There are 1,200 islands in the Philippine group. They extend as far as from Maine to Florida. They have a population variously estimated at from 8,000,000 to 12,000,000. There are wild tribes who never heard of Christ, and islands that never heard of Spain. But among them are the people of the Island of Luzon, numbering 3,500,000, and the people of the Visayan Islands, numbering 2,500,ooo more. They are a Christian and civilized people. They wrested their independence from Spain and established a republic. Their rights are no more to be affected by the few wild tribes in their own mountains or by the dwellers in the other islands than the rights of our old thirteen states were affected by the French in Canada, or the Six Nations of New York, or the Cherokees of Georgia, or the Indians west of the Mississippi. Twice our commanding generals, by their own confession, assured these people of their independence. Clearly and beyond all cavil we formed an alliance with them.

A FEW PREGNANT QUESTIONS

We expressly asked them to co-operate with us. We handed over our prisoners to their keeping; we sought their help in caring for our sick and wounded. We were told by them again and again and again that they were fighting for independence. Their purpose was as well known to our generals, to the War Department, and to the President, as the fact that they were in arms. We never undeceived them until the time when hostilities were declared in 1899. The President declared again and again that we had no title and claimed no right to anything beyond the town of Manila. Hostilities were begun by us at a place where we had no right to be, and were continued by us in spite of Aguinaldo's disavowal and regret and offer to withdraw to a line we should prescribe. If we crush that republic, despoil that people of their freedom and independence, and subject them to our rule, it will be a story of shame and dishonor.

Is it right, is it just, to subjugate this people? To substitute our government for their self-government, for the constitution they

have proclaimed and established, a scheme of government such as we could devise ten thousand miles away?

Is it right, to put over them officers whom we are to select and they are to obey and pay?

Is it right to make tariffs for our interests and not theirs?

Are the interests of the Manila tobacco grower to be decided upon hearings given to the tobacco raisers of Connecticut River valley?

Are these mountains of iron, and nuggets of gold, and stores of coal, and hemp-bearing fields, and fruit-bearing gardens to be looked upon by our legislators with covetous eyes?

Is it our wealth or their wealth these things are to increase?

There are other pregnant questions, some of which perhaps require a little examination and a little study of the reports of our commanders.

Had they rightfully achieved their independence when hostilities began between us and them?

war?

Did they forfeit their independence by the circumstances of the

THEY WERE FIT FOR INDEPENDENCE

On the whole, have they not shown that they are fit for selfgovernment, fit as Cuba, fit as Greece, fit as Spain, fit as Japan, fit as Haiti or San Domingo, fit as any country to the south of us, from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, was when, with our approval, those countries won their liberties from Spain?

Can we rightfully subjugate a people because we think them unfit for self-government?

They say Aguinaldo, in the beginning, established a dictatorship. So did we. The difference is he promised to abandon it when independence was achieved, accompanied it with a form of government, and the soldiers under his command were eager to give way to the civil power, even when there came what turned out to be a false rumor that independence was not to be interfered with by us.

We, on the other hand, steadfastly refused to promise anything for the future, and we refuse it now. The dictatorship for a short time of the trusted and beloved leader of a nation fighting for freedom and the dictatorship forever of a foreign country talking about Chinese trade and mountains of coal and nuggets of gold are very different things.

REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENT

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It seems to me that the Filipino leaders and the Filipino people have shown themselves, under difficult and trying conditions, as fit for freedom and self-government as any people south of us on the American continent from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn. believe if we had dealt with them as it seems to me we ought to have dealt with them, they would have established their nation in constitutional liberty much more rapidly than has beeen done by any Spanish-speaking people, Certainly they would have compared favorably with Haiti, with San Domingo, or even with Mexico in her early days. They devised an excellent constitution. They had a congress, they had courts, they had a president, they had a cabinet. Much less than this was declared by our imperialist friends sufficient to make Cuba a nation entitled to recognition. It is true they declared a dictatorship for their transition period, just as Bolivar did in the South American countries: just as Massachusetts did with her committee of safety during the first few years of the Revolutionary war. They had newspapers, schools, literature, statesmen. They have exhibited remarkable fighting qualities, considering the enormous superiority of the mighty antagonist with whom they had to deal. Major Younghusband, an English writer of great intelligence, sympathizing himself with the British view of human rights and the relations of powerful countries to weak ones, which our friends have imbibed of late days, says that their people were stirred to their last outbreak against Spain by the effect of a powerful novel, just as our people in the old anti-slavery days were moved by "Uncle Tom's Cabin." They are Christians. In their houses and churches are found books, paintings, and other works of art. One pretty high authority-I