaccessible regions. At that point, apparently, 
 a balance had been struck and the status quo main- 
 tained, except for the further extension of trails and 
 some impulse given to better agriculture. In Febru- 
 ary, 1914, there were but 3205 pupils in the public 
 schools among this population of a quarter of a mil- 
 lion. A tendency had appeared to maintain the moun- 
 tain tribes like ethnological specimens in a vast reserve 
 or like an interesting anthropological collection within 
 a glass case. The pagans, however, were by 1914 ready 
 to receive gradual instruction in the modern spirit of 
 cooperation with their fellow-man, and to learn by 
 contact with the Filipino that under the new order of 
 things the timidity, suspicion, and ill-feeling of past 
 centuries were dead and buried. To be sure, the outer
 
 126 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 fringes of the pagan population, such as the Tinggians 
 of Abra and Ibanags and Gaddangs of Isabela, had 
 during recent generations become partially absorbed 
 in the surrounding Filipino Christian populations, and 
 in such cases individuals of t]ie two or three different 
 strains of blood can scarcely be told apart; indeed, 
 several of the most distinguished officials to-day in 
 the insular service are the grandsons of these former 
 ''wild men." The time had now arrived to train the 
 mountaineers for gradual participation in the main 
 body of Philippine citizenship. While no attempt at 
 actual assimilation has ever been made by the Govern- 
 ment, it is believed that in the course of time this will 
 come to pass naturally and without compulsion or 
 injustice. The premature forcing of modern standards 
 upon backward peoples has in other parts of the world 
 often resulted in their utter destruction. At all events, 
 the history of the past seven years has shown that the 
 Filipinos can and do manage the destinies of the moun- 
 tain tribes with generosity and conscientious consid- 
 eration. They have a keen sense of responsibility 
 toward their wards. The annual report for 1915 of 
 Secretary Palma is an admirable program of the best 
 Filipino thought upon this problem. He sincerely 
 regards his less fortunate fellow-men as brothers, as, 
 indeed, I have more than once heard him address them 
 at conferences in the mountains. 
 
 The writings of Professor H. Otley Beyer of the 
 University of the Philippines, who prepared himself 
 for his work by six years of residence among the 
 Ifugaos, are the best scientific statements we have 
 of the ethnological classifications of the mountain tribes 
 of the Philippines. His point of view is one of sym-
 
 THE HILL TRIBES OF LUZON 127 
 
 pathy with these people, and of a recognition of the 
 natural dignity of man. We have had too much neglect 
 by scientists generally of the fundamental and essential 
 resemblances of human beings in different strata of 
 civilization. An amusing parody might be written by 
 an educated Igorot upon the peculiarities of the white 
 races ; it would assist us to see ourselves as others see 
 us, not as we think we are. Modern differences be- 
 tween races may some day be scientifically analyzed 
 and grouped according to geography, or climate, or 
 environment. The North American Indians, for ex- 
 ample, before the coming of the white man never 
 founded what we could call a civilized state. How much 
 of this failure was due to the absence of iron tools 
 and domestic animals ! And how many Americans to- 
 day would deny the Indian the capacity for civilization, 
 or would be ashamed of a strain of Indian blood in his 
 own veins f It has been shown, beyond doubt, that the 
 non-Christian tribes of central Luzon are susceptible 
 of training along modern lines, and capable of intelli- 
 gently considering and debating their own future 
 status. These men are, however, of a semi-civilized 
 type ; the only true wild men of the Philippines are the 
 Negritos, the dwarf race which lives in scattered family 
 groups in the deep forests, and of whom mention will 
 be made later. 
 
 The Igorots, Bontocs, Ifugaos, Ilongotes, Kalingas, 
 and Apayaos of the Mountain Province may be gen- 
 erally classed as Indonesians. Their ancestors came 
 to Luzon from the mainland at some unknown period 
 in the past, possibly soon after the land masses partial- 
 ly subsided and left the present islands off the coast 
 of southeastern Asia. Many of them mixed with the
 
 128 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 Negritos and later with the Malays when they arrived, 
 as is shown by the shorter, darker, more Mongoloid 
 types familiar among the Bontocs and Igorots of 
 Benguet. Others, again, have rather light skin and 
 aquiline noses, evidently being a purer Indonesian 
 type. Among these, the average stature is about five 
 feet, nine inches ; white men over six feet in height are 
 not unusual. In the course of time they developed a 
 somewhat general culture of their own, but little af- 
 fected by outsiders, to whom, indeed they were hostile. 
 The Chinese merchants are the only ones who seem to 
 have penetrated into the high valleys of the interior, 
 and left behind some impress of their fashions and 
 manners. The pagan culture is in some ways very 
 peculiar, but many groups of these people to-day are 
 but little behind their Malay neighbors in civilization. 
 The Indonesian culture and dialects are similar in 
 all the groups. It is difficult to generalize about their 
 manners and customs, for each group has its own 
 characteristics, traceable back into the remote past, 
 and all groups now shade off into the culture of their 
 Christian neighbors of the lowlands. As a type of 
 them all, mention might be made of the largest group, 
 the Ifugaos, who have a culture of high development 
 but little influenced from outside during recent cen- 
 turies. They have met the problem of agriculture upon 
 the hills with their wonderful terraced and irrigated 
 rice-fields, which extend thousands of feet up the steep 
 slopes. The Ifugao stone-faced walls for rice-cul- 
 tivation would, if placed end to end, total twelve thou- 
 sand miles, reaching half-way around the world, and 
 the Ifugao population numbers only about sixty thou- 
 sand. The same form of terrace-agriculture was
 
 THE HILL TRIBES OF LUZON 129 
 
 adopted by the Incas in Peru, and may be found to-day 
 in southern China and northern India, as well as in 
 Italy, on a much smaller scale. The Ifugaos developed 
 weaving, wood-carving, and basket-making, and had a 
 system of private ownership of real property, and a 
 strong sense of personal dignity, with equal rights for 
 both sexes. 
 
 Among the Benguets gold- and copper-mining and 
 smelting were extensively carried on. Indeed, at the 
 time of the Spanish invasion of the Philippines, these 
 Indonesians in the mountains were probably living in 
 a state of civilization very similar to that which Pizarro 
 discovered among the Incas of Peru. That the Spanish 
 did not destroy the culture of the Provincia Montdnosa 
 in Luzon was due to the fact that they never conquered 
 it, and rarely did individuals dare even to enter it. A 
 few priests, like the devoted Father Villaverde, a few 
 garrisons of soldiers in the foot-hills to stop deprada- 
 tions from above, that was all. When the Frenchman 
 La Gironiere in 1830, after the death of his adored 
 Spanish wife at Jalajala on Laguna de Bay, plunged 
 into the wilderness to forget his sorrows, his life was 
 hardly worth the snapping of a twig; near the spot 
 where the government building now stands at Bontoc, 
 he states, he was forced to drink, with the victorious 
 head-hunters of that village, a mixture of human brains 
 from a cocoanut-shell. This is the nearest approach 
 to cannibalism of which there is any record m the 
 Philippines. 
 
 The Indonesians may have originally taken to the 
 mountain ranges of Luzon to escape from the better- 
 armed Malays along the coasts. It is doubtful if their 
 population has ever been substantially larger than it is
 
 130 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 to-day. There is not food enough in the Mountain 
 Province to sustain the present inhabitants. Twice the 
 Ifugaos have settled on the lower levels of the Magat 
 River, and abandoned the attempt because disease 
 wiped them out. To-day, they cannot be persuaded to 
 colonize the lowlands; they fear death if they settle 
 outside their beloved mountains. 
 
 Many a brush between the mountaineers and the con- 
 stabulary occurred in the years 1900-13; there were 
 many tedious days of cautious approach over trails set 
 with poisoned bamboo; many a rush from warriors 
 armed with long spears and bows and arrows, stoical 
 men who when wounded and captured could watch with 
 a smile the amputation of a hopelessly maimed limb. 
 
 In the spring of 1914 I watched the Ifugao school- 
 boys at Kiangan playing volley-ball in the field beside 
 the splendid stone school-house they had built them- 
 selves. When either side scored a point, that team 
 leapt forward with extended hand and gave the deep- 
 throated war-cry of their fathers. Less than a decade 
 before the same cry had often struck terror through 
 these valleys. In 1913 the Secretary of the Interior 
 had been attacked on the Campote trail by the Ilon- 
 gotes; in 1914 our party went unmolested over the 
 same trail, and the sole unfavorable sign was that only 
 the women and younger men attended the canao and 
 athletic games; the older men had retreated to the 
 forest above in fear of punishment for the demonstra- 
 tion of the year before. In 1916 the Secretary of the 
 Interior reported that no attack had been made for 
 several years upon any American or .Filipino by the 
 mountaineers. 
 
 The fact is that timidity was the chief reason for at-
 
 THE HILL TRIBES OF LUZON 131 
 
 tacks by the "wild men" upon the invading whites. 
 As soon as they learned that no wrong was intended, 
 that justice and absolute honesty in the keeping of 
 promises and in payment for services rendered were 
 the order of the new day, their hostility vanished like 
 mists before the sun. The hardest task of the 
 United States Government was not to make friends 
 with them, but to stop their head-hunting raids upon 
 one another. Prolonged public meetings were held at 
 which each chief had his say, and an agreement was 
 finally reached which settled the important question. 
 This shows how easy it would have been for the Ameri- 
 can colonials to make friends with the Indians, as, 
 indeed, it was for our Pennsylvania Quakers. But 
 our great-grandfathers were bent upon despoiling the 
 Indians of their lands. They adopted the maxim that 
 "The best Indian is the dead Indian." A similar 
 maxim has been adopted by the Japanese in Formosa. 
 That we have been able in Luzon to establish a new, 
 high standard for dealing with backward peoples is 
 due not only to the latter-day general spread of more 
 humane ideas through the world, but also to the special 
 efforts of reformers such as those who gather in annual 
 conference at Lake Mohonk, New York. Much of the 
 improvement may be due, also, to the separation of 
 Church and State in modern nations. The excuse of 
 earlier white conquerors for the extermination of whole 
 nations of primitive peoples, as in the Caribbean, in 
 Tasmania, in South Africa, and in Newfoundland, was 
 that these people were not Christians, and so had no 
 souls and did not matter. A similar attitude of cruelty 
 to domestic animals survives to-day in the most church- 
 ridden countries of Europe.
 
 132 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 In dealing with backward peoples, the first and only 
 safe rule of conduct is to be chary of promises, and, 
 a promise once given, never to break your word. Prim- 
 itive men surviving in the world to-day would have no 
 toleration for the easily given and quickly broken 
 promises made by statesmen at election time in the 
 civilized countries. It is not clear whether this insist- 
 ence upon the sanctity of a promise is the inherent 
 sense of honor of natural man, or whether it is neces- 
 sary in a community where the law is more or less in 
 the hands of each individual. At Bontoc there is a 
 handsome prison, built by the United States Govern- 
 ment for prisoners of the mountain races. It had been 
 found that such men, if incarcerated in the lowlands, 
 soon died of homesickness. Indeed, it has even been 
 found necessary, in the case of long-term prisoners at 
 Bontoc, to grant a "leave of absence" for two weeks 
 every year, so that they may go home to visit their 
 families. Such a prisoner, his word once given, never 
 fails to reappear at the prison on the appointed day, 
 even if that involves a three-days' journey through 
 tempests, and the hazardous swimming of mountain 
 torrents, in flood-time. 
 
 There are comparatively few criminal cases among 
 these people to-day. A curious illustration of their 
 sense of morality and the sternness of the enforcement 
 of their own code came to me on a journey through 
 Benguet at Christmas time in 1913. At the rest-house 
 at Kilometer 59, on the Baguio North Trail, a wrinkled 
 old woman was sitting patiently in the rain beside the 
 door. She had come to petition for the pardon of her 
 husband and two sons, who were serving a life-sentence 
 in Bontoc prison'for the murder of her daughter. She
 
 THE HILL TRIBES OF LUZON 133 
 
 insisted that they were not guilty, and stated as 
 proof of the fact that they were all three crying when 
 they returned from the forest where the girl had 
 been hanged. Later investigation of the case showed 
 that the girl had been educated at Mrs. Kelly's school 
 at Bua, near Baguio, and instead of returning home to 
 the smoky hut, to labor in the sweet-potato plantation 
 of her parents, had gone to live with a Chinese at 
 Baguio. According to the Igorot code, she had com- 
 mitted an offense punishable by death, and the men 
 of her family had gathered in council upon the case, 
 condemned her, and executed the sentence. They were 
 later granted a conditional pardon. 
 
 Another incident occurred on the east coast of Luzon 
 which was pitiful in its results. When in camp near 
 Baler in 1916, after a " powwow" with a band of semi- 
 civilized Negritos, I had lectured them upon the neces- 
 sity of abandoning the traditional state of warfare with 
 the neighboring Ilongotes of the forests. The next 
 year, at the same camp, the old chieftain appeared with 
 the sad story of the massacre of his family by the Ilon- 
 gotes. When I asked him why the men of his settle- 
 ment had not beaten off their assailants, he replied 
 that he had promised me in the name of his tribe not to 
 fight any more ! The subsequent constabulary expedi- 
 tion and punishment of the Ilongotes concerned hardly 
 seemed an adequate reward for his faithfulness. 
 
 Head-hunting is a religious custom peculiar to the 
 non-Christians of Luzon and Formosa, to the Dyaks of 
 Borneo, and the hill peoples of New Guinea, though 
 certain tribes in India are said to practise it still. The 
 heads when taken were dried and adorned the houses 
 of the warriors, like game trophies in the homes of
 
 134 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 American millionaires. As soon as the mountain men 
 found that the Government was determined to put a 
 stop to this practice, the ' * trophies ' ' disappeared. The 
 custom has been eradicated to-day, and no cases of the 
 taking of heads have been reported by the constabulary 
 for several years past. The chief reactionaries in this 
 matter are the old women, who still preach in secret to 
 the young men that they are not worthy of marriage 
 until they have taken at least one head. They also 
 incite the taking of a head to break a drought, or, 
 again, in order that some person of importance may 
 rest quietly in his grave. 
 
 In 1915, to lessen the danger of bloodshed between 
 rival rancherias or settlements, the Infugaos were per- 
 suaded to abandon their spears when upon the trails. 
 The other tribes soon followed their example, and to- 
 day use of the spear in controversies is replaced by 
 appeal for arbitration, made to the local justice of the 
 peace. The mountaineers have accepted the pax 
 Americana in good faith, and for the past decade have 
 been traveling the trails from valley to valley through- 
 out the province in a way unknown in the past. Chris- 
 tian Filipinos from Ilocos now emigrate in large num- 
 bers across the mountains to the rich lands of the 
 Cagayan Valley, and are quite unmolested. Americans 
 are at all times perfectly safe, and ladies travel with- 
 out escort for days all over the wonderful system of 
 trails. 
 
 The journey on horseback through the Mountain 
 Province should be more widely advertised; it is the 
 most interesting and beautiful trip to be taken in any 
 territory under the American flag. Comfortable rest- 
 houses are placed at intervals of thirty kilometers, an
 
 THE HILL TRIBES OF LUZON 135 
 
 easy journey for the little ponies ; on a big American 
 horse, the distance of two rest-house periods a day 
 may be comfortably traveled. Any able-bodied tour- 
 ist can make the journey on foot or on horseback. 
 The trails are excellent, the air cool and bracing at an 
 altitude of from three thousand to eight thousand 
 feet, the scenery gorgeous beyond description. The 
 inhabitants are amiable and hospitable, and the visitor 
 coming suddenly upon a silent band of Ifugaos or 
 Bontocs single-file on the trail is always greeted with a 
 smiling "Good morning." The most trying feature 
 of official trips throughout this region is the necessary 
 ceremony of the bubud, or drinking of the rice wine, 
 which is handed around by the chief of the village 
 in an old beer bottle from which all must drink without 
 glasses or cups! In official parties, the struggle for 
 precedence is here reversed: the most important man 
 must drink first, so the effort is to become as unimpor- 
 tant as possible. 
 
 The absence of animal and bird life along the trails 
 is noticeable. Throughout long ages the population 
 of the Mountain Province has been kept down by the 
 restricted area under cultivation ; they seem always to 
 have lived up to the utmost possible food supply. 
 Birds and game have but a small chance with these 
 hungry tribes; even the mountain streams are bereft 
 of fish. At Austin Pass in the mountains of Neuva 
 Viscaya, where my gallant and generous friend, E. W. 
 Austin, the district engineer of Neuva Ecija, con- 
 tracted his fatal illness from exposure to a four-day 
 typhoon, without food, I noticed bird-huts on the ridges 
 of the passes, where the Igorots trapped birds at night
 
 136 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 with the use of a light, as the Italians do their song- 
 birds. 
 
 The cdiviao, or feast, is the usual preliminary to con- 
 ferences and a feature of all official visits in the moun- 
 tains. Sometimes several thousand mountaineers 
 gather from all directions ; as many as fifty-five cara- 
 baos or buffaloes were killed at one feast in Bontoc 
 in 1913. The carabaos are not used as work animals 
 generally by the Igorots, but the practice of killing 
 them for feasts is wasteful, and is discouraged by the 
 Government. An immense amount of energy is dis- 
 played by the natives in dancing in a circle around the 
 camp fire to the monotonous sound of the gansa or 
 Chinese gong. All night long, and well into the next 
 night the beating of the gansa keeps up, accompanied 
 by mournful chanting and much drinking of bubud, 
 brought in carefully preserved antique porcelain jars. 
 
 Very few of the non-Christians of the Mountain 
 Province wear much clothing: a " gee-string" or girdle 
 for the men, with perhaps a shirt, and a brief petti- 
 coat for the women suffice ; in the rice-paddies and in 
 the more remote stations even these scanty garments 
 are dispensed with. The virtual nakedness of these 
 people is a source of much chagrin to the more civilized 
 inhabitants of the islands. They have been, of course, 
 widely photographed and advertised, and shown in 
 various countries as examples of the "Filipinos." 
 Seventeen years of effort have not served to remove 
 from the minds of those Americans who visited the 
 ' * dog-eating Igorots ' ' at the St. Louis Exposition, the 
 impression that these were the average Filipinos. The 
 dog market in Baguio on Sunday mornings is a never- 
 ceasing source of interest and satisfaction to visiting
 
 THE HILL TRIBES OF LUZON 137 
 
 Americans. The eating of dogs, hDwever, came from 
 the Chinese; it is in common practice around Canton 
 to-day. While only a small proportion of the moun- 
 taineers are dog-eaters, the desirability of dog flesh to 
 them is due not only to the dire scarcity of other meat, 
 but to the fact that the dogs may be led without exertion 
 from the market to their home, perhaps two or three 
 days' travel on foot; any one who has ever tried to 
 drive a recalcitrant pig will appreciate the difference 1 
 The commonly circulated stories of cruelty to dogs are 
 entirely without foundation. I heard, on the floor of 
 the House of Representatives in Washington, a mem- 
 ber who was afterward in the cabinet, and who had 
 previously spent a few weeks in the Philippines, dis- 
 miss the whole Philippine question in debate by a 
 sneering reference to the dog-market in Baguio! 
 
 Much merriment was provoked this year by a news- 
 paper article which I saw in both American and French 
 newspapers describing the introduction in the Philip- 
 pine Legislature of a bill by Senator Lope K. Santos, 
 formerly Governor of Nueva Viscaya, alleged to be a 
 law compelling the Igorots to wear trousers. The 
 bill, which was not acted upon, really appropriated 
 funds to supply clothing to the mountain people, and 
 forbade them to enter the "government" towns with 
 insufficient clothing. Major (afterward Brigadier- 
 General) E. L. Munson, of the United States Medical 
 Corps, who made a study of this question at the in- 
 stance of the Philippine Government, reported that 
 the mountaineers really suffer a decided lowering of 
 vitality from want of sufficient clothing. There is no 
 doubt that these people would wear clothes if they 
 could afford them. The sight of a naked man is more
 
 138 MY SEVEN YEAKS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 and more infrequent, even in the most remote localities, 
 as prosperity increases from year to year in the Moun- 
 tain Province. I shall never forget the suffering of a 
 Mangyan who was watching with me one evening at a 
 point where a tamarao trail came from the forest 
 at the summit of Mt. Calavite in Mindoro. A gale of 
 wind had sprung up, accompanied by gusts of rain. 
 All was silent, except for the roar of the wind, when 
 I happened to glance around at my almost-naked com- 
 panion. He was having a violent chill, his arms and 
 legs jerking like those of a jumping- jack. I really be- 
 lieve that the copious drafts of hot tea administered 
 to him beside the camp fire a half -hour later saved his 
 life. One of our precious flannel shirts made a new 
 man of him. And yet there are those who sneer at 
 primitive man for his nakedness. It used to be the 
 fashion in " civilized" courts of Europe to make fun 
 of the physical sufferings of cripples or idiots! I 
 have actually suffered more, myself, from the cold upon 
 exposed mountain tops in the Philippines than in mid- 
 winter in Quebec. 
 
 The truly primitive man of the Philippines is the 
 Negrito. About seventy thousand Negritos roam the 
 forests of the Philippines. The men are usually about 
 four feet, six inches in height, and sometimes only three 
 feet, ten inches. They are evidently kin to the now ex- 
 tinct bushmen of Australia and South Africa, and to 
 the Adaman Islanders. They seem incapable of be- 
 coming civilized, and the unmixed types refuse to live 
 in settlements, preferring 1 the roaming life of the 
 forests. They have no habitations, and most of them 
 are badly scarred from huddling to sleep around the 
 camp fire. They may linger on for generations in their
 
 THE HILL TRIBES OF LUZON 139 
 
 forest reserves, but I fear the Government can do little 
 for them, except to see that they are unmolested. 
 Nothing can surpass the interest of a visit to the 
 tribes of Negritos on the slopes of Mariveles, opposite 
 Corregidor. I once spent several days with about two 
 hundred of them, gathered together by Forester Diaz, 
 in whom they had absolute confidence. I have watched 
 the Negritos at their hunting with bow and arrow and 
 with the blow-pipe, at their dancing, and at a wed- 
 ding ceremony. What most impressed me was the 
 facility with which they made fire by rubbing two 
 sticks together. It took them only about thirty sec- 
 onds to strike a spark, and I have often envied them 
 when trying in vain to light a match in a high wind. 
 
 To return to the two hundred and fifty thousand 
 Indonesians who are generally classed together as the 
 non-Christians of the Mountain Province: they are 
 certainly not " primitive" men; they are " backward 
 peoples" to-day, but only because of lack of oppor- 
 tunity. We are giving them education, the elements of 
 modern sanitation, and a sense of security in their 
 mountain home. There are now many public schools 
 in the province; the Church is doing its share, espe- 
 cially through the noble and self-sacrificing efforts of 
 the Belgian Mission. The Belgians began their work 
 in 1907, and to-day have about fifty schools in the moun- 
 tains, with nearly four thousand pupils. Bishop 
 Charles H. Brent of western New York has established 
 a Protestant Episcopal mission at Baguio and another 
 at Bontoc. 
 
 It was in 1915, I think, that I saw the recruits com- 
 ing in for a battalion of Scouts at Camp John Hay in 
 Baguio. They had been brought on foot from their
 
 140 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 rice-terraces in Ifugao and enlisted as volunteers in 
 the United States Army. Many of them were the shy- 
 est and " wildest" type of semi-civilized man; to-day 
 they are as smart a body of soldiers as may be found 
 anywhere, prompt, obedient, and with the swagger of 
 the British Tommy in uniform. Incidentally, they are 
 the best rifle shots in the army. For the first few years 
 I was in Manila I used to hear the sound of the gansa 
 at night, from the army post across the valley ; now an 
 Ifugao regimental brass-band plays the latest popular 
 music for the dances at the Country Club. 
 
 Among the representatives in the Assembly ap- 
 pointed in 1916 were old Juan Carino, the Bagnio 
 Igorot, and Rafael Buluyangan, the Ifugao ; the moun- 
 tain clothes and Ifugao hair-cut disappeared in a few 
 weeks and the two men soon became entirely conven- 
 tional, though modest, participants in the making of 
 general laws for their country. A nephew of Juan 
 Carino recently graduated at the University of Penn- 
 sylvania, and is now the government medical officer 
 at Baguio; incidentally, he writes excellent English 
 and is a contributor to current periodicals. Many of 
 the Indonesians are serving under Filipino provincial 
 officers as subordinates, and most of the elected 
 village presidents in the Mountain Province are native 
 sons of the hills. To understand how thoroughly capa- 
 ble these people are when given a chance, one should 
 visit the public school in the Trinidad Valley near 
 Baguio. There, two American teachers, Mr. Wright 
 and Mr. Bartholomew, have gathered together about 
 four hundred boys from all the representative Indo- 
 nesian groups. They are taking not only the ordinary 
 public-school courses in English, but studying scien-
 
 THE HILL TEIBES OF LUZON 141 
 
 tific agriculture as well. From days spent, while shoot- 
 ing, with various of these boys, I can testify that they 
 are as bright mentally and as responsible morally as 
 boys of their age in any of the principal countries of 
 the world. In them lies the future redemption of their 
 people, among whom they go forth from each graduat- 
 ing class to teach. I remember that the best stenog- 
 raphers and bookkeepers in the school were Kalingas, 
 whose forefathers, with feathers in their hair and 
 pointed head-axes ever at hand, had been the terrors 
 of the North. 
 
 By the appointment of Joaquin Luna as governor of 
 the Mountain Province in 1916, to succeed E. A. Eck- 
 man, a Filipino was for the first time put in direct 
 charge of the province. Mr. Luna comes of a distin- 
 guished family, being a brother of General -Luna, the 
 greatest military leader of the insurrection against the 
 United States, and of Juan Luna, the greatest Filipino 
 painter, who met a tragic end in Paris after winning 
 recognition there and in Madrid. Governor Luna 
 made an unqualified success of his work, holding the 
 confidence of the mountain people and of the Ameri- 
 cans as well. His chief Filipino lieutenant-governors 
 were Jose Martinez and Juan Ortegas. When Mr. Luna 
 was appointed to the Senate to represent the Mountain 
 Province, Dr. Aquilino Calvo, former Governor of 
 Pangasinan, and later elected senator from that prov- 
 ince, took his place as governor. Dr. Calvo 's adminis- 
 tration was a failure; he was relieved in 1920, and 
 Governor Luna again assumed the office. 
 
 To the non-Christians, government is a matter of 
 men, not of laws. The personality of the governors is 
 all-important. Justice, exact and unwavering, must be
 
 142 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 administered if he is to govern the backward races. 
 ' ' There need never be any trouble with the Indians, ' ' 
 said William Penn; "they are the easiest people in the 
 world to get on with if the white men would simply be 
 just.'* Penn's was the only one of the American 
 colonies to get on with the Indians. The American 
 officials in the Philippines who laid the foundation of 
 the present edifice of peace, order, and progress in the 
 Mountain Province displayed the best qualities of our 
 race. The best-known active field agents among them 
 were William F. Pack, Jeff D. Gallman, E. A. Eckman, 
 Major O. A. Tomlinson, P. C., Eugene de Mitkievicz, 
 John H. Evans, Leo J. Grove, Samuel E. Kane, W. F. 
 Hale, C. W. Olson, George Connor, Captain Wilfrid 
 Turnbull, P. C., Captain A. H. Gilfillan, P. C., Captain 
 F. A. Whitney, P. C., and Major William E. Dosser, 
 P. C. Often absolutely alone and surround by warlike 
 men who had always in the past been regarded as sav- 
 ages, and had until then defied the white man, they 
 worked steadily and unafraid along the paths of honor, 
 justice, and reform. The only mistake made on the 
 part of the Government was in leaving some of them so 
 long at their lonely posts ; in several cases they broke 
 in nerves or health, gradually undermined by the in- 
 fluences of solitary life and unlimited power. To the 
 Filipinos the service is not attractive, far away from 
 gaiety and association with their own people ; they ac- 
 cept it, as Governor Luna has done, from a sense of 
 duty. But the fact that they so strongly feel this sense 
 of duty and are determined to "carry on" in the work 
 of their American predecessors, is the best guaranty 
 for the future.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 IS the American army garrison kept in the Philip- 
 pines to repel possible invasion from without, or 
 to keep down Filipino uprisings! For the former pur- 
 pose it is too small ; for the latter, the Scouts and the 
 constabulary would be sufficient for any conceivable 
 emergency. 
 
 From a military point of view, opinions differ as 
 to whether even Manila and Corregidor can be held by 
 American arms in the face of a hostile attack from 
 without ; the best professional judgment is that an in- 
 vasion of the Philippines eventually would be definitely 
 decided upon the high seas by a naval engagement. 
 
 The expense of maintaining the considerable army 
 garrisons of white, negro, and Filipino troops, and of 
 keeping up the army property and holding large tracts 
 of land and buildings in Manila and throughout the 
 provinces as army reservations, is, together with the 
 expenditures for the naval stations at Cavite and 
 Olongapo, the chief cost of the Philippine Islands to 
 the United States. Small sums are also expended by 
 the home Government upon the salaries in the Philip- 
 pines of one or more officials of the Philippine Health 
 and Quarantine Service, and one half of the cost of 
 the Philippine Coast and Geodetic Survey is borne by 
 the United States. Otherwise the Philippines, under 
 
 143
 
 144 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 the American flag, are self-sustaining, and have been 
 so since the beginning of American occupation. 
 
 The Filipinos have had a very considerable respect 
 for American arms ever since our success in over- 
 throwing their " republic" under Aguinaldo. The un- 
 popularity of that campaign in the United States has 
 obscured from American vision the real credit of the 
 performance from a military point of view. 
 
 During the World War, all white American troops 
 were withdrawn from the Philippines except a regi- 
 ment of coast artillery at Corregidor. During 1917 
 and 1918, the Philippines were quieter politically than 
 they were either before or afterward, when the garri- 
 son was restored. The same is true of the Moro coun- 
 try; since the American soldiers were withdrawn in 
 1914 from Mindanao and Sulu, that region has been 
 phenomenally peaceful. When, after the termination 
 of the World War, the American garrison in the Phil- 
 ippines was again largely increased,. Secretary Baker 
 asked me to tell the Filipinos that this was merely an 
 incident of army administration and was not aimed at 
 them. The fact is, however, that the United States 
 Army is an integral part of the Philippine political 
 problem, and exercises a large influence upon politics 
 both locally and in the United States. The only way 
 to prevent military influence from pressing heavily 
 upon the solution of the political problem in the Philip- 
 pines, would be to confine the whole garrison upon 
 Corregidor Island, and thus remove them from con- 
 tinual and often unfriendly contact with Philippine 
 civil affairs. 
 
 The institution of civil government in the Philip- 
 pines was accomplished by Mr. Taft only after a pro-
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 145 
 
 traded struggle with the army officers ; my own efforts 
 to give the Filipinos self-government were hampered 
 by organizations of veterans. Since that day, the army 
 has been quiescent or active in their dislike of Filipino 
 government in proportion to the control over them of 
 civil influence in Washington. 
 
 The relations, therefore, of the governor-general 
 with the army authorities in Manila are always a mat- 
 ter of importance to the Filipinos. I was constantly 
 preoccupied with the effort to keep these relations upon 
 a uniform level of cordiality and cooperation, from 
 which they lapsed for only two brief periods of time. 
 Filipinos know that most military men are opposed to 
 independence ; they believe that most of them look with 
 disfavor upon self-government. The military mind is 
 genuinely biased everywhere and in all countries 
 toward the inability of men to govern themselves. 
 Their training is to look up to a superior, not down to 
 the people, as the source of authority. Many of the 
 republics in the world to-day are not democracies be- 
 cause they are based upon military power. 
 
 The governor-general, while ranking above the com- 
 manding general, has no direct control over him, and 
 no authority over the army and the navy in the Philip- 
 pines, except that he may, by law, call upon either 
 branch "to suppress lawless violence, invasion, insur- 
 rection, or rebellion,'* subject to subsequent modifica- 
 tion of his action by the President. The Secretary of 
 War, on the other hand, has no authority per se in the 
 Philippines, and is not mentioned by name in the Jones 
 Act, except in Section 25 and Section 26 thereof, deal- 
 ing with the insular auditor, evidently an inheritance 
 from former statutes and an inadvertence in the draft-
 
 146 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 ing of the present organic law. The Jones Act does 
 say of the governor-general: "He shall annually and 
 at such other times as he may be required make such 
 official report of the transactions of the Government 
 of the Philippine Islands to an executive department 
 of the United States to be designated by the Presi- 
 dent." President Wilson designated the Secretary 
 of War, who had theretofore always been charged with 
 supervision over the Philippine Government. Another 
 President may designate the Secretary of State, if the 
 Philippine question assumes an aspect of international 
 negotiation, or perhaps, the Secretary of the Interior, 
 to whom the affairs of Hawaii and Alaska are reported, 
 if the Philippine question is decided on the grounds 
 of eventual statehood in the American union. 
 
 The official relation of the War Department to the 
 Philippine Government as it exists, may be a misfor- 
 tune to the Filipinos if military counsels on purely 
 political questions are in the ascendancy in the office 
 of the Secretary of War; on the other hand, the secre- 
 tary may be able to avert serious trouble between the 
 army authorities in the Philippines and the civil popu- 
 lation by his official and personal influence over the 
 governor-general and the commanding general. At all 
 times, so long as Major-General Frank Mclntyre, as 
 Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, continues to 
 maintain his present relations with the Philippines, the 
 rights of the civil population there may rest secure in 
 his wise and firm protection. 
 
 Most of the world powers make the governor of a 
 colony the commander-in-chief of all forces within his 
 jurisdiction; even this plan has not always averted 
 trouble, due to the fundamental difference between the
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 147 
 
 civil and military mind, as was evidenced by the quar- 
 rel between Lord Curzon, the viceroy, and Lord Kitch- 
 ener, the commanding general, in India, resulting in 
 the retirement of both by the British Government. 
 The American system in Hawaii, Porto Rico, and 
 Alaska, and in the former territories now the Western 
 States of our Union, has been adopted in the Philip- 
 pines. It was well described by Major-General Thomas 
 H. Barry when President Roosevelt asked him if he 
 understood what his relations would be with Governor 
 Charles E. Magoon in the second occupation of Cuba. 
 
 "Yes, Mr. President," said the general. "If there's 
 peace, Magoon 's king; if there's war, I'm king." 
 This displays the basic defect of the American system : 
 such is the weakness of human nature that the civil 
 authorities are inclined to go too far to avoid martial 
 law, the military too far to bring it about. 
 
 The reductio ad absurdum of the whole question may 
 be seen in China, where there is a civil governor and 
 a military governor in each province; the former en- 
 forces the laws and collects tribute (taxes) ; the latter 
 commands the army, also collects "tribute," and, in 
 the case of dispute, seizes the civil governor and his 
 government. Both issue paper money in time of per- 
 sonal need ! 
 
 In the course of several years the Philippine official 
 has the privilege of knowing most of the higher officers 
 of the regular army. The Philippine station has always 
 been of interest to the army, and residence in the 
 islands generally welcomed by officers and their fam- 
 ilies for the two years' tour of duty allowed by the 
 law. I had the pleasure of serving with eight succes- 
 sive commanding generals, the late J. Franklin Bell
 
 148 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 and Thomas H. Barry, Hunter H. Liggett, Charles J. 
 Bailey, Robert K. Evans, Henry A. Greene, Francis H. 
 French, and Francis J. Kernan. All of these names 
 are justly known as those of men of professional ability 
 and upstanding character. I am glad to say that I 
 enjoyed the personal friendship of each of them 
 throughout their service as commanding generals; I 
 had serious administrative difficulties, to be later 
 described, with two of them. Of the list of eight, 
 Generals Barry and Liggett gave the Philippine Gov- 
 ernment the most unhesitating support; Generals 
 Evans and Kernan the least. 
 
 The regular army in the Philippines consists of 
 white and negro soldiers, and of the Philippine Scouts, 
 enlisted from among the population of the Philippines 
 under special authority of Congress. The constabulary 
 is the insular police force, and has no direct relation 
 to the army. However, the practice for years was to 
 appoint an officer of the army as General and Chief of 
 Constabulary, on detached service, and some half- 
 dozen other army officers as Colonels and Assistant 
 Chiefs of Constabulary, or inspectors therein. To 
 them was due from the beginning much of the credit 
 for the organization and training of the constabulary, 
 a unique and, in some respects, an unrivaled body of 
 men. Those army officers who were especially promi- 
 nent in the constabulary during my service were James 
 G. Harbord, William C. Rivers, Herman Hall, Mark 
 Hersey, Peter E. Traub, and Marcus Cronin, all, I 
 believe, later major-generals at the front during the 
 World War. All were withdrawn from the constabu- 
 lary either because of the completion of their terms 
 of service or due to the exigencies of the new army in
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 149 
 
 the war. A finer lot of men and officers I never expect 
 to meet. Generals Harbord, Herman Hall, and Traub 
 deserve credit not only for the upbuilding of the con- 
 stabulary, but also for a wise and important influence 
 exerted by them in the growth of Filipino nationality 
 and good-will to the United States. Among other offi- 
 cers who were of the greatest service to the Philippine 
 Government, though not so directly connected with it, 
 during my time, were Colonel John B. Bellinger, Chief 
 Quartermaster during 1918-20, Colonel (afterward 
 Major-General ) David C. Shanks, and Colonel (after- 
 ward Major-General) Hinds. 
 
 When a new commanding general of the Philippine 
 Department arrives in Manila, there is at once much 
 anxiety as to whether or not he is going to "cooperate" 
 with the Philippine Government. Under one who is 
 unsympathetic, and merely formal in attitude, the 
 Philippine Command may rapidly become permeated 
 with anti-Filipinism. The Army and Navy Club in 
 Manila then becomes the center of anti-Filipino ru- 
 mors, and the ladies of the army families indulge in 
 unlimited anti-Filipino talk, constantly revolving 
 around whispers of intended "insurrections." Older 
 officers, who are serving their third or fourth tour of 
 duty in the Philippines, begin again to live in spirit 
 in the "days of the Empire," before civil government 
 was instituted. The enlisted men, generally less vocal 
 in their political views, and too often homesick and 
 restless in the confined life of barracks in the tropics, 
 begin to react to the psychology of their officers. Such 
 is the supreme influence in a military command of its 
 chief. The material at hand then becomes full of prom- 
 ise of an explosion; the army seems to be "looking for 

 
 150 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 trouble," and trouble is not hard to start when there 
 are different races living in the same community. 
 
 At times such as these the Philippine Scouts are the 
 political storm-center. The officers are generally ex- 
 sergeants of the army enjoying rank as captain in the 
 Scouts, and are in a state of continual dissatisfaction. 
 They consider that they have not been generously 
 treated as to promotion and retirement by army poli- 
 ticians in Washington ; they also feel that if the Philip- 
 pines were given their independence the army would 
 be withdrawn and their corps abolished. From a mili- 
 tary point of view the Scouts are a splendid body, but 
 they are impatient because of long disuse. Their 
 Filipino enlisted personnel would make the finest kind 
 of soldiers, but are often a source of concern to the civil 
 authorities, due to their quickly imbibed disdain of 
 civilians, and the idle life they lead. Scout officers and 
 soldiers are generally employed as agents of the local 
 Military Information Division of the army, owing to 
 their special opportunities for familiarity with the 
 country and its inhabitants; when news of Filipino 
 " unrest" is lacking, they sometimes proceed to manu- 
 facture it. All officials who have had to do with secret- 
 service organizations will recognize this failing; they 
 are prone to overzealousness in order to justify their 
 employment. Upon two occasions at least I have 
 known "M. I. D." men of the Scouts to act as agents 
 provocateurs to try to stir up an "insurrection" after 
 the manner of the one-time secret agents of the czars 
 in imperial Russia. 
 
 An example of this was the ' * Christmas Eve upris- 
 ing" of December 24, 1914. Manila and its environs 
 were at the time somewhat restless, owing to the ac-
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 151 
 
 tivities of General Artemio Ricarte, one of the insur- 
 gent leaders of the insurrection of Filipinos against us 
 in 1899-1901, who is still recalcitrant against the 
 United States. He had refused to come in and "ba 
 good, ' ' but had fled the country and now dwells, I be- 
 lieve, as a barber in Japan. For years he issued 
 manifestos signed "Vibora" (Viper) to his people in 
 the Philippines, and dealt out to them commissions in 
 his "army" at from fifty cents to five dollars a head. 
 The main purpose of his organization, from his point 
 of view, seemed to be the collecting of revenue. Dur- 
 ing the autumn of 1914, the secret organization in the 
 Scouts was at last convinced that the time had come to 
 "start something." From week to week, for nearly 
 three months, a date was fixed in the provinces around 
 Manila for an "uprising" by Ricarte 's "army"; 
 twenty-seven times it was ' * postponed. ' ' There is evi- 
 dence that important members of my own official 
 family were privy to the plan for political reasons, but 
 the extraordinarily efficient Chief of the Philippine 
 Constabulary, General Rafael Crame, who was then 
 head of their secret service, and knows his own people 
 as does, perhaps, no other individual, was puzzled and 
 nervous because of his inability to trace these rumors 
 to their source and explain the prevalence of disquiet 
 among the Ricarte adherents. On Christmas Eve the 
 "insurrection" occurred and consisted of a gathering, 
 at the Botanical Gardens in Manila, of several dozen 
 ignorant men, without arms, mostly of the cook and 
 coachman class, who were arrested by the city police. 
 This disturbance was heralded in the United States 
 press as an insurrection, and was evidently expected 
 to have an adverse influence upon the passage of the
 
 152 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 Jones Law then under consideration in Washington. 
 When questioned, the prisoners stated that at their 
 preparatory meetings two Filipino sergeants of the 
 Scouts had attended and had promised them arms if 
 they would rise up. A small group which had been 
 arrested in the vicinity of the Scout barracks at Camp 
 Nichols, near Manila, stated that they were waiting for 
 assistance from the camp. 
 
 I have watched 1 seven commanding generals, one 
 after another, agitated soon after arrival by reports 
 of "unrest" from their Information Division; it was 
 generally enly after prolonged personal inspection that 
 each commanding general decided that conditions in 
 the Philippines were peaceful even under the surface. 
 Unfortunately, minor troubles have arisen through the 
 mutual jealousies and rivalries of the Army Informa- 
 tion Division, the Information Division of the constab- 
 ulary, which is a really effective organization, the 
 Secret Service of the city police, and the confidential 
 agents of the Customs. The European war, of course, 
 quickened the activities of all these organizations, and 
 several volunteer bodies of citizens joined in the work 
 of secret service. All this rivalry would, perhaps, be 
 at times amusing, if it were not so serious in its con- 
 sequences. It is at the very least a source of much 
 administrative worry, and contains ever-present 
 germs of real trouble. The army authorities, at times, 
 assume the attitude that they, not the governor-gen- 
 eral, represent the United States in the Philippines: 
 their secret agents then busy themselves with securing 
 reports, more or less accurate, about the insular and 
 provisional government officials for secret transmis- 
 sion to Washington. This would not be so dangerous
 
 if the Military Information Division were unpreju- 
 diced or efficient. Such of their reports as we were 
 able to discover, were generally the wildest moonshine. 
 Their agents were protected against us by "military 
 etiquette." Upon one occasion several of their men 
 were caught concealed under the house of the head of 
 the Information Division of the constabulary and haled 
 into court. The head of the Army Information Di- 
 vision, an officer of high rank, went into court and testi- 
 fied under oath that these men were unknown to the 
 army! 
 
 In general, the army in the Philippines leads its 
 own life, apart from the ordinary current of events. 
 Occasionally, under a commander as courteous and 
 generously broad-minded as Lieutenant-General Lig- 
 gett, the officers mingle in Manila society and occasion- 
 ally attend Filipino social affairs. At other times 
 army society keeps strictly to itself. 
 
 There is, of course, a constant stream of official 
 business flowing between the Philippine Government 
 and the army authorities, touching not only upon ques- 
 tions affecting personnel, the army transports, and the 
 civil and military populations, but upon the many and 
 varied business enterprises of the military organiza- 
 tion. As has been already mentioned, the army has 
 reservations which formerly held army posts; the 
 military concentration upon Manila Bay in the past 
 decade, and the final establishment of peace and order 
 throughout the archipelago, have caused the abandon- 
 ment of many of these reservations, as in Cebu and 
 Iloilo, in Mindanao and Sulu, and in other provinces. 
 The Philippine Government is naturally anxious to 
 see this unused territory returned to the public lands,
 
 154 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 for settlement or occupation. While Colonel John B. 
 Bellinger was chief quartermaster, he made great 
 progress in this direction, both in the interest of army 
 economy and in cooperation with the desires of the 
 Government. He also greatly assisted the government 
 of Manila in the development of plans for the beauti- 
 fying of the city, for which he lent idle trucks and 
 horses. In this way he subsequently drew down upon 
 his head the full wrath of the ultra-military clique in 
 the army. 
 
 During the spring and summer of 1920, the rela- 
 tions between the army and the civilians reached a 
 tense point. Two regiments had been withdrawn from 
 the Siberian expedition and sent to Manila. For eigh- 
 teen months they had lived a life of excitement and 
 adventure in the "no man's land" around Vladivos- 
 tok. They were demoralized both as to discipline and 
 as to their conception of the rights and feelings of 
 others. Whatever bad results may flow from our ill- 
 advised and foolish participation in the Siberian expe- 
 dition, among them may certainly be counted the evil 
 effects upon several thousand young Americans who 
 took part in that campaign. When they arrived in 
 Manila, these troops were still under the command of 
 Major-General Graves, whose character and judgment 
 had earned him the respect of all who met him, and 
 whose conduct had redeemed, so far as that was pos- 
 sible, the folly of our participation in the events of 
 Siberia, He was sent to command the army post at 
 Fort McKinley, near Manila, and he told me confiden- 
 tially that all his days were spent in riding his post 
 to see that his "green" officers made no serious breaks. 
 
 The 27th Infantry was detached from his command
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 155 
 
 and quartered in Manila. They found the city intoler- 
 ably dull after the lawlessness of Siberian days. Soon 
 things began to pop, in and around Manila. Frequent 
 assaults upon civilians and the constant theft or "bor- 
 rowing" of motor-cars became the order of the day. 
 The soldiers who were arrested were at once turned 
 over by the police to the military for trial. The result 
 of the courts-martial could not, for many months, be 
 ascertained. 
 
 Our first notice of the new spirit which was abroad 
 in officers' circles was the sensational court-martial of 
 a regular army officer arrested for embezzlement of 
 the funds of officers of the National Guard. I had 
 referred his case, as was the custom, to the command- 
 ing general. The Attorney-General had told me that 
 he would be sentenced in one hour in any court of 
 the Philippine Government. It would serve no pur- 
 pose now to recall the details of this trial before the 
 court-martial, in which the public took the deepest 
 interest ; the principle is all that matters. The court- 
 martial acquitted the accused; the commanding gen- 
 eral disapproved the finding of the court; there the 
 matter rested. Army " prestige'* had been protected, 
 but American prestige had suffered. A series of 
 similar incidents occurred in rapid succession; in all 
 cases the military seemed to be secure in crimes against 
 those persons who were not in the army. The greatest 
 indignation at these perversions of justice was freely 
 expressed in Filipino circles and in the Filipino news- 
 papers. Truly, the evil men do lives after them! 
 Upon the Fourth of July of that year, I stood beside a 
 general officer upon the Luneta while he observed the 
 annual ceremony of reading the Declaration of Inde-
 
 156 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 pendence. Several thousand Filipinos heard him re- 
 cite our own ancient grievances against George the 
 Third: 
 
 He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, 
 without the consent of our legislature. 
 
 He has affected to render the military independent of, and 
 superior to, the civil power. . . . 
 
 For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: 
 
 For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for 
 any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of 
 these States: 
 
 For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world. . . . 
 
 The most serious incident of these days of early 
 summer of 1920, however, occurred during my absence 
 upon a vacation in Java. The spirit of insubordination 
 among the ex-Siberian troops had led to many in- 
 stances of petty disorder and infractions of military 
 discipline. The Military Provost Guard, or police, 
 was strengthened, and for the first time in many years 
 began to patrol the streets outside the military reser- 
 vation. Soldiers, it seems, were wisely forbidden to 
 visit the resorts or dives in Pasay near Manila which 
 when closed by the Government from time to time had 
 as regularly sprung up like mushrooms overnight. 
 On June 5, 1920, a Filipino named Marcos Concepcion, 
 a reputable person of good Laguna family, traveling 
 in his automobile on the Manila south road, in Pasay, 
 was halted by a soldier in uniform who demanded to 
 search the car ; when Concepcion attempted to pass on, 
 the soldier shot and killed him. This soldier, who had 
 no legal right to be in arms, stationed upon the public 
 streets for the purpose of stopping civilians, was ac- 
 quitted by the court-martial upon the ground that he
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 157 
 
 was only doing his duty. Higher military authority, 
 in approving the sentence of the court, added in excuse 
 of the lack of judgment shown by the soldier, that he 
 was " young and inexperienced/' 
 
 Another incident occurred, a few weeks later in 
 the province of Pampanga, near Camp Stotsenburg, 
 where a praiseworthy effort to stop the smuggling of 
 liquor into the reservation was being made by the 
 military authorities. At midnight of July 7th, the 
 provost marshal of Stotsenburg entered the house of 
 the acting governor of the province with a detail of 
 armed soldiers, and with threats of establishing mar- 
 tial law, his hand on his revolver, forced the governor 
 to sign under protest an order for the suspension of 
 the Chief of Police of Angeles, without waiting for 
 the hearing set two days thereafter. Martial law 
 could be proclaimed only by the governor-general, but 
 many of these untrained officers had a different un- 
 derstanding. In fact, there is strong reason for be- 
 lieving that there was a positive hope upon the part 
 of many officers, during July and August, 1920, of 
 bringing about a state of affairs in which martial law 
 would be necessary. Reports of the need for military 
 interference were already filling the American press, 
 sent home by reputable journalists visiting the Phil- 
 ippines who had obtained their " information " at mil- 
 itary headquarters. 
 
 One of the stories told was that, owing to Filipino 
 objection to the recently passed United States Coast- 
 wise Shipping Law, the Filipinos were for the first 
 time in years on the verge of revolt, and were being 
 led into war against the United States by Senate 
 President Manuel L. Quezon. The facts were the exact
 
 158 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 contrary. The extension of our coastwise laws to the 
 Philippines was, indeed, vigorously opposed in the 
 Philippines; it always had been; President Taft had 
 vetoed such a proposition ten years before. I well re- 
 member decisive debates against it in the House of 
 Eepresentatives in Washington when I was a member. 
 When the law was at length passed, in 1920, the public 
 in Manila held many meetings, to protest in an orderly, 
 peaceable, and respectful manner against the measure. 
 President Quezon most eloquently voiced the prevail- 
 ing opinion. Since when have we denied people the 
 Bright peaceably to assemble and petition? Attention 
 is again invited to the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 Anti-Filipino feeling reached a climax early in Aug- 
 ust, 1920, during the visit to Manila of the large Con- 
 gressional party which was then making an unofficial 
 tour of the Orient. The American-printed papers in 
 Manila several of which, by the way, are under the 
 control of foreigners seized upon the opportunity 
 for a political play. They issued, apparently upon a 
 concerted plan, a series of articles ridiculing the Fil- 
 ipinos and severely denouncing their alleged shortcom- 
 ings, to show their incapacity in government. It so 
 happened that these papers were all printed by Fil- 
 ipino employees. All of these employees one day 
 walked out of the offices of the papers which were en- 
 gaged in making such unjust and humiliating attacks 
 upon their race. No disorder accompanied the walk- 
 out, which was in sharp contrast, by the way, with the 
 conduct of the American Marines in Nicaragua, a few 
 months later, who retaliated upon a native newspaper, 
 which had abused the United States, by wrecking the 
 newspaper office.
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 159 
 
 The presence of the Congressional party, the news- 
 paper strike, and the general political excitement due 
 to an organized effort on the part of many American 
 residents of Manila to discredit Filipino self-govern- 
 ment, led to great though secret activity in army 
 headquarters. One evening all the officers were hastily 
 summoned from their clubs and hotels and all soldiers 
 ordered to barracks, where they were held under arms ; 
 machine-guns were mounted upon trucks to be ready 
 at any moment ; all soldiers were ordered off the streets 
 except armed patrols disguised as military police, 
 which were massed at strategic points. All of this was 
 done without consulting or informing the officials of 
 the Insular Government. When we learned of it 
 through the agents of the city police, it is hard to say 
 whether more surprise or indignation was ^expressed 
 in the Council of State. There was no possibility of 
 any concerted disorder in Manila, and absolutely none 
 of the agents of the Government could explain the 
 action of the military. What was coming? Suppose 
 a dozen citizens acting under the impulse of some real 
 or fancied grievance or insult from one of the bands 
 of "provost guards" had caused a street brawl. The 
 state of mind of the army officers was evidently similar 
 to that which preceded the Boston Massacre in 1770, 
 or the slaughter of Amritsar in the Punjab in 1919. 
 Might not the Scouts be employed as professional kil- 
 lers, like the Gurkhas of the Indian Army? It needed 
 only a spark to cause an explosion. Had any clash 
 occurred, the press in the United States would have 
 been loaded to the brim with stories of insurrection 
 and Filipino revolt. How well founded was the anxiety 
 of the Filipinos in the Council of State in those days
 
 may be guessed from the results of the rioting of the 
 Egyptians in Alexandria in May, 1921. These riots 
 have been joyfully seized upon by the newspapers of 
 all the colonial powers of the world as the chief re- 
 maining argument against the independence of Egypt. 
 Some of the excitement in Manila evidently spread 
 under cover to the provinces. A secret-service report 
 I had at that time from San Fernando, La Union, one 
 hundred and fifty miles away, was as follows : 
 
 While at San Fernando I heard a lot of discussion as to the 
 Independence question, and there is a lot of bad feeling. 
 I found about every other man talking about it. Several 
 people told me seriously that Martial Law was to be declared 
 in Manila and that the Military were going to take over the 
 Government. One story repeated at least a dozen times with 
 a little difference was : that the General commanding the Divi- 
 sion had called Governor-General Harrison, Quezon, and 
 Osmena to his office at General Philippine Headquarters one 
 night and given them twenty-four hours to stop the strike 
 [the newspapers] or he would declare Martial Law. . . . 
 There are all kinds of versions of the Military police being 
 employed in Manila and if those newspaper arguments about 
 those points keep up, they will be ripe in some places in the 
 province for trouble. 
 
 To illustrate how aggressive the sentiment was at 
 that time in American commercial circles in Manila, 
 the leading American banker, a resolute opponent of 
 Filipino self-government, advocated to me taking away 
 the responsible officers of government from the Fil- 
 ipinos. I asked him if he did not understand that his 
 policy would, in the course of time, really lead to dis- 
 order. His eyes gleamed as he replied: "Well, then, 
 let's have the revolt, the sooner the better, and have it 
 over with; we should strengthen the army now!" 
 
 And all of this occurred while the Filipinos were
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 161 
 
 priding themselves upon their loyalty to the United 
 States and were convinced of the generous good-will of 
 the Americans toward them. 
 
 I suppose that Secretary Baker was too much oc- 
 cupied with matters nearer home to pay much atten- 
 tion to my cablegrams of those days; and, always at 
 his elbow stood the figure of General Peyton C. March, 
 that "dread two-handed engine at the door." To him, 
 as much as to any individual, we ascribed the virtual 
 failure, in 1917 and 1918, of the most vigorous concrete 
 effort of the Filipino people to show their gratitude for 
 what America had done for them by the organization 
 of a division of volunteers for service with the army 
 during the European war. How this division was ham- 
 pered, delayed, and thwarted by army politics is a de- 
 pressing tale of intrigue and indifference ; how it was 
 used by certain army politicians to discredit the Fil- 
 ipinos by misrepresentation and abuse is an exhibition 
 of the most ungenerous and unattractive side of the 
 imperialistic character. 
 
 During the early winter of 1916-17, when the proba- 
 bility of our entering the war was increasing week by 
 week, inquiries were made by the Philippine adminis- 
 tration whether compulsory military service should be 
 instituted in the islands. Both President Wilson and 
 Secretary Baker looked with disfavor upon the idea. 
 However, when our diplomatic relations with Germany 
 were severed, a special session of the Legislature was 
 called, and President Quezon's Militia Act No. 2715, 
 was passed. This gave to the governor-general the 
 power to introduce compulsory military service in the 
 islands, by providing for the inclusion in the Philip- 
 pine National Guard of every able-bodied citizen be-
 
 162 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 tween the ages of eighteen and forty-five; no restric- 
 tion was made in the law upon the service to which the 
 Guard might be disposed by the governor-general. 
 Speeches in the Legislature by the leaders of the dif- 
 ferent parties showed unanimous support of the United 
 States. This, it must be remembered, was not pro- 
 voked by an anti-German spirit, for Germans were per- 
 sonally popular with the Filipinos ; it was purely pro- 
 American. The act created a militia commission as 
 advisers to the governor-general as Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Militia. Most of the members of the mil- 
 itia commission were Filipino officials of the Govern- 
 ment. They were unanimously in favor of active 
 participation in the European war after we had en- 
 tered the conflict, and on April 25, 1917, resolved to 
 "offer the services of the Philippine National Guard 
 to be organized" for that purpose. 
 
 Immediate steps were taken to organize a division 
 of volunteers, by proclamation of the governor-general 
 on April 12, 1917, and General Mclntyre was urged to 
 secure legislation by Congress which would permit the 
 President to accept the services of a division of Fil- 
 ipinos for foreign service. So eager were the Filipinos 
 to show their loyalty that they decided to send a board 
 to Washington, consisting of General Aguinaldo, Sen- 
 ate President Quezon, and General Thomas L. Harti- 
 gan of the Guard to urge acceptance of the offer by the 
 United States. Major-General Hunter Liggett, the 
 Department Commander of the Philippines, and his 
 successor, Major-General Charles J. Bailey, were en- 
 thusiastically in favor of the division of Filipino vol- 
 unteers. Major-Gene ral Shanks was one of the militia 
 commission until he was called home for other service.
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 163 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel (afterward Brigadier-General) 
 Francis C. Marshall, Jr., U. S. A., was the first Adju- 
 tant-General of the Philippine National Guard, until 
 he, too, after a few weeks was summoned home, to be 
 followed by Major (afterward Brigadier-General) 
 Lincoln C. Andrews, also immediately called home; 
 Captain W. N. Hensley, Lieutenant R. N. Perley, and, 
 later, Captain Richard Donovan, all of the regular 
 army, were detailed to assist the organization of the 
 Guard. 
 
 All these preliminary steps were being watched by 
 the Filipino people with the most intense interest; 
 all through the provinces the flower of Filipino youth 
 were preparing to volunteer, and many of the leaders 
 were impatient to be up and doing. 
 
 From that point onward the history of the Filipino 
 division is one of disappointments and delays. We 
 were advised from Washington not to send the com- 
 mittee composed of Aguinaldo, Quezon, and Hartigan. 
 The two latter gentlemen, therefore, went to Washing- 
 ton to act, not as a committee, but as individuals, as 
 best they could. On June 6th, Mr. Quezon, accom- 
 panied by Resident Commissioners de Veyra and 
 Yangco, and Ramon Fernandez, saw President Wil- 
 son; they assured the President of the loyalty of the 
 Philippines, and Mr. Quezon made offer of the Philip- 
 pine National Guard. Replying, Mr. Wilson said: 
 "It may have a wholesome effect even in Europe to 
 have Filipinos there fighting for the cause of Democ- 
 racy." The Secretary of War was favorable to the 
 idea of organizing such a division, and Mr. Quezon 
 cabled back that the enthusiatic reception accorded 
 by the American press to the offer of Filipino volun-
 
 164 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 teers "is taken in the United States as a vindication 
 of the Philippine policy." That was the exact point 
 at issue. The Filipino people, before self-government 
 had been given them, had been suspicious of the United 
 States, and at least indifferent if not discontented. 
 Now they were volunteering the best of their youth 
 to the United States for service on the European bat- 
 tle-fields. That was a " vindication' 7 of considerable 
 significance. 
 
 However, in Washington, the President, Secretary 
 Baker, and General Mclntyre were occupied with 
 duties of overwhelming importance to our own coun- 
 try; and in the War Department the army was neces- 
 sarily in control. Congress was preoccupied. Filipino 
 volunteers could cool their heels and their impatience. 
 It was not until nine months later, on January 2, 1918, 
 that Congress passed a law permitting the President 
 to accept the Filipino volunteers. 
 
 Meanwhile, the gallant Liggett and Bailey and their 
 principal officers had gone to the front, there to add 
 luster to American arms. A retired general was sent 
 to the Philippine command, from which substantially 
 all the American soldiers had been withdrawn. Under 
 him and several of his staff, discontented and embit- 
 tered at being left behind in the Philippines in such 
 times as these, a persistent and determined effort was 
 made to retard the organization of the National Guard 
 division. Every possible obstacle was put forward, 
 every delay introduced. Instead of officers being lent 
 to teach and organize the Guard, attempts were fre- 
 quently made to deprive it of the three regular officers 
 at National Guard headquarters. Colonel Ralph W. 
 Jones of the constabulary was Adjutant-General of
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 165 
 
 the Guard, a medal-of-honor man because of heroic 
 action in the former campaign in Samar. General 
 Thomas Hartigan was representing the Guard in 
 Washington. The Philippine Government was ex- 
 erting every effort to secure permission and help from 
 the War College in Washington, and offered to pay 
 all the expenses, if only the authorities would give or 
 lend equipment. In the Philippines, the remnant of 
 the Regular Army would not cooperate. 
 
 At the beginning of the war, in the conference with 
 Generals Liggett, Bailey, Morrison, and Shanks, it 
 was agreed to furnish the National Guard with the 
 twenty-five thousand extra rifles stored at Fort San- 
 tiago in Manila; in December of that year we found 
 that these rifles had been sent to the United States; 
 the only rifles available for the officers' training-camp 
 were one thousand of the old type left unused at Fort 
 Santiago. In order to prevent the Guard's securing 
 these, the army hastily condemned them and secretly 
 threw them into the deep waters of Manila Bay ; med- 
 ical officers were refused, Scout officers anxious to 
 volunteer were discouraged and forbidden to communi- 
 cate with the Guard. There was a storm of opposition 
 in the local American-printed newspapers which were 
 in touch with the army, until the governor-general 
 ordered the deportation of a British subject who edited 
 one of these papers, on the ground that he was ob- 
 structing the defense plans of the United States. The 
 Filipino people were, naturally, sore and bewildered at 
 the reception accorded their well-meant offer. In those 
 days I could detect at once the otherwise well-concealed 
 bias of any American or foreigner in the Philippines, 
 pro- or anti-Filipino, by his attitude toward the Guard.
 
 166 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 Meanwhile, messages from army headquarters in 
 Washington to their representatives in Manila were, 
 by their indifference or slighting references to the 
 Guard, highly encouraging to those who were fighting 
 it locally. On June 12, 1917, Adjutant-General McCain 
 in Washington cabled General Evans in Manila: "In 
 view of short period of training Philippine Division, 
 not considered necessary to permanently assign reg- 
 ular officers." From Manila we petitioned Washing- 
 ton by cable : ' * Let us have all Scout officers and men 
 who will volunteer. . . . Filipinos cannot understand 
 delays and our explanations worn threadbare." A 
 few days later General Evans was relieved, General 
 Henry A. Greene was sent out in August to take his 
 place, and promptly cooperated in the organization 
 of the Guard. On October 5th, the officers' camp was 
 completed and Camp Claudio, near Manila, prepared 
 for recruitment; on November llth the Divison was 
 mobilized, and on November 20th, or nine days after 
 the Armistice, was mustered into the federal service. 
 
 The division was commanded by Brigadier-General 
 F. E. Day, U. S. A.; all officers above the grade of 
 major, by insistence of the army, were Americans, 
 except Lieutenant-Colonel Vicente B. Barros, a West 
 Point graduate. Most of the higher officers were from 
 the Scouts and the constabulary, and were possessed 
 of wide experience in the field and long service. Alto- 
 gether, it was an organization which any soldier might 
 well have been proud to command. Out of 28,000 
 volunteers offering, only 14,000 were authorized by 
 Washington, and they had only one month's service 
 at federal expense; two months' more were added at
 
 AMERICAN GARRISON IN THE PHILIPPINES 167 
 
 the expense of the Philippine Government. The 
 United States spent approximately $515,000 in this 
 acceptance of the whole-hearted and spontaneous offer 
 of the Filipinos; the Filipinos spent $2,406,000 upon 
 the same object; how much they expended in unre- 
 quited sentiment and in disdainfully accepted good- will 
 and loyalty will never be known. Had they met with 
 appreciation and encouragement, the resultant pride 
 and satisfaction in the Philippines would have been a 
 valuable asset, in the future, to our country. It is to 
 be feared, however, that had the Philippine National 
 Guard, despite opposition, been more quickly organ- 
 ized, the clique dominant in army politics would 
 have sent them only to the Mexican border, a move 
 known to be antagonistic to the sentiments of the Fili- 
 pinos and expected to be a severe strain upon their 
 good-will. 
 
 All of the other nations engaged in the war made 
 effective use of their colonial troops, generally by 
 methods of compulsion, either in the various arenas 
 of active campaign or in holding down other discon- 
 tented populations. The Filipinos needed no holding 
 down; all the repression exercised toward them was 
 in holding down their enthusiasm for the American 
 cause by snubbing their efforts to volunteer for service. 
 Their loyalty was complete and unanimous, but did not 
 receive much active encouragement from Washington. 
 That the Guard would have made a brilliant record for 
 itself, if given an opportunity, must be conceded. It 
 is also certain that such a record would have been a 
 powerful stimulus to the national pride of these people 
 and would have gained them appreciation from the
 
 168 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 great powers, thus advancing their claim to independ- 
 ence. Perhaps this was the chief and only defect of 
 the Philippine National Guard in certain minds then 
 in the ascendancy in Washington.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 INCIDENTS OF WAR TIMES 
 
 AMONG the pleasant memories of Philippine days, 
 association with our naval officers is among the 
 brightest. Admirals Cowles, Nicholson, Knight, 
 Gleaves, and Casey B. Morgan, and Captain Edward 
 Simpson and their respective staffs, all, in turn, helped 
 in countless ways the progress of Philippine adminis- 
 tration during my service there. Professionally keen 
 and socially popular, they helped on the work of mak- 
 ing friends with the Filipino people. Their training as 
 men of the world enables naval officers to adapt them- 
 selves with dignity and geniality to their surround- 
 ings wherever they may be sent. It has often been a 
 matter of wonder to me why our Government does not 
 employ its retired admirals as ambassadors, instead of 
 distributing diplomatic posts as political plums to rich 
 campaign contributors after each election day. 
 
 Our Navy Department has profited from the sad 
 experience of Spain on May 1, 1898, in Manila Bay; 
 Dewey's destruction of the Spanish fleet off Cavite is 
 to have no parallel in American annals. We keep no 
 ships of value in Philippine waters, only a cruiser as 
 flagship, an old monitor, a few destroyers, and a num- 
 ber of submarines. The great power of the United 
 States Navy is concentrated at points nearer home, 
 whence it can strike when needed. Even the flag- 
 ship of the Pacific Fleet is seldom at Manila, for the 
 
 169
 
 170 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 admiral upon that station is usually in Chinese, Jap- 
 anese, or Siberian waters, and served our country 
 as auxiliary ambassador in the midst of recent events 
 so stirring in world politics. 
 
 There are two naval stations in the Philippines, 
 Cavite, where the Spanish arsenal still serves our 
 sailors and marines, and Olongapo, at Subig Bay, 
 about fifty miles up the coast. A controversy always 
 raged in the Navy Department over these two stations, 
 and it was understood that as soon as Admiral Dewey 
 died the post at Olongapo would be abandoned, and all 
 forces concentrated at Cavite. This has not yet come 
 to pass ; all efforts of the Philippine Government, vig- 
 orously seconded by Admiral Knight, to secure the old 
 dry-dock Dewey at Olongapo for a government ship- 
 yard with precedence for naval work, have failed ; the 
 papers concerning the plan have been pigeonholed in 
 Washington. So far as the Filipinos are concerned, 
 the navy could have' for the asking, either before or 
 after Philippine independence, such additional sites as 
 they desire for naval stations in the archipelago. The 
 navy is popular with the Filipinos, many thousands of 
 whom serve as mess-boys or as laborers at the yards. 
 
 Professional jealousy between the army and the 
 navy, even since the war, is not unknown in the Philip- 
 pines. When the commanding general was asked to 
 designate an officer to serve on the public committee to 
 solicit funds for the erection of a Dewey memorial in 
 Manila, he refused, adding : " Why Dewey? Why not 
 General Otis f ' ' The only memorial to our gallant ad- 
 miral there to-day is Dewey Boulevard on the water- 
 front, recently so named by resolution of the Filipino 
 Municipal Board of Manila. Other memorials, it might
 
 INCIDENTS OF WAR TIMES 171 
 
 be added, are holes from Dewey's shells through Agui- 
 naldo 's home at Cavite and through the church at Mai- 
 ate. The best memorial of all, however, is the remem- 
 brance of the kindly and heroic personality of Dewey, 
 and the recognition that it was primarily due to him 
 that the United States secured the opportunity to be 
 of world service in the Philippines. Since his day, and 
 up to the time of our entrance into the World War, 
 the navy in the Philippines has had little direct par- 
 ticipation in the public affairs of the islands. It 
 rendered, however, notable service at one time in 
 putting a stop to the opium smuggling carried on by 
 the Moros and Chinese in the southern islands. 
 
 In August, 1914, soon after the outbreak of the 
 European war, I had my first occasion to call on the 
 navy for assistance. Manila was then the only safe 
 neutral port for German merchant vessels trading 
 along the China coast, in Indo-China, and in Japan. 
 About two dozen of them at once made full speed for 
 our waters. A wireless message signed * ' Captain S.S. 
 Mark," came to me one evening in Manila, stating that 
 the sender's ship was pursued inside the three-mile 
 limit by a British cruiser, and calling on me to en- 
 force our neutrality. The United States cruiser Al- 
 bany had arrived that afternoon at Manila from China, 
 and its captain at once responded to my request by 
 calling his men back from shore leave, which caused 
 great momentary excitement along the waterfront. A 
 few hours later, the Albany escorted the Mark safely 
 to anchorage inside the breakwater. Nearly three years 
 later, the Mark, a splendid merchant vessel, was the 
 first of the locally seized and repaired German vessels
 
 172 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 to leave Manila Bay under our flag for the transporting 
 of American soldiers across the Atlantic. 
 
 Upon another occasion, however, I was not so suc- 
 cessful with the navy. On February 3, 1917, at two 
 o 'clock in the afternoon, the President addressed Con- 
 gress, breaking off diplomatic relations with Germany. 
 There were then seventeen German merchant vessels 
 in Manila Harbor, three at Cebu, and three near Zam- 
 boanga, all rusting at their anchorage for the past two 
 and a half years. They were generally referred to 
 locally as the "interned" ships, but, as a matter of 
 fact, they had been free to depart at any moment their 
 captains chose to apply for clearance. The certainty 
 of capture by British or Japanese cruisers outside the 
 three-mile limit had kept them at their anchorage. 
 Only one of them had tried it, the Princess Alice, which, 
 early in August, 1914, had cleared from Manila for 
 Tsingtau, run southward around Mindanao, and made 
 for Yap, only to find the wireless station there de- 
 stroyed, and to learn that Japan had entered the war ; 
 she put about immediately at full speed and arrived 
 in Zamboanga upon her last ton of coal. Later, she 
 was moved to the safer anchorage in Cebu by request 
 of her captain. 
 
 About twenty-four hours before the President an- 
 nounced the severing of diplomatic relations the com- 
 manders of the twenty-three German ships in Philip- 
 pine waters, evidently by prearrangement, had the 
 machinery of their ships so damaged as to disable the 
 vessels completely. Word was brought to us imme- 
 diately of this fact by the customs authorities, and 
 cabled by me to Washington, with request for advice 
 whether to seize the vessels or only search them for
 
 INCIDENTS OF WAR TIMES 173 
 
 explosives. The Secretary of War replied that if suit- 
 able excuse could be found the vessels should be 
 searched, that no merchant vessels had been seized in 
 the United States, and that if in my judgment "evi- 
 dence is clear of intention to destroy or sink ships, you 
 should take necessary steps to prevent it. If necessary 
 to assume control of ships, make it clear that it is to 
 protect harbor and property and not to take title to 
 ships." The administration in Washington was still 
 in no position to authorize directly any action which 
 might be considered hostile by Germany, so I deter- 
 mined to act myself. 
 
 On February 5th I called a conference at Malacanan, 
 consisting of Admiral Winterhalter and his Chief of 
 Staff, Commanding-General Hunter H. Liggett, the 
 Chief of Constabulary, General Herman Hall, and the 
 Collector of Customs, John S. Stanley. I notified the 
 admiral that in order to prevent lawless violence I had 
 determined to seize the ships, and that I called upon 
 him to do it, to avoid any possibility of resistance which 
 might be encountered if we employed for that purpose 
 the Filipino constabulary soldiers, the only armed force 
 at the direct disposition of the Insular Government. 
 Admiral Winterhalter replied that he would like to 
 know my reasons; I explained them to him and then 
 read the law of Congress giving the governor-general 
 the right to call on him for such a purpose, explaining 
 that I assumed full responsibility and it was not "his 
 to reason why." He demurred -and a two-hours* dis- 
 cussion ensued. Finally I called attention to the hour, 
 four o'clock, and said that before dark the ships would 
 be seized, and again called on him to do it. He re- 
 plied that he could not get ready that day.
 
 "Yes, sir," broke in his Chief of Staff, Captain 
 Sypher, who had been sitting there red in the face 
 and evidently bursting with impatience, "we have 
 been ready since six o'clock this morning." 
 
 Driven into a corner by this, Admiral Winter- 
 halter finally refused to seize the ships, but said he 
 would stand by in small boats to support if there were 
 any trouble. I then directed General Hall to take the 
 constabulary and take over the ships; he did in less 
 than an hour, without confusion or resistance. Those 
 at Cebu and Zamboanga were seized the next day. All 
 were eventually repaired, and turned over to the Ship- 
 ping Board. The seventeen largest were used in the 
 Army Transport Service to carry troops to France; 
 the smaller ones were left to the Philippine Govern- 
 ment to use as commercial vessels, and were of great 
 service during the acute shortage of bottoms of those 
 years. The news of the seizure of the German ships 
 in the Philippines caused some confusion in the State 
 Department at the time, as I was later on informed 
 by my friend Frank L. Polk, Under-Secretary of 
 State; in Washington, they were at the moment bal- 
 ancing to a nicety the delicate situation with the 
 German Government. On February 7th came a mes- 
 sage from the Secretary of War, cautioning me as to 
 the legal situation and to claim no seizure or ownership 
 of the vessels. On February 27th came another 
 message : 
 
 Attorney for Hamburg-American Line desires, if possible, 
 that vessels be placed in charge of their crews. Is it practi- 
 cable and advisable, in your opinion, by securing bonds or 
 other guarantees, to permit this?
 
 INCIDENTS OF WAR TIMES 175 
 
 To which I answered, " Present status quo the most 
 satisfactory at this time." On March 3d the State 
 Department was preparing a reply to the claim of the 
 German Government that crews of German vessels in 
 the Philippines had been illegally removed from their 
 vessels and detained. I cabled the authority of Phil- 
 ippine Law under which action had been taken. The 
 discussion was definitely halted by the declaration of 
 war by Congress, on April 6th. 
 
 At that time, Admiral Knight arrived to command 
 the Pacific Fleet, and at once took a most vigorous 
 part in the preparations for war; his knowledge of 
 international law and prompt power of decision and 
 action were of invaluable service; we were most for- 
 tunate in his presence at Manila, and he exemplified the 
 best traditions of the United States Navy. 
 
 The proclamations fixing channels for shipping, for 
 wireless control, for the harbor defenses of the Phil- 
 ippines were largely the work of Admiral Knight. So 
 were the repair and refitting of the captured German 
 vessels, which were done either directly by the navy at 
 Ilongapo or under the direction of naval officers; the 
 despatch of these vessels carrying Manila hemp for 
 the navy at home was a material assistance in the 
 equipment and transportation of our forces. Later 
 on, one of the most delicate of negotiations was, during 
 the absence of the admiral, accomplished by Captain 
 Simpson, commandant at Cavite. In March, 1918, 
 Captain Simpson brought me a confidential despatch 
 from Washington directing him to seize under the 
 right of "angary" the three Dutch ships then in 
 Manila Harbor, but to use no force in doing so. The 
 seizure was accomplished by Captain Simpson in ac-
 
 176 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 cordance with the command to "use no force," al- 
 though one of the Dutch captains, a fine bearded Viking 
 of a man, at first received the polite demand for his 
 vessel with a roar of defiance. I feel sure that in 
 his heart Captain Simpson sympathized with him. 
 Holland was neutral, and the Dutch captains did not 
 know that their home government was acquiescent. 
 Nor, for that matter, did the Dutch of the neighboring 
 colonies of Java, Borneo, and Sumatra, and one of the 
 results of the ill-feeling thus engendered was a gas- 
 olene famine in the Philippines. The Dutch in those 
 islands refused, for several months, to send us any 
 more cargoes of gasolene, despite our assurances that 
 no further seizures of their ships would be made. 
 
 The years of our participation in the war were busy 
 ones for American officials in the Philippines. The 
 seizure of Germans and Austrians guilty of propa- 
 ganda or otherwise believed to be undesirable in the 
 Philippines, under the circumstances including vir- 
 tually all of them in the country, their deportation to 
 the United States, the work of censorship of the mails 
 and cables, the seizure of all German property under 
 the alien-property custodianship, the enforcement of 
 the Espionage Act, the vexatious restrictions upon 
 commerce, the severe regulations upon passports and 
 letters of clearance for vessels all the machinery of 
 modern war, much of it un-American in spirit and 
 tradition were carried out under directions or laws 
 from Washington by the American representatives in 
 the islands. In a narrative dealing with Filipino self- 
 government, these activities have little significance, 
 except that they were all acquiesced in willingly 
 enough by the Filipino people, as part of the frame-
 
 INCIDENTS OF WAR TIMES 177 
 
 work of war times, even though at times it may have 
 seemed to the Filipinos that unnecessary severity was 
 being exercised or even injustice was being done. 
 
 Truth to tell, the Germans in the Philippines had 
 never been unpopular with the Filipinos, whose great 
 prophet Bizal had studied in Berlin, and received rec- 
 ognition by the scientific circles there ; his friend Pro- 
 fessor Blumentritt in Austria had written papers so 
 sympathetic to the Filipino people that they had made 
 almost a legend of his name. German business men 
 had invested much money in the Philippines, and had 
 a high standing in the Filipino community. They were 
 without that race arrogance to which tropical peoples 
 are unfortunately accustomed in other European 
 races. The German commercial method of studying the 
 wants of the new markets, in contrast to the older cus- 
 toms of forcing the home customs and styles down 
 the throats of the prospective customers, was bearing 
 fruit. Personal relations with Germans in the islands 
 were agreeable, and marriages of Germans with Fili- 
 pinos had been exceptionally happy. Whether the Ger- 
 mans were good colonizers or not, I have no personal 
 basis for judging, never having visited a German col- 
 ony ; reports of the model German city of Tsingtau, and 
 the extraordinary devotion of the natives of German 
 East Africa to the gallant Von Lettow during the war 
 are certainly evidence in their favor. 
 
 During the winter and spring of 1914 a German fleet 
 had been stationed in Manila Bay, consisting of the 
 Leipsig, the Sharnhorst, the Gneisenau, and a small 
 war-vessel, the Cormorant, which was subsequently 
 blown up by her German commander in Guam Harbor 
 to prevent her being seized by the American officers.
 
 178 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 The admiral in command was the famous Count von 
 Spee, one of the heroes of the war. Of Danish descent, 
 he had all the charm of personality we expect in the 
 Danes. He was immensely popular in Manila society, 
 and we followed his career with the deepest interest, 
 his defeat of Admiral Craddock off the coast of Chile, 
 when the British fleet was sunk, and the subsequent 
 complete destruction of his whole command off the 
 Falkland Islands by the British battle-cruisers, in 
 which engagement Von Spee and his two sons went 
 down with their ships. As illustrating Von Spec's 
 chivalry, the account of the dinner at Santiago de 
 Chile the day after the victory over Craddock is but 
 little known. The German consul at the banquet given 
 in his honor rose and proposed the toast, ' ' To hell with 
 the British Navy." The victorious Von Spee at once 
 sprang to his feet, and with all his officers left the 
 banquet-hall. 
 
 The German consul in Manila had been Dr. Franz 
 Zitelmann, whose authority, as we learned later, had 
 been somewhat circumscribed, by that powerful but 
 unofficial organ of the German Government, the Manila 
 branch of the commercial house of Behn, Meyer, and 
 Company. While rather stiff and reserved socially, 
 Dr. Zitelmann was a cultivated and highly trained 
 official. I had been obliged on more than one occasion, 
 during the years of our neutrality, to caution both the 
 British consul-general and the German consul that 
 their zeal was leading them to unwarranted aggression 
 upon our Government. After the rupture of diplo- 
 matic relations, I had the duty of conveying to Dr. 
 Zitelmann the orders for his recall. He received the 
 momentous news with much dignity. He was allowed
 
 INCIDENTS OF WAR TIMES 179 
 
 passage on a United States Transport to San Fran- 
 cisco, as was later his wife, though neither of them was 
 allowed ashore by the Japanese at Nagasaki. I after- 
 ward had a letter from Dr. Zitelmann, upon the point 
 of embarking from Hoboken for Germany just before 
 our declaration of war ; he thanked me for the manner 
 in which his departure from Manila had been ar- 
 ranged. 
 
 A picturesque German personality of war times de- 
 serves mention here, Captain Sorensen. He had been 
 the captain of the German steamer Marie which landed 
 a cargo of arms and ammunition for the hard-pressed 
 Von Lettow in German East Africa in 1916, and es- 
 caped with his ship to a neutral port in Java. On 
 January 1, 1917, Sorensen with four German com- 
 panions was cast ashore at Davao Bay, having sailed 
 in a small open boat through the Celebes Sea. They 
 were arrested for violation of the immigration laws, 
 and later released. Sorensen disguised himself as a 
 waiter on an American army transport and got as far 
 as Honolulu before he was discovered and sent back to 
 Manila. He was subsequently one of the six hundred 
 or more enemy subjects we deported to the United 
 States for internment at the detention camp at Hot 
 Springs, Arkansas. 
 
 Another much-discussed German in the Philippines 
 was Andre, vice-consul at Cebii; I had reason to 
 believe that he was engaged in trying to organize 
 a Filipino revolt in the southern islands, where he was 
 widely known and very popular. Just at that time, the 
 United States Espionage Act was passed and made 
 effective in the Philippines. I wired to the Governor 
 of Cebii, General Roa, who was the sheriff of the
 
 180 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 province by virtue of his office as governor, to arrest 
 Andre. He seized him and then wired that the Amer- 
 ican judge in Cebu had granted Andre a writ of habeas 
 corpus and he would be released in twenty-four hours 
 if no proof was meanwhile given against him. I replied 
 by cable to Governor Boa that the Espionage Act, 
 just passed, suspended the writ of habeas corpus in 
 such cases, and told him to hold Andre and deliver him 
 to me in Manila, which he did. Andre was confined in 
 the constabulary barracks of Santa Lucia, and when I 
 went around to inspect I found he was evidently not 
 suffering much personal hardship in his imprison- 
 ment, for he was playing a jolly game of tennis there 
 with three American constabulary officers. He was the 
 picture of innocence. He, also, was subsequently de- 
 ported to the United States, though the case against 
 him was never actually proved. 
 
 Upon the whole, the Philippines were singularly 
 free from incidents of warlike import during these 
 years; had our country entered the war at the begin- 
 ning, we should probably have had a hostile visit from 
 the Emden, whose commander made such a picturesque 
 reputation at Madras and Singapore, before the de- 
 struction of his ship off the Cocos Islands by an Aus- 
 tralian vessel. 
 
 The foreign duties of the Insular Government from 
 1914 to 1917 were to see that our neutrality was re- 
 spected, which brought about a number of contro- 
 versies with British officials, either through my good 
 friend Consul-General John B. Rentiers, or through the 
 Department of State in Washington. As is well known, 
 the British Government has never conceded our tradi- 
 tional contention for freedom of the seas, and the sue-
 
 INCIDENTS OF WAR TIMES 181 
 
 cess of the assertion of our Philippine neutrality rights 
 in a number of contested cases through the State De- 
 partment was due, no doubt, to the desire of the 
 British Government to conciliate the good-will of the 
 American administration. Prompt assertion of the 
 American position in protection of our rights and 
 interests as a neutral nation was made in every in- 
 stance of aggression by British officials or British 
 vessels, and we received the full support of the Depart- 
 ment of State on every point. The manifest ill-feeling 
 throughout the Orient at that period between Amer- 
 icans and British was due more to the working of the 
 British "black-list" than to any other cause, and was 
 based upon commercial, not political, disputes. In 
 administration circles we had to deal not only with 
 aggressions under the "black-list," but with actual 
 breaches of international law in the invasion of the 
 three-mile limit, in the stoppage and search of neutral 
 vessels, in interruption of the mails, and, in one in- 
 stance, with the actual landing of an armed force upon 
 the Tawi-Tawi Islands, the nearest Philippine terri- 
 tory to North Borneo. The seizure of two German 
 civilians upon a Philippine vessel in the Visayan Sea 
 by a British cruiser was vigorously protested by our 
 Government; discussing this matter with the British 
 admiral in person, I finally asked him if he had ever 
 heard of the Trent affair, so famous in history, and he 
 blandly replied that he never had!
 
 CHAPTEE XII 
 FILIPINO LOYALTY DURING THE WAB 
 
 ALL through the war, we had not the slightest 
 anxiety about the attitude of the Filipinos, and 
 little concern over internal affairs in the Philippines. 
 Was not the war being fought for the right of small 
 nations to their independent existence? The coming 
 disappointments of the Peace Conference were as yet 
 unexpected by the people of the world at large. The 
 professions of the allied and associated powers as to 
 their aims and purposes in the war aroused hopes and 
 aspirations in the hearts of mankind which, though 
 grievously disappointed by the outcome of the Ver- 
 sailles Treaty, will not down until the world is settled 
 on new lines of justice and tolerance. 
 
 The Filipinos, since the passage by Congress of 
 the Jones Act on August 29, 1916, had reason to be- 
 lieve that the United States was the best friend a 
 small nation could have. Had we not generously and 
 unanimously promised independence when a stable 
 government was set up in the Philippines? Every sen- 
 timent, every impulse, every hope of the Filipinos was 
 enlisted in the cause of the United States. Support of 
 the Government appeared unanimous. What this 
 meant in a material sense, it is difficult to estimate; 
 Great Britain is believed to have been obliged to with- 
 hold from the main arena of war half a million men 
 to hold down discontented populations in her extensive 
 
 182
 
 FILIPINO LOYALTY DURING THE WAR 183 
 
 colonies. The loyalty of the Philippines meant, at the 
 very least, freedom from worry and concern on the 
 part of the home Government at the time of its great- 
 est responsibilities. 
 
 Five days after the declaration of war, a telegram 
 from Speaker Osmena from Cebu stated that the Presi- 
 dent 's proclamation "had been heard by the Filipinos 
 everywhere with great respect and unqualified loy- 
 alty," adding that he attributed this fact in part to 
 the recent passage of the Jones Act. He also stated 
 that one of the most prominent Americans in the 
 islands, a former widely known official of the Insular 
 Government had, "at last night's meeting of the Amer- 
 ican Club here, made some malicious remarks on the 
 dealings of the President regarding the war and I, 
 being on the platform of the speakers, had the priv- 
 ilege of replying to the criticism through an unqual- 
 ified endorsement of President Wilson's policies both 
 domestic and international." This was the keynote 
 of Filipino gratitude and loyalty, to defend the Amer- 
 ican President who had entered the war, even against 
 the malice and abuse of his fellow-countrymen. This 
 was the spirit that made it possible to withdraw Amer- 
 ican soldiers and American naval vessels from the 
 Philippines during the war, and leave to the Filipinos 
 the privilege of defending American interests and the 
 American flag. 
 
 This was the attitude which rendered utterly abor- 
 tive German attempts to stir up disaffection among the 
 people of the islands, or to use the Philippines as a 
 base for plots against the security of neighboring col- 
 onies of the allied powers. What that meant to our 
 country may be guessed by reflection upon what had
 
 184 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 happened in Singapore in 1915. The Governor of the 
 Straits Settlements told me in 1916 that the insurrec- 
 tion of the Sepoy regiments in Singapore, which had 
 taken possession of the city and shot many of the 
 white residents, had been organized and promoted by 
 the local branch of the German " commercial'* firm of 
 Behn, Meyer, and Company. Upon that occasion, the 
 British residents were finally saved by the landing of 
 marines from a Japanese warship which happened to 
 be in the harbor at the time. No such incident could 
 have occurred in the Philippines, because of the loyalty 
 of the people for the United States. Even the pictur- 
 esque attempt of the mysterious American schooner 
 Henry 8. to carry arms and ammunition from the Ger- 
 man merchant vessels in Manila Harbor to near-by col- 
 onies, utterly failed in 1915. 
 
 On May 5, 1917, a parade was held in Manila by 
 about fifteen thousand Filipinos. These later gathered 
 in front of the governor-general's residence, and 
 speeches were made expressing their devotion to the 
 American cause. The special session of the Legislature, 
 and the attempts to form a division of the National 
 Guard for foreign service, as an expression of the 
 general Filipino sentiment, have already been de- 
 scribed. These having failed, through obstructions and 
 delays previously mentioned, in which the Filipinos 
 had no part and which bitterly wounded their self- 
 respect and offended their spirit of generosity, the 
 active participation of the people of the islands was 
 slight indeed. Many Filipinos had enlisted in the army 
 and the navy, and some of them gave their lives on 
 the field of action, such as Tomas Claudio, Dadison, 
 Manalo, Ubrantes, and others; but as an entity the
 
 FILIPINO LOYALTY DURING THE WAR 185 
 
 Philippines were not allowed to take an active part 
 in the war. They were far from the stirring events of 
 active campaigns, since the German Navy had already 
 been swept from the seas, and the Japanese had taken 
 over the German base at near-by Tsingtau. 
 
 When the Legislature met again in regular session, 
 in the autumn of 1917, a resolution was promptly 
 adopted setting forth "the unequivocal expression of 
 the loyalty of the people of these Islands to the cause 
 of the United States of America, ' ' which, as the resolu- 
 tion stated, 
 
 is based on the evident justice of the enforced intervention 
 of the American people in this war, in which they have been 
 guided solely by the supreme interest of defending universal 
 democracy and upholding the right of the small nations to 
 live in confidence and security under their own governments, 
 safe from the threats and perils of autocracy and imperialism. 
 We firmly believe that the final triumph of democracy, in 
 securing for the world the principle of nationality for the 
 benefit of the small nations, will, finally, enable our people to 
 attain the ideals for which we have always struggled, namely, 
 our constitution into a free and independent nation, with a 
 democratic government of law and order, ready to be another 
 instrument of democracy and universal progress. 
 
 To this, President Wilson replied: 
 
 Please convey to the Philippine Legislature, in warmest 
 terms, my appreciation of its admirable resolutions. . . . 
 
 A fortnight later the Legislature adopted joint reso- 
 lution No. 7, as follows : 
 
 That the Governor-General be, and hereby is, authorized to 
 take all necessary steps for the earliest possible construction, 
 under the direction of the Government of the United States 
 and at the expense of the treasury of the Philippine Islands, 
 of a modern submarine and a modern destroyer which shall,
 
 186 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 as soon as available, be offered to the President of the United 
 States for service in Philippine waters or elsewhere, as said 
 President may require or authorize. 
 
 Six months later this act was formerly approved by 
 the President, and in the autumn of 1919 the fine new- 
 type destroyer Rizal was launched from the Union 
 Iron Works in San Francisco and later commissioned 
 and put in service, officered by Americans and manned 
 by Filipinos, in American waters. The frequent offers 
 of the Philippine Government to pay for this destroyer 
 were not accepted by the United States Government, 
 so the Filipino people now have no claim to the pos- 
 session of this vessel, which was intended to serve as 
 the nucleus of a future Philippine navy; meanwhile it 
 would have been of the utmost service in putting a stop 
 to the wholesale smuggling of opium from the govern- 
 ment monopoly of British North Borneo into the 
 southern islands of the Philippines. The proffered 
 submarine was never constructed. The reception of 
 the Filipinos' offer of a submarine and a destroyer 
 was, to say the least, half-hearted on the part of Wash- 
 ington officials, and it is difficult to calculate how much 
 of this lukewarmness was due to overwhelming preoc- 
 cupation in far greater matters, and how much to 
 reluctance in certain quarters in America to advance 
 or further encourage the development of Filipino 
 nationalism. 
 
 While, as we have thus seen, the Filipinos had no 
 opportunity to participate actively in the wonderful 
 military achievements of the United States, their 
 cooperation in the subsidiary activities of war was 
 spontaneous and whole-hearted. 
 Upon the suggestion of Secretary Baker, a local
 
 FILIPINO LOYALTY DUEING THE WAR 187 
 
 branch of the Council of National Defense was organ- 
 ized, consisting of twenty-four Americans and ten 
 Filipino members, with the end in view of ' * coordinat- 
 ing the resources and energies of the country for the 
 prosecution of the war." It served, as in the United 
 States, as the official agency for all war work not al- 
 ready covered by the executive departments. Through 
 this agency, German propaganda and insinuations were 
 combated and stamped out; a speakers' bureau was 
 formed to educate the people as to the causes of the 
 war and the aims of the United States in the war; 
 campaigns were launched for the Liberty Loans ; War- 
 Savings stamps and Red-Cross drives were organized ; 
 public and private economy was encouraged, sedition 
 prevented, and Americanization instilled throughout 
 the islands. 
 
 By this time the war enthusiasm was in full swing 
 throughout the Philippines. All elements, with a few 
 exceptions in the ranks of the German-Americans or 
 among other people of foreign birth, were enthusias- 
 tically at work in war efforts. The Americans promptly 
 buried all political or factional differences for the 
 duration of the war, and cooperated with the Govern- 
 ment, both federal and insular, with the utmost unself- 
 ishness and energy. There was a great exodus from 
 the ranks of the Philippine service for commissions in 
 the army, and most of the American constabulary 
 officers, engineers of the Bureau of Public Works, and 
 numerous other American residents entered the army ; 
 many of these men stayed on in the army after the 
 war, especially those who came from the constabulary, 
 and I know of no finer material than those men 
 who were thus contributed from the Philippine service.
 
 188 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 The Insular Government, naturally, suffered a con- 
 siderable loss in efficiency by the withdrawal of so 
 many experienced and valuable officials from the sev- 
 eral departments of the permanent service. 
 
 The zeal and activity of the local Council of National 
 Defense, and its agents and "four-minute speakers," 
 both American and Filipino; its mail news bulletin 
 service, paid for by the Philippine Legislature; its 
 activity in locating and stamping out disloyal utter- 
 ances, compared favorably with the whole-souled 
 work done in the United States at the same time. So 
 zealous did certain agencies become that it was difficult, 
 especially in the matter of deportations of enemy sub- 
 jects, to observe any judicial calm, and protect individ- 
 uals against obvious injustice. Those who were in the 
 United States during these exciting months will 
 recognize the symptoms and understand the psychol- 
 ogy of this war phenomenon. The Military Information 
 Division of the army in Manila was so eager to search 
 out Germans or Austrians for internment and deporta- 
 tion, that they pressed me to deport substantially all 
 those residents of the Philippines with German names, 
 including several highly patriotic American govern- 
 ment officials. It made no difference to these army 
 agents whether their list contained numbers of Amer- 
 ican citizens : they sounded German ; that was sufficient. 
 So impatient did they finally become with me that the 
 commanding general asked Washington to take that 
 work out of my hands, and give it to the army, a 
 request to which no attention appears to have been 
 paid in the War Department, since the Department of 
 Justice was already uneasy over the stream of German
 
 FILIPINO LOYALTY DURING THE WAR 189 
 
 and Australian civilian " prisoners" from the Philip- 
 pines. 
 
 The drives for Liberty Loans and the Red Cross 
 were so enthusiastically conducted and received that 
 the Philippines rather overstrained their own re- 
 sources in contributions for these purposes, and this 
 has been one of the causes of the financial indigestion 
 of the islands ever since. In the Liberty Loan cam- 
 paign, nearly 40,000,000 pesos of the various issues 
 were sold in the Philippines; local payments for the 
 Alien Property Custodian, and for transmission to 
 the Bed Cross Society at home, took an additional 
 10,000,000 pesos at least from the comparatively 
 slender resources of the Philippines. Americans, indi- 
 vidually and through such organizations as the Elks 
 Club, vied with Filipinos, British, Chinese, Japanese, 
 Syrians, and Swiss in their work for the Liberty Loans ; 
 the T. Daniel Frawley Opera Company, which was 
 visiting Manila that season, helped on the good work. 
 On October 12th, designated by President Wilson as 
 Liberty Day, seventy thousand people of a dozen dif- 
 ferent nationalities took part in a parade. Five days 
 later the campaign for the Fourth Liberty Loan closed 
 with the islands' subscriptions reaching the figure of 
 23,247,000 pesos, or more than double the quota allotted 
 to the Philippines. Of this sum, about 9,000,000 pesos 
 came from provinces where fully ninety-five per cent, 
 of the subscribers were Filipinos. 
 
 The food-production campaign instituted under the 
 Council of National Defense, and directed by Dr. 
 Galicano Apacible, the Secretary of the Department 
 of Agriculture and National Resources, not only
 
 190 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 effected a far larger production of staple food crops, 
 but vastly increased the area and numbers of vegetable 
 gardens, through the instrumentality of the public 
 schools and the boys' and girls' agricultural clubs. 
 The productive school gardens were increased to more 
 than 400,000, while 103,000 boys and girls were en- 
 gaged in home gardening with an area of 4122 acres 
 under cultivation. Another distinct and permanent 
 benefit of these war activities was the expansion of the 
 membership of the Woman's Club, which, organized in 
 Manila under patriotic American leadership, rapidly 
 extended throughout the provinces and gained a perma- 
 nent increase in membership in all important centers. 
 This gave the Filipina, for the first time, the opportu- 
 nity, of which she has since so eagerly availed herself, 
 to participate in public meetings and take part in 
 organized works for public welfare and civic improve- 
 ment. This is bound to result in a decided benefit to 
 Philippine public life. 
 
 These war campaigns thus, in their lessons of pa- 
 triotism, of unselfishness, and of giving, in the custom 
 of public service, and in the enlistment of the Filipino 
 in one common purpose and achievement, are certain to 
 have a permanent and beneficial effect upon the future 
 of the islands. The contributions made by individuals 
 for purposes of charity and public welfare, had al- 
 ways in the past been confided to priests, or agents 
 of the Church ; now, for almost the first time, the people 
 generally contributed directly to public purposes. The 
 conscious, organized effort, in which all elements of 
 the population were encouraged to take part, resulted 
 in a strengthening of the feeling of national life. It
 
 FILIPINO LOYALTY DURING THE WAR 191 
 
 is said that the war left no country in the world 
 exactly as it was before ; even the Philippines, remote 
 from the scene of conflict, have felt and responded to 
 the new spirit of the age.
 
 CHAPTER Xin 
 
 THE JONES ACT 
 
 IN the preamble to the Jones Act, by almost unani- 
 mous vote of both parties, the Congress of the 
 United States declared : 
 
 WHEREAS it was never the intention of the people of the 
 United States in the incipiency of the war with Spain to make 
 it a war of conquest or for territorial aggrandizement ; and 
 
 WHEREAS it is, as it has always been, the purpose of the 
 people of the United States to withdraw their sovereignty 
 over the Philippine Islands and to recognize their independ- 
 ence as soon as a stable government can be established therein ; 
 and 
 
 WHEREAS for the speedy accomplishment of such purpose 
 it is desirable to place in the hands of the people of the Philip- 
 pines as large a control of their domestic affairs as can be 
 given them without, in the meantime, impairing the exercise 
 of the rights of sovereignty by the people of the United States, 
 in order that, by the use and exercise of popular franchise and 
 governmental powers, they may be the better prepared to fully 
 assume the responsibilities and enjoy all the privileges of 
 complete independence: Therefore . . . 
 
 On August 29, 1916, the bill became a law, and 
 crowned with success the labor of many years of the 
 devoted Representative William A. Jones of Virgina, 
 the chairman of the Committee on Insular Affairs of 
 the House, and Senator Gilbert M. Hitchcock of Ne- 
 braska, the head of the Senate Committee. 
 
 The bill in its final form was in the nature of a 
 victory for the House, because the Senate, by the 
 
 192
 
 THE JONES ACT 193 
 
 deciding vote of Vice-President Marshall and sup- 
 ported by Senators Kenyon, McCumber, and La 
 Follette from the Republican side had previously 
 added the Clarke Amendment, proposed by Senator 
 Clarke of Arkansas, around which a great political 
 battle raged in the House. This amendment conferred 
 complete and unqualified independence upon the Phil- 
 ippines in not less than two years and not more than 
 four years from the date of the approval of the act; 
 it contained, when first introduced, a temporary guar- 
 anty of independence. President Wilson had supported 
 the Clarke Amendment after its adoption by the 
 Senate, and had urged acceptance of it upon those 
 members of the House who were understood to be 
 opposed. This, it will be remembered, was the prin- 
 cipal cause of the resignation of Lindley M. Garrison, 
 Secretary of War, who considered the Clarke Amend- 
 ment too radical. On May 2, 1916, the Clarke 
 Amendment was defeated and struck from the bill in 
 the House of Eepresentatives by a vote of 213 to 165. 
 About 28 Democrats bolted the party leadership and 
 voted with the majority of the Republicans against 
 independence; these bolting members were virtually 
 all members of the Roman Catholic faith, and it is 
 understood that their attitude was the result of inter- 
 vention by Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore, 
 acting, it is supposed, at the instigation of the ecclesi- 
 astical authorities in the Philippines. 
 
 It is to be presumed that the long history of the 
 islands had accustomed the Filipinos to church inter- 
 vention in politics, for there was no active campaign 
 of attack or reprisal of any sort upon the church 
 there. The present archbishop, Monsignor 'Doherty,
 
 194 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 has frequently announced himself as being in favor 
 of independence, so the opponents of independence 
 cannot, it is probable, count upon the solid influence 
 of the Church upon any subsequent occasion. 
 
 One of the most telling answers to this Irish-Amer- 
 ican defeat of Philippine independence was made by 
 Senate President Quezon at the St. Patrick's day ban- 
 quet in Manila in the next year. All the local digni- 
 taries of the Church were there, and most of the 
 speeches had touched on the subject of the freedom 
 of Ireland. Mr. Quezon's speech consisted of thirteen 
 words; he said: "We Filipinos wish for your Irish- 
 men the same independence you wished for us." 
 
 Senator Warren G. Harding, permanent Chairman 
 of the Republican Convention, on June 8, 1916, referred 
 to the recent defeat of the Clarke Amendment as an 
 effort of the Democratic administration "to renounce 
 its guardianship of a race of people and leave them 
 to walk alone when they had not been taught fully 
 to creep. A few rebellious Democrats," he added, 
 "joined the Eepublican minority in sparing us this 
 national disgrace." He then made some eloquent 
 denunciations of "hauling down the flag." 
 
 In the Philippines, during these months of debate 
 in Congress, there were the most intense interest and 
 excitement. A few of the richer Filipinos, especially of 
 the mestizo type, were frightened at the prospect of the 
 sudden independence promised in the Clarke Amend- 
 ment. The bulk of the people, and most of the leaders, 
 supported it solidly. A characteristic note was struck 
 by the late Don Antonio E. Eoxas, the best-known 
 Filipino millionaire. Some of the financiers had en- 
 deavored to persuade him that independence would
 
 THE JONES ACT 195 
 
 bring disaster upon the rich; he replied: "I don't 
 believe it, but if it did, I would be ready to sacrifice 
 my last centavo for the freedom of my country." 
 
 The final passage of the Jones Bill was by almost 
 unanimous vote of both parties. The bolt in the 
 House had destroyed the fixing of a date for inde- 
 pendence, but the preamble contained the promise of 
 independence when a " stable government was estab- 
 lished." Representative Jones cabled Speaker 
 Osmena : 
 
 I congratulate the Philippine people through you upon the 
 final enactment by Congress of the fundamental legislation 
 giving to them the substance of self-government and the solemn 
 assurance that in due time complete independence will be 
 theirs. It practically confers upon the Filipinos the power 
 to determine when they shall take their place among the inde- 
 pendent nations of the world. 
 
 The advocates of independence in the United States 
 felt that a great step forward had been taken; the 
 opponents that the evil day had been postponed. Cer- 
 tain shrewd lawyers tried to belittle the promises of 
 the preamble because, they argued, it was not in the 
 body of the bill, and could not bind the American peo- 
 ple. Such chicanery, unworthy of those who deal with 
 the faith or honor of a nation, made no permanent im- 
 pression upon the discussions of Philippine policy. 
 
 Any one who was present in the Philippines during 
 those days will forever remember the outburst of 
 wild enthusiasm of the people. In every possible 
 way demonstration was made of their pride, satisfac- 
 tion, and gratitude for the self-government granted. 
 Local American opposition was for the moment 
 stilled ; Congress had spoken in no undecided tone, and,
 
 196 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 after all, had they not escaped the Clarke Amendment? 
 Resident Commissioner Quezon returned to Manila a 
 real popular hero; he received ovations on all sides. 
 Soon thereafter the election was held for the new 
 Senate which was to take the place of the appointive 
 commission, and the first all-Filipino Legislature came 
 into effect on October 16, 1916. The ceremonies were 
 held in front of the Ayuntamiento before an immense 
 crowd which filled Plaza McKinley. In the new Legis- 
 lature sat three Moros, an Ifugao, and an Igorot, 
 symbolizing the increasing unity of the Filipino people. 
 The spirit as well as the letter of the Jones Act was 
 to turn over to the Filipinos most of the powers of 
 government of their own internal affairs. There were 
 still restrictions upon their borrowing capacity in the 
 new charter, and Congress retained the final right to 
 annul any law they passed, a right never yet exer- 
 cised, and most unlikely to be employed under any 
 circumstances. The governor-general, the vice-gov- 
 ernor, the justices of the Supreme Court, the auditor 
 and deputy auditor were still to be appointees of the 
 President; all the other officers were under the con- 
 trol of the Filipinos, either directly or by the right 
 of confirmation of nominations of the governor-gen- 
 eral, bestowed by the new constitution upon the 
 Philippine Senate. This was the point over which 
 most opposition was encountered in Washington; if 
 I can justly claim any influence upon the form of the 
 Philippine Constitution, it is perhaps in this particular. 
 I urged in season and out that the Philippine Senate 
 be given this right, so that never again might the 
 people of the islands be ridden over against their will
 
 THE JONES ACT 197 
 
 by officials booted and spurred with hostility and race 
 prejudice. 
 
 The organization of the new government will pres- 
 ently be referred to at greater length. The passage 
 of the Jones Act did not lay to rest the incessant 
 agitation and race and party antagonism of the Phil- 
 ippine problem. It contained, on the contrary, the 
 germs of future dispute and controversy. The 
 preamble promised independence "as soon as a stable 
 government can be established therein." What did 
 these words mean? There can be no doubt about the 
 phrase "as soon as"; it is not "after" or "when" 
 but means immediately upon the fulfilment of the 
 required condition. What, then, is a stable govern- 
 ment? Does it mean a stable government composed 
 entirely of Filipinos? If not, there had been a stable 
 government in the islands ever since the "American 
 occupation. Evidently the intention was to promise 
 independence when the new form of government pre- 
 scribed by the Jones Act had proved itself stable. 
 The whole controversy, then, circles about the word 
 "stable." Who is to be the judge of this stability? 
 Naturally, the United States Congress, which has the 
 constitutional right of determining the final status of 
 the Philippines. 
 
 The arrival in the Philippines of members of Con- 
 gress, even though they are traveling for recreation 
 and not officially, or of any persons who are supposed 
 to be in touch with Congress, is the signal in Manila 
 for a renewal of the controversy. The Filipinos claim 
 that they have already, after a lapse of nearly five 
 years, established the required "stable" government, 
 and are entitled to immediate independence; those
 
 198 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 opposed to their aspirations contend with equal deter- 
 mination that the stable government has not yet been 
 established. So the dispute has been transferred from 
 the question whether the Filipinos are "fit for self- 
 government" to this equally annoying and irritating 
 debate over stability. Both questions involve discus- 
 sion of the ''ability" of the Filipinos, and call forth 
 more or less angry or sneering criticisms of the people 
 and their leaders. 
 
 The basis is thus laid for a quarrel of increasing 
 intensity, permitting as it does the free expression 
 of opinion upon the capacity, character, and ability 
 of a whole race of people. Was it not Burke who said 
 that you cannot indict a whole people? That is 
 exactly what many imperialists or retentionists have 
 thought it wise to do in regard to the Filipinos; 
 their statements are usually accompanied by a self- 
 satisfied protestation of altruism and of a regard 
 solely for the interest and welfare of the Filipinos. 
 The characteristic dignity of manner and appearance 
 of self-restraint of the Filipino race deceive the visit- 
 ing critic as to the spirit in which his observations are 
 usually received. These people are deeply sensitive, 
 and there is a point beyond which their acquiescence 
 in these sage and sometimes hypocritical summings-up 
 of their defects will not be endured. A distinguished 
 citizen of New York recently published a book in 
 which he devoted several chapters to the Filipinos; 
 he had spent eight days in the Philippines, mostly at 
 the Manila Hotel and the Army and Navy Club, and 
 his conclusions as published were entirely unfavorable 
 to Philippine aspirations. It so happened that every 
 one of his enumerated criticisms was incorrect and
 
 THE JONES ACT 199 
 
 based upon false evidence purposely given him by 
 the retentionist "junta" in Manila. All of this is 
 perfectly understood by the Filipinos and correctly 
 estimated by them. How many years of this sort of 
 misrepresentation will they cheerfully and patiently 
 endure? Fortunately, they have a clear conception of 
 the disinterested good-will of the American people at 
 large toward them, so that they still have complete 
 faith in us as a nation. 
 
 What, then, are the tests of a " stable" government? 
 Must it be a government which under any circum- 
 stances can withstand aggression from without, and at 
 all times be able to preserve its independence ? If so, 
 has there ever been a stable government in history, 
 and is there one upon the face of the earth to-day? 
 Must it be perfect in all its details? If so, has the 
 human race ever set up a stable government? Must 
 it conform exactly to American standards of govern- 
 ment? If that is to be the test, must it conform to what 
 we Americans would like to be, or to what we know 
 of our institutions in actual practice? If the latter, 
 there have been times in our own recent history when 
 that test would not have been approved even by Amer- 
 icans. Must it be financially beyond criticism and 
 its credit above reproach? If so, how many of the 
 great nations of the world to-day could answer that 
 requirement? Finally, must the Filipinos be judged 
 by a committee or by persons known to be resolutely 
 opposed to their independence, or is not the faith of 
 our country involved in the preamble to the Jones Act? 
 
 At the moment of present writing there is in the 
 Philippines a commission sent out by President Hard- 
 ing to report to him on present conditions there.
 
 200 MY SEVEN YEAKS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 All members of the party are army officers, except one 
 civilian, a former governor-general noted for his 
 opposition to independence. General Wood, at a re- 
 cent banquet in Manila, is reported as making the 
 following definition of a stable government: 
 
 A stable government means civic courage, courts of justice 
 which give equal opportunities to the senator as well as to the 
 simple tao, resources ready for disposal at any moment they 
 are needed by the country, organization which will enable the 
 country to defend its integrity, adequate hospitals all over the 
 Islands which are not found in the pro dnces we have just 
 visited, social organization which shows keen human interest 
 in the protection of the needy and the poor, effective public 
 sanitation, common language, and many others. 
 
 Diogenes, with his lamp, searched for less than this ! 
 
 All of the requirements mentioned by General Wood 
 would be desirable in the Philippines; so they would 
 be in the United States. Could either country ever 
 fulfil them in the eyes of a hostile critic? Do any 
 of the existing governments of the world to-day fulfil 
 them? Would not the " common language" bar 
 Switzerland, where there are four official languages, 
 French, German, Italian and Komansh? One fourth 
 of the Canadians speak French, and English is hardly 
 understood in Quebec. Would the Canadians relish 
 this test as applied to them? Are they unfit for 
 independence because they have not a "stable govern- 
 ment ' ' ? Have they ' ' adequate hospitals ' ' throughout 
 the provinces, and an "organization which will enable 
 the country to defend its integrity" against all comers? 
 Has Belgium? Has the millennium yet arrived in any 
 part of this troubled globe? I seriously doubt it. 
 
 Fortunately, the words "stable government" have 
 an exact definition when employed in American official
 
 THE JONES ACT 201 
 
 documents. This definition is fixed by usage and hon- 
 ored by tradition ; it is known to the Filipinos as it is 
 to all the world, and has been used before Congress by 
 Filipino representatives. It was employed by Presi- 
 dent Grant in his statement of foreign relations, and 
 later reaffirmed by Elihu Root when he was Secretary 
 of State. It declares a stable government to be one 
 which is elected by the suffrages of the people, is 
 supported generally by the people, and is capable of 
 maintaining order and of fulfilling its international 
 obligations. The present Philippine Government ful- 
 fils the last requirements; it is supported generally 
 by the people of the islands, is capable of maintaining 
 order and does so, and is able to discharge its inter- 
 national obligations, having a due regard to the safety 
 of foreign residents and their investments; it can 
 fulfil the first requirement of being chosen by the 
 people just as soon as the United States removes its 
 governor-general and soldiers, and permits the Fil- 
 ipinos to elect the first President of the Philippine 
 Republic.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE NEW FILIPINO GOVEBNMENT 
 
 THE elections for the new senators on October 3, 
 1916, resulted in a great victory for the Nacional- 
 ista party, which had already in the election of June 
 preceding retained complete control in the Assembly, 
 now to be called the House of Eepresentatives. All 
 but two of the twenty-two elected senators were can- 
 didates of the Nacionalista party ; the Speaker of the 
 House was the president of that party, and the new 
 President of the Senate, Manuel L. Quezon, was its 
 vice-president. The way was clear for a prompt de- 
 cision upon the form of the new government. Secre- 
 tary Baker, in his telegram of congratulation to the 
 new Legislature, had called them "in the Orient, the 
 successors of that Continental Congress which more 
 than a hundred years ago established free institutions 
 in America." The members felt a very solemn sense 
 of responsibility concerning their new powers. 
 
 To the new Legislature the power was given by the 
 Jones Act to "increase the number or abolish any 
 of the executive departments, or make such changes 
 in the names and duties thereof as it may see fit, 
 and [it] shall provide for the appointment and removal 
 of the heads of the executive departments by the 
 Governor-General." The use of this power was the 
 most important problem before the body. 
 
 There is little doubt that what the Filipinos desired 
 
 202
 
 203 
 
 was a responsible ministry and a form of government 
 like that of Canada, where the governor-general is 
 a mere figurehead. But the Jones Act did not permit 
 this; in fact, it had considerably strengthened the 
 hands of the governor-general, giving him executive 
 power and control over all departments of the admin- 
 istration, and for the first time the veto power over 
 all acts of the Legislature, and, as has just been noted, 
 the power to nominate the heads of executive depart- 
 ments. However, the spirit of the Jones Law was 
 without question that of self-government for the Fili- 
 pino people, and it was incumbent upon the governor- 
 general to carry out the terms of the act with as much 
 consideration as possible for that principle. A respon- 
 sible ministry was hardly feasible, so a means was 
 sought to bring the cabinet to be constructed into as 
 close touch as possible with the Legislature." That has 
 been generally recognized as one of the defects of 
 the American; system, the complete separation of 
 executive and legislative functions. 
 
 Vice-Governor Henderson S. Martin was in Wash- 
 ington and insisted, much to our regret, upon resign- 
 ing his office ; that left the post open for nomination by 
 President Wilson, as prescribed by the new law, the 
 position carrying with it, as its only function while a 
 governor-general was in the islands, the office of Secre- 
 tary of Public Instruction. Eugene E. Reed, Secre- 
 tary of Commerce and Police, had accepted a position 
 as president of the newly acquired government rail- 
 road, the Manila Railroad Company. Rafael Palma, 
 the acting Secretary of the Interior, had been elected 
 to the Senate, so a new slate was possible all around. 
 It was at first decided to ask Speaker Osmena to
 
 204 MY SEVEN YEAES IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 enter the cabinet as the responsible party leader; he 
 had for the past nine years been the recognized leader 
 of the lower house, with all the powers and influence 
 of the office of Speaker of the American House of 
 Representatives rather than those of the non-partizan 
 position known to the British House of Commons. 
 After some hesitation Mr. Osmena declined, but sug- 
 gested that the Legislature should authorize an ad- 
 ditional legislative member of the cabinet. He ap- 
 parently decided that he could not hold the post, for 
 example, of Secretary of the Interior and remain 
 Speaker, and preferred to remain where he was, espe- 
 cially in view of the fact that the Senate had refused 
 to part with its new president, Mr. Quezon, to let him 
 enter the cabinet. Act No. 2666, known as the Re- 
 organization Act, passed both houses and became a 
 law early in November, 1916. It rearranged the former 
 executive entities, dividing Finance and Justice into 
 two separate departments; changing Commerce and 
 Police so that the constabulary were placed under the 
 Secretary of the Interior, and establishing a secretariat 
 of Commerce and Communications; creating a new 
 Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, 
 and leaving the bureaus of Public Health and Public 
 Instruction under the vice-governor, who was to be ap- 
 pointed by the President. 
 
 It was finally decided to appoint Senator Rafael 
 Palma Secretary of the Interior, so that he should 
 serve as a liason officer between the executive and 
 legislative branches. Further, all secretaries were 
 given the right to appear before either house of the 
 Legislature when summoned. That was all that could 
 be accomplished in the direction of " responsible gov-
 
 THE NEW FILIPINO GOVERNMENT 205 
 
 eminent" until the extra-legal creation of the Council 
 of State in the following year. The new cabinet was 
 appointed on January 11, 1917, as follows : Assistant 
 Secretary of Public Instruction, Felix Roxas, formerly 
 Mayor of Manila; Secretary of the Interior, Kafael 
 Palma, President pro tern of the Senate; Assistant, 
 Teodore Kalaw; Secretary of Commerce and Com- 
 munications, Dionisio Jakosalem, Ex-Governor of 
 Cebu ; Assistant, Catalino Lavadia ; Secretary of Jus- 
 tice, Victorino Mapa, Ex-Secretary of Finance and Jus- 
 tice; Assistant, Jose Escaler; Secretary of Finance, 
 Alberto Barretto, Judge of the Court of First Instance ; 
 Assistant, Miguel Unson ; Secretary of Agriculture and 
 Natural Resources, Dr. Galicano Apacible, Ex-Chair- 
 man of the Appropriations Committee of the As- 
 sembly; Assistant, Rafael Corpus. A few months 
 later, Charles E. Yeater of Missouri was, appointed 
 Vice-Governor and Secretary of Public Instruction by 
 the President, and the cabinet was complete. 
 
 These secretaries remained in office during the rest 
 of my service as governor-general, or more than four 
 years longer, except that Don Victorino Mapa became 
 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the summer of 
 1920 and Attorney-General Quintin Paredes was there- 
 upon made Secretary of Justice; and also in the 
 autumn of 1920 Don Rafael Palma surrendered his 
 post as Secretary of the Interior in order to be able 
 to devote himself to private business. His twelve years 
 as commissioner, acting Secretary of Public Instruc- 
 tion, and in the Department of the Interior, where the 
 social burdens are especially heavy, had left him almost 
 penniless. Assistant Secretary Kalaw then became 
 head of the Department of the Interior.
 
 206 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 So, during four important years, in which the added 
 strain of the entrance of the United States into the 
 war greatly increased their difficulties in countless 
 directions, economic and commercial, these same men 
 presided over the administration of the executive de- 
 partments. A fixed term of office, coincident with the 
 life of a legislature, and the reappointment of all in 
 office at its expiration, obviated the criticism of in- 
 stability of government so frequent in the European 
 countries where ministries survive sometimes only a 
 few weeks. To be sure, these ministers were not 
 directly responsible to the Legislature, but, under the 
 circumstances, they were proportionately of infinitely 
 greater prestige and influence with the lawmakers than 
 are the secretaries of department in Washington, who 
 are little more than personal secretaries of the Presi- 
 dent. Banking after the presidents of the two houses, 
 these men were looked upon by the Filipinos as their 
 highest representatives, and of them was expected and 
 exacted responsibility not only as administrators but 
 also as the chosen leaders of a people who were on trial 
 as to the capacity of their race. They responded with 
 serious acceptance of these responsibilities. Not once 
 did an adverse vote or vote of censure of one of them 
 pass the Legislature, or either house thereof; had 
 this come to pass, the cabinet officer thus affected would 
 have resigned, though not by law obliged to do so, as 
 having lost the confidence of the Legislature. Oc- 
 casional appearances of cabinet officials before com- 
 mittees of the Legislature were usually connected with 
 the budget, annually presented by the Secretary of 
 Finance. On two different occasions, the Secretaries 
 of Agriculture and of Commerce came back from the
 
 THE NEW FILIPINO GOVERNMENT 207 
 
 hearings somewhat ruffled by their cross-examination, 
 but I suspect that the committee members had been 
 enjoying the process of baiting them under examina- 
 tion. 
 
 The positions of assistant secretaries of depart- 
 ment were created with the intention of having them 
 serve as permanent under secretaries, after the Eng- 
 lish system. This plan did not work out successfully, 
 owing largely to the fact that the men originally 
 selected were of too important a position politically, 
 and were no doubt always hoping to be promoted in 
 the Government; there was also some dissatisfaction 
 among the under secretaries over the apparent sub- 
 ordination of their positions to those in the Legisla- 
 ture. Several changes in their personnel took place 
 during these years. 
 
 The cabinet met every Wednesday morning, under 
 the presidency of the governor-general. In the absence 
 of a secretary, his under secretary sat in his place with 
 full powers. Occasional emergency meetings were 
 called at times of need. Usually the cabinet met behind 
 closed doors, though frequently public hearings were 
 held upon live topics. All matters of general policy 
 were decided upon in the cabinet, and gradually the 
 Legislature transferred to the cabinet, acting collec- 
 tively as a unit, certain legislative functions, such as 
 the distribution of appropriations where it was seen 
 the elasticity was needed. At all cabinet meetings 
 harmony and dignity prevailed, and I cannot believe 
 that in any country, over a similar period of time, 
 more conscientious or seriously patriotic attention is 
 given to the duties and responsibilities of office than 
 was given by these men in their years of service as
 
 208 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 cabinet officials. From the date of adoption of the 
 Jones Law the administration in Washington conceded 
 the fullest liberty of action and freedom from inter- 
 ference to the Philippine Government. Especially 
 during the war it operated almost as an independent 
 government, always, however, scrupulously careful of 
 the interests of America and Americans. The cabinet 
 discussions ranged over the widest possible scale, touch- 
 ing upon almost all those subjects which are usually 
 dealt with by independent sovereign countries except 
 foreign relations. The heaviest single piece of work 
 each year was the preparation and introduction of the 
 budget, the budget system having been adopted in 1917 
 by the new Legislature. It must be remembered that 
 prior to 1914 this function of government had been 
 withheld from the Filipinos. Alberto Barretto, Secre- 
 tary of Finance, displayed truly remarkable abilities 
 in the preparation of a scientific budget, and each year 
 it was with reasonable promptitude passed by the 
 Legislature. It is to be noted that one of the moving 
 purposes of the adoption of the budget system by the 
 Filipino Legislature was to avoid the introduction of 
 log-rolling which has in other countries caused such 
 scandal and damage to the treasury and the public 
 morals. 
 
 The constitution of the Philippine cabinet neces- 
 sarily removed the governor-general from such im- 
 mediate contact with the bureau chiefs as had pre- 
 viously existed. I observed some disposition to stand 
 upon their dignity on the part of certain secretaries, 
 upon those rare occasions when I had through haste or 
 inadvertence failed to consult them before talking 
 over a policy with one of their bureau chiefs. Con-
 
 OLD COUNCIL OF STATE OF PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, JULY, 1920 
 
 NEW COUNCIL OF STATE OF PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, JULY, 1920
 
 THE NEW FILIPINO GOVERNMENT 209 
 
 sultation with officials concerned is a primary rule in 
 administration everywhere, and in all countries neglect 
 of it must lead to irritation, but it is sometimes difficult 
 to remember, and occasionally is a source of delay in 
 action. Where a specific function was conferred by the 
 Legislature upon a certain secretary of department, I 
 once or twice detected an inclination upon his part to 
 consider the matter exclusively within his charge, but 
 I always insisted upon the provision of the Jones 
 Law that "all executive functions of the government 
 must be directly under the Governor-General or within 
 one of the executive departments under the super- 
 vision and control of the Governor-General." As a 
 general policy, I endeavored to give to the Filipino 
 executives all possible opportunity to exercise their 
 own discretion, and even forced upon them responsibili- 
 ties of decision and action as frequently as possible. 
 At first some of them displayed a* tendency to undue 
 caution in their decisions, but the exercise of self- 
 government later became perfectly natural and easy 
 to all of them, to such a point, indeed, that at times 
 I had to exercise all the discretion I could summon 
 not to appear to be interfering with them with insuffi- 
 cient excuse. Occasions of this sort arose with less 
 and less frequency after the general public gradually 
 learned to appreciate the fact that the governor-gen- 
 eral was not the sole fount of authority, and that the 
 heads of department must be consulted upon all mat- 
 ters affecting their functions. 
 
 My relations with each and every one of these heads, 
 both official and personal, were exceedingly satisfac- 
 tory and harmonious, and I look back with the deepest 
 feeling of pleasure to the days and years I spent in
 
 210 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 association with them. We never had a quarrel at a 
 cabinet meeting, and never left a subject until all those 
 interested had been given an opportunity to have their 
 say. It is one of the most curious features of human 
 nature that however strongly a man may feel upon a 
 given policy, he will finally accept an adverse decision 
 of the majority if only he has been given an ample op- 
 portunity to "get it out of his system" by stating 
 his views. There were many days when it must have 
 seemed tedious to the members of the cabinet to pro- 
 long discussions the ultimate decision upon which was 
 a foregone conclusion, but the net result was a har- 
 mony and good feeling which enabled us to serve to- 
 gether in friendship and without a break through all 
 those years. 
 
 Upon no occasion did I ever perceive among my 
 colleagues in the cabinet any unworthy motive of 
 personal gain or personal advantage, political or finan- 
 cial ; there was no tendency to favor any given locality ; 
 no jealousy of or prejudice against other offices of 
 government; no playing of politics in the unworthy 
 sense of the word. All were alike imbued with a desire 
 to do the best they could for their whole country; 
 they displayed no hostility against any race or class 
 of people, and avoided net only the danger but even 
 the appearance of being pushed by groups of capital- 
 ists, either foreign or native. 
 
 So strong did the cabinet organization become that 
 the leaders of the Filipino people, Messrs. Osmena and 
 Quezon, soon decided to raise again the question of 
 their participation in this executive body. 
 
 Speaker Osmena, who is a close student of consti- 
 tutional history, finally brought forward the plan of a
 
 THE NEW FILIPINO GOVERNMENT 211 
 
 Counsel of State, and this was put into effect by 
 executive order of the governor-general late in 1917. 
 It had been my custom, during the three years 
 before the Jones Act came into effect, to consult fre- 
 quently, indeed almost daily, with Speaker Osmena, 
 not only as to the qualifications of the Filipinos se- 
 lected for appointment to office, but also as to general 
 policies of administration. He was the recognized 
 leader of his people, their highest elected representa- 
 tive. Association with him had been of the greatest 
 benefit to me, since his knowledge of Philippine per- 
 sonalities was unsurpassed, and, moreover, a decision 
 taken with his approval was fairly sure to meet with 
 the support of the Filipino official world. With the 
 new government, however, difficulties in the established 
 relations between the governor-general and the Speak- 
 er of the House soon arose. The Senate resented 
 intervention from one outside their body in the form of 
 advice upon executive nominations. When it was 
 pointed out to their leaders that Mr. Osmena advised 
 on nominations not in his capacity as Speaker of the 
 House, but as president of the Nacionalista party, the 
 reply was that this was "invisible government." The 
 administrative officials felt that the law had given to 
 them, through the members of the cabinet, the right to 
 decide upon departmental policies. Mr. Osmena, who 
 had borne the burden of the fight for Filipino ideals for 
 many years, felt himself in an untenable position. The 
 creation of a Council of State solved, apparently, all 
 of these difficulties, and carried out more logically the 
 principle of responsible government. The body is un- 
 known in American constitutional law, unless it can be 
 said that such entities as the Governor's Council in
 
 212 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 Massachusetts and Maine carry out the same idea. 
 The Council of State, however, is a familiar institution 
 in all Latin American countries, at least wherever the 
 somewhat remorseless logic of the Napoleonic law pre- 
 vails. 
 
 The executive order creating the Council of State 
 described it as a body appointed to advise the gover- 
 nor-general, under his presidency, and to be composed 
 of the members of the cabinet and the presidents of 
 both houses of the Legislature. It at once superseded 
 the cabinet as a body, and thenceforth meetings of the 
 council were held weekly. Upon motion of President 
 Quezon, Speaker Osmena was elected by the council as 
 its vice-president, and so became once more officially 
 recognized as the ''second man" in government cir- 
 cles. The new body drew the executive still closer to 
 the Legislature, and virtually insured the support of 
 any reasonable executive policy among the legislators. 
 It thus greatly enhanced the power of the machinery 
 of government. On the other hand, the council some- 
 times displayed that delay and vacillation inherent in 
 divided responsibility. An executive board is never 
 as strong in action as a single executive agent, and 
 although the council was by its terms only an advisory 
 body, its decisions gradually acquired an aspect more 
 and more definitive. 
 
 Although I frequently offered, during the first year 
 of its existence, to sign a bill establishing by law the 
 Council of State, the Speaker always hesitated to 
 press the matter in the House, and the bill was never 
 introduced. In my last year of office I announced to 
 the council that I would not then sign such a bill if 
 it were presented to me, not wishing to bind the hands
 
 THE NEW FILIPINO GOVERNMENT 213 
 
 of my successor. The council became, finally, the tar- 
 get for many attacks in the opposition press and in the 
 minority in the Legislature. While the real object 
 of attack was the political machine of the Nacionalista 
 party, the council offered a shining mark, because not 
 found in the organic law. It was pointed out in reply 
 to criticisms that the council was only an advisory 
 body, and that the governor-general had the right to 
 seek advice from anybody he wished, especially from 
 the heads of the party in power ; nevertheless, replied 
 the critics, it gave the governor-general too much 
 power over the Legislature. Arguments in favor of 
 the complete separation of executive and legislative 
 appeared frequently. So the matter was left at the 
 end of my term. My successor may, if lie wishes, 
 abolish the Council of State with a stroke of the pen; 
 or, if he prefers, he can add to it as many other per- 
 sons as he desires to consult. 
 
 Nevertheless, the public discussion which raged 
 about the council in 1919 and 1920 afforded a most 
 useful basis for instruction in constitutional law. It 
 was a very decided advantage to the executive to have 
 the legislative leaders in an advisory council; it was, 
 on the other hand, an advantage to the members of the 
 two houses to have access, through their presidents, to 
 the innermost thoughts and reasons of the executive. 
 The objections to it are based upon opposition to a 
 concentration of powers, and a justifiable and proper 
 jealousy on the part of the Legislature of the influence 
 of the executive. In the Philippines, in its final 
 analysis, the opposition to the Council of State sprang 
 very largely from a growing revolt even within his 
 own party against the domination of Speaker Osmena.
 
 214 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 The question of the abolition of the Council of State 
 by law was never seriously considered in the houses ; 
 how could they abolish a board of advisers created by 
 executive order? How could they by resolution pre- 
 vent the governor-general from consulting whom he 
 wished? Additional embarrassment arose from the fact 
 that, though it had not been created by law, the Legisla- 
 ture had in numerous laws confided to the Council of 
 State prerogatives of parceling out extensive classes of 
 appropriations. I always made it clear that the council 
 was established at the express wish of the Filipino 
 leaders, that I thought it had been of decided benefit 
 both to the Legislature and to the executive; that I 
 did not consider it an intrusion upon legislative privi- 
 leges, and that if the two houses did not wish their 
 respective presidents to sit in the council, they only 
 had to say so. 
 
 It is my final impression that the abolition of the 
 Council of State would be a step backward, as a 
 lessening of their acquired exercise of self-govern- 
 ment. The opposition to the council finally resolved 
 itself into opposition to Speaker Osmena. His at- 
 titude toward the council had too greatly stressed his 
 own idea of responsible leadership; this was made 
 most apparent by an incident which occurred toward 
 the end of my administration, after a sharp discussion 
 between Messrs. Quezon and Osmena which was the 
 nearest approach we ever had to a quarrel in either the 
 cabinet or the council. The matter under discussion 
 was the granting of government subsidy through the 
 National Development Company, a branch of the Gov- 
 ernment, to a private company to be formed for the 
 manufacture of cement, a greatly needed industry in
 
 THE NEW FILIPINO GOVERNMENT 215 
 
 the Philippines. Mr. Quezon had taken one side of the 
 discussion, Mr. Osmena the other. The council was 
 evidently with Mr. Quezon, and I was about to put 
 the final motion when, to my surprise, Mr. Osmena 
 broke in with a statement that if the motion carried 
 he would resign. The meeting was at once adjourned, 
 and with a little patience all feelings were subsequently 
 smoothed out, and the subsidy agreed upon. The point 
 of interest is that Mr. Osmena evidently believed that 
 a vote adverse to his expressed opinion would destroy 
 his responsible leadership. 
 
 If too much emphasis has been laid upon these dis- 
 cussions and debates, they may at least interest the 
 student of political science. They may, moreover, 
 illustrate to the unbeliever the progress of the Fili- 
 pinos in the art of government.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE FILIPINO LAWMAKERS 
 
 UP to the year 1914 the Philippine Assembly of- 
 fered the best field for studying the capacity of 
 the Filipinos in government ; then they were given con- 
 trol of the upper house as well, though under the strong 
 influence of an American minority. Until then they 
 had been denied all effective or responsible participa- 
 tion in administrative affairs. 
 
 In 1916 the Jones Act gave them real self-govern- 
 ment, but with the constant presence of an American 
 governor-general and vice-governor, the latter in direct 
 charge of the two important branches of Public In- 
 struction and Public Health. It is therefore easy for 
 the unfriendly critic still to claim for American influ- 
 ence whatever he approves in administration and to 
 blame as Filipino 'whatever he dislikes. That, in 
 reality, this attitude is unjustifiable and not sup- 
 ported by the facts, may make but little difference 
 in this political controversy. The Legislature at least 
 since 1916 has been composed entirely of Filipinos, 
 and they may be credited with the form and substance 
 of the wise laws they have adopted, or reproached with 
 the shortcomings in legislation. Their critics have, 
 during these five years, been active in observation and 
 not always unprejudiced in comment. 
 
 It would be unpardonable in a brief volume, such as 
 the present writing, to attempt a report and analysis 
 
 216
 
 THE FILIPINO LAWMAKERS 217 
 
 of all the laws passed during these five years ; certainly, 
 if mistakes have been made, they have been open to the 
 attack of an exceedingly alert and powerful body of 
 critics who have widely advertised any action of the 
 Filipinos which they thought might be used to their 
 disadvantage. 
 
 The general trend of legislation has been progressive 
 and distinctly advantageous to the development of the 
 country. The first session under the Jones Act was 
 dedicated, with entire reason, to political considera- 
 tions, the reorganization of the government. After 
 that, matters of domestic reform were taken up, to be 
 interrupted by the irresistible pressure of new ques- 
 tions due to the war. These were largely in the field 
 of political science in which direct participation had 
 always been denied to the Filipinos, the economic, 
 and it is all the more creditable that they grasped and 
 handled the problems with so much vigor and deter- 
 mination. 
 
 Banking and currency, the export and import mar- 
 kets, coinage questions, the gold or silver standard, food 
 control and the stimulation of certain crops, shipping 
 and railroad ownership and development, the building 
 of sugar centrals and the price of sugar, the marketing 
 of hemp and tobacco, these were the principal topics 
 of consideration and debate in the Legislature. Every 
 possible means within the limits of prudence was 
 adopted to enable the economic resources of the country 
 to meet the acute stringency of conditions during the 
 war and after the Armistice. The success of the Fili- 
 pinos in these matters is of public record, and will 
 stand investigation and analysis. If mistakes were 
 made, so they were in all other countries during these
 
 218 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 years of war. Is it necessary to belittle the ability of 
 the Filipinos if they, too, suffered from world-wide 
 economic disturbances'? The point of emphasis is 
 rather that the islands came through the crisis as well 
 as they did, that they were by comparison really pros- 
 perous in the midst of depression elsewhere, and that 
 they suffered less than those other countries of the 
 Orient which, like the Philippines, were outside the 
 theater of active warfare. From the point of view of 
 the student of civics, it is a matter of congratulation 
 that no graft, no jobbery, no log-rolling, no cheap poli- 
 tics, no selfish localism, no cynical opportunism, and 
 no hypocrisy is to be charged against the management 
 of the Philippine Legislature. Its budget is intelli- 
 gently debated, subjected to minute scrutiny, honestly 
 considered from a national rather than local stand- 
 point, and is free from gross extravagances and ab- 
 surdities. 
 
 There is a very marked difference in the organiza- 
 tion and management of the two houses. The House of 
 Eepresentatives is controlled by a powerful organiza- 
 tion headed by Speaker Osmena, and the program of 
 legislation is managed with considerable skill. The 
 Senate, a smaller body, of course, is democratically or- 
 ganized and much freer in debate, but the extraordi- 
 nary leadership of President Quezon is evident the mo- 
 ment a "government" measure is in danger. In both 
 houses the committees are of much less proportionate 
 importance than those in the American Congress. 
 Private bills, as they are defined in the British Parlia- 
 ment, are infrequent, and deal mostly with franchises 
 for electric-light plants which, before approval, are 
 referred to the Public Utility Commission.
 
 THE FILIPINO LAWMAKERS 219 
 
 All of the members of both houses, except those ap- 
 pointed for the non-Christian territories, are highly 
 educated men, and for the most part are university 
 graduates. There are as yet very few members edu- 
 cated by the American public-school system and, con- 
 sequently, the debates are always in Spanish. English 
 will come into use as the younger men come to the 
 front. Representative Eulogio Benitez, in the session 
 of 1920, made the first speech in English ever delivered 
 from the floor of the House. The manners of the mem- 
 bers are above reproach, and the presiding officers are 
 seldom obliged to call to order the participants in a 
 debate. The speeches are eloquent, and often full of 
 allusions to history and literature. In fact, the Anglo- 
 Saxon must often bewail the fact that the oratorical 
 talent of the Filipino is so much more pronounced 
 than his own. Even among the school-boys, and in the 
 remote provinces, one usually hears a more eloquent 
 public speech than the average American can achieve. 
 It must be admitted, however, that in this nation of 
 orators the chaff is, by the audience, usually separated 
 from the wheat, and mere histrionic oratory accom- 
 plishes little more than entertainment. 
 
 The members are largely lawyers or doctors of 
 medicine ; one familiar with the composition of parlia- 
 ments in countries of Latin civilization will be pre- 
 pared for this ; the doctor is always well educated, and 
 generally a keen appraiser of human nature. 
 
 The press in the Philippines is active, keen, and well 
 written. Professional ethics are high among the jour- 
 nalists, and there are few instances of imputing to a 
 public man statements he never made, or of refusing 
 to publish corrections. Certain journals, however, es-
 
 220 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 pecially those dedicated to some particular political 
 issue or campaign, often go to lengths unfavorable to 
 the peace of the public mind and prejudicial to public 
 order. These are not, however, of wide circulation in 
 the provinces. 
 
 The defects of the Philippine Legislature are the de- 
 fects of inexperience. The worst faults are due to the 
 habit of voting with the leader, a criticism also ap- 
 plicable to most of the South American parliaments. 
 The minority in the adjustments sessions is most de- 
 plorably weak in numbers, and uncertain of its rights. 
 The most active minority members, General Sandiko 
 in the Senate and Claro M. Eecto, the Batangas poet, 
 in the House, though obviously sincere, often seem to 
 the observer to be "barking up the wrong tree." 
 
 Bills are not printed when introduced, but are mim- 
 eographed, and then, and in their amended form, are 
 not given sufficient publicity. If they were, they would 
 be subjected to the most caustic dissection in the op- 
 position press, the editors of which are sleepless in 
 their attacks upon the majority; the journalists, for 
 the most part, are ex-office-holders, or those who hope 
 to step from the editorial chair into public office. The 
 tone of legislative life would be improved by a proper 
 publicity of the measures introduced. Even up to the 
 moment of passage, and afterward, it is difficult to get 
 a copy of a bill. Political opponents may ascribe this 
 to a desire on the part of the organization leaders to 
 suppress the facts of pending legislation, but the truth 
 is that they are so sensitive over years of attack upon 
 them by certain American influences, that they devote 
 a most scrupulous attention to the phraseology as well 
 as the substance of every bill presented, before it is al-
 
 THE FILIPINO LAWMAKERS 221 
 
 lowed publication. How often have we seen in our own 
 country a State legislature or even Congress dis- 
 credited by a bill with wildcat ideas or faulty dic- 
 tion introduced by some member acting on his own 
 responsibility? The British Parliament gives the most 
 exhaustive analysis to every bill before it is permitted 
 introduction as a government measure. Neverthe- 
 less, the present Philippine method of refusing to have 
 the bills printed upon introduction and at their various 
 stages is open to criticism, and has sometimes defeated 
 the very purpose of the practice. Wise or careful 
 members of the bodies would probably have spied out 
 before passage and insisted upon eliminating the ob- 
 jectionable features of the few bills which have subse- 
 quently met the executive veto. 
 
 Their worst practice, however, and one easily ca- 
 pable of reform, is the withholding of most of the meas- 
 ures until the last night of the legislative session. 
 This reprehensible practice is common in the American 
 Congress, as well as the State legislatures; in the 
 Philippines, it is carried to excess, and is to be blamed 
 principally upon the House of Representatives. It pre- 
 vents proper discussion and understanding of many of 
 the measures adopted at the end of every session. 
 Many members, in those last crowded and exciting 
 hpurs, hardly know what they have passed or what 
 they are voting upon. Making due allowance for the 
 dilatory side of human nature apparent in all countries, 
 and especially in the tropics, it must be said that in 
 the Philippine Legislature the party management of- 
 ten deliberately withholds measures until the last mo- 
 n_ent with the hope of rushing them through without 
 debate and thus holding firm control over the legisla-
 
 222 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 tive program. To be sure, the result is that the ad- 
 ministration generally gets its bills passed, but it is 
 probable that the same result would be attained and 
 with more general public satisfaction if generous de- 
 bate and orderly consideration were always permitted 
 before passage. At least it can be positively stated 
 that this practice has never been deliberately employed 
 in the Philippine Legislature to pass unworthy or im- 
 proper legislation, and never for any selfish interest. 
 There are prospects now that it will eventually be re- 
 formed, for the Senate has recently, upon several oc- 
 casions, gone on record in emphatic disapproval. 
 
 The disposition to meet American imperialist argu- 
 ments is apparent in another feature characteristic of 
 the present Philippine Legislature. One of the charges 
 against the Filipinos most commonly made is that they 
 are not a united people, but are a congeries of differ- 
 ent races, tribes, and nationalities who could never 
 really work together in national endeavor. The charge 
 is entirely without foundation, and respecting it the 
 evidence is strong that "the wish is father to the 
 thought." Nevertheless, the Filipinos are extremely 
 sensitive to this reiterated criticism. They have been, 
 above all, determined to prevent a decision on any 
 measure before the Legislature upon sectional lines. 
 Ilocanos, Tagalogs, Visayans all vote, irrespective of 
 the section they represent. The Nacionalista party is 
 strong in every division and locality of the islands, and 
 votes are cast without reference to difference in lan- 
 guage or dialect. The principle, however, is adhered to 
 to an extent unusual in American or European legisla- 
 tures. The legislators in Manila try to arrive at a 
 unanimous vote whenever possible, upon every bill.
 
 THE FILIPINO LAWMAKERS 223 
 
 If a strong minority develops upon any measure, and 
 efforts to convince the opposition are futile, the project 
 is likely to be deferred until the next session. Many 
 times in the American Congress I have seen bills car- 
 ried by a few votes; once during my service there a 
 proposed constitutional amendment was defeated by 
 one vote in the House of Representatives. This is not 
 the Filipino custom ; the House must be nearly unani- 
 mous, or the matter is dropped. To such lengths have 
 the charges of disunion and "separation" brought the 
 Filipino representatives! Their caution is not only 
 due to the fact that they feel themselves to be acting 
 in a "show window"; it is due above all to a desire and 
 determination to avoid everything which retards or 
 seems to impair the ever-increasing solidarity of the 
 Filipino people. 
 
 Another Filipino characteristic which induces the 
 leaders never to press a vote where opposition has de- 
 veloped is the lack of real party platforms in elections. 
 The importance attached by both parties to the inde- 
 pendence issue has obscured in elections all other ques- 
 tions submitted to the voters. Since both parties sub- 
 scribe to the demand for independence, the campaigns 
 are conducted chiefly upon the record of the party in 
 power, and naturally enough sometimes degenerate 
 into an exchange of personalities and utterly un- 
 founded charges. The opposition candidate claims 
 that he is more fit to care for the interests of the people, 
 more interested in purity of administration, less tyran- 
 nical. There is thus little general discussion at elec- 
 tion times of issues of national interest, such as the 
 tariff, Chinese immigration, the land laws, suffrage 
 and divorce, public ownership of public utilities, or the
 
 224 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 relations of landlord and tenant. When such matters 
 finally come to discussion in the Legislature, the party 
 in power has no expressed mandate from the people 
 upon which to rely. Both parties have hesitated to 
 throw bones of contention into the elections, so that, 
 hotly contested as they are, the public spirit is aroused 
 by personalities rather than by appeals to principles. 
 
 At the joint committee hearing of Congress upon the 
 Philippine question in June, 1919, a member asked 
 President Quezon, who was then testifying, what the 
 difference was between the parties in the islands. Mr. 
 Quezon, with characteristic frankness, immediately re- 
 plied: " Those who are in office are trying to hold it, 
 while the ' outs ' are trying to get in. ' ' Former Repre- 
 sentative Emiliano Tria Tirona, the leader of the 
 Democrata party, who was then also present as a mem- 
 ber of the ''Independence Mission," tried to expatiate 
 upon the differences between the parties; I could see 
 the progressive stages of boredom reflected upon the 
 countenance of the chairman, Senator Warren G. Hard- 
 ing. That is the feeling the subject inevitably induces 
 in any disinterested auditor. 
 
 The elections in the Philippines call forth the utmost 
 activity among the politicians; the vote is unusually 
 large; in 1919, the last general election, 92 per cent, 
 of the qualified voters cast their ballots. Universal 
 suffrage has not yet been conceded; property or edu- 
 cational tests limit the list. Charges of fraud are fre- 
 quent in the more active provinces, and consist not of 
 claims of bribery but of manipulation of the ballot 
 boxes and fraudulent returns. An effort is now being 
 made to pass a better electoral law, which shall provide 
 really adequate watchers at the polls. The election
 
 THE FILIPINO LAWMAKERS 225 
 
 charges are carried at once to the Courts of First In- 
 stance, but, it must be admitted, are seldom substan- 
 tiated. The elections, however, in Ambos Camarines 
 and Albay are notoriously corrupt, and at the first 
 session of the new Senate the two senators from that 
 district were not seated. Such election scandals as 
 those of recent years in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio 
 have been carried broadcast through the American 
 periodicals and have had, to say the least, an unfortu- 
 nate influence upon the conduct of elections in the 
 Philippines. The actual purchase of votes is unusual, 
 a condition in sharp contrast to the situation in the 
 rural districts of the State of New York, where a quar- 
 ter of a century ago at least one third of the voters 
 were carried on the campaign books of each local party 
 manager as "doubtful," i. e., purchasable. The char- 
 acter of the paisano or countryman is, moreover, fer- 
 tile soil for the success of election manoeuvers; his 
 loyalty to his friends, to his patron or leader, opens 
 the door to election frauds. These, however, are not 
 so serious as to affect the final results; during my 
 nearly eight years of service in the islands I have 
 known only one member of the Legislature whom I be- 
 lieve to have been actually seated by fraudulent votes. 
 The election cases in the Assembly have been a source 
 of serious complaint ; the custom of the controlling ma- 
 chine there has been to stifle election contests in com- 
 mittee, and let them die of inaction; while this was 
 foolish and perhaps entirely unnecessary from their 
 own point of view, at least it may be said that it did 
 not go to the unpardonable lengths common in the 
 House of Representatives in Washington twenty years 
 ago, where an election contest was then never settled
 
 226 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 on the merits, but by a strictly partizan vote, in the 
 grand manner of the historic Tilden-Hayes contest 
 for the Presidency. At the session of 1920-21, the 
 Philippine House reformed this custom and gave ap- 
 parently just consideration and decision in pending 
 contests. 
 
 Throughout all the provinces and municipalities 
 local affairs are administered and local ordinances and 
 regulations adopted by Filipino provincial boards and 
 municipal councils. The provincial boards are now all 
 elective except in certain non-Christian provinces, and 
 consist of the governor and two other members. The 
 municipal councils, consisting of a president, vice- 
 president, and from five to ten additional members, are 
 also elective. Both the provinces and the municipali- 
 ties are limited in the scope of their authority, for taxes 
 are laid and income apportioned in bulk by the insular 
 Legislature. The acts of both the boards and councils 
 are reviewable by the Secretary of the Interior, and 
 are occasionally disapproved by him. Local questions 
 relating to roads, bridges, artesian wells, to the schools, 
 to police questions, to the rinderpest and locust cam- 
 paigns constitute the bulk of the work of these provin- 
 cial and municipal legislatures. Generally speaking, 
 their work is conscientiously done, and they are dis- 
 tinctly entitled to credit for the satisfactory average 
 of their performances. 
 
 Finally, some mention should be made of the two 
 dominant personalities in the Philippine Legislature, 
 Messrs. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmena, each of 
 whom, as president of his respective chamber, exercises 
 a profound influence in public affairs. Of radically 
 different character, they are absolutely united for
 
 THE FILIPINO LAWMAKERS 227 
 
 what they believe to be the welfare of their country; 
 frequent efforts are made by their more ambitious 
 followers to bring about a breach between them, and 
 it is the constant preoccupation of those in the ad- 
 ministration to preserve the existing harmony be- 
 tween them. Mr. Quezon is a Tagalog, and Mr. Osmena 
 a Visayan, but fortunately for the country their fol- 
 lowers are not divided upon provincial lines; the 
 Tagalogs have thus far shown a marked superiority 
 to the Visayans in political talent; in fact, within 
 my experience, with the exception of Speaker Osmena, 
 there have been only five Visayans in the front rank 
 politically, Chief Justice Mapa, Resident Commis- 
 sioner de Veyra, and Senators Clarin of Bohol, File- 
 mon Sotto, of Cebii, and Francisco Enaj& of Leyte. 
 The Visayans, however, are numerically superior to 
 the Tagalogs, so that as political forces they are fairly 
 evenly balanced. While Speaker Osmena can gen- 
 erally secure the support of the Visayans, President 
 Quezon has many influential followers among them; 
 the Speaker has many devoted adherents in the Taga- 
 log provinces. Mr. Osmena 's strength comes from his 
 conservative attitude on public questions, and his re- 
 luctance to advocate changes in the time-honored social 
 system in the provinces; this secures for him strong 
 backing among the Filipino clergy, headed by Bishop 
 Ivan B. Gorordo of Cebii. The present archbishops and 
 bishops of European descent are more in sympathy 
 with Mr. Quezon, as are the missionaries of the Metho- 
 dist and Presbyterian denominations. Having been 
 a major upon Aguinaldo's staff in 1899, Quezon has a 
 strong backing among the "Veterans of the Eevolu-
 
 228 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 tion" among whom a strong opposition to Osmena has 
 developed. 
 
 The Senate is the progressive body in legislation and 
 the House the conservative, so naturally the young 
 men, especially in the university, are enthusiastic fol- 
 lowers of President Quezon, who addresses them from 
 time to time upon the state of the country. Mr. 
 Quezon has been the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge 
 of Masons of the Philippines, and is the president of 
 the Columbian Association in Manila, composed of 
 young men who have been educated in the United 
 States. The capitalists in the provinces are more 
 inclined to Mr. Osmeiia, and those in Manila, where his 
 personal influence is the determining factor, to Mr. 
 Quezon, despite the fact that he has made himself the 
 champion of the newly born cause of the laboring 
 men in the Philippines. The Chinese merchants, a 
 very powerful body in financial circles, are on Osmena 's 
 side; Mr. Quezon is frankly pro-American and is the 
 ablest and most effective friend the Americans have 
 in Philippine political circles; Mr. Osmeiia is not un- 
 friendly toward any nationality, but is cautious and 
 reserved in his attitude toward all the non-Philippine 
 races. 
 
 Mr. Osmena is the calm, well-balanced director of 
 policies and organizations, though upon occasion he 
 can emerge from the security of his office and deliver 
 eloquent and telling addresses ; Mr. Quezon is the bold 
 and active fighter before the public, whether in Amer- 
 ica or the Philippines, for the rights of his people. He 
 is brave and impulsive, as quick as lightning, extremely 
 formidable in debate, and of most attractive person- 
 ality, making friends of all whom he meets. It is the
 
 THE FILIPINO LAWMAKERS 229 
 
 fashion in political circles to speculate upon which of 
 the two would win in a contest before the country ; the 
 contest is not at hand, and the present emergency in 
 the relations of the Philippines with the United States 
 will necessitate their continuing to act shoulder to 
 shoulder in the same cause. If the split between them 
 should come, which would win? Quien sabef Their 
 forces and resources seem so evenly balanced that 
 many believe they would only succeed in neutralizing 
 one another's candidacies, and that the result would be 
 to bring to the front some third man, such as Senator 
 Rafael Palma, agreeable to them both and to their 
 respective followers. 
 
 During the earlier years of my service the Assembly 
 gave unqualified support to my recommendations and 
 requests as governor-general; after the formation of 
 the Senate and the development of plans for the reform 
 of social institutions had led to sharp divisions of opin- 
 ion upon such questions as woman 's suffrage, divorce, 
 the relations of landlord and tenant, and the rights of 
 laboring men, my support came chiefly from the Senate. 
 
 As the active leader in the front of the firing line 
 in the political fight for independence, Mr. Quezon has 
 for years drawn the attacks of the army officers and 
 imperialists in Washington and Manila; at the same 
 time he really deserves their warmest support, having 
 manifested upon many occasions his sincere regard for 
 the Americans and deep respect and affection for the 
 United States. On one point, he would never yield to 
 America, the question of independence. Inasmuch, 
 however, as Congress has formally promised the free- 
 dom of his country, Mr. Quezon justly maintains that 
 his attitude in that respect is entirely pro-American.
 
 230 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 As a friend and ally, his services are absolutely 
 invaluable; to him no sacrifice is too great, and no 
 trouble too taxing when he has undertaken to do 
 anything for a friend ; he has, moreover, in abundant 
 measure that prime requisite of the successful states- 
 man: he always keeps his word. As this is at times 
 too impulsively given, he is led into occasional diffi- 
 culties. Mr. Osmefia is exceedingly chary about mak- 
 ing any promises whatever, and that is baffling to 
 those who go to him to ask his political advice and 
 opinion. 
 
 Working in combination, these two men make a 
 political team which is almost irresistible ; should they 
 decide to part company, the harmony and effectiveness 
 of the political organization would be sadly disturbed, 
 and it would lead to an inevitable regrouping of the 
 forces in both houses of the Legislature, to a reorgan- 
 ization of the Nacionalista party, and possibly to the 
 domination of a new political party in the country. 
 Should this upheaval occur in the near future, it is 
 important to note that the tendency to division is 
 upon the basis of public policy, not of personality, the 
 present forces inclining to group themselves into 
 "stand-pat" and " progressive" parties upon ques- 
 tions of domestic concern. If the independence ques- 
 tion, or that of the relation of the Philippines to the 
 United States, again is to obscure the whole political 
 horizon, all differences between Filipino political 
 groups will be immediately buried and the whole force 
 of their organization will present a united front to the 
 world.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 IN THE PROVINCES 
 
 IF Paris is France, it is not true that Manila is the 
 Philippines. The country is primarily and marked- 
 ly one of small agriculturalists, and ninety-five per 
 cent, of the inhabitants live on their own farms, some- 
 what less than forty acres being the share of the aver- 
 age family. 
 
 If the visitor could be transported on the magic 
 carpet of the Arabian Nights to any remote country 
 village in the Philippines he could not at first glance 
 tell in what part of the islands he had been deposited. 
 The houses are very much alike in all provinces and 
 the daily life of the Filipino, his dress, and his manner 
 of living are strikingly similar in all parts of the 
 country. There are no large cities except Manila, with 
 its population of 300,000, and Iloilo and Cebu, with 
 about 60,000 each. The bulk of the 11,000,000 inhabi- 
 tants of the islands live in small towns and villages. 
 
 The house of the Filipino countryman is small and 
 neat, raised upon posts about six feet above the ground. 
 It is built, usually, of bamboo, and the roof, thatched 
 with nipa palm, gives it a somewhat shaggy appear- 
 ance. There is very little furniture within, and the 
 poorer families usually sleep upon mats upon the 
 springy bamboo floor. The houses are admirably 
 suited to the climate, and the moment one enters them, 
 the blhrding glare and intense heat of the tropics are 
 
 231
 
 232 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 forgotten. A stranger is welcomed with hospitality 
 in the most remote hamlets, and the best of everything 
 the natives have to eat and drink is his, together with 
 the best chair, and perhaps the only bed, which is 
 made, as in India, of leather thongs stretched over a 
 framework. To the visitor, the family at first seems 
 very solemn, but little by little the children become 
 more inquisitive and bolder, and when the ice is broken, 
 all are suddenly at their ease and found to be full of 
 humor and good nature. Comparatively few of the 
 towns and none of the smaller villages have hotels, and 
 the traveler puts up at the town presidencies or with 
 the local school-teacher or constabulary officer; other- 
 wise, if a Filipino, he stays with his friends or his 
 parientes. 
 
 A few pictures perhaps one of some saint and one 
 of their hero Eizal adorn the walls, while the Ameri- 
 can sewing-machine and gramophone are ubiquitous. 
 
 The family seldom sits at the table with the guest, 
 all members serving him first and sitting down to the 
 remains of the feast. Rice is the staple food, with 
 usually a few eggs or beans, or chopped dried fish. 
 
 Their wants are very simple, and they possess few 
 garments, which they keep scrupulously clean ; as the 
 Filipino village is usually situated close to some stream, 
 the most familiar domestic scene shows the washer- 
 woman beating clothes on the rocks, or the people tak- 
 ing their daily bath, the boys in one group, and the 
 women and girls in another in perfect modesty, never 
 exposing themselves to the public gaze. 
 
 The children are bright and attractive, especially 
 the little boys. The men are very fond of the children, 
 and the grandfather spends hours every day looking
 
 IN THE PROVINCES 233 
 
 after the babies, of which there is a plentiful crop. 
 The baby is carried astride of the hip, as we see 
 children carried in India. In his imaginative painting 
 of a Neolithic family group in prehistoric Europe, the 
 French artist Fernand Cormon has represented the 
 baby in this position. 
 
 Infant mortality has reached extraordinary heights 
 in the Philippines, two thirds of all the children dying 
 in infancy in some localities, a figure now happily de- 
 creased one-half by the spread during the last twenty 
 years of modern sanitation through the efforts of the 
 Bureau of Health and of the women's clubs through- 
 out the provinces. The figure of infant mortality in 
 the United States is only ten per cent., and with the 
 installation of artesian wells in almost all municipali- 
 ties in the Philippines, the virtual elimination of small- 
 pox, the stopping of great epidemics of cholera and the 
 plague, the use of the rice hulls for the making of 
 tique-tique, a specific against beriberi, and the diffusion 
 of modern ideas of child-feeding and child welfare, 
 a great increase in the population of the Philippines is 
 on the way. If intestinal parasites, which are almost 
 universal, could be reduced, or done away with, a 
 marked impulse in national energy and vitality would 
 at once appear. 
 
 The people are unaffectedly simple in manner, with 
 a great natural dignity. Nothing can exceed the hos- 
 pitality and attentions of the country folk to a visitor 
 to whom they wish to show honor. 
 
 The houses of the richer Filipinos, in the provinces 
 as well as in Manila, are handsomely built of hard- 
 wood, elegantly furnished, and equipped with modern 
 plumbing. Their recreations are automobiling, dancing,
 
 234 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 and musical soirees. The Philippines, however, are not 
 yet a country of rich and poor; there are few million- 
 aires, and almost no abject poverty in the islands. 
 
 Official visits in the provinces are accompanied with 
 much speech-making, processions, the erection of grace- 
 ful and artistic bamboo arches over the roads, and 
 the loud welcome of the brass-band which is an inevi- 
 table feature of every village. It is perhaps, however, 
 to my many shooting-trips in a dozen different parts 
 of the islands that I owe my pleasantest recollections 
 of country life; free from the formal attentions and 
 intervention of the officials, and spending many days 
 in the fields and forests with the simple country peo- 
 ple, natural-born sportsmen that they are, I have had 
 the good fortune to make lasting friendships with Fili- 
 pinos in different provinces. It is too much to say, 
 perhaps, that country life is everywhere the best en- 
 vironment for the making of human character, but 
 certainly no type in the Philippines is more admirable, 
 more truly friendly and dependable than the great 
 bulk of the country folk. Some of the happiest days of 
 my life have been spent in camp or in simple homes 
 in the provinces, especially under guidance of my 
 friend Don Serafin Linsangan of Pantabangan and his 
 compadres, in the province of Nueva Ecija. 
 
 These people consider no effort too great to be 
 made for the comfort of their guests, no toil too tire- 
 some, and no hardship too severe. They are cool in 
 danger, devoted to their leader, and the very stuff of 
 which admirable soldiers may be made. In return for 
 their hospitality, it is an insult to offer pecuniary re- 
 ward. It is due to knowledge gained on these many 
 hunting-trips that I venture to write with assurance
 
 IN THE PROVINCES 235 
 
 of the Filipino people, not merely of the rich or 
 political classes. The long conversations I have had, 
 hour after hour, in the mountain camps, or in the shade 
 of the village bamboo groves, have given me a real 
 respect for the natural intelligence, political insight, 
 good heart, and faithful friendship of the Filipinos. 
 The reader may guess that I should like to write of the 
 sport of wild-carabao hunting which I have enjoyed 
 in the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Nueva Viscaya, 
 Ifugao, Tayabas, and Jolo; of the days given to the 
 chase of the tamarao in Mindoro, of the ducks of Ba- 
 taan and the Cotabato Valley, or of the excellent snipe- 
 shooting in the ten provinces of central Luzon, but, 
 as Kipling says, that is another story. Aside from the 
 sport enjoyed, all this was an unrivaled method of 
 getting to know the people, and a tonic of unequaled 
 inspiration, which sent the busy official back to his office 
 in better health, and on better terms with the world 
 at large. 
 
 Of the domestic animals of the Filipino, first and 
 foremost is the carabao, or Indian water-buffalo, upon 
 which, in large measure, the wealth of the country de- 
 pends. He is slow and ponderous, with the most 
 wicked-looking horns possessed by any of the large 
 animals of the world ; he is suspicious of strangers and 
 often hostile to them, but the smallest Filipino child 
 can soon reduce him to obedience. He is immensely 
 powerful, and his broad hoofs enable him to drag the 
 plow through the deep mud of the rice-paddy as no 
 other animal could do. The motor tractor has largely 
 superseded animal power in cultivating the fields for 
 sugar-cane or corn, but can never take the place of the
 
 236 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 carabao in the rice-fields, whence the main food supply 
 of the people comes. 
 
 The horses are small and reedy-looking; originally 
 a mixture of the Spanish barb and the pony from the 
 plains of Manchuria, they have degenerated in size 
 through lack of care in breeding. They are extraor- 
 dinarily sturdy, and can go all day in the great 
 heat with a heavy burden; the fact that most of the 
 saddle horses are stallions makes an expedition with 
 a large party on horseback a lively affair; the little 
 creatures often fight together like demons. 
 
 Cattle are raised either as beasts of burden or for 
 food ; milk is supplied only by the carabao. Chickens 
 are small, of the original type known as bantams 
 from the province of that name in near-by Java, The 
 wild chickens in the forests are of exactly the same 
 type as their domestic kindred. Eggs are small, 
 hardly more than half as large as those from an Ameri- 
 can hen. Boosters are a prominent feature of every 
 village community; they are trained for the Sunday- 
 morning cockpit, and their owners seem to spend hours 
 stroking them and preparing for the next fight. Cock- 
 fighting may impress the American visitor unfavor- 
 ably, but there is even worse to be told : unless one is 
 utterly insensible to sounds, and without any nerves 
 at all, he is doomed to nights of misery until he becomes 
 accustomed to village life. The roosters crow all night, 
 a challenge from one being taken up and answered 
 from yard to yard until the sleepless traveler fairly 
 writhes in torture. When we were children and were 
 told of Peter's hesitating denial of Christ, while the 
 cock crew thrice at night, the crowing seemed to us 
 some supernatural manifestation of divine warning.
 
 IN THE PROVINCES 237 
 
 When you have visited the Orient, you find that this 
 crowing at night is to the attentive observer the 
 main function of the rooster. And then the dogs 
 but enough said! The Filipinos have an aversion to 
 killing the surplus dogs and cats, and every village is 
 infested with them. In the absence of locks or bolts 
 upon the door the watch-dog is no doubt a necessity, 
 but one may hazard the opinion that, as to numbers at 
 least, he is overdone. In the province of Albay alone, 
 during an epidemic of cholera, Dr. John D. Long, the 
 head of the Bureau of Health, directed the killing of 
 stray dogs, and reported that thirty thousand were 
 destroyed in a few weeks in that one locality. 
 
 The allegation that the Filipinos are lazy is usually 
 made by the foreign visitor who is abroad during the 
 hot hours of the day when native man and beast are 
 prudently resting. The carabao requires a half-hour 
 at least for total immersion in the water after every 
 four hours in the sun. The Filipinos work from 
 earliest dawn, and again in the afternoon, and some- 
 times all night by the light of the moon. Nobody who 
 has tried to navigate the mud of the rice-paddies could 
 call lazy a race of people who wring a living from such 
 soil ; it might also be a lesson in industry to watch the 
 laborer stripping hemp. 
 
 In the rice-fields, the farmers work in family groups, 
 or in community bands, and the toil is eased by a guitar 
 player thrumming on the nearest pilapil, or paddy 
 bank. The music, however, is too gloomy for our taste. 
 
 The greatest dangers to Philippine agriculture are 
 the locusts and the rinderpest. The latter is always 
 endemic in the country, as it is in India, and the Gov- 
 ernment has devoted large sums of money to its elimi-
 
 238 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 nation, through inoculation, quarantine, and the impor- 
 tation of immune types of cattle. Nevertheless, it 
 returns periodically in virulent form. For the last 
 few years there has been comparatively little rinder- 
 pest, but the severe epidemic at the time of the revolu- 
 tion dealt the agriculture of the country a blow from 
 which it took years to recover. While quarantine reg- 
 ulations are naturally unpopular, they have never met 
 with organized resistance as in the State of Illinois 
 five years ago during the outbreak there of the foot- 
 and-mouth disease, when the embattled farmers re- 
 sisted the quarantine officers with shotguns! In the 
 Philippines the difficulty of quarantine is almost in- 
 surmountable, since there are few fences in the country, 
 and the cattle graze in large herds; infection is also 
 carried by dogs, pigs, ducks, and even by the deer. As 
 for the locusts, it is hard for one to picture the myriads 
 that come, literally darkening the sky. In a few hours 
 a whole crop is eaten, and the farmer sees the year's 
 work go for naught. He shrugs his shoulders and says 
 it is the volimtad de Dios (the will of God). The lo- 
 custs breed in the cogon (tall grass) of the uninhabited 
 regions, and when full grown fly for miles, even from 
 one island to another. They can be successfully com- 
 bated only when in the "hopper" stage, before they 
 can fly ; then the whole village turns out, and the armies 
 of hoppers are driven into ditches dug for the purpose, 
 and are buried. Fortunately, Nature regulates the 
 multiplication and increase of locusts in some mys- 
 terious way ; while they may be a pest for two or three 
 years in succession, there comes, usually, a long period 
 of respite. One adviser in Washington solved the 
 locust problem by prescribing as a remedy that all the
 
 IN THE PROVINCES 239 
 
 waste land of the archipelago be put under cultivation ! 
 
 The Philippines have greatly increased their agri- 
 cultural production during the last decade; the six 
 leading crops rice, corn, hemp, sugar, cocoanuts, and 
 tobacco were planted to an acreage in 1920 forty-five 
 per cent, greater than in 1910. This is due partly to 
 the high prices obtaining in recent years, in the world's 
 markets, for Philippine staples, partly to peace and 
 security in the provinces. A vigorous effort has also 
 been organized by Secretary Apacible and carried out 
 by General Adriano Hernandez, the Director of the 
 Bureau of Agriculture, to increase the food crops, so 
 as to render the country self-sustaining, as it was in 
 the days of Spain. That this has very nearly been 
 accomplished is evident from the figures for rice- 
 production for 1920, when 1,019,399,503 kilos were 
 produced in the islands, or double the amount of 
 1910. 
 
 The total amount of rice grown in 1920 and sold in 
 the municipal markets brought the sum of Pesos 
 254,855,385. The imports of rice for 1920 were slightly 
 more than 11,000,000 kilos in contrast with the 
 average of about 200,000,000 kilos imported for the 
 past decade. During the years 1919 and 1920, when 
 the export of rice from Indo-China (the chief source of 
 Philippine imports) was suspended by the French Gov- 
 ernment, a rice dictatorship of the distribution was 
 established by the Philippine Legislature. This was 
 accomplished through Secretary Dionisio Jakosalem 
 of the Department of Commerce and Communications, 
 with entire success and singularly little friction and 
 disturbance. The value of this achievement will be bet- 
 ter appreciated when it is recalled that in 1918 the
 
 240 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 cabinet in Japan fell from power upon the rice ques- 
 tion. 
 
 The remarkably high prices for sugar during recent 
 years have led to the erection in the Philippines of 
 about twenty new modern sugar centrals, and more and 
 more acreage is yearly planted to sugar-cane; it now 
 bids fair to supplant abaca (or hemp) as the favorite 
 crop for export ; the hemp-planters have been gravely 
 dissatisfied with the manipulation in the United States 
 of the market for their product by the International 
 Harvester Company. Projects for the local manufac- 
 ture of cordage in the Philippines, to steady the price 
 of their staple, have met with opposition from the 
 "Cordage Trust" in the United States. 
 
 One of the most striking developments of recent 
 years has been in the production of cocoanuts from 
 which the cocoanut oil of commerce is expressed. There 
 were nearly eighty million cocoanut trees planted in 
 the Philippines by the end of 1920, giving the country 
 an important position in the export market; while 
 copra is still exported to England, Spain, Prance, and 
 even to South America, the greater part of the crop is 
 pressed into oil at the mills in and about Manila and 
 Cebu, which have, however, suffered of late from the 
 efforts of overcapitalization and incautious overbuild- 
 ing. To the people of the cocoanut provinces, the rise 
 in the price of copra has brought great prosperity, 
 and many a small farmer of modest mien has several 
 thousand pesos in the bank or family "stocking" 
 against a rainy day, or rather, against the day of 
 typhoons. 
 
 The nerve center of the Filipino psychology is the 
 land ; he loves his native soil with passionate devotion,
 
 IN THE PROVINCES 241 
 
 and seldom is willing to emigrate to other coutries, or 
 even to other and more fertile parts of the Philippines. 
 Without a thorough knowledge of Filipino traditions 
 and customs, the foreigner is doomed to failure as a 
 landlord in the islands ; there is an unwritten code of 
 reciprocal rights and duties among the people who win 
 their living from the soil that cannot be easily changed 
 and may never be disregarded. This should be clearly 
 borne in mind in any plan for the acquisition of large 
 territories in the Philippines for purposes of exploita- 
 tion and development. The apparently passive and 
 docile countryman can be suddenly aroused to passion 
 and to deeds of violence by any infringement of his 
 traditional rights in and to his land. 
 
 Fortunately, the Government has, under American 
 occupation, understood and guarded, as far as possible, 
 against agrarian troubles. The problem of the friar 
 lands, as has already been mentioned, was success- 
 fully if not completely solved in the earlier days of 
 American domination; but the lesson of the insurrec- 
 tion against Spain will never be forgotten. The law 
 forbids any individual from acquiring from the vast 
 public lands by homestead more than twenty-four hec- 
 tares, the individual from purchasing more than one 
 hundred hectares of public lands, or the corporation 
 from so obtaining more than one thousand and twenty- 
 four hectares. The dangers of the Diaz regime in 
 Mexico, with its legacy of revolutions and disorders for 
 succeeding generations in that distressed country, are 
 to be avoided in the Philippines if possible. Any 
 change in the public-land laws of the Philippines re- 
 quires the signature of the President of the United 
 States ; there is, however, no disposition upon the part
 
 242 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 of the Filipinos themselves to open up the country to 
 large landed proprietors; in fact, 'the tendency is 
 quite the other way. The recent Public Land Act, 
 finally approved by President Wilson in 1919, after 
 a year and a half of delay, closes the public lands of 
 the Philippines to all but Americans or Filipinos, a 
 restrictive measure which called forth inquiries and 
 informal protests from the governments of Japan, 
 France, Spain, and Great Britain. The act was finally 
 put into shape to meet all technical objctions, but it is 
 believed that the hesitation of the Washington ad- 
 ministration to approve it was due to an especial effort 
 to avoid all questions of controversy with the "allied 
 and associated Governments." The Filipinos felt 
 that if they were not able to secure approval of this 
 law under the powerful wing of the United States, 
 they would never be able to secure its passage in later 
 years. The Government of the Straits Settlements had 
 in 1918 passed a similar law, aimed, it was understood, 
 against the invasion of American capital. The Japan- 
 ese were unable to make an effective protest against it 
 because the Philippine law had been skilfully drawn 
 after a study at Tokio of the Japanese land law, and 
 was based as exactly as possible upon it. Subsequent 
 negotiations, approved by the Philippine Legislature, 
 to protect Japanese investments in the hemp planta- 
 tions of Davao will be discussed in a later chapter. 
 
 Minor agrarian disputes are occurring with increas- 
 ing frequency upon the larger estates in the provinces 
 near Manila and in Negros. The rapidly disappearing 
 survivals of the feudal system are based rather upon 
 tradition than upon law ; the oppressive custom on the 
 part of a few Filipino landlords, as for example in the
 
 IN THE PROVINCES 243 
 
 province of Bulacan, of exacting from tenants pay- 
 ment in kind of a portion of the crop at fixed prices 
 below the market, has aroused much resentment and 
 some threat of disturbance in a few localities; it is 
 hoped that prosecutions under the amended usury law 
 may diminish this custom; the small farmer^s grad- 
 ually learning his rights, and is beginning to assert 
 them with vigor and determination. The power of the 
 cacique or landed "boss" to retain his tenants at- 
 tached to the soil in a condition somewhat resembling 
 peonage is lessening year by year, as the small man 
 grows more self-confident and independent. 
 
 One of the cherished features of the American bill 
 of rights is denied to the Filipino; he cannot bear 
 arms except upon license granted by the -governor- 
 general. This is usually accorded to all responsible 
 persons who desire shot-guns, but almost never in the 
 case of rifles or revolvers. When the Filipino is 
 taunted with his inability to form an army to defend 
 his own country, he points to the fact that he is not 
 permitted by law to carry arms ; and he may add that 
 his attempt to organize a National Guard was dis- 
 couraged in Washington. 
 
 The average Filipino pays very few taxes in the 
 provinces, a small land tax of 1% per cent, upon the 
 value of his land, a cedula or poll-tax of two pesos a 
 year, and a sales tax of 2 per cent, on his gross sales of 
 produce. Repeated recommendations of the executive 
 to the Legislature to increase local autonomy, espe- 
 cially in the direction of permitting self-taxation of 
 various communities for school and road funds, have 
 as yet met with no success. The demand for roads 
 and schools in the country districts is constant, and
 
 would overwhelm the insular treasury if granted 
 to the amounts requested. Village pride in a new 
 school-house calls forth great rivalry between neigh- 
 boring communities. Public-spirited citizens are con- 
 stantly donating funds for school buildings when the 
 Government has been unable to respond. The country 
 people themselves will make any personal sacrifice to 
 send their children to school, and the neatly dressed 
 youngsters with their "shining morning faces" are a 
 source of pride to the whole community. Seventy per 
 cent, of all the inhabitants of the Philippines over ten 
 years of age are literate, as shown by the census of 
 1918, a percentage almost as high as that of some of the 
 Southern States of the Union, higher than that of 
 Greece, Italy, Portugal, Rumania, Servia, or any of 
 the new countries organized since the war. 
 
 Roads are as vigorously demanded as schools, new 
 roads and then more of them. They are excellently 
 constructed and kept in general good repair; in fact, 
 they compare favorably to any state road system in 
 the United States. The modern roads and schools are 
 due not only to a wise policy of government, but also 
 to the insistent demand of the people themselves. The 
 proper relation of these much-needed public improve- 
 ments to the revenue would be better understood in 
 the provinces if more self-government were accorded 
 by the Legislature to the provincial boards and to 
 the municipalities. The allotment of school funds to 
 the different localities has been managed by the cen- 
 tral Government with conspicuous impartiality and 
 fairness ; more complaints are heard about the division 
 of road and bridge funds, which are by law apportioned 
 in bulk among the provinces in proportion to popula-
 
 IN THE PROVINCES 245 
 
 tion. Thus the very provinces which could in all prob- 
 ability themselves supply the funds for emergencies 
 and deficiencies, are those which receive the largest 
 share in the distribution. There is, in consequence, a 
 vast difference in the development of the road systems 
 of large provinces like Cebu or Pangasinan, and small 
 ones like Isabela, Antique, or Sorsogon. This is a 
 cause of some public discontent. 
 
 To the traveler the village school-house is always 
 the point of greatest interest. The boys and girls go 
 to the same school, which is a source of complaint and 
 criticism on the part of the older priests of the Catholic 
 Church. The children are keen and well-behaved in 
 the class rooms, but are seen to greatest advantage 
 during the recreation hours, playing volley-ball or 
 baseball, or practising for the track games. They are 
 surprisingly efficient at all these games, and the per- 
 formances of the college boys in baseball and track 
 athletics would be hard to beat at any of the smaller 
 American colleges. The recent return of the success- 
 ful Filipino team which won the Far Eastern Olympic 
 games at Shanghai, over China and Japan, was the 
 occasion for a great demonstration in Manila. They 
 had carried off the palm in tennis, baseball, sprints, 
 pole vault, and jumps, and the shorter swimming-con- 
 tests. The Japanase won at longer distances, both in 
 the foot-races and in the water. Gone are the days 
 in the Philippines when any form of exercise except 
 that on horseback was discouraged by the Spanish as 
 ungentlemanly ; the enthusiasm for athletics is spread- 
 ing fast; in December, 1920, the Philippines led all 
 countries in the purchase of athletic and sporting- 
 goods from the United States.
 
 246 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 The healthy, bright-eyed, and athletic Filipina girls 
 are especially a revelation to the other races of the 
 Orient. I remember an exhibition given by the Fil- 
 ipina girls' baseball team at Peking, which aroused 
 great curiosity and surprise. A member of the Chinese 
 cabinet who stood by me, himself an old Andover 
 baseball-player, rushed off to try to secure the bats 
 and balls for Chinese use. In the grandstand about 
 us were numbers of painted Chinese ladies with crip- 
 pled feet and tottering gait. No doubt they were more 
 shocked than pleased by the artless vigor and spirited 
 good health of the Filipina maidens. 
 
 The attitude of the provincial Filipinos toward the 
 Government is far more respectful than that American 
 officials are accustomed to at home. Respect for author- 
 ity is an old-time Malay trait, and has been intensi- 
 fied in the Philippines by the Spanish regime. The 
 Spaniards punished an atentado contra la autoridad 
 very severely indeed. The habit of mind of the 
 paisano, or countryman, is still one of submission to 
 authority. He was accustomed for many centuries to 
 submit to all kinds of imposition, if not cruelty and 
 abuse, from the Spanish governors. Then came revolt 
 and revolution. Even to-day he will carry on for a 
 long time against real or fancied governmental injus- 
 tices until the inevitable explosion comes. He is far, 
 far easier, however, to lead than to drive. The attitude 
 toward government as something inevitable and su- 
 preme is gradually breaking down under the spread 
 of democratic ideas. He is beginning to perceive that 
 he, himself, is the Government, but his feeling is never 
 asserted, and disrespect toward and resistance to the 
 Government are infrequent. Grievance has hereto-
 
 IN THE PROVINCES 247 
 
 fore led to flight to the mountains and the forming 
 of lawless bands, or remontados, who in some inacces- 
 sible spot in the hills sought freedom from government 
 injustice. To-day these bands have almost disap- 
 peared and the citizen with a grievance resorts to 
 political speeches and complaints in the public press. 
 
 Nevertheless, this remembrance of many generations 
 under a despotic system, when a government was some- 
 thing apart from the people, mysterious and full of 
 injustices, lingers on. A natural result was the uni- 
 versal sympathy, of which more than a little still 
 survives, for him who has been caught in the toils of 
 the law. The executive is constantly besieged with 
 requests for pardon or commutation of the sentence 
 of a criminal ; the prisoner, when finally released, goes 
 directly back into his home community, little the worse 
 in public esteem for the sentence he has served. A re- 
 freshing difference, you will say, from the American 
 system of proscribing and persecuting the ex-convict! 
 Yes, perhaps so; but also, most unfortunately, evi- 
 dence that the people do not fully understand that they 
 themselves are making the laws for their own pro- 
 tection, and that the criminal statutes are not imposed 
 upon them by some remote and foreign authority. 
 
 Other inheritances from the paternal government of 
 former days remain in the petitions or addresses to 
 the governor-general. I well recall one day in 1915 
 when the governor of a near-by province came to me 
 for advice in his troubles. "You know," he said, "I 
 look on you as my father.*' A few hours later, the 
 same morning, the Municipal Board of Manila came 
 to my office for assistance ; their spokesman began by 
 stating that they looked upon me as their grandfather !
 
 248 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 This, coming from Don Isabelo de los Reyes, who was 
 twenty years my senior, quite floored me. 
 
 To the courts the Filipinos pay an almost exag- 
 gerated deference. The judge, sitting without a jury, 
 represents in his person the full majesty of the law. 
 The ability of Filipinos as judicial officers was recog- 
 nized even under Spain; under the United States the 
 number of Filipino judges rapidly increased. Nothing 
 seems to have marred the respect in which the courts 
 have been held until within the last few years. Now, 
 with the spread of representative government and the 
 increase of the electorate, contested election cases are 
 frequent in the Courts of First Instance, and are con- 
 ducted with much party feeling by the contestants. 
 In some cases, through the production of myriads of 
 witnesses and other dilatory devices not unknown to 
 counsel elsewhere, the respondent has been able to 
 delay the trial for months and even years. The idea 
 obviously is to secure delay in the decision until the 
 one seated de facto shall have been able to serve out 
 his term of office. Certain of the judges have appeared 
 totally unable to despatch their business, despite the 
 constant urging of the Secretary of Justice, and much 
 public resentment has been occasioned in several prov- 
 inces. There is no suggestion that the judges have 
 been tempted by any pecuniary considerations, but it 
 is sometimes suspected that the influence of political 
 or personal friendships may have affected them. 
 
 If the people, whether rightly or wrongly, come to 
 believe that they cannot secure justice, a great and 
 permanent injury will have been done to the Govern- 
 ment. The consciousness that freedom of speech is 
 now secured to them by the Bill of Rights is having
 
 IN THE PROVINCES 249 
 
 an evident effect among them. Decisions of even the 
 American Supreme Court justices in election cases or 
 upon political issues are nowadays widely debated and 
 sharply criticized among the Filipinos. The judicial 
 veto has disclosed as strong differences between the 
 Supreme Court and the Legislature, as it has in the 
 United States. The judiciary is now under frequent 
 criticism for the first time, and the old-time almost 
 unnatural deference to the courts is rapidly passing 
 away. 
 
 This stimulation of public opinion is in itself a valu- 
 able check upon the judiciary; it should, however, be 
 carefully directed by the leaders of the people into 
 conservative and reasonable channels. As Lord Bryce 
 has said, " Public opinion is in all countries produced 
 by the few and improved and solidified by the many. ' ' 
 Those partizan leaders in the Philippines who in the 
 heat of party passion are most severe in their denun- 
 ciation of the courts are assuming a heavy respon- 
 sibility. 
 
 The growth of free discussion of public questions 
 in the provinces is, however, one of the healthiest signs 
 of the times. The newspaper press in circulation is 
 very limited, and public opinion is generally formed in 
 public meetings, after the fashion of our town meetings 
 in New England. In the provinces they are coming 
 more and more to the point of taking a proper interest 
 in the actions of their elected representatives. Upon 
 this, security of their democratic institutions must de- 
 pend.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 NEW VENTURES IN COMMERCE AND FINANCE 
 
 IN the Philippines, a purely agricultural country, 
 very little opportunity existed until the recent in- 
 dustrial boom for the development of " Captains of 
 Industry." The internal trade, while considerable in 
 the aggregate, has always been conducted by small 
 Chinese peddlers or shopkeepers throughout the prov- 
 inces, and the money thus earned by them was usually 
 sent back to China, and never invested in the country, 
 a practice which aroused the indignation of the 
 Spanish governors from time to time. Even the Mex- 
 ican silver dollars brought over by the galleons in olden 
 days soon disappeared from the Philippines and reap- 
 peared on the China coast. The Filipinos have always 
 been a farming people, and learned but little of trade 
 and finance, in which respect they resemble the Rus- 
 sian people and the Turks; even the aristocracies of 
 European countries before the war knew little of com- 
 merce, and looked down on " trade." Up to the last 
 decade the few rich Filipinos were landed proprietors, 
 such as the Roxas family. Foreign trade was until 
 recently closely controlled by a few prominent British 
 or Spanish firms; later, Americans and Germans en- 
 tered the field of commerce. The Filipina woman was 
 always the business head of the family, took the wages 
 or earnings of her men-folk, went to market, and nego- 
 tiated the sale of the crops. Even to-day most of the 
 
 250
 
 COMMERCE AND FINANCE 251 
 
 Filipino tietidas or shops throughout the islands are 
 kept by women. 
 
 With the coming of American ideas and ambitions 
 the Filipinos became interested in the opportunities 
 for trade ; they were repeatedly told that they would 
 not be fit for independence unless they learned to take 
 their share in the commerce of the country. Begin- 
 nings had been made by the Fernandez Brothers, who 
 established a successful line of inter-island steamers, 
 and the Earnshaw Brothers, whose shipyard in Manila 
 laid the foundations for the family fortune. Their 
 fellow-countrymen were ambitious to emulate them. 
 The most successful has been Don Vicente Madrigal, 
 who, starting fifteen years ago with a capital of two 
 thousand pesos in the coal business, built up, through 
 lucky speculations in ships and in wise contracts for 
 coal, a fortune estimated at one time to amount to 
 fifteen million pesos. An all-Filipino cigar factory 
 was established in Manila and has been fairly success- 
 ful, but the bulk of the tobacco trade and of the 
 manufacture of cigars and cigarettes remains in the 
 hands of Spaniards and Americans. Ten years ago 
 the sugar hacenderos began to agitate for capital to 
 enlarge their old-fashioned muscovado mills into mod- 
 ern sugar centrals, a movement which resulted by 1921 
 in the erection of some twenty-three new centrals in 
 American or Filipino hands. 
 
 Then came the sudden boom in cocoanut oil, and 
 during the years 1917-19 mills sprang up almost over- 
 night. The excitement over the rapid creation of 
 Filipino oil millionaires led to excesses in over-capi- 
 talization and expansion, as might have been expected. 
 By 1920 the boom had passed, the price of oil had
 
 252 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 fallen, and the reorganization of various of the oil 
 companies will take some years before they are placed 
 upon a sound financial footing. It must be added that 
 Filipinos were not alone in this movement; English 
 and American capitalists were carried away by the 
 visions of sudden wealth; the operations in oil of a 
 Britisher brought several of the banks to the edge of 
 disaster by 1920, and one American speculator in- 
 dulged in such "high finance" in an attempt to secure 
 control of the oil trade that his operations were inves- 
 tigated by the Philippine Senate in 1918. Early in the 
 year 1921, two foreign financiers were indicted in 
 Manila for the practice of getting money from the 
 banks to cover their extensive operations by giving 
 as security quedanes or warehouse receipts for oil and 
 hemp which were not in existence. 
 
 The sale by the Alien Property Custodian of sev- 
 eral large one-time German houses gave the Filipinos 
 an opportunity of buying in at auction commercial and 
 import businesses, of which they took advantage. The 
 prices paid by them were far too high, however, and 
 the disturbances in the world markets since the Armis- 
 tice have nearly ruined these investors. 
 
 Sugar, oil, hemp, and cotton piece goods fluctuated so 
 violently in price, during and after the war, that the 
 moment was most inopportune for the first ventures 
 of Filipino capitalists into the field of industry and 
 commerce. Sugar at the present time still offers such 
 enormous gains that it may be the salvation of their 
 general financial condition. The experiences of re- 
 cent years have not been favorable to the growth of 
 that prudence and steadiness in capital operations so 
 necessary to permanent success; this is all the more
 
 COMMERCE AND FINANCE 253 
 
 unfortunate because the tendency of the provincial 
 producers has always been to speculate upon their 
 crops by holding out for a higher price instead of being 
 satisfied with a reasonable profit ; too often this holding 
 for the top of the market has resulted in selling later 
 at the bottom. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson may have been right in wishing 
 to preserve the United States as an agricultural coun- 
 try, but modern industrialism and commerce are too 
 strong a force for any country to resist, if it would; 
 if the Filipinos have eaten of the bitter as well as the 
 sweet of financial enterprise, they may derive some sat- 
 isfaction from the reflection that financial disturbances 
 from 1914 to 1921 were not confined to their country, 
 but were of world- wide occurrence. What has hap- 
 pened, for example, to the crop of war millionaires 
 in New York? 
 
 An important chapter of this discussion is the ven- 
 ture of the Philippine Government in public ownership 
 or control of various industries in their own country; 
 Mr. Charles Edward Russell, the author, during a 
 recent visit of inspection to the Philippines, stated 
 that the feeling directed against the administration, 
 among so many of our fellow-countrymen there, was 
 based really upon the activities of the Government in 
 public ownership. This interfered, he said, with oppor- 
 tunities for investment. However, the growth of the 
 idea in the Philippines was not due to a desire to 
 preempt the field for investments, but arose simply 
 and solely from the refusal of sufficient American and 
 foreign capital to enter the country. 
 
 From the beginning of American civil government in 
 the Philippines, the administration had taken in hand
 
 254 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 the management of various utilities for which there 
 was then offering no adequate private enterprise; 
 thus, the Insular Government owned and operated an 
 ice- and cold-storage plant ; a printing-office for official 
 publications ; various coast-guard ships ; the telegraph 
 and inter-island cable systems, with a cable-ship for 
 the repair of them ; a purchasing agent and a Bureau 
 of Supply for all the departments of the Government 
 and, of course, a Bureau of Public Works. The officials 
 of the Bureau of Supply were always instructed to 
 purchase when possible from local merchants, but the 
 existence of this bureau was from the beginning a 
 source of criticism and attack. The ice-plant was a 
 powerful influence in keeping down the price of ice, 
 but efforts made by the Government in 1914 to sell 
 the ice-plant, and in 1920 to abolish the Bureau of 
 Supply, met with no success. The price-fixing of 
 staple commodities by thei Government during the 
 years of war, 1917-18, was generally recognized as 
 being dictated from Washington and regarded as a 
 necessary incident of the war ; on the whole, it may be 
 said that price-fixing, except in the case of the rice 
 crisis, of which mention has already been made, was a 
 failure, and did more eventual harm than temporary 
 good. 
 
 The first step in "interference" with capital by the 
 new Filipino-American administration was the crea- 
 tion early in 1914 of a Public Utility Commission on 
 the model of the New Jersey statute; this has proved 
 a success and has rendered generally appreciated ser- 
 vices to the public. Then came the purchase by the 
 Government in 1916 of the main transportation system 
 in the islands, the Manila Railroad Company.
 
 COMMERCE AND FINANCE 255 
 
 Whatever may be the view of the reader as to public 
 ownership of railroads in the United States, he must 
 remember that the situation is entirely different in 
 the Philippines. Indeed, attention should be given to 
 the fact that the railroads are generally owned and 
 operated by the governments in all near-by countries 
 and colonies. Government ownership of railroads is 
 the rule in Japan, Indo-China, the Federated Malay 
 States, Java and Sumatra, Burma, Ceylon and British 
 India. In China the administration is now trying to get 
 back the railroad concessions from the aggressive 
 groups of foreign capitalists who own them; the 
 Chinese have been thoroughly alarmed by the political 
 use made of railways in their country as the opening 
 wedge of territorial conquest by the great powers. 
 
 The causes that led to the acquisition of the system in 
 British India by the Government were, it is said, sim- 
 ilar to those in the Philippines. The Manila Railroad 
 Company was an English enterprise, first started in 
 1888 ; the lines are entirely in the island of Luzon, and 
 extend north and south from Manila for, altogether, 
 about one thousand kilometers. New railroad con- 
 struction was government-aided soon after American 
 occupation by an agreement on the part of the adminis- 
 tration to guarantee the interest on the bonds to be 
 issued. The line had never been very profitable, and 
 no doubt the English capitalists were getting tired of 
 it ; at all events, after the outbreak of the war in 1914, 
 no more English capital was forthcoming. The Phil- 
 ippine Government, from 1911, had been lending from 
 the Gold Standard Fund all sums for new construction, 
 and were usually required to pay a substantial sum 
 each year in default on the interest on the railroad
 
 256 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 bonds. The management was still all English, but an 
 American government railway supervisor was detailed 
 to see that the construction money was properly spent. 
 In spite of his efforts, the construction work, especially 
 in the right-of-way department, had by 1912 become 
 a public scandal. Through 1913 and 1914 constant 
 efforts were made to force the company to change its 
 methods, but in vain. This scandal arose through the 
 practice of the railroad company's agents buying up 
 the necessary land at nominal figures from the owners, 
 and then selling it to the company at a high figure. 
 This swindle had grown to gigantic proportions, 
 and about nine millions of pesos had been lost in 
 this way, a sum upon which the government guar- 
 antee of four per cent, interest on the bonds had to be 
 met. Two Spaniards and a Filipino were the active 
 agents of the railroad right-of-way department in these 
 transactions. The Filipino was subsequently sentenced 
 to prison for his part in them; the Spaniards had 
 escaped to Spain and could not be extradited from 
 their own country. 
 
 In spite of our efforts the railroad management 
 would not or could not change the system, nor reform 
 these abuses. This led finally to an offer in 1915 on the 
 part of the Government to purchase, at a price of 
 $4,000,000, the whole system. The offer was finally 
 accepted after tedious negotiations, conducted for the 
 Government chiefly by Clyde A. DeWitt, Public Utility 
 Commissioner. Dissatisfaction at the terms was 
 loudly expressed in the stockholders' meetings which 
 ratified the sale in London. 
 
 Meanwhile the system had been allowed by the man- 
 agement to run down to such a point that during the
 
 257 
 
 first three years of government ownership the profits 
 were devoted entirely to the necessary work of repair 
 to road-bed, buildings, and rolling-stock. This was 
 rendered more difficult by the virtual impossibility 
 during 1917-18 of getting materials and supplies under 
 export license from England or the United States ; and 
 by the necessity of meeting the war prices for coal, 
 which had risen from twelve pesos to forty-eight pesos 
 a ton. 
 
 The company, since 1918, has been organized as an 
 entity separate from the Government, which, however, 
 is the sole stockholder. The voting power of the stock 
 is vested in a board consisting of the governor-general 
 and the two presidents of the houses of the Legisla- 
 ture. The board of directors has a majority of Fil- 
 ipinos, and Senate President Quezon is the president, 
 serving without salary. Mr. Ernest J. Westerhouse, 
 formerly the able Director of the Bureau of Public 
 Works, is the general manger, and is entitled to much 
 credit for the success of his administration in building 
 up and repairing the system; he has, moreover, suc- 
 ceeded largely in rooting out the shocking system of 
 graft among the employees, prevalent under the pri- 
 vate management, which, when frequently challenged, 
 has with cynical indifference replied: "What can you 
 expect of the natives'?" That it was not the fault 
 of the " natives" was pointed out to them by compari- 
 son with the Philippine Government, which at the 
 same time was comparatively free from graft, though 
 employing many thousands more Filipinos than the 
 railroad. 
 
 The purchase of the Manila Eailroad Company was 
 greeted at the time with volleys of criticism on the
 
 258 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 part of the American local press; it is now univer- 
 sally accepted as a success, and no arguments are 
 advanced against the further negotiations now pend- 
 ing for the acquisition by the Government of the two 
 American-built lines in the islands of Cebu and Iloilo. 
 While the Southern Island system of the Philippine 
 Kailway Company has been well and honestly managed, 
 the construction work was far too expensive for the 
 service required, and the government payments upon 
 the deficit in interest on the bonds have, since their 
 issuance in 1908, already amounted to more than six 
 and one half million pesos. 
 
 The creation of a Government Sugar Central Board 
 has already been mentioned ; except for the American 
 companies, one in Laguna Province and the other in 
 the island of Mindoro, both of which were struggling 
 to get started and experimenting with the subsequently 
 modified plan of growing their own sugar-cane, the 
 islands were hopelessly handicapped by the fact that 
 substantially all the sugar produced was muscovado, 
 or low grade, and could find a market only locally or 
 on the China coast. Both of the American investments 
 above mentioned were given government backing and 
 financial aid with the hearty acquiescence of Filipino 
 officials. The government board was created to supply 
 the funds necessary for modern machinery for new 
 centrals. It negotiated an agreement in 1915 with an 
 English company for the machinery for one new 
 central, but the deal fell through because the English 
 concern could not guarantee delivery during the war. 
 Thereafter the field was left to private enterprise, 
 since several new American investments were forth- 
 coming, and a string of new centrals was projected by
 
 COMMERCE AND FINANCE 259 
 
 Filipinos themselves with money from the Philippine 
 National Bank. 
 
 The coal shortage in the islands was one of the great- 
 est financial hardships caused by the war. The price 
 rose from about eleven pesos to nearly sixty pesos a 
 ton. Although the Philippines were known to have 
 large coal fields, no capital was offered to develop 
 them. Philippine industries were obliged to send to 
 Japan, China, Australia, North Borneo, and even to 
 Calcutta for coal. The rise in freight rates made the 
 price almost prohibitive. The Government alone, 
 through the Manila Railroad Company and the Bureau 
 of Supply, consumed annually about one hundred and 
 twenty thousand tons of coal. At the new prices, this 
 one item meant at least three and one half million pesos 
 more to be found by government and railroad budget- 
 makers every year. It was determined that, even 
 though prices might fall later on, after the war, the 
 Philippines should never again be caught in this 
 awkward position. 
 
 The Legislature thereupon, in 1917, chartered the 
 National Coal Company and supplied the capital in 
 successive grants up to the amount of three and one 
 half million pesos by the end of 1920. The board of 
 directors, as in the case of the Manila Railroad, has a 
 majority of Filipinos; the manager is an American, 
 the first being Mr. Clifford H. French, ex-auditor of 
 the Government. When he left the coal company to 
 enter private commercial life, Mr. Claude Russell, the 
 efficient Director of Public Works, was selected to 
 succeed him. The National Coal Company is just en- 
 tering upon a large production of coal, but has suffered
 
 260 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 from inability to secure from other countries exper- 
 ienced coal operatives. 
 
 The National Cement Company was founded along 
 lines similar to the National Coal Company. In the 
 Philippines cement has cost in recent years more than 
 twice its market price in the United States, and the 
 Government alone has thus been obliged to expend 
 in its building program about three million pesos a 
 year too much. Cement is the material for all per- 
 manent improvements such as bridges, culverts, 
 school-houses, and the larger public buildings. The 
 materials for an excellent grade of cement exist in the 
 Philippines, notably in the island of Cebii. Private 
 capital had constructed a cement mill on the Laguna 
 de Bay, but this mill had failed because of its remote 
 location, being too far from the raw materials, and 
 because the German machinery employed was anti- 
 quated. This, incidentally, was one of the many unsuc- 
 cessful local business enterprises of the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 Impelled by the repeated suggestions of the man- 
 ager of the Manila Railroad Company and of the 
 builders in the Bureau of Public Works, the Govern- 
 ment undertook in 1920 to erect its own cement manu- 
 factory. Such a resolution demands a good deal of 
 moral courage, because it exposes the administration 
 to constant sniping under cover from those whose 
 financial interests are affected, in this instance the 
 importers of Japanese cement and the owners of the 
 defunct cement plant on the lake. The plan evolved 
 was to interest a prominent American cement man to 
 put up the plant with government money, giving him 
 the right to purchase at the end of a certain date, under
 
 COMMERCE AND FINANCE 261 
 
 a perpetual contract to furnish cement to the Govern- 
 ment at cost plus ten per cent. The saving to the Gov- 
 ernment is expected to equal annually the whole amount 
 of capital originally invested by it. 
 
 The National Development Company has the broad- 
 est charter of any of these government auxiliaries; it 
 really permits the Philippine Government to enter in- 
 directly into almost any sort of business deemed to 
 be in the interests of the people of the islands. It 
 became the target for a concentrated attack on the 
 part of the fiber monopolies in the United States when 
 it was believed by them that the National Development 
 Company was about to enter the hemp market to sus- 
 tain prices after the manner of the Comision Regu- 
 ladora of Yucatan. This step, however, was not taken, 
 and the chief functions performed since its organiza- 
 tion in 1919 have been to furnish capital for the coal 
 and cement companies mentioned in the preceding par- 
 agraphs; several tracts of land have also been taken 
 over by the National Development Company with a 
 view of sale later to the general public in order to avert 
 threatened agrarian troubles. 
 
 The largest business venture of the Government, 
 however, has been in the charter and operation of the 
 Philippine National Bank, which was created in 1916 
 by act of the Legislature. From a modest beginning, 
 this bank grew like Jack 's beanstalk in the fairy story. 
 In three years its resources totaled 230,000,000 pesos. 
 Then the setback came, and the hard times of post- 
 armistice finance have pressed upon it with almost 
 crushing effect. The fact that other banks in the 
 islands suffered to an almost equal degree does not
 
 262 MY SEVEN YEAES IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 serve to mitigate the criticism of the Philippine Na- 
 tional Bank. 
 
 There were in 1915 in the islands five banking institu- 
 tions, two branches of British Oriental banks, one 
 American bank which followed the British lead like a 
 til to a kite, one Spanish-Filipino bank of issue con- 
 trolled by the Catholic Church, and another church or- 
 ganization known as the Monte de Piedad, or pawnshop. 
 
 The two British banks and the American enjoyed 
 the use of the government deposits at one per cent, 
 on which they probably made an average of seven per 
 cent. net. They made practically no investments in the 
 islands, dealing almost exclusively with the export and 
 import trade. There was much complaint on the part 
 of the public that the government deposits were used 
 to discriminate against American and Filipino trade. 
 The foundation of the Philippine National Bank natur- 
 ally was displeasing to these institutions already in 
 the field, and their hostility has followed it ever since. 
 
 The new government bank was given the right to 
 issue notes, to do a commercial business, and to invest 
 not more than fifty per cent, of its capital in agri- 
 cultural loans. The pressure to restrict by charter its 
 operations to those of a purely agricultural bank was 
 resisted because of the history of the Agricultural 
 Bank in Egypt, where the people who had borrowed 
 what in its final analysis was the money of their own 
 Government, were not readily induced to pay off their 
 mortgages when these were due, with the result that 
 the bank was in danger of becoming, through fore- 
 closure, the largest landlord in Egypt. 
 
 The Philippine National Bank was fortunate in se- 
 curing as its first president, in 1916, Professor H.
 
 COMMERCE AND FINANCE 263 
 
 Parker Willis, of Columbia University, Secretary of 
 the Federal Reserve Board. He founded the institu- 
 tion on approved banking lines, and returned after 
 about a year to resume his duties at home. His chief 
 difficulties were in finding a trained personnel, since 
 repeated efforts to secure Americans resulted in the 
 coming of only three or four, while the Filipinos were 
 untrained in banking. When he returned to the United 
 States, Mr. Samuel Ferguson became president and 
 served until his death in 1918; he was succeeded by 
 the vice-president, General Venancio Concepcion. 
 
 Can any one who was in Manila in 1917 and 1918 
 forget the financial boom of those years? Men were 
 ''getting rich quick" through oil, hemp, coal, and ship- 
 ping. The Philippine National Bank dealt out loans 
 as though the supply was inexhaustible. The chief 
 mistake, however, was that the government deposits 
 in the bank, which should have been kept in New York 
 and which constituted part of the current reserve fund, 
 to the extent of more than $40,000,000 were withdrawn 
 by the bank and lent out in the Philippines to finance 
 the erection of a string of sugar-mills. In 1919, after 
 the Armistice, came the turn in the tide. Ever since 
 then the Philippine National Bank has been slowly 
 liquidating its credits, but that is difficult enough in a 
 falling market. In 1919 Secretary Baker, on the ur- 
 gent request of the Philippine Government, sent a 
 party of expert bank examiners from Cleveland, Ohio, 
 headed by Mr. Francis Coates, Jr., to look into the 
 affairs of the Philippine National Bank. After six 
 months spent in the Philippines, they rendered a re- 
 port severely critical of the overindulgence in loans 
 and credits, and the lack of experienced management
 
 264 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 in the bank, but reassuring as to the question of per- 
 sonal honesty of its officials, and hopeful as to the 
 eventual outcome. Then the paralysis of the foreign 
 markets for Philippine staples came suddenly in July, 
 1920, and from that date onward the inability of the 
 bank to force liquidation of its loans, and thus to 
 repay to the Government its currency reserve fund, 
 has greatly increased the financial difficulties in the 
 Philippines; the frozen assets of the bank have tied 
 up a large part of the capital of the Government both 
 insular and provincial. In the autumn of 1919, the 
 resignation of General Concepcion was accepted, the 
 bank rechartered on slightly modified lines, and a new 
 general manager, Mr. E. W. Wilson from San Fran- 
 cisco, an experienced banker, brought out to take 
 charge with all the powers of the former president. 
 
 The Philippine National Bank has rendered sub- 
 stantial service to the country, in financing the Lib- 
 erty Loans and the purchase of alien property which 
 it was compelled to pay for in American dollars, thus 
 losing over one million pesos; in opening the field 
 of commerce and investment to Americans and Fili- 
 pinos alike, and in founding the basis of great fu- 
 ture prosperity in the Philippines through the new 
 sugar centrals which are just now coming into opera- 
 tion. For the shortcomings and mistakes of the bank 
 Filipinos were only partly responsible, but they have 
 received all the blame. Politics, always to be feared 
 in a government bank, have played but little part in 
 the management, and then chiefly in the sense of gen- 
 eral policies intended to benefit the country as a whole. 
 
 Meanwhile, the task of the government officials in 
 the Department of Finance became increasingly diffi-
 
 COMMERCE AND FINANCE 265 
 
 cult ; they were confronted with the duty of maintain- 
 ing the parity of the peso at two for one with the 
 United States dollar. This is an unusual responsibility 
 for a modern government, but the system of a gold 
 standard fund had been adopted substantially upon 
 the model worked in British India and the Straits Set- 
 tlements. It is practicable in all these countries only 
 in fairly normal times. When the export markets fell 
 absolutely dead in 1920-21, the rupee fell to a discount 
 of about thirty-three per cent., the Straits dollars 
 about the same, and the peso, eleven per cent. This 
 was attributed by some critics to the impairment of 
 the currency reserve fund for investments in sugar 
 centrals by the Philippine National Bank. That the 
 weak situation of this fund was a contributing factor, 
 cannot be denied, but it has become increasingly clear 
 in these post-war years that there is a very limited 
 amount of real money in the world and, of course, for- 
 eign commerce must be conducted chiefly upon credit; 
 that such credit must be based upon the ability of a 
 country to produce and especially to sell its products. 
 The Philippines during these years produced more of 
 its staples than it ever had produced before, but the 
 market absolutely collapsed from July, 1920, to the 
 spring of 1921. At the same time all the local banks, 
 despite repeated warnings by the Government, con- 
 tinued to facilitate an unprecedented flood of imports 
 into the Philippines, upon which American houses 
 were unloading goods ordered during the war years 
 that had suddenly become unsalable elsewhere. Co- 
 incident with this was the withdrawal from the islands 
 of about eighty million pesos of capital in Liberty 
 Loans, in alien property purchases, in ocean freights,
 
 266 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 and by the increasing expenditures for Filipinos 
 abroad and in the United States. The local banks 
 were in part responsible through speculation in for- 
 eign exchange and through the transfer of funds to 
 meet the pressing demand of their principals at home. 
 The Philippine Government was in the position of 
 one having guaranteed the balance of trade and thus 
 the sale of exports of the whole country, functions 
 over which it had no real concern. 
 
 The financial depression was not confined to the Phil- 
 ippines ; it was substantially the same throughout the 
 Orient. Shanghai, for example ; in 1921 the banks were 
 reported to be in a critical condition through the re- 
 fusal of Chinese merchants to receive imports for 
 which they had contracted in the sum of nearly one 
 hundred million taels, and the Chinese dollar was fall- 
 ing from two hundred and twenty to less than par. As 
 for the present exchange difficulties of the European 
 countries, they are too well-known to require more than 
 passing mention here. By the spring of 1921 the 
 peso had risen to only a seven per cent, discount, and 
 now that Congress has passed the law raising the debt 
 limit of the Philippines from $15,000,000 to $30,000,000, 
 the Government will again be able to sell exchange 
 practically at par, and the peso should rise at once to 
 parity. 
 
 Repeated requests that Congress raise the debt limit 
 during 1920 received no attention, and the attitude 
 of the United States Treasury was unfriendly to any 
 suggestion of assistance. The credit of the Philippine 
 Government was still of the very highest, as was 
 shown by the sale in America of six million dollars' 
 worth of 41/2 per cent, public-works bonds in Novem-
 
 COMMERCE AND FINANCE 267 
 
 ber, 1920, at slightly above par. The debt limit of the 
 Philippines had been fixed before the recent years of 
 prosperity in the Philippines ; with the great expansion 
 in commerce and general wealth it was found that the 
 small boy had entirely outgrown his clothes. The ad- 
 ministrative chaos visible in the Washington adminis- 
 tration in the years 1919-20, the break-up of the 
 government organization upon party lines, had its re- 
 flex in the Philippines. We were absolutely unable to 
 obtain in Washington the permission to help ourselves 
 by raising the borrowing capacity in the islands, or to 
 secure any financial aid or backing whatever from the 
 home Government. The situation was emphasized in 
 the minds of the Filipinos by contrast with the ready 
 assistance the United States Government was at the 
 same time extending to so many of the European coun- 
 tries, especially to the group of small new republics 
 there. 
 
 During eight years the Filipinos had acquitted 
 themselves with real success in the complicated field 
 of government finance. Eeference has already been 
 made to the introduction of the budget system in 
 1916, five years before it was adopted in the United 
 States ; and to its creditable handling by Mr. Barretto. 
 Secretary of Finance, and its regular acceptance by 
 the Legislature. Appropriations were conservatively 
 and intelligently made, without wasteful extrava- 
 gance, in an era in the world unparalleled in modern 
 history for governmental waste and incapacity in 
 handling expenditures; appropriations by the Fil- 
 ipinos were, moreover, entirely free from that form of 
 preelection bribery seen in so many other countries 
 which consists in allotting amounts for political effect
 
 268 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 in local constituencies, the " pie-counter, " as it is 
 known in Washington, or subsidies to classes po- 
 litically powerful such as we have seen made for al- 
 leged veterans of the war between the States. Taxes 
 were collected justly and without friction, and at a 
 minimum and constantly decreasing proportionate 
 cost. Courage was shown in investing large sums of 
 money in the creation of industries vital to the coun- 
 try. In so far as government finance bears any direct 
 relation to the general prosperity of a country, it is to 
 be noted that during these eight years the foreign 
 commerce of the Philippines nearly trebled in value. 
 Against all this must be offset the mistake of the Phil- 
 ippine National Bank in tying up the government funds 
 in unliquid loans such as the creation of sugar centrals, 
 which, incidentally, will prove of great benefit to the 
 country. It is understood that certain critics have now 
 selected the financial situation at present existing as 
 a triumphant proof of the incapacity of the Filipinos. 
 A glance at the financial troubles of all the other coun- 
 tries of the world might be illuminating, but none are 
 so blind as those who will not see. At least, an effort 
 should be made to remove the beam from our own eye 
 before proceeding to extract the mote from our broth- 
 er's eye.
 
 CHAPTER XVIH 
 
 THE FILIPINO ATTITUDE TOWARD FOREIGNERS 
 
 THE people of the Philippines have, officially, no- 
 foreign relations ; all such matters are conducted 
 through the Department of State in Washington. By 
 custom, however, many questions affecting foreigners 
 are in Manila taken up directly with the foreign con- 
 suls stationed there. This refers not only to the usual 
 jurisdiction of consular officers in commercial or per- 
 sonal matters, but covers a wide field of international 
 law. This is due, no doubt, to the remote situation of 
 the Philippines, the expense and delay of cable com- 
 munications, and the cosmopolitan character of the 
 community. It was especially noticeable during the 
 war, when the energy and attention of the home gov- 
 ernments were absorbed in the world struggle. 
 
 One of the main requisites of an independent gov- 
 ernment is the ability to maintain friendly relations 
 with foreign powers. How could the Filipinos acquit 
 themselves in this respect? Their official attitude to- 
 wards foreigners has, since they received the powers 
 of self-government, been uniformly correct. What is 
 their real feeling toward foreigners and how would 
 they treat them in the event that independence was 
 given them? 
 
 We can prophesy as to the future only upon the basis 
 of present events. With the spread of democratic gov- 
 ernment and of universal education, the sentiments 
 
 269
 
 270 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 of a people may be directed by their government in 
 wise and prudent channels ; the probability is, however, 
 that the natural instinct or racial prejudice of the 
 people themselves becomes yearly of more direct in- 
 fluence in a democracy. It is nowadays increasingly 
 difficult fcfr a cabinet, or administration, deliberating in 
 secret, to control the feelings of a nation toward for- 
 eigners. The Boxer Eebellion in China was a clear 
 indication of that fact ; the Empress Dowager of China 
 was obliged to join with the Boxers, or else lose her 
 throne. In Japan to-day the Government is as deter- 
 mined as that in the United States to preserve the 
 peace with her trans-Pacific neighbor ; with the spread 
 of ''jingo" journals the fixed policy of the Govern- 
 ment may be the last element that counts. 
 
 The easiest appeal for the orator is to the flag ; from 
 the moment that is mentioned, men cease to think; 
 passion takes the throne of reason by assault. Nation- 
 alism is the significant note of the last two centuries. 
 Every nation believes itself to have the best form of 
 government, and considers all foreigners " suspicious'* 
 characters. 
 
 In the United States contempt for the foreigner is 
 all the more remarkable because so large a proportion 
 of our citizenship is made up of men and women of 
 foreign birth. Yet the foreigner is commonly if good- 
 naturedly designated as a "Guinea," a "dago," a 
 ' * wop, " a " harp, " or a ' ' Scandahoovian. ' ' I remem- 
 ber that fifteen years ago in Congress the surest way to 
 kill a measure was to refer to its previous adoption 
 and successful working by foreign governments. 
 
 In the Philippines there is no such public sentiment. 
 Twenty different European, Asiatic, or American na-
 
 FILIPINO ATTITUDE TOWARD FOREIGNERS 271 
 
 tions are represented there by their nationals, who 
 mingle actively in society, and engage in peaceful ri- 
 valry in business. In Manila alone there are 6731 
 Americans (outside of the army and navy), 1955 Brit- 
 ish, 635 other Europeans, 17,800 Chinese, and 1611 
 Japanese. There is much mixture of blood in the Phil- 
 ippines, as there is in America, but that has not 
 brought about among the Filipinos, as it has among 
 our own people, any feeling of race antagonism. The 
 mixture of Filipino with Chinese or Spanish blood, for 
 example, has produced a very efficient and admirable 
 type of citizen. There is no opposition to foreigners 
 as such in the Philippines ; whatever anti-national feel- 
 ing may be observed is traceable to specific^ grievances 
 or occurrences. 
 
 The rise of modern nationalities really dates from 
 the fifteenth century; a man to-day is no longer a cit- 
 izen of the world, but a national of some country 
 whose flag often means more to him than his life or 
 his property, especially so in moments of wide-spread 
 popular excitement. The spirit of nationality, growing 
 during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, finally 
 led to a collision in the World War which theatened the 
 security of all. Unregulated or unrestrained feelings 
 of nationalism have caused the people of almost every 
 modern nation to look with suspicion and distrust upon 
 those of every other. This result was perhaps unex- 
 pected or unforeseen by those great leaders to whom 
 the peoples of Europe owe their present forms of 
 national existence. From that point of view, Bismarck 
 appears to have been the wisest of them all. 
 
 The world to-day begins to realize the dangerous 
 excess to which the sentiment of nationalism has car-
 
 272 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 ried it, and is earnestly striving to find a formula by 
 which it may be regulated. This effort is hampered 
 by the apparent failure of the Christian Church to 
 teach or enforce Christian principles in public affairs, 
 and by the intense passion with which the proponents 
 of internationalism are attacked by the ^people of 
 their respective countries. Unless some working basis 
 for the international relations of the world can be 
 found, the outlook for the future is gloomy indeed. 
 
 In inspiring in the Philippines a spirit of nationality, 
 a genuine effort has been made by those Americans 
 concerned, officials and missionaries, to instil senti- 
 ments of international comity and good-will. The offi- 
 cial severity of the treatment accorded Germans in the 
 Philippines during the war, has, it is hoped, not 
 definitely destroyed the effects of such teaching. It is 
 to be feared, however, that the propaganda of hate 
 against the Germans by the various allied and asso- 
 ciated powers has left behind a bad flavor in the mouth. 
 At most, it may be stated that the Filipinos did not 
 then hate individual Germans, and occasionally pro- 
 tested in a perfectly proper manner against their de- 
 portation and internment. Germans who had lived in 
 the Philippines for years, and had assisted in a spirit 
 of personal friendship and consideration in the build- 
 ing up of the country, were among the most popular of 
 the foreigners. 
 
 Americans, of course, are not foreigners in the Phil- 
 ippines, but are recognized as those in whom the sov- 
 ereignty of the country is temporarily placed. There 
 is a citizenship law in the Philippines permitting all 
 those qualified under the laws of the United States to 
 acquire citizenship to become citizens of the Philip-
 
 FILIPINO ATTITUDE TOWARD FOREIGNERS 273 
 
 pines; no Americans have as yet taken advantage of 
 it; all are still "citizens of the United States resident 
 in the Philippines." The Filipino is not an American 
 citizen, though he is somewhat confused by American 
 court decisions and American administrative rulings 
 as to whether he is at all times entitled to the benefits 
 of American laws. Large and increasing numbers of 
 Filipinos are going to the United States each year to 
 seek a university degree, or to find work. An ideal of 
 our country as the land of wonders and of gold is wide- 
 spread among the young men and women. All laws 
 affecting the Philippines, whether passed by Congress 
 or by the local Legislature, maintain scrupulously the 
 equal rights of Americans and Filipinos therein, ex- 
 cept only the Civil Service law, adopted in accordance 
 with President McKinley's dictum, giving the Filipino 
 preference wherever possible in the matter of holding 
 office in the islands. 
 
 It is safe to say that the Filipinos regard the Amer- 
 icans with liking and respect; they make allowances 
 for differences in political opinion, and readily coop- 
 erate with Americans in the Government and in busi- 
 ness. They are convinced, at present at least, of the 
 good faith and generosity of our country toward them. 
 Many Americans in the Philippines have been men of 
 unusual ability, and numbers of them have been en- 
 tirely unselfish and genuinely altruistic in their Phil- 
 ippine service. 
 
 Most American men and a few American women 
 have a genuine liking for the Filipinos; they enjoy 
 Filipino social affairs and dance with the Filipinos at 
 their bailes. In the provinces the relations between 
 the two races are even better than in Manila; ex-
 
 274 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 tremely few instances of quarrels based on racial dif- 
 ferences have occurred there in recent years. In fact, 
 the Americans in the Philippines, despite frequent 
 grumblings, really love the country, and lead a uni- 
 formly agreeable existence. When home on leave they 
 are usually longing at heart for the day of return to 
 the islands. 
 
 Of French, Dutch, Belgians, Italians, and Danes 
 there are so few in the archipelago that there is 
 no opportunity for estimating how they stand with 
 the Filipinos; they are almost always courteous and 
 agreeable, and would be well liked in any community. 
 
 Spaniards stand in a peculiar relation, owing to their 
 long historical connection with the islands; they are 
 still inclined to look down upon the humbler classes, 
 though making warm friendships with the cultivated 
 Filipinos. Personal and intellectual sympathy is 
 strong between individuals of the two races, and the 
 Casa Espanol, or Spanish Club, is always crowded with 
 Filipinos at all times of festivity; the Spaniards turn 
 out in large numbers at the fiestas of the leading Fil- 
 ipino social club, the Tiro al Blanco. In business the 
 two races are closely associated, and throughout the 
 provinces there are many Spaniards living on terms 
 of intimacy and good-will with their neighbors. With 
 the passage of time, as has already happened in the 
 South American countries, past grievances will be 
 forgotten and pride in the Spanish traditions will ani- 
 mate the Filipino. It is too soon, however, for all to 
 have been forgiven; all middle-aged men of to-day 
 lived through the last ten years of Spanish rule, and 
 remember the excesses of the bloody Archbishop 
 Nozaleda. The only occasion upon which I saw the
 
 FILIPINO ATTITUDE TOWARD FOREIGNERS 275 
 
 old spirit manifested was when, in 1921, a group of 
 Spanish business men was formed to take over the 
 directorate of the failing Spanish Bank from the 
 church and the Filipinos ; there was such an outburst 
 of wrath and resentment on the part of the Filipinos 
 concerned that the Spaniards absolutely refused to 
 serve on the directorate. Spanish culture, Spanish 
 literature, and the social graces of old Spain are, how- 
 ever, gradually healing the ancient sore; real friend- 
 ship will not be many years in coming. 
 
 The British form a large and very important colony, 
 influential both in business and in society; they have 
 not of recent years openly displayed the customary 
 manner of the English toward the native races in other 
 colonies; they refrain most scrupulously from taking 
 any part in the political movements of the day. Indi- 
 viduals among them have shown unusual ability in 
 ''getting along" with the Filipinos; have been con- 
 siderate, generous, and kindly toward them. Never- 
 theless, there is a wide gulf between the two races, 
 which is only gradually being bridged. The English 
 have usually refused to allow their Filipino ''boys" 
 (servants) to speak English, as has been the policy 
 in their own colonies; the denial of the right to use 
 the same tongue is the denial of all possible social 
 intercourse. In 1917, after the passage of the Jones 
 Act, when Filipino nationalism began to grow, it was 
 noticed at the first baile given at the Tiro al Blanco that 
 no English were invited, though representatives of all 
 other elements in the community were present. The 
 explanation given was that no Filipinos were ever 
 invited to the English Club ! Surely Clive and Warren 
 Hastings would never have tolerated such discrimina-
 
 276 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 tion in India in their day! It remained for Curzon 
 and the present-day British "raj." 
 
 The Filipinos would like to show hospitality and op- 
 portunity to the British Indians, but the immigration 
 laws prevent any admission of their far-away kinsmen, 
 except those of the merchant and tourist class. 
 
 Of much significance and direct influence is the 
 Chinese community in the Philippines. American 
 theory at home is distinctly and sentimentally favor- 
 able to the Chinese, but it does not go to the length 
 of admitting them into our own country, or into the 
 Philippines. To the Spanish, the Chinese in the Phil- 
 ippines were a great political problem. Occasionally 
 they admitted a few thousands ; at times they massa- 
 cred them, or drove them out. There are to-day about 
 sixty thousand Chinese in the islands, chiefly engaged 
 in trade and foreign commerce. In many provinces 
 the "Chino" is the keeper of the tienda, or shop, in 
 every little village; the purchaser of the local crops; 
 the middleman in distribution, and the one money- 
 lender. His extortion and usury make him an object 
 of dislike to the provincial Filipino; his control of 
 the rice trade, the national food supply, draws upon 
 him in times of want the ill-feeling of all classes. 
 Those who have described the hatred of the Jew in 
 old Russia, or of the Armenian in Turkey as religious, 
 have entirely missed the point; it is economic, for the 
 Jews and Armenians in those two countries have, so 
 far as permitted, absorbed the economic resources of 
 the people. In the Filipino mind there is a dark back- 
 ground of dislike of the Chinese, built up upon genera- 
 tions of extortion. It is one of the strongest passions 
 in his heart. The fat Chino in the smaller communi-
 
 FILIPINO ATTITUDE TOWARD FOREIGNERS 277 
 
 ties, who sits day by day in the shade of his tienda, 
 has probably secured control of the village belle and 
 has certainly working for him upon petty loans a 
 considerable number of the local farmers at rates of 
 interest of from eighty per cent, to one hundred per 
 cent, a year. This state of affairs has so frequently in 
 the past led to reprisals that even to-day whenever an 
 unusual noise is heard in the village street, the shut- 
 ters of the Chinese tienda are the first to go up. The 
 Chinese is always a banker or trader, never a pro- 
 ducer of anything, except children. Although some- 
 times he becomes nominally a Christian, probably in 
 order to marry into some well-to-do local family, his 
 heart is always in China, where all his earnings go, 
 and where he hopes at last to find a resting-place 
 among the graves of his ancestors. 
 
 The Chinese are wonderful workers in those coun- 
 tries where they are obliged to work; shall they be 
 condemned because in the Philippines they have found 
 it possible to live in comparative luxury like the lilies 
 of the field, neither toiling nor spinning? In China, 
 they either work or else die, by the million. 
 
 The Chinese residents of the Philippines constitute, 
 as they always have constituted, a problem for the 
 Government. Their type of civilization is apart from 
 the current of modern thought, remote from European 
 philosophies. The Chinese really looks down on the 
 rest of the world as " foreign devils." His own social 
 system is run upon a disregard of the beautiful maxims 
 his learned men professed. He has found it easy to 
 live upon the weakness of his fellow-man. In the Phil- 
 ippines he is the organizer and purveyor of the opium 
 trade, and a natural-born gambler; his activity in the
 
 278 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 corruption of public officials is notorious; when he 
 finds that he cannot bribe the police or the revenue 
 officer, he is wont to organize a skilful campaign for 
 the defamation of his character. He is the despair of 
 the police courts because of the maze of ingenious per- 
 jury, charges, and counter-charges which he creates. 
 
 Would an independent Philippines admit the Chinese 
 without restrictions into the archipelago? A powerful 
 movement is now on foot to introduce Chinese con- 
 tract agricultural labor; it is sponsored by those active 
 members of the Agricultural Congress who possess 
 large sugar haciendas, and by those Americans and 
 foreigners devoted to the phrases ''development of 
 the country" and "economic independence of the Phil- 
 ippines. ' ' There is a very strong sentiment in opposi- 
 tion, however, from the smaller landed proprietors 
 who constitute the bulk of the population, and on the 
 part of many who believe contract labor is a form of 
 slavery. The British in Borneo and in the Straits 
 Settlements built up their empire upon imported 
 Chinese labor, but to-day the Chinese in Singapore 
 own most of the tin mines and are rapidly acquiring 
 the rubber plantations. The former "white lords and 
 masters" are now in increasing numbers working for 
 them as managers or overseers upon the plantations 
 and at the mines. Their economic competition is irre- 
 sistible because they can ' ' underlive ' ' most of the other 
 races. 
 
 In the Philippines, when the proposal to admit 
 coolies for agricultural labor for fixed periods of 
 time is seriously entertained, as it is at present, it is 
 interesting to speculate whether history is about to 
 repeat itself. The following quotations are taken from
 
 Jagor's Travels in the Philippines (1859), Chapter 
 XXVI: 
 
 By 1615 the Chinese had again so increased that a decree 
 was issued limiting them to six thousand, " these to be em- 
 ployed in the cultivation of the country"; while at the same 
 time their rapid increase was taken advantage of by the 
 Captain-General for his own interest, as he exacted eight 
 dollars from each Chinaman for permission to remain. In 
 1639 the Chinese population had risen to thirty thousand, 
 according to other information, to forty thousand, when they 
 revolted and were reduced to thirty thousand. 
 
 # * # 
 
 In 1709 the jealousy against the Chinese once more had 
 reached such a height that they were accused of rebellion, and 
 particularly of monopolizing the trades, and, with the excep- 
 tion of the most serviceable of the artisans and such of them 
 as were employed by the Government, they were once again 
 expelled. Spanish writers praise the salutariness of these 
 measures, alleging that "under the pretence of agriculture, 
 the Chinese carry on trade; they are cunning and careful, 
 making money and sending it to China, so that they defraud 
 the Philippines annually of an enormous amount. 
 
 # * * 
 
 In 1757 the jealousy of the Spaniards broke out again in 
 the form of a new order from Madrid directing the expulsion 
 of the Chinese ; and in 1759 the decrees of banishment, which 
 were repeatedly evaded, were carried into effect ; but, as the 
 private interests of the officials did not happen to coincide 
 with those of the Creole traders, the consequence was that 
 "The Chinese soon streamed back again in incredible num- 
 bers," and made common cause with the English upon their 
 
 invasion in 1762. 
 
 # * * 
 
 A decree, issued in 1804, commanded all Chinese shop- 
 keepers to leave Manila within eight days, only those who 
 were married being allowed to keep shops; and their residence 
 in the provinces was permitted only upon the condition that 
 they confined themselves entirely to agriculture.
 
 280 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 In 1850 Captain-General Urbiztondo endeavored to intro- 
 duce Chinese colonial farming, and with this object promised 
 a reduction of the taxes to all agricultural immigrants. Many 
 Chinese availed themselves of this opportunity in order to 
 escape the heavy poll-tax; but in general they soon betook 
 themselves to trading once more. 
 
 In 1920 the Governor of East Sumatra told me in 
 Medan that the Dutch Government was trying to put 
 a stop to the importation of coolie labor, upon the 
 ground that it was immoral. Whether upon that higher 
 basis, or upon the more material question of the eco- 
 nomic interests of the islands, it is to be hoped that 
 in the future the Filipinos will consider well the con- 
 sequences before they open the doors to Chinese labor. 
 The present exclusion is maintained as a result of 
 Mr. Taft's arguments before the committees of Con- 
 gress. Is it not an integral part of his popular policy 
 of "The Philippines for the Filipinos "! 
 
 A law passed at the 1921 session of the Legislature 
 has provoked much remonstrance from the Chinese; 
 although not in terms directed at them, they are the 
 class chiefly affected by its provisions; this is the so- 
 called "bookkeeping act" requiring all persons liable 
 to the payment of internal revenue taxes to keep their 
 books in English, Spanish, or one of the local dialects. 
 The purpose of the act is to facilitate the collection 
 of the revenue, since for many years past the books 
 of Oriental foreign traders, particularly the Chinese, 
 have presented an almost insuperable problem to the 
 tax agents; the result is believed to have been great 
 frauds upon the revenue. While this law might be 
 defended upon the ground that it is only right to re- 
 quire the foreigners resident in the country to adapt
 
 FILIPINO ATTITUDE TOWARD FOREIGNERS 281 
 
 their methods and practices to those with whom 
 they compete in business, its real justification is the 
 undoubted need of protection of the revenue, and the 
 liberality of its provisions makes it clear that it is not 
 in any sense intended as anti-foreign. 
 
 With the Japanese, the problem for the Filipinos is 
 quite different. It is no part of the Japanese general 
 policy that their citizens shall labor in the fields and 
 workshops of the tropics. Their idea is to manage or 
 supervise investments in the lands to the southward. 
 There is no restriction upon Japanese immigration 
 into the Philippines, and yet the total number of Jap- 
 anese in the islands has never at any recent time been 
 more than fifteen thousand, and has lately diminished. 
 Their venture in developing the rich hemp lands in 
 Davao has been checked by the recent Public Land Act. 
 
 When Japan overthrew Russia in 1905 and later 
 dispossessed the Germans from Shan-tung, they were 
 not only impelled by economic reasons to expansion; 
 they were establishing themselves in the hegemony of 
 Asia. The Pan-Oriental idea was very attractive at 
 first to the inhabitants of Asiatic countries which had 
 been subjugated and were being held by the conquering 
 whites. In a few years, however, Japanese aggressive- 
 ness alarmed the neighboring races, and their tactless- 
 ness in colonial government made the subject of a bit- 
 ter propagandum by the white colonial powers, dis- 
 heartened the brown and yellow peoples of near-by 
 Asia. The Filipinos have had an additional reason for 
 failure to understand the Japanese mind, Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Their attention to the Japanese question is aroused 
 and kept fixed by the constant arguments in American
 
 periodicals that as soon as they gain their independ- 
 ence the Philippines will be gobbled up by Japan. The 
 American Army in the islands, is, moreover, constantly 
 reporting discoveries of Japanese " spies. " The Fil- 
 ipinos to-day have apparently abandoned altogether 
 the Pan-Oriental ideas of a decade ago, and are dis- 
 tinctly nervous about the "Japanese menace." This 
 phase of the question will be discussed in a later 
 chapter. 
 
 Japan has been well represented officially in the Phil- 
 ippines of recent years. Consuls-General Sugimura 
 and Kurusu are trained diplomats, well versed in 
 international law, and have handled their nationals 
 with tact and good judgment. Consul-General Kurusu 
 speaks English perfectly, has a broad, liberal outlook 
 upon affairs, and has helped to allay anti-Japanese 
 feeling based upon the acquisition of landed estates. 
 Kecently he persuaded a Japanese who had purchased 
 a large estate near Montalban, about tweny miles from 
 Manila, to sell it upon reasonable terms to its Filipino 
 tenants, thus closing tactfully an "incident" of grow- 
 ing importance. He has also negotiated with skill and 
 success the ratification by the Legislature of the leases 
 of large haciendas in Davao to Japanese planters who 
 had made application for the lands before the passage 
 of the Public Land Act, and who had in good faith 
 made substantial improvements upon the land. He 
 remarked to me that he could understand the Filipino 
 attitude upon the land problem because the Japanese 
 had themselves but recently gone through a similar 
 phase of suspicion toward all foreigners who wished 
 to acquire lands in the empire. He found the Filipinos 
 courteous, just, and reasonable.
 
 FILIPINO ATTITUDE TOWAKD FOREIGNERS 283 
 
 In recent years Japanese visitors to the Philippines 
 have been numerous. They have come in committees 
 of investors, educators, and government officials. They 
 have been scrupulously considerate of Filipino senti- 
 ment, and have made themselves popular. Japanese 
 warships visit Manila from time to time, and are cor- 
 dially received, and entertainments of the officers and 
 crews are well attended by the Filipinos. No inci- 
 dents of an unpleasant nature between Japanese and 
 Filipinos have been observed, and they seem able to 
 meet with genuine mutual respect and good-will, es- 
 pecially since Filipino alarm over the "landed inva- 
 sion" of the Japanese has been allayed. No race 
 prejudice or acrimony of ideas has appeared between 
 the two ; the only cloud upon the horizon is the often- 
 mentioned danger of Japanese military aggression. 
 Japanese merchants and business men have been pru- 
 dent and scrupulous in their relations with the people. 
 The lectures of Professor Matsunami at the University 
 of the Philippines in the winter of 1920-21 were largely 
 attended and cordially appreciated. The foundation 
 is being laid for an excellent understanding between 
 the two races. 
 
 While growing from year to year in the spirit of 
 nationalism, in race pride, and in self-confidence, the 
 Filipinos show no spirit to-day of intensive localism; 
 no prejudice or animosity against the nationals of 
 other countries, except the economic resentment al- 
 ready noted against the Chinese trader. Men of all 
 nations live among them and are hospitably received 
 by them. Their leaders are fully alive to the danger of 
 permitting any substantial grievance to spring from 
 their relations with foreigners. The Filipino is an
 
 284 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 international in his recognition of the good qualities 
 of other races. Perhaps in the days to come, he, too, 
 may have his cause for national feeling against some 
 other country. May it never be against the United 
 States.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 THERE can be no profit in any further discussion 
 as to whether or not the Filipinos are to have 
 self-government ; they already have it under the terms 
 of the Jones Act, and have been exercising it for the 
 past five years. No Congress, even under the sugges- 
 tion of the most reactionary influences, would authorize 
 the taking away of the share of liberty already granted. 
 There will be no turning back of the hands of the clock. 
 
 The question now is simply that of independence, 
 and America cannot in honor and good faith long delay 
 the grant. It has been distinctly and definitely prom- 
 ised by almost unanimous vote of Congress. Unless 
 the Jones Act is to become a "scrap of paper," the 
 final step must soon be taken. 
 
 For the three years succeeding the passage of their 
 new charter in the Jones Act, the Filipinos were com- 
 paratively quiet on the independence question. This 
 was interpreted by some American observers to mean 
 that the Philippine question was permanently settled 
 on the basis of autonomy without independence. In 
 this they were in error. Once planted, the seed of 
 liberty will grow and thrive ; it will not languish and 
 die even in an atmosphere of luxury and ease ; nor can 
 it be destroyed by force or fraud. 
 
 Little was heard during those three years about 
 independence, for the most obvious reason: first, be- 
 
 285
 
 286 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 cause the Filipinos were fully occupied in setting up 
 the stable government of their own required by the 
 Jones Act ; secondly, because in the cyclone of a world 
 war it was a most inopportune time to launch a new 
 and comparatively weak nation; and thirdly, because 
 as if by common consent the Filipino people decided not 
 to press their own affairs and questions upon the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States during the years of our 
 great anxiety and effort in the war. 
 
 The moment that news came to Manila of the sign- 
 ing of the Armistice, the Filipino leaders gathered to- 
 gether to plan the next move in the independence cam- 
 paign. They decided to send to America at once a 
 mission of their leading men to lay their case before 
 President Wilson. They were informed from Wash- 
 ington that the President would not be there to re- 
 ceive them and that there was no need to send the 
 mission because in any event their interests were safe 
 in his hands. They assumed as a matter of course 
 that the League of Nations would soon be a vital real- 
 ity, and that the Philippine Republic would then take 
 its place as a member of the league, the newest if not 
 the smallest member of the body which was thereafter 
 forevermore to make the world safe for democracy. 
 This shows how permeated they were with the war- 
 time propaganda, If the other distant populations 
 of the earth were equally literal in their reliance upon 
 the promises of the allied and associated govenments, 
 it may explain in part the profound disappointment 
 and bitterness of large portions of the inhabitants of 
 the world to-day. 
 
 It was decided, however, to send the mission to the 
 United States, despite the absence of the President.
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES 287 
 
 The leaders of the two political parties, many members 
 of the Legislature, and prominent men in commercial 
 life made up its membership. They were received in 
 Washington by Secretary Baker, who in an eloquent 
 address referred to the almost complete autonomy 
 they now enjoyed, and said that their connection with 
 the United States was tenuous, the governor-general 
 constituting its only link. He also encouraged their 
 hopes of independence. They were then given a hear- 
 ing by a joint committee of the two houses of Congress, 
 presided over alternately by Senator Harding for the 
 Senate and Representative Towner for the House. 
 The members of the commission there made their plea 
 for independence, and were received and treated with 
 great courtesy and consideration. From the attitude of 
 the members of the joint committee an attitude of 
 polite attention, but of little deep interest and from 
 the absence of any controversial questioning of the 
 Filipino representatives, they came shrewdly to the 
 conclusion that nothing would be done for them by that 
 Congress. As governor-general I attended the hear- 
 ing, and joined in the recommendation for indepen- 
 dence, stating before the joint committee upon my offi- 
 cial responsibility that the stable government already 
 existed in the Philippines which was demanded by the 
 Jones Act as the prerequisite for independence. 
 
 At about the same time I made two requests of 
 Secretary Baker: first, that Filipino delegates might 
 be sent to the Peace Conference as was being done in 
 the case of India; and secondly, that my resignation 
 be accepted if a Filipino could be appointed governor- 
 general. Both requests were denied. 
 
 It was not explained to me why the administration
 
 288 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 was reluctant to have the Independence Commission 
 come to Washington while the Peace Conference was 
 in session, nor why Filipino delegates were not per- 
 mitted to be present in Paris. It may be surmised 
 that the administration felt embarrassed by the Philip- 
 pine situation in advancing the fourteen points of 
 President Wilson ; in fact, the President in his address 
 to the Senate upon his return from Paris stated that 
 our possession of these far-away islands had created 
 suspicion in the chancelleries of Europe; it was evi- 
 dently desirable to keep the Philippine question in the 
 background. It would have been wiser to present the 
 Philippine situation before the gathering of nations, 
 for our representatives at the Peace Conference could 
 have stood frankly upon that issue, owing to the 
 measure of self-determination granted three years 
 previously by the Jones Act. The islands were not, 
 at that time at least, a skeleton in the cupboard of the 
 United States. It was unwise to keep the curtain 
 drawn : the policy of the United States in the islands, 
 if openly discussed at Paris, would have helped, not 
 hindered, President Wilson in his struggle with im- 
 perialism. At all events, he himself had never wavered 
 in his faith in Philippine independence; he probably 
 felt sure of the League of Nations as the solution of the 
 problem. Finally, in his last message to Congress, in 
 December, 1920, he recommended as follows: 
 
 Allow me to call your attention to the fact that the people 
 of the Philippine Islands have succeeded in maintaining a 
 stable government since the last action of the Congress in 
 their behalf and have thus fulfilled the condition set by the 
 Congress, as precedent to the consideration of granting inde- 
 pendence to the Islands. I respectfully submit that this 
 condition precedent having been fulfilled, it is now our liberty
 
 WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN AND FRANCIS BURTON 
 
 HARRISON 
 Seattle, August 1, 1919
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES 289 
 
 and our duty to keep our promise to the people of those Islands 
 by granting them the independence which they so honorably 
 covet. 
 
 In response nothing was done by Congress. The 
 Republicans were already in control of both branches 
 of the national Legislature ; they had elected as Presi- 
 dent the chairman of the Senate Committee on the 
 Philippines; they naturally preferred to wait until 
 President Harding was inaugurated before deciding 
 upon so important a question as that of the Philippines. 
 
 It was plainly evident, however, in the years im- 
 mediately following the Armistice that although the 
 people of the United States were still well disposed 
 toward the Filipinos, they were not inclined to take 
 action at the moment upon Philippine independence. 
 The war had shaken the faith and confidence of all 
 people in the security of the modern world system. 
 The effect of the war upon our own people was to 
 strengthen the centralization of powers in the Govern- 
 ment, to tighten up the bonds of national sentiment 
 and thus cling more closely to all our resources and 
 possessions. For the time being, liberalism was as 
 dead as a door-nail in the United States; everybody 
 had been obliged by officers of the law to think along 
 the same lines in support of the Government; under 
 the Espionage Act a determined effort was being made 
 to crush out radicalism with the raiding-ax and the 
 " third degree." Imperialism was in the air; the 
 United States had shown to herself as well as to the 
 rest of the world, her surprising energy and military 
 power. The bulk of our citizen army came back from 
 France with an added degree of aggressive American- 
 ism, and a similar distrust of foreigners, of their
 
 290 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 good faith and purposes. The Filipinos saw that they 
 must wait. 
 
 The net accomplishment of the Independence Com- 
 mission to the United States was that they had put 
 their case once again, without party division, and with- 
 out rancor, before Congress. They had created, more- 
 over, in cities such as Washington, New York, and 
 San Francisco where they were most hospitably re- 
 ceived and entertained an atmosphere favorable to 
 their people. The younger men, especially such as 
 Camilo Osias, Assistant Director of Education, Con- 
 rado Benitez, Jorge Bocobo, and Jose Santos had en- 
 joyed a real personal triumph. It was evident that the 
 Americans at home liked the Filipinos when they had 
 occasion to know them in person. The members of the 
 party also gained the advantage of a closer knowledge 
 of our country and its institutions. The impressive 
 feature of the mission was the entire lack of all com- 
 plaints or criticisms against the United States on the 
 part of all its members. They asked for freedom 
 simply because they longed to be free, not because of 
 any ill-feeling toward the United States. They 
 showed no lack of appreciation of what had already 
 been done for them by our country. On the contrary, 
 they were full of expressions of gratitude for the sub- 
 stantial autonomy granted them, and for the unselfish 
 attitude of our country toward them. Surely, this is a 
 unique situation in history, and reflects the utmost 
 credit upon the United States and upon the Filipinos 
 alike, upon the latter because, with all their present 
 advantage, they still demand their freedom. Every- 
 where it went, the commission was listened to with 
 respect and toleration.
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES 291 
 
 It must have been apparent to all its members, how- 
 ever, that this was but the lull before the coming strug- 
 gle. They knew that sooner or later they would be 
 obliged to make a vigorous campaign to gain a serious 
 hearing for their claim of final liberty. The first step 
 was the founding of a publicity department in Wash- 
 ington. They had found that the Americans at home, 
 with comparatively few exceptions, know almost noth- 
 ing about the Philippines. They had through years of 
 experience learned the difficulty of getting their case 
 before the American public, of breaking through the 
 ring of misrepresentation with which they were sur- 
 rounded by their opponents; they also had reason to 
 believe that the opposition was again organizing, and 
 that it contained men of great wealth and of influence 
 in the newspapers, and that insidious propaganda 
 against them would soon assail once more the public 
 eye and ear. 
 
 The Philippine Publicity Bureau is under the super- 
 vision of Resident Commissioners de Veyra and Ga- 
 baldon in Washington ; it is managed by Jose P. Melen- 
 cio, with the occasional assistance of Professor Maximo 
 M. Kalaw. They constantly advocate independence, by 
 articles for the press and by public addresses; the 
 speech of Mr. Melencio before the Platform Committee 
 of the Democratic National Convention at San Fran- 
 cisco last year was pronounced by Mr. Bryan to be the 
 very best address made before the convention. The 
 hundreds of Filipino students attending the various 
 universities of the United States are valuable auxil- 
 iaries in the independence campaign. In fine, the 
 Filipinos do not intend to let the question of their 
 national existence be decided against them by default.
 
 292 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 The stage is thus set for a determined struggle; let 
 us hope that it may be concluded in peace. 
 
 Ever since Mr. Taft learned with pain and surprise 
 that the Filipinos were not content with kind and sooth- 
 ing words and just laws, but were agitating for inde- 
 pendence; ever since Mr. Quezon told Congress that 
 they were not satisfied to remain as a bird in a gilded 
 cage, an attempt has been made by those who opposed 
 further liberties for the Filipinos to discredit their 
 campaign by asserting that the Filipinos do not want 
 independence; in that respect they would have us be- 
 lieve that the Filipinos differ from all other races of 
 men. This campaign, they say, is all the work of hot- 
 heads, of selfish politicians, of irresponsible dema- 
 gogues. Visitors to Manila give out statements that 
 they have been approached confidentially by Filipinos 
 who begged them not to grant independence; names 
 are never given, but mysterious hints are thrown out 
 that these patriotic Filipinos are afraid to have their 
 names known to the politicians. It is quite possible 
 that such persons exist, and that they are either kept in 
 a dark closet by their patrons or produced for secret 
 interviews with distinguished visitors, or else that 
 there are prominent and wealthy men who are actually 
 afraid of independence. In this world those who have 
 often live in dread of those who have not. It would 
 be unreasonable to demand that every one of the eleven 
 million inhabitants of the islands should be of the same 
 opinion; it is not the democratic method of deciding 
 public questions ; in a democracy the vote of the major- 
 ity decides; on a constitutional question a two-thirds 
 vote in the United States Congress is required. Why 
 demand that the Filipinos should be unanimous f The
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES 293 
 
 " consent of the governed" never meant the consent of 
 every individual concerned ; many are given no vote and 
 no voice ; such a requirement is an absurdity. Were the 
 Americans unanimous at the time of their Declaration 
 of Independence ? Were they not led by men like Sam- 
 uel Adams and Benjamin Franklin, who were known to 
 England to be "demagogues" and "hotheaded" poli- 
 ticians? As a matter of fact, a very large proportion 
 of the American colonists were opposed to separation 
 from England, and tens of thousands of Tories left the 
 country upon the formation of the new union. Those 
 who remained were neither justly nor generously 
 treated by the Americans of that day. There is no such 
 division of opinion in the Philippines; the sentiment 
 there is as nearly unanimous in favor of independence 
 as it is possible for any public question to be in any 
 country. 
 
 There is more division of opinion on the form of 
 independence desired ; the subject has not until within 
 the past few months been given much public debate in 
 the Philippines. When asked by committees of Con- 
 gress this very question, the leading Filipinos have al- 
 ways replied : * ' The most independence we can get ! ' ' 
 They were too skilful to allow their cause to be jeopar- 
 dized by such manceuvers ; should they permit the main 
 issue to be divided, their opponents might overcome 
 them in detail ; they might be forced into an untenable 
 position if a request were made for a protectorate, 
 which Congress might well deny. When I recom- 
 mended upon my own responsibility before the joint 
 committee in Congress in 1919 that independence be 
 granted, I suggested that the "Platt Amendment," as 
 it was known in the grant of Cuban independence by
 
 294 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 the United States, might be imposed upon the Philip- 
 pines. This permits our country to intervene in Cuba 
 under certain circumstances without intervention being 
 considered an act of war, a right which we have already 
 once exercised. My purpose was to secure for the new 
 republic of the Orient a form of protection from out- 
 side aggression during the early years of its inde- 
 pendent existence at least. Because of this suggestion 
 I lost the support of the Anti-Imperialist League, a 
 support which up to that time had been generous and 
 gratifying. It seems that the exercise of supervision 
 under the Platt Amendment had proved aggravating 
 and offensive to the Cubans. Possibly the Anti-Im- 
 perialist League took a more long-reaching view of the 
 matter than I did myself. It may be that for the sake 
 of the Filipinos as well as our own country absolute 
 independence would be the best course. There can be 
 no doubt that if the issue were presented to the Fili- 
 pinos, while many would wish for some kind of protec- 
 torate at least for the next few years, if that is found 
 to be impossible, the vote for complete and absolute 
 independence would be nearly unanimous. 
 
 The responsibility for the solution of this problem 
 rests with Congress, a body which keeps alive the best 
 traditions of Americanism. The problem must be 
 faced and settled soon. It would be a matter of pride 
 and satisfaction to all Americans to have discharged 
 this duty with honor and without thought of self. It 
 would soothe the national conscience, which was sadly 
 disturbed by our venture in imperialism. It would 
 secure our reputation for the keeping of the good faith 
 of our country; it would make good the spoken word. 
 
 If, on the other hand, the Philippine problem is
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES 295 
 
 much longer left unsettled by Congress, those sus- 
 picions of our intentions, those doubts of our good 
 faith, those insinuations as to our real purposes which 
 President Wilson encountered in the chancelleries of 
 Europe, would have full sway. We cannot afford to 
 disregard the public opinion of the world, especially in 
 the matter of keeping our word. If we eat of sour 
 grapes our grandchildren's teeth will assuredly be set 
 on edge. The indefinite retention of the Philippines 
 will signify to the other countries that we have behind 
 the screen hypocritical counsels and double-dealing 
 policies. They will measure us in the corridors of the 
 European foreign offices by their own standards. 
 Then, at last, we shall be obliged to gird up our loins 
 and prepare for battle. The challenge to the other 
 powers will be aggressive and unmistakable. Are we 
 prepared to pay the price? 
 
 As for the Filipinos, they will, naturally enough, be 
 embittered and disillusioned by our promises and pro- 
 fessions. "Ah, but ' say the imperialists, those 
 promises were not literally intended, and were made 
 without consulting the American people. Nevertheless, 
 these promises were set forth in the preamble of the 
 Jones Act by nearly unanimous vote of Congress. In- 
 definite postponement, said Messrs. Quezon and Os- 
 mena in a memorandum on November 19, 1918, "would 
 be equivalent to frustrating the nearest and most vital 
 hopes of the people, to reopening in their trusting 
 minds the grave doubts and dark pessimism of years 
 gone by; doubts and pessimism that we only by the 
 most zealous perseverance and faith have succeeded in 
 dissipating." Disillusionment in the Philippines may, 
 it is true, be crushed by the military force of the
 
 296 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 United States, but would still be known throughout 
 the countries of the world. The national consciousness 
 of the Filipinos has been deliberately aroused by the 
 United States. The race pride is now involved. While 
 they are at present substantially unarmed, is armament 
 by them an impossibility? Has the United States so 
 many friends among the other powers that we can 
 count on all of them to refrain from secret or even open 
 assistance to the Filipinos? It is as certain as any 
 human prophecy can be that active insurrection in the 
 Philippines would result from continued disregard of 
 their aspirations. They could be easily led into further 
 temporary acquiescence with the status quo; they 
 could be convinced by the United States Government 
 that, at any given moment, the problems of the Pacific 
 were so complicated and dangerous that a brief pro- 
 longation of American rule was to their distinct ad- 
 vantage. But a term must be set by Congress to such a 
 situation. Once the Filipinos become certain that we 
 are playing with their aspirations, revolt will come. A 
 second Philippine insurrection against the United 
 States would be a lasting stain upon our escutcheon. 
 If it were caused by a repudiation of our promises and 
 inspired by selfish purposes, it would be a national dis- 
 grace. However far we might be able by chicanery and 
 propaganda to deceive ourselves as to our own pur- 
 poses, we could never convince the Filipinos, nor, for 
 that matter, the rest of the world, of our good inten- 
 tions. 
 
 The opposition among Americans to independence 
 of the Philippines, aside from those who really desire 
 to have the United States embark upon a course of 
 empire, is centered chiefly in the army, various church
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES 297 
 
 organizations, and certain classes of business men and 
 investors. 
 
 The missionaries of the Methodist and Presbyterian 
 churches in the islands have kept entirely free from 
 politics and have proved uniformly helpful to each suc- 
 cessive Philippine administration. They must be re- 
 membered by all officials, as well as by the many 
 thousands of Filipinos to whom they have ministered 
 both medically and spiritually, with the utmost grati- 
 tude. The Catholic Church is, at the present time, 
 sympathetic to the aspirations of the Filipinos, al- 
 though five years ago, as we have seen, it defeated 
 Philippine independence in Washington. The Pro- 
 testant Episcopal Church, however, arrayed as it al- 
 most always has been in history on the side of wealth 
 and power, exerts a weak but perceptible influence 
 against the idea of present independence ; the Church 
 of England, whence it sprang, adopted generally the 
 same attitude in the American colonies. Sydney G. 
 Fisher in "The Quaker Colonies" (page 38), de- 
 scribes the situation in Pennsylvania : 
 
 During Penn 's life-time the Churchmen were naturally op- 
 posed to the whole government, both executive and legislature. 
 They were constantly sending home to England all sorts of 
 reports and information calculated to show that the Quakers 
 were unfit to rule a province, that Penn should be deprived 
 of his charter, and that Pennsylvania should be put under the 
 direct rule of the King. They had delightful schemes for 
 making it a strong Church of England colony like Virginia. 
 
 Outside of politics, the excellent work of American 
 missionaries of all denominations in the islands should 
 be better known and more appreciated at home. With- 
 out entering into a discussion of the merits of the
 
 298 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 claims of the different denominations, all must unite in 
 commendation of the work of the medical missions and 
 of the various church schools, supplying gaps which 
 the public revenue has not yet been able to fill. 
 
 The American business man in the Orient is gen- 
 erally opposed to independence of the Philippines. The 
 British men of business along the coast cities of China 
 and Japan set the fashion for political thinking among 
 the Americans; their banking power and social pres- 
 tige impress Americans very deeply with the value of 
 imperialism. The steady if almost imperceptible 
 growth of the present attitude of the white man 
 toward " natives" in the Orient is largely the work of 
 the financial investors and commercial classes of Great 
 Britain; the American coming later in the field has 
 accepted his stock of ideas on the subject and has hoped 
 to emulate his success. There exists, however, a con- 
 fusion in the mind of the ordinary man of commerce 
 on the subject. It is not necessary to own or to domi- 
 nate a country in order to trade with it; in fact, the 
 greater the good-will, the greater should be the com- 
 mercial intercourse. Sovereignty, with all its hazards 
 and responsibility, is unnecessary for trade. For ex- 
 ample, the British for years virtually dominated the 
 foreign trade of the Philippines through their banking 
 and shipping resources, without owning a foot of the 
 territory. What the commercial man needs is reason- 
 able domestic peace and order, an even chance in 
 business, and good-will on the part of the people of 
 the country. An American sugar magnate said to me 
 in New York recently : 
 
 ' ' I would rather have a free Cuba than hold it as an 
 American colony ; it means more to us men of business
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES 299 
 
 to have a contented population down there than it 
 would to have it held by force by the United States." 
 
 The case is different, however, with capital invest- 
 ments in a far distant or weak country, railways, 
 irrigation works, aqueducts, water-power plants, 
 street railways, and so forth. The investor at home 
 must have his eight per cent, interest ; internal public 
 order is of the very first consideration to the pro- 
 moters of such enterprises; they are safe, so they 
 believe, only if their armies are at hand to guard the 
 money they have hazarded. Gold, oil, diamonds, and 
 railways have usually been the cause of the downfall 
 of numerous small or weak countries formerly in- 
 dependent and living under their own flag. To soothe 
 the conscience of the public at home, the investor 
 usually prepares the way with propaganda as to the 
 faults or weaknesses of the "natives." Then a war- 
 ship is sent. Little by little, territorial seizures follow. 
 To appease home sentiment stories of native cruelty 
 or inefficiency are glaringly circulated. Kipling owes 
 his sudden fame and popularity largely to his having 
 coined a phrase which brought unction to their souls. 
 "The White Man's Burden" is to-day their formula. 
 The native inhabitants, however, generally believe that 
 the "White Man's Burden" is the "burden of his 
 cash." 
 
 Lord Bryce has well said that "the spread of 
 universal primary education" has "substituted read- 
 ing for thinking." The newspaper press to-day re- 
 lieves the ordinary man from the effort of doing his 
 own thinking. The home public accepts at par value 
 all the reasons given for territorial aggrandizement.
 
 300 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 One can usually foresee from following the prior cam- 
 paign in the press of European countries, the seizure 
 of any one of the defenseless portions of the earth. 
 The natives have no voice whatever in the clamor of 
 propaganda; all nations with colonies stand together 
 on that point. Just now the "tribesmen" are in 
 revolt in the new Spanish colony of Morocco; up to 
 a few years ago these " tribesmen" had for a thou- 
 sand years been citizens of virtually an independent 
 country, and for half that period the governors of 
 Spain. Suddenly they become tribesmen. Fifteen 
 years ago the press propaganda was to the effect that 
 Belgian officers were cutting off the hands of children 
 upon the rubber plantations in the Congo. When the 
 Congo matter was up for discussion, the Cape-to-Cairo 
 railway was projected through all-British territory. 
 The comment of the since-famous Belgian Cardinal 
 Mercier upon the propaganda against his Govern- 
 ment was that investors of another nation were looking 
 with longing eyes at Naboth's vineyard. However, as 
 my friend Father Patrick Lynch used to say in Manila, 
 "Time is a gentleman." The Cape-to-Cairo railway 
 may now, through the fortunes of war, be built through 
 all-British territory without the necessity of taking 
 tl;e Congo from Belgium. The cutting off of hands is 
 now restricted to that perpetrate^ in the press upon 
 Belgian children by Germans. 
 
 Another example of the use of propaganda for the 
 purpose of territorial seizure is the annexation of the 
 ancient kingdom of Burma, preceded by a wide-spread 
 circulation of shocking stories about its last monarch, 
 King Thebaw ; nothing was said by way of comparison 
 about the monarchies of Europe. Again, the downfall
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES 301 
 
 of self-government in Egypt was said to be because 
 of the financial difficulties in which Tewfik Pasha had 
 become involved, whether by accident or design. One 
 excuse will serve as well as another. If one would 
 analyze the extent to which this game has been de- 
 veloped, the skill and shrewdness with which it is 
 played, the contemporary files of the newspapers of the 
 day will, to the cynic, nearly always supply the key to 
 the downfall of any independent country of the " back- 
 ward peoples ' ' of the earth. 
 
 Proponents of the cause of Philippine independence 
 are often asked whether public order could be guar- 
 anteed. Public order is now guaranteed in Cuba by 
 the United States through the Platt Amendment. No 
 prophet of the future could guarantee indefinitely 
 public order in the Philippines, or in any other country 
 of this changing world. In our own country we have 
 had, among the more significant facts of history, Ba- 
 con's rebellion in Virginia, Shay's rebellion in Massa- 
 chusetts, Dorr's rebellion in Rhode Island, the " whisky 
 insurrection" in Pennsylvania, not to mention the War 
 of the Eevolution and the great Civil War between the 
 States. Nowadays serious public disorders which are 
 of frequent occurrence in our country generally grow 
 out of labor disputes such as those in recent years in 
 Ohio, Idaho, West Virginia, Missouri, and Pennsyl- 
 vania. All that can be done looking into the future 
 is to require that any government shall be able even- 
 tually to put down public disorders. That the Philip- 
 pine Government will without doubt be able to do, 
 unless interfered with by some outside power. Sir H. 
 H. Johnston has recently pointed out the probability of 
 subjugation of an independent Philippines by the
 
 302 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 Moros, four per cent, of the population. He forgets 
 that in the past the Moros were, through the action of 
 the Spanish Government in disarming for their own 
 purposes the Christian Filipinos, able to attack almost 
 with impunity their brothers to the north. To-day the 
 Moros are disarmed, and the Philippine Government 
 has an efficient military arm, the constabulary. 
 
 Peace and public order have been excellent in the 
 Philippines during recent years; with every decade 
 that passes, the local jealousies and provincial rivalries 
 are diminishing. Attention has already been called 
 to the successful effort of the Filipino Legislature to 
 avoid all division upon provincial lines. The univers- 
 ities and the public schools are having a powerful effect 
 in unifying the people. They now think nationally, 
 not as Visayans or Tagalogs. The greatest barrier to 
 more rapid assimilation has been the existence of 
 various dialects of the Malay tongue in different local- 
 ities. The public schools might have already eliminated 
 that impediment to closer union of thought if a common 
 dialect had been restored through them, as has been 
 done in Java; it can still be done, and within a very 
 few years at the most. Day by day the danger of fac- 
 tional animosity is lessened. 
 
 Disorders, 1 so common in the past, due to the exist- 
 ence in the Philippines, as in Spain, of large bands of 
 ladrones (robbers), are now almost a thing of the past. 
 They will not reappear on a large scale in the future 
 unless discontent with the attitude toward the Filipinos 
 of the ' * Metropoli, " as they call the United States, 
 shall break down the existing structure of trust and 
 good-will; then ladrones would spring up again as
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES 303 
 
 the precursors of insurrection against the United 
 States. 
 
 The theory of many business men is that respect 
 for our country must be based upon the power of might, 
 upon aggressive assertion of race superiority. They 
 are singularly unobservant of the facts. The respect 
 most worth having is not always the respect wrung by 
 force; a few years ago in Singapore comment was 
 made of the typical personal attitude of the British 
 "raj" toward the natives; they "impressed the na- 
 tives'* by assuming an air of austere and gloomy su- 
 periority; the very angle of the chin was patronizing. 
 They did not know that their pose of being "like gods 
 together careless of mankind" was described by the 
 Malays among themselves by a humorous adjective 
 translated as ' ' airy. ' ' To the Filipinos, we are not al- 
 ways the demigods we may try to appear. 
 
 There is an old saying that you can bring a horse 
 to water, but you cannot make him drink. We can 
 station a large army in the Philippines, but we cannot 
 make the Filipinos respect the flag unless we are true 
 to our promises and keep our written word to them. 
 The modern era of loyalty to the United States and of 
 enthusiasm on the part of the Filipinos toward us is 
 based largely upon the passage of the Jones Act. 
 Many visitors have commented upon the universal re- 
 spect shown in recent years by the Filipino crowds at 
 the band concerts on the Luneta when our national 
 anthem is played. Critics had feared that with the 
 lessening of American governmental domination in the 
 islands, the Filipinos would comport themselves dis- 
 respectfully toward Americans. Exactly the opposite 
 has come to pass. When in October, 1919, the flag law
 
 304 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 was passed in Manila, permitting once more the dis- 
 play of the Filipino flag, all observers reported that 
 with the unfurling of their own flag there was a sudden 
 outbreak of enthusiasm for the American flag, which 
 appeared even throughout the provinces in far greater 
 numbers than ever before. 
 
 As has been already noted, American business houses 
 have generally in recent times followed the lead of the 
 Government in Filipinizing their office forces, a policy 
 found to work with economy and efficiency. But of 
 even greater importance are the harmony and good- 
 will with which it has been accompanied. They are 
 assets which business cannot afford to neglect. Ameri- 
 can goods have become increasingly popular as Ameri- 
 can firms have made friends with their customers in the 
 Philippines. Public order is indeed essential as a 
 basic proposition; public friendship, however, is the 
 source of profits. 
 
 "While many business men, who have no toleration 
 for the political rights of the Filipinos and take ready 
 offense at the mention of the subject, sincerely believe 
 that it is our duty to retain the islands for the benefits 
 we can confer upon the native inhabitants ; while others, 
 forgetting Cuba, applaud the phrase "where once the 
 flag has waved it must never be pulled down," the real 
 driving-force in their campaign is trade advantage 
 for the United States. This is expressed in the Philip- 
 pine tariff, free trade with the United States and 
 duties against the rest of the world. England has at 
 least in this respect shown us a nobler precedent, 
 free trade with all nations in her British-controlled 
 colonies. Our business men forget that our own Gov- 
 ernment is based upon the consent of the governed.
 
 THE INDEPENDENCE OP THE PHILIPPINES 305 
 
 They would have us violate our own principles, en- 
 courage the resentment and hostility of an alien popu- 
 lation of eleven million people, and challenge the opin- 
 ion of the world by holding these people by force. If 
 an emergency results, the consequent expenditures will 
 far exceed the profits to be gained by financial interests 
 through retention. In recent years, by the simple 
 process of the income tax, the world of business has 
 learned the lesson that governmental receipts do not 
 grow on bushes, but are paid for by the people. 
 
 If independence is granted to the Filipinos, the 
 investments of our business men will not suffer; on 
 the contrary, they will profit from the gratitude and 
 good-will of the Filipinos. They will not lose the re- 
 spect of the people ; instead, the Filipinos will be tied 
 to us more firmly by bonds of affection than they can 
 ever be by force. 
 
 In case of war with another Pacific Ocean power, 
 would business men in the Philippines prefer to have 
 the Filipino friendly, or a center of discontent and a 
 danger upon our most exposed front? It is believed 
 to have taken at least two hundred thousand of her 
 best troops all through the war to enable Great Britain 
 to garrison and hold Ireland and Egypt. Is this good 
 business? Despite the somewhat wasteful and un- 
 scientific business methods peculiar to America during 
 the last century, it is to be hoped that there can be 
 found no business man in the Philippines who cannot 
 see this proposition and who would risk the advantage 
 of his country for his own fancied prospects of greater 
 gain.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 THE JAPANESE MENACE 
 
 THE near approach of the international confer- 
 ence of the powers at Washington upon the prob- 
 lems of the Pacific renders premature any present 
 opinion upon the future relations between the United 
 States and Japan. 1 The Philippine question is an es- 
 sential part of a final settlement. Every intelligent 
 person in the world must look with great anxiety upon 
 the progress of these deliberations. The Pacific, as 
 things stand now, bids fair to be the arena of the next 
 great struggle between the nations. It is a thousand 
 pities that the motion of Senator Pat Harrison of 
 Mississippi was not adopted to regulate the coming 
 conference ; he was for * ' open covenants openly arrived 
 at." Memories of the results of the Versailles Treaty 
 are still too recent; this is no time for greed, for 
 levity, or for cynicism. It is not hyperbole to assert 
 that the fate of the modern world depends upon the 
 outcome. After all that has been suffered since 1914 
 it is to be expected that the nations concerned in this 
 meeting will approach with sincerity, at least, the sub- 
 jects to be discussed. Visitors to the second Hague 
 Conference of 1907 came away with the impression 
 that the nations there represented were all fencing for 
 their own advantage; the delegates seemed only to 
 
 1 The publishers call the reader 's attention to the fact that Mr. Har- 
 rison completed his book in September, 1921. 
 
 306
 
 THE JAPANESE MENACE 307 
 
 have left their arms outside the great hall of the con- 
 ference. The atmosphere was surcharged with hypoc- 
 risy and intrigue. The commissioners from Korea, 
 come to plead that their independent existence of a 
 thousand years be recognized again, rapped in vain 
 upon the door. They were not admitted. Their case 
 was not debated. 
 
 Nearly every nation to-day is literally staggering 
 under the burden of armament; most of the govern- 
 ments are already actually bankrupt ; the world is one 
 large armed camp ; all wish to disarm, but no one dares 
 to be the first. The last time disarmament was pro- 
 posed, Germany blocked the suggestion. Which coun- 
 try will it be this time f Whichever it is, that govern- 
 ment may be confidently expected to become the next 
 disturber of the peace. If the various animosities and 
 rivalries can be frankly discussed, it is possible that a 
 real gentleman's agreement can be reached. Without 
 a genuine understanding upon the relations of the na- 
 tions to one another the representatives will journey 
 homeward sadder but not wiser men. After that every 
 gentleman will carry his gun as before, and perhaps 
 add a few concealed weapons. England has already 
 abandoned her traditional two-power naval standard 
 because the money for maintaining it cannot be found. 
 The United States is rapidly approaching the one- 
 power standard. Japan, with fewer ships, is not far 
 behind. For what purposes are they arming? This 
 is, or of right ought to be, the main topic of the con- 
 ference. Uncle Sam, while professing the greatest 
 interest in pacifism as an ideal, is in the best position 
 to win in the competition for armaments ; if asked to 
 leave his gun at home, he is at least entitled to know
 
 the intentions of his neighbors. He is now face to 
 face with the two most astute diplomats of all time, 
 John Bull and the Jap. 
 
 The future of the Philippines is one of the nerve 
 centers of the Pacific problem. There can be no ques- 
 tion of the cession of the islands to any other power ; 
 no administration in Washington would dare to pro- 
 pose such a move; no Congress would consider it. 
 What, then, are we doing in the Philippines'? It is 
 doubtful if the other nations believe in our promises 
 to set the islands free. Has not Egypt frequently been 
 promised its freedom? In the old-style diplomacy, 
 such words as "freedom" and " independence" were 
 used to soothe naughty or troublesome little boys. 
 England has been glad enough to have us retain the 
 Philippines ; that meant that none of her rivals in im- 
 perialism would get them, particularly Germany. 
 The Dutch in Java and the Australians want us to re- 
 main in the islands as a buffer state between them and 
 Japan. Japan did not burst upon the stage as a full- 
 fledged "great power" until after we acquired the 
 islands. No doubt Japan is seriously worried at our 
 forward thrust in the Orient, especially when coupled 
 with our hectoring attitude toward her in China and 
 Siberia. Japan has a Monroe Doctrine of her own. 
 Our presence in the Philippines threatens her hege- 
 mony in the Orient; she considers it a danger to her- 
 self. She understands the meaning of the circle of 
 posts from Hawaii, Samoa, Guam, to the Philippines 
 prepared for us by our military "strategists"; she is 
 accustomed to think in terms of "naval stations," 
 though the American public at home is not, in fact, 
 is unaware of our provoking and offensive attitude
 
 THE JAPANESE MENACE 309 
 
 toward Japan. Although as a military problem the 
 Philippines form the weakest link in the armor of the 
 United States, especially vis-a-vis Japan, as a political 
 problem, as the visible expression of American policy, 
 their situation is of immense interest to the Japanese. 
 This may explain the general support accorded by 
 Japanese statesmen to the policy of independence of 
 the Philippines. They want to see the United States 
 contract its frontier in the Pacific Ocean, so that there 
 may be one less dagger pointed at their own hearts. 
 It is unnecessary to assume that Japan cherishes a 
 secret design to seize the Philippines for itself; it 
 would hardly be worth the candle. It would mean 
 untold trouble for Japan from the Filipinos them- 
 selves, a Christian nation which would never submit 
 willingly to Japanese rule; it would almost certainly 
 mean a war with the United States, or another of the 
 great powers. 
 
 It is believed that Japan would gladly consent to 
 join in a guaranty of the independence of the Philip- 
 pines, or in any agreement for their neutralization. It 
 would be unnecessary to doubt the given word of Japan 
 under these circumstances. To say that good-faith 
 in her foreign relations is relatively as high as in the 
 other nations is perhaps the faint praise that damns. 
 She has at least stood loyally enough by her agree- 
 ments with Great Britain and with us. Although in 
 her expansion into Asia she has solemnly made use 
 of all the stock in trade of those jugglers known as 
 European diplomats, such as "special interests," 
 "spheres of influence," "temporary occupation," and 
 "protection of national interests," how can she be 
 justly condemned for playing the game as it is being
 
 310 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 played by her competitors? Japan was forced by 
 American guns to open her doors to European civil- 
 ization ; the fate of China aroused her then to her own 
 danger. Japan has been pushed into the struggle ; 
 shall she be abused by the older members of the concert 
 for using the weapons they have put into her hands'? 
 
 Taking the matter at the lowest level and placing 
 reliance upon the promises of nations only when they 
 are perceived to be in accordance with their selfish 
 interests, Japan would keep her hands off the Philip- 
 pines because it would be the utmost folly for her to 
 do otherwise. The certainty of war, the comparative 
 poverty of the islands, the impossibility of Japanese 
 laboring in large numbers in the tropics, would deter 
 her from the attempt to expand into the Philippines. 
 Even though the United States had assumed no protec- 
 torate over the islands, had given no guaranty of inde- 
 pendence, public opinion in our country would never 
 consent to the subjugation of the Christian republic we 
 had set up with the loftiest of motives, by the Japanese. 
 If the forthcoming conference will make the neutraliza- 
 tion of the Philippines the keystone of the arch to be 
 erected across the Pacific, all doubts will be set at rest 
 as to their future, and the structure thus created will 
 endure for many a long year. 
 
 The Philippine "question, however, is but one of our 
 many vexed and delicate points of contact with Japan, 
 though it is indirectly related to the most important 
 matter which will come before the conference, the 
 "open door" in China. Most American business men 
 who advocate the retention of the Philippines do so be- 
 cause it would "make a base for our future trade in 
 China," They take no note of the fact that the Phil-
 
 THE JAPANESE MENACE 311 
 
 ippines are far away from the shortest route between 
 the United States and China ; Chinese trade with North 
 America does not pass through the Philippines, and 
 never will. The islands have no more relation to the 
 Sino-American commerce than has Guam or Samoa, 
 Perhaps, though, these business men are thinking in 
 terms of military "strategy"; they mean to force 
 American goods, in competition with other strong-arm 
 nations, down the throats of the Chinese with bayonets 
 and machine-guns. If so, it would be well for them 
 to reflect that our wisest military tacticians are unan- 
 imous in the opinion that the possession of the Philip- 
 pines is our "heel of Achilles" and exposes us to 
 great national peril. If Japan chose to attack us in 
 the Philippines she would be selecting her own field of 
 operations, for we should then be obliged to undertake 
 the defense of these islands eight thousand miles from 
 our own shores; the Batanes Islands to the north of 
 Luzon are only thirty miles from Formosa, the near- 
 est Japanese possession. 
 
 Ever since the days of John Hay as Secretary of 
 State the "open door" in China has been supposed to 
 form part of the foreign policy of the United States ; it 
 has, however, never been frankly placed before the 
 American people for consideration ; it has no real part 
 in our national traditions, and it is doubtful whether, 
 upon that issue, the American people would ever con- 
 sider entering upon a war. The danger is that the ad- 
 ministration, under our system, can so involve the 
 country in disputes with other powers that war be- 
 comes inevitable. It should be clearly understood that 
 the "open door" does not occupy a position in the 
 hearts of the Americans such as is held by the Monroe
 
 312 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 Doctrine. Nevertheless, without general knowledge of 
 what is actually going on, and perhaps without ap- 
 proval of the policy in any sense, the "open door" 
 now threatens to involve us in a war with Japan. 
 
 Naturally enough, Americans are in favor of the 
 open door; it means that they shall have equal trade 
 rights in the vast markets of China; we are also in 
 favor of the open door everywhere else, if we can get it. 
 We are actually struggling to open the door to the 
 Mesopotamian oil-fields. Meanwhile we close the door 
 of our own country with tariffs, with coastwise ship- 
 ping prohibitions, and by forbidding the immigration 
 of both Chinese and Japanese. It is a poor rule that 
 will not work both ways. It is said, however, that all 
 wars are economic. We have, under our Constitution, 
 reserved to Congress the right to declare war; it 
 is seldom more than a perfunctory process. The 
 newspapers declare war, and the President is by 
 them crowded into a position where he virtually 
 commits our country to war, before Congress acts. 
 Under the present circumstances, this same open-door 
 question, which is the root of our trouble with Japan, 
 may not be recognized by our people as the real point 
 at issue until too late, and the disease will then run 
 its course without diagnosis. Our commercial interest 
 in China, which is the same as the commercial interest 
 of all other countries, namely the desire to make money 
 out of the Chinese, is presented to our public dressed 
 in the benevolent disguise of lofty altruism for China 's 
 welfare and affection for those same Chinese whom 
 we will not allow to enter our own country. 
 
 Comment has just been made upon the open door 
 in China as the root of our trouble with Japan. It is
 
 THE JAPANESE MENACE 313 
 
 not meant thereby to suggest that we should not in- 
 sist, and as vigorously as we can, that our commerce 
 should have the same rights as that of Japan in the 
 markets of China. That is the duty of the American 
 representatives at the conference. The danger lies 
 in the method of our foreign policy. 
 
 Japan is increasing in population at the rate of 
 about six hundred thousand a year. Her people are 
 already tired of the rather degrading forms of in- 
 tensive agriculture to which they are forced by their 
 narrow territorial limits. We will not permit the sur- 
 plus of Japanese to enter the United States; we are 
 affronted by their entrance in any large numbers into 
 Mexico or South America. They are not admitted to 
 British Columbia, Australia, or New Zealand. In be- 
 tween lie the tropical lands to which they are not by 
 nature adapted. Where are they to go! If the other 
 powers insist upon shutting up all the steam in the 
 boiler, there is bound to be an explosion; and the noise 
 thereof will shatter the world just at the moment when 
 we are recovering from the effects of stifling the ex- 
 pansion of Germany. The resources and industries of 
 Japan are growing in like proportion to their popula- 
 tion. Where are they to find an outlet for their nat- 
 ural expansion in trade? 
 
 The natural answer to these questions is, of course, 
 in Asia. Japan must expand to the westward, since 
 she is denied all other safety-valves; and expand she 
 must, or burst. Her methods of expansion are de- 
 plored by all the other powers, but they have been con- 
 ducted according to the strictest rules of diplomacy 
 observed regularly by the foreign offices of old Europe. 
 We had an opportunity of protesting at the time when
 
 314 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 we were in duty bound to do so, when Japan an- 
 nexed Korea with whom we had a treaty we should 
 have then respected. Japan was snubbed and 
 thwarted in turn by China, Eussia, and Germany. She 
 bided her time and struck them, one after the other, 
 a telling blow. Now the other nations have drawn in 
 their horns, and some of them are deliberately egging 
 on the United States to face the music. 
 
 We do not desire to see Japan annex Manchuria and 
 eastern Siberia, but are we ready to pay the price to 
 prevent her? Is it really any of our business, or our 
 concern ? Japan is called the ' ' Germany of the East. ' ' 
 It seems doubtful whether the world is prepared to 
 administer to Japan the same treatment it accorded to 
 Germany. The maps of Europe, Asia, and Africa are 
 covered with territorities annxed by European powers 
 with less justification than Japan can find for her ex- 
 pansion westward. The law that is driving Japan 
 onward is the law of existence; she must either grow 
 or die. Who is preparing to give her the coup de 
 grace? If it is secretly hoped by the concert of Euro- 
 pean powers that we will take on the task, let us first 
 be sure that we are not merely serving their selfish 
 purposes. If we push Japan out of China, it is certainly 
 not in order to seize the Celestial kingdom for our- 
 selves. But we may make it easier for others to seize 
 it. France has already taken the southernmost portion 
 of China ; the English have Hong-Kong and a ' * special 
 interest" in the great valley of the Yang-tse. Profes- 
 sor Dewey, in a recent article written from Canton, de- 
 scribes British financial aggressions in that neighbor- 
 hood, and adds that the Chinese are as much alarmed 
 over the invasion of the English in the South as of the
 
 THE JAPANESE MENACE 315 
 
 Japanese in the North. Pulling chestnuts out of the 
 fire may be an exciting game, but it is reserved only for 
 simpletons. Many of his friends wish that President 
 Wilson had stepped aboard the George Washington 
 when he held the threat of departure over the heads of 
 the Council of Four in Paris ; that he had then come 
 home and said as Abraham Lincoln might have re- 
 marked: "Well, boys, we can't do business with those 
 fellows ; we don 't speak their language. ' ' 
 
 When the other powers were bending every effort to 
 crush Germany, Japan seized the opportunity in 1915 
 to present her ' l twenty-one points ' ' to China ; accept- 
 ance by that helpless Government meant a partial sur- 
 render of sovereignty. There is every reason to be- 
 lieve that before the war with China, in 1895, the Jap- 
 anese in pursuance of their "Monroe Doctrine" were 
 really trying to prevent the partition of China by 
 Eussia, Great Britain, France, and Germany. They 
 have, despite the resistance of China, and galled by 
 the contempt of the Chinese for the "dwarfs," suc- 
 ceeded in breaking up the organized attempt on the 
 part of the Europeans to carve up the map of China. 
 But they have earned the hatred of the Chinese people, 
 and were eventually and most unwisely led into pre- 
 senting their "twenty-one points." Some of the 
 points were accepted by China under protest that they 
 were forced upon her under duress. Our Government 
 as the "next friend" of China also protested, but 
 ended, in the Lansing-Ishii agreement, by recognizing 
 the "special interests" of Japan in China. 
 
 The Old- World feudal kingdom of Japan, shut up 
 within itself for so many centuries, had not learned to 
 understand the sentiments and feelings of other races ;
 
 316 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 individually the Japanese are not tactful in their 
 gestures toward the other nations. The attitude of 
 the Japanese Government toward our own has always 
 been correct and self-contained. It seems probable 
 that the Genro, or Elder Statesmen, are determined to 
 preserve the peace with America; the military party 
 in their government is, however, constantly pressing 
 toward collision with the United States. The people 
 of Japan, under universal primary education, are great 
 readers of the newspapers, and certain organs of the 
 press in Japan are constantly inflaming public opinion 
 against us. The atmosphere is no longer even friendly 
 to American tourists, however correct and polite the 
 official attitude toward traveling Americans may be. 
 The constant journeys of our army and naval officers 
 through Japan to and from China and the Philippines 
 are a source of danger. An insult to one of them could 
 easily be interpreted as an insult to the United States, 
 however irresponsible the perpetrators. The killing 
 of Lieutenant Langdon, U. S. N., by a Japanese sentry 
 in Vladivostok last year might easily have brought on 
 a crisis. Our participation in the denial at Paris to 
 the Japanese of racial equality added fuel to the 
 flames. The petty exactions and harassing questions of 
 the minor officials of the Japanese customs, quarantine, 
 and Public Health Department often throw whole par- 
 ties of American tourists into a perfect fury. No doubt 
 the Japanese Government is fully alive to the situa- 
 tion, and presumably deplores it. 
 
 The California question is not the real bone of con- 
 tention. Japan is bound, like any other self-respecting 
 nation, to protest at the discrimination against her
 
 THE JAPANESE MENACE 317 
 
 people in California. They know that the question is, 
 as yet, local to that state. But Japan does not talk 
 of going to war with Great Britain over the exclusion 
 of Japanese from all the British colonies in the Pacific. 
 On the contrary, Japan and Great Britain have a spe- 
 cial treaty of alliance. This leaves us with the sus- 
 picion that the California question is being deliberately 
 pushed to the front by the Japanese, to cloak the real 
 issue ; that it will form the basis for a "trade" in nego- 
 tiations over the real point at issue. It may be as- 
 sumed that this is freedom from interference by us 
 in her drive into Asia. 
 
 The participation of the United States Army and 
 Navy in the Siberian campaign of 1918-19 has never 
 been fully understood by our own public ; the Japanese, 
 however, probably made it their business to know ex- 
 actly what it meant. We had declared no war upon 
 Russia, but were actively engaged in the campaign 
 against her form of government which ended so disas- 
 trously for the allied armies upon the western front. 
 If our troops were there to guard the railway material 
 sent over by us before the collapse of the preceding 
 Russian Government, the activities of our soldiers 
 should have been confined to that purpose. 
 
 Although mankind repeats in every generation the 
 folly of trying to kill "ideas" with the sword, nobody 
 can be so foolish as to believe that we sent an army to 
 Siberia to prevent by force of arms Bolshevik ideas 
 from entering the United States. If history must re- 
 peat itself, it is regrettable that the most mischievous 
 experiments are those most frequently repeated. Most 
 of the American soldiers who served in Siberia came
 
 318 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 home Bolsheviks. The real purpose seems to have 
 been to prevent Japan from securing a permanent foot- 
 hold in Siberia. 
 
 If, then, our army in Siberia was sent there to watch 
 the Japanese, or even if they believe it to have been 
 there for that purpose, the situation is serious enough 
 from any point of view. They may not challenge the 
 point directly, for at least we had as much right to 
 invade Siberia as they had, which was none ! If, in 
 their own secret councils, they entertain imperialistic 
 ideas in regard to eastern Siberia, may they not 
 also believe that we have the same? Certainly our 
 active interest in China and our continued retention of 
 the Philippines must seem to Japan to have that mean- 
 ing. Well might they ask us as to Siberia: "What 
 are you doing in this galley ?" 
 
 All men of responsibility in the two nations must 
 hope for a peaceful settlement of these questions at the 
 forthcoming conference in Washington. War would 
 be disastrous for Japan and possibly for the United 
 States. Neither has anything to gain from it, both 
 much to lose. We are the best customer for Japanese 
 trade; we should frankly convince her that we en- 
 tertain no thoughts of territorial aggression in Asia; 
 and we should keep our word as to withdrawing from 
 the possession of the Philippines, while at the same 
 time we should insist upon equal opportunities for 
 trade throughout the Orient. We must leave to mili- 
 tary men an estimate of the outcome of trial in 
 arms; naturally enough, we are confident we can beat 
 Japan ; so was Russia. As Norman Angell has proved, 
 however, the country which wins a war really 
 loses it.
 
 THE JAPANESE MENACE 319 
 
 The League of Nations has up to the present time 
 proved for the Filipinos a broken reed ; they now hope 
 that they may secure their hopes and aspirations as a 
 result of the Pacific conference.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY IN THE PHIL- 
 IPPINES UPON THE EUROPEAN MASTERS OF ASIA 
 
 AN attempt has been made in the preceding pages 
 to present the Philippine problem from the Amer- 
 ican and from the Filipino point of view. In conclu- 
 sion, attention should be invited to the immense if un- 
 expected influence of our policy in the islands upon the 
 powers of Europe. 
 
 Upon the acquisition of our Asiatic dependency 
 twenty-three years ago, we announced that we were to 
 hold the islands temporarily and for the benefit and 
 welfare of the native inhabitants, not for our own 
 selfish purposes. This was a shock to the feelings of 
 the colonial offices of Europe. Uncle Sam was a rude, 
 hustling fellow who refused to take his appointed seat 
 at the table and join the feast. Perhaps, after all, 
 they thought, we did not mean what we said. When, 
 however, we began to institute self-government in the 
 Philippines and even to talk of independence, it was 
 clear that we were threatening the established order 
 of affairs throughout the colonial world. Our an- 
 nouncements were greeted with derision and ill-con- 
 cealed alarm. This was going too far, said they, and 
 moreover it was impolite. Did we mean to insinuate 
 that they were holding a large portion of the globe in 
 subjection for any other reason than because they had 
 taken up the White Man 's Burden 1 It was never gold, 
 
 320
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 321 
 
 or oil, or rubber that caused them to conquer weaker 
 countries, but always "honor." When their honor 
 or their "manifest destiny" was involved, they could 
 not be expected to hesitate. Our thesis was little short 
 of an insult! 
 
 The evidence that we were in earnest accumulated 
 rapidly; we really did give the Filipinos self-govern- 
 ment and in the Jones Act of 1916 promised them inde- 
 pendence. Upon the whole, we had faithfully observed 
 President McKinley's altruistic policy, although it 
 is true that we showed selfish purposes in tariff 
 legislation by which we have secured two thirds of 
 the foreign trade of the Philippines for ourselves, 
 and in the proposition to extend our coastwise ship- 
 ping laws to the islands. If on these points we stum- 
 bled slightly in our program of unselfishness, we have 
 certainly shown unparalleled generosity in our deal- 
 ings with the native inhabitants of the islands and are 
 fast developing them toward an independent nation- 
 ality. 
 
 The displeasure of Great Britain in particular was 
 apparent ; if the British were, as it is supposed, mainly 
 instrumental in persuading our Government to retain 
 the islands, they must have long ago regretted their 
 mistake. Last year in Simla the Liberal Viceroy of 
 India, Lord Chelmsf ord, asked me about the conditions 
 in the Philippines. I explained our original embarrass- 
 ment at finding the islands on our hands without any 
 provision for that kind of ownership under our Con- 
 stitution, which is based upon the * * consent of the gov- 
 erned," and added that I supposed we had held the 
 archipelago upon the insistence of England. "Well," 
 he replied, "if that embarrassed your country, you
 
 322 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 have no idea how much your Philippine policy has em- 
 barrassed us!" This conscientious and anxious man 
 was at that very time trying to institute in the great 
 empire of India some form of responsible self-govern- 
 ment. He seemed particularly impressed with the fact 
 that after self-government had been given the Filipinos 
 they had stopped criticizing the United States and 
 turned to their own political campaigns; he had the 
 hope of the same outcome in India. 
 
 It has for the past century been a fundamental 
 maxim of the European powers that the native races 
 in the tropics are totally unfit for self-government ; that 
 the Asiatic is "inferior." Forgotten are the days of 
 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when the first 
 European adventurers brought home marvelous tales 
 of the magnificence and power of the Great Mogul and 
 of the Great Khan. Few Europeans were admitted to 
 the presence of these rulers, and those few knelt 
 humbly before them in palaces which are still among 
 the wonders of the world. The wealth of the Indies set 
 aflame the imagination and covetousness of the com- 
 paratively poor courts of Europe. It was not until 
 the superiority of the white man's armaments became 
 established that the total incapacity and unworthiness 
 of the Asiatics to govern their own countries became 
 the accepted creed. One after another the Oriental 
 monarchs were overthrown by the less cultivated but 
 more vigorous Europeans. Revenge was taken for 
 the prior invasions of Europe from the East. Might 
 was right, and few questions of international morality 
 troubled the conquerors of those days. After all, were 
 they not extending the beneficent sway of Christen- 
 dom? To-day Japan alone stands as the only stum-
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 323 
 
 bling-block in the path of the complete conquest of Asia 
 by the invading whites. China, Siam, Afghanistan, 
 and Persia are only nominally independent; in all of 
 them the hand of the white man bears heavily upon 
 the reins of state. So far, China's complete dismem- 
 berment has been prevented by international jeal- 
 ousies. But now that Germany and Eussia are put out 
 of the running, and France deeply absorbed in Africa, 
 England and Japan hold China in a major tenace. Sim- 
 ilar is the fate of Siam, which has been gradually par- 
 titioned in the past thirty years between Great Britain 
 and France. If one power seizes territory, compensa- 
 tion is sought by the other. Cambodia, the eastern 
 third of Siam, with its ancient temple of Angkor Vat, 
 was made a part of French Indo-China. At once Eng- 
 land responded by seizing the provinces of Trengganu 
 and Kelantan on the south. In Bangkok the King of 
 Siam used boastingly to say that the bar at the mouth 
 of the Menam Eiver was a better protection to his 
 country than military preparedness; but a European 
 shallow-draft modern destroyer slipped over the bar 
 and with its guns silenced his objections to aggres- 
 sion. 
 
 Under the plea of extraterritoriality, which means 
 the right of foreign nations to have their citizens tried 
 in Siam, as in China, by judges of their own nationality, 
 the whole internal administration of Siam is directed 
 by the whites. A few years ago a prince of the house 
 of Siam mournfully asked me if the United States 
 could not protect the independence of his ancient king- 
 dom from England and France, as we were doing for 
 Liberia. Instead, we are joining in the game of extra- 
 territoriality in Siam.
 
 324 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 The first reversal of the process was the defeat of 
 Eussia by Japan. The hopes of the colored races of 
 Asia at once revived : had not the little Japanese, en- 
 tirely unaided, overthrown the mightiest military 
 power of the white man? At last, they thought, the 
 tide had turned. 
 
 In no one of the long list of subjugated peoples from 
 Tsingtau to Cairo had the white man won the confi- 
 dence and loyalty of those upon whom he had imposed 
 his rule. One axiom upon which all the European 
 powers insisted was the inferiority of the Asiatic, 
 an inferiority mental and moral as well as social. The 
 prestige of the white man must be maintained at any 
 and all hazards. The Asiatic must not be recognized 
 socially, he must not be admitted to any clubs or friend- 
 ships of equality; he must be humble in address and 
 cringe before his master; in fine, he must be kept in 
 his place. Thus were some of the most ancient civiliza- 
 tions of the world held up to hatred, contempt, and rid- 
 icule. We cannot wonder that resentment has burnt 
 into the soul of the Asiatic, and that he, too, prays 
 for "The Day." 
 
 It is to be noted that the idea of a colony, as under- 
 stood in the days of ancient Greece, was a permanent 
 settlement of emigrants from the native city, free from 
 political control from the fatherland ; such were Syra- 
 cuse and Massalia, now Marseilles. Then came Rome 
 and annexed to her empire large foreign populations, 
 to whom the rights of Roman citizenship were even- 
 tually granted. The conquest of Asia by Europe in 
 modern times has been conducted upon quite a differ- 
 ent theory : it is the holding of distant peoples in per- 
 petual subjugation, upon an acknowledged basis of
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 325 
 
 political and personal inferiority, for purposes of ex- 
 ploitation. This was the first article of faith, the un- 
 questioned rule of white domination of Asiatics, until 
 the United States entered the field with her Philippine 
 policy. 
 
 The results of our heresy have been far-reaching, 
 and have shaken seriously the colonial offices of Great 
 Britain, of France, and of Holland; they have also 
 brought hope and inspiration to millions of patient 
 brown and yellow men who find in the new ideas of 
 America a promise for the future. The European 
 powers which control the news service of the world did 
 nothing, naturally enough, to spread the new ideas. 
 No mention of the Philippines was allowed to appear 
 in any periodical for distribution in the colonies. The 
 only reference to American work in the islands which 
 I have seen in a British magazine was a picture in an 
 English publication a few years ago entitled "Amer- 
 ican health work in the Philippines" which depicted a 
 white doctor in a solar topee vaccinating a "Filipino." 
 The "native" was trying to escape up a cocoanut 
 palm, and the doctor had him by the foot ; the Filipino 
 was a frizzy-haired Zulu ! Even so recognized a Lib- 
 eral as Viscount Bryce tries in his last book to dis- 
 credit the American theory of educating these natives 
 for self-government, and classes the Filipino with the 
 Bantu savages of Africa. Few Englishmen, officials 
 or merchants, in Asia, until very recently, would even 
 discuss the Philippines ; if they did, it was generally in 
 terms of hatred and scorn for the Filipinos, and ridi- 
 cule for the fantastic ideas of the Americans. As ex- 
 pressed by Stephen Bonsai in his book, English opin- 
 ion was that
 
 326 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 it would be disastrous for the Filipinos themselves, and for 
 you, and a thousand times more disastrous for all white men 
 having an interest in the development of the East Coast, 
 should your statesmen and legislators be "hoodwinked" by 
 their bombastic proclamations into treating them as civilized 
 men capable of self-government. 
 
 Yet, somehow, in that mysterious way in which 
 news travels in the East, word went out to the farthest 
 confines of the Orient of what America was doing in 
 the Philippines. In the bazaars of India, along the har- 
 bors of Malaysia, and even in the far-away mountain 
 passes of Armenia, the word was whispered about. 
 Mr. Charles R. Crane, formerly Minister to China, 
 reports that on his mission for the United States to 
 Asia Minor in 1918 he found everywhere an eagerness 
 that our country should accept a mandate under the 
 League of Nations, for those populations, so that we 
 could do for them what we had done for the Filipinos. 
 In Madras, last year, Mrs. Annie Besant, formerly 
 president of the all-India Congress, told me how 
 largely the Indian movement for home rule had been 
 inspired by our Philippine policy. Frequently I have 
 been told by visiting delegations of Chinese that their 
 belief in the honor and unselfishness of America was 
 firmly based upon our attitude toward the Filipinos. 
 The pressure of native opinion in Java, in Ceylon, and 
 in Indo-China, which has led within the past five years 
 to the beginnings in those colonies of native participa- 
 tion in the government, sprang in large part from the 
 same source. The conclusion to be drawn is evident: 
 ideas are still more powerful in the regulation of hu- 
 man conduct than mere force. Neither Poland nor Fin- 
 land in their century of martyrdom lost their faith and
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 327 
 
 ideals ; not even the greatest of armies could crush out 
 their ideas. 
 
 It may seem surprising, in retrospect, to consider 
 how indifferent the European masters have been to 
 the policy of making friends with those whom they have 
 conquered and whose territories they have annexed. 
 One historian of India has stated that the social dis- 
 qualification of the Indians dates from the arrival of 
 the first English ladies in that country ; he argued that 
 Warren Hastings would never have committed such a 
 dangerous mistake; he and Clive conquered and gov- 
 erned India through the Indians themselves, and knew 
 personally all the intrigues and political movements of 
 their time. Two generations later, when the line of 
 social intercourse had been sharply drawn, the Mutiny 
 took the British completely by surprise. Others have 
 explained that the ''prestige" of the white man is the 
 chief reliance of the governors in ruling with a hand- 
 ful of Europeans vast populations of natives. The 
 same idea of an imposing personal presence underlay 
 the ancient Chinese method of wearing hideous masks 
 in battle to frighten their opponents ! The indifference 
 of these rulers to the feelings and sentiments of the 
 ruled can perhaps be better understood by a considera- 
 tion of the motives which brought them to Asia and 
 have induced them to stay. 
 
 Two of the smallest countries territorially, England 
 and Holland, hold to-day the greatest empires in Asia ; 
 they were originally impelled by the same motive in 
 entering the East, the desire for financial gain. Port- 
 ugal and Spain in their day of greatness had professed 
 their desire of proselyting, of adding more Christians 
 to the spiritual kingdom of the pope. England and
 
 328 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 Holland, both already Protestant countries, sallied 
 forth in search of riches; they won their empires by 
 their skill and daring on the sea. Each power started 
 with mere trading-posts or factories, upon the coast ; 
 each power was led little by little to interfere with the 
 internal politics of the peoples of the interior; each 
 eventually annexed an empire. In the middle of the 
 eighteenth century the English defeated the French in 
 India, and the path was clear for further annexations ; 
 peaceful settlement of rivalries with Holland was made 
 by the exchange of Sumatra for Ceylon, and the grad- 
 ual absorption of India was begun. It is curious to 
 note how one step led logically to another. It is the 
 same in court, where one misstatement by a witness 
 inevitably leads him to an endless chain of others to 
 cover his position. From the first seizures of territory 
 along the coast, each further move inward was made 
 to protect the bases already annexed; the process has 
 developed until sovereignty or domination of all of 
 southwestern Asia is now claimed by England as nec- 
 essary to protect her Indian Empire. Beluchistan, 
 Mesopotamia, Arabia, and even far-away Egypt are 
 always cited as vital British interests on account of 
 her Indian possessions. Afghanistan and Persia would 
 have been gathered in the same capacious net, had it 
 not been for the intrigues and rivalries with Russia. 
 Mr. Morgan Shuster's book on "The Strangling of 
 Persia" clearly sets forth the method by which the 
 work of empire-building is carried on. 
 
 No question ever arises in imperial councils as to 
 the political rights of the inhabitants of the countries 
 annexed ; personal rights are generally secured by just 
 laws and wise administrators ; order is usually imposed
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 329 
 
 and maintained, though, it is to be noted, generally at 
 the expense of the people governed. Until recent years, 
 few voices were lifted either in England or in Holland 
 in assertion of the political rights of their Indian em- 
 pires. The frequent appearance within the last decade, 
 in the public press and in books and periodicals in 
 Great Britain, of discussions of the rights of the In- 
 dian peoples shows that a steady searching of con- 
 science is now in process. It is unnecessary to quote 
 from severe self-criticisms by British authors of their 
 position and administration in India. Undoubtedly, 
 some of their officials have been better than others; 
 some have been wise and sympathetic, others have not. 
 The main point to be noted is that, despite traditions 
 of public service in India ever since the empire was 
 annexed to the Crown, traditions which would be a 
 source of pride and credit in the main to any country, 
 the British themselves are now beginning to be rest- 
 less over the ethical question involved. It appears to 
 many of their liberal writers to-day that the iron- 
 bound system by which they have governed India 
 violated those rights of man upon which the modern 
 world is slowly coming to an agreement. 
 
 Prudence, moreover, dictates a shift of policy to 
 meet the new movement for self-government so vig- 
 orous throughout Asia. Under the Montagu- Chelms- 
 ford plan, the germs of self-determination are now 
 planted among the peoples of India. The impediment 
 to prompter action in this direction by the British 
 Government, an act which may have been too long de- 
 ferred, thus illustrating the old adage "A stitch in 
 time saves nine," has been the lack of information in 
 Britain about the actual situation in India. At any
 
 330 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 public meeting in England, until very recent days, 
 when a criticism of British policy in India was at- 
 tempted the flag was waved, the audience stampeded, 
 and opposition at once became unpatriotic, almost 
 treason. In view of the fact that public meetings are 
 usually governed by sentiment rather than reason, the 
 issue of empire was always obscured. Upon one side 
 of the discussion are ranged a solid phalanx of bureau- 
 crats in the civil and military administration, the trad- 
 ers whose financial interests are supposed to be in- 
 volved, those economists who believe imperial annexa- 
 tions to be the only safeguard of the food supply of 
 Great Britain, and those statesmen who, like Oliver 
 Twist, are always demanding "more"; on the other 
 side are the discontented taxpayers who do not desire 
 to pay for "more," those serious and liberal-minded 
 officials and writers who risk martyrdom at home by 
 supporting the rights of the natives, and those far- 
 seeing students of history who, with due regard for 
 the future safety of Britain itself, guide the imperial 
 administration into agreement with the modern polit- 
 ical movements of the world. 
 
 The grant of self-government to the South African 
 Confederation within a few years after the Boer War 
 insured the loyalty to the allied cause, in the recent 
 African campaigns, of the Boers themselves, with 
 whose aid the conquest of the German colonies in 
 Africa was effected. To-day, in all British colonies in 
 which a majority of whites are found, autonomy 
 amounting to virtual independence has been granted; 
 they are no longer colonies, but dominions in a British 
 commonwealth. They enjoy the protection of the 
 British Army and Navy, and in return give generously
 
 of their very best to imperial service. The prime min- 
 isters of the dominions are at intervals summoned to 
 London, and in a sort of extraconstitutional parliament 
 take their share in guiding the destinies of the whole 
 empire. General Smuts, who twenty years ago was 
 leading an army of Boers against Great Britain, is to- 
 day recognized and hailed in England as one of the 
 greatest of British statesmen. 
 
 In the Asiatic colonies occupied by colored races 
 the situation is quite different. The inferiority of the 
 Asiatic is still the accepted creed, and the first feeble 
 steps in the path of self-government are bitterly re- 
 sisted by those in the ruling country who would keep 
 him inferior. It is upon this branch of the subject that 
 the American policy in the Philippines has had direct 
 bearing. 
 
 England, Holland, and France hold about one third 
 of the territory of Asia to-day. Up to the beginning 
 of this century they held together upon the traditional 
 policy of considering the Asiatic merely as a source of 
 wealth, to have and to hold for purposes of exploita- 
 tion, though their methods of development have had 
 quite different results in practice. Holland has made 
 herself rich by making Java and Sumatra rich; En- 
 gland has enriched herself by making the Indians poor. 
 For a graphic picture of the appalling poverty of the 
 Indian peoples the student may consult any one of the 
 growing library of books by British authors on the 
 subject. A visit to India is the most depressing a mod- 
 ern traveler can make ; the misery of the people strikes 
 as dramatic a note as a painting by Gustave Dore. 
 Although it is the fashion of Indians to exaggerate the 
 greatness of their past, one cannot but feel to-day that
 
 332 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 theirs is the saddest country on earth. This they gen- 
 erally attribute to British rule; English imperialists, 
 on the other hand, ascribe it to the defects of Indian 
 character. At all events, the population of India is 
 now seething with discontent and revolt, and British 
 rule is definitely challenged. The situation is crit- 
 ical in the extreme; has the beginning of self-deter- 
 mination been too long delayed? 
 
 Much of the unpopularity of foreign rule is due 
 to the personal and official arrogance with which it has 
 been administered. The truly dangerous position of 
 the white man in Asia to-day might well have been 
 avoided in time. One fact may be stated without any 
 hesitation: the White Man's Burden in Asia up to 
 within twenty years has conveyed to the peoples of 
 Asia little share in the benefits of European civiliza- 
 tion. The cardinal principle has been, with the British, 
 Dutch, and French, not to interfere in the customs and 
 beliefs of the native populations. This fact has been 
 stated again and again with every evidence of self- 
 virtuous unction. It is evidently regarded as a con- 
 cession of supreme altruism to the natives. As a 
 matter of fact, the phrase has concealed certain 
 breaches of trust on the part of the governing races. 
 General public education was never attempted until 
 very recently, sanitation among the common people 
 was neglected, and the inhabitants were left to sink 
 into sloth and ignorance. While it would have been 
 difficult, and perhaps dangerous, to attempt to change 
 the social systems of these vast populations, and while 
 their entirely different types of culture were without 
 doubt entitled to their own development, it is in this 
 policy that the clearest evidence is shown that Euro-
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 333 
 
 pean colonization has not been conducted in Asia for 
 the benefit of the people, but for purposes of gain. 
 Occasionally, it is true, reforms of degrading customs, 
 such as that of suttee, or widow-burning, have been 
 forced by public opinion at home. The good people 
 of England have been aroused with horror that such 
 practices should exist under their flag. On the whole, 
 however, the much-vaunted principle of not interfering 
 with native customs has often encouraged the exist- 
 ence of ignorance and vice. Deprived of whatever in- 
 spiration might come from self-government and the 
 development of their own system of culture^ the people 
 sink into apathy and decay under a rule which offers 
 them no social hope. But the wrong has not always 
 been negative and passive; there have been sins of 
 commission ; for example, we must consider the opium 
 traffic. 
 
 In 1906 it was calculated that the total gain from 
 the sale of Indian opium since 1773 had amounted to 
 two billion one hundred millions of dollars. Opium is 
 a monopoly of the Government in India as it is in Sin- 
 gapore, Hong-Kong, Sandakan, and elsewhere. When 
 this fact became known to the public at home, a wave 
 of moral indignation forced the calling of an Interna- 
 tional Opium Congress, and several half-hearted at- 
 tempts were made to reduce the traffic. In reality, the 
 British authorities would not give up the revenues from 
 opium; in several colonies no real improvement was 
 made. The present situation is described by Miss 
 Ellen N. LaMotte in her book * * The Opium Monopoly. ' ' 
 Despite virtuous sentiments expressed at the In- 
 ternational Congress in 1906, by 1917 the Straits Set- 
 tlements and Federated Malay States still derived
 
 334 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 fifty per cent, of their revenue from the opium monop- 
 oly ; Hong-Kong one third ; while British India still ob- 
 tained more than three million pounds sterling revenue 
 annually from that source ; in French Cochin China an 
 actual increase of revenue from opium appeared in 
 the budget for 1917; in British North Borneo the 
 opium trade had become a positive scandal by 
 1920; two successive English chief justices of that 
 colony are said to have resigned because of the duplic- 
 ity with which the officials there were forcing the 
 traffic. 
 
 In India, the smoking of opium has long been known 
 as one of the national vices, and is believed by many 
 to be an effective cause of the degeneracy of the race. 
 Certainly the student of Indian history must be struck 
 with the frequent occasions upon which some Indian 
 potentate who had displayed a youth of great vigor 
 and achievement, faltered and sank suddenly to his 
 downfall in the very heyday of his power. He was not 
 "all there" when the crisis called; opium had de- 
 stroyed his will and his mind. The British did not 
 introduce opium into India; its use was one of the "na- 
 tive customs" with which they did not interfere. On 
 the contrary, they took up the traffic as part of the gov- 
 ernment program and pushed it with the utmost vigor. 
 This led to a collision with China, and thus to the 
 acquisition of Hong-Kong. A British writer, Colonel 
 A. M. Murray, in his book "Imperial Outposts" pub- 
 lished in 1907, describes the situation in picturesque 
 language : 
 
 The title-deeds of this great British stronghold [Hong- 
 Kong] are unfortunately of bad origin. The acquisition of 
 Hong-Kong will always be associated with the Opium War of
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 335 
 
 1840 a dark chapter in the history of the British Empire. No 
 more unjustifiable war has ever been waged by a civilized 
 nation. Cupidity was its cause, and cupidity of a demoraliz- 
 ing nature. The war can only be described as a successful 
 piratical attempt to force an illicit traffic in a contraband 
 and noxious drug on an unwilling people. 
 
 Lord Palmerston urged the Chinese Government, 
 after he had won the war on that issue, to legalize the 
 importation of opium in order to get revenue from it. 
 The Emperor Tao Kwang refused, saying: " Nothing 
 will induce me to derive revenue from the vice and 
 misery of my people. ' ' This coming from an ' ' inferior 
 Asiatic" must have been a shock to the custodians, in 
 England, of international morality. Opium in 1840, 
 opium in 1920 ; not much progress visible there ! An 
 unfriendly critic might well denominate that portion 
 of the British Empire which lies " some where east of 
 Suez" as " England's opium empire." Not only have 
 the "customs of the people" not been "interfered 
 with" but their greatest and most debilitating vice has 
 been encouraged, even forced upon them, for the sake 
 of revenue. The White Man's Burden has been materi- 
 ally lightened by the money thus derived, and by the 
 state of physical and moral ruin to which the people 
 have been reduced. If they are thoroughly doped, they 
 are more willing slaves. 
 
 In the Philippines, the importation, possession, and 
 smoking of opium has from the beginning of Amer- 
 ican occupation been forbidden by law. The traveler 
 notes few of those drug-sodden specimens so common 
 in near-by colonies. The Filipinos, as yet, are not gen- 
 erally addicted to the drug, and smuggling of opium, 
 which is one of the most difficult problems confronting
 
 336 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 the Philippine Government, is chiefly for the trade with 
 Chinese residents of the islands. When a large amount 
 has been smuggled in, the police note an immediate 
 decrease in the price in the contraband market. The 
 drug is easy to transport and the profits are so enor- 
 mous as to encourage ingenious plans to outwit the 
 customs, worthy of the attention of writers of mystery 
 stories. With the tremendous gain accruing to a suc- 
 cessful smuggler, come temptations to corrupt public 
 officials; the struggle to prevent the debauching of 
 public office and the spread of the vice itself is one of 
 the liveliest tasks of the Philippine Government. It 
 would be fairly successful in that endeavor were it not 
 for the British North Borneo Government Opium Mo- 
 nopoly in Sandakan. It is understood that in 1919 
 about six million pesos' worth of opium, Sandakan 
 price, was sold for smuggling into the Philippines. 
 
 A glance at the map will show that the nearest of the 
 Sulu group of islands are but a few miles from San- 
 dakan; in fact, two of the small Philippine islands 
 which command the entrance to the harbor of Sanda- 
 kan are held by the government of that island 
 under an informal permission of the United States. 
 The Philippine Government is now trying to regain 
 control of the "Turtle Islands." Scattered over hun- 
 dreds of square miles are innumerable coral islets 
 with shallow and tortuous passages frequently un- 
 navigable by any boat of more than three feet draft. 
 Through these the Moro smugglers, in their swift vin- 
 tas, slip with their precious cargo of opium, defying 
 pursuit and capture. Jolo, Bohol, Cebu, and Iloilo are 
 their destinations, and in these places the Chinese
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 337 
 
 finance their operations. Occasional battles with the 
 constabulary and police but lend a zest to the traffic 
 so far as the Moros are concerned; these sanguinary 
 little fights are reminiscent of their own traditions in 
 the past. In 1920, upon a visit to Jolo, I found the 
 government hospital there crowded with patients tak- 
 ing the cure for the opium habit. 
 
 Repeated protests against the situation in Sandakan 
 were made to our home Government ; I asked them to 
 invoke the good offices of the Government of Great 
 Britain to the end that the Government of British 
 North Borneo should show some respect for our laws 
 and some consideration for our institutions and peo- 
 ple. The protest was presented in London by our Am- 
 bassador, John W. Davis, with no result. The answer 
 was what is known as " playing for time," and was full 
 of cynicism. It has already been noted that one half of 
 the revenues of the British North Borneo Government 
 comes from profit on the official sale of opium. Fi- 
 nally, I asked that President Wilson call another 
 International Opium Congress to deal with this mat- 
 ter; it was pointed out that this was one of the 
 subjects reserved for the League of Nations. The 
 policy of "not interfering with the customs of the 
 people ' ' certainly cannot be extended to cover the facil- 
 itating of the spread of this odious vice among a 
 neighboring people who are now comparatively free 
 from it ! 
 
 The Dutch in their India, as they call it, are perhaps 
 the most conservative of the European nations in 
 their colonial policy. Yet, following the example of the 
 Americans in the islands to the north, they have now 
 taken the first steps toward granting self-government
 
 338 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 to their fifty million Malay subjects. About fifteen 
 years ago they started a system of universal education, 
 and, as a Javanese said at the time, education is the 
 beginning of independence. At first only two per cent, 
 of their budget was devoted to the public schools, but 
 the school system is growing rapidly, and is worked 
 out with that thoroughness and scientific accuracy for 
 which the Dutch are famous. Up to the age of ten 
 years the pupils are taught in the Malay tongue, then 
 in Dutch, thus meeting the criticism of President 
 Charles W. Eliot of Harvard upon our Philippine 
 method of forcing the children to study in English 
 from the first grade. Two years ago, the Javanese 
 were for the first time admitted to a share in the direc- 
 tion of the policies of Dutch India by the calling to- 
 gether at stated intervals of an advisory body of na- 
 tives known as ' 1 The People 's House. ' ' This was the 
 crowning work in the administration of Governor- 
 General Count Limburg von Steerum, whom I had the 
 pleasure of twice visiting in Java, and who impressed 
 me as the most able of the various statesmen I met in 
 Asia, with the possible exception of Marquis Okuma, 
 Premier of Japan. 
 
 Of course it is in scientific agriculture that the Dutch 
 have made the greatest advance; their agricultural 
 laboratories should be the model for all the other coun- 
 tries. To-day Java is the garden spot of the world, and 
 East Sumatra is rapidly developing to an equal plane. 
 Out of this have come many of the great fortunes of 
 Holland, and out of their Indian revenues most of the 
 railways of the home country have been constructed. 
 It is especially to be noted that the Dutch have also 
 made their colony the richer by their own gain, and
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 339 
 
 are now with characteristic foresight admitting the 
 native inhabitants to an increasing share in the profits, 
 and encouraging their cultural development along their 
 national and historic lines. The sultan at Medan, in 
 Sumatra, for example, was twenty years ago a pov- 
 erty-stricken and unimportant individual. The recent 
 marvelous development by the Dutch in East Sumatra 
 in tobacco and rubber, was directed by the Government 
 so as to let the sultan have his share. A handsome 
 mosque, built by him for his people, a fine private resi- 
 dence, and his own motor-car are evidences of the 
 sultan's rise in the world. It is scarcely to be won- 
 dered that he and all his people are enthusiastic sup- 
 porters of the Dutch. While the personal attitude of 
 the Dutch colonial families toward the Javanese is still 
 extremely rigid, indeed, arrogant, the political recog- 
 nition of the natives already given is bound to lead to 
 a modification of the social customs ; that this will not 
 be accomplished without infinite difficulty and ill-feel- 
 ing on the part of the whites may be assumed as cer- 
 tain. 
 
 In Indo-China, the French successes have been 
 chiefly military. The people are of mixed Malay and 
 Chinese ancestry, and are treated with disdain and 
 severity by their masters. Governor-General Albert 
 Sarrant, now Minister for the Colonies in Paris, intro- 
 duced the opening wedge three years ago for the recog- 
 nition of the natives in the Government. The solidar- 
 ity of the whites in this great colony will prevent much 
 progress in that direction except as a result of serious 
 disturbances. The French at home are not deeply in- 
 terested in their Asiatic possession ; the French colon- 
 ists there all suffer from homesickness and spend their
 
 340 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 days in longing for a return to la belle France. When 
 asked why they hold the colony, they reply: ''All the 
 great powers have colonies, so we must have our 
 share.*' 
 
 All the great powers have colonies! Are colonial 
 possessions, then, the source of their greatness, or a 
 result? From the beginnings of European history, 
 the nations have sought upon the seas the vacant lands 
 of the earth for their surplus or enterprising youth. 
 To-day, all the vacant lands suitable for white resi- 
 dents have been appropriated. Vast territories in 
 the tropics are still comparatively unoccupied, but 
 medical science has not yet solved for the white races 
 all the problems of permanent residence in tropical 
 lands. The countries in Asia, however, were not vacant, 
 but for the most part already densely populated ; they 
 have not been seized for purposes of colonization, but 
 for gain ; the idea is to make the people work for their 
 overlords and they are expected to keep quiet about it 
 and are required to pretend to like it. In the middle 
 of the nineteenth century, under the wave of liber- 
 alism that then swept over Europe, the holding of far- 
 distant colonies was considered a doubtful asset. Lord 
 Durham in his celebrated report on Canada, from 
 which the present dominion sprang, adopted the dictum 
 of Charles James Fox that "the only method of re- 
 taining distant colonies with advantage is to enable 
 them to govern themselves. ' ' Gladstone gave back the 
 Ionian Islands to Greece, and avoided aggression 
 in Egypt and the Transvaal. Then the pendulum 
 swung the other way, and the wild scramble over the 
 partition of Africa took place. England, France, and 
 Germany led the pack, and upon several occasions came
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 341 
 
 perilously near to war with one another over the di- 
 vision of the spoils. Even Italy, as soon as she had 
 straightened out her internal troubles, tried her hand 
 in Abyssinia, with disastrous results ; failing that, she 
 undertook the doubtful venture in Tripoli. She has 
 recently offered Italian citizenship to the natives of 
 Tripoli, a straw showing in which direction the 
 wind is blowing. Russia, meanwhile, had pushed 
 farther and farther into Asia from the north ; England, 
 France, and Germany from the south and east, until 
 to-day their work, save for China, is nearly complete. 
 It is evident that they all firmly believed that the ac- 
 quisition of colonies, not merely for settlement, but in 
 densely populated countries for purposes of exploita- 
 tion, was essential to the greatness of a modern nation. 
 Let those who will, balance the financial advantages 
 of securing a monopoly of tropical raw materials in 
 any given colony, the profits from forcing the home 
 products upon an alien people to keep the factory 
 wheels going at home, with the staggering expense to 
 the home taxpayer in maintaining the armaments nec- 
 essary to hold the colonies in subjection and defend 
 them from rivals from without. Even if the net result 
 shall appear which is more than doubtful to be a 
 financial gain to the average citizen of the colonizing 
 power, the matter must finally be decided upon a higher 
 basis, the basis of international morality. The world 
 has just been through an excessive convulsion, unsat- 
 isfactorily brought to an end by the disappointing 
 Treaty of Versailles. The old system has not worked 
 well ; quite the contrary : it has brought the existing 
 European civilization to the very verge of ruin. Mid- 
 dle-aged people are still thinking with amazement of
 
 342 MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 the apparent security of life in this world in which 
 they spent their youth. Despite the poison of news- 
 paper propaganda, despite the submergence of all pop- 
 ular institutions, including the freedom of speech and 
 thought, by the fervor of war, intelligent men and 
 women in every country are now asking themselves 
 how it all happened, and to what end. Various propo- 
 sitions for international, instead of national, action are 
 offered as a solution. Socialists in all countries called 
 the late struggle a ' ' capitalists ' war. ' ' Whether or not 
 the modern organization of high finance in every coun- 
 try shall be found in subsequent analysis to be par- 
 tially responsible, one fact is clear, that the desire 
 or hope of making money out of alien populations 
 by seizing them and subjecting them to exploitation, 
 is a dangerous game at which all can play. There are 
 many who believe that this was the original cause of 
 the situation which resulted in the explosion in 1914. 
 Thus, in recognition of the danger to be avoided in the 
 future, it was decided at Versailles that the colonies 
 which changed hands by the treaty should be held as 
 " mandates" for the benefit of their inhabitants, and 
 upon a basis of equal opportunity for all nations. 
 
 However proud the white races may be of gazing 
 upon the map and watching the spread of their em- 
 pires, however acute their self-satisfaction with their 
 deeds, the fact remains that the whole of continental 
 Asia south and east of the plateau of Tibet is seething 
 with discontent and with resentment toward the Euro- 
 pean conqueror. About seven hundred and fifty million 
 people who inhabit those territories are kindling into 
 fury against the white race on account of the European 
 theory of colonization. While they point to individ-
 
 EFFECT OF THE AMERICAN POLICY 343 
 
 ual instances of injustice and rapacity, the main bur- 
 den of their complaint is that Europe had no right to 
 annex their countries. The immense significance of 
 this prevailing unrest has deeply impressed observers 
 in all countries in Europe. Once started to thinking 
 upon the ethical question involved, independent writers 
 of different nations have begun, themselves, to ques- 
 tion their moral right to govern these aliens against 
 their consent. There is now a hope that with the new 
 dispensation of world affairs these questions may come 
 to be discussed openly and without reserve. There is 
 a bare chance that with the rise in the recently low level 
 of international morality, the colonial questions may 
 eventually be settled upon principles of right rather 
 than of might. When the day arrives for this moment- 
 ous change in our modern system, the United States of 
 America, because of her policy in the Philippines, can 
 "come into court with clean hands." Let us make 
 secure in the eyes of the world our sincerity and honor 
 by giving to the Filipinos that independence which we 
 have so definitely promised.
 
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