American Control of the Philippines

I

DEPENDENCIES in revolt have sometimes found it advisable to proclaim in their declarations of independence principles which no independent nation would be willing to incorporate in a statement of its national policy. The inhabitants of the British colonies in America affirmed that the consent of the governed is essential to the existence of a just government; but, having become an independent nation, they are no more willing to accept this idea as a principle of national conduct than is the most arbitrary government on earth. If the citizens of California, irritated by the interference of the Federal government in their public schools, or in other matters within their exclusive jurisdiction, should not consent to a further exercise of Federal authority within their territory, the government of the United States would, nevertheless, proceed to perform its functions in the territory in question without the consent of the governed. The Civil War, between 1861 and 1865, showed with unmistakable clearness the practical attitude of the nation toward this question. Individual persons and political parties are using the notion of the consent of the governed in advocating the independence of the Philippine Islands; but an argument based on this idea does not rest on a solid foundation, and is no more conclusive in this case than it would be in the supposed case of California.

The title under which the United States exercises its sovereign authority in the Philippine Islands is not less valid than that under which this nation assumed control of California. The Philippine Islands have been under American sovereignty about as long as that state had been at the beginning of the Civil War; and when California, at that time, seemed to be on the point of withdrawing her consent to the continuance of Federal rule within her borders, the government at Washington was not disposed to allow the political future of that region to be determined by the consent, or non-consent, of the governed. It is idle, therefore, for any person or any party, wishing to sever the connection between the United States and the Philippine Islands, to affirm that it is the policy of this nation not to exercise its sovereignty over any of the great districts under its jurisdiction except by the consent of the inhabitants of that district.

The attitude of those persons who would have the United States withdraw from the Philippines is evidently not produced by a desire that the Islands should fall under the domination of some other power, but by a misconception of what would be their fate if they were not connected with some nation of superior civilization. Many of the citizens of the United States are especially liable to error in thinking on a subject like this. They possess the political instinct in a more marked degree than the members of any other nation. A group of Americans of Anglo-Saxon stock, without much education or cultivation, set down in the wilderness, would proceed at once, under the force and guidance of their political instinct, to organize and administer a government, and the government thus inaugurated would have many of the qualities of a good government. This instinct is to such an extent an element of their character that it is difficult for them to conceive that it is not a universal element of human nature. With very little knowledge of other peoples, they are moved by the belief that a group of persons from any one of them would act as they themselves would act under similar circumstanccs. When they think of independence for the Filipinos, they presume a people possessed of a political instinct sufficiently powerful to direct them in the organization of a government that would facilitate for them the attainment and preservation of liberty. But in this they fail to take into account the fact that the dominant elements of the Filipino’s character have been formed by the traditions of millenniums of barbarism, in which political experience had no place, and by submission to the autocratic rule of Spain.

Some of the Filipinos stand among the most advanced members of the Malay race, but besides these there are representatives of various grades of human cultivation down to the untamed Negritos. Yet even the small minority of persons most advanced in the way of civilization have not been in a position to enjoy an enlightening political experience. Those who lived at the ports or in the principal towns, during the centuries of Spanish domination, were under a politico-ecclesiastical régime, which tended to eliminate their recollection of their ancient tribal relations; but from the absolute political government and the still more absolute church they were not able to derive any idea of liberty or any conception of the principles on which alone it is possible to establish a free government. At the close of Spanish rule, there were not a score of men born in the Islands who had a conception of government comparable with that entertained by the bulk of the citizens of the more liberal Western nations. There were, however, more than a score who wished the Islands to be independent, and by independence they understood the rule of a small body of persons empowered to carry on the only kind of government of which they had any knowledge, a tyrannical oligarchy administered for the good of the governing.

At the time of the formation of the civil government under American authority, the ablest and best educated men in the Islands had an opportunity to express their opinions on all of the important questions of government under consideration; and their utterances furnished an excellent index of the political views and aspirations of the most worthy representatives of the people. Even the idea of political independence was now and then brought into the discussion; and, on one occasion, a Filipino, arguing in favor of it, affirmed the fitness of his people to assume it on the ground that there were as many educated men in the Islands as there would be offices to be filled. On another occasion, when advice was sought from the principal men of the province as to the best method of increasing the provincial revenue, one of the leading men of the province argued in favor of imposing a special tax on what he called the proletariat,— the great mass of the inhabitants with little or no property, who were gaining a precarious living by their daily labor. There were a few persons wiser than these, but a very small number whose fundamental ideas of government differed widely from those which are somewhat vaguely indicated by these illustrations.

This attitude of the leading Filipinos toward questions of government ought not to surprise us, when we reflect on the influences under which their political opinions and political spirit were formed. In the first place, their whole existence, and the existence of their ancestors for uncounted generations, has been passed in the atmosphere, and under influences proceeding from the spirit, of the Orient; and, in the second place, they were dominated for nearly four hundred years by ecclesiastical-secular institutions, the spirit of which laid special stress on the good of the governing; and it is impossible to conceive as proceeding from these influences any spirit more liberal or generous than that of an oligarchy ruling without much solicitude for the welfare of the great unenlightened and helpless majority.

II

No one is able to form an adequate conception of the task undertaken by the United States in the Philippines without taking account of the racial qualities of the Filipino, the environment under which he had lived, the traditions which had modified his development, and all of the other forces which contributed to make him what he was at the close of Spanish rule.

In attempting to improve the condition of members of one of the less-developed races, whether in America or Asia, the Spaniards, by seeking to change the most fundamental and permanent of all racial ideas, — the idea of religion, — began at the point where success is practically impossible. The Americans, on the other hand, holding that much can be done for the advancement and cultivation of a people without imposing upon it a specific religious creed, have directed their efforts to the task of communicating to the Filipinos a knowledge of the practical achievements of the Western nations. They found, for example, that the inhabitants of the Islands had no common language, and that, consequently, they were divided into a large number of antagonistic groups. The ideas of each group were narrowly confined to their petty provincial affairs. The practical remedy adopted to improve this state of things was to give to the Islanders a knowledge of English, through which social sympathy might be substituted for social antagonism, and means established for facilitating the creation of an extensive commonwealth. The Americans found, moreover, that all but a small percentage of the Filipinos were ignorant of the language of any civilized people, and that they were consequently unable to acquire any valuable information of the ideas and practices of civilization. Without the assistance of this information, they were doomed to remain in, or to drift toward, the stagnant state of isolated barbarians.

Knowledge of a European language, possessed by at least a considerable part of the inhabitants of the Islands, is thus essential to the progress of the Filipino people. Without it, their fate would be that of the Malay race generally, which, in none of its branches, without foreign assistance, has risen above a low stage of semi-civilization; and, in this day of civilized aggression, the inhabitants of no large and desirable territory can have any security for their integrity or their individual development, except by so organizing their political and social life that the rest of the world will recognize them as belonging in the ranks of civilization.

The gloomy forebodings entertained by many minds forty or fifty years ago — when Mr. Pierson wrote his able book on the wrong side of the question, expressing the views of a large number of persons, that the white race and its cultivation were to be swamped by the colored races — have disappeared before the apparent determination of the white nations to arouse themselves and rule the world. There is now no secure standing-room for an independent semi-civilized people. There is no place for the Filipino people, except as attached to a strong civilized nation.

In opposition to this view it is said that the Philippines should be independent and neutralized. It is possible to neutralize a state that has a well-ordered and approved government competent to give protection and security to the life and property of aliens within its borders; but, unless this condition is fulfilled, foreign nations will intervene in obedience to the law of self-protection, and the independence of the incompetent state will disappear.

The guaranty of an alien’s property rights and of the security of his life by a foreign state, when that state is not responsible for the internal government where the alien resides or where his property exists, is a political absurdity; and the United States will not undertake to furnish such a guaranty for an alien in the Philippines while the American citizens retain their sanity. There is no reason to suppose that the government at Washington will undertake to guarantee the security of life and property in the Philippines, except while the internal government of the Islands is subject to the sovereignty of the United States; and in the present condition and prospects of the Filipinos there is nothing to furnish them a reasonable ground for seeking to place themselves in a situation where an appeal to a foreign state might be necessary. In spite of the possible errors of judgment which may be made by the American members of the Filipino government, the Filipinos at present occupy a position especially favorable for the maintenance of internal peace between the various antagonistic tribes, for the preservation of the integrity of the people, and for the development among them of the ideas and practices of civilized life. They enjoy an exceptional opportunity among dependencies with respect to the acquisition of a European language; and the spirit of the people of the United States, and the nature of their government, offer them a prospect of a larger measure of autonomous existence than is enjoyed by any other people in the world possessing a similar degree of cultivation.

It was the policy of the Spaniards in the Philippines, and of the Dutch in Java, not to mention other nations, to discourage, if not to prohibit, natives from acquiring and using the language of the dominant nation. By this policy a line of discrimination was drawn, and the native, confined to the use of his own uncultivated speech, was made to feel his inferiority. The determination of the United States not only to permit the Filipinos to use the English language, but also to provide for them the most ample facilities for learning it, was regarded as a concession in favor of equality, and helps to explain the remarkable zeal with which the youth turned to the study of English.

This and other concessions, made to a people who had lived for centuries subjected to the arbitrary and uncompromising domination of the Spaniards, in so far as they were grasped by the dull minds of the poor and oppressed toilers of the country, were regarded as a ray of light in the darkness of their prospects. To a number of mestizo dwellers in the larger towns, who had acquired a little knowledge, uncompromising domination meant real superiority, and, consequently, concessions intended for the welfare of the people indicated weakness on the part of those who made them. The concessions made by the Americans tended, therefore, to belittle them in the eyes of this class, and to lead this small body of ambitious Filipinos to exaggerate their own importance.

For a large part of the American press and for the anti-expansion orators, this conceited and noisy group of superficial persons became the Filipino people. It is to their voice that Congress is asked to listen. The seven millions of workers, who are trying by the rudest means to make a living for themselves, are nowhere heard; and independence for the Islands would mean complete liberty for a hundred and fifty or two hundred agitators, under the system of caciqueism, to dominate and plunder the rest of the inhabitants. The welfare of the gente, as they are called, the mass of the common people, has never entered into the plan or purpose of the Filipino advocates of independence; and the establishment of independence, if this were possible, before the inhabitants have obtained a much more effective control over the forces that make for cultivation, would put off indefinitely the civilization of the Islands.

III

It ought not to surprise anybody that some of the Filipinos are opposed to the continuance of American rule in the Islands; for as long as the government of the United States is maintained there, the little oligarchic company of native ‘statesmen’ will not have the desired opportunity to dispose of the revenues, since these revenues are controlled by a central treasury and provincial treasuries, so arranged that the central treasurer holds a check on the provincial treasurers, and through his agents supervises their accounts. The feature of the financial management which astonished even the more cultivated Filipinos is that, in the expenditure of public funds, the welfare of the gente is considered. Moreover, the rule established by the Americans, that the provincial revenues should be expended in, and for the benefit of, the province where they are raised, and not be taken to Manila as heretofore, was a measure of vast importance for the provincials. It meant that the provinces might have good roads, might build bridges over their rivers and construct public buildings for their own use. It meant, in fact, that the common man might have facilities for reaching a market with his products, and have a decent school for his children.

The effect of Spain’s politico-ecclesiastical absolutism was to weaken the influence of the tribal bosses, or caciques. There was thus prepared the way for a régime which would encourage the development of individuality and personal independence. But the kind of independence that the Filipino agitator demands, is the freedom of the caciques to reëstablish their domination over groups of the common people. The kind of independence imperatively needed, in the interests of humanity and progress, is the independence of the common man; and the régime which will secure and guarantee this independence is demanded by a higher authority than the will of any group of professional politicians.

The government which exists in the United States has doubtless weaknesses and imperfections, but the government of no other great nation rests on an equally broad conception of liberty and personal independence. It is clear to any one who knows the Filipinos of all ranks, and has some understanding of their social history, that they have great need of independence, but of the personal independence of the individual man; and it is also clear that this lies nowhere within the horizon of the present, except under the sovereignty of the United States. To reëstablish the power of the cacique would be to deprive the mass of the people of a large part of whatever advantage has come to them through their connection with civilization.

The Filipinos have need not only of personal independence but also of peace; in fact, their personal independence can be achieved only under the conditions of peace. When they are at war the power of the leaders is absolute, and the habit of war would mean that the bulk of the people would remain in a state of subordination. It is apparently supposed by those persons who advocate the withdrawal of American authority, that, in case of the execution of their plan, the ancient antagonisms and tribal ambitions, now suppressed by the presence of a common superior, would be put aside and abandoned. This opinion is evidently held in ignorance of the fact that there are several great sections of the population which are as unlike one another as are the nations of Europe. They occupy different parts of the insular territory; they speak different languages; and they have learned enough about war to know that it is not without its compensations, — that power, distinction, and even respect and honor among their fellows, are often the achievements of battle. If European nations, with all their cultivation and their knowledge of the advantages of permanent international peace, cannot be induced to cease their ruinous preparations for war, it is folly to suppose that the Tagalogs and the Illocanos, the Visayans and the Moros, will lie down together in peace and harmony, if there be no superior power to discountenance their hostility.

The moral effect of the presence of the American garrison is to strengthen the faith of the Filipinos in the beneficence of peace. The supposition that this faith would thrive without this stimulus leaves out of account the restless and ambitious character of the Tagalogs, who, by their previous conduct, have given a sufficient indication of their desire to dominate the archipelago, while some of the other sections of the population have shown with equal clearness their desire to be free from Tagalog rule. There is no evidence, nor even a probability, that a subjected tribe would find the rule of the conquering Tagalog, or of any other conquering native, more beneficent than the administration under which all sections of the inhabitants now live in peace, and as equals.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the state of affairs in the Philippine Islands imposes upon the government of the United States the duty to maintain in the Islands forces making for civilization at least equal to those which have been set aside as a consequence of American occupation. The importance of this obligation will appear when one reflects that practically all of the evidences of civilization in the Islands are the result of their connection with Spain; and that, with a few exceptions, all of the inhabitants who, at the time of the transfer of the sovereignty, appeared as the leaders of civilized life in the various communities, were Spaniards, or mestizos, or foreigners of some other nationality.

The churches, the schools, the banks, the commercial houses, and all of the trading establishments except the petty shops and the produce markets, had been created and were conducted by men who were what they were by reason of their foreign blood. Since the overthrow of the Spanish government by the United States, the increase of mestizos of the first degree has ceased, and the mestizo part of the population tends necessarily toward the elimination of its Spanish blood. In the future, with each succeeding generation, the Spanish strain will be weakened, and this gradual return of the stock to its primitive Malay quality means a gradual diminution of the forces that have introduced into the larger towns certain features of progress. Therefore, in the course of time, if conditions were established that would cause foreign immigration to cease, the Islands would present not a state of progress, but a state of retrogression; and under these conditions foreign capital would not be invested, except with such arrangements as would enable the capitalists to control the government; but a government thus subject to the dictation of capitalists, many of whom would be nonresident foreigners, would be the worst conceivable government for a people in a low state of social development. A government thus nominally independent, but dominated by industrial corporations, would present the most favorable conditions for merciless exploitation. To abandon the Philippines would be to acquire the discredit of having destroyed the forces that have given the Islanders an impulse toward civilization, and then left them either to become subject to a less liberal power or to drift backward toward barbarism.

IV

In establishing and administering a government in the Philippines, the United States undertook to carry on every branch of beneficent public activity which had been relinquished by the Spaniards, and to lay stress on certain functions which had been neglected by them. The new government, however, confined itself to secular matters, and left the church freedom in the performance of its functions. This removal of all governmental pressure from ecclesiastical affairs was followed by striking religious aberrations on the part of large numbers of the common people. In some districts, hundreds and even thousands abandoned their ordinary occupations to follow self-announced religious leaders, whose strange ideas indicated a reversion to the barbaric notions of their pagan ancestors. Some showed intimations of their Christian instruction when they proclaimed themselves as the Virgin or the Christ, and under these names obtained a following. The readiness with which these impostors, or self-deluded creatures, gained the adherence of the multitude, indicated that the bulk of the inhabitants of the rural districts had not departed widely from the benighted state of the tribesmen who had preceded them.

The doctrine of the philosophers as to the permanence of racial ideas of religion has found abundant illustration in the Philippines. The Spaniards, in the Philippines and in their American possessions, appeared to think that when the Filipinos or the Indians were baptized and brought into the church, their minds were at once enabled to grasp the fundamental features of that intricate system of thought known as Christian doctrine, and that by this process they were civilized.

It was fortunate that the government of the United States was practically prohibited from becoming a positive teacher of any religion, and was made to rely on secular means for promoting the progress of the Filipinos. But in applying such means as, for example, instruction in a trade-school, or an apprenticeship in the government’s printing establishment, it ran counter to the aspirations of a limited middle class, composed chiefly of mestizos resident in the larger towns, and violated their views concerning their capacity and the position they were destined to fill in the world. To a young Filipino of this class, it seemed strange, if not insulting, that one should urge him to learn the proper use of tools, or to enter the printing-office as an apprentice, and become familiar with the operations of the machinery. In his little knowledge and the conceit which often attends it, he felt that he was born for higher things.

In order that Filipinos of this class may become effective contributors to the advancement of their country, it is necessary that some means should be discovered for eradicating their inordinate conceit, and for making them willing to do what their hands find to do. The members of this class have little or no initiative in practical affairs. The tradition respecting the attitude of a certain class of Spaniards toward work is familiar to them. The teaching which they have received has generally dealt more with the intangible things of heaven than with the material and tangible things of earth. In youth the ambition of each of them is to become an escribiente, or clerk; and their ideal occupation, at all ages, is to sit at a desk in a government office. Before the age of disillusionment, they bestow much attention on their personal appearance, and find great satisfaction in being able to wear a clean white suit, a neat straw hat, and patent-leather shoes. In Java, this class of Eurasians has proved to be an embarrassing element in the population. Their European blood has given them a sense of superiority to the natives of pure Malay stock, and made them reluctant to engage in the ordinary occupations of their communities. But, like the great mass of Eurasians everywhere, they have shown themselves incompetent to fill the positions to which they have aspired.

Besides the millions of the common people and this so-called middle class, there is a class very much smaller than either of the others, which is composed of those persons who have acquired a more or less extensive education. This class embraces the men who have studied for a profession, and those who have attained a position in commercial life. Among these, a large part of whom live in Manila, are found men of widely different qualities; there are a few of solid attainments and sober judgment, but their names are not heard in connection with revolutions or demands for independence. There are others of brilliant minds, who have a certain degree of education, but whose tempers are such that they seem to be incapable of dealing soberly with questions that touch their prejudices or personal interests. In this class, moreover, are found the politicians and all of those persons who, having recently obtained a larger measure of freedom than they had ever enjoyed before, have very naturally moved forward from demanding liberty to demanding political superiority.

With respect to the development of the Islands and the progress of the Filipinos, this group embraces the least useful members of the population as a whole, — the agitators, who, for their own advantage, play upon the ignorance of the common people. Some persons who are disposed to estimate social events everywhere in terms of American life, would measure these disturbers of the public peace by the patriots of the American colonies. But the political situation in which they are involved is as far from that of colonial New England or Virginia as the East is from the West. These are they whom certain American politicians visiting the Islands have flattered and encouraged by calling them the Washingtons and Lincolns of the Philippines.

By the efforts of the United States, order has been established where there was social chaos twelve years ago. The task was difficult, but it was accomplished with so little of the pomp and circumstance of power, that the Filipinos who were interested in the process were apparently convinced that the organizing or the administering of a government was, after all, only a simple matter.

In fact, one of the striking characteristics of the Filipino Eurasian of some education is the facility with which, in his opinion, he acquires the mastery of a subject. After studying English for a few weeks, he is willing to undertake to defend his views of pronunciation or construction against the world; and at the time of the creation of the existing civil government, as political order gradually supplanted confusion, and one province after another was organized and brought into relation to a central authority, he seemed to see no difficulties in the art of government. His inexperience, his half-knowledge, was the basis of his confidence; but, if the present régime is continued for some generations, the Filipino will acquire a general education of the Western sort, and through this he will acquire also some measure of political knowledge; and what is more hopeful is the fact that habit, established by long practice, will supplement his knowledge, and furnish his certain direction in the conduct of affairs.

But, cut loose from foreign political influences, he would run a very serious risk of lapsing into a state of social confusion relieved only by tribal rule. The Spaniards having departed, the Spanish language would gradually disappear; and the English, only recently introduced and used chiefly by the youth and the children, would be forgotten. Independence within the next forty years, if it were possible, would mean a return of the people to their native dialects, and the abolition of the existing system of instruction. After this, the forces of ancient tradition would have an opportunity to reassert themselves without effective opposition.

V

The preceding statements, which suggest a national duty, have no significance with respect to the future conduct of the United States in relation to the Philippines, unless a nation by its acts, somewhat after the manner of an individual person, may contract, or place itself under, a moral obligation.

A person might, as an unanticipated result of the pursuit of another end, destroy the sole legitimate guide and protector of a child. He might then, in the absence of any other guardian, assume this office; but, after ten or twelve years, having become tired of his charge, he might cast off the child before he had attained sufficient maturity or sufficient knowledge of the world to enable him to avoid the dangers by which his life would be surrounded. It would be generally held that this person, partly by an unforeseen consequence of one of his acts, and partly by voluntarily assuming the control and guardianship of the child, had placed himself under a moral obligation, the repudiation of which could not but leave a disgraceful stain on his character.

If nations are subject to a moral law, this case represents not unfairly the position of the United States in relation to the Philippine Islands. When we saw that the guardian had been destroyed, we might have left the ward to the wolves, — and there were wolves in those days. Rut we voluntarily assumed the charge, and placed ourselves under a very grave obligation. The former Spanish ward became our ward; and now,—almost at the beginning of our guardianship, — the demands of a little group of Filipino politicians, without experience in governing, and with no adequate appreciation of the difficulties of their position, do not furnish the United States a sufficient reason for renouncing an obligation, which was assumed under an international treaty, and is rendered more solemn by our relation to millions of people, who, released from the hard rule of Spain, would be in danger of falling under the more galling rule of a native oligarchy.

The majority of American citizens have an acute appreciation of the moral aspects of public questions; and it is this surviving moral sense in the people which often arouses itself to prevent a false step, when political traders are scheming for material advantage. But, unfortunately, popular judgments, whether involving moral or any other considerations, arc important only where the issue is clear. The question of the annexation of territory to the national domain is attended with great difficulties in this connection, because the ordinary man is not in a position to grasp and interpret the multitude of facts that affect the question. Even the simpler side of the case, the problem of material advantage, is seldom seen until after the passage of the years required for adjustment and development under the new conditions. No one at present denies that the bitter opposition to the annexation of Texas and California was short-sighted. Neither those who favored nor those who opposed it had any clear vision of the future. The peculiar advantage which those persons expected who desired the annexation of Texas, has long since disappeared; and the fears which especially moved the opposition, vanished before a score of years had passed.

It is quite as difficult to divine the future now as it was in the middle of the last century. The strong opposition which was aroused by the annexation of Texas and California disappeared in the course of time as the advantages of the connection became clearly manifest. The commissioners who negotiated the purchase of Louisiana, having agreed to pay the price demanded, wished to receive only a comparatively small tract about the mouth of the Mississippi, but they were virtually forced to accept the vast region west of that river and north of the present State of Louisiana, a tract equal to a dozen states of the Union, which France threw in as a gratuity. We gained an empire, but the acquisition reflects no credit on the wisdom of the commissioners, or on the political prevision of their contemporaries.

The advantage which was sought in the Louisiana Purchase was access to the sea through the mouth of the Mississippi; but when railroads running east and west were developed to furnish an outlet to the ocean for the interior of the country, it was seen that this advantage had been greatly overestimated. The real advantage of the purchase was entirely unforeseen; and this is to a very great extent true with respect to every addition that has been made to the national domain. The Philippine Islands, with respect to the time and expense of transportation, are nearer the centre of population of the United States than was California at the time of its annexation; and in view of the vast but undeveloped resources of the Islands, and the unforeseen consequences of the transformation which the Orient is to undergo in this century, there is no wiser course open to the nation, even with reference to its own material advantage, than to adopt a waiting policy unembarrassed by pledges or promises.

Waiting is often less expensive than the consequences of precipitate action; and waiting in this case need not involve the United States in any extraordinary expenditure; for the revenues of the Islands under the control of the United States are sufficient to maintain their government and to carry on the requisite internal improvements. Those persons who look for a better condition of affairs under the supposed state of independence, should keep in mind the fact that the Islands have now the advantage of a public income which is greater than it would be if they should be left to the domination of a Malay or Eurasian oligarchy, unless new and more burdensome taxes were imposed; for, under native rule, the public revenue might be expected to decline on account of the withdrawal of capital, and by the lessening of imports consequent on the diminution of that part of the population which is accustomed to demand foreign wares; and this decline would make unavoidable the neglect of certain internal improvements, as well as of important departments of the public service — both significant steps backward toward a lower state of society.

Writers who have juggled with the statistics of Philippine revenues and expenditures have sometimes counted the cost of maintaining the American garrison as an item of expense imposed by the Philippines on the Federal treasury. But it is clear that if the soldiers of this garrison were not maintained in the Islands, they would be supported elsewdiere, and consequently the only item properly chargeable to the Philippines is the comparatively unimportant cost of transportation over what would be incurred for similar service if these troops were stationed in another part of the United States. For this expense there is a certain compensation in the enlightenment which officers of the army derive from experience outside of the continental limits of the country. Officers have need of some other outlook upon the world than that which may be acquired under the deadly monotony of garrison duty in Arizona, or on some other part of the frontier. With neither adequate opportunity nor sufficient means to enable them to reside for periods of military study in foreign countries, their service in the Philippines, under new conditions, and face to face with unfamiliar problems, gives them the advantage acquired by the study and solution of these problems.

It is possible that the consequences of victory may be quite as embarrassing temporarily as the consequences of defeat. But whatever embarrassment the United States may have suffered by the acquisition of the Philippines has been to a very great extent set aside by the efforts of the last twelve years. The social chaos of the years of transition has been reduced to order, and a government designed to increase the well-being of the whole population has been established and made effective throughout the archipelago. The public forests, of nearly fifty million acres, have been placed under regulations which the government of the United States might copy with great advantage to the present and future of this country. Courts have been created before which all cases, by whatever social class presented, may be considered freely and without prejudice. Provision for a revenue sufficient to maintain a proper government has been made without oppressive taxation. Five hundred thousand children and youth have been assembled from year to year in schools under intelligent instruction. In a legislative assembly, representatives of the people have an opportunity to participate in the work of governing, and to learn the meaning of liberty.