boy ought to know would be absolutely destructive and perversive of the very objects which they seek to attain.

In order to be able to appreciate these petitions in all their bearings, it is important to analyze the facts in the case. What does Mr. Adams, Mr. Howells, or Mr. Carnegie know about the Filipinos? What do the other gentlemen know about them? Have they ever been in the Philippine Islands and studied the nature and character of these people? If Mr. Carnegie will express an opinion on finance or on the art of making steel, or if Mr. Howell will write a review of current literature, I will listen to him with great respect. Have these gentlemen ever studied the peculiar anthropology of the Filipinos? Do they realize what a jumbled up mixture the half-breed Spanish-IndianNegro type is all over the world? Take the several provinces of Spain, each differing from the other more than the German differs from the English type, then mix these up in infinite variety and proportion with unnumbered Turanian tribes, each differing from the other as much as any two types of civilized men can differ, and then talk about selfgovernment for this ignorant, emotional, cunning, cruel, irresponsible, savage conglomerate — is there any other folly which could be comparable with this?

Even Mr. Taft, who so ably combated the views of the Committee, as yet only has a faint appreciation of the real character of the Filipinos. Years of intimate study are required, and multifarious dealings with these people in their own language, and a wide observation of their habits of thought and action, are indispensable to the formation of an opinion which is of any value whatever.

But if you know nothing of the nature of a people, how can you decide as to the character of government which they should have? Does any man believe that the same kind of government is equally well adapted to all classes of people? No greater heresy can be conceived.

The English, who are in fact as free as ourselves, would deny with a thousand tongues every assertion one might make looking to the downfall of the British monarchy. If these people, who embody the very highest aspirations of men so far as absolute justice and personal liberty are concerned, deny in toto our deductions as to the individual right of self-government in all respects corresponding to our own system, then how can we assume such an air of infallibility in our attempt to apply these theories to peoples like the Filipinos, who have neither the habits of order nor the enlightenment of the Englishnay, who are in fact semi-barbarians, and who will remain such until many years of civilization and education have worked their influence upon them.

The people of the United States ought to have learned something in their dealing with the negro. Every thinking man in the North realizes that the granting of the elective franchise to the negro in the

manner in which it was done was a mistake. It did him no earthly good. It made him feel that his uplifting was to come about through politics, the most dangerous idea that any people can entertain. The attempt to force him into social and political equality with the whites naturally and properly raised the gravest feelings of resentment and alarm on the part of the latter, and a determination to resist it to the uttermost. And what was the cause of this attitude and action of the North? It was due to the absolute ignorance of the people of the North as to the true character of the negro, - their blind and wholly mistaken belief that the Declaration of Independence can be applied to all conditions and relations of men. That it is due to ignorance there can be no question, because in actual practice the people of the South are much more patient and kind to the negro than are the people of the North under similar conditions. A well behaved negro is unquestionably safer in Georgia than he is in Ohio, Illinois, or New York, because in the former there is less danger of a race war springing up on some trivial pretext. And yet, curiously, the people of the South, who ought to realize these facts more clearly than any one else, form the heart, the brains, and the backbone of the Democratic party, and it is this curious aggregation which is now chiefly spilling the contents of its lachrymal glands over the refusal of the United States government to place civilized foreigners - and Americans at the mercy of the murderous bandit half-breeds who would inevitably control affairs should our government for a moment relax its grip on the Philippines.

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And now to return to our Committee. Is it possible that these gentlemen realize what they are doing? Charity and their previous good records compel us to believe that they do not. Beneficent as are their intentions, they should reflect that great harm has frequently been caused in this world by well-meaning people meddling in affairs of which they were ignorant. This world is just as it is, not as it ought to be or as we might like it. And until it improves very materially, it is advisable to keep a strong police department in Chicago and New York and a good standing army in the Philippines. It is wiser to educate the Filipinos and make good citizens out of them before imposing upon them the responsibilities of citizenship.

The United States has already accomplished miracles in dealing with the Philippines. The islands have been organized into some forty provinces, each with its own local government under the general government. A large degree of self-government has already been granted in all these provinces, and representatives chosen in the popular legislative body, known as the Philippine Assembly, which, in conjunction with the Philippine Commission, constitutes the legislative branch of the government. The Philippine Commission consists of several distinguished Filipinos as well as Americans, and likewise the Supreme Court and the courts of inferior jurisdiction

are made up to a large extent of natives of education and high standing.

The American system of public schools is being extended throughout the archipelago with wonderful rapidity. Education, industry, ambition, cleanliness, decency, are imbuing the masses with a hope never before known in the islands. Disorder is being reduced to a minimum, peace and happiness have taken the place of savagery and terrorism, and in no other part of the world has civilization made such wonderful strides in such a brief period. It seems incredible that Americans of respectability could be found at this late date to criticise or try to hamper our government in this extremely beneficent work.

CHAPTER VI

OUR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS MAKE THE RETENTION OF THE PHILIPPINES AN IMPERATIVE NECESSITY

HEN war broke out with Spain, Commodore (now Admiral)

W Dewey was in Hong Kong. Under the laws of neutrality he

was compelled to leave there at once. In all that part of the world the United States had not a single port where he could go for coal or provisions. There was only one of two policies before him, to sail back to the United States or to attack the Spaniards in their own harbor.

The first plan would have left all our commerce with the far East at the complete mercy of Spanish cruisers. Our trade with China, Japan, Australia, and India would soon have been driven from off the face of the ocean, hundreds of millions of dollars of American property would have been destroyed, and our prestige ruined for a generation to come.

The second plan, the one bravely adopted by Dewey, involved enormous risks. To sail into a harbor filled with torpedoes and submarine mines, to face forts as well as war-ships, knowing well that defeat meant irretrievable disaster, that there was no friendly port nearer than thousands of miles, that reinforcements were not to be thought of, these were all serious matters. Had Dewey met defeat, not only would our immense commerce with the Orient have been placed at the mercy of the enemy, but our entire western coast line would have been liable to bombardment. We had nothing else in the Pacific capable of resisting the enemy's battle-ships.

Suppose it had been the war-ships of England, Germany, France, or Japan defending Manila instead of the pots and kettles of Spain, and Dewey faced the alternative which then confronted him, is it not clear that the history of the world might have been changed?

Dewey's victory at Manila entailed certain consequences. Before we pay too much heed to the radical anti-imperialists, who want to grant immediate Philippine independence, or to the more conservative secessionists, who hold out the expectation of autonomy for the islands in the future, more or less remote, it is worth while to consider this subject in all its bearings and relations.

To have given the Philippines "independence" as soon as they were securely wrested from Spain, and placed the civilized foreigners there at the mercy of the native bandits and military Jefes, with their hordes of ignorant peons back of them, would have been an act of perfidy unparalleled in history. Happily that phase of the case need not now be discussed, for the American people have rendered their verdict upon the party of national dishonor which advocated the proposition. There remains to be discussed the advantages of the retention of the Philippine Islands, (a) to the Filipinos; (b) to ourselves.

If civilization is a blessing, and this whole volume is an argument in the affirmative; if education, freedom, security, the right to own property, and the countless blessings which flow from good government are valuable privileges to be prized by intelligent men, then the administration of the government of the Philippine Islands by the United States is a good thing for the Filipinos. But without spending time on this phase of the case, let us inquire into the benefits, if any, which will accrue to ourselves by holding the Philippines permanently as a part of our territory.

These benefits may be divided into two classes: 1st, Commercial; 2d, Military.

No intelligent man should underestimate the importance of extending our foreign commerce. As Secretary of the Treasury Shaw justly remarked, when we export a million dollars of American products to foreign countries, that means at least eight hundred thousand dollars have been paid for labor in this country. Following this simple principle has made England inconceivably great; and so it will make us. For us to sell shoes or calicoes or other products is a blessing to both parties to the deal. It does the Filipinos good to wear our shoes; it does our workingmen and business men good to manufacture them and sell them. That nation will be secure in its foreign commerce for the next century which has its own colonial possessions to supply. England and France are secure on that point; Germany is in a worse fix, and we are scarcely as yet to be considered.

On the military, or rather the naval, side of this question every fact and argument urges us to hold on to the Philippines and acquire as many other naval bases as we can in other parts of the world.

In the broad theatre of international relations we have not yet risen much above the stage of peanut politics. John Hay seems to have been almost our first Secretary who had a grasp on world affairs. He merely made a start on the right road, for no one man, however great, can do more than merely direct the forces bound up in this republican empire of ours. If those forces are wanting in directive impulse, even a John Hay is as helpless among them as a canoe in a

cataract.

The American people make our government, and up to the present