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VOLUME III

JULY, 1902.

NUMBER 1.

Civil Rule in the

EVENTS OF THE MONTH

BY CHARLES H. DENNIS.

The seven weeks' debate in the national senate on the PhilPhilippines.ippine civil government bill came to an end June 3, when the bill was passed by a vote of 48 to 30. Three republican senators, Hoar of Massachusetts, Mason of Illinois and Wellington of Maryland, voted with the democrats against the bill, while one democrat. McLaurin of South Carolina, voted for its passage. By this bill the action of the president in creating the Philippine commission is approved. Future appointments of governor and vice-governor are to be made by the president with the advice and consent of the senate. The United States bill of rights is applied to the Philippines, except that the inhabitants are not given the right to bear arms and the right of trial by jury. The courts of the island are to remain as already established. After peace shall be officially declared a census will be taken and efforts will be made to discover the degree of fitness of the people for self-government. Arrangements for the lease, sale or other distribution of the public lands are authorized. Every citizen of the United States or of the Philippines is permitted to enter a certain quantity of agricultural and mining land. The Philippine government is authorized to issue bonds to secure money for the purchase of the lands of the religious orders. Provision is made for municipal improvements, not only in Manila, where an issue of $4,000.000 in bonds is authorized to pay for a Water and sewerage system, but in any ther municipality, bond issues to the

amount of 5 per cent. of the assessed vaiuation of the property being allowed in payment for such improvements. Authority to grant franchises for steam and street railways and other works of public benefit is given to the Philippine government, these franchises being subject to amendment, alteration or repeal by congress. The free coinage of a silver Filipino dollar is provided for, the weight and size of the coin being the same as those of the Mexican dollar, which is now the principal medium of exchange in the islands and which it is expected to supplant. A mint charge is established of one cent on each dollar struck from silver brought to the mint. This unique feature of the senate bill is widely criticised and is likely to disappear from the bill as finally enacted. In the house a measure which more fully embodies the views of Governor Taft of the Philippine commission seeks to establish civil government in the islands at once. It provides for an insular legislature having an assembly elected by the Filipino voters and authorized to send to Washington two delegates to represent the people of the islands. The house bill establishes the gold standard in the Philippines, authorizing the coining of a silver peso containing about 40 cents' worth of silver, two of them hav

ing the value of an American dollar. The proposition to create a native assembly, to which the Philippine commission, consisting of five Americans and three Filipinos appointed by the president, would have the relation of an upper house, has the warm support of Governor Taft, as has also the

(Copyright 1902, by the CURRENT ENCYCLOPEDIA COMPANY.)

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GEORGE F. HOAR.

U. S. Senator from Massachusetts.

plan to send two native delegates to Washington. Even if such avowed revolutionists as Aguinaldo and Mabini were sent, says Governor Taft, little or no harm would result, while the quieting effect upon the natives of giving them an important voice in their government at home and in the United States would be most valuable.

Senator
Hoar's
Speech.

it. In Cuba you have got the eternal grati-
tude of a free people. In the Philippine
Islands you have got the hatred and sullen
submission of a subjugated people. From
Cuba you have brought home nothing but
glory. From the Philippines you have
brought home nothing of glory." As to
the cost of the Philippine policy in the deg-
radation of American character Senator
Hoar said: "If a strong people tries to
govern a weak one against its will the
home government will grow despotic too.
You cannot maintain despotism in Asia and
a republic in America, If you try to deprive
even a savage or a barbarian of his just
rights you can never do it without becom-
ing a savage or a barbarian yourself." On
the subject of the nation's future policy to-
ward the islands the senator said: "Was
it ever heard before that a civilized, hu-
mane and Christian nation made war upon
a people and refused to tell them what they
wanted of them? You refuse to tell these

Of the many speeches made in the senate on the Philippine question while the civil government bill was under consideration, that of Senator Hoar in favor of independence for the Filipinos was without doubt the chief oratorical effort. Senator Spooner's speech summing up the case for the government, was the most notable one on that side of the question. The speech of Senator Hoar, delivered May 22, was, perhaps, the greatest heard in the senate for a generation, being an impassioned plea on behalf of the nation's ideals of liberty as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Contrasting the policy employed in Cuba with that employed in the Philippines, the venerable senator said: "For the Philippine islands you have had to repeal the Declaration of Independence. For Cuba you have had to reaffirm it and give it new lustre. For the Philippine islands you have had to convert the Monroe doctrine into a document of mere selfishness. For Cuba you have acted on it and vindicated

people this year or next year or perhaps for twenty years whether you mean in the end to deprive them of their independence or no. You say you want them to submit. To submit to what? To mere military force? But for what purpose or what end is that military force to be exerted? You decline to tell them." Denunciation of the water torture and other abuses of military rule led up to a declaration of the futility of establishing a peace which is no peace.

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stead of denouncing it. Answering the charges of cruelty brought against the American army, the senator said: "Never in the annals of time,-say what you will about the brutal policy of the administration, has there been carried by an army so much of amelioration, so much of upbuilding, so much of reform, of kindness and tenderness, as was carried by this army of ours under the instruction of William McKinley. It was a destructive war, of course, but along with the destruction of war were the constructive forces of peace and humanity." Mr. Spooner declared that he was not able to contemplate with equanimity the plan of admitting the Philippines to the union as a state or states. Nothing was dearer to him except his home ties than the belief that this government should be confined to this continent. On this point very few thoughtful Americans are likely to disagree with Senator Spooner. To dilute and contaminate American citizenship by admitting millions of orientals to its privileges would be a piece of folly not often surpassed.

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An able defense of the administration's policy was deSpeech. livered by Senator Spooner on May 29 and 31. He declared at the start that he was not in favor of

the

permanent dominion of the United States over the Philippines. However, it was impossible for the United States to leave those islands like a coward, abandoning them to tyranny, anarchy and chaos. He held that the question of the government's policy was definitely approved by the people at the last national election and that the minority should submit to that authoritative verdict and help to carry it out in

Roosevelt's

On Memorial day President President Roosevelt contributed to the disAddresses. cussion of the government's policy in the Philippines a remarkable address delivered at Arlington cemetery before a large audience, including many veterans of the civil war. In defending the good name of the army from the accusations of cruelty brought against it, he took occasion to denounce lynching in the United States. His language on this subject gave offense to many persons who assume to speak for public sentiment in the south. After declaring that the many barbarities practised by Filipinos against soldiers and natives friendly to American rule "cannot be held to extenuate any wrong doer on our side," the president continued:

"From time to time there occur in our country, to the deep and lasting shame of our people, lynchings carried on under circumstances of inhuman cruelty and barbarity-a cruelty infinitely worse than any that has ever been committed by our troops in the Philippines; worse to the victims and far more brutalizing to those guilty of it. The men who fail to condemn these lynchings and yet clamor about what has been done in the Philippines are indeed guilty of

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The Manila cemetery consists of two circular walls, about seven feet thick, pierced with holes, in which the coffins are placed. After a coffin has been deposited the hole is bricked up and faced with a memorial tablet. These graves are leased for five years, at the end of which, unless the lease is renewed, the coffins are taken out and the bones thrown into a pile just outside the wall. The walls of the cemetery are constructed of earth and rubble faced with stone, and the tropical rains soak through and rot the coffins. This method of burial dates back to the days of the domination of the Spanish Friars.

neglecting the beam in their own eye while taunting their brother about the mote in his. Understand me. These lynchings afford us no excuse for failure to stop cruelty in the Philippines. Every effort is being made and will be made to minimize the chances of cruelty occurring."

As to the nation's future policy toward the Philippines, the president said:

"We believe that we can rapidly teach the people of the Philippine islands not only how to enjoy but how to make good use of their freedom, and with their growing knowledge their growth in self-government shall keep steady pace. When they have thus shown their capacity for real freedom by their power of self-government, then, and not till then, will it be possible to decide whether they are to exist independently of us or be knit to us by ties of common friendship and

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Wright, bearing the date of May 23, but made public by the war department on June 6. The acting governor reported that on the former date outside of the Moro country the only portions of the archipelago not organized under civil government were the provinces of Lepanto, Bontoc, Batangas, Laguna, Principe and Infanta in Luzon, the islands of Mindoro and Samar and some small and unimportant outlying groups. "No armed insurrection exists in any of them," says General Wright. "There is no reason, so far as relates to peaceful conditions, why civil government in all may not be now established." This is most gratifying news. Wise management and the continued efforts of the American administration to improve conditions throughout the islands should render the peace lasting. That there is already a successful application of civil government to nearly all the important parts of the archipelago is reasonably certain from such credible testimony as has been supplied recently. Native sentiment as it is expressed in organized form by the so-called federal party asks for annexation to the United States, leading in time to admission to the American Union. This party recently sent to Washington Felipe Buencamino, formerly a cabinet officer in Aguinaldo's Malolos government, who makes the request for annexation as the party's spokesman. In a communication to the secretary of war regarding what may be done at once he says: "I recommend civil government, with full powers for the reconstruction of the ruined government organisms of the Philippine people; a legislature composed of a high and low chamber, in accordance with the provisions embodied in the bill reported by the committee to the house." It is reasonable to believe that the house bill which is thus warmly approved by this influential Filino would be generally accepted with satisfaction by the intelligent natives of the islands if enacted into law. With a poplar assembly to express the needs and aspintions of the people, with delegates of their own choosing in Washington, with provincial and municipal governments established by the native voters under the limited suffrage laws that have been enacted, it is highly probable that the average Filipino would find himself possessed of all the independence that he cared for particularly. There are one thousand American school teachers in the islands at the present

time and they are instructing the native teachers in the English language and in American methods of education. Governor Taft asserts that the people have returned to their peaceful occupations and that there is no secret insurrection boiling beneath the surface. While all the natives have a friendly feeling toward the civil government their sentiments toward the military vary in the various districts according to the degree of tact which has been shown by the commanding officers. Under an order of the secretary of war, dated May 31, the number of soldiers in the Philippines will be reduced at once from 31,700 to about

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