Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1902 — AMERICA’S MISSION IN THE PHILIPPINES [ARTICLE]

AMERICA’S MISSION IN THE PHILIPPINES

By Senator Charles W. Fairbanks

of Indiana

There has been considerable debate as to whether the constitution follows the flag. No matter how diverse and conflicting our opinions may be upon this subject, there is one opinion which we all entertain, and that is that, the American schoolhouse follows the flag. The transports which carried our soldiers into the Philippines also carried our school-teachers, until today there are some 835 American teachers distributed through 550 towns in the Philippines, and nearly “four thousand Filipinos ijre employed as elementary teachers.” Governor Taft says that the normal school at Manila was attended by 750 Filipino teachers and that “there is great enthusiasm on the part of the teachers in studying English and in preparing themselves.” The people of the Philippines are generally uneducated. Perhaps less than 8 per cent can read and write in any language. Fortunately, they evince a commendable desire for an education, and, I believe, we shall find in the magic of the schoolroom a potential influence working for the advancement of civilization, good order, and civil government in the Philippines. We do not find here any evidence of that imperialistic purpose which seems to disturb the imagination of our patriotic friends in opposition. What We Have Accomplished. When we came into possession the islands we found much need for the improvement of harbors, the construction of roads, the improvement of municipalities, for Spain, during her centuries of control, had done little toward the betterment of the conditions in the islands. We.have been carrying forward the work in an American way so as to promote the health, the commerce, and the prosperity of the people. While Spain, in 1896, appropriated nothing for public Improvements, our commission has already appropriated 51,000,000 for the Improvement of public roads, and a like amount for the improvement of Manila harbor. The public revenues have been faithfully collected and intelligently and conservatively administered, so that there is today in the insular treasury a surplus of about $5,000,000. " During the fiscal year 1901 the revenues of the islands amounted to $lO,817,662.31, and the expenditures were $6,763,821.68, leaving a surplus for the year of $4,053,840.63. This is certainly a most creditable exhibit. The surplus does not go into our treasury, but is to be devoted to making improvements in the islands—to the construction of much-needed works, long neglected by Spain. Our Record in Porto Rico. We invite the attention of our friends to what we have accomplished in Porto Rico for the advancement of the principles of republican government and for the promotion of the welfare of the inhabitants of that island. We heard much criticism a few months ago of our legislation with respect to that Island and its people, and the country was for a time deeply stirred, fearing that we were ignoring and subverting the doctrines for which

J our forefathers stood. It is a gratifying and reassuring fact, indeed, that the people are so sensitive of the national honor and that they will not readily sanction any supposed breach of it. The storm which raged with intensity for a time subsided in due course and the Integ- ’ rity and beneficence of our action are now beyond challenge. Porto Rico is enjoying a measure of republican government which is entirely new to her and is blessed with an unprecedented measure of prosperity. We are attempting to do in the Philippines, under greater embarrassment, precisely what we have been doing in Porto Rico, and If we will but persei vere in the right and have confidence in each other’s patriotic and humane purposes similar results will doubti less follow. Our Purpose in the Philippines. I supported the treaty of Paris with a full consciousness of what its ratiflj cation involved. I realized fully that : grave responsibilities would rest upon us by the cession of the Philippines. I did not support the treaty because of the material or commercial possibilities which the islands might afford our citizens. I have not been able to bring myself to the consideration of our duty in the islands from the standpoint of their commercial advantages to us, no matter how considerable they may be. I have from the beginning put our duty upon a higher plane. The obligation to care for and protect those who, through one of the great evolutions of human history have been committed to us, has seemed to me always to be our paramount duty. It does not matter to me whether the Philippines have gold in abundance or forests of rare and valuable woods, or fields of unexcelled fertility, or ports filled with a large commerce present or prospective. The supreme question with me, as with an overwhelming majority of the American people, has been and is that question which concerns our duty to men and to humanity. Question One of Human Rights. While we are a nation of tremendous commercial activities and untoid wealth, they are not our greatest glory, nor are they the controlling factors in determining our national duty. The questiqps of human rights and human liberty are the potential questions which have summoned our mightiest armies and have assembled our fleets and stirred our country to the utmost depths. It was not gold nor the dream of empire that summoned us in from the fields of peace to the theater of war. It was not the thought of territorial aggrandizement which led the American congress in the exercise of its exalted constitutional power to declare war against Spain. It was not the lust for mere martial victory for which 250,000 of the flower of the youth of the land left the vocations of peace and went down to the battlefields of the republic. No, not that. But be it said in honor and praise of the great republic that it was to overthrow the power of tyranny and to give to the oppressed children of men’ the privileges of republican government. Responsibility for Bloodshed. Whoever says that the course of the administration and the Republican majority in congress is inspired by the sordid and ungenerous motives grossly misjudges men. Aid of the government in its effort to maintain the laws wherever its jurisdiction extends and wherever it is assailed is not censurable, it is not criminal, and it never will be. Opposition to the efforts of the government to assert its lawful authority has never been regarded with favor. We erect no monuments to commemorate the efforts, no matter how earnestly and honestly they may have been rendered, of those who put themselves in the pathway of national duty and national progress. Blood has, indeed, been shed, but it has been shed in an effort to establish the lawful .authority of the government in territory which indisputably belongs to it by virtue of the law. I regret most sincerely that blood has been shed, but I am gratified to know that it is slot upon our hands. The Folly of Opposition. So long as a vestige of insurrection remains in the islands, opposition in this country means an increase in the death list of our soldiers and seamen. It means an increase of the money required to support the army and navy; it means an increase in the pension roll; it means hindrance in building up the waste places in the islands and in the establishment of civil government. Granted that such opposition springs from exalted motives, and I do not question it for a moment, we can only regret that there are those who so erroneously, though honestly, read their national duty. The suggestion that our attitude is governed by “the greed for gain and the lust for power” is unfounded and ungenerous. Our responsibility came unsought and without any desire whatever for the extension of our commercial dominion. All parties recognize that we are under certain obligations and dirties which we cannot rightfully or honorably abandon. We are in the Philippines, and must continue there, in the discharge of our. solemn duty. All parties seem in -accord as to this. The divergence of opinion is with respect only to a proclamation as to the length, of our stay. A Program of Progress. 1 Our present duty in the Philippines may be stated concretely thus: First, : put down all insurrection and compel recognition of American sovereignty:

second, establish schools and educate the people; third, promote public improvements, construct highways for the ready intercommunication of the people of the islands, improve harbors for the accommodation of commerce; fourth, erect municipal, provincial and insular governments, modeled, so far as possible after our republican institutions, and as rapidly as is practicable admit the Filipinos into the administration of their own affairs. These are a few of the vital objects to which we are addressing ourselves and which will engage our attention indefinitely. The Nation’s Moral Duty. We find in what the government has accomplished in the Philippines much to commend. We find in what it is doing the most abundant assurance of our ability to successfully solve the great problem which is upon our hands. We have the courage, we have the ability, to meet every emergency which lies before us. Let us go forward, animated by the one great purpose to discharge our duty in full measure, inspired by the same high purpose which actuated us when we resolved upon war against the Spanish power. Those who read in a large way the purpose of the All-wise Ruler see in the tragic events of the last four years a far-reaching Providence. Havana and Manila and Santiago and Buffalo tell of the mighty cost of human liberty; they chasten us; they show how narrow is the boundary set to our finite vision, and how we should address ourselves to the duties of the hour and courageously and hopefully await the demands of the future; they show that moral duties abide with nations as with men. If we shall nobly meet the demands of the hour, accomplish peace, and lead the Filipinos in the way of civilization and self-govern-ment, we shall have earned the approval of our own conscience and have won the admiration of the world. Having been twice defeated for President, it would be a decided come down for Mr. Bryan to be simply defeated for governor