I

N the family of nations there has

never arisen a Christian state in the full sense of the word. In their international intercourse the nations of the Christian world have been Mahometan rather than Christian, governed by the law of the sword and not that of love. This has been true of the great powers in their mutual dealings as individual governments and more especially so in their relations with weaker and dependent peoples. The history of colonization has been one prolonged recital of robbery, fraud, oppression, and wrong, without exception, from the days of the Carthagenians and Romans down to the American occupation of the Philippine Islands.

Our Asiatic territory was acquired under peculiar circumstances, it was not colonization in the Imperial sense of the word. We did not seek out the Philippines and assume their sovereignty for our own profit and national aggrandizement, we were cast among them by stress of circumstance. The United States engaged in war to liberate a dependent people and as a result of that war of liberation, to our astonishment and to the extreme dissatisfaction many of our people, became liable for another dependent people, not an American, but an Asiatic people of whose existence we were hardly aware until our flag was waving over them.

For a hundred years the American churches have been sending missionaries to Asia; for a hundred years they have been praying for an open door to Asia for a more effectual way to the vast Continent. That door is opened, that more effectual way is provided in our possession of the Philippine Islands, and more; the United States has become a missionary nation, by its becoming guardian of the Filipinos,

assuming the responsibility of fitting them to assume the duties of freeholders in an Asiatic republic, a most responsible undertaking, and the greatest missionary movement of the ages, in the broadest sense of the word socially, politically, nationally as well as religiously

Our mission in the Philippines is to pursue the true vocation of a Christian state among a dependent people. Ever since the occupation of their territory the question before the American people has been "How shall we best pursue the vocation of a great Christian nation in performing the duties devolving upon us as guardians of our Asiatic wards? The immediate question is are they fitted for independence? Will they ever be prepared to assume the duties of maintaining a free government? When shall we grant them national autonomy?" On these issues the American people are divided, some insisting that we wronged them by taking possession of their country and governing them against their consent. Others insist they are now, and ever will be incapable of self government, others, and I think, the decided majority believe them inherently capable of self government but are of the opinion that day is somewhere in the dim and hazy future.

I think a cursory view of conditions existing at the time of the American. occupation of the Islands makes it evident that our duty was fulfilled in retaining them and pursuing the course we have since that event. The Filipenos were strangers to each other, it was necessary to make them acquainted. There was no common spirit of nationality, it was necessary to create it. They spoke some thirty different languages and dialects, it was necessary to bind them together by a

common tongue. They were ignorant, it was necessary to lay the only enduring foundation of a republic by the universal education of the people. There they were, nine million people, living on some forty of the larger islands of the Archipelago, speaking numerous tongues, professing three different religions, unknown to one another, in a measure hostile to each other, such was the motly population among whom our lot was cast as a result of the Spanish War. Our manifest duty was not to leave them to their own resources, but to act a Christian part in elevating them to the highest plane of civilization to which they were capable of attaining, to make of the separated islands a compact territory, of the hetrogenous population a homogeneous people.

Before the creation of a respectable republic it was necessary to create a state of society in which such republic could exist. The rich must be taught their responsibility for the poor, that public office was not a private trust, that professional classes were not privileged above their fellows, that all men as to rights of life, liberty and property were equal before the law. To pass from the abstract to the concrete I will relate three instances tending to show the state of society under the Spanish regime, and illustrating the abuses that should be corrected before the establishment of self government among the Filipino people.

Antonio Jaime, a prominent citizen and leading lawyer of the Province of Occidental Negros, requested me to submit a disputed attorney's fee to the arbitration of two lawyers of the Bacolod bar, I being at the time Judge of a Court of First Instance, and Antonio practicing attorney at the Bacolod bar. His preposterous request for so partial a board of arbitrators was promptly refused, but quoth Antonio, "I am entitled to it under the law," and he was. As the SpanishFilipino law then stood, a disputed attorney's fee, at the request of the claimant, must be submitted to the

decision of two lawyers, practicing at the same bar with him. There was no alternative, the client must pay or submit to this partial arbitration and from their decision there was no appeal. This law making the legal profession a privileged class was speedily repealed upon a report of the foregoing circumstance to Manila.

Juan Araneta was a large land owner of the Island of Negros, like others of his order, he had under his sway numerous farm laborers, who looked to Captain Juan as the greatest man on earth. I do not know that a system of Mexican peonage prevailed but the land owner was the absolute master of his retainers who obeyed implicitly his commands and who would have regarded him as their feudal lord had the sovereignty of the Islands passed immediately from Spain to the Filipinos. Such system of peonage or semi-peonage was inconsistent with the existence of a republic worthy of the name, in fact, under such state of society nothing less than perpetual misrule and constantly recurring revolutions could have been expected.

Lorenzo Tupaz was appointed captain of a company of volunteers to suppress a local insurrection in one of the Visayan Islands. During his brief period of authority he signally manifested the native idea that public office was a private trust, by using his position to wreak his spite on his enemies by maltreating, maiming and killing several poor men who in some manner had gained his ill will, or what, is perhaps, more probable, to satiate his revenge for some real or fancied slight from the masters or employers of his victims.

Of these three representative Filipinos, Juan Araneta was the best and Lorenzo Tupaz the worst. In fact Capitan Juan was one of the most intelligent, industrious and progressive natives of my acquaintance. I liked him well and knew him well, as I did Antonio Jaime, who was one of the leading lawyers of the province and subsequently Governor thereof. The

fault was in the system rather than the men. I hold my Filipino friends in esteem and in moments of restospection enjoy recalling men and events in the Islands. I see the portly shape and hear the cheery voice of Padre Santos the parish priest of Capiz, always the same, always the same hearty welcome whether we met at the convent, on the street or the social gathering. The good Priest sleeps in the ancient cemetery of the old town, Peace to his ashes. My other friends gather about me as in the bygone days, There is Alejandro Pardo, the fiscal one of the best and most conscientious of officials, there Governor Jugo Vidal one of the most courtly gentlemen I ever met, a perfect master of ceremonies, he too sleeps with Padre Santos and Alejandro Pardo in the resting place of Capiz dead. If there was ever Yankee Filipino it. was Senor Acuna, who came to Capiz many years ago a poor young man but who has risen to be one of the magnates and, perhaps, the richest man of the Province. Then there is Noburto Romuldez a gentleman in the true sense of the word, gentle in word, and deed and thought. A lawyer by profession, a poet and artist by instinct. Such are some of my Filipino friends, the living and the dead I value the acquaintance of the living as I cherish the memory of the dead.

The Filipinos possess the inherent capacity for self government, if the testimony of their American associates is to be credited. The almost unanimous verdict of high American officials of the Insular government is that the Filipino officials have performed the duties of their departments excellently well. It was reported, in the daily press, a few months ago, that the then President of the United States, said that in ability and honesty the Filipino Judges compared well with their American brethren. Not

only have the high American officials been almost unanimously enthusiastic in their commendation of the ability manifested by their Filipino co-officials but to words of praise they have added

the more substantion proof of practical recognition, in increasing the number of native office-holders from year to year until now they number a very large proportion of Government officials. An American official is frequently succeeded by a Filipino, but never a Filipino by an American. Admitted to liberal participation in the Insular Government at its conception so well have they fulfilled the duties. of the offices entrusted them that the present Government is in a large measure administered by Filipino officials.

The Filipinos are natural Republicans. They were fighting for national independence before we made their acquaintance. At the time of the American occupation the Aguinaldo Insurrection was in a state of suspension. Encouraged by the expulsion of the Spaniards the Insurgents invoked the recognition of the United States, disappointed by the non-recognition of the Aguinaldo movement, they rose in revolt against the new Government. To secure their much desired independence they rose in revolt against Spain and later dared the power of the Conqueror of Spain.

The cause of Filipino independence has had its heroes who have fought for it and martyrs who have died for it. The greatest name in Filipino annals is Dr. Jose Rizal. I have looked upon the spot where he died, it was on the hill at sunset, a fitting time and place for the first martyr in the cause of his Country to sacrifice his life for the cause he loved so well. The beauty and fashion of Manila were there, the bands were playing, the sun was descending beneath the surface of the far reaching waters. On one side arose the ancient walls of Old Manila, on the other extended the waters of the spacious bay. On the far away horizon the sun was disappearing in a blaze of glory, for sunset viewed from the Lunetta is one of the most magnificent scenes to be witnessed on the face of the globe. All hues of the rainbow meet in that scene of indescribable beauty where the sun, the waters and the sky

mingle and commingle just as "A certain moment cuts the deed off, takes the glory from the gray." Amid this scene of festivity Jose Rizal was led forth to die. They placed him with his face to the bay, but his last glance was not to be at the glorious sunset, for as the command to fire was given he quickly wheeled so as to face. executioners, received the death shot in his breast and fell with his face to the foe. Thus passed Jose Rizal, the typical Filipino patriot, a name dear to the Filipino heart and destined to live long in the annals of his country.

Whenever and wherever the opportunity has offered since the suppression of the Aguinaldo Insurrection, the Filipino has manifested his natural aptitude for Republican institutions by his crude efforts to found what he termed and thought to be a Republic. The so-called Republica Filipina was established in the mountains of Juzon in 1902 continuing its existence till 1906. Its creators and officials called it a Revolutionary Government, and its chief officials were termed President, Vice-President, Secretary of War and all grades of military officials from Lieut. General down through the various gradations to the private soldier. The Insular Government took a radically different view of the Republica Filipina stigmatizing its votaries as murderers and highway robbers, setting a price on their heads and endeavoring to overthrow it during the four years of its existence.

The President and chief officials were tried and sentenced as ordinary malefactors, their so-called Republic disappeared from view and only its memory remains as an instance of the innate desire of the semi-wild hillsmen for national independence and free political institutions. The Republica Filipina, however, was not subdued by force, nor will we say by fraud, though it passed with the voluntary submission of its chief officials to the Insular Government. The person who was chiefly instrumental in bringing about the downfall of the Republica Filipina was Dominador Gomez, who

at the request of the Insular Authorities sought and obtained an interview with Francisco Carreon, Vice-President of the mountain Republic. Gomez advised and urged Carreon to cease resistance to the Insular Government. At first the overtures were met with strenuous denial. "Why should we submit" inquired Carreon. "We are fighting for our Country and propose to continue the struggle to the end." We too are contending for independence but in a different way. Our weapons are reason and persuasion, you are not strong enough to resist the United States and your resistance only defers the day of our country's independence. These arguments finally prevailed Carreon, who appears to have been the diplomat of the revolutionary movement, promised to use his influence with his associates, which he did, resulting in their voluntary submission to the Insular Government.

Carreon was the last of the officials to be tried. His comrades who had been sentenced to death or long imprisonment appeared as witnesses in his behalf. It was pathetic to witness the devotion of the doomed men to, what they proudly termed their Revolutionary Government. Though under the shadow of death, or of the grim walls of Bilibid they seemed more solicitous for the good fame of their cherished Republic than for their personal fortunes. They were charged with the crimes of highway robbery and murder to which they seriously objected, if guilty at all, they insisted it was of treason or rebellion, they did not object to the being termed traitors or rebels but did strenuously object to being stigmatized as common malefactors. There was some ground for their contention, for though they unlawfully took guns and ammunition, provisions and money it was from the defeated Constabulary or troops of the Insular government. The property stolen was public property none being taken from private persons excepting in a few instances a little rice or few cocoanuts to satisfy their immediate hunger.