THE UNITED STATES AND THE PHILIPPINES CHAPTER I THE PHILIPPINES AND THE FAR EAST G EOGRAPHICALLY, the Philippine Archipelago fronts for a thousand miles and more on the coast of Asia, being part of that great chain of islands sweeping from Kamchatka to the Equator, of which the Japanese Empire forms roughly the northern half. Within a radius of thirty-five hundred miles of Manila, lives half the population of the globe. Sparsely inhabited themselves, and with their tremendous potential resources in food and other products scarcely touched, the Philippines lie within the shadow of great, over-populated countries ever seeking an outlet for their land-hungry, starving, congested millions. The fate of the Filipino people is inextricably mingled with that of the Far East as a whole, and any disposition made of them by the United States must take into account this wider problem. A preliminary survey of events and policies in eastern Asia may help, therefore, in fixing the nature and extent of our responsibility. It is natural, perhaps, to exaggerate the importance of one's particular theme. We believe, however, that when I the record is analyzed, it will be found that the terse message which sent Dewey's fleet to Manila Bay in 1898 carried in its wake a train of inevitable happenings which largely changed the destiny of the United States and the Far East, if not of the world. At that time our people knew little and cared less about conditions in China, or what was happening in all that vast territory beyond the Pacific. Engrossed in domestic affairs, uneducated as to the needs and value of foreign trade, and with no apparent material rewards at stake, the attitude of both our government and people toward Oriental affairs was largely one of indifference or of merely academic interest. It was Mr. Dooley who aptly expressed the bewilderment of our people at news of Dewey's victory, by saying that most Americans did not know whether the Philippines were islands or a breakfast food. In 1898 the transpacific carrying trade of the United States was represented by six small steamers of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, with but a handful of Americans doing business in Asiatic ports. Not only was the very considerable commerce of the Orient practically monopolized by Europeans, but the ancient Empire of China, with all its potential possibilities, was rapidly being dismembered. One after another its strategic harbours and richest provinces were passing into the possession or becoming the closed preserve of foreign Powers, with nothing in sight to hinder what seemed an inevitable "break up" and division of the spoils. By 1900 this scramble to secure specific territory or special privileges in China had reached the following pass: Great Britain possessed the Island of Victoria (Hong Kong), with its magnificent habour and naval base. She held Kowloon Peninsula (opposite Hong Kong), as also the |