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Moulton Library

Safiigor Tii#oto§loal Seminary J

Presented
by
The Rev. Robert Howard

CAPTAIN CANO.

THE MAN WHO TOOK THE ONE REMAINING SHIP OF MAGELLAN'S

FLEET BACK TO SPAIN IN 1 523.

THE MAN WHO DID WHAT COLUMBUS FAILED TO DO.

(Statue stands in the Official Palace in Manila.)

THE PHILIPPINES

^ AND thf:

FAR EAST

HOMER C. STUNTZ

CINCINNATI
NEW YORK

J E N N I N Cx S AND P Y E
EATON AND M A I N S

PREFACE.

It has beer, laid upon me to write this book. After
eight years' experience among similar social conditions
in British India, and more than two years' residence in
the Philippines, it came to me as a duty to set down in
order the things which American voters and American
Christians ought to know for their guidance in helping
shape the policies of our nation, and furnishing the sup-
port for our Missionary Societies in the work God has ap-
pointed each to do among these people.

Such readers as but dimly comprehend the essential
divineness of "the powers that be" will be puzzled to
know why so much space has been given to matters which
they would denominate purely political. This will cause
no confusion, however, to those who believe that God
works through nations as well as through His Church
for the establishment of the kingdom of righteousness.
Because I firmly believe that our army and navy, our
governor, the Commission, the judges, the constabulary,
and the schoolteachers, and all who toil with them have
a divinely-allotted part in Christ's program for the Fili-
pino people. I have tried to set forth some of the work
which they are trying to do. Here are nearly eight mil-
lion people emerging from the twilight of a belated civil-
ization into the high noon of modern life. If the purposes
of God for them in the Philippines, and through them
among the seven hundred million Asiatics, by whom they

6 The Philippines and the Far East.

are surrounded, are accomplished, there must not only be
evangelization, but legislation. Iniquitous laws must be
repealed. Righteous statutes must be enacted. The ris-
ing generation must be taught. Equitable taxation, hon-
estly collected and wisely administered, is as certainly a
part of the program of Jesus Christ for the Filiphio
people as the translation and distribution of the Scrip-
tures, or the establishment of the Christian Church.

Through the courtesy of Governor Taft I have had
access to all official sources of information, so that if
inaccuracies have crept in, it has been in spite of the best
opportunities to secure accurate information.

It would have been easy to incorporate serious crit-
icisms of some policies adopted by the Philippine Gov-
ernment. Looked at broadly, however, the tendency of
this Government is in the right direction, and I have not
felt that detailed criticism of what may be but temporary
policies deserves place in a permanent record.

The book has been written in the midst of very heavy
duties as pastor and presiding elder of this rapidly-grow-
ing work. The time necessary for patient revision could
not be secured. Literary finish was out of the question.
The controlling motive has been to arrange and present
as much information about the Philippines as was pos-
sible within the limits imposed. I pray that the book may
be accepted of Him in whose name it has been written.

Homer C. Stuntz.

Manila, Philippine Islands, January, 1904.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Philippine Archipelago, - 15

II. Who are the Filipinos? - - 51

III. Social Order and General Char-

acteristics, - - - - 42

IV. Historical Summary, - - - 60
V. The Friars, 79

VI. Why the Friars are Hated, - 91
VII. Why the Friars are Hated — Con-
tinued, ------ 104

VIII. The Insurrection of 1896, - 119

IX. The American Occupation, - - 135

X. Framing a Policy, - - - 155

XI. Some Constructive Legislation, - 169

XII. Educating a Nation, - - - 185

XIII. Further Improvements, - - 216

XIV. Resources, 244

XV. The Chinese in the Philippines, 265

XVI. The Friar Lands, - - - - 284

XVII. The Friar Lands — Continued, - 302

XVIII. Philippine Finance, - - - 322
XIX. The Government and Religious

Conditions, - - - - 341

8 Contents.

CHAPTER PAGE

XX. Why is Protestantism in the Phii,-

IPPINES? ----- 358

XXI. The Rei^igious Situation — A Gen-
eral View, . - . . 378
XXII. The Bible Societies, - - - 394

XXIII. Missionary Beginnings, - - 409

XXIV. Methodist Episcopal Church Be-

ginnings, 420

XXV. Methodist Episcopal Church Be-
ginnings— Continued, - - 434
XXVI. Presbyterians and Baptists, - 456
XXVII. Episcopal and Other Churches, 464
XXVIII. Some Difficulties Confronting

Mission Work, - - - 476

XIX. The Aglipay Movement, - - 488

XXX. The Philippines and the Far East, 497

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Statue of Captain Cano, - - - Frontispiece.

Map of the Philippine Islands,

Plan of the City of Manila, 12

Banyan-tree, Manila, 14

Typical River Scene in Luzon, ----- 18

Mayon Volcano, from Legaspi, ----- 21

Country Road in Luzon, near Balinag, - - - 23

A Tree FERN, --------- 25

BoAC, Capital of Marinduoue Province, - - - 28

On the Dinalupihan River, Bataan Province, - - 30

On Manila Bay, - - 41

Tree-house of the Gaddanes, near Ilagan, - - 43

igorrotes, .--.---.- 45

Manila Botanical Gardens, 59

A Filipino Belle, -------- 61

Monument to Legaspi and Urdaneta, Manila, - - 63

Cathedral, Manila, ------- 69

Fortified Gate and City Wall, Manila, - - - 75

San Sebastian (Steel) Church, Manila, - - - 83

Ruin of Catholic Building, - . - - - - 90

Two Friars in Augustinian Church Garden, Manila, 95

Catholic Church at Orani, Bataan, - - - - 103

Eleven Graves in Wall, ------- 108

Place of Execution in Manila, 1 14

Binondo Church, Manila, 117

Old Spanish Guns on Wall, Manila, - - - - 123

io Illustrations.

An Insurrecto Colonel, - -129

MoRO Houses, Jolo, 134

Temporary Hospital and Barracks, Santa Mesa, Ma-
nila, - 139

McKiNLEY Memorial Parade, Luneta, Manila, Sep-
tember 19, 1901, 147

Provincial Government Building, Tarlac, - - - 154

Old Wall and Moat, --.-.-.. 163

Bamboo Raft, Abra River, .-..-- 167

Two-mile Limit Post, near Manila, - - - - 178

Ship that Brought the Teachers, August, 1901, - 187

Typical Schoolroom, ------- igi

School Group, Pagsanjau, Luzon, 195

Girls' Public School, 199

Manila Trade School, - - 203

Manila Trade School — Plumbing, ... - 207

New Slaughter-house, Manila, - - - - - 211

Compulsory Education, - - - - - - 215

New Santa Cruz Bridge, July 4, 1903, . - - - 221

Our Only Railway, ------- 227

Embarrassment at a Ferry, - - - - - - 231

A Philippine Foot-bridge, 235

Among the Pines in Benguet, ----- 241

A Carabao Vehicle, - - 243

All Aboard! in a Sugar-field, 247

Gutta-percha Tree, Java, ------ 251

A Native Sawmill, -------- 255

Plowing for Rice with Carabao, - - - - 259

A Benguet Rice-field, 263

Manila Vessel on the Bay, - . - - . 264

Chinaman Grinding Herbs, ------ 269

Market Scene in Manila, - 283

Evening, .-.- 291

Illustrations. 1 1

PAGE

Guadalupe Ruins, NEAR Manila, - - - - 321

Early Morning in a Manila Street, - - - - 331

The Dray ok the Philippines, ----- 336

Girls' School, Villa Nueva, 340

The Filipino's Point of View, 34'^

Mountain Pines near Raguio, ----- 357

Methodist Chapel. Melauon, ----- 361

Church Interior, with Worshipers, - - - - 367

First Training-school for Filipino Women, - - 373

An Anting-anting Shirt, 381

Religious Procession in Manila, - - . - 386

Interior of Catholic Church, Manila, - - - 393

The Benguet Road, ------- 40S

Ordinary Coasting-boat, - - - - - - - 412

Ox-carts in the Bay, Awaiting Passengers, - - 413

A City Gate, --------- 419

Rev. Nicholas Zamora, 422

Paulino Zamor.\, -------- 423

Bishop H. W. Warren and Methodist Mission Staff, 425

Methodist Chapel, Atlag, M.\lolos, - - - - 430

Rev. Felipe Marouez and Sons, - - - - - 431

A NiPA House, -------- 433

Methodist Mission Press, Manila, - - - - 437

Mission Homes, Manila, ------ 443

A Protest.ant Group in Bataan, 448

Tree-fern Branches, - - 455

Manila Botanical Gardens (Second View), - - - 463

A Mountain Waterfall, ------ 469

Bishop James M. Thoburn, ------ 487

Carved Church Door, Manila, ----- 496

A Group of Nations, ------- 505

A Summer Scene — "The End," 509

MANILA

THE CITY OF MANILA.

CHAPTER I.
The Philippine Archipelago.

The Philippine Archipelago lies between 4° 41' and
21° N. latitude, almost exactly south of the heart of China,
and north of a line running- through the center of .Aus-
tralia. Its latitude is the same as Southern India, Somali-
land, Venezuela, and Costa Rica, and it lies 12° and more
south of Cuba.

The Archipelago comprises over one thousand islands,
only eleven of which possess real geographical impor-
tance. The largest of these eleven is Luzon at the extreme
north ; next is Mindanao in the south ; then Panay, Ne-
gros, Mindoro, Samar, Leyte, Cebu, Masbate, Bojol, and
Paragua n:ake up the list of larger islands. Of these,
both Mindoro and Paragua are thinly populated, and have
comparatively little available land for agricultural pur-
poses, though heavy forests abound on both islands.

The area of the entire group is one hundred and twelve
thousand square miles. This gives the Philippines a land
surface about equal to all New England, plus New York ;
or Illinois, Indiana, and two-thirds of Ohio. Compared
with European States, the Philippines contain as many
square miles of land surface as Denmark, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Switzerland, and Greece ; or a little less than
Great Britain and Ireland, and a little more than Italv.
The Islands lack but twenty-eight thousand square miles
of being as large as Japan. On the score of size they may
well be expected to assume a separate station among the

»5

i6 Thu PniijppiNivs AND the; Far East.

governments of the world, and can easily bear a popula-
tion of twenty millions, or enough to be equal to national
demands.

The Archipelago is distinctly volcanic in its char-
acter, and evidences of volcanic activity are by no means
all a matter of historical record. There are many active
volcanoes in different parts of the group. The most beau-
tiful is Mayon, in Southern Luzon. It is a perfect cone,
rising to a height of 8,900 feet, and is in a state of con-
stant activity. Its last severe eruption took place in
1888. At that time red-hot stones fell several miles away,
lava streams destroyed the villages about its base, and
ashes lay so thick on roofs ten miles away as to break
them in by their weight. The fierce glare lit up the
country for fifty miles. Alount Apo, in Mindanao, is the
loftiest of these active volcanoes, reaching an elevation of
10,312 feet.

The Taal volcano, less than two days' travel south
from Manila in Luzon, has been the most destructive in
recent years. The first eruption of sufficient importance
to be recorded by the historians of those times was in
1641. Again in 1706, 1709, 1716, 1731, 1749, and 1754,
this volcano burst forth with more or less violence, deal-
ing death and destruction upon all sides. Manila is but
thirty-six miles from this volcano as the bird flies, and
during the eight days of its eruption in August. 1749,
people in the capital ate their midday meal by the light of
candles, so thick was the cloud of ashes that filled all the
sky ; and on all sides priests and friars were besieged
night and day by penitents, alarmed and seeking confes-
sion. The smell of fire and smoke, added to the stench
from the dead fish cast upon the shores of the lake, in the
center of which Taal volcano is located, caused a malig-
nant fever which carried off half the inhabitants of the

Thh; Philippinic Akchip£;i,ago. 17

province. The city of Taal, the capital of the province,
was utterly consumed, and the site is crusted over with
lava to this day. This remarkable volcano is much vis-
ited from Manila. Looking into the crater, which is about
4,500 feet wide, one sees three distinct lakes of boiling-
liquids, the colors of which are constantly undergoing
change. — green, vellow, and chocolate hues being clearly
discernible. No one can guess when it will again pour
out its floods of fire and ashes.

Earthquakes are of rather frequent occurrence in all
parts of the group except in the long, rocky island of
Paragua. For some unknown reason that thinly-popu-
lated strip of rock and forest seems wholly free froiii
seismic disturbance. Serious shocks took place in 1610,
November, 1645; August. 1C58; in 1675, 1699, 1796, and
1852. In the shock of 1645 all but one monastery and
two churches then standing in Manila were shaken down,
all the public buildings destroyed, and the governor-gen-
eral was with much difficulty extricated from the ruins
of his palace. In 1863 occurred an earthquake which did
terrible damage, though it lasted only half a minute. In
Manila alone four hundred were killed outright, two thou-
sand were wounded, many dying of their injuries, and a
total property loss of $4,000,000 (gold) was experienced.
Official returns give forty-six public buildings thrown
down, and twenty-eight more practically destroyed ; five
hundred and seventy private buildings were wrecked, and
five hundred and twenty-eight more racked so severely as
to require rebuilding. Ruins of this latest severe earth-
quake can be seen in several places about Manila yet. The
heavy tile roofs which had been in almost universal use
until that terrible experience have been displaced by cor-
rugated iron since that time.

Slight earthquake shocks are of very frequent occur-

i8 The Philippines and the Far East.

rence ; and so accustomed have the people become to them
that they are scarce!}' a matter for comment. The new-
comer naturally feels slightly nervous when his pictures
take to clattering on the walls, books fall from their
shelves, and the framework of the house creaks and
groans like a ship laboring in a heavy sea. Nothing but

A TYPICAL KIVER SCENE IN LUZON.

a repetition of the sudden devastations of 1863 will con-
vince old-timers that a Philippine earthquake is to be
taken seriously.

The Archipelago owes its existence to the forces which
still fly their banners from volcano tops, and shiver the
thin crust of rock and soil on its surface. In the Tertiary
period the Philippines, together with Borneo, Java, Su-

Till-: i'liiLii'i'iM'; Akciiii'i:i,.\cU). 19

matra, and the Celebes, were thrown up from the ocean
bed, or severed from the mahiland of Asia ; probably the
latter. ]\Ir. Wallace, in his "Malay Archipelago," argues
for the unity of the entire ]\Ialayan group. His theory is,
that they were separated from the Continent of Asia in
a comparatively recent geological period, and that for
purposes of commerce and government they should be
treated as one group. He says :

"For reasons which depend mainly upon the distribu-
tion of animal life, I consider the Malay Archipelago to
include the Malay Peninsula as far as Tennasserim and
the Nicobar Islands on the west, the Philippine Islands
on the north, and the Solomon Islands, beyond New
Guinea, on the east. All the great islands included within
these limits are connected together by innumerable smaller
ones, so that no one of them seems to be distinctly sep-
arated from the rest. With but few exceptions, all enjoy
a uniform and very similar climate, and are covered with
a luxuriant forest vegetation. Whether we study their
form and distribution on maps or actually travel from
island to island, our first impression will be that they form
a connected whole, all the parts of which are intimately
related to each other. The Malay Archipelago extends
more than four thousand miles in length from east to
west, and is about thirteen hundred from north to south.
It would stretch over all Europe from its extreme western
limits, far into Central Asia, or would cover the widest
part of South America, and extend far beyond the land
into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It includes three
islands larger than Great Britain, and in one of these —
Borneo — the whole of the British Isles might be set down,
and it would then be surrounded by a sea of unbroken for-
ests. New Guinea, though less compact in shape, is prob-
ably larger than Borneo. Sumatra is about equal in size to
Great Britain ; Java, Luzon, and the Celebes are about
the size of Ireland."

The Philippine Archipelago can not be conceived of

20 The Philippines and the Far East.

and treated as apart from this Malayan empire, insular
and peninsular, of which it is but a fraction. It is bound
up with these other islands by ties of soil, climate, race,
language," and commerce, and whatever is done for the
Philippines will inevitably affect the destinies of millions
who, like the Filipinos, are Malayan in blood and speech.

The climate of the Philippines is very greatly misun-
derstood in America. It is a tropical climate, modified
greatly by the proximity of the sea and by the presence
of ranges of mountains in all the larger islands. Though
so near the equator, the temperature rarely reaches ioo°
(Fahrenheit) in the shade, and has never been known to
fall below 60° in Manila. The mean monthly temper-
atures in Manila are as follows : January, "j"] ; February,
78; March, 81 ; April, 83; May, 84; June, 82; July, 81 ;
August, 81; September, 81; October, 80; November, 79;
and December, yy. This gives a mean temperature for
the year of 80°. These temperatures, however, do not
tell the whole story. The excessive humidity makes the
heat doubly trying. In the months from April to July it
is a moist, steamy heat that has an enervating influence
upon Europeans and Americans, especially if they must
be exposed to the sun in the hotter portions of the day.
The nights are nearly always comfortable, thus making
restful sleep a possibility even in the hottest months of
the year. I have now spent two years in the Islands,
and have only suffered two hot nights. In each of these
cases my discomfort was as much due to poorly-ventilated
rooms as to climatic conditions.

So far as mere physical comfort is concerned, the cli-
mate of the sea-level in the Philippine Islands surpasses
that of any State in America, unless it be Southern Cali-
fornia. It is never so hot as to make the punkah, that
bane of life in India, a necessity. It is never so cool as

Tiiiv Piiii.iri'ixK Archipi-xago.

to make a fire necessary. Overcoats are never needed.
The same weight of garments can be worn the twelve
months round with no feeUng of inconvenience ; and one
never sufifers from the gusty, raw weather which is so
trying in nearl\' all our own States. During the months
from November to .Vpril the climate is as near perfection
as can be found in the world. Days of glorious sunshine,

MA VON VOLCANO, FROM LFLGASPI.

not too hot if one can avoid the rays of the sun from about
eleven to four o'clock, are followed by nights of starlight
and moonlight of such brilliance as can only be found
near the equator. When Americans learn the perfection
of the Philippine climate from November to March, mul-
titudes will divide their time in the East between Japan
and our own possessions.

Professor Dean C. Worcester has this to say of the
climate here :

22 The Philippines and the F^ar Hast.

"I have never yet experienced at sea-level a day when
a white man could endure severe physical exertion withouE
suffering from the heat. If one is permanently situated
in a good locality where he can. secure suitable food and
good drinking water ; if he is scrupulously careful as to
his diet, avoids excesses of all kinds, keeps out of the sun
in the middle of the day, and refrains from severe and
long-continued physical exertion, he is likely to remain
well, always supposing that he is fortunate enough to es-
cape malarial infection. I knew an old Spaniard who,
at the end of a residence of thirty-nine years in the Phil-
ippines, was able to boast that he had not been ill a day.
He had always been so situated that he could take care
of himself, and he had done it. But how is it with the
explorer, the engineer, the man who would fell tim-
ber, cultivate new ground, or in some other way develop
the latent resources of the country? Any one really ex-
posed to the climate under such circumstances will find
it severe. He can not humor his digestive apparatus ; for
his bill of fare will be limited to what he can carry and
what the country affords, and he will be fortunate in-
deed if, sooner or later, he does not suffer severely from
bowel trouble. He will be more than fortunate if he
escapes malaria, which is especially prevalent where forest
land is being cleared or new ground broken. The cli-
mate is especially severe on white women and children.
Malaria and digestive troubles aside, the health of the
colony is fairly good, and the danger from epidemic dis-
ease comparatively slight. Smallpox is always present;
but it seldom spreads rapidly, as a large percentage of the
natives have it during childhood, so that there is hardly
material for an epidemic. Cholera is infrequent, but when
it once starts it can not be controlled. The natives believe
that a black dog runs down the streets and the disease
breaks out behind him. They declare that it is the will
of God, and refuse to take the simplest precaution."

This was written before the terrible cholera epidemic
of 1902. It was shown conclusively in that scourge that
modern sanitary methods are effective in staying cholera

The Philippine Archipelago.

in the degree to which they can be apphed ; and during-
this year (1903) such has been the vigilance of the health
authorities in Manila, cholera has been held in check in
the face of what would have been insuperable difficulties
under Spanish rule.

As a practical proof of the comparative heathfulness
of the Philippine Islands, the experience of the American
a r m y i s conclusive.
Though exposed to the
full effects of the cli-
mate, the health of the
troops has averaged
but little less satisfac-
torily than while in bar-
racks m Kansas or
Texas or Dakota.

The monsoon, or wet
season, is commonly
reported to be the most
trving for Americans.
It usually begins about
the middle of July, and
continues with more or
less severity for three
months. During these
m o n t h s the normal

rainfall in central Luzon is one hundred inches, or eight
feet on the level. Rivers are flooded, roads become
bottomless, bridges are washed out, and all the earth
is soaked. As a matter of fact, this season is one of the
most enjoyable in the whole year. With the exception of
two or three storms, either amounting to typhoons, or. at
the least, to furious wind and rain lasting from one to ten
days each, this much dreaded season is one of alternate

A COUNTRY ROAD IN LUZON,
NEAR BALINAG.

24 The Philippinks and the Far East.

showers and sunshine, much Uke a wet summer in one
of our home States. The excessive and continued moist-
ure causes clothing to mildew, and boots, shoes, and all
leather goods not in constant use, to mold. But brisk
rubbing and a few hours of sunshine restores them to a
condition almost or quite as good as before they were dis-
colored. This season of moisture is the time for sowing
rice, and getting it safely on toward harvest. If the rain-
fall is scanty, crops are also scanty, prices rise, and all
sufifer. The whole economic situation year by year de-
pends upon this unpopular monsoon season, and perma-
nent residents learn to endure the moisture, and even the
mold and mildew, with light hearts, knowing that plenty
of rain means plenty of food and prosperous times.

The much dreaded typhoon does its deadly work in
this season. As a matter of fact the typhoon is not nearly
so deadly as its American cousin, the cyclone. The cy-
clone is a whirling, electric storm, sweeping everything
from its path of destruction. The typhoon is, in the main,
a furious but straight-ahead wind-storm, piling the sea
up in mountain-like waves, overturning small houses, and
sending insecure roofs sailing away from the houses they
had covered. But the mischief wrought by a dozen ty-
phoons will not equal that done by one cyclone. I have
passed through two typhoons in Manila, and they are com-
paratively mild affairs.

The soil of the Archipelago is of a high average fer-
tility. It produces astonishingly heavy crops of sugar-
cane, hemp, rice, and tobacco year after year, with not only
no artificial enrichment, but with the very idea that ariy
soil needs such enrichment undreamed of by the native
owner and cultivator. I crossed the Pacific in 1902 with
an expert in the sugar industry. He had been sent by a
syndicate in Buenos Ayres to make tests of Philippine soils

A TREE-FERN.

Tiirc PiiiijppiNK Arciiii'Klaco. 27

with reference to their adaptabiHty to growing sugar-cane.
His official report proved the soil of Negros and parts of
Luzon superior to any soils in South America, Hawaii,
Java, or Cuba for such purposes. Lack of transportation
facilities and distance from large markets, as well as diffi-
culties comiected with labor, led him to report unfavorably
as to the immediate investment of capital in the sugar
business here.

Minerals abound. The best coal yet found is in Ba-
taan, a peninsula on the west coast of Luzon. In ]\Iindoro
and Cebu are coal deposits, and in the small adjacent isle
of Semarara. Like Mexico, the entire surface of the
Archipelago seems impregnated with gold to a greater or
less extent. It is for the most part detrital, and is found
in paying quantities in and along water courses, as in
placer deposits elsewhere. The natives work in the
placers with cocoanut pans. Mindanao has some elevated
auriferous gravel-beds, well situated for hydraulic mining.
Quartz gold is found in abundance in the province of
Camarines and on the island of Panaon. Quartz veins in
granite are found at Paracale. Northern Luzon and Min-
danao have extensive copper beds ; also the provinces of
Lepanto-Bontoc ; and Cebu has extensive lead deposits.
There is an abundance of iron ore on half of a dozen
islands. The Sulu archipelago has pearls. Leyte has coal
and oil; Biliran, sulphur; Samar. coal and gold; Romblon,
marble ; Masbate, coal and copper ; Marinduque, lead and
silver; and Catanduanes, Sibuyan Bohol, and Panaoan,
gold. In the province of Benghet, Luzon, gold mines
showing assays as rich as $27.50 to the ton, and many
showing from $6 to $12 to the ton, are now located by
American mining experts. It is more than probable that
the Philippines will yet rival Alaska in the production of
gold. Iron ore of excellent quality, yielding up to 85 per

The; Philippines and the Far East.

cent of pure metal, exists in Luzon, and other excellent
iron districts are found elsewhere in the islands. In the
last century, iron mines were worked with great success
in Morong, but were finally closed by the government on
the ground that the workmen, who were Chinese, were
not Christians. The luckless owner was obliged to send
all these workmen to China at his own expense, and the

BOAC, THE CAPITAL OF THE PROVINCE OF MARINDUQUE.

governr-ient refused to pay him for the iron he had al-
ready delivered, on the ground that he had insulted the
Chvirch in employing pagans. The iron mines at Angat,
in Bulacan, are richer and purer than the best Spanish
ore, which is so popular in the iron foundries of England.
In different parts of the Archipelago, large deposits of
sulphur and arsenic are found, in the volcanic regions
sometimes of the utmost purity, and sometimes mixed
with copper and iron. Explorers report valuable dis-

The Piiiiji'i'ixi'; Akciiipklago. 29

coveries of slate, borax, plumbai^o, granite, coral rocks,
sandstone, and limestone. There are deposits of gyp-
sum on a small island opposite the village of Culasi
in Western Panay, and also IMindoro. Large beds of
good marble are found both in Luzon and Romblon.
Mines of natural paint, probably red lead, are found in
A'lindoro. Petroleum occurs in several islands, one of
the best districts being in Western Cebu, near Toledo,
v/here free-flowing wells have been opened.

Once American industry and enterprise obtain a foot-
hold in the Philippines, and enough discoveries are made
to stimulate more active search, it seems reasonably cer-
tain that valuable mineral wealth will be found in com-
mercial quantities.

No view of the Archipelago would be complete which
failed to emphasize the great beauty of the scenery. A
trip in the interior, or a voyage among the islands reminds
one of Tennyson's description of the spot on which Enoch
Arden spent the long years of his banishment. Here one
sees, —

"The mountains wooded to the peak; the lawns
And winding glades, high up like wa3's to heaven ;
The slender coco's drooping crown of plumes ;
The lightning flash of insect and of bird ;
The luster of the long convolvuluses,
That coiled around the stately stems, and ran
Even to the limit of the land ; the glows
And glories of the broad belt of the world, —
All these he saw ; he heard
The myriad shriek of wheeling ocean-fowl.
The league-long roller thundering on the reef

The sunrise broken into scarlet shafts
Among the palms and ferns and precipices;
The blaze upon the waters to the east ;

Thu PuiLipriNiis AND the; Far East.

The blaze upon his island overhead ;

The blaze upon the waters to the west ;

Then the great stars that globed themselves in heaven,

The hollower-bellowing ocean, and again

The scarlet shafts of sunrise."

ON THE niNALlTIHAN RIVER,
BA'IAAN PROVINCE.

CHAPTER II.

Who ARii Tiiii Filipinos?

It is a fundamental mistake to think of the inhabitants
of {he Philippine Islands as one people. They are as far
from being one people as the inhabitants of Europe, India,
or South America. Nearly all the blunders of our critics,
and many of the failures of our legislators, arise from
this misunderstanding. We must know who are meant
by "the people of the Philippines," if either legislator,
administrator, or missionary is to proceed with wisdom.

Two main divisions emerge at the very outset of our
investigations. These are the non-Christian tribes on the
one hand and the Christianized Filipino on the other.
With some modification, these two chief divisions of the
Filipino total might be called Aboriginal and Invader,
though ncitlier term would wholly stand off from the
other. But, with some exception, it is true that the non-
Christian peoples were here first, and the Christianized
inhabitants are descendants of invaders, who have driven
the aborigines into the mountains and forests.

Both of these classes again subdivide on ethnological
and linguistic lines of cleavage, until, instead of a homo-
geneous people speaking one tongue, as in Japan, we have
heterogeneity raised to its highest power, — sixty-nine
sorts of people, speaking thirty-four languages, and nearly
a dozen dialects in addition. And the ethnologist assures
us that his science has not spoken her last word as to how
many fractions of the whole people may yet be found,

32 The Philippines and the Far East.

While it is true that the term "FiUpinos" usually sig-
nifies the so-called Christianized descendants of early
Malay invaders, and that it is with these people that the
government and the missionary are chiefly concerned, yet
the lesser fractions of the whole population are full of
interest.

Proceeding in chronological, rather than numerical
order, the first of these non-Christian bodies that demand
attention is the dwarf Negro, called in Spanish, Negrito,
(Neg-ree-to). There are about thirty thousand of these
little people in the Islands. They are scattered quite
widely, being most numerous on the island of Luzon.

The Negrito has the crispy hair, wide nose, thick lips,
and long heel of the African Negro, but never attains a
stature of five feet. His head differs markedly from that
of the pure Negro, being almost exactly round. He is a
savage pure and simple. He builds no house. If his
.sleeping place by the root of some huge tree or on the
lee side of a log is approached by any human being, he
scurries away like a rabbit. It is seldom that the most
Vvary traveler can find a group of families together. They
plant a little mountain rice here and there, but depend
mostly on such game as they can get with their bows and
arrows, with which they are quite skillful. They are
particularly fond of monkey-meat, and the poor simian
who is surrounded by a half dozen Negritos with their
wicked little bows and lithe a'rrows, has small chance of
escape.

Here and there traces of Negrito blood can be found
among regular Filipinos — kinky hair and a width of nose
never found among the Malay natives ; but in the main
the tiny black man of the deep forests has kept to himself
and to his kind.

Ethnological investigation carried on here for three

Who ark the Fhjpixos? 33

years by the bureau of which Dr. David P. Barrows has
been superintendent, identifies the Negrito as the true
aboriginal inhabitant. He is probably related to the pure
Negro of Melanesia, being dwarfed by long centuries of
forest life, with its exposure and poor fare. A timid tribe
of savages they have so far successfully resisted such
rude attempts to civilize or Christianize them as Spain
and her friar agents knew how to make. It is to be feared
that they will perish from aiuong the inhabitants of the
Philippines in obedience to the law which exacts obedi-
ence and labor from all who would continue to live on the
face of the eart'i.

The Igorrotes (Ig-6r-r5tes) are a more formidable
race of savages. They are as decidedly a mountain people
as the Negritos are forest dwellers. The Igorrote is found
in the lofty Cordillera that runs northward through the
body of Luzon. There are several tribes, each having
its own habits, customs, and dialect. They are of medium
stature, with strong marks of Malay blood in their forms
and features. Ethnologists are inclined to regard them
as aboriginal Malays, strongly mixed with Chinese blood.
Later chapters will show that Spain drove many Chinese
to take refuge in the mountains of Northern Luzon, and
it is known that they lived among the Igorrotes. The
Igorrote is sturdily independent. Three Spanish gov-
ernor-generals tried to add to their military laurels by
conquering them, and defeat attended each attempt.
Friars have exhausted every effort to reach the Igorrote,
but entirely in vain. He still lives and hunts, and takes
the heads of his enemies in the tribal race-feuds, exactly
as he did when Spanish occupation began.

He is usually a peaceable savage so far as outsiders
are concerned. Only when they mix in his quarrels do
the Igorrotes trouble other races. He is trusted entirely
3

34 The; Philippines and the Far East.

by those who know him best. I saw an American officer
of police hand over five thousand dollars in silver coins
to a half-dozen Igorrote carriers, telling them plainly
what was in the boxes, take their rude scrawl of a receipt,
and let them start off with that specie on their backs for
a three-days' march into the mountains, and later heard
that every package came through safe. As laborers they
are quite satisfactory 7vliilc fJicy care to zvork ; but with a
few coins over and above present needs, they quit, and
enjoy their gains. On their own' lands, nearly all of
which they rescue from steep hillsides by a laborious
method of terracing with stone walls, they work with
patient and really skillful hands. Dr. Barrows says, "The
Igorrote is the only scientific agriculturist which we have
discovered in the Philippines." They carry water for
irrigating these pitiful little patches, in ditches of their
own devising, around mountain sides, and across valleys
even, by means of pipes or stone sluices carried on pillars
of rock. Two or three crops a year are wrung from
these bits of hillside terraces, and carried hundreds of
feet up or down to the huts of the tribe.

There is no political organization beyond that of the
village. Union of village with village is unknown. An
American official told me of having spent the night in
an Igorrote town from which five other clusters of huts
could be seen on near-by mountain sides. Every one of
these villages was at feud with all the others, and no one
ventured five miles from his own home without imminent
risk of losing his head. It is estimated that at least sixty
Christianized Filipinos have lost their heads at the hands
of these savages within the past twelve months ; while
the number slain in village feuds and in payment of "the
debt of life" between tribes is many times greater. Some
hundreds of Igorrote children are now in the public

Who akic thiv Fh.h'inos? 35

schools. What the influence of education may be on
these stoHd, filthy, industrious savages it is difficult to
predict. Many who know them (juite intimately are very
sanguine. It is a long leap from savagery, with its in-
herited instincts, to high schools and normal training.
The children of the Igorrote may take it in safety; but
our experience with the black man and the red man is
not such as to make it entirely certain that the sudden
change will bring about unmixed good.

The Tinguianes are a queer people in Northern Luzon.
They are an agricultural people, and have many curious
customs. The head man, assuming his duties takes the
following oath : "May a pernicious wind touch me, may
a flash of lightning kill me, and may the alligator catch
me asleep, if I fail to fulfill my duties!" By their laws,
says Mr. Foreman, "the crime of adultery is punished
by a fine of thirty dollars value and by divorce ; but if
the adultery was mutual, the divorce is pronounced abso-
lute, without the payment of a fine." They are pure
pagans. They have no temples. Their idols are hidden
away from public gaze in remote caves and ravines.

W^here an epidemic is raging, certain small idols,
called Anitos, are carried about and exhorted to stay its
dread effects. When a child is to be named, the infant
is carried into a dense forest, and the priest pronounces
a name, at the same time raising a heavy knife over the
child's head. On lowering the knife he strikes it deeply
into a tree. If sap flows freely from the knife-wound,
the name first pronounced is fixed upon. If not, the
ceremony is repeated until the will of their Anitos is
discovered in a prompt gush of sap. These people are
strict monogamists, the bride being bought by the father
of the bridegroom before she has attained maturity. They
live in small huts, built high up among the branches of

36 The Philippines and tpie Far East.

large trees to be above their enemies. From their custom
of tattooing themselves and blacking their teeth, it is
supposed that they are descendants of shipwrecked
Japanese or of the members of a stray Japanese colony.
Catholic friars abandoned all attempts to gain any relig-
ious hold upon either the Tinguianes or Igorrotes many
years ago.

It was a strange fate that met the Spaniards in these
Eastern seas. In their own land they had long fought
with the Moor, or Moro, as they called him. That they
should find the followers of Mohammed in these far-
distant islands must have filled them with dismay. But
the Moro was here. When Legaspi came to complete
the conquest and organization of lands discovered by
Magellan, he found Mohammedan Malays from Borneo
rapidly gaining ascendency in the Archipelago. Much
of the southern part was already overrun. Mindoro was
wholly Mohammedan, and Manila was under the control
of an insolent and fiery Moslem datto, or petty sultan.
Though driven out of Manila and oiT both Mindoro and
Luzon, the Moros still hold all the Jolo group of islands,
and practically all of the large and fertile island of Min-
danao. The Moro is a Malay, with little admixture of
blood. His religion is a degraded Mohammedanism.
He writes and prints his books in the Arabic character,
though his speech is a strange mixture of pure Malay,
Visayan, and Arabic. He is a warlike man, having held
the officials in terror during nearly the entire period of
Spanish occupation. With his own weapons he is prac-
tically irresistible. Like "Fuzzy-Wuzzy,"

" 'E rushes at the smoke when we let drive,
An' 'fore we know 'e 's 'ackin' at our 'ead ;
'E 's all 'ot sand an' ginger when alive,

An' gen'r'lly a-shamniin' when *e 's dead."

Who ark tiik Fiijpixos? 37

Like all Mohammedan warriors, they are taught to
believe that special rewards await him who dies figliting
"the infidel." Warriors who are lusting for an oppor-
tunity to die are desperate fighters.

"All males above sixteen years of age go armed, un-
less prevented from doing so by law. The JMoros make
their own steel weapons, which are often beautifully fin-
ished, and are always admirably adapted to the purposes
for which they are intended. In close combat they usually
trust to the barong — a weapon fashioned somewhat on the
plan of a butcher's cleaver, with thick back and thin razor
edge. It is capable of inflicting fearful injury. To lop
ofif a head, arm, or leg with a barong is merely child's
play. The strong and skillful warrior prides himself on
being able to halve an opponent if he can catch him
fairly across the small of the back. . . .

. "The straight kris (pronounced kreese) is a narrow-
bladed, doubled-edged sword, used for cutting and thrust-
ing. The serpent kris, with its wavy, double-edged blade,
is used for thrusting, and inflicts a horrible wound. The
caiiipilaii is a straight-edged, two-handed sword, with a
blade wide at the tip, and steadily narrowing toward the
hilt. It is used for cutting only, and is tremendously ef-
fective. Under all circumstances a Moro carries a barong,
kris, or campilan thrust into his sash. If he expects
serious trouble, he has, in addition, a shield of light wood,
and a lance with a broad, keen head. The Moro is crazy
to get hold of firearms.

"The men are very skillful boatmen and sailors. Their
praiis, which are carved out of logs with great skill, are
frail-looking affairs, but bamboo outriggers prevent their
sinking, even when filled with water."*

Among the Moros the custom of "running amuck,"
or "juramentado," still prevails. When a Moro wishes
to end his life in a blaze of religious glory, and make

■'■Worcester, pp. 154-158.

38 The Philippines and the F'ar East.

sure of a high seat in the Mohammedan paradise, he be-
comes a self-appointed slayer of infidels. He presents
himself before a priest, or pandifa, and takes a solemn
oath to die killing unbelievers. After this he bathes in
sacred water, shaves off his eyebrows, secretes his mur-
derous harong or "the cursed Malayan kris" about his
person, and sallies forth. Once in the presence of Chris-
tians, be they men, women, or children, he falls upon
them, killing and wounding all he can reach until he
himself is struck down. He asks no quarter. It is glory
to die fighting. So blind are these men in their mad fury
of religious bigotry that they have been known "to seize
the barrel of a rifle on being bayoneted, and drive the
steel into themselves farther in order to bring the soldier
at the other end of the piece within striking distance and
cut him down." One of these wretches killed twenty-
three men, women, and children in Mindanao during
1903, before he could be stopped in his furious career by
death or mortal wounds. He received twelve bullet
wounds, and was finally clubbed to death. His relatives
take great pride in his devotion, and recite the list of
his victims with much satisfaction. They believe that
he may be seen just between twilight and dark of the day
of his death riding his white charger in the abode of the
blessed.

During 1902-3 they tried to drive our troops out of
Mindanao, and met the surprise of their lives. Captain
J. J. Pershing led troops against them, smashed their
"forts," swept their "first-class fighting men" away at
every charge, and so humbled their pride that they are
likely to settle down into tolerably good citizens. Special
legislation adapted to their needs has been provided.
General Leonard Wood is their governor. In an up-
rising in Jolo in November, 1903, General Wood broke

Who are the; Filipinos? 39

their military strength beyond remedy. The ]\Ioro is in
process of civiHzation. He has been compelled to give
up slavery by legislation put into force since General
Wood took charge.

There are seven main racial and linguistic subdivi-
sions of the typical Filipinos, between each of which
there is more or less of suspicion, if not actual distrust
and dislike. This, added to language barriers, makes it
impossible to speak of "the Filipino people" as one hav-
ing common aspirations or common sympathies. There
are many lesser divisions with which the limits of this
work will not permit me to deal. Nearly all of the latter
will disappear with the introduction of a common speech
(English) and that breaking down of provincial barriers
which will come with better postal facilities and railways.
These seven main fractions of the total population will
lose their identity very slowly, if at all.

Beginning at the south, these seven divisions of the
Christianized Filipinos are Visayans, Bicols, Tagalogs,
Pampangans, Pangasinans, Ilocanos, and Cagayaiios. A
rough count of advance sheets from the new census gives
the Visayans the lead in numbers, with an approximate
total of 3,225,000; Tagalogs come next, with 1,500,000;
Ilocanos and Bicols follow, with about 500,000 each ;
while the Pampangan and Pangasinan peoples number
about 335,000 each. Visayans of varying speech, and
wide differences of feature and stature as well as mental
and moral status, till all the so-called "Southern Islands"
except the portions of Mindanao and Jolo, which are
entirely occupied by jMoros. Bicols are only found in
the very south of Luzon. Tagalogs are great wanderers,
but their own peculiar territory is Southern and Central
Luzon. Pampangans and Pangasinans are chicHy found
in provinces of the same names in Luzon ; and Ilocanos

4© The Philippines and the F'ar East.

are at home in the Northwest Coast provinces of the same
island, though, Uke the Tagalogs, they are a venturesome,
commercial people, and are found in all provinces of
Northern Luzon and in all parts of the Archipelago.
Cagayaiios live in the valley of the Cagayan River, in
Northeastern Luzon.

The languages of these seven races all spring from
the original Malay. But they have become as completely
differentiated as Spanish and Italian, or Portuguese and
French. Each has its own grammar and vocabulary.
None of the races named can understand each other, the
nearest approach to an exception being in the case of the
comparatively small body of Pampangans, whose speech
is sufficiently akin to Tagalog to enable them to follow a
conversation in a loose general way, after a little practice.

There are other marked differences among these peo-
ples which lie deeper than languages. The Tagalogs are
the most enterprising, the most quarrelsome, the most
restless race in the Islands. Partly because of their shar-
ing more largely in European culture through living in
Manila and the immediately adjoining provinces, but
chiefly because of strong racial tendencies, they have
come to be recognized as the leaders in all movements
looking toward progress. The chief insurrections of the
past have been Tagalog insurrections. The insurrection
of 1896-7 and opposition to the American regime were
both begun and officered almost wholly by Tagalogs.
Aguinaldo is a Tagalog. The Partido Federal, or Fed-
eral party, and the Nationalist party, are officered and
made up of members of the same race. The Tagalog is
everywhere. He is fond of change. He is a trader and
a traveler. Many Tagalogs have studied and traveled
in Europe after having taken courses of study in Manila

Who ark tihc I^iijpixos? 41

institutions. Few of the other races have been far from
their island homes.

Next in alertness and progressiveness come the Ilo-
canos. They, too, are migratory. They "swarm off"
from home hives, and settle in far provinces. Pangasinan
province has at least a population one-third Ilocano. The
rich Cagayan Valley, in the extreme north of Luzon,
has a high percentage of the same race. Among the
Igorrotes of various tribes in the mountain provinces of
Luzon, business is almost wholly in Ilocano hands. Offi-
cers of our army who have had wide experience with
the various races, are practically unanimous in their good
opinion of the Ilocano people. They give them credit
for more industry, enterprise, and trustworthiness than
any of the other races with which they have been in
contact.

The Visayans are, as a whole, a less progressive, more
quiet, peace-loving people. The insurrection of 1896-7
took but feeble hold on them. Only in Samar and parts
of Cebu did our army have serious trouble with the na-
tives, and even there the hand of the restless Tagalog
was ever present.

ON MANILA BAY.

CHAPTER III.
Social Order and General ChaRx\cteristics.

The Philippine social order is much the same in its
broad outlines as it was when the Spanish discovered
the Archipelago. At that time the majority of the people
were living in independent communities under the rule
of chiefs called dattos, and their lieutenants, who com-
posed the nobility of the village and formed a hereditary
caste. Below these were the plebeians, or working,
trading peasantry ; and below these still were the slaves.
These latter were chiefly captives taken in the almost
incessant forays which were carried on against neigh-
boring communities.

The Spanish avithorities, civil and religious, broke
down the hereditary authority of the dattos and their
assistants by drawing several villages into one govern-
ment, called a piicblo, leaving each unit of fifty families
as a "barangay," or village, and appointing over each of
these villages, or "barrios " a "cabeza," or head, whose
immediate accountability was to the head or "presidente"
of the pueblo. This amalgamation was accomplished
slowly, and in spite of much open and secret opposition.
Several insurrections have left their bloody trail across
the earlier attempts to destroy hereditary chieftainship
over each village. And all the efforts of the Spanish
authority — civil, military, and religious — have failed to
abolish the caste spirit which seems to be inherent in all

Social Ordi:u and Gi;xi;rai. Ciiauacti:ristics. 43

the Far East. There are still three classes in the social
order — the priiicipalcs, or class of superior wealth, fam-
ily, or position ; the working people; and the dependientes,

TREE-HOUSE OF THE GADDANES, NEAR ILAGAN,
ISAUELLA PROVINCE, LUZON.

or dependents of men of "light and leading." These
classes are not hedged about with any such inviolable
caste restrictions as prevail in India ; but they are sharply
marked throughout the Islands, and persist in the same

44 The Philippines and the Far East.

families with almost as much certainty as where actual
caste bonds are thrice riveted. This puts almost un-
limited power into the hands of a few at the top of the
social pyramid. The dcpcndientes, at the bottom of the
scale, have good native capacity. But as tenants-at-will,
or occasional laborers on the large hemp, tobacco, or
sugar estates, they are, in fact as well as in name, de-
pendent upon the caprice of some particular great man,
who is a kind of visible providence to them. They must
vote as he wishes. They must live where he wishes.
Their domestic matters even are not free from the sway
of this member of the superior class. Their thriftless-
ness makes it all the more easy for the wealthy and in-
fluential to keep them well under control, as it is easy
for them to fall into debt to the chief man. The book-
keeping is done by the powerful creditor. In some parts
of the Islands the principalcs hold hundreds of people
in practical serfdom through the operation of this cus-
tom. Many large planters keep their hold upon laborers
for their fields and factories by holding the lash of a
perpetual indebtedness over scores of families, many of
whom have worked out all their obligations twice and
thrice over, but, unfortunately, can furnish no tangible
proofs of such freedom. In Spanish times, judges, if
mcorruptible — as was seldom the case — looked upon
such means as justifiable, as they afforded the only prac-
ticable way of securing labor needed to carry on the
business of the country, and hence refused to lift the
unjust load. What American courts will do when those
who sit on the bench become familiar with the condition
of tens of thousands of laboring and servant classes,
remains to be seen. It is to be hoped that they will see
that justice is done, even if some cane-fields stand uncut.
This centralization of social, religious, and political

Social Order and Genkrai, Characteristics. 45

influence in a practically hereditary class is one of the
chief evils of the Filipino social condition. It makes it
possible for demagogues and professional agitators to
capture thousands by gaining ascendency over a very
few leaders. It leaves the masses helpless, ready to be
stampeded into movements the animus of which they no
more comprehend than they understand the causes of
their practical enslavement. Human nature being what
it is, it is not to be expected that so much power in the
hands of a few will be exercised with that disinterested-
ness which alone could free it from pernicious conse-
quences. Here and there the power will be us^d for un-
selfish ends. But not so as a matter of general averages.
The "tao," or common man, must be made to feel his
essential dignity, and that there is for him and for his
children a door of opportimity kept open whereby he
may better his condition, before the social order can be
even measurably free from blemishes.

Until 1863 no public school opened its doors to the
children of the "tao." How poorly this system has been
worked since that time may be seen in Chapter XII.
The mechanic, the servant, the farmhand saw the chil-
dren of their hereditary masters sent to private schools,
the fees of which he could not begin to pay. Thus the
relative position of parents and children has been main-
tained generation after generation, exceptions occurring
with sufficient frequency to prove the rule, and at the
same time demonstrate the innate capacity of the common
people. Already the public schools, with all their ad-
vantages free to rich and poor, are beginning that very
disturbing, but wholesome, process which was once
called "turning the world upside down," and is needed
from time to time when social conditions become inverted.
Of the thousands who have been most prompt to avail

46 The Philippines and the Far East.

themselves of the advantages offered by the schools, the
children of this large class of poor and middle-class peo-
ple, form a very large majority, and it is with no little
misgiving that the hereditary class of priiicipalcs see
laborers' sons distancing their own boys in learning Eng-
lish, and getting a general grasp of that knowledge which
even they know "is power." On more than one occa-
sion I h.ave heard Governor Taft express the fear that
the people of these Islands will be the easy prey of selfish
agitators as long as the social order remains substan-
tially unchanged. And, indeed, proofs are to be had for
the asking. At the present time one Dominador Gomez
de Jesus is on trial for sedition in Manila. He organized
the "Union Obrera," or Labor Union, and used it appar-
ently as a cover for spreading seditious doctrines among
the masses. The evidence shows that, through a few
leaders, he swept thousands into the movement, pocketed
their fees, and used them as a means of gaining his ulti-
mate end, — that of reviving the hopes of the people in
the "lost cause" of insurrection. The crowds were led
like sheep. So they have been led in all the dreary past.
So they will be led until this order of things is broken
up, and it is recognized that, —

" A mail 's a man for a" that,
For a' that and a' that!

Among the unfavorable characteristics of the Filipino
people, their critics name untrustworthiness, indolence,
ingratitude, and cruelty. In a greater or less degree
these charges have, unfortunately, too much foundation
in the admitted facts of daily life to allow even their
warmest admirers to enter a general denial. Admission
gf some truth in these hard accusations, and such ex-

Social Okukr and Genkkal Characteristics. 47

planations and qualifications as the case will permit, is
the only frank and honorable course. And of all people
under the sun, descendants of the Anglo-Saxon race
should remember that stone-throwing is a dangerous
pastime for those whose houses have much glass in their
construction.

Untrustworthiness, let us remember, is a fault met
with among all nations. If Filipinos have a larger share
of this unlovely trait than other peoples, let it be remem-
bered that comparative savagery is but three centuries
off, and that such has been the reign of injustice and
blind force under which they have lived, that deception
was their only defense against merciless oppression. Let
it be remembered, also, that even the teaching of their
spiritual guides puts no severe ban upon deceit. In the
Jesuitical scheme deceit is good or bad according to the
cause in which it is employed. Candor and blunt truth-
fulness have never been prominent characteristics of the
Spanish nation as a whole. Few characters in European
public life have left such indubitable proofs of a uniform
policy of deceit and treachery as Philip the Second hiiTi-
self. The experience of the Filipino people could not
have been better adapted to encourage untruthfulness on
a wide scale. Forced labor ; excessive and uncertain
taxation ; courts which sold justice to the highest bidder;
police fleecing the prosperous and protecting the ladrone
for a percentage of his stealings ; greedy Church officials
charging for all services rendered, and spending their
gains either in unseemly living or in the aggrandizement
of their orders. — all these causes, combined with the
fact that those among whom they were in operation were
a subject people, unarmed and helpless, conspired to blur
the image of pure truth, and make a resort to lying ap-
pear almost excusable,

48 The Philippines and the P'ar East.

Indolence is a fact of Filipino life that especially
grates upon Americans. With our almost terrific ac-
tivity, the seemingly untroubled idleness of the average
Filipino is exasperating beyond measure. There can be
no evasion of the fact. Drive through any provincial
city street midforenoon, and see the idle men and women
leaning from the openings which pass for windows in
their homes, and idly smoking, if proof is needed. Con-
tractors and civil engineers in charge of road-building
in the provinces meet one almost insuperable difficulty, —
the unwillingness of the native people to labor. Capital-
ists visit the Philippines, see opportunities for invest-
ment, but after looking into the labor question abandon
their plans and invest no money. Profitable tillage of
the soil ; profitable working of the excellent- mineral de-
posits ; the construction and operation of railways to
open up the rich interior of the larger islands, — all these
enterprises, so urgently needed if the Filipinos are ever
to see the fulfillment of their own desires for their coun-
try, depend upon labor.

Qualifications and explanations of these wholesale
statements can readily be found, but not of sufficient
number or weight entirely to break their force. Many
Filipinos are models of industry. I know servants who
are on duty twelve to fourteen hours of every day, and
who do their work as thoroughly as Chinese or European
servants. Captain Butt, of the Quartermaster's Depart-
ment in Manila, displaced many of his American drivers
and wagon-men, and filled their places with Filipinos.
He declared that they were more faithful to their duties
than the Americans had been. The Atlantic, Pacific
and Gulf Company, now engaged in building the new
$3,500,000 docks in Manila, say that, out of more than
one thousand Filipinos who have now been in their em-

Social Okdick axd General Ciiaractkristics. 49

ploy more than one year, the great majority liavc given
good satisfaction. But this great firm of contractors has
built a village for their employees, furnishing a cockpit
and band for their amusement, and exhausted their in-
genuity iu other directions to keep their native laborers
contented. Not all employers of labor can go to such

IGORROTTES.

expense. In a recent tract Aguinaldo says : "All, and
every one must awake and arise out of our lethargy, and
work. Arise ! Give your attention to work and thus
bring your country and its poor, suffering inhabitants
out of their great misery. Without manual labor we
can expect nothing."

If one is openminded he will find several more or
4

50 The Philippines and the Far East.

less satisfactory explanations of this habit of taking life
easy, which has so firm a grip on literal millions of the
Filipino people. The climate is unfavorable to sustained
exertion. It is warm. It is continually warm. There
are no long, cold winters against which both food and
fuel and warm shelter must be provided. Conditions
make life easy. The ever-present bamboo and neepa
palm furnish material for the frail house that shelters
the household from sun and rain. For from ten to fifty
dollars he can build anything from a rude cottage to a
six-room house. The waters are alive with edible crea-
tures. Fish, crabs, prawns, shrimps, and other food
products of sea and river can be had at a minimum of
effort, and at any time, day or night, during every year.
Rice is usually plentiful and inexpensive. A few days'
v.'ork each month will either give sufficient care to the
crops to secure all the rice the family can use, or earn
money to buy it. To the man so situated there is
scarcely any way to make severe and sustained industry
attractive. He sees no call for it. His needs are few.
Why he should toil in the heat he does not understand.
He prefers a few days of leisurely labor, and more days
to pet his favorite fighting-cock, or frequent the cock-
pit and bet his money on the bloody battles of the gallera,
or to sleep quietly in his own house.

This climatic effect upon habits of industry has been
powerfully re-enforced by governmental and social condi-
tions. Taxes under the Spanish regime were put up to
auction, and that was the least evil of the system. Col-
lections were made the occasion of a highly-organized
system of "squeeze." Each gohernadorciUo, or petty
governor, was furnished with a list of taxes paid under
his predecessor. These lists were seldom revised. He
must turn in as much money as had been received from

SociAi. Order and Gknkrai, Ciiaractickistics. 51

that villai^e or group of villages in previous years, or
make good the deficit out of his own estate. The favor
of high Manila authorities was shown freely to such
olificials as made the largest gains in tax receipts. What
these gains meant to the people was a kind and degree
of oppression such as we can but dimly understand.

And when to these extortionate methods of tax-
gathering were added the petty exactions of the old
police, or Guardia Civil, demanding fowls, eggs, milk
and goats from poor villagers, and sneering at any sug-
gestion of remuneration, it begins to be apparent that
he was happiest who had the least of this world's goods.
And when to all this burden were added the depredations
of thieves, or "ladrones," with whom the police were
openly confederate, and ceaseless demands for money
from friar and priest for baptism, marriages, funerals,
masses, and shrivmgs, it is quite clear that the Filipino
had little prospect of enjoying the fruit of his toil, and
may have easily come to the conclusion that he would
toil just enough to sustain life and keep a shelter over
his head. With fixed taxes of a reasonable amount,
collected once only ; with police protection against
ladrones, and priests shorn of power to monopolize all
churchly functions ; with good roads, railways, and bet-
ter methods of tilling the soil. — there is good reason to
believe that this admitted defect in the average Filipino
character will gradually pass away.

As to other indictments — ingratitude, cruelty and the
like — they are not so serious, nor so readily proven. In-
difference to the infliction of pain does appear to be a
charge that can be truthfully lodged against nearly all
inhabitants of the East. It is true of the native of India,
and in a degree is true also of the Chinese. But a cam-
paign of education has never been carried on against

52 ThK PlIILli'PlNIiS AND THli FaK EaST.

cruelty to dumb animals. The people have never been
allowed to have the Bible, with its lessons of love and
tenderness toward all creatures that God has made. The
people who were their examples were the people who
founded and maintained the Inquisition with all its bloody
and fiendish cruelties visited upon men and women, and
that in the name of the compassionate Christ !

The passion for gambling is a serious fault in the
Filipino character. After two years in the Islands I
am convinced that gambling is the worst vice of the
country. The natives do not drink to excess. But as
a people they are victims to this baleful habit. I have
known men to pay two hundred per cent interest for
money with which to back a favorite game-cock. They
will stake their last bit of property, and even wager their
children or their wives, so mad is their infatuation. Our
cook does not own a single garment that he is wearing.
He has wagered his very garments on cock-fights, while
his family suffers for food. The habit bears the worst
possible economic fruit. Hoping for the easy gains of
the card game or the cock-pit, idleness loses its blame-
worthiness. Debts piled high by reverses in the gallera
or with the fascination of panginga or inonte cards,
bring the gambler into a bondage from which he sees
no escape except by again wooing the fickle fates of
games of chance. Aguinaldo shut every cock-pit, and
as nearly as possible stopped all gambling, while he was
at the head of the Insurrection government, and he is
now issuing pamphlets to his people begging them to
abandon the evil practice. The former captain-general
of the Insurrection says :

"Again I must caution you against gambling of all
kinds. Happy will be the day when our provincial gov-
ernors and municipal presidentes take steps to stamp out

SociAi. ()i;i)i;k and GiiNF.RAi, Characticristics. 53

this evil, even though it does contribute considerable to
the different treasuries. Nobody denies that the cock-pit
as well as the pack of cards is one of the greatest evils
menacing these islands. How many gamblers and others
subject to this evil suffer ruin ! They do not hesitate to do
anything when the fever controls them. They mortgage
their property ; then even sell their children, and some-
times their wives, and commit other acts of greater dis-
honor as a result of their greed of gain waged on the green
board. As a result they become ladrones. Many have
to flee from justice, and become worse than common
criminals, and stoop so low as to murder helpless coun-
trymen for the sake of a few pesos with which to gam-
ble. In a word, the cards and the cock-pit are our ruin.
More dealh penalties can be traced to this curse than any
other soi'rce. Shall we abandon this weakness and enjoy
prosperity, or ccMitinue and forever lie in misery?"

Favorable characteristics are many. The Filipino
people are polite. It is innate. Not Persians nor
Japanese have more instinctive graciousness. Some one
has said,

" Politeness is to do and say,
The kindest thing in the kindest way;"

and by this definition the population of these Islands
rank high among the people of the earth. This charm
of manner, this suave self-effacement in public places,
is in marked contrast with the self-assertiveness seen
among our own people. After a year or so in the Phil-
ippines, the manners, or lack of them, on our street cars
and in places of pul)lic resort strike one as rude and
boorish in the extreme.

Hospitality is a strong point in the native character.
There is not a hotel in tlie PhUip[^i)ies that eaters to tlie
Filipino trade. Manila, with well toward three hundred
thousand people, has no such a hostelry. It is not

54 The Philippines and the Far East.

needed. Every one who comes to tlie city stops with
"parientes" or relatives ; with "amigos," or friends.
Nothing else is thought of as a possibility. In all my
trips into the provinces I have shared in a hospitality
which spared nothing from basket or store or garden
or house accommodations in the effort to make me feel
perfectly welcome to all that the homes afforded.

Loyalty to family ties is another praiseworthy char-
acteristic of the Filipino that is well-nigh universal.
There are no poorhoiises in these Islands. None are
needed. Every poor person is a relative of some one.
Somewhere in the circle of relationship every dependent
person is made welcome to a share of such provision as
can be supplied, and to a corner in the house, no matter
how crowded, and in all this there is no making of wry
faces as though it were a hardship. It is recognized as
a duty that prosperous relatives owe to their own kin
who have not succeeded so well in the battle for home
and bread, and even to drones in the family hive.

Capacity for culture is abundantly proven to belong
to all branches of the population. While their gifts
show to better advantage in studies in which memory
and imitation are called into play, yet proofs are not
vvanting that in the sciences and professions they can
take high rank. The Civil Commission has this to say
of the educated classes :

"The educated Filipinos, though constituting a minor-
ity, are far more numerous than is generally supposed,
and are scattered all over the Archipelago ; and the Com-
mission desire to bear the strongest testimony to the
high range of their intelligence, and not only to their
intellectual training, but also to their social refinement,
as well as the grace and charm of their personal charac-
ter. These educated Filipinos, in a word, are the equals

Social Ordkr and Gknkral Characteristics. 55

of the men one meets in similar vocations — law, medicine,
business, etc. — in Europe or America."

Graduates of the university have naturally betaken
themselves to the only careers open to them under the
political conditions in which they were to live ; viz., law,
medicine, and the Church. Among- the lawyers, Pro-
fessor Semper remarked thirty years ago, were to be
found advocates worthy to be compared with the best
in Spain. But on account of the anti-modern spirit
which prevailed at the university up to a recent period,
and the repression of free intellectual activity in the
Islands, there was neither opportunity nor inducement
for ambition to undertake studies in the scientific, social,
and political subjects which have been fashionable in
Europe, but which might have had dangerous conse-
quences in the Philippines. Nevertheless the influence
of literary and professional Filipinos who had been edu-
cated at Manila and in Europe was very marked in recent
political history of the Islands.

All competent observers have remarked that the Fili-
pinos have a natural aptitude for instruction, the chil-
dren being mentally quick. Many Tagalogs can speak
several languages, and the English used by representa-
tive Filipinos in the United States is noticeable for its
idiomatic excellence. Their capacity for one branch of
elementary culture is shown by the fact that they knew
how to read and write, with alphabets of their own, when
they were first discovered by Europeans.

"Filipinos have filled chairs of chemistry, botany, med-
icine, and pharmacy at the university. The draftsmanship
of the atlas of the Philippines, recently published by the
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, was the work
of Filipino draftsmen under the direction of P. Jose

56 The Philippines and the Far Hast.

Algue, S. J., the director of the observatory. Although the
geological and other scientific works are not available for
examination, it is easy to judge by their titles what they
doubtless are. All such works are pretty much the same
everywhere. They are mostly mechanical repetitions of
observations and discussions in imitation of models set
at the European centers of study. From testimony be-
fore the United States Philippine Commission, given by
the Jesuit fathers, we infer that the Filipinos take kindly
to scientific studies. In ethnology, Filipinos have pub-
lished articles and works upon the history, religion, and
customs of the Filipinos, and early alphabets, besides
essays on the modern political situation and Spanish leg-
islation. Pardo Paterno, who was prominent in the in-
surrection of 1896, wrote a history of the pre-Spanish
civilization of the Filipinos, and another work upon the
social influence of Christianity. Of Filipino literary men,
the best known was the unfortunate Dr. Rizal, whose
reputation as a physician and man of science has been
eclipsed by his literary renown, and still more by his
tragic fate. His writings, and especially his novel, 'Noli
me Tangere,' which was first published in Germany (with
a motto from Schiller), rendered him obnoxious to the
authorities, and he was the most illustrious of the hun-
dreds of victims who were executed at Manila for com-
plicity in the insurrection of 1896."*

The result of three years' work in the newly-estab-
lished American schools demonstrate the capacity of the
Filipino mind for receiving culture. With liberty of
speech and research, and the utmost encouragement
which any government can give the youth of a country,
there is a bright prospect before the people of this group
of Eastern Islands.

Filipinos are very fond of music. Nearly every
home has some instrument, and some member of the
family can play it. Harps, horns, violins, and pianos

* Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1899-1900.

Social Ordicr and Gknkral Cii.\racti:uistics. 57

are the most common. Several large firms in Manila
handle all kinds of musical instruments, selling almost
exclusively to Filipino customers. Piano and harp are
always taught in girls' schools carried on hy the sisters.
Every city has its hand. Some of the performances of
Filipino orchestras and bands are equal to anything one
hears in America or Europe. The famous Constabulary
Band of Manila, made up exclusively of Filipinos, and
led by an American Negro, goes to the World's Fair
at St. Louis in 1904. It will be a treat for even crit-
ical Americans to hear them render the best music that
has ever been written. Performers do wonders, repro-
ducing melodies heard but once or twice. At one of our
services an orchestra ofifered their help with the music.
Unfortunately our hymn-book contained words only.
The minister in charge played the air on a cornet before
each hymn was sung, and the entire orchestra imme-
diately reproduced them, with time and harmony so
nearly perfect as to leave us fairly bewildered at the
apparent ease with which it was done.

They are also devoted to such amusements as are
provided by the theater. Plays with the most inter-
minable plots, and requiring several days for their pro-
duction, are staged in remote provincial cities, and mul-
titudes sit spell-bound by the hour as they follow the
movements of gaudily-dressed warriors doing heroic
battle with pasteboard dragons to rescue fair heroines
from disaster. M. Montano, a French investigator, tells
of a play which he witnessed on the east coast of Luzon
in 1880. It required a month of hard training to pre-
pare the village young people who took part in it. It
was rendered on the occasion of the election of a gobcr-
nadorcillo, or petty governor. A beautiful princess was
lost in a desert. She was in sore peril from wild beasts

58 The Philippines and the Far East.

(of pasteboard) and a magician shepherd who pressed
his love upon her. After songs, endless dialogues and
marvellous feats of arms, the finale was as follows :

The princess had resisted the magician shepherd in
spite of his threats, and had subdued the monsters to
her will. Now appeared on the scene the valiant Prince
of Tuscany, who alone of all the searchers had been
able to find the missing princess in the desert, with whom
he is desperately in love. The prince, however, has one
capital fault which would forever prevent his marriage
with the princess. He is a Moro — that is to say, an
infidel — while the princess is a fervent Catholic, and
feels in duty bound to conceal from him the sentiments
with which his splendid appearance and valor has in-
spired her. The prince presses his suit, and falls upon
his knees before the princess, who is half won, but still
restrains herself sufficiently to say that perhaps she might
have listened to the seductive words of her wooer were
it not for his wicked religion, which he must renounce
if he expects to receive any kindness from her. At this
])oint, says M. IMontano. the audience, completely
rapt by the play, held its breath in order not to lose
a syllable of the dialogue, and manifested its enthusiasm
by following the words of the actors with low-cadenced
whistles. The Bicol author knew, that for his audience,
non-Catholic and enemy are synonymous terms, and
hence the intensity of feeling at the wooing of a Chris-
tian by an infidel. The play ended by the conversion of
the Prince of Tuscany and his marriage to the princess.

While the characters in this play are European, the
ideas of princes, embassies, magic, Christian, and infidel
seemed to be familiar or congenial to the native customs
and temperament.

With all their limitations, Filipinos are two centuries

Social Ordi-r and General Characteristics. 59

nearer the goal of human progress than any of their
Malay cousins, and when the new forces of education,
religion, and a government of fairness and freedom have
all done their work, we may expect the many to attain
to those levels now occupied by the few, and their own
achievements in the arts, in literature, in the professions,
and in political leadership will stop the mouths of their
critics.

' >' .-■'

^^•^^^

^' '" Wm^f -c^i^

<':*>

i.v.--;v;:. ., ^, ! "■

'.- /

"• f^^ff*-^'- """S^K^

*^fe..

''^'jw^^HU

MANILA BOTANICAL GARDENS.

CHAPTER IV.

Historical Summary,

The Philippines were discovered by Magellan, the
man who did what Columbus failed to accomplish.
Columbus set out to find a passage-way to the East Indies
by sailing westward. He discovered the Western Con-
tinent, and with its discovery earned a title to lasting
fame. Nevertheless he failed to find the East by sailing
West, which was what he set out to do.

His discovery stirred the world of navigation pro-
foundly. A Portuguese nobleman by the name of Fer-
nando Magalhaens, who had achieved distinction as a
soldier and navigator, but had foresworn his native
country because of ill-treatment received in a military
expedition in Africa and because his own king would
not aid him in his ambitious plans for discovery, ofifered
his services to King Charles the Fifth of Spain. The
king "entered into an agreement to furnish Magalhaens
(Magellan) with five ships of from sixty to one hundred
and thirty tons each, fit them out with supplies, arms,
and a crew of two hundred and thirty-four men. Ma-
gellan was to spend ten years, if necessary, in finding
spice islands in the south of that ocean seen first by
Balboa at Panama. He was so sure of success that he
vowed that if he failed King Charles might strike ofif his
head. If he succeeded, his male heirs and their heirs
after them were to govern such islands as he annexed
to Spain, under the authority of the crown of Castile.

Historical Summary,

He was to give the king one thousand ducats as ro\al
dues if he discovered and annexed six or more islands,
and one-fifth of all profits if less than six islands were
added to the territory of Spain.

A FILIPINO BELLE.

August lo, 1 5 19, the little fleet sailed from Seville.
After mutmies and delays by storms and bv the rigors
of a Patagonian winter, the little fleet entered the straits
which have borne the name of the intrepid Magellan

62 The Philippines and the Far East.

from that day, on the 28th of October, 1520, emerging
into the vast Pacific, November 26th. After this, even
the jealous captains recognized the greatness of their
leader, and were enthusiastic in their support. The
Philippine Islands were sighted in April, 1521, and
named San Lazaro Islands by Magellan. Soon after
this, Magellan was killed in a petty war in which he
had engaged to aid the king of Cebu. His death at that
time was doubly unfortunate. It deprived the expedi-
tion of its one masterful mind, and thus prevented that
full exploration and occupation of the various islands
of the Archipelago which King Charles and Magellan
had provided for. Only one of the ships returned to
Spain. The little Victoria, commanded by one of the
bravest and most intelligent of Magellan's captains, Se-
bastian del Cano, entered the harbor from which they
sailed, on September 8, 1522 — the first ship that ever
sailed around the world !

No serious attempt was made to conquer and colonize
the Islands until 1564. King Philip had come to the
throne of Spain in 1555, and he immediately set about
their conquest. His motives were chiefl\' religious.

He chose Don Miguel Lopez de Legaspi as captain-
general of the expedition, and a friar of the Order of
St. Augustine, Andres de Urdaneta, as spiritual direc-
tor. With the latter were six friars of the same order,
the first to enter the Philippine Islands. Legaspi and
L"^rdaneta had both lived in Mexico for some time and
were close friends. Both were men of integrity and
ability and the Philippines feel the impress of their work
to this day.

It should be remembered that the first expedition for
the occupation of the Philippines sailed from North
America. It sailed away from Natividad, Mexico, No-

MONUiMKNT TO LK(;ASri AND URDANETA, MANILA.
SEA ]N BACKGROUND.

IIlSToKlCAI, Sl'MMAkV. 65

vembor 21, 1564. The four hundred men who went
with Legaspi and Urdaneta had no other purpose than
to spend their Hves in the Phihppines in the interest of
the crown of Spain or of the Church.

Legaspi conquered Cebu, and, by firmness tempered
with great kindness, convinced the islanders that he
could rule, and that he meant to rule justly. Portugal
now gave him much trouble. Pope Alexander VI had
made an absurd attempt to divide the earth between the
rival powers, Spain and Portugal, by fixing upon the
meridian on which the Cape Verde Islands are situated
as the boundary-line. All non-Christian lands east of
that meridian should be exploited commercially and
religiously by Portugal, and all similar countries west
of that meridian were to be ruled and exploited by Spain.
By this division the Philippines fell into Portuguese
territory. But Spain had discovered them, and Legaspi
had no intention of permitting this right of discovery
and prior occupation to be set aside by any papal order.
He fought ofif the fleet sent by Portugal to attack him
in Cebu, and did it with such vigor that the attempt
was abandoned.

Legaspi wisely left native chiefs in power, letting
them continue to rule in the name of the King of Spain.
In 1571 he removed the capital of the new government
to "Maynila," a city on the island of Luzon, which his
nephew, Juan Salcedo, had captured from its Moham-
medan ruler.*

■From an ancient document the following account of the
capture of Manila has been taken :

" In the island, called by the natives ' Luzon the Greater,' in a
town and river of the same called Manila, on the sixth of June in
the year 1570, the Hon. Martin de Goiti, His Majesty's Master of
Camp in these Western Islands, declared before me, Hernando

66 The Philippines and the Far East,

This city was made the seat of an archbishopric, and
Friar Salazar named as the first archbishop. On August
20, 1572, Legaspi died from overwork and the effects
of the cHmate. He was buried in the St. Augustine
Chapel of San Fausto, in Manila. At the time of his
death, it might be said that the work he came to do had
been accomplished. The Philippine Islands were con-
quered, and its principal native rulers were carrying on
their simple governments in the name of the King of
Spain. It was not the purpose of Legaspi to interfere
in the political, commercial, or industrial conditions of
the conquered territory. His idea was that of the average
Spanish colonizer — to secure the largest possible terri-

Riquel, Chief Gov't. Notary, and in the presence of the under-
signed witnesses, that inasmuch as a thing well and generally
known, His Excellency being in this river of Manila with the men
and ships accompanying him, and having made peace and drawn
his blood with two chiefs styling themselves kings of said town
(by name Soliman and Raxa respectivelj-), and without giving them
cause or treating them in a manner that would make the said na-
tives change their attitude, the above chiefs began war treacher-
ously and unexpectedly without advising him beforehand, and
wounded and seized certain Indians accompanying us. After that
they discharged the artillery in their fort, two balls from which
struck the ship San DFignel, on board of which was the said Master
of Camp. He, in order to guard himself from the injury which
the said Moros were doing in starting the war, and to prevent their
artillery from harming his men, attacked the said fort of the Mo-
ros, and captured it by force of arms, and is now in possession of
it. And, inasmuch as the said fort and town of Manila have been
won in lawful and just war, and since, according to the said na-
tives, Manila is the capital of all the towns of this said Island :
therefore, in His Majesty's name, he was occupying and did occupy,
was taking and did take royal ownership and possession, actual
and quasi, of this said Island of Luzon and of all the other ports,
towns, and territories adjoining and belonging to this said island."
(Follow formalities of the Notary.)

HisTORiCAi, Summary,. 67

torial possessions for his royal master — leaving' their
political conditions and their industries to take care of
themselves.

The infant colony was soon confronted with peril
from the north. A Chinese buccaneer named Lee-ma-
hong, being hard pressed by imperial ships, conceived
the idea of capturing the Philippines and building up a
government there. He was a man of great native ability,
a born ruler of wild and lawless men. By extraordinary
exertions he got together a fleet of sixty-two armed
junks, having two thousand sailors and a number of
mechanics to build the cities he expected to found. He
sailed into Manila Bay November 29, 1574, and imme-
diately gave battle. The Spanish soldiery finally
triumphed, driving Lee-ma-hong from the bay, but it
was at fearful cost. That pirate captain and his chief
helper, Sioco, cut down hundreds of the best troops the
small colony could muster. Some hundreds of the
Chinese were deserted by the ships, and took refuge in
the mountains. It is commonly believed that the race of
Igorrotes still show the admixture of blood from this
defeated and abandoned contingent of Lee-ma-hong's
army of invasion.

Friars made all possible capital for the Church out
of the victory over the Chinese. They boldly declared
that St. Andrew appeared on the field of battle and gave
them victory. "This saint was declared thenceforth to
be the patron saint of Manila, and in his honor high
mass is celebrated in the cathedral at 8 A. M. on the 30th
of each November." It was a public holiday and gala-
day until the end of Spanish supremacy, and all the high
officials, military and civil, as well as religious, attended
the ceremonies, though it is doubtful if one in twenty
could have told what event the day was supposed to

68 The Phii^ii'pines and the Far East.

commemorate. It was the custom on that day, after
hearing mass, for the religious authorities to show their
superiority over both miHtary and civil power by spread-
ing the flag of Spain on the floor of the cathedral, and
having the metropolitan archbishop walk over it in the
presence of all officials of the State.

Many years are filled in with petty squabbles between
the authorities of the State and those of the Church,
while the welfare of the poor people was completely lost
sight of, unless a restless eagerness to see them all ac-
cept baptism should be considered to manifest an inter-
est in their welfare. A Supreme Court was set up in
Manila having authority to govern the colony in case
the governor-general died, or during his absence. This
court was modeled on the one provided for Mexico, but
was not as well adapted to conditions in the Philippines
as it should have been, and its members were engaged
nearly all the time in disputes more or less serious about
prerogatives, the parties to each quarrel including the
heads of the Church, whoever else was left out. Spain
had a "Philippine Question" then. Priests passed back
and forth from Manila to Spain to pour their grievances
into the ears of royalty, and secure papal support for
their plans. One friar, named Sanchez, was notably
successful, and secured from King Philip and the pope
many needed reforms in the government, as well as some
substantial rewards for himself. Among these reforms
were a royal order (i) to set all slaves at liberty; (2)
to cease selling the offices of secretary and notary to the
highest bidder, but to demand education and good char-
acter in these important offices; (3) to forbid governors
granting lands to relations, servants, or friends without
three years bona fide residence on the lands, and proofs
of actual cultivation ; (4) to cease dilatory methods of

Historical Summary. 71

administerino- justice; (5) to fortify Manila; (6) to
set aside 12,000 ducats for l)uilding and adorning the
cathedral. Sanchez returned from Rome to Spain laden
with ecclesiastical spoil for his Philippine cathedral.
Among these precious gifts of the pope were the hody
of St. Polycarp, relics of St. Potenciana and of one hun-
dred and fifty-seven different saints and martyrs ; among
these were more or less complete skeletons of twenty-
seven popes, all these for transmission to the cathedral
of Manila for the instruction of the heathen ! Sanchez
died before the ship sailed which w^as to have brought
him back to the Philippines.

Philip abolished the Supreme Court at this time; but
it was re-established in 1598, and remained until Amer-
ican supremacy brought its work to an abrupt end.
Eight times during the period of Spanish occupation this
court had to take the responsibility of government. In
the main, its great power was used with restraint and
for the promotion of the ends of justice and good gov-
ernment.

Japan came into conflict with the colony a little later
on because of the bad faith of friars, who went there
in the guise of ambassadors from the Philippine gov-
ernment, and persisted in violating their promises and
the emperor's orders by remaining to carry on their
propaganda among the Japanese. The emperor bore
with it for some years ; but at last, believing that the
friars were but spies and advance agents of the Spanish
government, he ordered them all to leave the country.
They refused to go. This convinced him that his theory
was the true one — that they w^ere merely waiting for
their government to come and rescue them and attempt
to capture the country in punishment for oppressing their
agents — and he ordered a general massacre of friars and

72 IThe Philippines and the F^ar HasT.

converts. Twenty-six were taken, and, after trial for
violation of the express orders of the emperor, had their
noses and ears cut off, and were publicly displayed in
a rude cart from town to town, the trip ending at Na-
gasaki. Each carried a breast-board containing a state-
ment of his offense, and the reasons why the death sen-
tence had been imposed.

"On high ground near the city and the port, in front
of the Jesuits' church, these twenty-six were crucified
and stabbed to death with lances in expiation of political
offenses. It was a sad fate for men who conscientiously
believed that they were justified in violating the laws of
nations for the propagation of their particular views.
But can one complain ? Would Buddhist missionaries in
Spain have met with milder treatment at the hands of
the Inquisitors?"*

Even this did not dampen the enthusiasm of those
who were bent on Christianizing Japan. A.11 kinds of
deceptions were resorted to by friars to enter Japan. But
the effort. was at length abandoned.

The Dutch found nnmense profits in trading and
colonizing in the Far East. They drove the Spaniards
from the Moluccas, and pressed them hard in the Phil-
ippines in the early part of the seventeenth century, but
vSpanish fury in battle was too much for the more slow-
moving Dutch, and the latter were usually beaten off.
The Dutch did not give up the struggle until 1763, and
many of the intervening years they made it very hard
for the inhabitants of the islands. They would inter-
cept and capture the yearly Spanish galleons from
Mexico, richly laden with treasure to pay merchants and
officials in the Philippines. Sometimes they would cap-

Foreman, pp. 69, 70.

Historical Summary, 73

ture every galleon for several years in snccession. Then
the hardships of the Filipinos and Spaniards residing- in
the islands were almost nnbearable. Strangely enough,
Spain did not seem to learn to send her treasure in any
other way, or by any other route. When peace was
made between Holland and Spain about the middle of
the eighteenth century these depredations ceased.

Late in 1761 war was declared between Spain and
England, and a British fleet, under Admiral Cornish,
carrying a land force under General Draper, in all 6,380
men, captured Manila, after a brief but bloody defense.
The city was officially given over to indiscriminate pil-
lage by the English and native Indian troops. The
robber)', rapine, and violence of those two awful days
can hardly be imagined. After two days of general
looting, the Spanish were compelled to pay $4,000,000
(silver) as an indemnity. It was impossible to raise it
all in Manila ; so, after taking all the silver they could
secure from the churches, the British accepted orders
on the Spanish treasury for the remaining $2,000,000.
These orders were never pressed upon the Spanish gov-
ernment, as it was believed in England that the officers
in charge at Manila had secured all the indemnity that
it was right to demand. The British held Manila until
peace was declared between the two nations, and then
sailed away.

Four times Spanish officials sought to exterminate
the Chinese. The first time was about 1603. In that
year two richly-dressed ambassadors from the Emperor
of China arrived in Manila. They stated that their
master had heard that there was a mountain of solid gold
near Cavite on the island of Luzon, and they had been
sent to see if this report were true, and if so, on what
terms the emperor could secure a share in this massed

74 The Philippinks and the F'ar East.

wealth. The Spanish governor-general treated the
ambassadors with profound respect, proved to them that
the report was pure fiction, and sent them away with
rich presents. But he and his advisers were thoroughly
frightened. They believed that the story about a moun-
tain of gold was a polite invention, and that the real
purpose of these ambassadors was to find out the best
way to subdue the islands. The officials believed that
the Chinese in Manila were leagued with their country-
men to the north, and would all help the imaginary
Chinese army of invasion when it arrived in the bay.
Consequently, all Chinese were watched. Some were
arrested on empty suspicions. The Chinese community
felt that mischief was intended against them, and secured
arms for defense. Relations became so far strained
that, late in the year, actual fighting broke out on the
north side of the Pasig River in Manila, and in three
days of horrible carnage at least twenty-five thousand
Chinese were either killed or taken prisoners. Again
in 1639, in 1660, and 1820, general massacres of Chinese
took place in Manila and throughout the Islands. In
all these affrays the Celestial gave a bloody account of
himself, and all survivors not only staid on, but sent
to China for relatives to take the places made vacant
by butchery.

Insurrections against Spanish rule have been fre-
quent. At no time could they succeed. At no time were
they an effort for independence. They were always a
blind, striking out against glaring injustice and pitiless
inhumanity on the part of their political or religious
masters. When the United Colonies of America re-
volted successfully and became a separate nation, lead-
ing Filipinos felt the blow "struck for freedom." In
1809 the Supreme Council in Spain convened the famous

Historical Summary. 77

Cortes de Cadiz, in which were assenihled delegates
from Cuba, Venezuela, and the Philippines. Later, the
Act of Constitution of 1812 was passed. Under the
provisions of this act each of the colonies was given the
right to send one or more representatives to the Cortes.
In Manila the Act was suspended very soon afterwards.
In 1822-23, however, the Cortes revived the Act, and
under its provisions se^■enteen representatives from the
Philippines took part in parliamentary debates in the
Spanish Cortes. Until 1837 Filipino delegates sat as
members of the Cortes, with but one or two interrup-
tions. It was then voted to exclude them. But the
deed had been done. For a quarter of a century Filipino
delegates had been recognized as members of the chief
lawmaking body of Spain. They were now back among
their own people, and they and those whom they could
influence would never again tamely submit to the cruel
injustice and grinding oppression of the government in
the Philippines. They would agitate, and even fight,
not for independence, but for justice. In 1868, after
Queen Isabella II was deposed, and during the con-
tinuance of the revolutionary government with its foun-
dation of republican principles, an Assembly was voted
for Filipinos in Manila. Its members were to be those
born in the colony. They had the power of suggesting
reforms for consideration by the home government. But
when monarchy again came to its own, the Assembly
came to an end.

In 1872, W'hat is known as the Cavite insurrection
took place. It arose in a dispute over the right of
Spanish friars to occupy positions as parish priests. By
the provisions of the Treaty of Trent, friars were for-
bidden to act in this capacity. This provision was de-
liberately trampled under foot by the all powerful friars.

78 The Philippines and tpie Far East.

vv'ith the result that the native clergy were kept in a
state of constant subordination to the friar. The rising
which followed this agitation was planned, as the people
believe, by the friars. Only a few of their agents com-
mitted acts of violence, and they were all cleared. With
a deliberate cruelty, as pitiless as it was needless, the
government not only executed the ringleaders in the
insurrection, but publicly put to death three of the purest
and most learned of the native clergy for having dared
to insist on the observance of the provisions of the
Treaty of Trent. These native priests, who were shot
in order to dismay all future critics of friar usurpations,
were Fathers Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora.

These executions made the natives desperate. They
saw no hope but in slavish submission. Since the open-
ing of the Suez Canal and the laying of the submarine
cable had made all the world their neighbors, this was
no longer tolerable. It was better to die fighting than
to be treated worse than dumb beasts. Rising followed
rising until Admiral Dewey sunk the Spanish fleet in
1898, and that chapter of Philippine history began to
be written in which, as Americans, we are so profoundly
interested because so immediately responsible.

CHAPTER V.

The Friars.

No REAL progress can be made toward a true under-
standing of the relation of the friars to the inhabitants
and institutions of the PhiUppines until we get clearly
before us the character of the work Spain essayed to
do, and the nature of the men with whom she sought to
accomplish that work.

As in all her colonies, so here, the real work Spain
sought to do was that of Christianizing the natives. Her
officials might rob them and ill-treat them, and mer-
chants and miners entering the colony to exploit its
possibilities might be guilty of gross immorality and
cruelty ; but so far as the intentions of early Spanish
kings and lawmakers were concerned, it was upon re-
ligion that stress was to be placed in all colonial admin-
istration. We shall fail completely to grasp the sig-
nificance of all the most important facts of Philippine
history if this is lost sight of.

"In examining the political administration of the Phil
ippines, then, we must be prepared to find it a kind of
outer garment, under which the living body is eccle-
siastical. Against this subjection to the influence and
interests of the Church, energetic governors rebelled, and
the history of Spanish dominion is checkered with strug-
gles between the civil and religious powers, which repro-
duced on a small scale the mediaeval contests of popes
and emperors,"*

•■■Blair and .Robertson, Preface, pp. 48, 49.
79

8o The Philippines and the Far East.

In casting about for suitable instruments for this
task of Christianizing the pagan and heathen popula-
tions of his new possessions in the Far East, the pope
was at one with His Most Catholic Majesty, King Philip
the Second, in believing that friars would be the best
agents to employ in that work, on account of economy,
as well as for the simplification of administrative diffi-
culties sure to arise even in affairs of the Church when
its problems had to be faced and solved so many miles
away and over inhospitable seas. King Philip was espe-
cially moved by the argument of economy. He was ever
parsimonious. He starved his armies, stinted his table,
and pinched his family, all with the ferret-like keenness
that characterized his narrow, mechanical mind. These
men were, of course, under the vow of celibacy. That
went without saying. But they were also under a vow
of poverty so binding that the very clothes they wore
were to be owned by their order, that they might literally
own nothing. All property belonging to them at the time
of their entrance went to the order. When they had taken
its final vows, they disappeared as legal entities, and in
their name thenceforward the order into which their being
had been merged received any inheritance which might
fall to them. They would be no charge to the royal treas-
uries. They would be under the immediate direction in
all their work of the provincials of their respective organ-
izations, and thus have a practically complete organization
on the field.

The mecnanical ideas of what constituted Christian-
izing heathen peoples were the only ideas known to either
pope, king, or friar, so that in no way were they open to
the charge of inconsistency, much less hypocrisy, in plan-
ning to baptize whole communities, peaceably if possible,
but by force if need be. The virtue of the act of baptism

Thi-: Friars. 8i

did not inhere in the faith and penitence of the cantlidate,
but in the fact that the administrator was a priest, and had
power to "bind and loose," derived directly, in an un-
broken "finger-tip succession," from Peter. The otificial
act of such a priest worked salvation automatically, ac-
cording to their theory. In 1565 an order was sent to
New Spain, "(i) priests, and (2) a goodly number of
soldiers and muskets, so that if the natives will not be
converted otherwise they may be compelled to it by force
of arms."

In the mind of the friar, salvation consisted in making
safe provision against the consequences of sin in the next
world, and not in securing pardon from God himself and
that spiritual purification which enables the penitent and
forgiven sinner to triumph against the devil, the world,
and the flesh. If a babe snatched from the arms of a
mother could be hastily baptized and have the sign of
the cross made over it, the work was done. If a whole
village would kneel and receive baptism the}^ were Chris-
tianized, and "saved." The idea that salvation means the
rescue of souls from the guilt and power of sin in this life,
in order that they may live as the children of God in this
world, was foreign to the early Philippine friar, and, like
Xavier in India and Japan, they hurried thousands into
baptism by coaxing, by threats, or by the use, sometimes,
of armed force, and reported them Christianized.

Augustinian friars were the first to be chosen to under-
take the task of carrying out Spain's most dearly-cherished
purposes for the inhabitants of the Philippines. One
Andres de Urdaneta, a prior of the Augustinian order,
was chosen as the real head of the enterprise. Legaspi,
a lawyer, soldier, and man of afifairs, was named as the
representative of the crown, and surprised the king and
Urdaneta himself, who had known Legaspi for many
6

82 The; Philippines and the; Far East.

years, by developing really statesman-like qualities, and
doing a work for the permanent organization of the
Philippines that is felt even to the present day.

The letter of instructions given to Urdaneta and the
friars who accompanied him is dated in Culhuacan,
Mexico, February 5, 1564. The opening passages are
as follows :

"Very Beloved Sons : — You are aware how Felipe,
by the grace of God, King of the Spains and the Indies,
and our lord, has been greatly pleased with the news that
some brethren of our order are to go with the expe-
dition now being equipped by his very illustrious vice-
roy and captain-general, Don Luis de Velasco, in this
Nueva Espano (Mexico), which is to sail through the
Western Sea of this kingdom toward the continent and
certain of the islands that lie between the equator and
the Arctic and Antarctic poles, and below the region of
the torrid zone itself, — to the end that, according to right
reason and the benign counsels of Christian piety, both at
home and abroad as will best seem consonant with the
purpose of His Royal Majesty, you may control the
fleet and troops of the Spanish army. Especially, too,
that the most brilliant light of faith may beam upon the
populous races that dwell in that region of the world.
Through the benignity of God most holy and supreme,
and your preaching, there is hope that these benighted
barbarians may cast aside the errors and more than Cim-
merian darkness of idolatry for the splendor of the gos-
pel, and that they who, so long unacquainted with gos-
pel truth, have been groping in the gloom of Satanic
bondage, may now at last, through the grace of Christ,
the common Savior of all men, gaze at the full light of
truth in their knowledge of His name.

"Therefore, after long mediation and mature coun-
sel, sure as we are of your piety, deep learning, charity,
and merits, we have chosen you for this apostolic charge,
the task (with the help of the Lord to whom we commend
you) of leading peoples to embrace the faith. ., , ,

SAX SF.IiAS'lIAX CHURCH, MANH.A. , '^•'

(Coinnionly lallcd " The Sled (liurcli." Is l)uilt of steel ihroughout.
Made in Kngland, and shipped to Manila in sectiuus,)

TiiK Friars. 85

Moreover, we earnestly exhort your charity in the Lord,
as far as hes in our power, to announce the all-holy gos-
pel of Christ to all races, baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;
training them in the holy Catholic faith, on the same
lines on which the faithful are trained by our cherished
mother, the Church of Rome; shunning utterly, therein
all novelty of doctrine, which we desire shall in all thmgs
conform to the holy and ecumenical councils and doc-
tors acknowledged by the same Church ; teaching them
especially that oliedicnce which all Christians owe to the
supreme ]:)ontifif and the Church of Rome, . . . which
in truth is always the leader, head, and mistress of all
other Churches in the world, . . . then to their law-
ful rulers and masters ; teaching them at the same time
to live under the yoke and discipline of Faith, Hope, and
Charity, and to forget, moreover, their old-time super-
stitions and errors of the devil." . . .

(Then follow grants of power to establish hospitals,
monasteries, and such other institutions as they deem
necessary for the work they were sent to do.)

From this time on until the verv end of Spanish domi-
nation it was the friar who really held the reins of power
in the Philippines. By his fiat the governors ruled, and by
his will they were deposed. As late as October, 1896, the
following cablegram was sent by friars in Manila to the
head of the Dominican Order in Madrid :

"Situation grave. Rebellion spreading. Apathv of
Blanco inexplicable. To save the situation, urgentlv
necessary appointment new governor-general."

That it should have been sent is no marvel, when the
power of the religious orders is understood. Within
forty-eight hours the appointment of General Polavieja
as the successor of the man whom the friars deemed in-
capable was made public. When General Merritt and

86 The Philippines and the Far East.

Admiral Dewey took the city of Manila they found friar
hands at the wheel. Orders were given by ecclesiastical
officials, and they were obeyed.

The friar staid. Governors came and went. In their
brief periods of service it was impossible for them to
come into close contact with the people, and to feel the
real needs of those whom they were sent to rule. One of
the many consequences of this condition of things was
that the friar was the man who knew all the ins and outs
of the country, and was able to outwit the wisest govern-
ors, who were always raw to the country.

It is unfair and untrue to think of the friars merely
as oppressors of the Filipinos. They did oppress them.
They were servants of a Church which oppresses all those
over whom it possesses absolute power, and also servants
of a State which demanded of them a degree of partici-
pation in its administration wholly inconsistent with a
proper performance of their duties as religious leaders.
But they did some things for the people which only a
hopeless bigot would refuse to see and acknowledge.

With all their errors in doctrine, they brought to this
people the great fundamental truths of the unity of God,
His redemptive purpose for the race, carried out on their
behalf by His Son "manifest in the flesh," the eternal
felicity of those who rightly relate theniselves to this
Redeemer, and the unending misery of such as persist
in courses of rebellion against God to the end of their
earthly career. All these truths, and many more, are in
Christianity. It is only necessary to say that they taught
the people Christ and His religion as they understood it.
They failed, as Catholicism fails everywhere and always,
in their teachings as to the way the Redeemer and the
sinner get together, interposing the Virgin, saints, and
sacraments between the sinner and his Lord ; but he who

TiiK Friars. 87

shows irritation that the}- thus taught should remember
that we are all very largely the product of our instruction,
and these friars were taught these things as the truths
of God from their earliest lispings.

Now a little of Christ is better than all of an\' other
system of religion the world ever knew. All of Buddha's
teachings, taking them in their purity as they fell from
his lips, give less light on the problems of life and death
than do these broken fragments of truth taught by Rome.
The light that shines from the veiled face of a Catholic
Christ was vastly more bright than that which their own
heathen teachings and superstitions gave. Only those
who have lived among naked heathenism can fully appre-
ciate the full truth of these statements. The idols of the
heathen are associated in the minds of their worshipers
with all kinds of unmentionable uncleannesses. The God
of the Romanist, as well as the God of the Protestant,
is HOi.Y ! And in all religions the crucial test is what
kind of a Being is worshiped. If this Being is holy, there
is a germ of truth in the system, and it will grow up in
godliness in the hearts of those who bow before this sin-
hating object of adoration. We find the Filipino to-day
full of superstitions taught him by Rome; but he is a
monotheist, and that in philosophy as well as in theology.
He has no pantheistic conception of the universe lying
back of his conceptions about God. For this scourging
out of polytheism the religion which the friar taught must
have the credit. In so far as they taught it truly, they
share in that credit, and no Protestant should be afraid
or ashamed to acknowledge it. Rather should he say like
the apostle, "Nevertheless, in every way, whether in pre-
tense or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do
rejoice, }ea, and will rejoice."

The friars rendered a great service to the people of the

88 Thf, Piiiijppines and thk Far East.

islands by Romanizing their vernacular alphabets. Every
missionary in the East will instantly appreciate this serv-
ice. The native letters were mere scrawls, and each scrawl
was different from all the others. In place of these,
scholarly friars worked out equivalents in Roman letters,
with certain marks under or over the letters to indicate
peculiar sounds. This makes the learning of any one of
the vernaculars a comparatively easy matter.

An even greater service has been rendered by the intro-
duction and maintenance of schools. Here the friar has
been at his best. In the year that our Pilgrim Fathers
landed in New England the Dominican Order of friars
set up the College of Santo Tomas (St. Thomas) in Ma-
Tiila. It has been continued until this day. It has regis-
tered more pupils than Harvard, and literal thousands of
graduates and undergraduates are to be found in all parts
of the islands. In 1644 it was raised to the rank of a uni-
versity, and given the right to call itself "Royal and Pon-
tifical," by special Papal Pull. The intermediate or pre-
paratory school of San Juan de Lateran was opened in
1640 to provide a means of suitably fitting lads for en-
trance upon regular collegiate work. High schools and
colleges of less pretensions were opened in various prov-
inces, all of them taught by friars and assistants whom
they had trained. Schools for girls were opened as early
^s 1759, and some very creditable work has been done
for the girls and women of the Islands through these insti-
tutions. They have given a taste of modern culture to
thousands of Filipino women, making them in n'lany cases,
to all appearances at least, the peers of women of their
rank and station in life in Europe or America. In the
provinces, too, the friar was the educator. If he willed it
so, there was a school in the city where he officiated. If
he were a man of energy and good character, the school

Tin: Friars. 89

left a deep and favorable impress upon the youns:^ life of
that place. If he were an indolent profligate man — as.
alas ! was too often the case — his school was rather worse
than a failure. Lentil the year 1863 there was not in all
the Islands so much as one school that was not carried on
by friars. Since that time they have been compelled to
sufifer rivals in what was once a field exclusively held
by themselves.

The courses of study in these institutions was super-
ficial, old, and inelastic; and over them all lay the inter-
dict of Rome as to anything like original thinking. For
the independent thinker Rome has never had place. All
she has ever afforded him was a dungeon, a rack, or the
flames. With a meager and archaic course of study, and
within the narrow limits of accepted doctrine, tradition,
and the decisions of councils, the friar has done a real
work for education. It has been necessarily a poor work,
for he had poor tools. He was lame in science. He
feared the light of the modern world, and clung with al-
most pitiful tenacity to theories and conclusions which
had been discarded b}' scholars for at least a hundred
years. But such as that service has been, the credit be-
longs to the friar orders who maintained the only educa-
tional work on university lines in all Malaysia for three
centuries.

It will be my duty to say things less favorable to the
work of the friars than are contained in some of the state-
ments of this chapter, and I can not go forward to do that
unpleasant but necessary duty without calling attention
to the fact that, when all has been said that can be, truth-
fully, as to the blemishes upon the escutcheon of the friars
in the Philippines, it remains true that here, in these
Islands, the native population has been raised to a con-
dition of practical civilization. The Filipinos, when con-

The; Philippines and the Far East.

trasted with the best of the Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon
peoples, seem very far below them ; but when placed in
comparison with their own Malay cousins in Borneo and
the Peninsula, as well as in Java and Sumatra, they show
that influences have been at work here that have been
lacking there.

This difference can only be attributed to the leaven of
the Christian religion, weakened as it has been in its power
by errors of a vital sort in the way it has been taught, and
still further hindered in its transforming power by vicious
policies and evil courses in later teachers of its principles.

RUIN OF CATHOLIC BUILDING.

CHAPTER VI.
Why the Friars are Hated.

No PROOF should be required that the friars are hated
by the majority of FiHpinos. It is true that educated and
wealthy Filipinos were able, either by wit or influence, to
protect themselves against the wiles of the friars, and
are, in some cases, friendly to them. But as a matter of
totals the case is closed.

It may be wise, however, to set forth briefly some of
the mass of evidence which it would be easy to furnish in
order that denials of this hostility made in the United
States can be met and answered.

Both the insurrections known as the "Cavite Uprising
of 1872," and the larger insurrection of 1896. were purely
anti-friar risings. The first clause in the list of demands
and declaration of purposes put forth bv the insurrectos
reads as follows :

"Expulsion of the friars, and restitution to the town-
ships of the lands which the friars have appropriated,
dividing the incumbencies held by them, as well as the
episcopal sees, equally between peninsular and insular
secular priests."

The first rising proposed the massacre of every friar
in and near Manila, and their burial "in Bagumbayan
Field," the place where hundreds of Filipinos had been
shot at friar instigation. Rizal was shot there, as were

92 Thf, Philippines and thr Far East.

also the three Filipino priests at the close of the Cavite
uprising of 1872. In the first report of the Civil Com-
mission, discussing this question of hostility to the friars,
Governor Taft and the Commission say :

"Regarding the return of the friars, the deep-seated
hatred of the people must he reckoned with."

And further on in the same section the report says :

"It is enough to say that the political question will be
eliminated if the friars are sent back."

One of many instances that might be cited in proof
of this hatred occurred at Naic, in the province of Cavite,
August 29, 1901. The Manila Times, reporting the oc-
currence, says :

"Evidence of the hatred and contempt which exists
among the natives towards the friars was clearly dem-
onstrated at Naic, Cavite province, on the 29th ult. The
people rose cii masse to show their disapproval of the
presence in their town of the friars, who came there from
Manila to collect rentals on buildings and farms owned
by the religious corporations in that vicinity. Thou-
sands of men, women, and children formed in procession,
parading the streets, carrying banners with the inscrip-
tion, 'Long live Naic under the flag of the United States
of America !' and shouting, 'Hurrah for the Americans
and the Filipinos !' 'Out with the friars !' and other
remarks deprecatory to the friar agents who were alluded
to as vampires."

I have eleven such newspaper notices of protests
against the return of friars to their estates and schools
among my clippings from local papers. Less than a
month ago four hundred citizens of Dagupan, province
of Pangasinan, petitioned Governor Taft against the return
of Dominican friars to that city to reopen a school which

Why Till'; Friars aki", HATia). 93

they had foniieiiy conducted at that place. They de-
clared that they "had reason to believe, and did believe,"
that such return of the friars would so anger the people
that local authorities would be powerless to prevent vio-
lence and perhaps loss of life. In the summer of 1900
Governor Taft and the Civil Commission examined a
large number of witnesses — bishops, priests, friars, offi-
cials of monastic orders, doctors, lawyers, business men,
and teachers, all residents of the Philippines — on Church
and school questions. The report of that examination
saw the light as Senate Document No. 190. In this docu-
ment is the testimony of many prominent professional and
business men on this point of the attitude of the Filipinos
toward the friars. On page 151 of that document I find
the following testimony of a lawyer by the name of Con-
stantino, fifty-eight years old, and having been in active
practice of his profession for many years in Manila and
his own province of Bulacan :

"Question. I want to ask you whether the hostility
against the friars is confined to the educated and better
element among the people?"

"Answer. It permeates all classes of society, and prin-
cipally the lower, for they can do nothing ; the upper
classes, by reason of their education, can stand them off
better than the lower classes, and this is the reason that
the friars do n't want the public to become educated.

"O. Do the friars still retain any influence over the
women of the lower orders?

"A. Over some very fanatical women, yes.

"Q. But you think that feeling is not general among
them?

"A. The hatred is general. The Commission may find
the proof of this by sending a trustworthy man to every
pueblo in the archipelago to ask of the inhabitants if they
want a friar curate, and all of them will answer. No.

94 TiiK Philippines and the Far East.

"Q. Does the feeling exist against all the orders?

"A. Yes, against all the orders ; but, of course, prin-
cipally against all the orders who have acted as curates.
Of course, it is true there can be had an opportunity
to commit the acts."

Pages could be filled with such citations from this
jmblication, and there is no variation in the testimony of
laymen.

To what, then, is this hatred due? Why have they
become obnoxious to the people for whom they have so
long acted as spiritual guides? The five reasons which
I shall give for this antagonism will be stated in the order
in which they have operated, beginning with that which
has had the least influence, and ending with the cause
which has been, and now is, most powerful.

I. Because the friars secured and held such large tracts
of the most valuable land, and used these tracts as a means
of enriching their orders.

Friars own no swamp-lands. Locate one of their
corner lots in Manila, or one of their estates in the prov-
inces, and you will see that they have been selected with
the eye of the trained investor. They own large tracts.
The Augustinian Order owns one tract twenty-eight miles
long by fourteen miles wide. Thousands of poor people
live on the estate. Cities are built on it. Not a foot of
it was ever sold. For every little thatch-house built on
it a good rental had to be paid annually. Tenants had to
pay high rents, and often tithes besides. The land was
given to the order outright by Governor-General More-
nias in 1878. The order was directed to return it to
government by Governor Primo de Rivera, but, through
influence in Madrid and Manila, he was worried into per-
mitting them to hold it. Much of this land cost them

TW(J VKIAKS IN AUGUiJTlNlAX CHUKCH (iARpEN, MANILA,

Why thk Friars akic PIatkd. 97

little or notliint;'. Ignorant men would sell it for a song,
or when they were in tlii^eulties would accept a loan on
their land. The friar figured the interest. In the end
the land went for the deht. Some of it was secured in
return for masses said for dead relatives. Some of it
was wTung from the dying with threats and promises of
rewards if the soul in his last hours would remember
"Mother Church" with a generous benefaction. All of
it came cheap. All of it yielded good incomes to its
])riestly owners. None of it paid any taxes ; for the friars,
being the largest single landholders and controlling the
government, easily diverted taxation to other objects.
The burden was bound across the shoulders of the artisan
and the agriculturist, and they went scot free. Natu-
rally the business relations into which the ownership of
so much land brought the friars made friction inevitable.
l^)Ut when their rates for rentals were higher than others,
their rental contracts were iron-clad, their methods of
collection as pitiless as the money-lender in the market,
and their exemption from the heavy burdens of taxation
worked to the constantly-increasing disadvantage of the
poor tenant, it was too much to expect that he would con-
tinue to bear his burdens without chafing. As a matter
of fact he did chafe, and at present nothing maddens a
poor Filipino laboring man in the neighborhood of one
of these large friar estates any more quickly than to start
him talking about his grievances against friar landlords
who get all the profits without any of the risks or burdens
borne by other employers of labor. Now that friar estates
have been purchased by the government this grievance
will no longer exist.

2. Because they stifled all liberty of thought or freedom
of speech in matters religious and political.
7

98 The Philippines and the Far East.

Section 226 of the Spanish Penal Code, now formally
repealed by the Civil Commission, reads as follows :

"Those who shall publicly perform acts of propaganda,
preaching, or other ceremonies which are not those of the
religion of the State shall incur the penalty of prision
correctional in its minimum degree."

This penalty called for both fine and imprisonment.
The Treaty of Paris "killed" this section ; but until a new
penal code was enacted this law stood there in the statute-
books, a swift witness to the typical Spanish Catholic
intolerance which drenched the Netherlands in blood be-
cause they did not accept Catholic teachings as the last
word of truth, and which established a reign of terror
among the best element of the Filipino people.

If a pupil in one of the friar institutions dared to
broach an opinion in the least out of harmony with the
obsolete science which had received the approval of
Church authorities, he was promptly suppressed ; and if
he continued in his folly and wickedness, he was not only
expelled, but put under a system of espionage which had
all the resources of the confessional to supplement other
detective agencies. If he ventured upon any freedom of
speech, no matter how remote his pueblo, it was reported
to the religious authorities, and he was either imprisoned
or deported. (In passing it may be remarked that state-
ments that Filipinos are capable only of imitation in
thought come with poor grace from these same friars,
when nothing else than imitation of thought was ever
tolerated.)

It is said with wearisome iteration before American
readers and hearers that the Filipinos are all loyal Cath-
olics. Until within five years it was banishment or death
to be anything else. Not even in your bedchamber were

Wiiv Till'; Fkiaks akp; li.\ri:i). 99

vou secure from llie espionage of the priest, who had your
friend or your child or your wife in his confessional next
day, and heard all you said, knew all the books you read,
and had all your inmost thoughts laid bare before his
intolerant eyes. This yoke of mental bondage galled the
intelligent classes intolerably during the last quarter of
a century, and not a little of the irreconcilable antagonism
to the friar orders is due to this overbearing, unscrupu-
lous enforcement of civil and religious laws against any-
thing like liberty of conscience or freedom of speech.

The most public case of friar activity in compassing
the death of those who held opinions at variance with
those of the Church, is that of Dr. Jose Rizal. Rizal dis-
tinguished himself as a student in the Jesuits' school in
Manila when a lad. His thirst for knowledge was not
quenched at this slender spring. He finally went to Eu-
rope, taking degrees both in medicine and philosophy at
Madrid University. After completing his studies there,
he took post-graduate work in Paris, and at several places
of learning in Germany, remaining abroad several vears.
During this time he made conditions of national life in
Southern Europe the subject of close study, with a view
of arriving at a solution of the difficulties which beset his
own- people. One thing emerged clearly in his mind, and
that was the necessity for the expulsion of the friars if
there was to be either peace or progress. To the accom-
plishment of this end he set himself with zeal and courage.
He first wrote a novel entitled "Noli me Tangere," which
pictured more vividly than anything that has yet been
written the conduct of the friars and the sufferings of the
people. Following that, and while yet in Europe, he wrote
another book named "El Filibusterismo." This was also
political in its drift, and was far from complimentary to

loo The Philippines and the Far East.

the friars of the land of his birth. On his return to the
Philippines a year or so after the publication of his last
book he led in a protest against the validity of the title
of a large estate claimed by the Dominican Order in his
native community. So fierce was the eDullition of clerical
hatred that he deemed it prudent to go again to Europe.
During this second absence no form of ecclesiastical
annoyance was omitted from the treatment accorded to
members of Dr. Rizal's family. In vain they protested
their entire submission to the Church and their loyalty to
the friar orders. They were driven from their lands, and
Spanish favorites took them. In 1893, Rizal arrived
again in Hong Kong on his way to the land he loved, and
for which he sought to perform some worthy service. He
was assured, in correspondence with the governor-general
and the Spanish consul, that he was at perfect liberty to
return to the Philippines. He took ship and arrived in
Manila, but was immediately put under arrest, charged
with having seditious papers secreted in his personal bag-
gage. The papers were produced — openly seditious and
anti-friar. He denied having had such papers in his
boxes, and, in fact, it was practically proven that they
were placed among his personal eiTects by bribed agents
of those who sought his destruction. He was not such a
dolt as to have incriminating documents about him when
he had reason to fear that any such matter found in his
efifects would debar him from entering the countr\', and
perhaps end his life. The friar party demanded his blood.
The verdict was not clear. He should have been ac-
quitted, but a compromise was effected by which he was
banished to a little town on the north shore of Mindanao
Island. There he lived in practical imprisonment for
four years. His fame as an oculist brought him many

Wiiv Till': Friars auic IIati:d. ioi

patients, even to that distant corner of the Archipelago.
He performed cures which seemed miracles to the Fili-
pinos, and gradually began to take on among all classes
of the oppressed the character of deliverer of the Filipino
people from the burdens that crushed them to the very
earth. When war broke out in Cuba he ottered his serv-
ices as a military physician, and was permitted to leave
the Philippines for Cuba 7'ia Spain. But before he had
arrived in the peninsula the cable had carried certain
accusations to Madrid, and once more he was thrown into
prison. Returned to ^ianila as a prisoner, he was tried
and convicted of sedition and rebellion. His condemna-
tion had been determined before the trial began, and sen-
tence of death followed as a matter of course. True, the
insurrection was then being waged. But what part could
this man have had in it ? He had been a prisoner of state
for four years, closely confined in a distant island. He
left the Philippines at the very outbreak of the insurrec-
tion in August, i8c;6. He had no opportunity even to
correspond with its leaders, as he was arrested on his
arrival in Spain, and returned under the heaviest of mili-
tary guards. No ; his offense was that he dared to think !
This was a crime too heinous for forgiveness. So on the
morning of the 30th of December, 1896, Dr. Jose Rizal,
the brightest intellectual light that has shone thus far in
the Philippines, was publicly blindfolded and shot in the
back on the execution grounds facing the bay in Manila.
.\bout two thousand troops formed on three sides of a
square about him. Hundreds of friars were present wit-
nessing the deed of blood with ill-concealed joy. ]\Iany
of them, as an eye-witness told me, smoked cigars all the
time their victim was being prepared for death, and their
faces told of their relief that this troubler of their Israel

I02 The Philippines and the Far HasT.

was silenced ! But no one act of the friars so hastened
their overthrow. Thousands who had held aloof from
the insurrection, hoping for wiser counsels to prevail, saw
in his death the doom of their hopes, and took up arms
resolving to die fighting, if die they must, that their chil-
dren might enjoy a liherty of thought and action which
they never had. The brother of Dr. Rizal, Sr. Ponciano
Rizal, took the field against Spanish authority immedi-
ately. He gathered a large force, and with them, and
with troops who flocked to his standard as he fought his
way into the interior, he drove all Spaniards out of the
province of Laguna de Bay, which was a stronghold of
the orders, and captured an entire Spanish garrison with
arms and accouterments, besides lake gunboats and other
materials most helpful to the insurrecto cause.

Senor Paulino Zamora, of Manila, was sent into ban-
ishment for several years for the crime of owning and
reading a copy of the Bible. The friars infuriated the
people through a stubborn and irritating enforcement of
Church laws against freedom of thought and speech until
the loyalty they bear the Catholic Church has suffered
a severe strain, and in many cases has entirely given
way, and friar and Church are together hated and
shunned. No name is so popular in the Philippines to-day
as that of Jose Rizal. His picture is on the walls of tens
of thousands of homes, from the best houses of Filipino
principalcs in Manila and the large provincial cities, to
the humblest nccpa bahay (or house) of the tao (or la-
borer) in remote villages. He is regarded on all hands
as a martyr to their common cause against the intolerance
of the friars. The three native priests, Burgos, Gomez,
and Zamora, who were ignominiously killed for presum-
ing to say that friars should keep the laws relating to the

Why Tin: Friars are Hated.

103

occupation of parish curacies, are venerated as marlvrs
also. The doing" to death of these four good citizens is
only a small part of the indictment which might be
brought against the friars in prooi of their merciless in-
tolerance. Time and space would forbid a recital of secret
poisonings, assassinations, of numberless arrests, impris-
onments, and deportations, of countless open and secret
intimidations, which left the people in a state of constant
fear, and finally begot within them a hatred which noth-
ing can ever allay.

CATHOLIC CHURCH AT ORANI, BATAAN.

CHAPTER VII.
Why the Friars are; Hated — Continued.

Continuing the statement of the chief causes which
have produced the deep hatred which FiUpinos cherish
toward the friars, the next in order of importance is, —

3. Their insatiable greed for money.

Between the four great orders represented in the
PhiHppine Mission a constant rivalry has existed from
the earHest times. Every member of the orders was made
to feel the heavy hand of his superiors if he failed to make
his masses and marriages and handling of properties of
the order yield the last centavo of income for the central
treasury. Corresponding praise and promotion was for
the friar who showed the most zeal for the enhancement
of the revenues of his order. If one order secured a plum
in the way of a well-located estate, the others sought to
keep the accounts balanced by securing a better and
larger one.

While there is little direct proof that individual friars
violated their vows of poverty by appropriating moneys
collected for ecclesiastical services to their own use, it is
clear that the demand for money, and always for money,
goaded the people into hatred of the members of the re-
ligious orders. We are not without proofs that friars did
make a gain of their positions. I know a lawyer in Ma-
nila who is the guardian for the children of a prominent
priest, and he has made handsome provision for them in
the form of landed properties near Manila. How he could
gain and hold them and keep his vow of poverty is not

104

Why the Friars are Hated. 105

clear to the non-friar mind. Probably he felt that, having
trampled on his vow of chastity, it was a light thing to
break the lesser vow of poverty. In any case such are
the facts.

I shall quote from Foreman, and from Senate Docu-
ment No. 190, referred to in the last chapter, for proof
of the contention that the friars have estranged the people
through their insatiable greed for money. And to all that
these witnesses state I can add my own conviction of the
entire accuracy of their statements — a conviction growing
out of months of contact with native life, during which
innumerable proofs of this greed for their orders have
come to my own attention.

Foreman says (page 226) :

"The clergy also (in addition to the income from their
estates) derived a very large portion of their incomes
from commissions on the sale of cedillas (poll-tax cer-
tificates), sales of Papal Bulls, masses, pictures, books,
chaplets and indulgencies, marriage, burial, and baptis-
mal fees, benedictions, donations touted for after the
crops were raised, legacies to be paid for in masses, re-
mains of wax candles left in the church by the faithful,
fees for getting souls out of purgatory, alms, etc. The
surplus over and above parochial requirements were sup-
posed to auginent the common Church funds in Manila.
The 'corporations were consequently immensely wealthy,
and their power and influence were in consonance with
that wealth. . . . The Church as a body politic dis-
pensed no charity, but received all. It was always beg-
ging. It claimed immunity [from taxation], proclaimed
poverty, and inculcated in others charity to itself."

On page 221, Foreman tells in detail of, —

"A money-grubbling parish priest — a friar — who pub-
licly announced raffles from the pulpit of the church from
which he preached morality and devotion. On one occa-
sion a $200 watch was put up for $500, and at another

io6 The Philippines and the Far East.

time he raffled dresses for women. . . . He Had the
audacity to dictate to a friciid of mine, a planter, Don

Ivcandro L , the value of the gifts he was to make

him, and when the planter was at length wearied with
his importunities, he conspired with a Spaniard to de-
prive my friend of his estate, alleging that he was not
the real owner. Failing in this, he stirred up the petty
governor and head men against him. In the end. after
much litigation, the friar was only partially successful."

The lengths to which friars went in getting money
from the people almost pass belief. Marriage could only
be had of the friar. Civil marriage was not possible, of
course, where Rome had absolute sway, and Protestantism
with its ministry was utterly unknown. There was a scale
of fees for all religious rites, including marriages, and
that scale was tolerably fair and just; but in assessing
marriage and other fees it was openly disregarded and
the price fixed according to the means of the parties. If
a couple desired marriage, the friar would demand what
he considered was possible, and calmly refuse to perform
the ceremony for less than that price. As he was the only
functionary in that parish who could unite the parties in
wedlock, there was no recourse but to pay the price or
assume the relation of husband and wife without mar-
riage. Poor people practically abandoned all idea of
marriage. At least fifty per cent of the children were born
of parents who lived together as husl:)and and wife accord-
ing to the terms of a contract of marriage mutually en-
tered into between them. This had a most demoralizing
efifect on morality and family life ; for the contracts were
as easily broken as made, and the idea of chastity, for
which the Tagalog, Pampangan, and Ilocano people espe-
cially are noted, was seriously impaired. So prevalent is
this state of things that our missionaries (Methodist Epis-
copal) in IVIanila alone have married over two thousand

Why the F^riars ark Hated. 107

couples within the past three years, more than lialf of
whom were Hving together as husband and wife when
they learned that honorable marriage was possible without
the excessive fees which the friars had always demanded.
I married a man and woman of sixty or more years of age
two years ago, who had lived together under a contract
of marriage for over thirty years. They had their seven
children at the wedding in my rooms, and when witnesses
to the ceremony were needed the old man offered his
oldest son and daughter without the faintest notion of
either the pathos or the humor which the ofTer contained !
He told me, with some of the heat of the old injury yet
aflame in his eyes, that when he was a young man and
wanted to marry this woman the friar to whom he went
demanded six months of his salary as. his fee. He could
not and would not pay it, and the only alternatives were
to give up the idea of having a home, or enter into the
customary contract of marriage. He chose the latter,
and told me with no little heat that he believed that if
there w^as any sin in the case, God would adjudge the
major part to the friar who demanded the excessive fee.
I was not prepared to argue the friar's side of the case.
Deaths and funerals are sources of large income to
the friars. They charge for the dying consolations of
religion according to the robes worn, and the length and
kind of prayers ofifered. Every stroke of the church bell
announcing the death costs from ten cents to a dollar.
The funeral itself can be ordinary, solemn, or most sol-
emn, with proportionate fees. Burial charges are extra.
If the friar goes all the way to the grave, it is twice as
expensive as if he goes only half way. If death and
funeral fees are not forthcoming, there can be no bells
rung, no service held, and the body may not be permitted
to rest in "holy" ground. I was told of a case in one of

io8

The; Philippines and the Far East.

the provinces in which the friar absolutely refused to inter
a body until thirty pesos ($15) were paid as fees. The
relatives put together their pitiful little store, and it
amounted to but $8. They begged him to accept that.
He sent them away, telling them roughly that they only
wasted their time and his to come to him again with less

ELEVEN (;RAVES IN WALL.

(Each opening contains a body. Rents for eighteen dollars for five
years. Body thrown out if rent is not paid. )

than the amount demanded. At last, by borrowing from
their friends, the indigent relatives scraped the entire sum
together, and the remains were buried with ceremonies
in the name of the compassionate Nazarene ! In the testi-
mony of Seiior Maximo Viola, given before the Civil
Commission, he says :

"If the dying person is a pauper, with no one to pay
fees, the Spanish friar does not go to confess hiin, but

Wiiv THK Friars arr Hati:i). 109

sends the Filipino i)ricsl ; ami wlion lie tlics without fu-
neral fees, his corpse is often allowed to rot, and there
have been cases where the sacristans of the Church have
been ordered by the friar to bans;- the corpse publicly, so
that the relatives may be thus compelled to seek tlie fees
somewhere, sufficient to bury the corpse."

It is needless to multiply proofs. No ingenuity of
Jesuitical polemics can evade the force of facts so widely
known. The friars stand before the bar of Filipino judg--
menl and conscience convicted of an insatiable greed for
money.

4. Because of the i in morality of flic majority of friars
iclio scri'cd as parisli priests.

This is the most unpleasant of all the things I must
write of in this book. It would be acceptable to me, and
I doubt not to all the readers of the book, if it might be
omitted. But it is "material to the case," and must be con-
sidered if any one would estimate this anti-friar hatred
at its full value. I can not but be grateful that the facts
that I shall recount in proof of this grave charge have
not been discovered and made public b}' partial witnesses.
Protestant workers have not had anything to do with
either gathering the facts or giving them their first pub-
licity. That has been done by travelers, Filipino business
men. the Philippine Civil Commission, and other careful
students of Philippine conditions. The same class of
friars have similar records also in Mexico and South
America, and in all lands where they have lived away
from journalistic criticism, which, with all its faults, does
cause open vice to cease where it has free rein.

In Senate Document Xo. 190 is the testimony of Don
Felipe Calderon, a prominent lawyer in Manila:

"O. Now, as to the morality of the friars, have you
had much opportunity to observe this?

no The Philippinks and the; Far East.

''A. Considerable, from my earliest youth. With re-
spect to their morality in f^eneral, it was such a common
thing to see children of friars that no one ever paid any
attention to it or thought of it, and so depraved had the
people become in this regard that the women who were
the mistresses of friars felt great pride in it, and had
no compunction in speaking of it. So general had this
thing become that it may be said that, even now, the rule
is for a friar to have a mistress and children, and he who
has not is the rare exception, and if it is desired that I
give names, I could cite right now one hundred children
of friars.

"Q. In Manila, or in the provinces?

"A. In Manila and in the provinces. Everywhere.
Many of my sweethearts have been daughters of friars.

"Q. Are the friars living in the islands still who have
had those children ?

"A. Yes ; and I can give their names, if necessary, and
I can give the names of the children, too. Beginning with
myself, my mother is the daughter of a Franciscan friar.
I do not dishonor myself by saying this, for my family
begins with myself.

"Q. I will be obliged for a list.

"A. I can give it to you right now: In Pandacan (a
suburb of Manila), Isidro Mendoza, son of the Bishop
Pedro Payo, when he was the parish curate of the pueblo
of Samah ; in Imus the wife of Cayetano Topazio, daugh-
ter of a Recoleto friar of Mindoro; in Zambales, Louise
Lasaca, now in Zambales, and several sisters and broth-
ers, were children of friar Benito Tutor, a Recoleto friar
in Bulacan ; in Quingua, I can not remember the last
name, the first name is Manuela, a godchild of my mother,
is the daughter of an Augustinian friar named Alvaro;
in Cavite, a certain Patrocinia Berjes is a daughter of
friar Rivas, a Dominican friar ; Colonel Auguillar, who
is on the Spanish Board of Liquidation, is the son of
Father Ferrer, an Augustinian monk.

"O. How do you know these things ?

"A. In some cases, through family relations ; others,
because they were godchildren of my father; and others,

Win I'lii'; Kkiaks aric Hati:i). hi

I became possessed of the facts tliroupi'li bein_q' attorney.
I myself have acted as godfather for three children of
friars. I am now manasi^ing- an estate of $40,000 that came
from a friar for his three children. A family lives with
me who are all the children of friars. . . . And woe
be unto him who should ever murmur anything against
the friars ; and even the young Filipino women had their
senses perverted because, when attending school, they had
often and often seen the friar come in to speak to their
openly-avowed daughters, who were often their own
playmates."

The testimony of another witness is given on pages
150 and 151 of the same document:

"O. Did not the people become so accustomed to the
relations which the friars had with the women that it really
paid [played?! very little part in their hostility to the
friars, assuming that the hostility does exist?

''A. That contributed somewhat to the hostility of
the people, and they carried things in this regard with a
very high hand ; for if they should desire the wife or
daughter of a man, and the husband and father opposed
such advances, they would endeavor to have the man de-
ported by bringing up false charges of being a filibuster
or a Mason, and, after succeeding in getting rid of the
husband, they would, by foul means or fair, accomplish
their purpose. I will cite a case that actually happened to
us. It was the case of a first cousin of mine, Dona So-
ponce, who married a girl from Baliuag, and went to live
in Hagonoy, and there the local friar curate, who was pur-
suing his wife, got him the position as registrar of the
Church in order to have him occupied in order that he
might continue his advances with the wife. He was for-
tunate in this undertaking, and succeeded in getting the
wife away from the husband, and afterward had the hus-
band deported to Puerta Princessa, near Jolo, where he
was shot as an insurgent, and the friar continued to live
with the widow, and she bore him children. The friar's
name is Jose Martin, an Augustinian friar.

"O. Is he still in the islands?

112 Thf, Philippines and the Far East.

"A. He was an old man, and he has gone over to
Spain. That was in 1891, 1892, or 1893. . . . My
first cousin went to Archbishop Nozaleda with letters
which had passed between the friar and his wife. The let-
ters were written in cipher understood only by the wo-
man and the friar, and with locks of his hr.ir and his pho-
tograph, which has been sent to his wife. My cousin
wanted him to discipline this man and prevent him from
encroachmg upon his household. Archbishop Nozaleda
said that the case was under the jurisdiction of the vicar
of the province, residing at Baliuag, and that was the end
of the case. Nothing was ever done by the archbishop
or the vicar, except, as I have said before, the husband
was deported to Puerto Princessa."

Still another witness, a physician with four years of
study and residence in Europe, said in answer to the ques-
tion of the Commission :

"Q. What was the morality of the parish priests ?

"A. There was no morality. I do not know a single
one of all those [friars] 1 have known in the province
of Bulacan who has not violated his vow of celibacy. . . .
Immorality in its train brings despotism, intimidation,
and force to carry out their desires and designs. . .
I don't deny there may be exceptions, but I have not
seen them The large majority have violated their vows
of celibacy and chastity. For this reason I believe that
Protestantism will have a very good field here; for one
reason only, and that is that the Protestant ministers
marry, and that will eradicate all fear of attacks upon
Filipino families on their part." (Id. pp. 156, 157.)

Mr. John Foreman's book was written ten years ago,
long before there was the most remote thought of Amer-
ican intervention and occupation. Mr. Foreman is a
Roman Catholic. Here is his testimony (second edition,
page 218) :

"There was Father Juan T , of Malolos, whose

son, my friend, was a prominent lawyer. Father S ,

Wiiv TiiH Friars ark Hated. 113

of Bugason, had a whole taniil\- hvinj;^ in his parish.

Archbishop P had a dauij^htcr, frcquentl}- seen on the

Paseo de Santa Lucia. The late parish priest of Lipa,

Father B , whom I knew, had a son, whom I saw in

1893. The late parish priest of Santa Cruz, Father

M L , got his spiritual flock to petition against his

being made prior of his order in Manila, so that he should
not have to leave his women. I was intimately acquainted,
and resided more than once with a very mixed-up family
in the south of Negros Island. \ly host was the son of
a secular clergyman ; his wife and sister-in-law were the
daughters of a friar; this sister-in-law was the mistress
of a friar ; my host had a son who was married to an-
other friar's daughter, and a daughter who was the wife
of a foreigner. In short, the bastard children of friars
are to be found everywhere in the islands. Regarding
this merely as the natural outcome of the celibate rule,
I wish thereby to show that the pretended sanctity of the
clergy in the Philippines was an aburdity. . . .''

Again I call a halt in testimony, not because of lack
of material, but because the reader wdio will not believe
this testimony would not be persuaded with any kind or
quantity that might be cited. All that these men say is a
matter of common knowledge. And so well have the
native priests learned the lesson, that there are but few of
them who live pure lives to-day. They are now the parish
priests. In all parts of the provinces where my work
calls me I find the native Filipino priest living immorally.
I could give names of towns and priests, but it is not
necessary. Catholics will shudder at the disclosures of
this chapter ; but it is as much to their interest to know
these 'things as it can be to that of any other persons.
They certainl}- can not desire that the good name of their
Church shall be always dragged in the mire. They are
surely concerned to see such a state of things brought to
an end. It may be severe medicine, but the patient is

114 The Philippines and the Far East.

more dear to them than to us even, and desperate diseases
call for remedies that will stay their course.

5. Because of despotism exercised oz'cr all classes of
people.

How despotic this friar rule was it is difficult for those
of us who have always lived under a free government to

PLACE IN MANILA WHERE SUSPECTS OF SPANISH
GOVERNMENT WERE SHOT.

(Victims faced farther wall, and were shot in the back. There was
rarely any trial held. Scores of innocent people perished. )

understand. All civil as well as all religious power in the
pueblo, or city, was in the hands of the parish priests.
They intermeddled in all the public and private concerns
of the place. They were ex-officio members of all mu-
nicipal committees, and by reason of the fact that they
were foreigners and usually the best educated men in the

Why Tiiic l-'uiAKS auic Hati;i). 115

place, tlicy were able to overawe the native people, and
get their own way in everything. Not a man could be
a candidate for municipal or provincial position without
the approval of the friar. Not an election, duly carried
on by electors qualified under the law, was final until the
friar had approved the candidate receiving the requisite
number of votes. Not a road could be built without the
O. K. of the friar. Burials, baptism, funerals, removals
from one parish to another, promotion, degradation, school
work, fiestas, — everything was in the hands of the friar.
If the authorities in Manila wanted a man's private record
looked up, the friar carried on secret inquiries, not shrink-
ing from using the confessional to help out w^hen other
means of investigation failed. Sefior Pedro Surano Lak-
taw, a teacher with several years' study in Spain and other
European countries, in his testimony before the Commis-
sion, said :

"One of the most terrible arms that the friar wielded
in the provinces was the secret investigation and report
upon the private life and conduct of a person. For in-
stance, if some one had made accusations against a resi-
dent of a pueblo and laid them before the governor-gen-
eral, he would have private instructions sent to the cu-
rate of the town to investigate and report upon the private
life of that resident, stating that he had been charged
with conspiring against Spanish sovereignty. This res-
ident was having his private life investigated without any
notice to him whatever, and in a secret way. This is
•the secret of their great political influence."

Senor Ambrosio Flores says that the hatred of tlie
friars is due, in part,

"To the haughty, overbearing, despotic manner of the
friars. Then there was the fact of the fear which beset
every man, even those who through fear were nearest
to the friars, that if his eyes should light upon his wife

ii6 The Philippines and the Far East.

or his daughter in an envious way, that if he did not give
them up he was lost."

Mr. H. Phelps Whitmarsh, who was sent to the Philip-
pines as the correspondent of The Outlook, a journalist,
and one who was afterward chosen as the first governor
of the Hill province of Benguet, where he now resides,
was asked by the Commission :

"O. What grounds did they [the people of the prov-
inces visited by Mr. W.] give for their hostility?

"A. Mainly tha: the priests held them under, op-
pressed them, robbed them, and that they used their
women and daughters just as they pleased.

"O. Did you hear of instances of deportation through
the agency of the priest?

"A. Yes ; I have heard that nobody was allowed in
certain sections to go away from the town without the
permit of the friars, and that the friar often sent him
away, and that they were under the thumb of the friar."

"Every abuse of the many which finally led to the two
revolutions of 1896 and i8cj8 was charged by the people
to the friars. Whether they were in fact to blame is per-
haps aside from our purpose ; but it can not admit of
contradiction that the autocratic power which each curate
exercised over the people and civil officials of his parish
gave them a most plausible ground for belief that noth-
ing of injustice, of cruelty, of oppression, of narrowing
restraint of liberty, was imposed on them for which the
friar was not entirely responsible. His- sacerdotal func-
tions were not, in their eyes, the important ones except as
they enabled him to clinch and make more complete his
civil and political control. The revolutions against Spain's
sovereignty began as movements against the friars. Such
was the tenor of Rizal's chief work, 'Noli Me Tangere.'
The treaty of Biacnabato, which ended the first revolu-
tion, is said to have contained the condition that the friars
should be expelled. In the second revolution, as already
said, at least forty friars were killed, and over four hun-
dred were imprisoned. Having in view these circum-

Why THE Friars are Hated.

117

stances, the statement of the bishop and friars that tlie
mass of tlie pco[)le in these islands, except only a few of
the leadinj^- men of each town and the native clergy, are
friendly to them, can not be accepted as accurate. All
the evidence derived from every source, but the friars
themselves, shows clearly that the feeling of hatred for the
friars is well-nigh universal, and permeates all classes."*

BINONDO CHURCH, MANILA.

Chapters could be filled with evidence of this char-
acter, and all of it is corroborated by the large facts of
recent social and political, upheavals which have taken
place. But there is no need. There is undying hostility
in the Philippines against the friar. The causes recited
above are those which have chiefly contributed to create
this hostility. Onlv in the degree to which leaders in the

■•■Report of the Civil Commission by Governor Taft to the
President. Part II, p. 29.

ii8 The PnirjppiNivS and the Far East.

Catholic Church frankly recognize 'the abuses which led
to his bitterness, and address themselves to their removal,
will they win the approval of thoughtful men.

With what perfect fitness the ancient reproof of
Ezekiel comes to these men who have done good, who
have pioneered civilization, and have cleansed heathenism
out of the Islands, but who have lost their first love, and
wandered from their first paths of humility and service :

"Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds : Woe
be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves !
Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the
fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that
are fed : but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have
ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which
was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was
broken, neither have ye brought again that which was
driven away, neither have ye sought that which was
lost ; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.
And they were scattered because there is no shepherd :
and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when
they were scattered." (Ezek. xxxiv, 2-5.)

CHAPTER VIII.
The Insurrection of 1896.

The insurrection of 1896 was only the culmination of a
long series of efforts on the part of the Filipino people
to throw off the hated yoke of mediaeval despotism im-
posed upon them by the Spanish government, and made
unendurable by the oppressive administration of friars.
As far back as 1622 the tyranny of the Church and fright-
ful cruelties inflicted upon the "Indios" by Spanish offi-
cials to compel them to perform labor without pay, drove
the natives into a revolt that was only put down by the ut-
most efforts of the government. In 1660 the natives of
the province of Pampanga revolted because they were
compelled to perform service without remuneration in
erecting churches, convents, and government arsenals.
The greatest cruelties were committed upon them. If they
refused to work they were tortured horribly. The whole
population was reduced to a condition of serfdom, and
they rose as one man, and wrung from the government
some slight mitigation of their miseries.

In 1744 a Jesuit priest in the island of Bohol caused
an uprising by his long-continued despotism and cru-
elties. He used force to herd the people to church to
hear mass. If they were absent for any cause, he had
the civil authorities put them under arrest, and they w^ere
fined, imprisoned, or publicly flogged. A man who had
been particularly hard for the friar to manage in the mat-
ter of attendance at church died. The friar refused him

119

120 Tut; Philippines and the Far East.

burial, and when his friends would have interred their
father and brother in unconsecrated ground, the friar
compelled them to leave the body unburied, to rot in the
sun. A brother of the dead man led in an uprising in
which the offending friar was paid in his own coin —
flogged, imprisoned, killed, and his body left to rot in
the sun. So successful were the leaders of this revolt that
they maintained an independent government in that en-
tire island for thirty-five years, and only yielded their
independence when they were satisfied that no Jesuit
priest or other friar could again enter the island to live.
Other insurrections there have been, in 1823, 1827,
1844, and the one already mentioned, that in Cavite in
1872, which was put down with such ferocity that it ir.ade
certain another and more widespread movement for
liberation from such bloodthirsty rule as soon as native
leaders could ])re])are the way. Such as survived the mas-
sacre that followed that rising, and had any means, fled
to Spain. There they started the first systematic agita-
tion against friar rule in their native islands. A news-
paper named La Solidaridad was started, having for its
object the enlightenment of the thoughtful classes ot
Filipinos on afl^airs of government. This paper circu-
lated extensively in the Philippines, although it was for-
bidden entrance. Some wise utterances were contained
in it, but much that was crude and passionate abuse of a
personal nature. However, it stirred the natives to
thought. It showed them that other peoples were not
so bound down by priestly tyranny. It exploded the false-
hoods of the friar leaders. It suggested reforms, and
did a little something toward unifying public feeling
in and about Manila against continual submission to the
injustice of the friars.

Tiiiv Insukki:cti()N of 1896. 121

Frcc'iiiasonry plawd a part in the atiitation which went
before the insurrection. ( )nly in circles, every indi-
vidual of which was under a bindins^ oath of secrecy,
was it possible to discuss questions of reform. If dis-
cussions were carried on elsewhere, the friars would cer-
tainly worm out the facts as to what was said and what
was planned, throui^h the confessional, or through tor-
ture. In Manila it was possible for some of the more
wealthy Filipinos, or those of the best families, to secure
membership in the regular Masonic lodge. There they
mingled with Spaniards on equal footing. There they
saw the advantage which an oath-bound society would
give them in the agitation which they had determined in
their hearts to carry on until the time was ripe for strik-
ing a blow for the betterment of their conditions. For
they had not the most remote idea of attempting to throw
off the Spanish sovereignty ; and the idea of political inde-
pendence was not only not discussed, it was not thought
of. Out of this conviction as to the advantage of an
oath-bound societ\- the members of which would not di-
vulge its plans to priest or official on pain of death
at the hands of other members, the Katipunan was
formed. The word sini])ly means "league." The signifi-
cant step in becoming a member, aside from taking its
oath, was to sign its constitution in blood drawn from
the arm or leg of the signer. Fmm this the societv
has been sometimes called the Blood v League. The
growth of this society was phenomenal. Membership
lists were made up, and lodges organized in nearlv everv
city in central Luzon, and in some places farther north.

Entire secrecy was impossible. Add the confessional
to all other means of ferreting out hidden social forces
and factors, and you have an almost irresistible enginery

122 The Phiijppines and the F'ar East,

of investigation. Rumors of something wrong were in
the air. Stern orders went from the archbishop in Manila
to all parish priests to get information as to these "Free
Masons." Denunciations and deportations by the hun-
dred quickly followed. Parish priests, knowing that this
presented a chance to settle old scores and get in line for
promotion at the same time, sent in lists of names, which
were acted upon, and banishments became common. In
Malolos, Father Moises Santos secured the banishment
of the entire list of municipal officials to African colonies.
Trials were not even mentioned. Let a parish priest
send in a list of alleged "Free Masons," and they were
promptly deported. Hundreds of families were deprived
of father and husband and brother without warning, with-
out even the semblance of judicial process. Excitement
and burning resentment were felt everywhere.

An acquaintance of mine living in the province of
Tarlac was one of the thousands who were tortured with
the hope of getting evidence as to the plans of the "Free
Masons" in his pueblo. He was a member of the Kati-
punan, and one of its leading officers, being a man of
much native ability and unusual force of character. He
was invited to the convcnto, or parsonage, of the friar
for a friendly visit. While seated in an upper room await-
ing the friar's entrance from his room adjoining, a posse
of armed men rushed in and compelled him to submit to
be searched. The friar came at the exact moment that
the soldiers entered, and personally conducted the search
of his person for incriminating papers. Nothing was
found. He was then told that he must tell all he knew of
the society, or be so punished that his life would not be
worth a centavo's purchase. He refused, and was tied
by the soldiers to a heavy hardwood bench, and the friar
ordered him flogged on the bare back. He was so beaten

The InsurrIcctiox of 1896, 125

until be fainted through pain and loss of blood. After
he recovered be was given another opportunity to tell
what he knew, with the same result. The friar then
ordered him hung to the rafters by his thumbs, his toes
barely touching the tloor. He was left in this position for
more than an hour, and let down to tell what he knew.
All night one form or another of torture was used on this
poor wretch— one of the leading men of the place — and
only in the early dawn did he escape by feigning death
so long as to put his tormentors off their guard. With
a lacerated back, with one rib broken, and hands and arms
horribly cut and swollen, he leaped from a second story
window and effected his escape to thick underbrush near
at hand, and thence to a village in the mountains, where
he was concealed until the insurrection had flamed out
into open war. In that war he became one of the coolest
and most relentless fighters to be found among Filipino
officers. He showed me the scars of his torture. The
wonder is that he survived.

Finall}' the confessional triumphed over the oaths of
the Katipunan. The parish priest of Tondo. Manila, a
friar, gave the government its first clear word as to the
nature and extent of the movement. His name was
iMariano Gil. The first move was to have been made on
the 20th of August, 1896, but a member of the Katipunan,
or League, told all he knew on condition of receiving full
pardon, just in the nick of time. A woman with whom he
was living opened the way for his confession.

"Within an liour the Civil Guard was in motion, on
the track of the alleged prime movers. Three hundred
supposed disaffected persons were seized in Manila and
the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan within a few
days, and, a large number being brought in daily, the
prisons were soon crowded to excess, . . . Among

126 The PiiiLiri'iNJis and thi; Far East.

the first to be seized were many of the richest and most
prominent men in the colony, and the cream of Manila
society. There was intense excitement in the capital as
their names gradually leaked out. No one who possessed
wealth was safe."

General Blanco, the governor, had but fifteen hundred
regular Spanish troops in the Philippines, and these could
not all be brought to Manila, or even to the vicinity of
Manila. The native troops could not be relied upon to
fight against their own countrymen in a rising of that
nature, and the wise old strategist endured the storm of
friar wrath at his inactivity, and cabled for troops and
guns and ammunition with which to carry on effective
operations. But the friars were dissatisfied. Blanco was
too humane. He would not apply torture as the arch-
bishop, Nozaleda, deemed necessary. Therefore the cable-
gram mentioned in an earlier chapter, stating that his
"inactivity is inexplicable." General Polaviaja, the idol
of friardom, was appointed immediately, and on his ar-
rival the carnage began in dead earnest. By that time
Spain had ten thousand troops at his command, and am-
munition in vast quantities.

Meantime the insurrection had made great headway.
All the center of Luzon was overrun. The first bloodshed
was in San Juan del Monte, a Manila suburb. It took
place about 4 A. M., Sunday, August 30, 1896. The in-
surgents sought to secure possession of a powder maga-
zine at that place. They had poor leadership, and were
beaten off with severe loss, and their leader, Valenzuela,
was shot with four others on the Luneta, Manila, on the
4th of September. More than five hundred military pris-
oners were shot on that same ground, immediately back
of the house in which this book is written, and less than
a half mile away, during the opening months of the in-

Thk Insukkkction VI' 1896. 127

iurrection. The Luneta is the only bit of park in Manila
fronting the bay. These men, and all others so executed,
were made to kneel on the bay side of a square, three sides
of which were made up of Spanish and native troops.
They were blindfolded, and had their arms pinioned.
They knelt on the open side of the square of troops,
facing the ba}-, with their backs to the firing squad. The
officer in command always used the following formula,
proclaiming it in a loud voice at each corner of the square :

"In the name of the king! Whosoever shall raise his
voice to crave clemency for the condemned shall suffer
death."

The sixteen members of the firing partv divided into
fours, and took their places about fifteen feet behind the
prisoners. When the quick lowering of the officer's sword
gave signal to fire, the simultaneous crack of rifles would
ring out over the quiet bay ; the bullets, having passed
clean through the bodies of the condemned, would kick
up tufts of grass in front, and the bodies slowly settle in
the abandon of death.

Crowds of natives swarmed into the city of Manila as
the safest place in the storm that was rapidly rising. The
province of Cavite proved the center of the typhoon of
insurrection. Aguinaldo, at that time a schoolteacher in
Silan, now conies into notice. On the 31st of August his
first proclamation saw the light. It was of little impor-
tance, being mostly a heated bit of denunciation, and quite
destitute of plan or suggestions of a practical nature.
Imus, a friar center, where one of their haciendas is
located, was chosen as the center for the insurrecto forces.
They barricaded the place. They captured thirteen friars.
One of these was slowly cut up piecemeal in public amid
tremendous applause from thousands whose personal
property or family rights had been trampled upon by

128 The Philippines and the Far East.

friars. Another was saturated with kerosene oil and set
on fire, and a third was bathed in oil and roasted over a
slow fire on a bamboo pole run through the length of his
body. I do not mention these instances of atrocities com-
mitted against friars because I approve or even condone
them. They are facts, and they tell beyond all hope of
successful refutation of the terrible hatred borne the friars
by Filipino people as a whole. What was done to these
friars would have been done to all if they could have been
seized in the early days of the insurrection. There seems
to be no sufficient reason for thinking that Aguinaldo
ordered these murders, or sympathized with them. He
treated such friars and women as fell into the hands of
troops under his immediate control with a degree of
humanity.

On November loth, Blanco attempted to dislodge the
insurgents at Novaleta, and was repulsed with great
slaughter. At Imus also, later, the insurgents defeated
a large force sent to drive them from their intrenchments.
In provinces north of Manila the Spanish troops had more
success, and kept the slender insurrection forces on the
move. In Manila the torture, imprisonment, banishment,
and shooting went on at a rate awful to contemplate. On
October ist three hundred men were sent into banishment
to African penal stations, most of whom never came back.
Prisoners were sent to Manila bound hand and foot, and
hoisted out of shipholds by chains as so much freight.
Extortion was practiced by the court martial established
to examine suspected persons. Foreman tells of persons
tortured until they were maimed for life, and then set at
liberty on payment of large sums of money. More than
seventy prisoners, all mere suspects, were confined in a
small, filthy dungeon under the city wall of Fort Santiago.
The dungeon communicated with the river by a narrow

"'■1 -^i'

**^^Ti'' -^^■^'

AX JN.SUKKIX'K) COLON KL,

Till'; Insukricction of i8y6- 131

graliiii;, and was filled when the tide rose. These seventy
prisoners, men and \\(Miien, were paeked into this damp,
loathsome hole, and drowned like rats in a trap. It was
the"]'.lack Hole" of Manila.

A common torture at that time was to tie the hands
behind the victim and hang- him by his hands, thus twist-
ing the shoulders into a position that caused the most
horriljle agony. They would then be cut down, falling
suddenly, and often dying- where they fell from exhaus-
tion, pain, and the sudden drop upon a floor of stone.
Another common punishment for those from whom they
wished to wring testimony was to compel them to stand
barefooted over a brazier of hot coals until the flesh was
cooked on the soles of their feet. In the terrible beatings
administered to suspects to extract evidence a broken rib
or an eye put out, or even a broken arm, was too insignifi-
cant to be worthy of mention.

In the field the royal troops took no prisoners. They
killed even the wounded that lay groaning on the field
after victory had been won. Near Polo a large number
of non-combatants, men and women, came out to assure
the troops of their submission, and they were massacred
as they knelt. Mercy and justice were forgotten, and an
ap])arently insatiable thirst for blood had taken possession
of the defenders of Spanish sovereignt}'. Not a syllable
of protest against any of this ferocity was heard from
friars. They were sponsors of a policy of severity.

General Polavieja arrived in Manila in December,
1896. He had all the dry season ahead of him. He im-
mediately put the troops in motion, and the history of the
insurrection from this point on until its close is a sicken-
ing monotony of guerrilla warfare, blood, executions,
deportations, and all the time the sky is aflame with burn-
ing cities in all directions. The advantage is now with

152 The Philippinus and thl; Far East.

this party, and now with that. There were no really great
battles, but the superior training and arms of Spanish
regulars told in the long run, and the cause of the insur-
rection lost slowly, as the months drac'ged along.

In the early part of 1897 General Primo de Rivera
relieved Palovieja as governor. In July he issued an
order giving ten days for all persons not rebels to report
to military commanders and receive a special cedilla per-
sonal, or paper of the nature of a passport, or they would
all be treated as rebels. This reacted in favor of the in-
surrectos. Crowds who had not taken up arms before
flocked to the insurrecto camps. The rebels responded
with a proclamation, the demands of which are of suffi-
cient importance to be given in full. It shows their aim
at that time. It tells how far they had succeeded in se-
curing it. It should be carefully studied by such good
people as have been led to believe that the Filipino people
were fighting for political independence :

"to the brave sons of the phieippines:

"We ardently desire, — , . .

"i. Expulsion of the friars and restitution to the town-
ships of the lands which the friars have appropriated,
dividing the incumbencies held by them as well as the
episcopal sees equally between peninsular and insular
secular priests. [By secular priests they mean priests
who are not members of monastic orders.]

"2. Spain must concede to us, as she has done to Cuba,
Parliamentary representation, freedom of the press, tol-
eration of all religious sects, laws common with hers, and
administrative and economic autonomy. .

"3. Equality in treatment and pay between peninsular
and insular civil servants.

"4. Restitution of all lands appropriated by the friars
to the townships or to the original owners, or, in default
of finding such owners, the State is to put them up

The ixsuRRRCTiox oi- 1896. 135

to public action, in small lots of a value within the reach
of all, and payable within four years, the same as the
present State lands.

"5. Abolition of the government authorities' power
to banish citizens, as well as all unjust measures against
Filipinos ; legal equality of all persons, whether peninsular
or insular, under the civil as well as under the penal code.

"The war must be prolonged to give the greatest
signs of vitality possible, so that Spain may be compelled
to grant om- demands ; otherwise she will consider us an
efifete race and curtail rather than extend our rights.

(Signed) "AIai.abar."

Rivera was anxious to close the war, and he called
into his service a lawyer in Manila, Senor Pedro A.
Paterno. Paterno played with both parties. He found
the rebels in small numbers fairly well intrenched north
of Manila, but in great straits for ammunition, and even
food. The Spanish army was little better ofif. He
represented to the rebels that Rivera was expecting, -Spain
to send him twenty thousand more troops, with full sup-
plies of cannon, ammunition, and supplies of all kinds,
and that for a money consideration he was certain the
war could be ended. To Governor Rivera he represented
that Aguinaldo's force numbered nearly one hundred
thousand men, well furnished with ammunition and sup-
plies, and fortified beyond hope of successful attack. At
last, on condition of many reforms being granted, and
on the agreement of Rivera to pay $800,000 (Mexican)
in installments, the insurgent leaders agreed to give up
the war, and leave the islands. The treaty was nego-
tiated by Senor Paterno, and is known as the Treaty of
Biac-na-Bato, from the cave in the hills near Angat,
Bulacan, where it was signed. Emilio Aguinaldo signed
for the insurrectos, and Paterno for the governor, from
whom he carried authority. Governor Rivera acceded

134

TlIK PlIIIJPPINKS AND TIIK FaR EaST.

to the demand of Aguinaldo that a Spanish officer of
high rank should accompany the insurgent leaders to
Hong-Kong as a guarantee of good faith. He also sent
a personal representative to meet the exiled leaders, and
at a banquet Aguinaldo gave Spain hearty cheers. They
sailed from Sual, Pangasinan province, for Hong-Kong,
where the payments of money were made, and the in-
surrection was at an end.

MORO HOUSES, JOLO.

CHAPTER IX.

Ti[i; American Occupation.

An extended account of tlie successive campai^s^ns
leading" to control of tiie Philippines by the United States
is not within the scope of this work. That may be
safely left to other writers. Only with that portion of
American occupation which partisan and ignorant writers
have so mischievously misrepresented to the prejudice
of public sympathy with the work our nation is doing
here, shall I concern myself. With the record of some
men in the American army in the Philippines I could
find many flaws. Possibly flaws which even furious
critics in America have never heard of could be pointed
out. Put with the record of the American army as an
organization, and with its achievements on behalf of this
downtrodden and helpless people I nuist speak with en-
thusiastic praise. When "the ^■(^ungest critic" has said
his last and his worst, it still remains true that the net
result of American valor in the T'hilippines is the freeing
of seven millions of people from a hopeless tyrannv. to
become a nation ! All that the governor, the commis-
sion, the schoolmaster, the civil judge, and the mission-
ary are attempting would have been impossible without
the work of the soldier. wSome cruelties there were.
Nearly all that were proven to have taken place were
committed in defiance of orders, in remote ])laces, and
under provocation such as only pens dipped in blood
could describe. But these were eddies in the current.

135

136 The Philippines and the Far East.

The main stream of military administration in the Phil-
ippines has been humane. Some minds forever miss
currents, and get caught in eddies. From that class of
mind every great cause in our history, and all of our
great leaders, have had to endure opposition and abuse.
l!ut the calm verdict of history has set things straight,
as it will do in the case of our military record in these
Inlands.

War was practically declared on April 21, 1898. On
the 24th of April the following order was flashed from
Washington to our Asiatic squadron :

"Dewey, Hong-Kong :

"War has commenced between the United States and
Spain. Proceed at once to the Philippine Islands. Com-
mence operations at once, particularly against the Spanish
fleet. You must capture vessels or destroy. Use utmost
endeavors. Long.''

On May ist Commodore Dewey sank the entire
Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, without the loss of a man
or serious injury to a single one of his ships. So singu-
larly complete and overwhelming was the victory that
devout students of the bloody history of Spain in this
colony can not refrain from believing that the God of
nations helped mightil}'. The words of Psalm ii, 9.
come forcibly to mind: "Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron ; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel." This was literally done in that marvelous sea-
fight. History furnishes no parallel. The "rod of iron"
did its awful work, and so easily was it done that no
scar was left, and the hand that wielded it was unin-
jured.

The report of the battle is made with the modesty
which real greatness always shows in the hour of
triumph :

The American Occupation. 137

"The squadron arrived at Manila at daybreak this
morning. Immediately engaged the enemy and destroyed
the following Spanish vessels: Rciiia Christina, Caslilla,
Don .Intonio de Ulloa, Don Juan de Austria, Isla dc
Luzon, Isla dc Cuba, General Lezo, Marquis del Ducro,
El Curreo, Velasco, one transport, Isla de Mindajiao, wa-
ter battery at Cavite. I shall destroy Cavite arsenal dis-
pensatory. The squadron is uninjured. Few men were
slightly wounded. I request the department will send
immediately from San Francisco fast steamer with ammu-
nition. The only means of telegraphing is to the Amer-
ican consul at Hong-Kong. Drwey."

vSincc the raising of the ships that went to the bottom
that May morning, certain criticisius have been made
to the effect that the Spanish commanders had poor
vessels and poorer guns, and that they sunk the vessels
themselves bv opening the sea-cocks. What are the
facts? The Spanish fleet had the steel cruiser Reina
Christina, the steel protected cruisers Isla dc Luzoji and
Isla de Cuba, and the iron cruiser Doji Juan de Austria.
all built within a year of the time the Baltimore, Con-
cord, and Petrel were constructed. Their crews num-
bered 1,875 against 1,709 of our fleet. This takes no
account of the gunners in the five shore batteries, which
joined with the fleet in firing upon the attacking squad-
ron. They had on their ships fourteen modern six-inch
guns and twenty-two five-inch guns, and yet at a range
narrowing down from 3,500 to 2.000 yards not a vessel
of our fleet was materially injured.

Admiral Montojo silences all such criticism by his
official account of the fight in so far as it affected his
flagship, the Reina Christina. A part of that report is
as follows :

"The enemy shortened the distance between us. and,
rectifying his aim, covered us with a rain of rapid-fire

138 Thk Philippinks and THt; Far East.

projectiles. At 7.30 one shell completely destroyed the
steering-gear. I ordered to steer by hand while the rud-
der was out of action. In the meanwhile another shell
exploded on the poop and put out of action nine men.
Another destroyed the mizzen-masthead, bringing down
the flag and my ensign, which were replaced immediately.
A further shell exploded in the officers' cabin, covering
the hospital with blood, and destroying the wounded who
were being treated there. Another exploded in the am-
munition-room astern, filling the quarters with smoke
and preventing the working of the hand steering-gear.
As it was impossible to control the fire, I had to flood the
magazine when the cartridges were beginning to explode.
Immediately amidships several shells of smaller caliber
went through the smokestack, and one of the large ones
penetrated the fireroom, putting out of action one master
gunner and twelve men serving the guns. Another
rendered useless the starboard bow gun ; while the fire
astern increased, fire was started forward by another
shell, which went through the hull, and exploded on deck.
The broadside guns being undamaged, continued firing
until there were only one gunner and one seaman remain-
ing unhurt for firing them."

The position in which Admiral Dewey found him-
self was one calling for great wisdom. Before him lay
Manila, helpless. From our consul, Oscar F. Williams,
whose knowledge of the bay and its defenses had been
of such value in the beginning, he learned the facts set
forth in our last chapter. From him he learned also that
the purchased peace had been of brief duration. The
insurrection which a Spanish governor had bought off
for $800,000, had flamed up again, as promises made
in the treaty of Biac-na-Bato were not kept, and half
the sympathizers with the insurrection felt that they had
been betrayed by their leaders. Without funds, with
few experienced leaders, and with but faint hopes of
success, these ragged, desperate men had once more

. ' V -

The American OccurATioN. 141

taken the field, detennined to secure the reforms for
which the people clamored, and which were necessary
as the condition of decent existence. The naval com-
mander there in Manila Bay knew of the awful condi-
tions prevailing- in the Islands. He knew that a perfect
rcii^n of terror had existed in the Archipelago for years.
PJe knew that all the reasons which drove us to inter-
fere in the case of Cuba were in operation here. He
had heard from our consul, and others, of the inhuman-
ities, the martyrdoms, the deportations, the anarchy and
ruin that prevailed on shore. Knowing all this, he felt
that his government would probably feel compelled to
follow up his annihilation of the Spanish fleet by the
capture of the Archipelago.

Aguinaldo was at Singapore. He begged to be al-
lowed to come to Manila. Our consul there, Mr. E.
Spencer Pratt, believed that his exact knowledge of
the topography about Manila, of means of trans])orta-
tion, and all matters relating to military movements,
should they be ordered, would be of great service to
the American forces. Aguinaldo came to Manila via
Hong-Kong with Dewey's permission. He gave Con-
sul Rounseville Wildman in Hong-Kong two pledges,
— (i) that he would "obey unquestioningly the com-
mander of the United States forces in the Philippine
Islands;" and (2) that he would "carry on his military
movements on civilized lines."

Aguinaldo was not "recognized" as the head of an
insurgent force, and permitted to return to the Islands
as such. As a private person in possession of informa-
tion likely to be valuable in further military operations,
should they be deemed necessary, he was permitted to
come to Manila, and then only on the conditions already
set forth. He was permitted to land, and provided

142 The Philippines AiND the Far East.

with some guns and aninuinition. Ke was an enemy
of our enemy. He was under pledge of unquestioning
obedience. No thought entered the mind of any one
concerned that we would have trouble with the Fili-
pinos. They and we were at one in an attempt to over-
throw Spanish supremacy.

But no sooner had Aguinaldo seen some of his old
comrades in arms, and discovered the vitality that ex-
isted in the Filipino movement against Spain, than his
ambition burned up with such heat that his pledges were
consumed. Almost immediately he proclaimed "inde-
pendence" in such towns as he had overrun, with arms
furnished him, and still owned by "the commander of
the United States forces in the Philippines." No baser
case of ingratitude and bad faith was even seen in all
our long Indian wars in the West. And this was but
the beginning. From that time until his capture by
Colonel Funston his record was in complete accord with
these first steps. Pages of evidence taken by the Schur-
man Commission, and printed in Volume II of their
report (p. 381, et scq.), are fairly summarized in the
following four points :

(i) That Aguinaldo was helped to arms on the un-
derstanding that he was to use them entirely under
American direction in weakening Spanish power. (2)
That no sooner had he gathered a force about him than
he broke out into inexcusable insubordination against
the man and the forces to whose presence and gift of
arms he was entirely indebted for his ability to return
to the Philippines, and to take up a warlike attitude
toward his former enemy. (3) That hostility to the
Americans was settled upon in his own mind long be-
fore they had had time or opportunity to formulate or
declare any policy for the Philippines. (4) That per-

TiiK American Occii'atkjn. 143

sonal ambition was the ruliiii;- motive with him in that
early stage of the embroilment.

Much of this testimony is given by Senor Benito Le-
garda, for a few months one of Aguinaldo's officials,
and now one of the members of the Civil Commission.

Meantime the question of what to do with the Phil-
ippines was the one which perplexed our authorities in
Washington. President McKinley faced it, and sought
advice from all parties. Perhaps the fullest unofficial
statement he ever made of the way his own conclusion
to hold the Islands was reached is contained in his ad-
dress to a committee of clergymen, as reported in the
Christian Advocate by General James F. Rusling. Gen-
eral Rusling was a member of a committee from a re-
ligious gathering in Washington to present resolutions
of thanks to President McKinley for courtesies shown
its members, and, with Bishop Thomas Bowman, Bishop
John F. Hurst, and Drs. Upham and Buckley, met the
President by appointment in his private office in the
White House for that purpose, November 21, 1899.
After a pleasant interview the members of the committee
rose to take their leave. The President detained them
to give the following statement :

"Before you go I would like to say just a word about
the Philippine business. I have been criticised a good
deal about the Philippines, but do n't deserve it. The
truth is, I did n't want the Philippines, and when they
came to us, as a gift from the gods, I did not know what
to do with them. When the Spanish War broke out,
Dewey was at Hong-Kong, and I ordered him to go to
Manila, and he had to ; because, if defeated, he had no
place to refit on that side of the globe, and if the Dons
were victorious they would likely cross the Pacific and
ravage our Oregon and California coasts. And so he
had to destroy the Spanish fleet, and did it ! But that
was as far as I thought then.

144 The Philippines and the Far East.

"When next I realized that the PhiHppines had
dropped into our lap, I confess I did not know
what to do with them. I sought counsel from
all sides — Democrats as well as Republicans — but
got little help. I thought first we would take
only Manila ; then Luzon ; then other islands, per-
haps, also. I walked the floor of the White
House night after night until midnight ; and I am not
ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on
my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guid-
ance more than one night. And one night late it came
to me this way — I do n't know how it was, but it came :
(i) That we could not give them back to Spain — that
would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) That we could
not turn them over to France or Germany — our commer-
cial rivals in the Orient — that would be bad business
and discreditable; (3) That we could not leave them to
themselves — they were unfit for self-government — and
they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there
worse than Spain's was; and (4) That there was nothing
left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the
Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them,
and, by God's grace, do the very best we could by them,
as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died. And then I
went to bed, and went to sleep, and slept soundly, and
the next morning I sent for the chief engineer of the War
Department (our map-maker), and told him to put the
Philippines on the map of the United States [pointing to
a large map on the wall of his office] ; and there they
are, and there they will stay while I am President !"

The American occupation of the Philippines was un-
dertaken with motives as humane and disinterested as
those which drove us to war with Spain at first. The
fact is, that the hour of destiny had struck. The for-
bearance of a just God was exhausted. Spain must be
dispossessed of territories which she had ruled with
force and cruelty. A new order must begin.

Meantime troops had been rushed forward from San

Thk American Occupation. 145

Francisco. ^Manila was taken by a combined assault
of land and naval forces under General Merritt and
Admiral Dewey on August 13, 1898. A Spanish force,
twice as large as that under General Merritt, strongly
intrenched in a walled city with two moats and with
drawbridges at all gates, was captured with the follow-
ing losses to our army : Three officers wounded ; five
enlisted men killed, and forty-three wounded.

Our trophies were 13,000 prisoners, 22,000 stands of
modern arms, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, and $900,-
000. No looting was allowed. All streets were pa-
trolled by troops detailed for that purpose. Life and
property were more safe than they had been under Span-
ish rule. The conduct of our troops was such as to
make every American rejoice. \\'ithin two days the
post-office opened under the Stars and Stripes. Within
a week the custom-house was fully organized and had
taken in $100,000 in duties, and the city had resumed
its normal activity. Military records during those first
weeks do not disclose a single act of violence or usurpa-
tion on the part of any American soldier. Manila was
von.

But what of Aguinaldo and the insurgent forces?
General Merritt had sent word to Aguinaldo the night
of the 1 2th of August that he and his forces were not
to take part in the assault on the 13th, nor to enter the
city after it had been captured. That was because it
was well known that the insurgent leader and his fol-
lowers planned a terrible vengeance and a general loot-
ing of the city. I quote from the testimony of Senor
Benito Legarda, given in the report above referred to
(page 383) :

"O. Did Aguinaldo expect to enter Manila with his
troops with the Americans?
10

146 The Philippines and the Far East.

"A. Yes, sir.

"Q. Was there any disappointment among the troops
of Aguinaldo that they were not permitted to plunder
the city ? Was there any plan to plunder the city ?

"A, Yes, sir ; there had been such a plan.

"Q. Tell us about that plan.

"A. They wished, of course, to come into Manila
after having robbed it, for there was a plan to rob the
whole city. Aguinaldo himself, while in Bacoor, pointed
out crowds of people to me, passing, carrying sacks, who,
he said, were on their way to Manila to sack the city
when they were able. His plan was to come in with the
Americans from the inside after the city had been occu-
pied, if the Americans did not give the independence of
the Philippines."

During the assault of August 13th it became neces-
sary by force of arms to stop insurgents from entering
the city. They have never forgiven the American troops
for thus cheating them of the vengeance they meant to
wreak on Spanish officials and friars for their wrongs,
and preventing that wholesale plundering of banks,
stores, churches, and private houses from which they
expected to get funds for personal enrichment and for
carrying on their struggle.

Friction continued between our forces and those of
the insurgents. The months from September to Janu-
ary dragged heavily. Aguinaldo removed his capital to
Malolos, about thirty miles north of Manila. Here he
set up the revolutionary government, having himself
"elected" President by "delegates" whom he had named
for that purpose. He was inaugurated with due form,
and issued manifestoes, proclamations, and laws with
a lavish hand. His position was not without its diffi-
culties. He pretended to be at the head of a govern-
ment. He made no secret of his hatred of the Amer-
icans, nor of his purpose to resist any program they

TiiK American Occitpation, 149

might decide upon, unless it recognized as a real gov-
ernment for the entire Archipelago this self-constituted
bodv of otificials from one of its seven great tribes or
races. His army was eager to fight. IJecause f)f their
patient endurance of scoffs and jibes, our troops were
believed by the Filipino soldiers to be cowards. They
Ijlnndered houses along the edges of the city. They cast
up trenches facing our troops. A cordon of their troops,
reaching from the bay south of the city of Manila to the
bay again at the north, shut our forces into the city.
Twice they were peremptorily ordered to retire, and did
so sullenly. There was trouble in the air. Unless the
Treaty of Peace brought relief, war with the people in
whose interests we were in the Archipelago was almost
certain.

Meantime there was no word from Paris. The Fili-
l)inos refused to believe in our, desire to carry out an
unselfish program. Pending the signing and ratifying
of the treaty, no word of authority could be spoken. At
last came the news that the treaty had been signed. By
article three sovereignty over the Philippines passed
from Spain to the United States by the fortunes of war,
and by purchase. The clause reads as follows :

"Article 3. Spain cedes to the United States the arch-
ipelago known as the Philippine Islands, which coiu-
prises all those islands situated between the lines begin-
ning and ending as follows; viz. [then follows descrip-
tion]. The United States will pay to Spain the sum of
$20,000,000 within three months after the ratified treaty
is exchanged."

It became the duty, therefore, of the United States
to enforce sovereignty to which it had succeeded, and
bring about a condition of public order. It was imme-
diately the duty of all citizens of the Philippine Islands

15© The Philippines and the Far East.

to submit to the new rule. Not one of its inhabitants
had any just ground of complaint against the United
States. We had not oppressed them. We had broken
the power of their oppressors. We came to them with
many guarantees of good faith. We should have been
given an opportunity to prove the justice and beneficence
of our sway over the people before hostilities were be-
gun. Had it not been for fierce personal ambitions in
a few Filipino leaders, and false and foolish representa-
tions made to them by American politicians, there would
have been no bloodshed.

News of the treaty was not followed by any lessen-
ing of friction between the troops. Official records
prove that, late in January, one of Aguinaldo's men at-
tempted to assassinate an American picket. 'He failed,
and lost his life. One of General Otis's pickets was fired
on later, but the Filipino missed fire. The first of Feb-
ruary a surveying party, well within our own lines, was
seized by insurgent troops, and hurried away to Ma-
lolos.

"On the night of February 2d a strong detail of Fil-
ipino soldiers defiantly confronted one of our remote
pickets, well within the limits of our acknowledged juris-
diction, and there remained during the entire night, openly
taunting our imperturbaljle men in an attempt to draw
their fire. And, finally, on the night of February 4th,
growing bolder and more persistent in their efiforts to
bring on a conflict, a strong detail of Filipino soldiers
again appeared at one of our outposts on the east of
the city, and at the west end of the Santa Mesa bridge.
The detachment was led by one of Aguinaldo's officers,
who attempted to pass and push back our picket, then
a hundred yards or more within our lines. Private Gray-
son, Company D, First Nebraska Volunteers, challenged
the Filipino and his detachment, and, after giving his
third warning, fired, killing the lieutenant while he Still

The A.MicKicAx Occupatiux. 151

persisted in his attempt to force our picket-line. Innne-
diately the insurgents opened fire upon our troops from
their entire Hue of works surrounding the city, and many
miles in length."*

From the testimony taken l)y the Schurman Com-
mission in 1900. I quote again (pages 385 ct scq.) :

"O. We understand that, with the close proximity of
the two lines there was a great deal of trouble between
the soldiers of the opposing forces, and we would like
to know the facts.

"A. Hostile acts and demonstrations were the regular
order of the day between the two lines, and there were
disputes and other troubles continually, which did not
come to blows by sheer good fortune.

"O. What did the Filipino soldiers do here and on
the lines?

"A. The Filipino "soldiers were always committing
robberies here [in Manila]. One of the reasons for the
outbreak of hostilities was the conviction of the Filipino
soldiers that the American soldier was a coward ; . . .
and what gave them reason to think this was that the
Americans avoided trouble, and endeavored to prevent
the outbreak here.

"O. Do you know anything as to whether any day
had been fixed for the commencement of hostilities by
Aguinaldo ?

"A. I think not.

"O. Was it not understood that in a few days they
would make an attack ?

"A. It was understood — yes, sir — that [they would
do so] in the near future.

"Q. Aguinaldo had been preparing for it. had fie
not ? "^

"A. He was preparing for it.

"O. Then it was understood long before February 4th
that there would be war ?

'Alger: The Spanish-American War, 356, 357.

152 The PniurpiNES and thk Far East.

"Yes, sir, that hostilities would be opened in the near
future.

"Q. Everybody expected that the Filipinos would at-
tack the Americans?

"A. Yes, sir, both within the city and without. . . .

"Q. When this shot was fired, firing commenced along
the entire line?

"A. Yes, sir.

"O. What was the length of that line?

"A. It was very long — fifteen or twenty miles.

"O. Just as soon as that gun was fired the fighting-
commenced along the whole line?

"A. I saw near La Loma the Filipinos were sending
up red rockets, which was the signal agreed upon for the
outbreak of hostilities.

"Q. Do you know that this signal was agreed upon ?

"A. Yes, sir.

"Q. Then, there could not be any question but what
this attack was preconcerted ?

"A. Certamly; but I can not say that it w^as abso-
lutely agreed upon for the 4th of February. But it was
I to be] in the near future.

"O. What cfifect did the fighting of the first few days
have on the insurgent leaders?

"A. It caused complete demoralization. Soldiers went
to the woods, threw away their ammunition, and did
not want to fight any more on any condition."

The character of the alleged government under
which all this trouble was concocted may fairly well be
understood from the following testimony from the same
official source. To understand it fully would demand
thorough familiarit}- with Filipino character, and the re-
lation the Tagalog people bear to the other six-sevenths
of the Christianized inhabitants of the Archipelago
(pages 386. 387) :

"Q. How was his [Aguinaldo's] Congress got to-
gether ; was it elected or appointed ? and if appointed, by
whom was it appointed?

The American Occupation. 153

"A. This Congress was made up by .Vguinaldo. All
the members may be said to have been appointed. There
were a very few members who were elected by the peo-
ple, but the great majority were appointed by Aguinaldo,
and naturally the decisions of the Congress had to be
as Aguinaldo desired.

"Q. Did Aguinaldo have the power to remove mem-
bers who did not vote to suit his wishes?

"A. Yes, sir.

"O. Was the Congress fairly representative of the
various provinces in the Philippine Archipelago, or chiefly
made up of [the island of] Luzon?

"A. Luzon exclusively.

"O. In the island of Luzon, were the various prov-
inces represented, or mostly Tagalogs?

"A. All Tagalogs.

"O. You say you were Vice-President of ,the Con-
gress; did you ever preside?

"A. I only attended Congress twice, for the position
did not suit me. I hardly stopped there. J did not like
it, and I did not swear to support the Constitution.

"O. What importance did the Congress actually have ?
Were its decrees put into effect, or were they overruled
by Aguinaldo and his cabinet when they were not pleas-
ing to them?

"A. Whatever Aguinaldo wished.

"O. I wish to know whether the Congress was dom-
inated by Aguinaldo and his cabinet or not.

"A. Completely.

"O. Was it not true that the Congress passed a meas-
ure to the effect that the protection of the United States
should be requested for the Philippines ?

"A. Yes, sir.

"O. And what was the reason that that resolution
was not carried out?

"A. Because Aguinaldo disapproved of it."

From February 4, 1899, to Jnly 4, 1901, war con-
tinued. At the latter date it was "officially" declared
at an end, and civil rule began ; though there was desul-

154 The Philippines and the F'ar East.

tory fighting here and there for months afterward, and
war with the belligerent Moros at the south will occur
from time to time as it has done with tribes of Indians on
our Western frontier. But American occupation of the
Philippines has been accomplished, and our beneficent
program is being worked out with a directness and
rapidity most gratifying to all who love the flag.

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT BUILDING, TARLAC.

CHAPTER X.

Framing a Policy.

It should provoke no surprise that the effort to frame
a wise, just, and beneficent policy for our government
of the Filipino people called out such differences of
opinion and so much bitterness. To frame a policy
under which a Republic could govern seven million
brown men in the Far East was a most difficult task.
It w^as the most momentous question which our nation
had faced since the Civil War had settled the relation
which individual States hold to the Union. History
bears swift witness to the perils encountered wdien a free
people begin to rule over subject populations. Should
the Filipinos be held to be a "subject population?"
Should our nation treat them as the Dutch treat the in-
habitants of Java, and as the English treat the natives
of India or the Federated Malay States? The experi-
ence of European colonization — Spanish, English, Dutch
and French' — was before us. The larger questions grow-
ing out of the influence of white races in the tropics
were all brought up by this demand for a consistent and
successful policy for our newly-acquired island posses-
sions in Asia. Our statesmen could not be blind to the
steady invasion of the tropics by the rule of Northern
and Western nations. They could not but see that,
within a little more than a century, one-half of all trop-
ical countries had come under the control of European
powers. In this vast, silent, irrepressible movement

155

156 The Philippines and the Far East.

toward tropical control, what part should the United
States play? The Philippines were ours by the fortunes
of war. They were ours by payment of a fair purchase
price to their former owner, after the arbitrament of a
war for humanity had left them in our keeping. Naked
imperialism or the cool calculations of commerce had fur-
nished motive for nearly all previous European occu-
pation of the tropics. No serious attempt had ever been
made, at least none at all commensurate with the vast-
ness of the interests at stake, to lay down those principles
which should control in future relations between power-
ful Western nations and the primitive savag'ery or par-
tially-civilized inhabitants of the tropical regions. Con-
structive statesmanship was needed. Never had it
been more urgently needed since the birth-hour of the
Republic. If our nation committed itself to a selfish
policy, we would sin against the spirit of our own free
institutions, and the sin would come home to curse us.
We had done but our duty in enforcing our sovereignty.
Now we nuist show to the Filipinos, and to the nations
of the earth, that our humanitarian claims were some-
thing more than empty words ; for we had entered the
Philippines with large claims of disinterested humani-
tarianism. One of the members of the first Philippine
Commission says :

"I take as my starting-point the motives and objects
with which we went into the Philippines. They were
impressively voiced by President jMcKinley, and I have
already told you how he set them forth to me three years
ago. Our purpose was not selfish ; it was humanitarian ;
it was not the vanity of self-aggrandizement ; it was not
the greed of power and dominion. No, no, not these, but
altruism, caring for the happiness of others ; philanthropy
relieving the Filipinos of oppression and conferring on
them the blessings of liberty. This was the supreme con-

Fka.mixg a Policy. 157

sideration of President McKinley. It was this that
touched the vein of sentiment in the American hearts
that so overvvhehningly supported him. It docs not mat-
ter what judgment you may, in the cooler atmosphere oi
1902 pass upon that popular sentiment of the summer of
i8y8. You may consider it extravagant, irrational, im-
practical. I thought at the time that it went too far;
and I publicly pointed out that while, under the Monroe
Doctrine, it might become our duty to relieve American
peoples from European oppression, we had no call to
go into the business of rectifying the tyrannies of Asia.
But the popular heart was stirred too deeply to be stilled,
and Admiral Dewey's .great victory in Manila Bay had
brought the Filipinos within the range of American
solicitude and sympathy.

"This is the first fact in the history of our relations
with the Philippines. The political emancipation of the
Filipinos was the controlling object with the President
and people of the United States. I am, of course, aware
that other and less worthy aims appealed to individual
Americans and to groups of Americans. It would be
strange if it were otherwise, considering how diversified
human motives are apt to be. The jingo saw in the annex-
ation of the Philippines another avenue for spread-eagle-
ism ; to Americans in the Orient it meant an accession of
American influence in Asia ; to the Protestant Churchman
it ofifered a new field for missionary enterprise ; the exploit-
ing capitalist was fascinated by the riches of Philippine
forests, lands, and mines, which showed like 'the w^ealth
of Ormus or of Ind ;' and the sensational press, still
delirious from the fever of war and surfeited with the
staleness of piping peace, discerned in the Philippines
material for new sensations, which promised to be as stir-
ring as the excitant was remote, unknown, and danger-
ously explosive. All these influences, and others, were un-
doubtedly at work. Yet it was not these forces singly or
in combination that carried the day ; it was the humani-
tarian object of liberating the Filipinos from Spanish
tyranny, and bestowing upon them the boon of freedom,
that decided the President and the people of the United

158 The Philippines and the Far East.

States to compel Spain to cede to us here sovereignty
over the Philippine Islands-!"*

Should those Islands be made an integral part of
the United States ? Should we bring in the waif thrown
thus on our hands, and declare him one of the family?
This was seriously urged by men who should have seen
its utter impossibility. Distance forbade it. Racial
lines forbade it. The puzzling psychology of the Orien-
tal makes such a political "merger" unthinkable. Kip-
ling, who, whatever be his faults, understands the East,
makes Lord Dufferin say to Lord Lansdowne in his
"One Viceroy Resigns :"

" You '11 never plumb the Oriental mind,
And if you did, it is n't worth the toil.
Think of a sleek French priest in Canada ;
Divide by twenty half-breeds. Multiply
By twice the Sphinx's silence. There 's your East.
And you 're as wise as ever. So am I."

Plainly, we could not admit such incongruous ele-
ments to organic union with the nation. Nor could we
govern despotically. Despotic rule for India began be-
fore her monarchical government had been so profoundly
affected by the democratic spirit and method of later
years. If it were to be done now, England could not
carry her people with her in providing for India such a
government as India now has. Queen Wilhelmina, from
her throne in Amsterdam, can enforce despotic rule in
Java, and by compulsory labor make that island a gar-
den; but she is a queen, and our nation can not hope to
follow her example should we desire to do so.

Should we declare that the Philippines are to be a
colony? Colonial administration is difficult and dan-

"*Schurtnan. " Philippine Affairs, a Retrospect and Outlook,"

Framixc. a rcH.icv. 159

g'erous, even in i^ovcrnments nnich more hi<^hly cen-
tralized than our own. How would a colonial g'overn-
nient meet our promises and the leg^itimate hopes of the
Filipinos? What our promises were in a general way
may be seen in the closing paragraph of President Mc-
Kinley's Proclamation of December 21, 1898, imme-
diately following the signing of the Treaty of Peace at
Paris :

"Finally, it should be the earnest and paramount aim
of the military administration to win the confidence,
respect, and affection of the inhabitants of the Philip-
pines by assuring them in every possible way that full
measure of individual rights and liberty which is the
heritage of free people, and by proving to them that
the mission of the United States is of benevolent assim-
ilation, substituting the mild szvay of justice and right
for arbitrary rule. In the fulfillment of this high mis-
sion, supporting the temperate administration of affairs
for the greatest good of the governed, there must be sedu-
lously maintained the strong arm of authority to repress
disturbance and to overcome all obstacles to the bestowal
of the blessings of good and stable government upon the
people of the Philippine Islands under the free flag of
the United States. William McKinley.'^

In attempting to frame an enlightened policy, Presi-
dent IMcKinley appointed a Commission, with Dr. J. G.
Schurman, President of Cornell University, as chair-
man, to visit the Islands, acquaint themselves with all
the facts of the situation, and submit recommendations.
Before this Commission reached Manila, hostilities had
broken out, and, instead of finding a gradual extension
of United States sovereignty over a people eager to wel-
come us with our policy of "benevolent assimilation,"
the Commission found "red ruin, and the breaking out
of war" on all sides. With tireless energy they sum-

i6o The Philippines and the Far East.

moned witnesses, pored over old documents, and inves-
tigated conditions. What our government owes to this
Commission will never be known. Their report is a
convincing proof of intelligent toil to ascertain the facts
and know the very inner spirit of Filipino life.

One of the wisest things they did was to draw up a
proclamation to the Filipino people, setting forth the
benevolent intentions of the American Government, an.d
calling upon those who were in arms to return to the
vocations of peace. From that proclamation I take some
of the "regulative principles" which the Commission
assured the Filipino people would be "of cardinal im-
portance" in the relation of the United- States to the
Philippines and their inhabitants :

"i. The supremacy of the United States must and
will be enforced throughout every part of the Archipel-
ago, and those who resist it can accomplish no end other
than their own ruin.

"2. Tlie most ample liberty of self-government will be
granted to the Philippine people which is reconcilable
with the maintenance of a wise, just, stable, effective, and
economical administration of public affairs, and compat-
ible with the sovereign and international rights and obliga-
tion of the United States.

"3. The civil rights of the Philippine people will be
guaranteed and protected to the fullest extent, religious
freedom assured, and all persons shall have an equal
standing before the law.

"4. Honor, justice, and friendship forbid the use of
the Philippine people or Islands as an object or means
of exploitation. The purpose of the American Govern-
ment is the welfare and advancement of the Philippine
people. . . .

"11. Reforms in all departments of the government,
in all branches of the public service, and in all corpora-
tions closely touching the common life of the people, must
be undertaken without delay, and effected conformably

Framing a Policy. i6i

to rii;ht and justice in a way that will satisfy the well-
founded demands and the hiijhest sentiments and aspira-
tions of the Philippine people."'''

Here were the germs of the policy for which Presi-
dent AIcKinley and our best political leaders were seek-
ing. .American sovereignty, such participation in the
government of their own Lslands as the Filipino {)eople
proved able to bear, prompt reform in all branches of
the government, religious liberty, an honorable and just
settlement of the vexed friar question, schools for the
common people, etc. The efifect of the proclamation
was immediate and dramatic. It split the insurgent gov-
ernment in twain. On May 1st their Congress voted for
the cessation of war, and the adoption of measures look-
ing to peace on the basis of the proclamation. A new
Cabinet was formed and a committee instructed "to con-
fer with the American authorities to agree upon terms
of honorable surrender."! Luna, the commanding gen-
eral of insurgent forces, was furious. He arrested the
delegates so appointed, and sentenced some to imprison-
ment and some to death on the charge of treason !

But the Philippine Republic died in giving birth to
this peace measure. It never pretended to live after
that 1st of May, 1899. But the Peace Party, or Federal
Party, grew apace. The wisest men in Aguinaldo's
lines saw that, under such a policy as the proclamation
outlined, they would enjoy a larger measure of liberty
than they had ever dreamed of gaining under the plan
for independence.

All this is recited to show that sober-minded ImH-
pinos were satisfied with even the general outlines of a

^ Report of the Philippine Commission, 1900, Vol. I, pp. 3-5.
t Report of War Department, 1901, Part II, p. 118.
II

i62 The Philippines and the Far East.

national policy set forth in the proclamation of April 4,
1899. They saw that the evils from which they sought
relief were impossible under such a government as our
nation proposed to set up.

All later discussion served only to make increasingly
clear that a strong government under American officials,
aided by Filipinos as their character and capacity was
proved, and all so framed as to lead the way to a gov-
ernment of the Islands by the Filipinos themselves after
an indefinite period of tutelage, was the policy best cal-
culated to meet all the demands of the situation. Such
a policy would satisfy the American conscience. It
would redeem all our national pledges of disinterested
helpfulness. It would disarm critics of other nations.

In the Philippines it would recognize and encourage
the faint beginnings of a national spirit. In 1899 Presi-
dent Schurman wrote :

"The Philippine Islands, even the most patriotic de-
clare, can not, at the present time, stand alone. They need
the tutelage and protection of the United States. But
they need it in order that, in due time, they may, in their
opinion, become self-governing and independent. For
it would be a misrepresentation of facts not to report that
ultimate independence — independence after an undefined
period of American training — is the aspiration and goal
of the intelligent Filipinos who to-day so streuously op-
pose the suggestion of independence at the present time.""'

Nothing is more irrepressible than this spirit of na-
tionality. It will not down. It breaks bounds. It
shakes ofif all the twisted withes of oppressive legisla-
tion with which a superior power may try to hold it cap-
tive. This national spirit in the Philippines is feeble
now. But it is there, and a policy which ignored its

■••• Report, 1900, Vol. I, pp. 82, 83.

Framing a Policy. 165

existence would be both foolish and wicked as well as
out of alignment with our own past.

This policy, then, is neither despotism, federalism,
nor pure colonialism. It is colonialism of a new brand.
It is colonialism avowedly on the way to nationalism.
And the avowal is made, not as is customary in history,
by the cfilonists. The frank avowal of a purpose to see
nationalism triumphant is made by the colonizing- power,
and that in the hour when her arms have beaten down all
who disputed her sovereignty.

It is a cautious policy, though its critics declare it
rash and reckless. It refuses to fix any time when na-
tionalism shall be recognized as sufficiently developed
and chastened to discharge its obligations to the natives
of these Islands, and meet its sovereign responsibilities
as an independent State in the concert of nations. And
in the intervening period the colonizing power proposes
to prepare its new subjects for this exalted destiny by a
system of free popular education, by admitting natives
to as large a share in the government of the country
as is shown to be compatible with the welfare of the
people, and by carrying on before their eyes an adminis-
tration which will furnish them a pattern from which
to work out their own national salvation.

"The destiny of the Philippine Islands is not to be a
State or Territory in the United States of America, but
a daughter republic of ours — a new birth of liberty on
the other side of the Pacific, which shall animate and
energize those lovely islands of the tropical seas, and,
rearing its head aloft, stand as a monument of progress
and a beacon of hope to all the oppressed and benighted
millions of the Asiatic continent."

The onlv criticism which can be passed upon this
policy is, that it is impracticable ; that it assumes an

i66 Thk Philippines and the Far East,

ability in the Filipino which he does not possess — the
moral stability, the sober judgment which are indispen-
sable in a republican form of government. Our British
cousins in Malaysia and Borneo scofif at the idea that
any Malay people can ever become self-governing. They
point to the bombast, the vanity, the cruelty, the de-
ceitfulness, and chronic laziness of the typical Malay in
proof of their contention. Our Dutch friends in Java
declare that all their experience proves our program a
hopeless one. Many Americans, chiefly of the military
forces, treat the entire policy with dpen scorn.

What of these objections? Is the Filipino fitted for
self-government? No; not at present. Has he racial
deficiencies which leave him permanently disqualified
for this role? It is not easy to answer. It is always
hard to prove a negative. General statements are al-
ways dangerous. Certainly the outlook is not as hope-
ful as we could wish. The Malay race has produced
less political results than the North American Indian.
The latter did organize and maintain intertribal com-
binations, and that between alien races, fenced ofif from
one another by distance and by language barriers. This
the Malay races have never yet accomplished. They
are an imitative race, rather than a people with vigorous
initiative. Catholic teachers speak discouragingly of
their capacity for oiginal thought and independent ac-
tion. It appears incontrovertible that public office is
regarded by the many Filipinos in common with Asiatics
generally as a means of private enrichment or the set-
tlement of personal grudges. The executive secretary
of the Civil Commission is overwhelmed with complaints
as to the extortion, tyranny, and intrigue of Filipino
provincial and municipal officials. In my own travels in
the provinces I see painful evidences of the utter mis-

Framing a Policy.

167

apprehension of the real nature of official power. To
eradicate these ideas, and put correct notions in their
place, will require much patience and years of teaching
by precept and example. It is fortunate for us that
there are Filipino officials and leaders of public opinion
who are above reproach in these matters, and whose

RAMHOO RAFT OX WHRH THF, COMNUSSIOX ASCENDED
THE AREA RIVER.

(Raits of this sort carry one thousand pounds, and draw but
three or four inches of water.

example and teaching will powerfully affect the mass
of their own countrymen.

It must be remembered that the Filipino has never
had a chance to show what he could do. He has been
under the harrow of an unpitying, unseeing despotism,
both political and ecclesiastical. It is a marvel that he
has come so far on the way toward political manhood.
The Church has steadily forbidden him to think. If
he persisted, she has made his life a burden. When

i68 The Philippines and the Far East.

schools have done their work for a generation ; when
the tug and sweat of actual participation in the work
of governing their own people has been endured for a
term of years ; and, above all, when the new religious
forces already astir among the masses have lifted up
new moral and ethical standards Ix'fore them. — then it
will be time to ask whether the Filipino people are ca-
pable of self-government.*

•'■The United States is the last people in the world to argue
any other people into political subjection. And against a whole
nation aspiring and struggling to be independent, it is as impos-
sible to-day to draw up an indictment as it was when Burke re-
pudiated the task in connection with the people of the thirteen
American Colonies.

If the Filipinos desire independence, they should have it, when
they are qualified to exercise it. The reports of General Chaffee
and Governor Taft demon.strate (whatever their own personal
views) that the difficulties in the way of independence are grad-
ually disappearing. Let a Philippine popular assembly or house
of representatives say whether the Filipinos want independence
or not, and if so, at what date they think the grant should be con-
ferred, and we shall then have before us all the conditions neces-
sary for the final solution of the Philippine problem. If it appears
probable, as recent experience seems to indicate, that the Christian
Filipinos of Luzon and the Visayas might, at no distant day, govern
themselves as well as the average Central or South American Re-
public, then, in the name of American liberty and democracy, in
the name of the political aspirations and ideals of the Filipinos,
and in the name of justice and humanity, let the Philippine Re-
public be established. As President McKinley said to me three
years ago, we went into the Philippines solely with the humanita-
rian object of conferring the blessings of liberty on the Filipinos.
In its highest potency, liberty and independence are one and insep-
arable.

And to repeat, what ought not need repetition anywhere within
the limits of our free Republic, any decent kind of government of
Filipinos by Filipinos is better than the best possible government
of Filipinos by Americans. — (Schurman.)

CHAPTER XL

Some CoxsTRucrivii Luc.islation,

Starting with the surprisingly varied and uniformly
excellent provisions made by the army for new courts,
the collecting and disbursement of public funds, the es-
tablishment of sanitary conditions, the opening of a
system of free schools, and a list of other needed pro-
visions too long to be enumerated here, the Civil Com-
mission has drafted and put into force over one thou-
sand laws. They have followed the Anglo-Saxon rather
than the Frencli method of providing government and
legislative machinery for new conditions, conserving
and using existing legislative and governmental provi-
sions which were worthy, and creating new laws and
new provisions onl}- when such were demanded by new
conditions. And while some of this legislation has
proved a misfit, because too theoretical, and perhaps
Utopian, it has all been of a more practical character be-
cause it was framed in view of what seemed pressing
necessities. So urgent has been the demand for new
laws, and the drastic amendment of those in force for
generations, that the Commission has been forced to adopt
the maxim of that son of Erin who declared that he
"never did to-day what could be put off until to-morrow."
They have been literally forced to hold over everything
that could wait, while all their thought and time wdiich
could be spared from executive duties were given to

169

170 The Philippines and the Far East,

drafting and passing laws touching phases of PhiHppine
Ufe which demanded instant ameHoration.

Out of this bewildering mass of legislation I can
name and outline but a few Acts of many which are
worthy of designation as "constructive legislation." I
shall reserve the School Act for a special chapter.

Governor Taft jotted down for me the following
partial list of Acts of the Civil Commission which he
regarded fundamental to the creation of right conditions
of government and society in the Philippines :

The Municipal Code, the Provincial Act. the School
Act, the Organization of Courts, the Act Creating the
Civil Service Board, the Civil Procedure Act, the Phil-
ippine Constabulary Act, the Land Act, the Land Regis-
tration Act, the Penal Code, and various Acts as to
Public Health.

Some of these are very intricate acts. All have called
for legislative ability of a high order. In a sense the
Commission had an open field. The slate was clean.
They were to judge what to conserve, and how and what
to build anew. It was a great opportunity, and, on the
whole, has been worthily met. Certain it is that no body
of men laboring for the welfare of those over whom
the flag of our Republic waves have put in longer hours,
or given themselves more unsparingly to their high
duties than this body, of whom Governor Taft was not
only governor, but the commanding spirit and legisla-
tive genius. They have "toiled terribly." I know
whereof I speak, for I have been a constant and inter-
ested witness. I knew that these men were making
history — history w'hich would not only be read with un-
failing interest as a contribution to the literature of colo-
nial administration, but which, as it was made, and after-
wards, would tell tremendously in awakening the leth-

SOMD CoNSTRUCTIVr: LkCISLATIOI^. 17 1

arpc and immobile East, and hastening the day when
the vast populations of insular and Continental Asia
should come to their own.

The Municipal Code was enacted into law January
31, 1901, It was one of the first, as it was one of the
most fundamental, of the constructive acts of the Com-
mission. It called in being municipalities practically
autonomous, with a limited electorate, having their
operations subject to the scrutiny and criticism of a
provincial government in which the controlling element
must be American, and directly responsible to the in-
sular government. In this way it was hoped by the
Commission that a nucleus of patriotic Filipinos might
be brought into such practical familiarity with the work-
ings of government as to secure correct views of the
duties belonging to public officers. For the Commission
well says :

"It is necessary by practical lessons and actual expe-
rience to eliminate from the minds of the more intelli-
gent part of the community who form the electorate those
ideas of absolutism in government, and to impress the
conception of a limitation upon power, which it is now
so difficult for them to understand. In addition to the
defect spoken of, there is another. There is an absolute
lack of any sense of responsibility on the part of a public
officer to the public at large. Office has always been re-
garded as a source of private profit, and as a means 01
gratifying private desires, cither hate or friendship."*

Some of the salient features of the Municipal Code
— the germ of the government to be established in these
Islands — are given in the somewhat extensive quota-
tions below. They will speak for themselves :

"Section i. (a) The pueblos of the Philippine Islands
shall be recognized as municipal corporations, with the

■Report, Vol. I, p. 20.

172 The Philippines and the Far East.

same boundaries ars now existing dc jure or dc facto,
upon organization under the provisions of this Act.

"(b) This Act shall not apply to the city of Manila,
for which special legislation shall be enacted.

"(c) This Act shall not apply to the settlements of
non-Christian tribes, for which special legislation shall
be enacted.

"Sec. 2. (a) Pueblos incorporated under this Act shall
be designated as municipalities (muiiicipios) , and shall
be known respectively by the names heretofore adopted.
Under such names they may sue and be sued, contract
and be contracted with, acquire and hold real and per-
sonal property for the general interests of the municipal-
ity, and exercise all the powers hereinafter conferred upon
them,

"(b) All property and property rights vested in any
pueblo under its former organization shall continue to be
vested in the same municipality after its corporation under
this Act.

"Sec. 3. The government of each municipality estab-
lished under this Act is hereby vested in a president, a
vice-president, and a Municipal Council. The president
and the councilors, together with the vice-president, shall
be chosen at large by the qualified electors of the munic-
ipality, and their term of office shall be for two years from
and after the first Monday in January next after their
election and until their successors are duly chosen and
qualified ; Provided, that the president and vice-president
elected in 1901 shall hold office until the first Monday
in January, 1903, or until their successors are duly cho-
sen and qualified, and that the councilors elected in 1901
shall divide themselves by lot into two classes ; the seats
of those of the first class shall be vacated on the first Mon-
day of January, 1902, and those of the second class one
year thereafter, or when their successors are duly chosen
and qualified, so that one-half of the Municipal Council
shall be chosen annually.

"Sec. 4. (a) Incorporated municipalities shall be of
four classes according to the number of inhabitants. Mu-
nicipalities of the first class shall be those which contain

SOMK CONSTKUCTIVK LkCISLATION, 1 73

not less than 25,000 inhabitants, and shall have eighteen
councilors ; of the second class, those containing 18,000
and less than 25,000 inhabitants, and shall have fourteen
councilors ; of the third class, those containing 10,000
and less than 18.000 inhabitants, and shall have ten coun-
cilors ; of the fourtli class, those containing less than 10,-
000 inhabitants, and shall have eight councilors.

"ChapTkr II.
"qualifications of KI.FXTORS — KLFXTIONS.

"Sec. 6. (a) The electors charged with the duty
of choosing elective municipal officers shall be male per-
sons, twenty-three }cars of age or over, who have had
a legal residence in the municipality in which they exer-
cise the suffrage for a period of six months immediately
preceding the election, and who are citizens or subjects
of the following three classes :

"(b) Those who, prior to the 13th of August
1898, held the office of municipal captain, gobernadorcillo,
alcalde, lieutenant, caboza de barangay, or member of any
Ayuntamiento.

"(c) Those who own real property to the value of
500 pesos, or who annually pay thirty pesos or more
of the established taxes.

"(d) Those who speak, read, and write English or
Spanish."

Persons so qualified take oath to be loyal to the gov-
ernment of the United States, and proceed on designated
dates to choose their municipal officials "by secret bal-
lot." The election must be held in the public municipal
office, and is presided over by a Board of Election
judges, consisting of three qualified electors who are
not candidates at the election being held. Votes cast
for a member of this Board are declared void. The
hours of voting are fixed fom 8 A, M. to 4 P. M. Ample

174 The Philippines and the Far East.

provisions are made for detecting and punishing elec-
tion frauds. The persons declared elected take the
usual oath, and assume their respective duties.

Chapter III, Section 15, is important, in view of the
relation of the friar to municipal matters in all the past :

"In no case shall there be elected or appointed to a
municipal office ecclesiastics, soldiers in active service, per-
sons receiving salaries from provincial, departmental, or
governmental funds, or contractors for public works of the
municipality."

From the report of the Commission I take the fol-
lowing portions of a summary of the relations which
friars sustained to the municipality under Spanish rule.
(Volume II, page 25.) It was given by the provincial
of the Franciscan Order:

"He [the friar curate] was inspector of primary
schools ; president of the Health Board and Board of
Charities ; president of the Board of Urban Taxation ; in-
spector of taxation. He certified to the correctness of the
cedillas, seeing that they conformed to the entries in the
parish books. He was president of the Board of Sta-
tistics. He was president of the census-taking of the
town. Every year they drew lots for those who were to
serve in the army, every fifth man drawn being taken.
They disliked the service, and many of them would take
to the woods, and the civil guard would have to go after
them, and bring them back. There were many desertions.
He was censor of the municipal budgets. He was presi-
dent of the Prison Board, and inspector of the food pro-
vided for the prisoners. He was also a member of the
Board for partitioning Crown Lands. He was also coun-
selor for the Municipal Council. The parish priest was
also the supervisor of the election of the police force. He
was the examiner of the scholars attending the first and
second grades in the public schools."

Some Constructive Legislation. 175

By one word inserted in this brief section the baleful
power of the friar over the whole life and destiny of the
people is forever broken.

Taxes are to l)e raised from land and certain other
specified sources, and from those only. They are never
to be "farmed" or sold to the highest bidder for col-
lection, but are to be collected under the direction of
the provincial treasurer, who must audit all municipal
accounts.

"Sec. 62. There shall be exempt from taxation
burying-grounds, churches and their adjacent parsonages
or conventos, and lands and buildings used exclusively
for religious, charitable, scientific, or educational purposes,
and not for private profit ; but such exemption shall not ex-
tend to lands or buildings held for investment, though the
income therefrom be devoted to religious, charitable, sci-
entific, or educational purposes."

Prcsidciitcs, or mayors, are to receive from $300 to
$600 (United States currency), according to the popu-
lation of the municipality. As a concession to the Fili-
pino love of signs of authority, it is specifically provided
that the prcsidcntc "is authorized to use, as a symbol
of ofiice, a black cylindrical cane, with gold head, silver
ferrule, and silver cord and tassels."

The Council is ordered to do certain things, and
empowered to do others. It is interesting and encour-
aging to note that they "shall . . . provide for closing
opium-joints, and prohibit and . punish the keeping or
visiting of any place where opium is smoked or sold for
the purpose of smoking." (Section 39, v.) It must
"establish and maintain schools." It "may . . . license,
tax, or prohibit cock-fighting, and the keeping or train-
ing of fighting-cocks, and license, tax, or close cock-
pits." (Section 40.)

176 The Philippines and the Far East.

On the whole, the jMunicipal Code is a(hiiirably ad-
justed to the pecuharities of PhiHppine conditions. It
has been in more or less successful operation in over
seven hundred municipalities since 1901. New elec-
tions took place early in the year 1902, with far less
of friction and fraud than was to be anticipated.

The Provincial Act w'as passed exactly one week
later — February 6, 1901. Within a few months its
provisions had been extended to practically all those
provinces which had been pacified, the Commission
passing in a kind of triumphal journey from one pro-
vincial capital to another, being received everywhere
with such tumultuous welcome as a highly emotional
people delight to give their rulers. As the area of peace
has steadily widened, the Act has been put in force in
all parts of the Archipelago inhabited by Christianized
Filipinos.

The elective element is very much less in the plan
for provincial government than in that for municipali-
ties. Only the governor is chosen by ballot. But he is
the chief executive ofificer of the province, and his power
is very considerable.

Section 4 prescribes the method to be pursued in
choosing a governor.

"The provincial governor shall be selected in the fol-
lowing manner: On the first Monday of February, 1902,
and of each second year thereafter, the councilors of every
duly-organized municipality in the province shall meet
in joint convention at the capital of the province, and
there, after selecting a presiding officer and secretary,
shall by secret ballot, choose a person to be the provin-
cial governor. A majority of those present and entitled
to vote shall be necessary to elect. The action of the Con-
vention shall be forwarded to the Commission by the sec-

Some Coxstructivk Legislation. 177

retary of the Convention, after being duly certified by the
presiding officer of the Convention and by the secretary.
The Commission shall then confirm the selection of the
person named, unless it shall find that he was unfairly
elected, that he is ineligible, or that there is reasonable
ground to suspect his loyalty. If the Commission shall
decline to confirm the person named, the Convention shall
be reconvened at a time fixed by the Commission, and a
second election had. If the appointment at the second
election is not confirmed, then the Commission shall ap-
point the governor. The term of the governor thus elected
or appointed shall begin on the first ^vlonday in March,
and continue for two years thereafter, and until his suc-
cessor shall have been duly elected and qualified.

"Sec. 5. The provincial secretary, the provincial treas-
urer, the provincial supervisor, and the provincial fiscal
(or prosecuting attorney) shall be appointed by the Com-
mission to hold office during its pleasure. With the ex-
ception of the provincial fiscal, they shall, after ?\larch
1st (1902) be selected under the provisions and restric-
tions of the Civil Service Act. The provincial secretary
shall be able to speak and write the Spanish language,
and after January i. 1906, the English language also. The
provincial supervisor shall be a competent civil engineer
and surveyor."

A Provincial Board, made up of the governor, treas-
urer, and supervisor, is constituted by the Act, and this
Board becomes a kind of Executive Committee dealing
with taxation, improvements, police, and all other mat-
ters coming up in the province. This Board is re-
quired to hold regular weekly meetings, and keep an
exact record of all its decisions. Land tax shall not
exceed three-eighths of one per cent on the basis of
assessments elsewhere provided for. All financial mat-
ters are safely guarded, and the rights and powers of
each provincial officer carefully set forth. Taxation

178 The Philippines and the Far East.

must be just, uniform, and honestly collected. Vagrancy,
lawlessness, and all forms of disloyalty are to be watched
and rigorously suppressed. Any provincial officer who
is dishonorable, disloyal, or inefficient may be removed

TWO-^nLE LIMIT POST, NEAR MANILA.
(No liquor can be sold within two miles of the fort beyond.)

by the Commission according to a method of procedure
fully set forth in section 19. Though much more brief
than the Municipal Code, the Provincial Act seems to
cover the entire field of legislation needed thus far.
Through the officials who have been selected and placed
in charge of municipalities and provinces under these

SOiMI-; CoiXSTRUCTIX'Iv LiCC.lSLATION. 1 79

two specimens of constructive les^islation the fhilippine
Islands are beini;- governed to-day. \\y this I mean
that government, as it touches the lives of the great mul-
titudes of the Archipelago, is made up of the operations
of these two Acts. Under these Acts taxes are col-
lected and applied. Under these Acts bridges are built,
roads are built, schools financed, and all the executive
work of government among the masses carried forward.
Governor Wright and the Commission are unknown to
the fao in his remote provincial towns. But he knows
the prcsidcntc and municipal councilors, and the provin-
cial governor and other officials touch his life almost
every month of the year.

The results thus far are highly encouraging. Of
course it is hard for municipal and provincial officials _
to understand that absolutism is gone, never to return,
that Church and State are absolutely separate, and that
public office is a public trust to be administered for the
public weal. In one municipality the Council passed
an ordinance regulating the fees to be charged by the
Filipino priest for marriage, burials, baptisms, and mass !
The priest fled to Manila, laid his grievance before Gov-
ernor Taft, who addressed an open letter to the then
governor of that province, and through him to the Coun-
cils of the various municipalities. The letter was a
plain, clear statement of the complete separation be-
tween civil and religious authority, and it has done much
to clear befogged clerical and lay minds on that vital
to])ic. In "a municipality visited less than a month ago
the prcsidcntc obliges the priest by putting orders to
collect contributions for masses to be sung in the name
of the patron village saint at the foot of orders about the
cleaning of streets, removing rubbish, and other matters

i8o The Philippines and the Far East.

falling rightfully within his jurisdiction. He will prob-
ably be summarily dismissed from office as both a just
punishment and a needed warning.

The Constabulary Act, passed July i8, 1901, pro-
vides a civil police or constabulary force for the entire
Archipelago, "for the purpose of better maintaining
peace, law, and order in the various provinces of the
Philippine Islands."

The chief of this force and the first of his four as-
sistant chiefs remain at headquarters in Manila, which
is made one of the four divisions of the Islands for police
purposes. At the chief city of each of the other three
divisions another assistant chief is stationed, to have
immediate command of the forces in his division. "Not
less than fifteen privates, one sergeant, and one corporal,
and not more than one hundred and fifty privates, four
sergeants, and eight corporals may be maintained in each
province." Terms of enlistment are for two years. The
chief is appointed by the governor, by and with the con-
sent of the Commission. The expense of maintaining
this uniformed body of civil police, or constabulary, is
borne by the gener, or "insular" treasury, and the en-
tire force, with that of about six-thousand Filipino
troops, called "scouts," are responsive to orders from
headquarters.

There has been more severe criticism of this branch
of the public service than of any other. Some of the
trouble arose from suddenly placing Filipinos in places
of authority for which experience and self-restraint had
not fitted them. Much of the friction has been caused
by the entire newness of the plan and by the chaotic
condition in which afifairs were left after five years of
unbroken guerrilla warfare. A heritage of hatred, sus-

Some Constructivr Lkgislation.

I8l

picion, and general lawlessness was certain to be left
after such conditions had prevailed over so many years.
Men on the constabulary force had relatives and ac-
quaintances among the lawless element, and it was not
always easy to keep sheep and goats separated. The
constabulary has done an immense amount of solid
work. Few natives comparatively, have been "untrue
to their salt." Gangs of cutthroats have been arrested,
whole provinces rid of pestiferous cattle-thieves and
conspirators, and a general cleaning up accomplished.
The efficiency of this arm of service, under General Al-
len and Colonel Scott, will steadily increase, until it has
done for the Philippines what the civil police in Burma
have accomplished under like conditions.

Brigandage is chronic in the Philippines. It has
been so for more than a century. No possible provision
could have been made for its immediate eradication.
Industrial and commercial prosperity will greatly ease
the burdens borne now by the constabular\- and the
courts. War. plague, cholera, locusts, and rinderpest
sweeping off in one year seventy per cent of the cara-
bao — the farm animals of this agricultural country —
these evils, added to the aftermath of a long and wast-
ing war, and social and economic maladjustments af-
fecting the daily lives of millions of people always on
the edge of need, have pushed many over the line into
lawlessness. The constabulary has hard tasks and must
use poor tools. But the creation of a policing force for
seven millions of peoples, and the attainment of some
degree of success in less than three years' time in the
face of the terrible conditions which confronted the
Commission, is an achievement of no small magnitude.
Municipal and provincial government would to-day col-

i82 The Philippines and the Far East.

lapse if the strong' arm of the constabulary were with-
drawn, and it' would become necessary "to summon the
military force which was their first deliverer and pro-
tector.

On June ii, 1901. the Act authorizing the new judi-
cial system was passed. When one reflects upon the
unique relation of the administration of justice to the
welfare and safety of a nation, the fundamental im-
portance of such legislation will be apparent. It was
found that the Spanish system could not be so amended
as to meet the needs of the case. Their courts were
too often courts of injustice. A new system w'as de-
manded. The Act provides for three kinds of courts, —
a Supreme Court of seven members, Courts of First
Instance, and Justice Courts. The Supreme Court is
made up of seven members, the chief justice receiving
$7,500 (United .States currency) annuall\. and the as-
sociate justices $7,000 each. It has the work commonly
falling to such bodies in our States. It has original
jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus, certiorari, pro-
hibition, habeas corpus, and quo zvarraiito, as prescribed
in the new Code of Civil Procedure, another great piece
of constructive legislation, the mere index of it filling
six pages folio !

Courts of First Instance are established for groups
of provinces. There are fourteen Judicial Districts, and
that number of judges hold court in each province in
regular succession. Courts of First Instance, also, have
appellate as well as original jurisdiction. They dispose
of the more important civil and criminal cases. Courts
of Justices of the Peace were established by military
orders before the Commission took up its duties. All
these are "recognized and continued" by this Act, and

Some Coxstructivu Legislation. 183

the justices of such courts ordered to contiuue in office
"during the pleasure of the Commission."

Each municipaHty has its justice of the peace. In
the entire Archipela.e:© there are now more than seven
hundred such judicial officers, at work under this truly
great Act.

Four memhcrs of the Supreiue Court are Amer-
icans ; three are Filipinos. The chief justice is a Fili-
pino— Don Cayetano Arallano — a man of probity and
unquestioned legal ability. Nine Americans and five
Filipinos make up the list of judges of the Courts of
First Instance. Their salaries range from $5,500 for
the two who hold court in Manila, to $4,000 for those
whose work is less, both in amount and difficulty, and
who live in less expensive centers. The Act provides
for an attorney-general, who performs the duties usual
in such an office. His salary is fixed at $5,500.

The operation of these courts has dried up bribery
in all cases above justice courts. It has taught the
poorest and the richest that cases are decided by the
v.-eight of evidence, and not by fear, afifection, envy, nor
interests of a more practical character. Each occupant
of a judicial position from chief justice to the justice
of the peace has to take a solemn oath of loyalty to the
United States, and swear saying, "I will administer
justice without respect of persons, and do equal right
to the poor and to the rich." And this is a new thing in
these Islands. It is the beginning of the reign of Him
who "shall not fail nor be discouraged till He have set
judgment in the earth ; and the isles shall wait for His
law."

These and the Health Acts, by which we are' sani-
tizing all the cities, the new Land Act, under which the

184 The Philippines and the Far East.

poorest may take a forty-acre homestead and have it
free for five years' occupation and use, the Civil Service
Act, the Penal Code, and Land Registration Act, the
Civil Marriage Law, and a score more, all fill the heart
of a lover of righteousness with confidence for the suc-
cess of our work in the Philippines.*

•'■ List of twent}'-five more Acts of far-reaching benefit to the
Philippines :

1. Act creating Bureau of Agriculture.

2. Prevention of Cruelt}- to Animals.

3. Act preventing wanton destruction of timber on public
lands.

4. Act defining and prohibiting libel, and printing, selling, or
exhibiting obscene books, pictures, etc.

5. Act providing for examination of banks. (No. 52.)

6. Code of Civil Procedure. (No. 190.) Index alone fills six
folio pages.

7. Act Abolishing Slavery among Moros.

8. Act creating Bureau of Coast Guard and Transportation.
(No. 226.)

9. Customs Administrative Act. (No. 355.) Index alone fills
forty-four folio pages.

10. Act creating Forestry Bureau.

11. Mining Bureau Act.

12. Act regulating the Practice of Medicine and Surgery.

13. Charter of Manila.

14. Currency Act (establishing gold basis).

15. Act creating Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes (now Bureau
of Ethnolog}-).

16. Act establishing Government Laboratories.

17. Act establishing Provincial Health Boards. (No. 307.)

18. Act providing for control and management of jails. (No. 413.)

19. Act creating Bureau of Public Lands. (No. 218.)

20. Act authorizing all Protestant denominations to hold land
for Church purposes. (No. 271.)

21. Act establishing Weather Bureau. (No. 131.)

22. Act making vaccination compulsory. (No. 309.)

23. Act establishing the Summer Capital at Bagnio, Benguet.

24. Act providing for Municipal Cemeteries.

25. Penal Code.

CHAPTER XII.

Educating a Nation.

From the very beginning of American occupation all
classes of Americans have recognized the fundamental
necessity of establishing and maintaining free public
schools for the Filipino people. Such a step was in line
with their most dearly-cherished ambitions. Their
struggle with the Spanish government had made their
leaders painfully conscious of the defects of the educa-
tional system under which they had been trained, and
keenly alive to the importance of schools carried on in
the modern spirit and with the help of modern apparatus.
In i860, when O'Connell was Spanish minister for
the colonies, a public school law for the Philippines was
enacted. It ordered a public school established in every
pueblo, and made instruction in the Spanish languages
of primary importance. The Bill was weak in that it
made the Archbishop of the Philippines an cx-officio
member of the Board having control of the system, and
the friar curate in the several pueblos inspectors. Span-
ish Liberals urged the practical realization of this scheme
of popular education with great vigor ; but the Philip-
pines were far away, and, worst of all, the Roman Cath-
olic Church authorities in the Islands were either luke-
warm or openly hostile. As a consequence they did as
little as possible to put the plan in force. At the be-
ginning of the American occupation, such schools were

185

i86 The Philippines and the Far East.

in operation ; but they did not reach the masses, and were
weak in every way. If any reader deem my opinion on
this subject warped and unfair, let him hear what the
general superintendent of public instruction, Dr. David
P. Barrows, says in his Annual Report for 1902-03 :

"In the second place, the Spanish school system,
though founded and supported by the government, was
never secular in character. The Spanish friar, who was
the pueblo curate, was always the local inspector of the
school, and not only directed its conduct, but determined
the subjects which should be taught. In the brief and
imperfect course of primary instruction which was given
in these little schools. Church catechism. Church doctrine,
and sacred history were emphasized almost to the exclu-
sion of the other subjects which were necessary to fit the
Filipino child for his position in life, whether it be humble
or forUmate. This, however, was not the sole unfortunate
effect of this arrangement. Whatever may be said in praise
of the work of religious orders in these islands, it can not
be denied that their attitude during the last fifty, and par-
ticularly the final thirty, years of their influence here, was
excessively hostile toward the enlightenment of the Fili-
pino. They actively sought to debar the Filipino from
any sort of modern knowledge, from gaining a position of
independence and self-respect, and from entrance into
any kind of leadership of his own race. It was, in fact,
this obstructive and reactionary policy on the part of the
class that most immediately affected their lives that pro-
voked the Filipinos into open hostility and rebellion."

The first Philippine Commission in one of its earliest
Reports says :

"He [the Filipino] is at all events, keenly alive to the
drawbacks under which he has thus far labored, and
strongly desirous of securing better educational advan-
tages. In the opinion of the Commission, the govern-
ment established in the Islands should promptly provide

Educating a Nation. 189

for the fulfillment of this reasonable and most praise-
worthy desire by the establishment of an adequate sys-
tem of secularized and free public schools."

The School .Vet (No. 74) was passed by the Commis-
sion, January 21, 1901, before the Municipal Code or
the Provincial Act. It was one of the "first thinj^s," and
was, therefore, done "first." It is entitled "An Act Es-
tablishing a Department of Public Instruction in the
Philippine Islands." Some of its most important pro-
visions are given in full :

"Section i. A Department of Public Instruction for
the Philippine Islands is hereby established, the central
office of which shall be in the city of Manila. All pri-
mary instruction in the schools established or maintained
under this Act shall be free.

"Sec. 2. All schools heretofore established in the Phil-
ippine Islands under the auspices of the military gov-
ernment, are hereby declared to be in the Department
of Public Instruction established by Section i, and are
made subject to the control of the officers of this de-
partment.

"Sec. 3. The chief officer of this department who shall
be denominated the General Superintendent of Public In-
struction shall be appointed by the Commission. His
annual salary shall be six thousand dollars. . . .

"Sec. 4. There shall be a superior Advisory Board
of Education composed of the general superintendent and
four members to be appointed by the Commission. . . .
It shall be the duty of the Board to assist the general
superintendent by advice and information concerning the
educational needs and conditions of the Islands ; to make
such investigations as the general superintendent may
desire, and to make recommendations to the Commission
from time to time as to needed amendments to the
law."

In sections 4-13 provision is made for a city super-

I90 TiiK Philippines and the Far East,

intendent in Manila at a salary of three thousand dol-
lars, for division superintendents, not to exceed ten in
number, at salaries varying from two thousand to twen-
ty-five hundred dollars, and for local School Boards, of
four or six members, one-half of whom shall be elected
by the Municipal Council, and one-half appointed by the
division superintendent, to hold office during his pleasure.

"Sec. 14. The English language shall, as soon as prac-
ticable, be made the basis of all public-school instruc-
tion, and soldiers may be detailed as instructors until such
time as they may be replaced by trained teachers.

"Sec. 15. Authority is hereby given to the general
superintendent of public instruction to obtain from the
United States one thousand trained teachers, at monthly
salaries of not less than seventy-five dollars, and not more
than one hundred and twenty-five dollars, the exact sal-
ary of each teacher to be fixed by the general superin-
tendent. . . .

"Sec. 16. No teacher or other person shall teach or
criticise the doctrines of any Church, religious sect, or de-
nomination, or shall attempt to influence pupils for or
against any Church or religious sect in any public school
established under this Act. If any teacher shall inten-
tionally violate this section, he or she shall, after due
hearing be dismissed from the public service: Provided,
hoivcvcr, that it shall be lawful for the priest or minister
of any Church established in the pueblo where a public
school is situated, either in person or by a designated
teacher of religion, to teach religion for one-half an hour
three times a week in the school building to those public-
school pupils whose parents or guardians desire it, and
express their desire therefor in writing filed with the prin-
cipal teacher of the school, to be forwarded to the division
superintendent, who shall fix the hours and rooms for
such teaching. But no public-school teacher shall either
conduct exercises or teach religion, or act as a designated
religious teacher in the school building under the forego-
ing authority, and no pupil shall be required by any public-

Educating a Nation. 193

school teacher to attend and receive the reU,s;ious histruc-
tion herein permitted. Should the opportunity thus sj^iven
to teach relii^ion be used by the priest, minister, or re-
ligious teacher for the purpose of arousing disloyalty
to the United States, or discouraging the attendance of
pupils at such public schools, of creating a disturbance
of public order, or of interfering with the discipline of the
school, the division superintendent, subject to the approval
of the general superintendent of public instruction, may,
after due investigation and hearing, forbid such offending
priest, minister, or religious teacher."

Sections 17-19 provide for normal, trade, and agri-
cultural schools, and the concluding sections of the Act
relate to plans for buildings and details of finance and
general administration.

August 23, 1901, the United States army transport
'Jlwiiias landed five hundred and forty-two trained
American teachers in Manila. All were graduates of
university, college, or normal school, and nearly all men
and women of experience. It was my privilege to be
at the wharf to render such aid as was possible in wel-
coming this new army of invasion. History was made
that day. The United States had begun the education
of a nation. This gay, laughing, light-hearted crowd of
teachers were to begin in all seriousness that work which
would alone make it possible for the petty races and
tribal divisions of these Islands to be one people. Some
of us, who had long lived in the East, could assess in
some general way the significance of that 23d of August,
not only, let us hope, for the Filipino people, but for
the hundreds of millions who sit about the shores of the
Pacific in the Far East. History had no parallel to that
event. So poor and, too often, so vicious, had been
the teaching and example of those who were their edu-
cational leaders, that the poorest and weakest specimen

194 The Philippinrs and the Far East.

of an American teacher in this shipload of pedagogues
would be immeasurably better as a civilizing and up-
lifting agency among the people.

Within a few weeks this large body of teachers had
been stationed and were face-to-face with the possibili-
ties and discouragements of their tasks. The difficul-
ties were almost unthinkable to the untraveled. War,
or "that sort of passive bushwhacking which the Fili-
pino calls war," had kept commercial and social condi-
tions unsettled for years. Antagonisms born of guer-
rilla warfare left families and neighborhoods embittered
against one another. A people who had been con-
quered were hardly prepared to kiss the rod that smote
them. Whole areas were still so unsafe that military
forces were in possession, and no officer or man left tent
or barracks without arms. All living arrangements were
strange, and lamentably insufficient for health, to say
nothing of comfort. A\'ith no knowledge of Spanish or
the local vernaculars, and with absolutely no way of
making their wants known to local officials who voted
supplies, and otherwise helped or hindered their work,
— with all these, and many difficulties and drawbacks not
to be recited, — the American teachers began their work
of teaching the English language to Filipino children.
That so many have braved it out and kept on at their
work, and that during these three years they have been
compacted into a united, alert, and well-adjusted body of
teachers, is a tribute to the American gift of adaptation,
and to the real courage *and staying power of these
pedagogical pioneers, that the great body of their coun-
trymen should appreciate. They have staid. They
are welded into one body. They do clearly see their
tasks. The "ship has found herself." From close and
somewhat wide acquaintance with these workers to-

Educating a Nation. 197

getlier for the g^ood of this people, I am sure that the
force wielded by the American teacher to-day is easily
the most potent sing-le factor in disarmintj hostility to
American rule, and securing" those beneficent ends for
which, and for which alone, we hold these Islands.

Opposition to the public school has come from two
classes, — the friar, and the prosperous classes. How-
ever skillful in "hidino^ the hand," it is very clear who
have "thrown the stones."

The Commission were gravely admonished that no
system of schools which did not provide for religious
education — meaning Catholic ediication — could have
even a chance of success. Dr. Barrows well'says in his
Report, "There has been no case of greater misrepre-
sentation."

So thoroughly had the Church people captured the
Commission with their news that they put the Faribault
proviso at the close of section 16 of the Act. as quoted
in this chapter. If the members of the Commission had
known the hostility of that Church to any system of
free public schools, they would have seen the utter futil-
ity of such a feeble concession. With very inconsid-
erable exceptions, that well-meant proviso has been in
a condition of "innocuous desuetude" from the day of
its enactment. What the Catholic leaders want is
Church teaching at public expense. May the day be
far distant when they, or the authorities of any other
denomination, get it !

The opposition of the Church has taken three chief
forms :

(i) A systematic effort to keep pupils from attend-
ing the schools. Parents were threatened with ecclesias-
tical disabilities in this world, and eternal fire afterward,
if they permitted their children to enter them. Word

198 The Philippines and the Far East.

went from Manila to Filipino incumbents of the parishes
where the Spanish friar formerly ruled like a nabob,
and they did, and still do, their poor best to keep the
faithful in line. A friar wrote as follows to an American
priest early in 1901 :

"Concerning- the data that you ask me on the present
educational situation, all I can say is, that a vigorous cam-
paign was made against the forced invasion of the Amer-
ican teachers. During a few months not a newspaper was
published (La Dciuocracia excepted, of course) without
containing strong protests, not only from the teachers,
male or female, but also from the fathers of families. It
was a touching tribute of faith in these people to fear
sending their children to non-Catholic schools. These
fears, as you will see, were not without foundation."

This form of opposition succeeded in part at first.
But, speaking broadly, the fact remains that it has failed,
and failed finally. The schools are filled to overflowing,
and the parents are more than satisfied with the results.

(2) 77?r cstablisliincnt of rival schools, directly or
indirectly controlled by the Chnrch. On this point I
quote again from the friar witness mentioned above, and
could fill pages with equalh- good proofs of this form
of hostility :

"Scarcely was the coming of the new teachers an--
nounced, when the Filipino Catholics, knowing that many
of the beautiful home schools which had been built under
the Spanish government would be handed over to these
strangers, raised a fund to build schools, where, at the
same time, both science and religion could be taught to
their children. The results were most satisfactory. In a
few months many Catholic schools were opened, and a
great number of pupils of both sexes chose these in pref-
erence to the others.

"Here in Manila, and still more in the provinces, the
schools supervised by non-Catholics were clay after day

Educatinc a Nation. 201

deserted, so much so that a few of these teachers, ashamed
of receiving a good salary without earning it, or, what
is more probable, carried away by the spirit of opposition,
took the liberty more than once of entering by force the
Catholic schools and obliging the children to come to
theirs. These crimes were repeated in many cities. Im-
partial newspapers protested, asking where is the much-
vaunted freedom of education ? llut these teachers often
succeeded by unfair means in intimidating the fathers of
Catholic children."

Some of these rival schools are fairly good in certain
branches. But as a whole they are weak in staff, and
still more painfully behind the age in their courses of
study. They have no apparatus. Often the school meets
in a house where domestic labors go forward, while a
dozen children monotonously sing the catechism and
prayers of the Church. I saw such a school recently in
a house where a woman was running a noisy sewing-
machine, two men were gambling with much loud talk,
and two others were repairing the floor with saw and
hammer ! But it was a school. It taught doctrine. It
kept the children from the contamination of the "secu-
lar" public school.

In Manila twenty-nine Catholic schools were opened
between May and December of 1901. The reports of
division superintendents for 1902-3 will show that the
antagonism of the Church takes this form yet, and is
measurably successful in certain localities. From one
of the better class of these Catholic schools in a provin-
cial town not far from Manila I secured the advertised
course of study. I give it with the letter of the friend
who sent it to me.

"Dkar Dr. Stuntz, — In the school that I spoke to you
about, three books are used ; namely, 'Catecismo de la
Doctrina Cristiana/ by Caspar Astete ; 'The Manual de la

202 The Philippines and the Par East.

Infancia,' got up by the Jesuits, and for sale in Manila;
and 'Paginas de la Infancia,' a Spanish reading-book com-
posed of short stories with morals.

"The first book is nothing but an ordinary catechism,
small and very simple. The second book, 'Manual of
Infancy,' is a general text-book of octavo size and 416
pages. Its chapters, translated from the Spanish, are the
following: 'Sacred History;' or, a short digest of the im-
portant events of the Old and New Testament ; 'Religion,'
which deals largely with the doctrine of the Catholic
Church; 'Morality,' or Morals in Spanish, which is some-
thing like our 'Ethics,' but with a strong leaning towards
the Catholic doctrine; 'Politeness,' or Courtesy, rules for
social life ; English Grammar ; Spanish Grammar ; Arith-
metic ; Geometry, Geography ; and History of the Phil-
ippines.' All these subjects are included in one book of
416 pages, and the greatest space is given to the treat-
ment of Sacred History. Religion, and Morality and Cour-
tesy. You can imagine the value of a course in English
and Spanish Grammar, History, Geography, Arithmetic,
and Geometry that is comprised in less than 200 pages.

"The children study six hours, and all subjects men-
tioned, except English Grammar, are taken up. Latin will
soon be added, the professor tells me.

"This school corresponds to one of our high schools
or preparatory schools in the States. The schools in the
town that correspond to our primary or grammar schools
teach nothing but a Catholic Church catechism, written
in Tagalog. Hoping this will be of use to you, and as-
suring you that I shall be only too glad to ascertain any
other facts about the school that you may wish."

By their fruits the Filipino must judge these rival
schools. Their finished product will be seeking posi-
tions soon in competition with the product of the public
schools. The surpassing efficiency of the latter will then
be apparent, and there can be but one result. The rival
school, with its mediaeval course of study and its utter
lack of discipline, will be forced to shut its doors.

Educating a Nation. 205

(3) A carefully planned attempt to gain control of
the department. Their first move was a master-stroke.
A Catholic was made Commissioner, and thus became
secretary of pubHc instruction, as the successor of the
outgoing commissioner-secretary. The next move was
to get a Cathohc city superintendent in Manila. Fruits
of the new policy are ripening before us. Catholics are
promoted. A high percentage of new teachers coming
from the States are Catholics. Every few days some-
thing transpires to keep us fully aware that "Change-
less Rome" is tireless as well. Rome proposes to con-
trol the public school which she can not destroy. With
her Jesuitical methods and her tremendous political lev-
erage in America, she can do us vast harm. Every
move must be watched by all who want to see the State
do the work of the State, and the Church and home do
the work that is theirs by Divine sanction.

Rome hates the public school with an inextinguish-
able hatred. The pope could not even carry on a cor-
respondence with Governor Taft as to the purchase of
friar lands without injecting a little of this hatred of a
public-school system into his first communication. After
giving a wily answer to the frank proposals of Governor
Taft to buy all friar holdings at a fair price, Leo XIII
wrote : •

"Finally, the Holy See can not abstain from asking
the American authorities suitable provisions for religious
teaching in the public schools, especially the primary ;
and that the choice of teachers be made according to
equitable principles, such as do not wound the rights and
feelings of a people entirely Catholic."

In his reply Governor Taft said : "My instructions
do not permit me to discuss the subject, but I may prop-
erly refer your eminence to section 16 of the General
School Law of the Philippines."

2o6 The Philippines and the Far East.

. Cardinal Gibbons has deliberately opened a new war
on the public school in the United States. Bishop Mul-
doon, at the head of the Federation of Catholic Socie-
ties, demands from the government "a pro rata for the
education of these children of ours, among the other
rights that belong to us." The fight against the Phil-
ippine public schools will be largely carried on in the
United States. It is there that Commissioners are ap-
pointed. It is from there that teachers come. It was
stated by a member of a recent partv of teachers, a large
percentage of whom were Catholics, that he and others
in the party had entertained no thought of coming to
the Philippines until his priest told him. that Bishop

had been asked by friends in the Philippines

to secure and send out Catholic teachers in large num-
bers. It is in the United States that the exigencies of
politics tend to force party leaders to make such com-
promises as will "hold the Catholic vote in line." It is
there that we need help.

There are now 723 American teachers in the service,
with fifty more about to arrive. These are aided by 3,000
Filipino teachers. There are 190,000 native children in
regular attendance upon 2,000 primary schools. The
Manila normal school has an enrollment of nearly 400
selected native teachers, and is doing surprisingly good
work. It is enough to make a patriotic American feel
a deeper and truer pride in his citizenship in the Mother
of Republics to visit this institution with its eager, alert,
and well-behaved students working under Mr. Beatty,
and ten assistants, all of whom are specialists. Each
of the thirty-five divisions has its vacation normal school,
in which 5,596 teachers and aspirantcs, or those who as-
pire to be teachers, were under instruction from one
month to seven weeks in the vacation of 1902. The

Educating a Nation, 209

effect of these vacalion normals was surprisiiii; and
i; ratifying'. The brightest minds are there. Keen com-
petition in class work, the inspiration of numbers, the
widened horizons, and, above all, the new spirit they
absorb from their chief teachers, has sent them back to
their pueblos with higher ideals, and an inspiration to
achieve them.

There are thirty-eight secondary schools. These
have been opened in advance of any real need for them
in the shape of graduates from the primary schools. The
system appeared a poor one to the Filipino. It lacked
completeness. Because he felt thus, he was not satisfied
to keep his child in the lower grades, and sent him to
the various colc'^ios, or schools in Manila. The sec-
ondary schools met with instant approval. Although
but one year in operation, they enroll (^^,^4 ])upils. The
drain of the most promising" pupils to Manila has about
stopped. The system seems to the Filipino to have a
head, and he is content. But the opening and organiz-
ing of these secondary schools has taken hard work.
Some of the principals should have medals struck in
their honor. Lethargy, laziness, tardiness, lack of sup-
plies, shortage of competent help, heat, and the puzzling
psychology of the Oriental, always with him ! But they
have won, and they will receive their reward. In the
years to come some of these secondary schools will be
colleges. The present laborers are but trail-blazers for
the oncoming generations. Again I say that of all
workers that I have known in eleven years of tropical
residence, the American teachers have come most nearly
to success in what Kipling calls "hustling the East."

Already in every town where an American teacher
has been at work more people understand English than
speak or understand Spanish. Within ten years Eng-
14

210 The PfiiLippiNES and the Far East.

lish will be the language for intercourse between the
various races. The first step in adding fractions is to
find a common denominator. The sixty or seventy
fractions of the Filipino people will never be added into
one total for social or political ends until a common lan-
guage denominator is found in the English speech.

"English is the lingua franca of the Far East. It is
spoken in the ports from Hakodate to Australia. It is the
common language of business intercourse between the
different nations from America westward to the Levant.
It is, without rival, the most useful language which a man
can know. . . . To the Filipino the possession of
English is the gateway into that busy and fervid life of
commerce, of modern science, of diplomacy and politics,
in which he aspires to shine."

Academic critics in American sanctums, manufactur-
ing their facts by aid of strong imaginations, pour out
scorn upon the attempt to ignore "their native language,
their literature, the thousand-fold stimuli of their en-
vironment." The bold fact is, that the Filipinos have
no literature — none ! Their environment has been full
of "stimuli," but it worked the wrong way. Such criti-
cisms amuse those who know the hard facts of this un-
fortunate people, or would amuse us, if we were sure
that their heated rhetoric and extemporized facts would
not deceive good men and women, and alienate their sym-
pathy from a work so sane and so profoundly necessary
as that of the public-school work in these Islands.

The hope of the future is the Filipino teacher. If
he can be trained to become an intelligent, resourceful
educator, with courage and wit to lead his people, the
uttermost hopes of those who have this work now on
their hands will be attained. Division Superintendent
S. C. Newsom, of Pangasinan province, states the facts

Educating a Nation. 213

as to the Filipino teachers about as those who are best
informed understand them. In his report to the g^eneral
superintendent for the current year he says :

"The native teacher in the province is a representative
of the better class of Filipinos. He is invariably well-
dressed, courteous, and accommodating, and has the re-
spect of the people. From the American point of view,
he is not, however, competent to regulate a school, nor
well qualified by nature to be genuinely educated. He
lacks energy, and can not successfully maintain a daily
routine of work. He is inclined to be slack in matters
of punctuality, and sees no special reason for exerting
himself to be on time in the morning at the opening of
the daily school session, nor of maintaining of strict super-
vision of the pupils' work when once he has taken his
place in the schoolroom. To do the same thing every day,
and to try hard to do it better each successive day, is
something that the Filipino teacher has not yet learned
to appreciate. He is not ambitious to succeed ; that is,
a very small success seems sufficient to satisfy him, and
he is unwilling to put himself to serious inconvenience
in order to improve his education and make his services
valuable.

"The above statement will, as a rule, hold good ; but
there are notable exceptions, and the number of these has
been steadily increasing during the three years of Amer-
ican schools. The example set by a good American
teacher in controlling and teaching a school has taught
the Filipino more than his daily lesson in English and
arithmetic. The object-lesson thus furnished is being
learned slowly, but without doubt surely. The native
teacher has gained something of perspective, and. in a de-
gree, has succeeded in being able to think more than one
thing at a time. This part of his education, which has
come seemingly without volition and unconsciously, is
the most valualDle thing the American schools have given
him. There was a time when he thought it not inappro-
priate to take his seat during the entire session, to ignore
pupils not reciting, to smoke cigarettes before the class

214 The Philippines and the Far East.

during school hours, to pay no attention whatever tc
the roll-call, and, finally, to pass unnoticed the entire su5-
ject of schoolroom decorum and discipline.

"From the purely academic point of view, it will be
some years before the provincial teacher can achieve much.
The Filipino who has during the last three years reached
the age of twenty-five, passed the formative period of his
life during a time of turmoil. He has not had a fair
chance, and it is perhaps true that he will never readjust
himself completely to the new regime. There are native
teachers in this division to whom this does not apply —
teachers who have fallen quickly and easily into the rou-
tine of the present system of schools, and who are reliable,
energetic, and intelligent, but their number is small. An
extended period of education is yet necessary, if the native
teaching force is ever to be brought to that stage of effi-
ciency which will enable them to take the place of the
American teachers. This is true from every point of view,
whether we consider scholarship, power to assume respon-
sibility, practical knowledge of schoolroom discipline,
courage to face opposition, or ability to take the initiative
in matters connected with the improvement of the
schools."

Act No. 854 provitlcs for sending a number of stu-
dents to America each year for a four years' course of
studv in some American institution. The Bill carries
an appropriation of $72,000. The first party was sent
in October, and is now in the United States. "Ap-
pointees must be natives of the Philippine Islands, not
less than sixteen nor more than twenty-one years of
age." After severe physical examinations, the student
must take the oath of allegiance to the government of
the United States, and sign an agreement to attend to
such institution as may be designated by the civil gov-
ernor for four years, obeying its rules and faithfully pur-
suing its course of study, unless formally released by
the civil governor. He further promises to return to

Educating a Nation.

215

the Philippines, take the civil service examination, and
serve the State at a nominal wage as many years as the
State supported him.

In this way it is hoped to secure a nucleus of young
men who thoroughly understand English, and who have
come to feel the spirit of the modern world. I am not
sanguine of good results. It is part of a forcing-house
method. If it works well, it will be a delightful sur-
prise to many. The danger is, that these young men
v^ill return so far removed from their own people in their
ways of thinking as to be aliens. It is an effort made
with the purest of motives. If it grows a crop of agita-
tors, they will be ingrates.

We Americans are an impatient people. But in this
undertaking of educating a nation we must count time
by decades and generations, rather than by years. Its
very vastness should give us courage to be patient.

.■mm

1 » Jl

A ^

?~ ^^^j

COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

CHAPTER XIII.
Further Improvements.

Spain worked the plantation theory of colonial gov-
ernment. That theory left little scope for programs of
improvement. P'or three centnries she had her own un-
hindered way in an Archipelago of unusual beauty and
almost unequaled fertility ; and at the end of that period
an inadequate school system, and that poorly and ineffi-
ciently worked, waterworks in the capital city (where
Spaniards chiefly lived), and one short railway of less
than one hundred and fifty miles, constituted the sum
total of all that might by any kind of courtesy be called
large improvements of a public character.

Aside from the essentially vicious theory of colonial
government which hampered all attempts to benefit the
colony, the almost universal official corruption which
reigned in all departments was the most powerful cause
contributing to the policy of neglect. Public funds went
to enrich greedy public officials, rather than to improve
harbors, build schoolhouses, make roads, and improve the
sanitation of pest-ridden cities. A governor-general who
did not "clean up" at least a quarter of a million dollars
in a three or five year incumbency of the post was con-
sidered honest and public-spirited. A few, like General
Despujol, were incorruptible. But Despujol incurred
friar hatred for his unbending uprightness, and was dis-
missed by the influence of friar officials after eighteen

216

FURTHKR I.Ml'RoVKMlCNTS. 2l7

years of the most honest and sympathetic government the
Filipinos had known for two centuries.

Corruption, which managed to flourish in Manila with
increasing (Hfficulty. fattened unhindered in remote prov-
inces. Taxes could he paid in crops. Officials were per-
mitted to trade openly until 1844. They would take rice
or other crops at their own price, and sell it at current
rates, pocketing often from fifty to five hundred per cent
on the transaction. The rice was covered into the treasury
at the scandalously low rate which the oppressed culti-
vator was ])ullied into accepting on pain of false arrest
or deportation on charges concocted by the official who
was also the judge. Since the Royal Decree of 1844 for-
bidding trading on the part of provincial officials, it has
gone on less openly, and some of its w'orst features have
been eliminated ; but it has always been possible to set up
a dummy man to act for the official, and attain much the
same ends through more circuitous channels. If Manila
officials became troublesome and threatened exposure,
the alcalde well knew the one means of satisfying the "lid-
less watcher of the public weal." A small percentage of
his ill-gotten gains would make his way smooth again
until another inspection came due. Meantime he would
give the screws another twist, and be ready. Funds raised
for road-building, for education, for construction of
bridges over streams which kept the products of fertile
provinces from markets, and for needed sanitation in cen-
ters of population ravaged from time to time by awful
epidemics of cholera or smallpox, were stolen under one
pretext or another, until ladronism or highway robbery
as a profession grew up among the people as their only
defense against official exactions and spoliation. All im-
provements were delayed, and people trailed on foot from
town to town over mud-tracks called roads, and wretched

2i8 The Philippines and the Far East,

bamboo ferries poled by hand across swift streams took
the place of bridges for which the people had paid taxes
twice and thrice over, while the education of their chil-
dren was neglected. In Batangas province $300,000 were
gathered in direct taxes for "urgent local necessities."
When it was wanted in the terrible cholera scourge of
1887 it had been swallowed up, and not a stiver of it could
be had to pay doctors, or purchase medicines or disin-
fectants, or establish the expensive quarantine barriers
demanded if the scourge was to be stayed. People who
saw their loved ones die, helpless to lift a finger in their
aid, were not kindly disposed to a government which per-
mitted such wholesale speculations at the price of blood.
Correction has begun. What are some of the projected,
or partially completed, proposals of the government in
the direction of further bettering conditions for the Philip-
pine people?

These plans, running away into the millions of dollars
in their total expense, can be roughly classed under three
main heads, — Educational, Agricultural, and Engineer-
ing. This classification misses some of the plans entirely.
But that is inevitable within the limits set for the theme.
The various departments overlap somewhat, but that also
is unavoidable. Educationally there are still to be firmly
established or developed more fully a university at Manila,
normal and trade schools.

In the nature of the case the normal school is to re-
ceive the most careful attention. To that source the gov-
ernment must look for its teachers in the future. The
American teacher must decrease wdiile the Filipino must
increase. There are manifold difficulties in the way of
making an efifective teaching staff from material which
has never known the value of time, and never had even
the rudiments of a sound education until within three

F'URTHKR ImPROX'KMKNTS. ^19

years. The normal weeds out the incorrigibly lazy and
the hopelessly inefficient before their salary begins. It
seizes upon the alert and promisin^q", and inspires them
to be not only effective as instructors, but centers of in-
spiration in the pueblos and barrios where they must live
and work. I have never let a pessimist as to the outlook
for American rule in these Islands get out of my hands
until he had seen the Manila normal school. A sight of
these bright faces, and a careful inspection of the work
that is being done for them, and that will be done for those
that come after them, by graduates in pedagogy from our
best universities, has done more to chase away despond-
ency than any amount of argument. There are the trade
schools, also, teaching carpentry, plumbing, telegraphy,
mechanical drawing, and all sorts of useful trades, — all
these are in the line of unfulfilled improvements being car-
ried on by the government, the result of which can not but
be helpful in developing the people, which is the first and
fundamental need in improving the conditions of any
country.

Such normals are to be established at several ceiiters,
and fully equipped for doing the best possible work. In-
deed, the only fear that some of us have is that criticism
by Dickens of Dr. Blimber's school may apply here; they
may overdo the application of highly-developed systems
of instruction anrl highly-elaborated courses of study to
the unformed minds of a people who have lived in the
educational atmosphere of the Middle Ages until within
three years. Dickens declared that it was the aim of the
impetuous Dr. Blimber to "produce intellectual green peas
and asparagus at Christmas," and that in the case of an
unfortunate dullard, named by the boys Toots, they over-
did this forcing-house method ; "for when poor Toots
began having whiskers he left ofif having brains." It is

220 The Phiijppines and the Far East.

possibly a mistake to work the machinery of education
at such high speed at the very first.

Next will come the establishment of a university.
Naturally it was the last part of the educational machine
that needed to be set up. All school work is done in Eng-
lish. Letters constantly reach me asking how long it
takes to learn enough Spanish to begin teaching in the
public schools of the Philippines. It seems incredible
that any one with sufficient intelligence to aspire to such
a position does not yet know that all text-books, all teach-
ing, and all conversation permitted in the school premises
in the Philippines are in English, the conquering tongue
of the world. All students were compelled to begin at
the alphabet and work toward higher things. The schools
have been opened but three years. It will be three or four
years yet before any considerable number of these stu-
dents are prepared for English courses in a university.
By that time it is the intention of the government to have
such an institution established. The funds for its estab-
lishment have not yet been allotted ; but it is understood
that a good portion of the $3,000,000 granted by Congress
to relieve conditions in the Archipelago will be available
for such a purpose, when the loans to provinces in which
the carabao died of the rinderpest, or where locusts ate
every green thing after war had left farms and villages
desolate, have been repaid. In any case, ample provision
Vv'ill be made, and the university of Manila will be grind-
ing out degrees within a decade at the latest.

It is hoped that the lavish policy of the government
with regard to primary education will not be followed in
its university program. It may be all very well to provide
the primary schools with free text-books, free pencils,
paper, slates, sponges, erasers, pointers, and all of the best
quality that money can buy, but a university education is

Furtiii:r Lmpkox'KmivNTs. 223

another thing'. . Unless the government desires to raise
np a swarm of agitators ready to Hft the hand against the
government whieh lias earried them up to the point of
preparedness for government service at high salaries, un-
less that service with its attendant salary is immediately
forthcoming, it will do well to hedge the entrance to its
highest temple of knowledge with restrictions of kinds
that will not shut out the worthy student of limited means,
but will shut out the mere idler. The experience of free
university education in British India is to the point.

Improvements which naturally fall within the province
of the civil engineer are of three kinds, — harbor, transpor-
tation, and sanitation.

Spain had adopted a good plan of harbor improvement
for Manila. She had made a few feeble preparations to
begin to accomplish the improvement. But again pecu-
lations and delays, and more peculations and more delays,
so that, beyond the partial construction of one or two
heavy breakwaters needed and the manufacture of a large
number of immense cubes of artificial stone, nothing had
been done. The harbor at Manila is one that demands
artificial docks and protected anchorage. Manila Bay is
more than thirty miles long and twenty-two miles wide.
It is shallow. Near the long, curving, sandy beach upon
v^'hich Manila is built it becomes so shallow that vessels
drawing fifteen feet of water can not pass the bar and
enter the Pasig River, while vessels of deeper draught
are compelled to anchor in the open, exposed to great peril
during typhoons. Indeed, the anchorage anywhere on the
Manila side of the bay is little, if any, better than at any
point along the coast outside the bay.

This puts shipping to a double inconvenience. It com-
pels anchorage in an unprotected place. It also compels
the use of lighters for loading and unloading all shipments,

224 The Philippines and the Far East.

and of launches for taking on and discharging all pas-
sengers. Added to the great increase of expense entailed
by this compulsory rehandling of the freight, all of which
must come out of the purchaser in the long run, is the
added breakage risk, and, almost as bad as all else, the
vexatious delays, while wages, port dues, and other
charges eat great holes in the profits of ship-owners. If
IManila is ever to become the port which its geographical
situation makes it possible for her to become, these hin-
drances must be removed. There must be safe anchorage.
There must be the possibility of landing freight and pas-
sengers directly upon solid wharves in easy communication
with hotels and warehouses. Until this is done, Manila
will be shunned by shippers, or buyers and consumers of
all kinds will be taxed as much for the expense of landing
the machinery or foodstuffs or clothing which they need
as is needed to pay the long ocean haul from America or
Europe, while the exporter will be under a prohibitive
handicap in competition with exporters of hemp and sugar
and other commodities who can put their bales of mer-
chandise from dock to hold at one handling.

The first large engineering improvement undertaken
by the Commission, and now in process of construction,
is the Manila harbor improvements. These consist of
building three breakwaters, one of them being the pro-
jection of that one which Spain began. It is more than a
mile long, and runs out into water ten fathoms deep. That
is the outside breakwater, almost parallel to the shore-
line, and it is raised to a sufficient height effectually to
break the force of waves hurled shoreward by the sixty-
mile-an-hour typhoons which sweep the bay three or four
times each season. Nearly a mile back of that, at the
farthest point, is the inner breakwater — or pier, rather —
while at practically right angles with the latter, and start-

FuRTIIKR I.MI'ROVKMENTS. 225

ills' from the shore, runs a projecting wall of stone,
mounted on wide, submarine foundation of bowlders
dropped into place from huge scows. At the mouth of
this harbor there will be an entrance a hundred yards or
more across, thoroughly protected from even the swell of
a heavy storm by the angle at which it opens to the bay.
Between these long lines of breakwater the contract calls
for dredging to a uniform depth of thirty feel. By hy-
draulic pressure the sludge and sand so raised is forced
over behind the inner wall, or what will be the outer line
of solid earth and cement, when the whole vast scheme is
completed. Between this long wall and the shore and the
transverse breakwater at the south end, one hundred and
fifty acres of sea is to be filled and used for piers, ware-
houses, tracks on which freight can be whirled away to
the city, or carried from the city to the ship's side. Al-
ready this great work has so far progressed that nearly all
the work of reclaiming the land inshore has been accom-
plished. Where waves rolled ten feet high, and broke in
foam and spra\ over the beautiful sea-drive known in
Manila as The JMalecon, during any breezy day a couple
of years ago, there is now a sea of black ooze and sand,
and soon there will be all the furnishings of a large and
well-furnished modern dock, at the stone sides of which
great ships can tie up, while passengers walk down gang-
planks to terra iirma, instead of down swaying ship-lad-
ders to bouncing launches below ; and freight can be
swung from their cavernous holds by giant traveling
cranes, and laid on the stone docks as easily as a mother
lifts her little one from its crib.

This really immense project will cost $4,500,000, and

four years are required for its completion. The Atlantic,

Gulf and Pacific Company has the contract, and, from all

evidence procurable by personal inspection and from offi-

226 The Philippines and the Far East.

cials, they are performing their obUgations to the letter.
They bought their own quarries, built their own ships and
barges for the work, and have at work one of the huge
modern marvels in the way of a dredger. It growls away
at its dirty task night and day, manufacturing its own
electricity for light, and altogether complete in itself to
dig up the bottom of old ocean and toss it whither its
directors will. Not San Francisco nor Vancouver will
be better equipped for all the work of a large shipping
port than Manila when these docks are completed. The
resultant lessening of charges, and lowering of prices to
consumers in the Islands will bring into the coffers of the
custom-house alone such an increase from increased traffic
as will more than repay all the expense incurred. A mod-
ern electric street-car system with, seventy miles of track
is now being installed in Manila. The franchise is owned
by an American company. It is to be in operation within
a year. It is to have thirty-six miles of track, and will
carry passengers at six cents for first-class, and five cents
for second-class accommodations.

Next in importance from an engineering standpoint is
the problem of transportation within the Islands them-
selves. Spain made no adequate provision to meet this
need. The mere building of roads upon which all good
governments spend millions of money without hesitation
was almost entirely neglected. Outside of Manila I have
found two bits of ordinary roads, which were built before
the American occupation, which could be called passable
in good weather. One of those was built by the Insurrecto
government, and the other, and a far poorer road, was
built by Spain for transporting her troops. There are,
as a rule, no roads outside of the towns. At the municipal
limits it is the rule to have the streets come abruptly to
an end, and paths over ridges between ricefields offer the

FuRTIIIvR ImPROVICMKNTS. 229

only means of proceeding- farther into the conntry. Rail-
roads are a necessity, but common wagon-roads are a
more urgent need. Without them it is practically impos-
sible to suppress the ladronism or highway robbery that
persists in remote localities. Until it is easily possible to
reach the interior of the provinces quickly over good
roads, it will be impossible to restore a settled condition
of public order. Until roads provided over which crops
raised in the fertile interior districts can be hauled to
market, those districts will always be benighted and thrift-
less.

There are no roads at all on the island of Samar, a
section capable of producing many million dollars' worth
of hemp, if it could be transported to market other than on
the heads of native packers. All available labor in the
Islands could not carry the hemp to market in this way
which Samar alone is capable of producing. This is the
foolish way in which three-fourths of the labor of the
Philippines is being employed to-day. When rice can be
laid down at a railway station after a few hours easy haul
from the door of the farmer, prices will come down, and
the standards of comfortable living will go up. The man
who now buys little will not only be able to buy more
largely, but will want more of almost everything that
civilization has to offer him from foodstuffs and clothing
to pianos and periodicals. There can not be that whole-
some ferment of public thinking which results in that
mysterious and imperious thing we call public opinion
until all parts of the Islands are put into communication
with the outside world.

Hitherto the Filipino has had barriers built about him
of all conceivable sorts. Language differences have shut
him away from his fellow of the next barrio. Differences
of education have shut the too away from the aristocrat

:^3o Thk Pmilippinks and the I^ar East,

of blood or money. And, worst of all, it has been impos-
sible to mix with people of a few miles away to get that
widening of mental horizons without which a people soon
become petty and mentally impoverished. Good roads
from everywhere to everywhere else will bring this state
of isolation to an end and make it possible to use the
luii^ua franco which the schools are giving the rising gen-
eration in spreading common knowledge of matters in
which all who love their fatherland are interested. Com-
merce, good government, education, and religion itself,
await the provincial supervisor with his roads and bridges.
When he had done his work, the dark places will be lighted
up and a new era for the whole Archipelago be opened.
The government has undertaken to meet this need as
rapidly as the revenues of the provinces would permit.
The prostration of industry following a condition of war;
the death of scvent} per cent of work cattle with the rin-
derpest ; plagues of locusts, leaving a wake of desolation
behind them in jjrovince after province ; a scourge of
cholera, which has swept thousands of people and kept
other thousands from productive industries ; and a paraly-
sis of business due to the change from a silver to a gold
basis, — these causes, combined with a natural lack of in-
dustry which is characteristic of all tropical lands, have
kept down the natural revenues of the provincial govern-
ments, leaving but small amounts available for diking,
draining, and bridging public roads. But the plans al-
ready outlined by the consulting engineer to the Civil
Commission, call for several hundred miles of most
urgently-needed "trunk" roads, and all these will soon be
in process of construction, while some of them are now
built. It is almost impossible to secure necessary labor.
The Filipino agriculturist will not labor on public works
for wages. In a sullen fashion he may comply with the

Fur'i'iii:r I:\[PROVF,Mr!:NTs. 231

orders of his prcsidcnic or other superior officer, and put
in time for a few days. But he hfts his pick as few tunes
an hour as possible. He sits down and Ughts his cigarette
every few minutes. He keeps a wary eye on the boss,
and avails himself of every possible excuse to stay away

EMBARRASSMENT AT A FERRY.

altogether. The mortality among his relatives becomes
something awful to contemplate ! It even goes so far that
he sometimes loses the same relative twice or three times
within a comparatively brief period. Altogether the Fili-
pino as a dav laborer is a failure. His unsympathetic
critics say he will not work. Certain it is that his poky

232 The Phiuppines and the F'ar East.

way of working is in sharp contrast with the ahnost ter-
rific activity of the most energetic nation that has yet been
bred. But he will work. On his own patch of rice-land,
or in his own fishing business, he works as much as many
farmers in the United States in the course of twelve
months. He works in the cool of the early morning, and
late evening. He sleeps in the middle of the day in a
way to make a nervous American irritable ; but his two
or three yearly crops are put in with much care, culti-
vated in a fairly creditable fashion, and harvested and
threshed by hand. The government has passed the Land
Act. This is, in fact, a Homestead Law, and it makes the
one provision which all agricultural Filipinos most de-
sire,— the provision whereby each family can have its own
forty acres, and cultivate it as they please and when they
please. But it is the consensus of opinion among those
most familiar with all the conditions that it will be neces-
sary to import the day labor required for carrying on these
large engineering schemes. No one can doubt this who is
sufficiently familiar with the real Filipino to give his opin-
ion any weight.

With the building of these roads will come instruction
in the use of a better class of tools for agricultural labor
than those with which the people have been familiar.
That will act and react. It will enable them to cultivate
more soil with the same labor, and do it better, and will
make it possible for them, out of the increased profits of
cultivation, to get more tools and more supplies. It will
be a kind of trade school carried on before the eyes of the
man most in need of the tuition. Very much is hoped for
from this indirect benefit.

Railroads are sorely needed. Though the largest
islands are comparatively small, they are* thickly popu-
lated in parts, and the crops that are raised are nearly all

FuRTIIKR iMl'ROVlCMENTS. 233

such as require heavy hauHng". Further, the people love
to travel, and spend their money freely for this form of
diversion where it has become possible for them to do so.
The increased acreage of land under profitable tillage
along the line of the only railway yet built has been more
than one hundred ])er cent. It would have been easily
twice that amount if there had been good roads from the
interior to this railwav over which the native cultivator
could have brought his crop to market. Careful surveys
have been made of at least two routes in Luzon which are
needed at once. One of these would run north to the ex-
tremity of the island, one branch following the coast line,
the other tapping the rich valley of the Cagayan River
with its productive fields of tobacco and rice. This line
would open up the populous Ilocano provinces along the
west coast. It would involve few engineering difficulties
other than that involved in the frequent bridging required.
The plain is a coastal one, and is traversed by many
streams making down to the sea from the cordillera run-
ning north through the heart of the islands. In general
it is quite level, and the line would certainly pay from tine
month it was thrown open to traffic. The coast is devoid
of good harbors, and for weeks together many of the large
cities are completely shut off from communication with
the outside world by the heavy seas wdiich make it impos-
sible for coasting vessels to land with mail and supplies.
A railway with daily trains would be a civilizing agency
of the first importance, as well as a guarantee of the im-
mediate development of agricultural and mineral possi-
bilities.

Another line would run south from Alanila, and con-
nect with some of the larger cities and more populous dis-
tricts of the fertile provinces of Laguna, Batangas, Cavite,
and the Camarines, and perhaps Albay and Sorsogon.

234 'I^HE Philippines and the; P'ar East.

Greater engineering difficulties would be found in build-
ing this line, but nothing at all insuperable, and it would
be a paying investment almost from the start. In Negros
and Panay it is also certain that railways would be profit-
able, and that they will probably come in a few years'
time. From the best information obtainable, some thirty-
five million dollars gold would be required to build a
trunk-line of railway and feeders through the island of
Luzon.

It is not clear to the officials whether or how far they
should build and operate these lines of railway. It is the
judgment of those who have had the best opportunities to
judge, however, that the government would better leave
railway building to private companies. Temptations to
peculation of public funds are always strong ; but here, so
many thousands of miles from the homeland, and often so
remote from the possibilities of close inspection, those temp-
tations are doubly strong, and government would better
let private companies carry on that form of business. The
government is now engaged in building one public road —
the one leading from the terminus of the present railway
to Bagnio, the newly-chosen summer capital in the moun-
tains of Benguet — and its experience in sinking money
in useless experiments there, and some swindles that have
come to light or should do so soon, tend to convince many
that it will be best to have railway building and operating
in the Philippines come under the control of companies
who have their profits sufficiently at stake to exercise rigid
supervision over expenses of construction and operation.

In the way of sanitation, the plans of the government
are comprehensive. They include the installation of a
complete modern sewer system in Manila at the earliest
possible hour. Plans are already chosen, and work will
commence within a few months. It will cost in the neigh-

A PHILIPPINE FOOr-l!KIDGE.

FlTKl'inCK T.M1'R()\F,.MKNTS. 237

borhood of $5,000,000, and rcciuirc iiol less llian four years
for its completion, and more likely five. When it is in
working- order, the death-rate of Manila will be lower
than that of New York or Chicago, and Manila will be-
come the most popular health resort in Asia, as it has a
climate equal to anything known in the world during the
months from November to iVpril. Already the sanitary
results attained are most gratifying.

"The death rate in Manila has been cut in two since
the Americans first occupied the city, and almost in two
again. In every tropical community of that kind there
is danger of recurrent epidemics of cholera and bubonic
plague ; but these diseases, when they have occurred,
have been kept down wonderfully well. Last year during
the cholera epidemic, the death rate from cholera in Ma-
nila was no larger than the death rate from tuberculosis
and endemic disease in all cities. The Health Board suc-
ceeded in keeping cholera well confined, and prevented its
afTecting the water supply of the city. Had it reached
the water supply, one-third of the inhabitants would
probably have been stricken, and that would have meant
the death of one hundred thousand persons."'''

• The sanitation of provincial cities by means of water
systems and sewers, where possible, is also definitely pro-
vided for. A school for presidents of Provincial Health
Boards is held in Manila, and no man can hold one of those
positions who does not qualify in this school. All matters
of sanitation are taken up and thoroughly studied in the
light of methods in use in Manila. These men, so (juali-
fied, are to be held to strict account for quarantine wor]<
and all other assistance needed in the provinces in times
of epidemic.

But the Philippines are emphaticall}- agricultural, and
it is here that the government is spending its money, or

■•■Commissioner Worcester,

238 The; PniLippiNiis and the Far East.

the money of the FiHpino people, most Hhcrally, and with
what seems to me the largest possibilities of direct returns
next to the expenditure under the head of transportation
and sanitation.

The improvements slated for the field of agriculture
are manifold. First comes the establishment of a Bureau,
with a trained staff of experts chosen by the most prac-
tical and statesman-like Secretary of Agriculture the Wash-
ington government has ever had — Hon. James F. Wilson.
This Bureau has provided for and established four large
experiment farms in the various islands, besides the stock
farm on the island of Culion, and the rice-farm at Murcia,
Luzon. At these experiment farms they are at work on
all lines of possible improvement of forage and food-
plants, of fibers and herbs, yielding a wide variety of
tropical products. The study of the best minds that can
be secured is given to how to grow rice to the best advan-
tage. On a large plantation in the center of Luzon dry
cultivation is carried on before the eyes of wondering
natives, who have wallowed in mud as deep as their buf-
faloes' bodies all these }'ears to put in this particular crop.
To see the land plowed dry and the rice put in with a com-
mon drill, and then the crop flooded as often as liecessary
during growth, then the water drained off so as to make
it possible for self-binding harvesters to cut their wide
swathes, and leave the bundles in heaps behind its onward
march, — all this is a marvelous revolution of all their
notions of the way to cultivate rice. It is proven before
their eyes that all their toilsome methods of plowing in
almost bottomless mud, planting the green slioots by hand
while wading in mud half w^ay to the waist, and then reap-
ing with a sickle and binding by hand, do not secure so
large a yield on the same ground as methods which make

Fl'rtiii;k Imi'Rux'iuMf.nts. 239

possible the tillage of fifty times the area that they have
thought it possible to cultivate.

This Bureau is experimenting with coffee, india-
rubber, gutta-percha, and other tropical products which
will grow here — which do grow here — and for which the
United States affords such a lucrative market. They are
importing stallions and bulls of the best breeds to cross
with native animals, with the idea of improving size,
speed, draft powers, and the yield of milk. With even a
lavish expenditure of money the department is building
great laboratories for the exact scientific study of the pests
and diseases which destroy human, animal, and plant life
in the Archipelago.* Already the experts in these labora-

•■ This building, upon which work has already begun, will pro-
vide adequate space for the Chemical and Biological Laboratories,
the Serum Institute, and for a library of thirty thousand volumes.
It is intended primarily as an institution for practical investigation
rather than for instruction, and large rooms are therefore unnec-
essary. Each class of work will have separate space allotted to it,
so that it will not interfere with other work which is being carried
on simultaneously. The Chemical Laboratory will afford space
and thoroughly adequate facilities for the analysis of minerals,
mineral products, and rocks, water, soils, food products, paints,
oils, beverages, and other materials, and for investigations with
reference to the natural resources of the Islands, the means of
improving present products, and the possibility of developing
new industries. Rooms will be provided for distillation, for ex-
amination of plant products, and for work in pharmacology, with
special reference to the value of our numerous medicinal plants.

A part of the ground floor of the Chemical Laboratorv will be
set aside for a Physical Laboratory, which will be equipped for
gravimetric, volumetric, thermometric, and photometric work, and
the electrical measurements, and will provide suitable facilities for
standardizing weights and measures.

The Biological Laboratory will have suitable space and proper
equipment for the making of diagnostic analyses, bacteriologically
and otherwise, and for the investigation of tropical diseases of
man and of the plants and animals useful to man.

240 The Philippines and the Far East.

tories, under the leadership of Dr. Strong, have discovered
and appHed a serum that will immunize cattle against the
rinderpest. That one achievement is worth a score of
times the cost of the entire department up to date, and
will repay itself over and over again in the years to come.

No better coffee can be grown in the world than in the
Philippines. Formerly it was extensively grown and ex-
ported, but an insect working in the stems of the coffee-
bush began its deadly work in 1892-93, and the oldest
plantations were almost annihilated. In 1883 nearly
seven thousand five hundred tons of coffee were exported,
while in 1896 exports had fallen to the ridiculously low
figure of ninety tons ! The experts are at work, and the
ravages of this insect will yet be checked and plantations
of coffee, with their lovely foliage and snow-white blos-
soms, will again wave on the rich soil of Batangas.

Two other schemes for bettering conditions refuse to
come into the classification with which this chapter began.
These are the establishment of a leper colony, and the
opening of a summer capital at Baguio, in the mountain
province of Benguet, Luzon, with ample provisions for a
sanitarium.

The number of lepers in the Philippines was estimated
at thirty thousand at the time of the establishment of civil
government in 1901. This number has been found to be
at least three times too high. There can not be more than
one-third that number, but even for these unfortunates
adequate provision must be made. Several small islands
have been considered with reference to their fitness as
places for the leper colony, but one after another aban-
doned because of insufficient water-supply, poverty of nat-
ural resources, or lack of harbor accommodation along
their coasts for the landing of patients, officials, and sup-
plies. It is the fixed determination of the government

Further Tmpronkmknts.

241

to isolate the lepers, se.^regate the sexes, give a(le<iuate
medical treatment, furnish them with separate cottages as
far as possihle, allow all possihle outdoor life, and while
easing, so far as may he, the sufferings of the victims,
effectually prevent the spread of the loathsome disease.
This is being undertaken at no little expense, and is. per-
haps, the largest single effort of tlie government to relieve
incurable suft'ering, and protect the ])ublic against the

AMONO THK PINES IN BENGUET.

possibility of contracting a disease which has been a shud-
dering horror to humanity since Moses wrote his Codes
for Israelites. Within a year or two. at latest, this \vork
of national beneficence will l)e in full working order.

This is a fine tropical climate. But it is still tropical.
The white man finds his burden heavy to bear where tem-
perature never falls below sixty, and averages eighty de-
grees in the shade. He loses his vigor. In a few years it
becomes necessary either to leave for a colder climate or
spend a few weeks oi each year at an altitude at which
16

242 The Phii,ippines and the Far East.

the same degree of cold can be experienced. The Com-
mission is casting about for such an ahitude, where water,
soil, and timber made it possible to build a city to which
ofificials and non-officials could resort for recuperation,
lighted upon the town of Baguio in the province of Ben-
guet, and has chosen it as its sanitarium for employees,
and its summer capital, whither it will repair and sit dur-
ing the heated months, as the Yiceory of India and his
Council sit in Simla, and the various provincial govern-
ments of India go to Hill Stations within their respective
limits. Baguio is about one hundred and seventy-five
miles north of Manila. The climate is about perfect.
Nearly all patients who go up from Manila or from any
part of the coastal plains revive and regain strength,
weight, and normal vigor. The establishment of this
sanitarium station and summer capital will largely solve
the question of retaining the services of government offi-
cers having families. Cottages will be erected and a
summer colony established where breezes are cool and
blankets and fires a luxury, even in June ! The follow-
ing is an extract from the official report as to tempera-
ture, humidity, and cloudiness :

TABLE OF MEAN TEMPERATURE AT MANILA AND BAGUIO.

Jan.

Feb.

Mar.

April

May

June

July

Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

77.0
63.5

13-5

77-7
62.1

15-6

80.4
66.9

■3-5

82.9
70.5

12.4

83-3
68.3

15.0

82.0
67.2

14.8

80.8
66.5

'4-3

80.8
64.6

16.2

80.4
67.0

13-4

80.8
67.6

13-2

79.0
66.0

13.0

77-4
64-3

13-1

"The maximum temperature for the year, 82.8'', oc-
curred on April 19th. This is slightly higher than the
maximum temperature with which Baguio has been cred-
ited. The minimum for the year, 42,1°, \yas recorded
f'ebruary i8th,

Fuktiii;k Imtkovkments.

243

"The relative humidity was slightly greater at Bagnio
than at Manila, excej)t during the months of October and
November, when it was less. By months it was as fol-
lows : January, 76 ; February, 79 ; March, 76 ; xApril, 74 ;
May. 86 ; June, 90 ; July, 89 ; August, 93 ; September, 90 ;
October, 83 ; November, 82 ; December, 84.

"Except during the months of July, August, and Sep-
tember, the mornings were almost uniformly free from
fog. It is an interesting fact that for every month of the
year there is less cloudiness at Baguio than at Manila.
The rainfall by months in inches, was as follows : Janu-
ary, 0.06; February, 0.57; March, 1.46; April, 0.32; May,
4.02; June, 12.55; July, 15.43; August, 37.03; September.
11.90; October, 4.95; November, 2.52; December, 5.47;
total, 96.28. It will be noted that January, February,
March, and April are very dry, the greatest dryness oc-
curring at the time of greatest heat, in April. June, July,
August, and September are wet. and moderate rains occur
during October, November, December, and May."

CHAPTER XIV.
Resourcks.

The principal resources of the Philippines are in her
rich soil. Minerals there are, and these will be men-
tioned in this chapter ; but it is by her agriculture that
she has flourished in the past, and it will be by the de-
velopment of her agricultural possibilities that she will
come to the front as a prosperous country in the future.

Let it be remembered that the world is increasingly
dependent upon the tropics for its food supply, and for
the thousand articles of manufacture and commerce
without which the wheels of modern business enterprise
would stand still. ' Then let it be remembered that no-
where in the tropics is there a better climate, or a more
fertile soil, or more abundant forests, and the resources
of these Islands will take on a new meaning. Kidd, in
his "Control of the Tropics," says : -

"If present indications are not entirely misleading,
we are about to witness an international rivalry for the
control of the trade of the tropics on a far vaster scale
than any which has hitherto been imagined. It is remark-
able that, in the midst of other matters which hold the
public mind, but the importance of which is trivial in com-
parison, the large issues which are involved under this
head should have as yet occupied so little attention.

"If we turn at the present time to the import lists of
the world and regard them carefully, it will soon become
apparent to what a large extent our civilization already
draws its supplies from the tropics. Of recent years we

244

Rrcsoi'RCivS. 245

have been largely occupied in discussing questions afifect-
ing the conditions of our own industrial production. Yet
it is curious to reflect to what a large extent our complex,
highly-organized modern life rests on the work and pro-
duction of a region of the world to which our relations arc
either indefinite or entirel}- casual — a region which has,
it must be remembered, hitherto produced no example of
native government successful in the European sense, but
towards which, nevertheless, no political party and no
school of thought have so far set forth any scheme or
policy either consistent in itself or possessing the merit
even of being generally accepted in principle. . .
We have heard from time to time, recently, a great dis-
cussion concerning the trade of the United Kingdom
with the British colonies and dependencies. The total
of this trade (exports and imports) for the year 1896
amounted, if we include Egypt, to some $953,480,000.
It is somewhat startling, when we come to analyze the
figures, to find that some $498,680,000 of it was trade
between the United Kingdom and the British regions of
the tropical belt. . . . But it may be said that Great
Britain is exceptionally situated as regards the currents
of trade, and the nature of its imports and exports. If,
however, we turn to the United States of America, it is
only to find the same lesson more strongly emphasized.
Looking down the import list for 1895, and taking the
fifteen heads under which the largest values have been
imported, we find they include some two-thirds of the
total import of the United States. A glance at the prin-
cipal comodities to show to what an enormous extent the
produce of the tropics is represented, — here the two items
which stand at the top of the list are cofifee and sugar, of
which the imports are valued, respectively, at $96,000,000
and $76,000,000. The value of imports of these two arti-
cles alone does not fall very far short of one-fourth of
the total value of the imports of the United States for
the year in question. If we add to it the values of three
other heatls — viz., (i) india-rubber, (2) tobacco, and
(3) tea — we have a total of some $220,000,000. If we
endeavor to deal with the whole import list on the prin-

246 The Philippines and the Far East.

ciplc followed in the case of Great Britain, and seek to
distinguish what proportion of the total imports of the
United States comes from the region embraced between
latitude 30° north and 30° south of the equator, we get a
total value of approximately $250,000,000 from tropical
regions. This is over one-third of the entire imports
of the United States, the total for that year from all
sources being $731,000,000."

The chief farm crops of the Philippines are hemp,
rice, sugar, tobacco, copra, and, in the past, as explained
in the previous chapter, coffee. The peculiar crop is
hemp. Manila hemp holds the world's market in this
article, and will likely continue to hold it against all
comers. Singularly enough, it is not grown in or very
near Manila, though it bears the name of the city from
which it is chiefly exported.

Hemp (iMiisa tc.vtilis) — referred to by some writers
as M. Troglydyarnm — is a wild species of the plantain.
It greatly resembles the M. paradasaica, which bears the
edible banana. Experts only can tell the difference be-
tween the hemp-tree and the banana-tree. The notable
thing that marks them from one another is the color
and size of the leaf. It grows best on well-drained
slopes, and flourishes where soil is shallow, even where
evidences of volcanic action are abundant. It demands
plenty of shade, like the rubber-tree. The tree averages
ten feet in height. It is an endogenous plant, the stem
of it being inclosed in layers of half-round petioles. The
fiber of commerce is extracted from these petioles. When
the trees are cut down, they are cut into strips from five
to six inches wide and drawn under a knife attached at
one end to a block of wood by a hinge, while the other
end is hung from the end of a flexible stick. This bend-
ing stick raises the knife, and, by a simple treadle at-

Rksourc'k.s. 249

tachment, the pressure of the operator's foot can bring
the knife to work on the petiole with whatever force is
required. The bast, or crude fiber, is drawn under the
edge of the knife, and the pulpy mass that forms such a
large percentage of the petiole in its succulent state is
left on the other side. It is wholly useless so far as
hemp growers yet know. The fiber often measures six
feet six inches in length, and is very strong. After this
stripping process, the fiber is spread in the sun to be
thoroughly dried, and then tightly baled for shipment.
A machine to draw fiber is the great desideratum of the
hemp business. A nian by the name of Smith claims to
have perfected such a machine within a few months. If
he has succeeded he will prove the Eli Whitney of the
hemp-trade. A workable machine that will not discolor
the delicate fiber as it is being separated from the pulp,
and that will leave it of even size and strength when
drawn, will revolutionize this important industry.

It is an easy crop to grow. It must be planted in the
shade of larger trees, so the land should not be wholly
cleared. It requires a minimum of cultivation. Within
three years of planting, the young tree's fiber may be
extracted, and after that, for a number of years, the
grower has only the ordinary dangers of drought or bad
markets to fear. Locusts do not eat the plant. Fire will
not spread among its sappy leaves. There is no special
cropping season, but fiber may be extracted at any time
in the year, and thus a constant income is derived from
a plantation which requires but little labor after that
which started it into bearing. The islands of Samar and
Leyte grow the finest quality of hemp, having the prov-
inces of Albay and Sorsogon as close seconds, both in
acreage and quality of the product. Shipments have
leaped from 41.535 tons in 1881 to 112,755 tons in 1897.

250 Thk Philippinks and the Far East.

It fell somewhat during the war, but has gone up again
by leaps and bounds since peace has been restored. In
fact the increase in hemp exports furnishes a good indi-
cation that peace has indeed come ; for the hemp-pro-
ducing portions of the Archipelago have been longest in
submitting to the new order of things.

There is no industry in the Philippines to-day which
can compare with this one ; and the production of this
valuable fiber is capable of being enormously enlarged.
Were capital available, in ten years' time these Islands,
instead of exporting $20,000,000 worth of raw hemp,
would be exporting $200,000,000 worth of finished
products manufactured from Manila hemp, to say noth-
ing of the raw material.

Rice is more universally grown than any other crop ;
but, strange as it mav seem, is not grown in sufficient
quantities to feed the people. Rice is imported from
Saigon in large Cjuantities to make up the deficiency.
This is an abnormal state of things, and all are confident
that the Philippines will soon be an exporter rather than
an importer of this basal foodstuff of her people. Much
of the land raises excellent rice. A yield of one-hun-
dred-fold has been realized in parts of Bulacan province.
Yields of sixty and seventy fold are not uncommon and
fifty and below reward even the poorest tiller of the
soil. When conditions are again normal, and when im-
provements in agricultural methods have been really
adopted by small cultivators, rice will figure as one of
the chief exports, ranking with sugar and copra. A
laborer in a rice-field in the Philippines produces fifteen
hundred pounds of poddy, or unhusked rice. The same
amount of human labor in America, with modern methods
and appliances, produces one hundred and sixty thou-
sand pounds.

Rksourcics. 251

Tobacco was made a government monopoly from
1 78 1 to 1882. No one was permitted to grow any other
crop in certain Luzon provinces, except on certified per-
mission fr<Mii the jiroper official that he had signed a
contract for the delivery of four thousand tobacco-plants,

FRESHLY-TAPPED GUTTA-PERCHA TREE OF THE BEST VARIETY

(DICHOPSIS GUTTA), TJIPITIS plantations, JAVA.

(After a few hours the flow will have ceased and the gutta-percha

have become hard. )

duly cured and of specified fineness and weight. The
monopoly worked terrilile hardship on the cultivators and
land-owners. It was a long chapter of oppression and
injustice. The profit to the Spanish government was
about $2,500,000, annually, but general agricultural in-
terests sufifered.

252 The Phiuppines and the; Far East.

"From sunrise to sunset the native grower was sub-
jected to domiciliary search for concealed tobacco. His
trunks, furniture, and every nook and corner of his dwell-
ing was ransacked. He and all his family — wife and
daughters included — were personally examined ; and often
an irate husband, father, or brother, goaded to madness by
the indecent humiliation of his kinswoman, would lay
liands on his bowie-knife and bring matters to a bloody
crisis with his wanton persecutors. . . . The leaves
were carefully selected, and only such as came under classi-
fication were paid for to the grower. The rejected bundles
were not returned to him, but burnt. . . . The village
official had, under penalty of arrest and imprisonment,
at hard labor, to see that the families fulfilled their oner-
ous contract. Corporal punishment, imprisonment, and
fines resulted, culminating in riots such as those of Ilocos
in 1807 and 1814, when many Spaniards fell victims to
the natives' resentment of their oppression."

This iniquity was abolished in 1882, and now the
entire business is in the hands of commercial companies
of which the Compania General de Tobacos de filipinas,
with a capital of $13,500,000, is by far the largest. It
owns immense tobacco plantations, and has a large fac-
tory in Manila. This company holds the contract for
furnishing several nations of Europe with this weed.
Its shipments are very large. To those of us who wish
that the whole business of the growth, manufacture, and
use of this noxious plant were done away with, both
in the interest of health and decency, it is discouraging
to find such a lusty trade in it. Its use is well-nigh uni-
versal. Children smoke. I saw a little girl, a few days
ago, carrying a small brother astride her hip, and lead-
ing a little four or five year old sister by the hand. The
older sister was not more than eight years of age, but
all three had cigarettes in their mouths ! In the prov-
mces they make what some Americans facetiously name

Resources. 253

"the family cigar." It is rolled out of the pure leaf,
and often measures ten inches in length. It is smoked
first by one, and then by another member of the family,
and lasts for hours.

Sugar finds as good a soil in parts of the Philippines
as can be found in the world. Its growth and care follow
methods used elsewhere in the tropics. It is a very
profitable crop in a good year, even with the crude crush-
ing machines which extract but fifty per cent of the cane-
juice. Improved methods of handling it will make it
of first-rate importance as one of the resources of the
Islands.

Copra is dried cocoanut, from which oil is extracted.
It is prepared in increasing quantities, and stands fourth
in the list of- exports. Cocoanut-groves grow with little
care anywhere that the breath of salt air can fan them.
Along the sandy shores of the Islands, even on soils that
will not raise other crops, the graceful cocoanut, with
its cluster of fruit tightly held about it like a crown,
flourishes in all seasons. The water from the nut is
always cool, and slakes thirst and reduces perspiration
better than ordinary boiled water. I have spent days in
the provinces when no other liquid was used. Commer-
cially, cocoanut has just begun to be appreciated. Its
oil will command a large place in the world market as
its virtues become known.

There are very large areas of the 63,000,000 acres of
unappropriated government lands admirably adapted to
the cultivation of cocoanuts. Cocoanut-trees come to
bearing in from five to seven years, reaching the bear-
ing stage more slowly as the altitude increases. The
trees can be grown readily and with comparatively little
danger of loss. Under existing conditions, the minimum
annual profit from a fairly good bearing tree is one dol-

254 The; Philippines and the; Far East.

lar, Mexican, and frequently two or three times this
amount is reaHzed. The ground under the tree is now
either allowed to grow up with brush or kept clear by
hand. The growth of underbrush injures the soil, and
leads to the loss of falling nuts, while clearing by hand
is quite expensive. The use of mowing machines would
result in great saving in the cost of labor necessary to
keep the ground clear and gather the nuts. Other crops,
such as Indian corn and alfalfa, can be grown between
the rows of cocoanut-trees while the latter are matur-
ing, and used to fatten hogs, which always bring a good
price in the Philippine market. The demand for copra
in these Islands is greatly in excess of the supply, and
is steadily increasing, while cocoanut oil now sells readily
in Manila at $1.25, Mexican, per gallon.

Coffee grown in the Philippines once took top prices
on the London market. It was known as "Leepa Coffee."
In 1892 to 1893 a borer appeared which practically anni-
hilated the plantations. In 1883 exports of coffee reached
a total of 7,451 tons. In 1896 it had fallen to ninety tons!
The plant requires shade, and gives marketable coffee the
fourth year after planting. About seventeen hundred
plants can be grown on one acre. Government is experi-
menting with coffee again, hoping successfully to fight off
the borer, and also a leaf disease equally harmful, and
secure such growth of the berry as will again place it in
the list of exports.

Besides these crops, which either are now exported
in large quantities or will soon begin to figure in that
column, there are many articles of food which are only
available locally, which any enumeration of resources
should include. These are maize, canwtcs, or a coarse
kind of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and cacao. These ar-
ticles supply a large portion of the food of tens of thou-

Rrsources.

255

sands of the common people. With fish and rice, tliey
feed more than all other sorts of food together. Maize
is cultivated exactly like corn in Kansas or Iowa. It
looks wonderfully like a hit of home to see a field of this
familiar plant, with its silky banners and its steel-gray

A NATIVE SAWMILL-LIMrrED!

tassels. Three crops a year from the same land is com-
mon, and the yield runs from twenty-five to forty bushels
to the acre, according to soil, rainfall, and cultivation.
It is ground in handmills. and eaten in the form of hoe-
cake.

The cacao-tree is an attractive-looking bush, with a
gfreenish yellow foliage, It.s cultivation is a risky busi-

256 The; Phii^ippines and the Far East.

ness as at present carried on. A high wind at the right
time will rnin the yield by throwing all the gherkin-like
frnitpods to the ground. Rats destroy plantations of it.
When a crop can be gathered, it is extremely profitable.
Almost every householder in the provinces has a tree or
more in his }'ard, and the women of the house roast the
beans, mash them with wet sugar, and make a chocolate
paste which is most palatable. Its use is almost univer-
sal among the middle classes in supplying the place taken
by tea or cofifee among Americans. Mr. ^l^yon, the ex-
pert tropical agriculturist of the Agricultural Bureau,
states that in no other country has he seen climate and
soil so favorable to cacao-growing as in Mindanao. The
cacao now produced in that island is of superior quality,
and is nearly all bought up for shipment to Spain, where
it brings an especially high price. There are numerous
other regions in the Islands where cacao can be raised
to great advantage, but it is hardly too much to say that
there is not to-day a cacao plantation in the Archipelago,
the Filipinos having almost invariably contented them-
selves with planting a few scattering bushes, which are
left practically without care, to be swamped by brush
and preyed upon by insects. Proper harvesting and cur-
ing methods are not employed. The fruits are torn from
the bushes, injuring the bark and leaving the way open
for the attacks of injurious insect pests. With the urgent
demand for this product both in Europe and America,
as well as in the Philij^pines, the cultivation of the cacao
should be very profitable.

Potatoes can be grown in Cebu and Benguet. They
are rarely larger than walnuts, but of excellent quality.

Castor-oil. buyo or betel-nut, and areca-nuts are also
in common use among the mass of the people. (Betel-

Resources. 257

nut is chewed like tobacco. It is lull} as tilthy a habit,
staining Hps and teeth blood-red.)

Fruits are abundant. In this respect the Philippines,
while not satisfying- the European or American, does
furnish as fine a variety as any portion of the tropics.
First and foremost is the banana. It grows everywhere,
and is always ready to cat. Trees continue bearing from
the same root for from ten to fifteen years. Next comes
the mango. This is the king of tropical fruits for its
delicious flavor and royal color. It is not so serviceable
a fruit as the banana, because it ripens in March and
April of each year, and is gone by September, while
bananas are always blooming, always ripening, and al-
ways ready for use. The mango is oblong, oval-shaped,
from three to five inches long, and has a large pit or
stone in the middle. It is so juicy that eating it in public
is a feat difficult of accomplishment. But its yellow
flesh, flavored like a combination of the peach, straw-
berry, plum, and russet apple, is one of the most luscious
that human palates find. The tree is an ornament to
any grounds, with its domelike shape, and its rich, gloss}'
leaves. Oranges of the loose-skinned sort are plentiful
at the proper seasons, and of an excellent quality. Cus-
tard apples, chicos, citrons, lanzones, jack-fruit, bread-
fruit, guavas, mangosteens (in Mindanao), pine-apples,
and tamarinds are also to be had in season. With the
exception of the mango, the fruits of this region have
been practically wholly neglected. Such tropical fruits
as bananas and pineapples, and the extra-tropical citrus
fruits, which, together, practically make up the world's
supply of commercial tropical fruit products, are totally
undeveloped in these Islands. The conditions of the
soil and climate here are so generally adapted to the
17

258 The Philippines and the Far East,

growth of oranges and other citrus fruits, that the rapid
development and large production of these most valua-
ble crops are matters fairly beyond the experimental
stage, requiring nothing more than the importation of
selected varieties in sufificient quantities for their rapid
propagation and wide dissemination.

Forest products deserve an entire book, not to say a
portion of one chapter. These are not surpassed in any
part of the tropics. Bamboo, with its almost endless
uses in building, fencing, rafting, shipping, and in every
branch of trade, holds the position among forest products
that the banana holds among fruits. It serves more
useful purposes, and is really worth more to the Filipino,
than any other growth of the forest kind. Bcjuco, or
native rattan, is also eminently useful. It takes the
place of rope, and nails, and screws, and bolts. All na-
tive houses are held together by bcjuco. Rafts are lashed
together with it. Hemp bales go to their destinations
in the ends of the earth clasped firmly by this native
rattan.

In the line of hard woods, the Islands are remark-
ably rich. Altogether more than seventy kinds are well
known, which give an excellent polish, and more than
a dozen which rank with the best mahogany. Several
of the finest woods have been discovered since the Amer-
ican occupation. A list of these trees would fill pages.
Among the timbers most in demand for export is narra,
or a kind of mahogany, either white or deep blood-red.
It can be had in logs squared to twenty-six inches and
up to thirty-five feet in length. It polishes well, and is
extensively used for inside finishings in the best class
of houses, for furniture, and for ornamental work of any
kind. It can be had in very great .diameters. Tables
will be exhibited at the St. Louis Exposition, the tops

Resources.

259

of which are made of one piece of this wood nine feet
in diameter. Tahles of one piece six and eight feet in
diameter are common.

Another very vahiable hard wood is called uiolavc.
It is very hard. It is impervious to white ants because
of a ix'culiar acid in the sap. It is also immune to the
seaworm, and resists climatic action better than any other

PLOWING FOR RICE WITH CARAKAO IN IHK MID.

kind of native wood. For railway sleepers it outlasts
iron or steel ; for they rust in this moist climate, while
iiioloz'c seems beyond the reach of rot, or worm, or in-
sect. It is practically everlasting, and is w^ell named by
the natives "Queen of the Woods." Molave is used for
floors in expensive houses. Planks of alternating light
and dark colors, sawed from two to three feet in width,
planed and rubbed to a perfect polish, and then polished

26o The Philippines and the Far East.

daily with the juicy stems of fresh banana-leaves rubbed
liard over the surface, — these make as attractive a floor
as can be found in the world. Nothing in the salons
of Europe equals the finish of some floors of molavc that
can be seen in Manila. Some time its merits will be
known in the United States, and then, instead of com-
manding a price of $140 per thousand as at present, it
will take rank with its more aristocratic neighbor, ma-
hogany, and command $500 per thousand.

Siipa, Tindalo and other varieties are exported to
America for finishing woods in sleeping and parlor cars,
and in the homes of the rich. Several large steam-mills,
with full outfits of handsaws and planes, have been set
up in Manila to work these woods, and place them upon
the markets of the world. Up to the present the hopes
of the investors have not been fully realized. The woods
are in the forest. But there are three difficulties in the
way of getting them to the mills. First, the difficulty
of securing labor — a difficulty that confronts every form
of industry in the Philippines. Second, transportation
is hard to manage. Where trees grow within easy
reach of shore-lines, boats can approach and load, by
means of cranes or booms of long arms, that have been
rolled into the sea or river. But when the tree is away
in the interior, there it must remain. Roads do not
exist. Third, the Forestry Bureau, excellent as is its
work in preserving and caring for the millions of acres
of government forests, has hedged the cutting of timber
about with restrictions, and established rates of taxes,
that make the lot of the timber merchant a hard one.
Only a certain number of licenses to cut can be issued
in a given province. Whether that license is for one
or twenty men seems to make no difference. Stumpage
is reckoned by the cubic foot of the squared log, and

Resources.

261

runs as hig^h as twenty-two cents per cubic foot. If the
loi^ is measured in Manila, the money for the (le])art-
ment must be remitted to the provincial treasurer of the
portion of the country from which the logs come.
Boundaries of provinces are not always perfectly clear
to woodcutters, and the delay and confusion and red tape
disgust many merchants who have excellent prospects

A BENGUET RICE FIELD, WITH VILLAGE.

of working a profitable timber business with China,
japan, and the United States, if only these exasperating
(lifificulties could be gotten out of the way. If they could
import gangs of Chinese laborers on an agreement to
return them to China within a specified time, it would be
a boon to the poor, half-starved Chinaman, and enable
these companies to carry on a 1)usiness which would put
thousands of dollars into circulation in the Islands. But

262 The Philippines and the Far East.

the theorists and politicians in xAmerica know all about
conditions they never saw. and they decide against such
a proposal in the supposed interest of an eager Filipino
laborer who has no existence outside of their imagina-
tions. The forest products of the Philippines will be one
of her richest resources; but American legislation and
the regulations of the P>ureau in the Philippines must
be altered so as to make their development a possibilitv.

India-rubber of a low grade is extracted from trees
that grow wild in Mindanao. Cultivated rubber needs
a more evenly-distributed rainfall than is enjoyed in
parts of Luzon and the other larger islands. The govern-
ment is spending money freely to grow the Central
American rubber known as Casfilao clasfica. It is be-
lieved that it will be wholly impossible to succeed in
growing standard or Para rubber (Hcvia B)'a::iliciisis)
on account of lack of proper soil and moisture. Flour-
ishing young plants of the Central American variety can
be seen at the Singalon experiment farm, but seven years
are needed before a yield of rubber can be expected. If
the tree should find Philippine conditions congenial,
there are imtold millions to be made in its cultivation.

Coal, gold, iron, copper,- — these are the four minerals
known to exist in the Philippines.

The coal so far discovered is not of a good quality.
But recent investigations in a province but a few miles
from Manila — Bataan — show better qualities at lower
levels. The Mining Bureau has issued a report on "The
Coal Measures of the Philippines," which is replete with
information as to the petty efiforts made under Spanish
rule to develop this industry, and as to the possibilities
of making coal-mining a practical matter here. The
outlook is not as encouraging as we might wish. Cebu
has coal. Luzon has coal. But it is "young," and does

Resources. 263

not work well in furnaces where it has been tried. The
Bataan reports of the past few weeks are more encour-
aginj^.

"Gold probably exists in all the largest islands of the
Archipelago, but in a dispersed form. For the fact is, that
after centuries of search, large pockets of it have never
been traced to defined localities, and, so far as discoveries
up to the present moment demonstrate, this colony can not
be considered rich in auriferous deposits."

Miners and men with no mining experience are
camped in the mountain provinces of North Luzon hold-
ing claims which, it is feared by the best informed, will
never be of value except by the use of machinery too
expensive for installation. Fuel can not be had to run
such machinery, unless unexpected success should at-
tend the present investigations of coal-fields, and even
then this fuel would have to be hauled away into the
mountains, or the ore and shale and quartz hauled to
the plains for smelting. It is feared that many men are
doomed to disappointment. I'ut prophecy in matters
of mining is dangerous. Philippine gold-mines may yet
rival those of Alaska.

In Bulacan province there are mountains mainly com-
posed of iron, assaying up to 63.31 per cent by rigid
tests in our own government laboratories. Spanish as-
says show 85 per cent metallic iron. Natives declare
that the mountain at Angat is all iron ! Immense blocks
of hematite lie scattered about at the base of the out-
cropping of the eighteen-foot vein, and so far the "min-
ing operations" have consisted in cracking up these blocks
of ore and smelting them. What depth the vein has
farther into the mountain has not been determined. But
that iron oi an excellent quality is there, and that it is
there m large quantities, can scarcely be doubted. If

264 The; Philippines and The; Far Hast.

coal can be found near at hand, the future of the iron
industry in the PhiHppines may be regarded assured.

Copper deposits are large, but remote, and not until
there are railways into the mountains where it is found
will it be possible to place the ore on the market.

With the magnificent grazing lands of Luzon and
Mindanao, with abundant fine grasses and clear moun-
tain streams, the sixty-five million acres of arable land
held by the government, and now open for entry by
means of homestead rights or purchase ; the undreamed-
of extension of sugar, hemp, copra, indigo, cacao, and
cocoanut cultivation ; the fruits, the fisheries, the forest
products, and the resources of pearl fisheries and mines
of coal and iron, of gold and copper, and the best tropical
climate vet discovered, — tlie Philippine Islands have am-
ple resources for the maintenance of from twenty to
twenty-five million people in comfort.

CHAPTER XV.

The CiiiNivSi') IN Till'; Piiii^ippines.

Naturally the Philippines have attracted the
Chinese. The climate is such as all Southern China en-
joys, with a few degrees of heat added. The soil is fer-
tile, and industrial and commercial opportunities are to
he had for the taking. China is less than three days" sail
from Northern Luzon by good native junks. Her peo-
ple stand so thickly on her soil that it is with difficulty
that they dig a scanty living from between their feet. It
would be a marvel if the Chinaman had not entered so
wide a door of opportunity as the Philippines have held
before him from the earliest era of reliable history.

As early as the seventh century we have sure testi-
mony of his presence. From then imtil the earlier in-
vasions, Chinese invaders and traders held large parts of
Luzon in subjection, and, coming over from Formosa and
Amoy in their pirate junks to harry the coast cities, they
would cast in their lot with the people of the Islands, marry
Filipino women, and become permanent residents.

When Legaspi took the helm of Philippine affairs in
1565 he saw that it was the part of good statesmanship
to protect the Chinamen whom he found in various lines
of industry and commerce, and he drew up regulations
looking to that end, which, for farseeing wisdom and
sense of adaptation of legislation to conditions other
than those of his own nation, might furnish matter to
be conned with profit by some modern legislators. In

265

266 The Philippine;s and the Far East.

1580 the Spanish government erected a building for
Chinese traders in a quarter of Manila convenient to
the river and sea front. It was called the Alcayccria.
It was a square of shops, with a large storeroom at the
rear, and one living room over each little shop. This
was soon crowded, and the overflow of Chinese traders
was accommodated farther in from the bay. Later a
large Chinese market was erected for them, and no Chi-
nese traders were permitted to open shops for the sale
of any goods outside of that one market. Not until
i860 was this attempt to curb the irrepressible commer-
cial instinct of the Celestial invaders given over as im-
practicable. In the face of laws the most unequivocal,
and in spite of penalties the most terrifying, as w^ell as
that subtle but powerful opposition born of race hatred,
the Chinese spread, not only into all parts of Manila, but
took up their packs and small stocks and went to large
provincial cities, where their fixed prices, frugality, and
power of sustained industry soon gave them the long end
of the commercial lever among a class of merchants who
exacted all that was possible for their inferior goods, and
slept more than half the time behind closed doors. At
the close of the sixteenth century. Dr. Antonio Morga
testifies that it would be impossible to do without this
factor in the life of the country. He says, "They are
workers in all trades and business, and are very indus-
trious."

The Chinese have been the chief instructors of the
Filipinos in those practical matters of agriculture and
trade which to-day form the basis of the prosperity of
the Archipelago. Long before the Spaniard came to the
islands they had taught the growth of sugar-cane, and
had put into use rude machinery for expressing the juice
and making crude sugar on a large scale. The entire

The Chinese in the Phiijppines. 267

hemp industry, whether it is viewed on the side of pro-
duction or placing in the markets of the world, owes
its introduction to the notice of the Filipino people to
the enterprise and industry of the despised Chinaman.
The making of cocoanut oil, and the entire copra industry
would have come to nothing commercially without
Chinese capital and Chinese labor in the beginning.

Foreman practically lived in the Philippines for fif-
teen years, and his testimony is as follows :

"Again, but for the Chinese coolie competition, con-
stant labor from the native would be almost unprocu-
rable. The native day-laborer would work two or three
days, and then suddenly disappear. The active China-
man goes day after day to his task (excepting only at
the time of the Chinese New- Year, in January or Febru-
ary), and can be depended upon. Thus the native is
pushed by alien competition to bestir himself. . .
Only a small minority of the laboring class will put their
hands to work without an advance on their wages, and
men who earn $8 per month will often demand as much
as $25 to $40 advance without any guarantee what-
soever. . . . The Chinese very rarely expect pay-
ment until they have given value for it. Only the direst
necessity will make an unskilled native laborer continue
several weeks at work for a wage- which is only paid when
due."

Nevertheless they have always been an unwelcome
race. After Legaspi had passed away, and rulers of a
narrower outlook came to power, restriction began to
be invented and applied to the coming of the Chinese, and
to their free entry into industrial and commercial lines.
This opposition at one time reached to the promulgation
of a peremptory order for their total expulsion. The
authorities knew^ that to carry that decree out in all liter-
alness would call for an army such as Spain never
dreamed of sending, and that its enforcement would stop

268 The Philippines and the F'ar HasT.

the wheels of business, and throw the colony into bank-
ruptcy. Hence a way was found to evade the execution
of so foolish an order. It was gravely announced that
the archbishop believed such action would "prejudice
public interests." In a former chapter some details of
the massacres of Chinese were given. But it was not
stated that the Chinese cjuarters in Manila were always
commanded by batteries in order that at any time the
hated alien, with his terrible industry, might be can-
nonaded into subjection, and so that he would at all
times feel the precarious character of his hold upon his
home and goods. To this day this hatred exists. Fili-
pino drivers of public conveyances will go out of their
way to run down Chinese coolies carrying their baskets
in the streets. I have seen the most wanton cases of
this form of petty persecution. Hardworking and un-
ofifending men are crippled, and sometimes killed out-
right, by the fury of Filipinos who will not work, and
who arc mad out of measure with the Chinaman because
he will work.

Massacres of Chinese have occurred at intervals since
early in the seventeenth century when twenty-four thou-
sand were put to death .within a week ! Again, in 1639,
in Laguna province, the intolerable exaction of the gov-
ernor and a favorite doctor drove the Chinese into rebel-
lion, and thousands were put to death. An edict was
published calling upon "all good Catholics" to put an
end to the last Chinaman in the province, but happily
this was not entirely possible. The year 1660 saw an-
other bloody but futile attempt to drive this alien toiler
away.

During nearly all these years of persecution and strife
the Chinese kept gaining power in the business world.
They adopted all kinds of expedients to curry favor with

A CHINAMAN GRINDING HERBS FOR A CHINKSF.
DOCTOR, MANILA.

ThK ChINESF, in TllK rilll.lI'I'INES. 27I

the Spaniards, even going- to the length of building and
keeping open houses for their entertainment when they
visited the provinces where they were crushing cane,
stripping hemp, opening iron-mines, or carrying on their
petty shops. But all to no avail. Si)anish policy had
decreed that they should suffer, and heavy license fees,
excessive and vexatious taxes were leveled at them as a
community, by officials who accepted their hospitality ;
and a freezing opposition to their residence in the Islands
was met with on all hands. In 1829, Chinese and Brit-
ish alike were included in a massacre that swept a red
circle around the bay from Manila to Cavite. It w^as
brought on by charges that the cholera which had rav-
aged the city that year was due to the Chinese — to for-
eigners generally. There may have been some truth
in the charge so far as the Chinese were concerned, inas-
much as their trade is chiefly with ports in Southern
China where cholera is never wholly stamped out, and
where filth and .overcrowding give it easy foothold.

Bribes from rich Chinese merchants kept many offi-
cials in ease. Governor-generals more than one have
fattened on the income derived from this class. The
governor-general would issue high-sounding orders about
enforcing some severe rule or other against the Chinese,
and immediately a small horde of Celestials would make
advances to him to ascertain how much would be re-
quired to hold the execution of the oppressive law in abey-
ance. He would assume an attitude of great sternness,
and indignantly repel the suggestion that he was open
to corrupt methods having for their object the evasion
of law ! The wily alien well knew that this was done
with an eye to a higher price for conforming to his
wishes, and calmly waited for this simulated wrath to
assume comprehensible commercial form, and was im-

272 The; Philippines and the Far East.

mediately ready with the fat purse for which the greedy
official lusted. From governor to street policeman the
Chinaman has been a target for the spoilsman and cor-
ruptionist in his office. If there were any way of getting
at the total spent by the Chinese in the Philippines for
that immunity from persecution which any humane gov-
ernment should have accorded him as a mere matter of
course, its magnitude would amaze us.

The number of Chinese in the Archipelago can not
be known at this writing. The new census will give the
number with practical accuracy, but that is not to sec the
light for some months. Estimates based upon tax re-
ceipts, former census returns, immigration statistics, and
provincial and school statistics show that it will not fall
far under one hundred and twenty thousand. These are
scattered very wddely. Nearly half of them reside per-
manently in Manila. The remainder are shopkeepers,
hemp-buyers, sugar-shippers, brokers, and petty dealers
in all parts of the Islands. Few Chinese laborers are
to be found outside Manila and other shipping points,
like Iloilo or Cebu. No Chinese engage in agriculture,
or so very few as to reckon the race as such completely
outside the limits of tillers of the soil. They have never
dared to live away from centers where protection might
be had from the wrath of an envious people. To till the
soil would demand isolation from the crowd of humanity,
and a bowie-knife or bolo would speedily leave him a
weltering corpse beside his plow. As conditions settle
down under American rule, and the inevitable weakness
and inefficiency of our police system in its earlier stages
of development are eliminated, it will be possible for the
Chinaman to till the soil, as well as carry on the garden-
ing for which he is already famous.

It is in the role of laborer and merchant or speculator

TllIC ClllNKSK IN TlUC i'lIIlJi'PlNKS. 273

that the Chinese figure more largely in the Islands. It
has been estimated that less than five per cent of the
present body of merchants were originally merchants.
In some form or other they toiled for their daily rice.
When industry joined to painful frugality had permitted
the acquisition of savings sufficient to warrant the ven-
ture, the toiler has stepped into the ranks of the trader.
In order to make the necessary savings to accomplish
this end, almost incredible toil and privation are under-
gone without a murmur. Stolidly and without complaint
he endures a severity of labor in this tropical heat which
almost passes belief. His crowded quarters would be
condemned as unfit for a pig-sty in Europe. His food
is of the coarsest and most scanty ; l)ut daily his little
hoard grows, until at last the sum he had settled upon
as sufficient to start him in the career of a trader or
money-changer has been gathered. And the sum is not
necessarily a large one. He is quite content to begin in
a small way, as a rule. The man who comes up from the
masses usually begins by buying junk from door to door,
or stocking up with Canton linen, socks, ribbons, but-
tons, thread, handkerchiefs, and other small articles of
small value, but of constant demand, and carrying his
wares from door to door, calling from the street or from
the opened doors, ''Want han'cheef?" "Want socks?"
"Want buy Canton lin'?" If dismissed, he goes with a
grin and a "goo"by" that disarm irritation at the disturb-
ance of one's work. If permitted to open his stock, he
can be voluble in four to six languages, and no peddler
is more wily or tireless in pricing and showing what he
has for sale. He usually asks twice or three times the
price that he will accept rather than miss a sale. This
is chiefly due to the incoming of the Americans, who
have upset all prices wherever they have gone by their
18

274 The; Philippines and the Far East.

reckless payment of whatever merchants might ask. They
love the risks of business. With the instincts of the
gambler in their very blood — instincts which are more
manifest in their people than in any other of the modern
world — they find the uncertainties of business a constant
and welcome stimulant.

In Manila business circles Chinese figure largely.
Nearly fifty per cent of the goods that pass through the
custom-house go to Chinese merchants. Some of the
more intelligent, those whose education has been pursued
in Hong-Kong or Singapore, import directly from Europe
or America, and do a handsome business. They have
their own Chamber of Commerce, and the annual total
of transactions under their leadership runs up into mil-
lions of dollars. Several Chinese are millionaires, and
hundreds of merchants dress as richly, and ride in as
beautiful carriages, drawn by as fine horses, as the most
wealthy Spaniards or Filipinos.

The Chinese are a law-abiding people. They do not
want trouble. They want profits. In all the troubles
of the past seven years "the Chinos," as Chinese are all
called, have been strictly neutral. They have made good
money by selling goods to whichever government was
in power. Our armies have had no cause of complaint
against this class. In fact, it is owing to the fact that
the Chinaman washed their clothes and cooked their ra-
tions and had his little stock of goods where it could be
of use, that the soldiers were able to get along in the
Philippines as well as they did. The United States has
nothing to fear from the Chinaman if he is treated with
anything approaching fairness. He will keep the laws.
He will use his influence at all times to see that his em-
ployees and relatives keep the laws.

A surprising- thing- about this large and influential

Tlllv ClIlNKSK IN TlUv PlIILII'PlNES. 275

class of the residents of these islands is, that at least
one-half of them are professedly Christian. They have
adopted Christianity with a view to its being in their
favor in a business way. Otherwise Catholic trade passed
them entirely by. At least twenty-five thousand Chinese
in Manila are nominally Catholics. The majority of
these never go to church. Thousands of them have never
had the slightest instruction in the significance of their
new faith. It is not really a faith with them at all. It
is a business scheme. As one of them told me when I
asked him why he desired baptism, "Negotio no mas;'*
business, nothing more. No Buddhism, nor Taoism, nor
Confucianism can be found among the tens of thousands
of Chinese in Manila and the provinces. They are either
nominally Christians, or so long away from the teach-
ings of their ancestral faiths that they have but a shadowy
memory of what they were. These Christian Chinamen
have furnished the friar rich spoil. For baptism, a fee
of from $5 to $100 was required, according to the friars'
estimate of ability to pay on the part of the candidate.
As it was purely a business proposition with the China-
man he put up no opposition, but paid the price and took
his certificate, which he prized above negotiable paper,
and kept it in his secret drawer or strong box. Mar-
riages of Chinese enriched friar cofifers still more. Here
the limit to the fees paid, if we may trust what is common
talk among the people best situated to know, was the
caprice of the officiating friar, and besides the fee a
goodly provision of choice liquors was expected. Seven
kinds of liquors were ofifered me at one Chinese home,
and when I declined, teetotaler that I am. to take any
of them, mine host straightway concluded that T was
either offended at the small supply, or unable to find the
kind I wanted! He had not been accustomed, evidently,

276 The Philippines and the Far East.

to a sort of ministry that eschewed strong drink. He
was not a drinking man, but supposed that all Christian
ministers were !

Those whom we have baptized, after careful sifting
of motives and pledging to prayer and public worship,
show an almost pathetic eagerness for religious instruc-
tion, and read any book we put in their way, buy any
books we recommend, and attend upon Divine worship
with a regularity most gratifying. It is hard for them
to see the need of that Sabbath observance which is con-
sidered a sine qua non of orthodox piety in older lands,
and in certain other particulars they would give the con-
ventional Christian worker of settled Christian lands a
shock now and then ; but it is not because they mean to
be wicked, as I firmly believe, but partly because they
have not been instructed, and partly because the old Tal-
mudic tendency to "fence" the law is always at work
in our settled churches, binding burdens too grievous
to be borne upon necks for which Christ said "My yoke
is easy."

This community has its own hospital, and carries it
on by contributions with a liberality that shames the
Americans in Manila, where a public hospital is a press-
ing necessity, but where it has so far proved impracticable
even to supplement the gifts of Mrs. Whitelaw Reid and
other benevolent people in the States to an extent suffi-
cient to cover the deficiency between fees and expenses.
They also see that no poor Chinese coolie lacks a decent
burial. They maintain a trained corps of men to aid
the Health Board in enforcing sanitary regulations, as
well as to protect small merchants from the endless tyran-
nies and exactions of Filipino police and health inspect-
ors. When the bill proposing to sell a monopoly of the
right "to import and sell opium to Chinese persons of

The Ciiinksic in the Piiii.iitixrs. 277

the full blood over the age of twenty-one" in the Phil-
ippines was drafted by the Civil Commission during the
early part of 1903, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce
engaged a lawyer, and set about it to defeat the Hill. A
few of the members added to their other reasons for
desiring its defeat that of protecting them in their im-
portations of opium. This was a total of five men out
of more than two hundred members. Practically all of
them believed that such a monopoly would result in
largely-increased sales, which would mean largely-in-
creased consumption, and this, again, could only mean
the degradation of the Chinese community. The Evan-
gelical P'nion had spoken out clearly against the Bill,
and the members of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce
stood by us in the entire fight, helping by their sympathy,
and in part bv their money, and iu every way contributing
to the defeat of a Bill fraught with mischief to all the
inhabitants of the Philippines. Government officials,
even Governor Taft himself, could not believe that any
good could come out of that Israel. They persisted in
believing that every Chinaman who opposed that Pill
did so for a selfish reason. But it was a joy to me to
find on moving incognito among the merchants of the
city for several days before we consented to let them
share our fight (for we had begun it before they scented
danger), such a storm of honest protest against letting
a monopolist loose upon the Chinese community to wreck-
it for gain ! That we were successful in laying the
monopoly Bill on the table was in no small part due to
the public spirit of the Chinese, and their solicitude for
the welfare of their community. They prepared and
circulated a petition asking that the proposed Bill be
withdrawn. It was signed by seven thousand in Manila,
and was only in circulation a few days. Governor Taft

278 The Philippines and the Far East.

attempted to discredit the petition by alleging that an
expert had discovered that one of the names on the peti-
tion was that of a famous Chinese general who had been
dead three hundred years. The governor should have
reflected that no small number of George Washingtons
and U. S. Grants can be found in almost any ward or
township in our own country. It was really unworthy
of so able a man, and one who is so fair in ordinary ar-
gument as Governor Taft, to avail himself of such a
poor weapon. Another charge he brought was, that the
petition contained the name of a monkey-god of China.
But why not? Is he not familiar with the custom of
placing infants under the protection of idols by giving
them the name of the idol ? The petition was said to
contain the same name several times. Again, why not ?
Are our own people quite free from duplicate names in
the Smith and Jones and Brown families? Would it
be possible to secure a petition anywhere signed by seven
thousand that did not contain duplicates? But in a
community of Chinese it is easier still because of their
system of giving proper names. The fact is that the
sturdy good sense of the mass of Manila Chinese saw
in the Bill the most serious menace to the morals and
efficiency of their countrymen, and rose to make what
was perhaps the first protest that was ever listened to
from them in all the centuries of nominal Christian rule.
The spectacle of thousands of Chinese petitioning the
United States government in the Philippines against the
enactment of opium monopoly law is one which might
well drive its defendants to desperate shifts for answer.
It is earnestly hoped that such a spectacle may never
again be necessary.

The Chinese have grave faults. They are inveterate
gamblers. While many individuals do not gamble, it

TiTK Chinese in the Piiii.irrixES. 279

is true of the mass that the fascination of shames of
chance, with the excitement of winning or losing as an
incentive, is irresistible. This habit in the many pro-
duces a few professional gamblers, who are a curse to
any city in which they reside. In spite of rigid laws
against gambling in Manila, Chinese games go on at
all hours, and with such secrecy that detectives can with
difficulty get the scent. These resorts attract many who
lose their all in a few nights of hazard.

The community as such runs to secret societies. The
ramifications of these organizations run into all parts of
the Chinese community. There is no way that the Occi-
dental mind can unravel so tangled a skein as that which
Chinese fraternal or secret orders present to his mind.
The idea of all of these societies is that of mutual as-
sistance and protection. It is carried so far that they
protect one another right or wrong. The chief opera-
tions of these organizations are found in the business
world. By their means every merchant is related to and
sustained by the brotherhood, and it is almost impossible
to reach him by any kind of pressure. It must be said
that, as a rule, the word of a Chinese merchant is as good
as the bond of other traders ; but this wholesale working
of secret orders has effects of a baleful sort on the com-
munity within which it flourishes. It is at its root re-
sponsible for that stubborn aloofness with which the
Chinese race stands ofif by itself, instead of merging in
the life of the people.

Hoarding for its own sake is common, and makes
the merchant who does it a menace rather than a stimulus
to the place in which he trades. It withdraws capital
from useful channels. This hoarding is usually carried
on with a view to retirement to China after years of
saving, and living at ease.

28o The pHirjPPlNKS AND THE FaR EaST.

Chinese are the chief offenders in the adulteration of
articles of export. The Philippine indigo-trade has been
ruined by their persistent adulteration of that product.
Almost every article of export has suffered in this way,
being- marked down in the London market so as to per-
mit purchasers to pay for the elimination of foreign
matter and still realize a profit.

It is of the first importance that our government
should arrive at something like a broad and far-seeing
policy with regard to the admission of Chinese into the
Philippines. The application of the Chinese Exclusion
Act to the Philippines cii bloc was a grave blunder. The
conditions of the two countries are radically dififerent.
In the United States it might be urged that Chinese
labor came into disastrous competition with American
labor. Even there the Act would never have been forced
through had it not been for the exigencies of party poli-
tics, and its passage and enforcement has hampered
nearly every form of industry in California and adjacent
States by cutting ofif the only supply of labor upon which
dependence can be placed for the agricultural, mining,
and fruit-raising industries of that rich coast. But the
application of that Act to a country where there is no
supply of unskilled labor to suffer by the alleged compe-
tition is an example of the folly of intrusting delicate
matters of Asiatic administration to inexperienced lead-
ers. It works needless hardship upon the entire Archi-
pelago, upon Chinese laborers, seeking honest employ-
ment, and upon those who seek to develop the vast re-
sources of the country. It defeats, or indefinitely delays,
the establishment of railways, the building of roads and
bridges, and the general opening up of the country.

The Filipino is not a laborer. By that I do not mean
to say that he is always lazy and unwilling to perform

Tlllv ClIINKSK IN TIIK rillLIPPINlvS. 281

any kind of labor. He is not a day laborer. He will
never be r, success as "a gang-man." All his instincts
are against it. The idea of toiling day after day at the
same round of tasks for money is repellent and unmean-
ing to him. Conditions of life are so easy that he sees
no need of money in any considerable amount. A few
pesos satisfy his immediate wants. All his past bears
witness to the impossibility of his keeping more than a
few pesos. If he had it. the tax monopolist knew it, and
he was straightway "marked down" for exploitation. If
he invested it in surplus goods, land, or cattle, or in any
other form, he was certain to be a mark for the envy of
some oflficial or some ladrone. He has learned his lesson
written in iron by centuries of oppression. It has prac-
tically killed out the instincts of acquisition which have
grown in races enjoying protection in the use and enjoy-
ment of the fruits of their labors. To become one of a
gang of sweating men, and dig or lift or saw or hammer
day after day in the hot sun, controlled in his hours and
all the details of his labor by a "boss," and he not always
gentle and considerate, but sometimes violent and pro-
fane,— this is to the Filipino slavery, and he will have
none of it. Give him his little plot of land, or his fish-
ing rights, and with his carabao or two, his pet game-
cock, his chickens, and his family about him, and he is
content. It is useless to fight against nature. Here is
where the Filipino is as near an economic factor as he is
at present capable of becoming — I mean that class of
the Filipino people who live by their toil. And curiously
enough it is exactly at this point that the most urgent
economic need of the country is found. Given a host
of small cultivators, each developing to a good degree
the possibilities of a small tract of huid, and you have
the conditions which will make the Philippine Islands a

282 The Philippines and the Far East.

garden, enrich her people and fill her treasuries to burst-
ing with profits on the exportation of those tropical pro-
ductions for which the modern world is calling with
ever-increasing urgency. To attempt to drive this in-
stinctive cultivator from his little piece of land, and make
a sullen and inef~ficient laborer of him, will not only be
utterly futile, it will be an economic crime. It will put
him, in so far as it succeeds, into the class from which
come the principal disturbers of the peace of F.urope and
the United States, and at the same time withdraw him
from an occupation every tendency of which is to make
him a contented member of the social and political body.

It should be possible to provide for the importation
of Chinese laborers under time contracts, at the expiration
of which they must be returned to China. The entire
number so admitted could be easily regulated by a sys-
tem of registration compulsory upon corporations or in-
dividuals making such contracts. Government could
keep its own identification office for such coolies as it
imported for public works. The tendency of this system
would be to exalt agriculture and horticulture to the
place of importance which they deserve, r.nd to develop
by example such labor possibilities as the Filipino pos-
sesses.

It would be disastrous to permit unrestricted immi-
gration. The population of China is so terribly over-
crowded, and opportunities for gaining a bare livelihood
are so scanty, that hordes of unskilled laborers and pros-
pective merchants would come down upon the Philip-
pines. But immigration under suitable restrictions is a
necessity to the development of the Islands. Every added
month of residence makes this more clear to any one
with good opportunities for personal observation. Such
relief should be granted in time to make it of use in the

Till-: CiiixKsi-: ix Tin-: riiii.iiM'FXKs.

283

era of construclifni now opening', lie will furnish Ijrawn
for railway, road, and bridqe work, and the i)ay he .y^ets
will enable him to s;o home independent for the remainder
of his life. He will toil on the erection of mills, the
openini^s of mines, and the furtherance of all industrial
and commercial interests. The resultant prosperity will
be shared in bv the Filipino on his land, and thus indi-
rectly the coming- of this ])atient human machine will
help the very man who is supposed to be crushed by his
comin".

MARKET SCEXE IX MAXILA.

CHAPTER XVI.
Thk Friar Lands.

In all reference to the friars it should he remembered
that the monastic orders are meant, and not individual
members of those orders. By friar lands is meant lands
owned by monastic corporations, such as the Augustinian,
Dominican, or Recolleto Orders. As has been already
pointed out, it is impossible for a friar to hold property.
His legal identity becomes merged into his order when
he takes its irrevocable vows of poverty. Cases in which
this vow has been violated are known, but are not fre-
quent ; and for the purposes of this chapter are not con-
sidered.

That much of the lands of these corporations has been
secured lawfully can not be questioned. That practically
all of it can now be held against any and all claimants,
however it was originally secured, can not be reasonably
doubted. In some cases, as in that of the hacienda of
Imus, in the province of Cavite, it seems tolerably clear
that friar ownership was gradually asserted over a large
and immensely fertile tract of land by an abuse of power in
connection with the use of water from a dam constructed
on friar land, and sold to farmers of near-by tracts. The
story of this dispossession of Filipinos from their right-
ful ownership is told in full with great circumstantiality
in Senate Document No. 190, pages 269-280, by Don
P'elipe Calderon, one of the leading lawyers of Manila.
It is a sad story of oppression and tyranny. But sup-
posing it capable of confirmation in every detail, undis-

284

Tiiiv Fkiak Lands. 285

piitcd possession of this land has been enjoyed for more
than thirty years. That gives prescriptive title. Not
that there have been no complaints in the sense of burn-
ing denunciations of the wrongs which tenants feel have
been done to them and to their predecessors ; but no legal
action of any formal character has been taken to dis-
possess the friar owners during more than a generation.
A few out of many of hacienda titles to the validity
of which there can be no possible legal questions, are
given herewith :

"A part of the estates of the Augustinian Order rep-
resented by 'Sociedad Agricola de Ultramar,' are as
follows :

"Piedad Hacienda — Poor Farm, purchased January
29, 1833, from Dona Josef a Madrigal, for 25,000 pesos.

"San Francisco de JMalabon. This estate was bought
in several parcels from dififerent owners between August
26, 1877, to December 31, 1877. at a total cost of 108,000
pesos, cash, and in exchange for two other estates, May-
sabang and Rlarcavan, property of the Augustin Order.

"Malinta. Also puchased at different times from dif-
ferent persons. Possession was given on May 26, I725>
and- confirmed by a Royal Resolution of the 'Audiencia,'
dated February 13, 1734.

"Dampol Alatamo and San Marcos. This estate was

purchased 15, 1834, at public auction for 26,000

pesos, and possession thereof given on the 27th day of
the same month and year.

"Monting-Lupa. The greatest part w^as acquired by
purchase by Don Antonio Ouijano Bustamante, repre-
senting the order, from different natives in 1665. The
parts of this hacienda called 'Mamancat' and 'Butin,'
were bought by the Convent of Guadalupe at public auc-
tion in 1632. Tala was acquired during 1725, 1726, and

1753-

"Talamban, in Cebu. A gift made by the conqueror

of the Philippines, Don IMiguel Lopez de Legaspi, to the

barefooted Augustin friars on May 28, 1571.

286 The Philippines and the Far East.

"Talisay. Adjudged to be property of the Order by
a royal decision rendered in its favor by the 'Audiencia'
in 1734; as was also Minglanilla, of Mandaloyang."

In anticipation of what would possibly follow if
armed opposition to Spain should break out, the friars
took steps some years before the American occupation to
protect themselves by placing their estates in the hands
of commercial companies, of whom the directors were
good Catholics, while they still held control of the estates
in the form of shares in these companies. Governor
Taft says in his Report to the President on Friar Lands :

"Nearly all the immense agricultural holdings have
been transferred by the three orders, — by the Domin-
icans to a gentleman named Andrews ; by the Recolletos
to an English corporation ; and by the Augustinians to
another corporation ; but these transfers do not seem
to have been out-and-out sales, but only a means for man-
aging the estates without direct intervention from the
friars or for selling the same when a proper price can be
secured. The friars seem to remain the real owners."

This was so palpable an attempt to stand from under
the hatred and criticism of the natives, and make it possi-
ble to go on securing rentals which angry tenants refused
to pay directly to the avowed agents of the friar, that
it has little bearing on the issue of selling those lands to
the government.

The Dominicans are doubtless the richest order in
the Islands.

"Their Santa Rosa and Binang estates consist of 21,-
148 acres, the annual rental of which is $75,888. This
estate includes the towns of Santa Rosa. Cabuyao, Bi-
nang, and Tunisan, and is occupied by 69,983 inhabitants.
The order has owned it for fifty-five years, and it cost
the friars $2,700 Mexican currency. Its present value is
$825,840.

Tiiic 1m<iak Kaxds. 287

"The estate of Loloiiihoy and I'andi has been the prop-
erty of the order for two hundred and fifty-eight years,
having- been purchased in 1642 for 414 Spanish (gold)
dollars. Its present value is estimated at $1,256,280. It
includes the towns of Lolomboy, Santa Maria, Bocaue,
and Alarilao. It consists of 36.954 acres, and its in-
habitants number over forty thousand. The annual ren-
tal is $45,038.

"The estate of Naic is situated in Cavite Province.
It consists of 20,206 acres, the annual rent of which is
$26,332. The large and populous towns of Naic, Marig-
ondong, Ternate, and San Juan are located within its
borders. It is inhabited by 39,560 persons. It was pur-
chased by the order in 183 1 for $25,000, and is now val-
ued at $975,990.

"The estate of Santa Cruz de Alalabon is probably the
largest owned by an monastic order in the Islands, but
very little of it is under cultivation. Forty-two thousand
six hundred and twenty-six acres are included within its
borders, as are also the towns of Santa Cruz de Malabon
and Santol. It pays an annual rental of $26,980, and has
been owned by the order for one hundred and thirty-eight
years. It was purchased for $70,000. and is now estimated
to be worth $750,760.

"The estate of Oriong, in Bataan province, is the
smallest owned by the Dominicans. It consists of 5,275
acres, and its annual rents aggregate $13,800. It includes
the towns of Oriong and Bibbago. Ten thousand natives
find homes within its borders. The order has owned it
for two hundred and seventy-seven years, and its present
value is $90,000."

From Governor Taft's Report to the President I
quote as follows :

"Of the four great orders, one, the Franciscan, is not
permitted to own property except convents and schools.
This is not true of the other three. They own some val-
uable business property in Manila, and have large amounts
of money to lend. But the chief property of these orders
is in agricultural lands. The total amount owned by the

288 The Philippines and the Far East.

three orders in the Philippines is approximately 403,000
acres. Of this 121,000 acres is in the province of Cavite
alone. The whole is distributed as follows:

LUZON : Province of — Acres. Province of^ Acres.

Cavite, 121,747 Bataan, 1,000

Laguna, 62,152 Cagayan, 49,400

Manila, 50,145 Island of Cebu, . . 16,413

Bulacan 39,441 Island Mindoro, . 58,455

Morong 4,940

Total, .... 403,713

"The Atigtistinians were granted by the Spanish gov-
ernment a large estate in the sparsely-settled province of
Cagayan, in Northern Ltizon, in 1880, with the hope
that they would invest capital there, and improve the
country. The Recolletos acquired in the same manner
and for the same purpose even a larger estate in the wild
and unsettled island of Alindoro in 1894. With these
exceptions, the lands held by the friars have been theirs
for more than a generation, and they have owned most
of the valuable estates for one or two centuries. In few
instances, it is believed, can their ownership be sticcessftilly
attacked in law, for prescription has supplied any defect
which might have been in their original titles. This is
the concession of Don Felipe Calderon, one of the brightest
of the Filipino lawyers and most prominent in his opposi-
tion to the friars, though he suggests that the friars had
such power to defeat claims against them under the Span-
ish regime as to furnish a just reason for suspending the
operation of prescription.

"The suggestion is, however, not believed to be a
tenable one. Moreover, no adverse claimants to agri-
cultural lands held by the friars have appeared before
the Commission or the courts, except certain tenants of an
estate lying near Calamba in the province of Laguna,
and the issue made by them can be readily settled in the
ordinary tribunals. In the older provinces of Cavite, La-
guna, Alanila, and Bulacan, the haciendas of the friars
were very well cultivated before the war, and were quite
valuable. On some of the estates large amounts of money
were invested by the orders in furnishing proper irri-

Till: Friar Lands. 289

gation and other improveniciits. Of the total number of
acres of all the land held, the Dominicans have 101,953;
the Augustinians, 151.742; and the Recolletos, 93,035.
The annual income of the Dominicans from their lands
before the war was $211,356 (Mexican). The land was
rented on shares in small holdings. Leases were given
for three years, and no assignment was permitted without
the consent of the order. Tenancy usually continued in
the same family, and the tenant right seems, sometimes,
to have been considered valuable. It is understood for
the last two years (now four) the friars have not at-
tempted to collect rents from persons occupying their
lands. On the other hand, agents of the insurgents,
claiming title to the land by virtue of confiscation acts of
the so-called Malolos government, have from time to time
made collections from the tenants."*

The first Philippine Commission, of which Dr. Schur-
man was president, recommended the purchase of these
large agricultural holdings from the present friar owners
and their subsequent sale in small parcels to individuals,
preference being given to the tenants already on the land,
and long time being given on the purchase at low inter-
est.* This was believed by that Commission to be a
necessity to the establishment and maintenance for any
considerable period of a condition of public order. Friar
owners were so hated that payment of taxes was resisted,
communities always being in an uproar when the rent
collectors of the orders appeared.

In the same report the Civil Commission puts the
stamp of its a])proval on this suggestion :

"It would avoid some very troublesome agrarian dis-
aurbances between the friars and their quondam tenants
if the insular government could buy these large hacien-
das of the friars and sell them out in small holdings to
the present tenants, who, forgiven the rent during the

•■•Report, Part II, p. 27. '\ Ibid., Vol. I, p. 131.

29© The Philippines and the Far East.

years of war, would recognize the title of the govern-
ment without demur, and gladly accept an opportunity,
by payment of the price in small installments, to become
absolute owners of that which they and their ancestors
have so long cultivated. With the many other calls upon
the insular treasury, a large financial operation like this
could probably not be conducted to a successful issue
without the aid of the United States Government, either
by a direct loan or by a guarantee of bonds to be issued
for the purpose. The bonds or loan could be met grad-
ually from the revenues of the Islands, while the pro-
ceeds of the land, which would sell readily, could be
used to constitute a school fund. This object, if de-
clared, would make the plan most popular, because the
desire for education by the Filipinos of all tribes is very
strong, and gives encouraging promise of the future men-
tal development of a now uneducated and ignorant people.
The provincials of the orders were understood, in their
evidence before the Commission to intimate a willingness
on the part of the orders to sell their agricultural hold-
ings if a satisfactory price should be paid. What such a
price would be we are unable, without further investiga-
tion to state. If an agreement could not be reached, it is
probable, though upon this we wish to express no defi-
nite opinion, that there would be ground in the circum-
stances for a resort to condemnation proceedings."

Politicians are not as familiar with the methods of
Rome as those who have studied her from a churchly
standpoint, and hence it was that, in their eagerness to
come to a speedy and just solution of this complicated
question, our political leaders, including President Roose-
velt and Governor Taft, conceived the idea of treating
directly with the Pope. If they had read Church His-
tory carefully, it would have been apparent how hope-
less such an undertaking must be. If they had even
read 'Xa Roma," by Zola, the futility of the plan would
have been plain before them. The ramifications of
"Black Pope" and "White Pope" factions in the eccle-

TiiK FuiAK Lands 293

siastical capital seem to have been outside of their ken.
The powerful lobbies, or cliques, of the orders in Rome
were not reckoned with. Papal consent to the sale on
s^^rounds urged by our g-overnment would seal all anti-
friar charges with the seal of the Vatican. How could
he do that with a luuidrcd angry and ])owerful ecclesias-
tics ready to block every other move he desired to make
if he consented? Could he give his approval to the with-
drawal of the friars? Never. He might dally with the
proposal as a way of knitting up some slender connec-
tion of a diplomatic sort between the capital of the Rom-
ish Church and the capital of the lusty young Republic
of the West. Consent to it he simply dared not. No
one at all familiar with Romish policy dreamed that he
either would, or, morally speaking could.

Governor Taft returned to the Philippines by way of
Rome, armed with introductions to Leo XIII from Pres-
ident Roosevelt and Secretary John Hay, through his
cardinal secretary, Rampolla, and full instructions from
Secretary of War Root.

Through the courtesy of Governor Taft, I am able
to place before the readers of this work so much of the
correspondence as passed between him and Leo XIII
as may seem relevant to the friar-land question. I am
not aware that this correspondence has been made public
on any wide scale up to this time. In no other way can
the whole case be so well seen from the standpoint held
by each party as by freely quoting from that correspond-
ence. I do so with the single explanation that portions
starred as having been omitted are not material to the
one point with which this chapter deals, but relates to
titles of churches, or discussions of Church policies, or to
the control of certain institutions of learning about the
ownership of which there is room for difference of opin-

294 The Philippines and the Far East.

ion in untangling the condition of affairs which existed
when Church and State were either one, or so intertwined
as to seem one to the uninitiated. First comes the letter
of introduction from Secretary Hay :

"Department of State,

"Washington, May lo, 1902.

"Most Eminent Sir, — I take pleasure in presenting
to Your Highness the Hon. William H. Taft, one of our
most distinguished citizens, who is at present, and has
been for several years, the civil governor of the Philippine
Islands, which important office he has filled with great
intelligence and success. He is now returning to the
Islands after a brief stay in this country. On his way
he will visit Rome for the purpose of reaching, if possi-
ble, a basis for the just settlement of the many pending
questions to property held in the Philippine Islands for
religious and charitable uses. I beg to commend him
to your confidence and kind consideration, with sincere
hopes for the attainment of results which shall promote
both the civil and religious welfare of the people of the
Islands.

"I profit by the occasion, Most Eminent Sir, to tender
you the assurances of my profound esteem and highest
consideration. Your obedient servant,

"(Sgd) John Hay.
"To His Eminence Cardinal M. Rampolla del Tindaro.

"Secretary of State to His Holiness, etc."

address: taft to EEO XIII.

"Rome, Italy, June 5, 1902,
"Your Holiness, — On my departure from Washing-
ton, President Roosevelt committed to my hands an auto-
graph note of personal greeting and eight bound volumes
of his literary works, to be delivered to Your Holiness. I
now have the honor of complying with his direction.

"I desire next to express my sense of the personal
honor of this audience. I am not a member of the Roman
Catholic Church ; but one who has marked the enlight-
ened statesmanship and limpid purity of character and

The Friar Lands. 295

the earnest seeking for the uphfting of all humanity that
have been the personal characteristics of the head of the
Roman Church during the quarter century of the present
pontificate, can not fail, whatever his Church or creed, to
entertain the most profound respect for Your Holiness.
"The transfer of sovereignty and all governmental
property rights and interests from the Crown of Spain to
the United States in the Philippine Islands contained in
the Treaty of Paris was a transfer from a government
between which and the Church of Rome there had been
in those Islands the closest association in property, re-
ligion, and politics, to a government which by the law
of its being is absolutely prevented from having such
associations with any Church. To make the transfer
effectual, and at the same time just, it is obvious that
the proper line of division must be drawn between what
were really civil property interests of the Crown of Spain
and what were religious trusts of the Catholic Church,
and that all union of civil and clerical agencies for per-
formance of political functions must end. It is said that
many churches and conventos are on United States land.
It is said that rental is due from the United States for
occupation of churches and conventos. Of the very nice
questions thus arising, some might be settled, perhaps,
after years of litigation in the ordinary courts of jus-
tice, though others could not be disposed of in this way.
Especially is this true of certain questions which I shall
now briefly state : The transfer of sovereignty from
Spain to the United States had been preceded by two
revolutions among the Filipino people against Spain. Pop-
ular hostility was chiefly manifested against the members
of four religious orders, who had, in addition to their
clerical duties as parish priests, been charged by the Span-
ish government with the performance of a burden of
local, political, and police duties, and in the performance
had been held responsible by the people for the oppres-
sion of which it was said that Spain was guilty. Three
of these orders were owners of large tracts of valuable
agricultural lands, and in each revolution the hostility
toward the Uiembers of the religious orders w^as, in prov-

296 The Philippines and the F*ar East.

inces where land lay, agrarian as well as political. The
justice or injustice of this hostility is, as I conceive, aside
from the issue. It exists, and is the result of years of
peace and war. It can not be ignored. The members of
these orders have not yet returned to their parishes, which
are being administered by the native clergy, and they
have not yet resumed possession of their lands. An at-
tempt by them to assume the rights of landlords or to
become parish priests again will, it is confidently believed,
seriously disturb the peace and order of the Islands.

"On behalf of the Philippine government, it is pro-
posed to buy the lands of the religious orders with the
hope that the funds thus furnislied may lead to their with-
drawal from the Islands, and, if necessary, a substitution
therefor as parish priests, or other priests whose pres-
ence would not be dangerous to public order. It is further
hoped that Church titles, rentals, and prices may all be
fixed either by arbitration or in a general compromise.
Authority to purchase the agricultural lands of religious
orders must ultimately come from the Congress of the
United States, but a bill granting such authority has been
favorably reported to both Houses of Congress, and there
is every prospect of its passage before the close of the
session, which will probably end in July. The bill leaves
the method of purchase to the Philippine government, so
that the negotiations concerning such a purchase are not
now premature.

"We now have in the Philippine Islands a Christian
people of six million souls, substantially all Roman Cath-
olics, just awaiting the dawn of a new political and busi-
ness life. What a burden upon them, what a burden upon
their Church to which they are devoted, that deep-seated
political and agrarian hostilities growing out of the
troubles of a previous regime should be permitted now
to cast their shadow upon their religious and political
welfare ! Should such questions be left open to a con-
tinued discussion, with all the unfortunate heat likely to
be engendered ? Is it not wise that in a straightforward
business method a basis for a general settlement and
compromise should be reached in an amicable confer-

The Friar Lands. 297

ence between the representatives of the head of the Ro-
man Catholic Church and agents or officials of the Phil-
ippine and United States governments ? In such a con-
ference concessions and compromises may be expected
if they do not involve a violation of principle, and the
supreme benefit, both to the State and Church, of an
amicable settlement will make each side bend to reach it.

"I do not need to assure Your Holiness that the atti-
tude of the United States and the Philippine government
is not one of unfriendliness toward the Roman Catholic
Church. The policy of separating Church from State,
as required in the Constitution of the United States, does
not indicate hostility to religion or to the maintenance of
any Church. On the contrary, the founders of our gov-
ernment were profoundly convinced that religion must be
upheld for the benefit of the State, and that it will be found
that in the United States the rights of all Churches, both
as to property, administration, and practice of religion,
are observed and protected with even more scrupulous
care than in some countries where Church and State are
said to be united. I venture to point out the prosperity of
the Roman Catholic Church in America as indication that
it has nothing to fear from the extension of the same rule
over the Philippine Islands. The govermuent of the
United States treats all Churches and creeds alike. It
protects them all. but favors no one against another. It is
not engaged in proselyting for one Church or creed, and
any officer using his office for such a purpose, directly or
indirectly, ought to forfeit his office.

"I do not intend to further w^eary Your Holiness with
a detailed statement of the questions likely to arise in the
conference now at hand. When Your Holiness shall refer
us to dignitaries of the Church authorized to enter upon
the negotiation, the question will then be stated at length
as set forth in instructions given to them by my immediate
superior, the Secretary of War.

''Under my instructions, I am authorized to call others
to my assistance as my advisers and counselors in the nego-
tiations. I have asked the Right Rev. Thomas O'Gorman,
Bishop of Sioux Falls, the Hon. James F. Smith, Asso-

298 The Philippines and the Far East.

ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines,
and ]Maj. John Biddle Porter, Judge-Advocate Depart-
ment, United States Army, to assist me in this way, and
with Your Holiness's permission I now present them.
"(Signed) Wm. H. Taft."

Secretary Root handed Governor Taft full instruction
as to the nature of the questions to be resolved, if possi-
ble, in h.is conference with such Church authorities as
might be proved to have power to contract with gov-
ernment for the desired purchase of the lands. I give
these instructions in full though all do not bear directly
upon the matter in hand.

"War Department,
"Washington, May 9, 1902.
"Sir, — It is now apparent that Congress will not have
acted upon the Philippine Commission's recommendations
regarding the purchase of friar lands before the time
of your deoarture for Manila, which can not be longer
delayed. You can not, therefore, as we had hoped, now
receive definite instructions and proceed to take such steps,
in the execution of specific authority from Congress, as
should properly be taken before you return to Manila.
The committees of both Houses have, however, reported
favorably upon the Commission's recommendations, and
it appears probable that Congress will confirm their ac-
tions. In view, therefore, of the critical situation of this
subject in the Philippines, and of the apparent impossi-
bility of dis])osing of the matter there by negotiation with
the friars themselves, the President does not feel at liberty
to lose the opportunity for effective action afforded by
your presence in the West. He wishes you to take the
subject up tentatively with the ecclesiastical superiors who
must ultimately determine the friars' course of conduct,
and endeavor to reach at least a basis of negotiations along
lines which will be satisfactory to them and to the Philip-
pine government, accompanied by a full understanding
on both sides of the facts and the views and purposes of
the parties to the negotiations ; so that when Congress

The Friar Lands. 299

shall have acted the business may proceed to a conclusion
without delay. You are accordingly authorized, in the
course of your return journey to Manila, to visit Rome,
and there ascertain what Church authorities have the
power to negotiate for and determine u])()n a sale of the
lands of the religious orders in the rhili])pine Islands, and
if you find, as we are informed, that the officers of the
Church at Rome have such power and authority, you will
endeavor to attain the results above indicated. Any ne-
gotiations which you may enter upon are always subject
to granting of power bv Congress to follow the negoti-
ations by binding action. In any conferences and nego-
tiations, you will bear in mind the following propositions,
which are deemed fundamental, and which should be fully
and frankly stated to the other side in the negotiations :

"(i) One of the controlling principles of our govern-
nient is the complete separation of Church and State, with
entire freedom of each from any control or interference by
the other. This principle is imperative wherever Amer-
ican jurisdiction extends, and no modification or shading
thereof can be subject of discussion.

"(2) It is necessary now to deal with the results of
establishing a government controlled by this principle in
the Philippine Islands, which have for centuries been gov-
erned under an entirely different system, with Church and
State closely united, and having functions of the one exer-
cised by agents of the other ; where the Church has long
controlled and acted virtually as the agent of the State in
the field of public instruction and public charities, and has
from time to time acquired large properties held by it,
or by its subordinate corporations or officers, for these
public uses. A novel situation has been created, mider
which the adjustment of means to ends appropriate to the
former system entirely fails to produce the intended result
under the new system, and the separation of Church and
State requires to be followed by a readjustment and re-
arrangement in the interests both of Church and of State,
and for the attainment of the great ends of civil govern-
ment, of education, of charity, and of religion.

"(3) ^y reason of the separation, the religious orders,

300 The Philippines and the Far East.

Dominicans, Aiigustinians, RccoUctos, and Franciscans,
can no longer perform in behalf of the State the duties
in relation to public instruction and public charities for-
merly resting upon them, and the power which they for-
merly exercised, through their relations to the civil gov-
ernment, being now withdrawn, they find themselves the
objects of such hostility on the part of their tenantry
against them as landlords, and on the part of the people
of the parishes against them as representatives of the
former government, that they are no longer capable of
serving any useful purpose for the Church. No rents can
be collected from the populous communities occupying
their lands unless it be by the intervention of the civil
government with armed force. Speaking generally, sev-
eral years past the friars of these four orders, formerly
installed over the parishes, have been unable to remain at
their posts, and are collected in Manila with the vain hope
of returning. They will not voluntarily be accepted again
by the people, and can not be restored to their positions
except l3y forcible intervention on the part of the civil
government, which the principles of our government
forbid.

"It is manifest that, under these conditions, it is for
the interest of the Church, as well as of the State, that the
landed proprietorship of the religious orders in the Philip-
pine Islands should cease, and that if the Church wishes,
as of course it does wish, to continue its ministration
among the people of the Islands, and to conduct in its own
behalf a system of instruction in the parishes, with which
we have no desire to interfere, it should seek other agents
therefor.

"(4) It is the wish of our government, in case Con-
gress shall grant authority, that the titles of the religious
orders to the large tracts of agricultural lands which they
now hold shall be extinguished, but that full and fair
compensation shall be made therefor.

"(5) It is not, however, deemed to be for the interests
of the people of the Philippine Islands that, in thus trans-
forming wholly unproductive tracts of land into money
capable of productive investment, a fund should thereby

Tim P'riar Lands. 301

be created to be used for the attempted restoration of the
friars to the parishes from which they are now separated.

"(6) The titles to the s^reat amount of Church lands
and building's in the Islands, other than those of the rc-
licjious orders, and now apparently owned by the State,
should be settled fairly.

"(7) Provision should be made for ascertainiui^ what
rentals, if any, ought to be paid for conventos and other
church buildings which have been occupied by United
States troops during the insurrection, this being, of course,
subject to further specific action by Congress.

"(8) The rights and obligations remaining under the
various specific trusts for education and charitv, which
are now in doubt and controversy, ought to be settled by
agreement, if possible, rather than by the slow and fre-
ouently disastrous processes of litigation, so that the
beneficent purposes of these foundations may not fail.

"(9) Your errand will not be in any sense or degree
diplomatic in its nature, but will be purely a business
matter of negotiation by you as governor of the Phil-
ippines for the purchase of property from the owners
thereof, and the settlement of land titles, in such a manner
as to contribute to the best interests of the people of the
Islands.

"Any assistance which you may desire, whether on the
part of officers of the civil government or of military
officers, to enable you to perform the duties above de-
scribed in a manner satisfactory to yourself will be af-
forded ; but the business is left entirely in your hands,
subject to such action as may be taken pursuant to law
upon your report. Verv Respectfully,

"(Signed) Elihu Root,

"Secretary of War.
"Hon. William H. Taft,

"Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands,
"Washington, D. C."

CHAPTER XVIL

The Friar Lands. (Continued.)

The Address of Governor Taft and the Instructions
of Secretary Root were pondered deeply before a reply
was made to their straightforward statements of fact
and declarations of purpose. In the experience of the
Vatican it is not likely that documents so plain — even
to the point of brusqucness — had been submitted for con-
sideration. In this correspondence there was no dis-
courtesy, but a coming directly to the matter in hand
characteristic of the American mind. It must have been
something of a shock to the pope to be plainly told that
the friars could no longer serve either the Church or the
State because of their unacceptability with the people.
The open disavowal of any diplomatic character in the
errand of Governor Taft, and its reduction to the level
of a proposed real estate transaction between alleged
owners and a possible buyer, must have sorely hurt the
papal hopes. The proposal that other agents than the
friars should be furnished for the Philippine curacies
must have roused discussions whose heat strikes up
through the otherwise cold document. An altogether
dispassionate student of the steps our government had
taken up to this point in the negotiations could hardly
say that our agents had handled Rome with gloves. Gov-
ernor Taft's opening remarks were complimentary to the
personal record of the pope. That was to be expected.
When contrasted with the dark impurities and everi

302

The Friar Lands. 303

bloodshed caused by some popes, Leo XIII lived an ex-
emplary life. But there was no "shading" of the vital
principle of the complete separation of Church and State.
There was no toning down of ugly facts as to the rela-
tion the friar is known to hold in the Philippines. There
was no room for any man, be he Catholic or Protestant,
to say that the effort of Governor Taft to buy the lands
of the friars was the entering wedge for future diplo-
matic relations with the papacy. Such Protestants as
think this, I must believe to be unaware of the Instruc-
tions of Secretary Root, and the undeviating straiglit-
forwardness of Governor Taft.

It is well to contrast this open and candid disclosure
of plans and reasons with the essentially serpentine
methods disclosed in the papal answer which follows.
The answer commits the pope to nothing except delay
and evasion. It is an elaborate attempt to hide one or
two sound kernels of meaning in a bushel of compli-
mentary chaff. Here it is, or so much of it as is essential
to our purposes :

"Excellency — After mature consideration of the in-
structions which Your Excellency received from Mr.

the American Secretary of War concerning the religious
questions in the Philippine Islands, the Holy Father has
commanded me to address Your Excellency the accom-
panying document, in which are expressed the apprecia-
tions of the Holy See on that subject.

"With feelings of particular regard, I have the pleasure
to subscribe myself, with the most distinguished con-
sideration, Your Excellency's most obedient servant,

"M. Card. Ram poll a."

"H. E. Mr. W. H. Taft, Civil Governor of the Philippine

Islands.

"The decision of the government of the United States
of America to send to Rome a Commission for the pur-

304 The Philippines and the Far East.

pose of treating with the supreme authority of the Cath-
olic Church concerning various questions of common in-
terest about the Philippine Islands and of settling them
by means of amicable accord has been welcomed by the
Holy See with especial pleasure. For if the government
of the United States has, by a wise and approved prin-
ciple, judged this manner of direct understanding to be
preferable in order to regulate the situation created for
a population of several millions exclusively Catholic that
has entered on the sphere of its political dominion, like-
wise the Holy See on its part deems that this method of
direct understanding answers best of all others the recip-
rocal interest of both parties ; and that, as at present, so
also in the future, it will be of aid to the good government
of those people. The Holy See, animated by a friendly
disposition toward the American government, has has-
tened to examine with benevolent deference the views and
wishes of said government as set forth in the instruc-
tions of the Secretary of War, to the Civil Governor of
the Philippine Islands, and does not hesitate to declare
that, saving the religious interests of those people to the
protection of which she can never be wanting, it is dis-
posed to second them in just measure; and it confides. . . .
" Regarding the religious orders, of which mention
is made in the instructions of the Secretary of War, the
Holy See can not give its adhesion to all the views con-
tained therein ; nor does it consider it opportune to enter
into a discussion on that point. Placing itself entirely
on the practical ground of the provisions required by the
new situation, the Hol}^ See admits, first of all, that the
system obtaining under the Spanish domination and the
mixing up of the religious in the civil administration
might have created for them in a portion of the people a
certain ill-will. How to eliminate this antipathy the Holy
See has already devised means, gradually, by opportune
measures to recall the regulars to the life proper to their
institutes, to devote themselves exclusively to spiritual
ministry, to abstain from any kind of interference in
things appertaining to the civil authority, to consolidate
mutual peace of life between the people and clergy of the

The Friar Lands. 305

Islanfls, to uphold the principle of authorit}', to imbue
the masses with morality, and to make themselves the
instruments of civilization and social order. . . . The
Holy See likewise recog;nizes that, in order to reconcile
more fully the feeling's of the Filipinos to the religious
])ossessing landed estates, the sale of the same is con-
ducive thereto. Therefore it adheres in principle to the
request made by the American government saving the
right of property of the legitimate possessor and an esti-
mate of the value of the lands conformable with the- prin-
ciples of justice and equity. Considering, however, that
this is a complicated question, requiring special study of
the facts of the case, and can not be solved with precipi-
tation, the Holv See declares it is disposed to furnish
the new^ Apostolic Delegate who is to be sent to the Phil-
ippine Islands with necessary and opportune instructions
in order to treat amicably this affair in understanding
with the American government and the parties inter-
ested, and so to arrive at fixing a satisfactory accord
whether on the value of the lands or the conditions of
sale.

"Finall}-. the Holy See can not abstain from asking
the American authorities suitable provisions for relig-
ious teaching in the public schools, especiall\ the pri-
mary; and that the choice of teachers be made according
to eauitable principles, and principles such as do not
wound the rights and feelings of a people entirel_\- Cath-
olic."

Reply by Governor Taft.

"Rome, July 3, 1902.
"Your Eminence — I beg to acknowledge receipt of
your favor of the 21st of June, No. 70,963, inclosing a
communication of the views of the Holy See upon the
questions arising between the Roman Catholic Church
and the Philippine Government, and discussed by the
Secretarv of War of the United States in his instruc-
tions to' me, submitted through your eminence to His
Holiness. It is a source of much gratification to note
that the Holv See welcomes with especial pleasure and
approves the coming of a representative of the President
20

3o6 The Philippines, and the Far East.

of the United States to Rome for the purpose of securing
a direct understanding upon the questions mooted ; and
that in general the views of the Holy See are in accord
with those expressed by the Secretary of War, though
ill one important particular, to-wit, that of the religious
orders, there seems to be a difference as to the method
to be adopted to meet a recognized difficulty. It is further
observed in the communication of the Holy See that
many questions are proposed to be referred to a new
Apostolic ""Delegate to be sent to Manila. It is respect-
fully suggested that in this manner much of the benefit
of the direct understanding between the Church and the
Philippine government, which is properly valued by both
parties, will be lost. The only efficient method of secur-
ing such a direct understanding would seem to be the
making and signing of a definite contract between the
parties or their representatives, which should leave as
little as possible to uncertainty and future negotiation,
and which should determine the main lines along which
harmony and co-operation between the State and the
Church may be secured. The main purpose of the pres-
ent communication is to formulate such a contract.

''An analysis of the instructions of the Secretary of
War will show that the purpose of the President of the
United States and of the Philippine government is to
make an agreement with the supreme head of the Church
under which the former shall perform four separate stipu-
lations in consideration of the compliance with certain
conditions by certain religious orders and their members,
over whom the Holy See, it is expected, can exercise
control, and for whose conduct in respect to such condi-
tions it can contract. . . .

"I accompany this letter with a form of agreement
proposed for signature. The Philippine Government Bill,
which authorizes the purchase of the land of the religious
orders, has passed both Houses of Congress, and has
received the approval of the President, and is now the law.

"In closing this communication I desire to refer to
the last clause of the communication of the Holy See
with respect to religious instruction in the public schools.

TuH Friar Lands. 307

My instructioiis do not pcrniil nic to discuss the subject.
but I may properly refer your eminence to Section 16 of
the General School Law of the Philippine Islands, a copy
of which I inclose. [For Sec. 16, see chapter entitled
"Educating a Nation."]

"It is not improper for me to say that I have sub-
mitted by cable the full text of the views of the Holy See,
as communicated by Your Eminence to me, and also the
form of contract which accompanies this letter, and that
I have been directed to submit the proposed contract as
that which the President of the United States and the
Philippine Government desire in the premises.

"I avail myself of this opportunity to assure Your
Eminence of my most distinguished consideration, and
to subscribe myself,

"Your Eminence's most obedient servant,

"Wm. H. Taft.
''His Eminence Cardinal ]\L Rampolla del Tindaro,

"Secretary of State of His Holiness."

FORM OF AGREEMENT.

"This agreement between Cardinal Rampolla, Cardi-
nal Secretary of State to His Holiness Leo XHI, rep-
resenting His Holiness, and William Howard Taft, Civil
Governor of the Philippine Islands, representing the
President of the United States and the Philippine Gov-
ernment, witnesseth that :

"First. The Philippine Government agrees to buy
all agricultural lands, buildings, irrigation plants, and
other improvements thereon, situate in the Philippine
Archipelago, of the Dominican, Augustinian, and Recol-
leto Orders, and to pay therefor a reasonable and fair
price, to be fixed in Mexican dollars by a tribunal of ar-
bitration to be composed of five members, two to be ap-
pointed by His Holiness the Pope, two by the Philippine
Government, and the fifth to be appointed by the Gov-
ernor-General of India. The tribunal of arbitration shall
begin its sessions in Manila on the ist day of January,
1903, shall receive evidence on the question of value to
be adduced by the two parties to the controversy, shall

3o8 The Philippines and the Far East.

view such of the lands as the tribunal shall deem neces-
sary and convenient, and shall make and certify an award
of the value of such lands to the Civil Governor of the
Philippine Islands, and to the Archbishop of Manila or
the Apostolic Deleg^ate of His Holiness. A majority^ of
the tribunal may make the award. The lands to be ap-
praised and purchased shall include all the ap^ricultural
lands owned by the three orders named, on the ist day
of May, 1898, in which said orders or other associations,
subject to the control of the head of the Catholic Church,
still retain a majority interest by virtue of ownership of
stock in the company or companies now holding title to
the same, or by contract with the individuals in whom
is now the legal title. The expense of the tribunal of
arbitration, including reasonable compensation to each
member, shall be paid by the Philippine Government.
The price shall be paid in three installments — one-third
cash within thirty days after the certifying of the award
to the Civil Governor of the Philippines and a tender of
the necessary deeds of the land to him ; one-third in nine
months after the date of the first payment ; and the re-
maining one-third in eighteen months after the date of
the first payment, the deferred payments to bear 4^
per cent interest from the date of the first payment. The
purchase money shall be paid to the representative of
the Roman Catholic Church to be designated by the pope,
and the receipt of such representative shall be a full ac-
quittance to the extent of the amount paid by the Phil-
ippine Government.

"Second. The Philippine Government agrees to re-
lease by legislative act to the representatives of the Roman
Catholic Church designated by His Holiness the Pope
all lands or inclosures upon which Roman Catholic
Churches or conventos now stand, which were never by
deed or formal grant conveyed by Spain to the Roman
Catholic Church, the same to be held by such representa-
tives for the use of the Roman Catholics of the parishes
in which such churches and conventos respectively stand :
without prejudice, however, to the title, if any, of the

TiiK, Fkiak Lands. 309

nuinicipalily in which such church or couvcnto may stand
to such land, to be asserted in ordinary courts of law. . . .

"The fore.c:oin£^ stipulations are made on the following
conditions :

"(a) That titles of the three orders to the agricul-
tural lands mentioned in paragraph i, and of any subse-
quent grantees thereof, shall be duly conveyed by deeds
of usual and proper form to the Philippine government,
and no part of the purchase price shall be jiaid until this
provision is complied with.

"(b) That all members of the four religious orders
of Dominicans, Augustinians, Recolletos, and Francis-
cans now in the Philippines shall withdraw, one-half
within nine months after the date of the first payment,
and one-half within eighteen months thereafter, and
meantime they shall not teach, preach, do parish work, or
work of inspection in the parishes of the Archipelago ;
except that for a period of two years after the first pay-
ment a sufficient number of such members may remain
to conduct the schools, university, and conventual
Churches now conducted by them, withdrawing, how^-
ever, from the Islands at the close of such period ; and
except, further, that any such member who shall have
continuously discharged his duty as parish priest in any
parish outside of Manila, from August, i8g8, to the date
liereof may continue as such and not withdraw from
the Islands ; and that no Spanish members of said four
orders shall hereafter be sent to the Islands.

"(c) Except as provided in (b) and in missionary
parishes now conducted by Jesuits, only secular priests
or non-Spanish members of religious orders whose pres-
ence in the parishes will not disturb the peace or order
thereof, shall be appointed as parish priests. The term
'secular priests" as used in this paragraph shall not in-
clude secularized Spanish members of religious orders.

"His Holiness on his part hereby agrees to the stipu-
lations and conditions hereinbefore set forth, and con-
tracts that the four religious orders herein named, and
their members, shall comply with the stipulations and
conditions on their part to be performed."

3IO The Philippines and the Far East,

RAMPOEEA TO TAFT.

"Rome, July 9, 1902.

"Mr. the Governor-Generae, — I have the honor to
acknowledge the receipt of the letter which you were
kind enough to address to me on the third of this month
with a scheme of agreement which the American gov-
ernment would desire to arrange with the Holy See, to
regulate, in the Philippine Archipelago, the situation on
certain points which touch the Catholic Church. I hasten
to thank you for the two documents, and in my turn I
permit myself to transmit to you inclosed a counter project
which expresses the intentions and point of view of the
Holy See on these same points, and in adding to it in
this letter certain explanations.-

"By the simple reading of the counter project you
may, Mr. Governor-General, observe that on the econom-
ical points of view the Holy See accords almost entirely
with those of the American and Philippine governments.
The modifications which have been introduced, and
which you will observe, only complete and make more
precise, it seems to me, the text of the convention. If,
in your opinion, any point may be made still more clear
I should be happy to consider your views. The principal
difference between the two projects is in relation to the
religious of Spanish nationality in the Archipelago. The
Holy See finds it impossible to admit that which is pro-
posed under the letters (b) and (c) at the end of the
project. To begin with, the Holy See can not admit that
there is a connection between the stipulations of the first
articles of the convention and the measures which it (the
Holy See) proposes to take in order to co-operate in the
pacification of the Archipelago. In reality these measures
are part of the mission of the Church in the world, and
are independent of the solution of economic questions.
This solution must be inspired solely by the principles
of natural justice.

"If we now pass to an examination of the difficulty
itself, it is very easy to prove that the Holy See can not
accept the proposition of the Philippine government to
recall from the Archipelago in a fixed time all the relig-

The Fkiak Lands. 311

ious of Spanish nationality, Dominicans, Franciscans,
Augustinians, Recolletos, and to prevent their return in
the future. In effect such a measure, not justified by a
reason of force majeure, would be contrary to the posi-
tive right guaranteed by the Treaty of Paris, and would
consequently put the Holy See in conflict with Spain,
who would have every reason to protest. Much more,
such a measure would be in the eyes of the Filipinos and
of the entire Catholic world, the explicit confirmation of
all the accusations brought against the said religious by
their enemies, accusations of which the falsity, or at least
the evident exaggerations, can not be disputed. Finally,
if the American government, respecting as it does indi-
vidual rights, does not dare interdict the Philippine soil
to the Spanish religious of the four orders above men-
tioned, how could the pope do it — he, the common
father of all. the support and born defender of the re-
ligious? On the other hand, without having recourse to
this violent and extremely odious measure, the means
which the Holy See counts upon taking are sufficient to
set aside any fear or any preoccupation. The number of
the Spanish religious remaining in the Archipelago has
been much diminished, and. as I had the honor to say
to you, Mr. Governor-General, in my memorial of the
2 1 St of June, the Holy See will try to introduce therein
religious of other nationalities, and particularly, as much
as possible, of the United States of America, and to con-
fide to them the parochial ministry as soon as they shall
be sufficiently instructed in the language of the country.
Besides the representative of the Holy See will carefully
see that all the religious, of no matter what nationality,
order, or congregation, consecrate themselves exclusively
to their spiritual work, without inserting themselves in
any way in political questions, and in abstaining from
any opposition to the established power. This result will
be all the more easy to attain since the resources of the
religious will remain under the control of the supreme
authority, to be devoted also to the spiritual needs of the
Church in the Archipelago; besides which the represen-
tative of the Holy See, in accord with the diocesan au-

312 The Phiuppines and the Far East.

thorities, will not permit the return of the Spanish relig-
ious of the above-named orders in the parishes where
their presence would provoke troubles or disorders ; that
if, in such and such parishes, the totality or the great
majority of the population desiring the return of the
religious, certain disturbers should seek to create obsta-
cles and difficulties, the Holy See again expresses its
confidence that the American authorities will know how,
by the ordinary means of justice, to protect the rights
of the religious and the will of the population. Finally,
not to retard the execution of this convention, the Holy
Father consents that the school question in the Philip-
pines be not insisted upon for the moment, but His Holi-
ness hopes that his representative in the Archipelago may
have an understanding with you, Mr. the Governor-Gen-
eral, on this point of an importance so capital in a coun-
try almost exclusively Catholic. Please accept, Mr. the
Governor-General, the assurance of my high considera-
tion, with which I am of your excellency, the very de-
voted servant. M. Card. Rampolla."

The Counter Proposal offered by Rampolla for the
pope follows that of Governor Taft, except as to the re-
tirement and permanent exclusion of Spanish friars.
Some clauses are given a more unequivocal meaning, but
in the main it is the same agreement, with the essential
modifications named.

The text of the cardinal's letter and Counter Proposal
was cabled to Washington, and the Secretary of War
cabled a reply which was forwarded to the pope on the
15th of July. From this reply I take but little, as it is
in the main a restatement of matters at issue.

". . . Such voluntary withdrawal [of the friars]
can not be considered a violation of any rights under the
Treaty of Paris, or otherwise, or any reflection either
upon the nation or upon the orders to which the persons
withdrawing happen to belong. The reasons making
such a withdrawal desirable are not religious or racial,

Tiiiv Kkiau Laxd?^. 513

but arise from the political and social relations which
existed under the former government, and which have
created i)ersonal antipathies menacing to the peace and
order of the comnuuiity. Such a voluntary withdrawal
would not involve any confirmation of anv accusations
against the persons withdrawing or the orders to which
they belong ; it is to be observed that we have made no
accusations. It would simply recognize the existence
of the conditions which for several years past have been,
and now are, preventing these particular agents from
serving the Chiu'ch in the stations to which thev were
assigned, and which would make their re-employment
injurious to the comnumity. In this matter the United
States representatives in the Philippines are merely en-
deavoring to meet the wishes, as well as the needs, of
the Philippine people. It is not the United States gov-
ernment which objects to the presence of the friars ; it is
the Catholic population of the Philippine Islands. The
lay Catholic population and the parish priests of native
and non-Spanish blood are practically a unit in desiring
both to expel the friars and to coniiscate their lands out
of hand. . . . It is the desire to accomplish the re-
moval of this cause of disturbance and discord that has
led me to approve that clause of your proposal which
would involve the government of the Philippines in a
large and undefined obligation for the purchase of lands
in advance of a specific ascertainment of their values and
of the estimated prices which we can reasonably expect
to receive from them, when we in turn offer them for sale."

Then follows a lengthy statement of how negotiations
which had come to a practical standstill in Rome were to
be reopened in Manila between Governor Taft and the
Apostolic Delegate whose appointment was intimated
in the first papal communication. Lists of properties to
be sold were to be carefully made up, and measurements,
titles of churches and conventos not formally deeded to
the Catholic Church, were to be made ready for legisla-
tive action, prices agreed upon, and in general all possible

314 The; Philippines and the Far East.

preparation made for the adjustment which the Secre-
tary of War still hoped might be made.

In the letter transmitting this communication from
his immediate superior, Governor Taft says :

"I much regret that we can not now reach a more
precise agreement under which less should be left to
future adjustment ; but I venture to concur in the ex-
pression of satisfaction by the Secretary that we have
reached a general basis for solution of so many of the
questions awaiting settlement in the Philippines between
the Church and State."

In his reply, which was his final communication, Car-
dinal Rampolla says that "the declarations of the Secre-
tary of War do honor to the deep political wisdom of the
government of the United States, which knows how to
appreciate the happy influence of the Holy See for the
religious and civil elevation of peoples, especially Cath-
olic peoples." Where he gleaned this hopeful crumb is
not clear even on a careful re-reading of every line of
Secretary Root's carefully-worded message. He prom-
ises that the pope will soon dispatch the promised Apos-
tolic Delegate, and closes with the following honeyed
phrases :

"The Holy See does not doubt that the mutual con-
fidence and the combined action of the representatives of
the Holy See and the American government will easily
produce a happy solution of the pending questions and
inaugurate for that noble country a new era of peace and
progress. It is to me, Mr. the Governor-General, an
agreeable duty to be able, in ending this letter, to render
homage to the very great courtesy and high capacity with
which you have filled the delicate mission that the gov-
ernment and the President of the United States has con-
fided to you, and willingly do I add that the favorable
result of the negotiations must be attributed in very large

The Friar Lands. 315

part to your high personal qualities. While flattering
myself with the hope that this first success will be a guar-
antee for the happy issue of the ulterior negotiations in
Manila, I have the honor to renew the homage of the
high consideration with which I am of Your Excellency,
the most devoted servant, IN I. Card. Rampoij.a."

Governor Taft then asks permission to take his formal
farewell, the audience of conge is held and the theater
of this real estate conflict shifts to Manila.

According to the agreement made by the pope, an
Apostolic Delegate with full power to carry on the busi-
ness was soon appointed and on his way to Manila. The
lot fell on Mgr. Guidi, an Italian priest of long experi-
ence in matters of weight in Romish circles. On his
arrival the work of compiling lists of agricultural hold-
ings to be sold, securing exact measurements of the same,
and fixing prices, was immediately begun. After long
delays the first proposition of the delegate was ready,
and came before Governor Taft. The result confirmed
persistent rumors which had gone before its completion.
The price asked by the friars was impossible. Instead
of coming approximately near the $5,000,000 which was
first considered by the Commission as ample compensa-
tion for these unproductive properties, the delegate de-
manded over $12,000,000! The Philippine government
refused to consider any such a proposition and requested
that the estates be more justly valued. After some
months the price had been whittled down to nearly $11,-
000,000. But that was still completely out of range of
possibilities, and further cutting was asked for.

Governor Taft consulted with the War Department,
and finally came up to a final offer of $7,000,000 on con-
dition of securing good titles to all the agricultural hold-
ings, and without insisting on the removal of the friars

3i6 l^HE Philippines and the F^ar East.

still in the Archipelago. This was met by an offer of
$9,000,000.

Opposition to the purchase developed meanwhile. In
both official and unofficial circles it was said that even
the last offer of government was too high. That made
a straight price of about $18 per acre for unproductive
farm properties, thousands of acres of which were in
the heart of IMindoro where fever and lack of communi-
cation with markets made values low. During two in-
surrections and the stormy period which has intervened
since 1898 great damage has been done to machinery and
improvements. Buildings have been burned. Irrigation
works have been either wantonly wrecked, or allowed to
become choked with earth and wild grasses. Fields have
grown up to weeds and depreciation of values has gone
on in nearly all directions. And while some of the land,
taken with all its deterioration, will bring $100 per acre,
it is extremely doubtful if an average of $18 can be real-
ized for the entire 403,000 acres.

When the expense of administration by a Government
Bureau is added to this cost price, business men think it
is still more questionable if so large a figure as $7,000,000
is justifiable. The lands must be accurately surveyed.
Plats must be made. Sales on long time at low interest
involve a multiplication of deeds, and other legal papers
that v/ill call for a large executive and clerical addition to
the present Land Bureau. This expense will go on during
the life of the contracts of purchase, and, with the dilatory
methods prevailing "east of Suez," it will be a long term
of years before this expense can be cut off.

If the friars are not to be canceled out of the equation
set for the Commission to resolve, manv ask where is the
government to come in ? It was one of the conditions of
the purchase originally, and one which was deemed of

Thk Friar Lands. 317

the utmost importance, that these Iroublers of the rehi^-
ious and poHtical welfare of tlie iMlipnio people should be
withdrawn from the scene of their tyrannies. Objectors
urged the practical failure of any possible agreement to
I)urchase their lands if they remained. Two dit^ficulties
were feared, — first, that they would invest this large sum
of money in enterprises likely to cause equal irritation ;
and, second, that their presence in large numbers would
do all those things which these negotiations were begun
to prevent — keep the people stirred up to revolt in those
provinces in which their parishes lie.

But suddenly, after hope of a successful termination
of the slow negotiations had been abandoned in many
quarters, the sale was actually made. On the 19th of De-
cember, less than a week before the departure of Governor
Taft, the following cablegram was received in Manila:

"Washington, December 18, 1903.
"The War Department, with the approval of the
President, has accepted, on behalf of the United States
Government, the agreement entered into between the
Philippine Government and the Vatican, through Mon-
signor Guidi. Apostolic Delegate, to purchase the friar
lands for $7,237,000!"

Great excitement prevailed in Manila. Papers came
out with extended accounts of the aiifair. Officials ap-
peared relieved as from a long strain. Catholics looked
happy. Filipinos rejoiced openly and hilariously that the
immense landed estates of their oppressors were in the
hands of a government in the benevolence of whose pur-
poses their leaders implicitly trust. Even the objectors
felt that there was much to say in favor of the very pur-
chase against which they could see some valid reasons.
It demonstrated again that, as a people, we have a wa\-
of doing what we set out to do. It assured Filipinos that

3i8 The Phii^ippines and the Far East.

we were honest in our purpose to rid them of their ancient
enemies. It made possible the transformation of a large
class of discontented and irritable tenants into a class of
contented proprietors. It canceled the friar out as a dis-
turbing factor in the economic future of the country.

The chief objections to the consummation of the deal
which are still to be urged are the amount of money paid,
and the failure of government to secure the removal of
the friars. What of these reasons? Should they have
prevented the purchase?

In my opinion, they should not. The United States
is not bound to clear any money on this transaction. It
was not begun as one that gave promise of being a good
investment of money. If a million or more of money
is lost in this transformation of discontented tenants into
small proprietors, with all possible reasons to be happy
and law-abiding people, the country can well afford to
contemplate the money side of the transaction with entire
complacence. The end to be attained is not profit, but
tranquillity. Tranquillity is ultimately worth money, and
is worth more than money. But to many the matter of the
failure to rid the land of the friars is a more serious mat-
ter. That seems to them a fly in the ointment, whose
presence entirely destroys its value. They want the friars
withdrawn. What of this objection? First, as has been
said, it was an impossible thing to hope for from the first,
that the pope would recall them, and equally impracticable
that a government like ours, with a Catholic vote to be
considered, should insist upon their deportation. Politics,
whether ecclesiastical or party, are solid facts of this
world, and as the pope is so hedged up by the lines which
contending factions throw about him that he can not do
what he might in theory be able to do, so administrations
are not wont to commit political suicide with open eyes.

The Friar Lands. 319

He who expected either the \ atican or Washington au-
thorities to take the bull by the horns in this matter was
unfamiliar with political currents — the sweep and power
of them, whether in Church or State.

This point was insisted upon until it became apparent
to Governor Taft that the removal of the Spanish friars
was largely accomplished, and in process of entire accom-
plishment. When the American fleet sunk the ships of
Spain in Manila Bay there were 1,108 Spanish friars or
monks in the Philippine Islands. By death, and by the
retirement of many of them to Spain and other Catholic
countries, there were but 456 left in the entire Archipelago
when Governor Taft sailed for the United States in De-
cember of 1 90 1. On the first of December of 1903, in the
official figures prepared for Governor Taft by the heads
of the various orders at the command of the Apostolic
Delegate, this total had been cut down to 246, of whom
eighty members of the Dominican Order', and formerly
parish priests, have renounced their intention of returning
to their parishes, and will therefore retire in the near fu-
ture as having no further place here, and thirty-two are
old and decrepit men who can not return to Spain in safety
for reasons of bodily weakness. This cuts the total left
in the Philippines, when these 112 are taken from the en-
tire number now here, 134 friars, most of whom are teach-
ing in schools, either in Manila or in one or two large
seminaries like Vigan. And the steady process of with-
drawal goes on by every ship that proceeds to Spain. The
last friar-bishop left on the same steamer that bore Bishop
Henry W. Warren on his leaving the Philippines, and with
him were a number of friars who had no further employ-
ment to hold them here.

All Catholic bishops, including the archbishop, are
now Americans. Americans and Spanish do not work

320 The Philippines and the Far East.

smootlily together. When American bishops want parish
priests they will send to America for them, and not to
Spain. In fact, it was only when the Administration se-
cured its own ends by other than direct means that con-
sent was given to waive this original condition of the
proposition to purchase the lands. As a practical matter
the friars have been removed from the Philippines more
rapidly within the past eighteen months than the con-
ditions imposed in the form of contract submitted by
Governor Taft to the Vatican authorities demanded.
There seems to be no reason to suppose that there will be
fifty friars in the Archipelago within ten years. It seems
clear that it is better to accomplish their removal in this
way than to do it b}- force.

It is now less than a week since the lands were bought.
Already the papers are drawn at the dictation of Governor
Taft, and signed by the four paties who now stand as
legally invested with title. These are :

"(i) The Philippine Sugar Estates Development
Company, owning and representing the Dominican lands ;

"(2) The Sociedad Agricola de Ultramar, owning
and representing the Augustinian lands ;

"(3) The British-Manila Estates Company, Limited,
rei)resenting the Imus Estate, of eighteen thousand hec-
tares, in Cavite province ;

"(4) The Recolleto Order, owning twenty-three thou-
sand and nine hectares of land, in an estate in Mindoro.

"The organizations selling the property are bound to
furnish satisfactory evidence of their titles, but if there
are others who have any lawful titles to the property their
claims will not be extinguished by the bargain between
the government and the friars.

"In case litigation should arise, however, the gov-
ernment will be at liberty to choose its forum, which may
be a Court of First Instance, or the Court of Eand Reg-
istration,

Till': Fkiar Lands.

321

"In no case will any claimant be able to get his case
into any United States Court, as the United States Fed-
eral Government is not a party to the transaction.

"The sale can not be consummated until the g'ovcrn-
ment has received the proceeds of its bonds, which must
be engraved, advertised, sold and the proceeds trans-
ferred to Manila."

The lands so bought will be sold by the government in
small parcels, tenants now on the land being given the
first right of purchase. Within five, or at most ten, years
these tenants vrill become proprietors.

GUADALUPE RUINS, NEAR MANILA.
(Was a magnificent retreat for friars, liurned in 1899.)

CHAPTER XVIII.
Philippine Finance.

In no one way could the facts of pacification and the
estabUshment of civil government be so fully and convinc-
ingly set forth as by a brief statement of the financial
situation. The collection of taxes, the systematic audit
of accounts of every sort in all the provinces, and the
steady extension of agricultural operations as proved by
the rapid increase in exports of hemp, sugar, and copra,
all combine to make it abundantly clear that American
rule is to-day more nearly universal in the Philippines
than Spanish rule ever became.

All the facts set forth in the statistics which follow
are taken from the latest reports of the insular auditor
and collector of customs, while the government currency
expert, Mr. E. W. Kemmerer, has furnished me with a
brief statement of the present status of the currency sit-
uation.

"treasury statement.

"Comparative Treasury Statement, Fiscal Years i8pp,

ipoo, 1901, 1902, and ipoj.

"The following is a comparative statement of de-
posits and withdrawals at the insular treasury by fiscal
years since the date of American occupation in August,
1898, to June 30, 1903. The treasurer's account for the
fiscal year 1903, elsewhere stated in the currencies ac-
tually involved, is here for purposes of comparison con-
verted at the ratio of $2.45 to $1, the official ratio at the
close of the fiscal year, which also may be considered a
fair average ratio for the year. From this statement has

322

PHiuri'iNii Finance;.

323

been excluded the sum of $455,093.49, the estimated
United States currency vahie of seized funds in the treas-
ury, treated in former statements as a part of the treas-
urer's balance until June 30, 1901, at which time the funds
were taken over to a special account :

o » -I
sa ft ^

n o O O^

S3 jj

otjcre _ 2
r» rt rt = p;:

B r. O S-.^

n <^ n fP^L
O-^ a 2 »

f-»- O P3 1*

H td
o 3 »

n w en ifl W2t:"T3wn»5'S

o jr-^rt ° =-0 S'^ 2.= o = £-0 ~-Q,
^<«r--Sn2^-: a IB SLa^ETJ 2 " S

»9a

3 3

»i n >< --■
. n " s

n n tA
a 3-0
r" la X

O ■"

" a
c

cyi

OOC/i o ■
ON-^ O :
vO '-n O :

O 0\ O '^ O

_-• cop p 00

Cj « K) Cl O

Cn «- — '-' 00

« .-. ^j 4^. Cyi

"- to OJ *^ Oi

C7\ -^ — O W ^J
J^ (j% hi <^ ^ -^

KH c I- X-6> vO

^ O -ti- -f^ -c^
Jk vD 4*. 4^ O

o 2

324 The Phii^ippines and the Far East.

RECAPITULATION FOR YEAR 1902-03.

Character of Item.

Uniied States
Currency.

Mexican
Carrcncy.

DEBIT.

Balance due Government July i, 1902

Deposits on account of —

Customs revenues

Postal revenues

Internal revenues

Miscellaneous revenues

E. E. A. and C. Tel. Co.. Visayan concession

Seized funds turned into General Treasury

Sale of gunboats to United States Government

Repayments to appropriations

Sales of rice, emergency lund

Sales of rice, Insular Purchasing Agent

Sales of supplies

Refundable export duties

Philippine pesos coined from bullion purchase.

Sale of bonds and premium thereon

Relief fund voted by Congress

Surplus, customs auction sales (sec. 283, Act

No. .^55)

Outstanding liabilities

Invalid money-orders

Province of Rizal (sec. 5 ig), Act No. 436)

City of Manila

Currency received in exchange for equivalent in

other currency

Balance due Treasurer June 30, 1903

$1,256,85090

Total debit.

Withdrawals by accountable warrants

Withdrawals by settlement warrants

Withdrawals by postal covering-in warrants

Currency given in exchange for the equivalent in

other currency

Balance due Government on June 30, 1903

Total credit..

5.428,
103

433.

14,
208,
130.

42,

10,
223

243.
1,600,

3.075
3,000,

357 3'
35846
750 48
54451
58638
269 78
819 67
735 65
271 12
661 85
956 89
834 14
000 00
390 00
000 00

$10,755,613 15
9,185,104 12

448,547 49

511,96577
71,876 98

673.497 46

3,614,18765

848,507 31

1,219,922 04

3.243.9I5 40

681,07b 23

4.IS4 49

1500

5.537 76

304 47

634,778 II

136,938 91

5.673 04
23399

1,56891
2,309,464 04

2.832,955 70
539,269 39

$16,589.115 ;

$.^6,943.378 67

i4.273.348 27
217,628 06
103.3.58 46

1,140,978 00
10.853,803 09

$32,882,330 66
3,705.977 26

355.070 75

■■$16.589, 1151

$36,943,378 67

It will be seen, from the above summary of receipts
and expenditures, that the custom-house furnishes about
two-thirds of the actual income. Internal revenues sup-
ply a very small percentage of the total receipts, as in-
dustries are but slowly recovering from the utter pros-
tration caused by war, rinderpest, cholera, locusts, and
scant rainfall. It should also be borne in mind that
under the Provincial and Municipal Codes, revenues de-
rived from all taxes of an internal character are ceded

* To convert into United States currency and find complete totals, di-
vide all Mexican currency by 2.45, tlie average rate of exchange for 1902-03,
and add the quotient to the total as expressed in United States currency.

PiTiLipriNK Finance.

325

to the province within whicli they are i)ai(L I'nder tlie
head of niiscellaneons revenues come notarial and judi-
cial fees, the income of the Government Cold Storage
and Ice-plant in Manila, the new Court of Land Regis-
tration, and the Forestry Bureau, with many other lesser
items.

All the expenses of the government are fully met,
and the following tahle shows the monthly condition of
tile treasury from the end of July, 1902, to June 30, 1903 :

BALANCE OF FUNDS IN THE INSULAR TREASURY AVAILABLE
FOR AFPROPRIATION AT THE CLOSE OF EACH MONTH.

(Amounts expressed in United States currency.]

Excess of
funds availa-
ble over
amount ap-
propriated.

Excess of
funds appro-
priated over
amount

available.

July 31

August 31

September 30.

October 31

November 30 .
December 31...,

$2,136,518 42
3,261,678 67
4,172,49709
2,120,312 72
1,894,456 29
2,676,758 28

January 31

February 28..

March 31

April 30

May 31

June 30

356,507 -I
4,476,312 46
6,849,321 28

$2,909,269 51
2,39^,477 43
3.595.253 78

Every province is required to keep its accounts as
exactly as a bank. Auditors from Manila are supposed
to check the accounts of provincial treasurers at regular
intervals, and only fail to do so because the Department
of Finance can not yet secure a sufficient stafif of compe-
tent and reliable men to overtake the work. A sample
provincial balance sheet, taken at random from forty-
one of an exactly similar character, between pages 115 and
155 of the Auditor's Report, will show the sources of
provincial and municipal revenues, and how they are
expended :

326 The PniLipriNES and the Far East.

Philippine Finance.

327

ii t d-'vo

„'

JJ'ONM n

cca^S.-^

^■i-.^=c

s*^

, % S!2 X 3
^ -^^ I- U O

«! S'S''^ a"—
iu '^ ^ ^ u o
^ ^'~ a oc u

-.i O 7) C '-'
— l-'^-O'^ -

•x: raj2 ts s ™
r !« 3 ° o "
^■J2 Ph K o

>,^

»<

^
0

■^ '^ °
c o

jj « C lU

— C C CO

C 3 n~3

o"^ te 3
•2 o sio

" 3 "

o iJ u

■-!^

^ _ <1^

.IT V V-

3^ CO

328 The Philippines and the F^ar E!ast.

From the Second Special Report of the Collector of
Customs, covering- the period from September i, 1902,
to October 8, 1903, I take the following:

SUMMARY OF IMPORTS INTO THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS BY

PORTS, FOR THE FIVE FISCAL YEARS ENDING

JUNE 30, 1903.

lvalues represented in United States currency, gold and silver coin included.]

IMPORTS.

Ports.

Twelve Months Ending June,

1S99.

1
1900. 1901.

1902.

1903-

$12,914,818
420,418
302,181

$20,839,174

1,235,445

850,988

84,429

14,326

19.494

$28,586,988

2,336,91s

1,430.363

326,295

80,597

57,250

$36,603,898

1,931,800

2,093.625

249,693

155. 19S

38,524

$29,097,688

Iloilo

2,582,890

Cebu

Jolo

2,895,092
274,801

Total

$13,637,417

$23,043,856

$32,818,411

$41,072,738

$35,099,842

EXPORTS.

Ports.

Twelve Months Ending June,

1899.

1900.

1901.

1902.

1903-

$13,692,592

1.732.632

616,078

$17,180,846

2.075,244

2,377,506

99,995

4,041

28,808

$21,522,444
1,512,046

3,093,714

230,872

25,090

47,096

$20,462,688

2,517,814

3,913.297

128,832

103,320

31.136

$29,570,375

Iloilo

4,108,028

Cebu

5,614,24s

Jolo

209,223

Total

$16,041,302

$21,766,440

$26,431,262

$27,157,087

$39,674,328

Note.— Government free entries not included.

This does not warrant as encouraging- a condition
of agricultural trade as at first would appear. A later
table will show that rice has furnished a large portion
of this total import value. That a rice-producing country
like the Philippines should import rice by the hundred
million pounds is an indication of great agricultural de-
pression :

PiiiLipnxE F^rxAxcK.

329

COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF SOME OF THE LEADING ARTICLES

IMPORTED

Into and Exported from the Philippine Islands During the Four Fiscal

Years Ending June 30, 1903.

[Values represented in United States Currency.]

IMPORTS.

Articles.

1900.

1901.

1902.

1903.

Rice

$3,113,423
476,244
399,4o.s

829,344
638,416

$5,490,958
619.338
501,198
451.349
1,030,698
265,056
18,404
164,969

$6,57'^.48i
819.625
685,962
497.639
501,918

318,955
128,041
203,421

$10,061,323

721,551
683,360

652.557
452.292
399.499
144.966
198,044

Flour

52.311
160,482

Total

$2,869,628

$8,541,970

$9,734,042

S13.313.592

EXPORTS

Hemp

Copra

Sugar, raw

Tobacco

Cigars

Cigarettes

Ylang-Ylang oil..

Total $18,244,111

$11,598,948

1,690,897

2,867,211

896 996

1,188,161

1,898

fi4,453,iio

2,648,304

2,293,063

953.520

1,250,175

11,092

41.975

{15,841, 316

1,001,656

2.761,432

784.523

1,166,722

9,995

70,553

1,651,239 $22,136,197 $32,104,674

$21,701,575

4.472 679

3.955,828

902,610

947,144
20,699

104.139

VALUE OF COTTON GOODS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1903,
Showing Countries from which Imported.

Countries.

United Kingdom

Spain

Germany

United States of America

British East Indies

Switzerland

China

Japan

France

Italy

Netherlands

Belgium

Hong-Kong

Austria ,

Dutch East Indies

French China

British China

Egypt

Canary Islands

British Australia

Russia

All other Asia

Total

$3.

124,51^

861. 800

576.058

391,080

328,411

288,414

143.414

131.890

1 18,630

89.512

78,736

77,865

60.557

10,813

957
849

305
223
147
140
42
9

5,284,370

330 The Philippines and the Far East.

Opium shows a slight decrease, chiefly attributable to
the fact that a very material increase in the duty on oi)ium
was made during- the fiscal year 1902. previous knowledge
of which fact caused importers to lay in an unusually large
stock under the old rate, thus materially affecting the im-
ports for the first few months of the fiscal year 1903.

It is a fact worthy of special note that for the entire
four years opium has stood ahead of wheat-flour as an
article of import and consumption in the Philippine
Islands.

Illuminating oil comes next, with beer in bottles second
in importance.

Flour comes exclusively from the United States, as
does a large portion of the illuminating oil and beer in
bottles. There has been a considerable decline in the im-
portation of beer, apparently attributable to the reduction
of the number of United States soldiers in these Islands,
and to the application of the "Two-Mile Limit Law,"
which prohibits the establishment of saloons within two
miles of any permanent military post. The liquor busi-
ness is very large in Manila yet, but no larger in propor-
tion than in any city of its size in America, and the Sun-
day Closing Law is strictly enforced. Thus imports of
beer are cut down.

Hemp is easily the first article of export. It shows an
increase of nearly ICXD per cent since 1900. There seems
no limit to its production.

It is very interesting to note the countries which absorb
Philippine exports, and those which furnish the imports.

^''

PlIll.ll'IMNMv FiNANCF,.

333

COMPARATIVE SUMMARY

of Imports into the Philippine Islands, by countries, during the Two Fiscal
Years Ending June 30, 1903.

[Duties and Values Represented in United States Currency.

1902.

1903.

Values.

Duties.

United States

England

Hong-Kong

East Indies, British

East Indies, French

Chinese Empire

Spain

Germany

French China

France

Japan

Switzerland

Scotland

All other Asia — ^iam....

British Australasia

Belgium

Russia

British China

Italy

Netherlands

Austria

Dutch East Indies

British Columbia

Mexico

Quebec, Ontario, etc

Ireland

Denmark

West Indies — British ....

Sweden and Norway

Korea .

Egypt

Portugal

Guam

Gibraltar

Turkey in Europe ...

All other Asia — Arabia.

Cuba

1-rench Oceania

French West Indies

Brazil

Canary Islands

Total .

Of above free of duty $11,235,894

Dutiable 29.869 140

-S77.9'i

,833.748

.721.597

.244.329

.680,934

,396,61

.356.548

.599.705

.524,638

922,269

882,651

645.490

527.645

526,054

243.224

231,611

201,537

186,116

158,684

126,076

77,765

29,576

25,000

22,535

8,447

5.145

3.736

3.426

937

3.242

729

656

783

257

150

$9'2,525

1,303.702

146,407

654.231

573.071

737,841

703,386

515.542

305,982

256,998

272,927

198,018

140.585

79.918

48,986

57,310

144.139

14,962

60,366

S6.922

30.990

20,500

5.558

13.625

2,084

749

1,191

275

1,740

351

203

227

361

186

$41.105,034

$7.291.916

$4,108,944

4,903,270

1,574,463

2,237,382

5.629,093

4.717,617

2,621,196

1,998,922

1.505.558

1,182,901

701.347

480,612

259. 8S5

632,993

618,140

218,985

286,856

4,019

149.512

163.405

105,089

83.105

7,717

875.245

7.421

8,577

6,734

5,133
276

3.761
295

105

$35.099,842

$3,765,843
31.333.999

$842,568

1,340.742

206,779

563.731
902,402
1,001.478
729,471
556,706
219.965
334.440
241.571
122,149
61,503
86,628
40,795
54,i8t
133,888
954
50,490
117,801

32,764
23.038
3.763

4.453
2.336
766
32
757
42
1,904
180

148

$7,678.948

It is shown that the value of imports for the fiscal year 1903 falls |6 005 192
short of the value shown for 1902. This shrinkage is more than accounted
for by the difl'erence in the quantity of silver imported, the importation of
silver for 1902 being $8,632 64S, as against $1,933,435 lor the year 1903, the falling
off of silver being $6,719,213, or $714,021 greater than the shrinkage in total
values for the year 1903. Import duties for 1903 show an increase of $387,032
over the amount collected during the year 1902.

(iovernment free entries and government stores arriving on transports
not included in foregoing statement.

The abnormal import values shown for Hong-Kong in 1902 are explained
by the fact that nearly all silver coin came from that port.

334

The Philippines and thk Far East.

The United States and England are the two chief
countries of import. Both show substantial gains for
the year 1903, occupying substantially the same relative
position held last year. It should be noticed, however,
that government free entries have greatly increased and
that a very large per cent of the merchandise entered
free of duty by the Insular and United States govern-
ment comes from the United States ; also all supplies
brought on United States transports of which no account
is taken in customs records.

While no exact figures as to the actual value of such
merchandise are obtainable, it is safe to state that if the
value of such imports were added, the total value of
the merchandise coming from the United States, would
be shown to be more than three times the value of mer-
chandise coming from England, as that country is not
represented in this class of imports.

COMPARATIVE SUMMARY

Of Exports from the Philippine Islands, by Countries, d..ring the Two
Fiscal Years Ending June 30, 1903.

[Duties and Values represented in United States Currency.]

1902.

1903.

Values. '

Duties.

Values.

Duties.

$7.S7i.7i3

$286,916

$13,863,059

$619,418

8,280,478

3.39,053

8.799.329

449.273

S69,87.s

97,212

7.57,500

&9807

5.799. '23

83.442

7,303.234

76688

1.346 .SI 7

27.032

] 059 366

55.597

9.S5.8^8

23.788

3,684,116

120 6go

672,614

13.169

994,400

16,867

436,5.^0

12,953

336.251

15.133

295.322

6,965

649 502

10,344

122,073

4.410

12,092

297

120,180

3.372

93,353

2,797

88,787

20,587

162,197

21,233

75.626

I 881

306,664

8,676

55 191

894

394 258

294

46 S29

2.565

137.103

8,373

27,442

807

25. 198

1,029

20,212

1.203

44.061

4.199

17.830

324

13.177

196

7-697

108

6,157

118

United States

England

Spain

Hon-Kgong

Japan

France

British East Indies..
British Australasia..

Chinese Empire

British Africa

French China

Austria- Hungary

Germany

Briti.sh China

Belgium

East Indies, Dutch .

Netherlands

Italy

Quebec, Ontario, etc

PuiLipriNE Finance.

335

COMPARATIVESUMMARY— Continued.

1902. 1903.

Countries.

Values.

Duties.

Values.

Duties.

Gibraltar

6.812
12,128
3721
3.6S7
3648
3003
2.481
1.934
1.57S
1,400

1. 310
1,246
i,ooS

905

889
411
321
167
150
140
119

224

319

234

20
I

1
1

9.499
28417
2.787
5,910
2.030
128.332

284

811

40
135
41

All other Asia — Siam

109

East Indies French

109.317
710
130

2.700
457
578

1.952

172

Auklaiid Islands

570
10

Turkey in Africa— Egypt

Canary Islands

4,128

356

Argentine Republic

•599

■718

79
10

2,970

•4,684

■480

163

900

24,775

',035

275

115

Spanish Africa

1,597

Total

127,157,087

$927,978

139.674,328

fi.SOS.Sgi

Thus the United States and England receive more
than half of all the exports from the Philippines. Nearly
all the hemp goes there because of a rebate paid to ship-
pers whose cargoes are consigned to United States pur-
chasers.

How great has been the labor necessary to take up
the tangled skein of Philippine accounts in the midst
of the hurly-burly of early 1901, patiently untangle every
set of books, militarv and civil, fearlessly demand an
honest settlement of all accounts, no matter who was
hurt, and then inaugurate and put into smooth running
order a complete system of accounting and audit for

336

The PhilippinivS and the Far East.

every department of the government, is impossible for
ordinary minds to comprehend. This has been done by
Mr. A. L. Lawshe, who was appointed by Secretary
Root for that purpose, and given full power to audit all
accounts, and by his instructions and by Rule 72 of Act
90 of the Civil Commission "to apply the checks and

THE DRAY OF THE PHILIPPINES.

safeguards to the expenditures of the nioneys of the
Philippine government that are thrown about the moneys
of the United States."

With a small force of trained men from Washington,
and such other help as could be had — much of it inex-
perienced, and some of it lacking in financial honor —
he has brought this vast task to completion. He has
made enemies. What strict auditor does not? But sev-

riiii.ii'rixK Finance. 337

ciitccii (Icfaultiiii^ officials, fourteen being- Americans,
have been Ijrought to trial, and sentences of from eight
to twenty-tive years imposed by the courts, mainly on
the basis of balance sheets from the auditor's office. Mr.
Lawshe has served the cause of righteousness and clean
government by his ability and integrity, and, with many
another good public servant, deserves the gratitude of
the nation.

The new Currency Act, of March 3, 1903, provides
for the coinage of a Philippine peso, which shall be worth
just one-half of a dollar in United States currency. The
auditor says in his report (page 20) :

"To November ist a total of 14,547,166 pesos of the
new currency, including subsidiary coinage, had been
received and taken into the treasurer's account. . . .

"The new currency was put into circulation promptly
after its receipt, and the very large balance of United
States currenc} in the insular treasury at the close of the
fiscal year enabled the insular government to resume pay-
ment July I. 1903, in a gold-standard currency without
a ripple of disturbance.

"All appropriations were made withdrawable after
June 3d in Philippine currency or United States cur-
rency at the option of the treasurer, and disbursements
were ordered paid in the same currencies, except in cases
especially otherwise authorized, according to the nature
of the contract.

"In order that the new Philippine currency might be
substituted for local or Mexican currency as rapidly as
possible, each and every disbursing officer of the insular
government was directed by executive order to deposit
in, the insular treasury any local or Mexican currency in
his hands, which was not required for disbursement be-
fore June 30, 1903, and close his Mexican-currency ac-
counts as of thai date.

"In order to promote and expedite the circulation of
the new money in the provinces the treasurer, by Execu-
tive Order No, 6, was authorized and directed to ex-
22

338 The Philippines and the Far East.

change, in his discretion, with any provinc'ial treasurer,
pursuant to a resolution of the Provincial Board, Philip-
pine curency for Mexican and Spanish-Filipino currency
at the authorized ratio at the time which provincial funds
were received at the insular treasury for such exchange.
Likewise all officers of the government were directed to
make all contracts payable in the Philippine or United
States currency, at the option of the government, and
all existing contracts otherwise payable were directed to
be adjusted to the new basis as soon as practicable. The
accounts for the fiscal year 1904 will be rendered and
settled as far as practicable in Philippine currency, with
the previous approval of the civil governor and Secretary
of War. ...

"The most encouraging feature in the accounting
work is the early adoption in full of a stable currency.
That the government will be able to eliminate Mexican
and Spanish Filipino currency from official circulation
after December 31st next is a foregone conclusion, and
that this will be done without injury to any interests is
apparent, due largely, however, to the very great volume
of United States currency injected into the circulating
medium of the Islands since American occupation."

As to the working of the new Currency Law after
December 31, 1903, I quote from Mr. Kemmerer:

"The only forms of money made legal tender by the
Act of Congress, approved March 2, 1903, for contracts
made after December 31, 1903 (undess otherwise ex-
pressly provided by contract), are: (i) 'Gold coins of
the United States at the rate of one dollar for two pesos,'
legal tender to any amount; (2) 'Philippine silver pesos,'
legal tender to any amount; (3) 'Philippine subsidiary
silver pesos,' legal tender to any amount ; (4) 'Philip-
pine subsidiary silver coins,' legal tender to the 'amount
of ten dollars.' "

Philippine silver certificates, while not a legal tender,
are 'receivable for customs, taxes, and for all public
^ues in the Philippines," can be counted as part of a

l'iiii,ii'pix\iv Imnaxck. 339

bank's lawful reserve, aiul are redeemable un deiiiaiul
by the Pbilippine i^ovcrnnient in IMiilippine silver pesos,
wliich are a full legal tender. Pliilippine subsidiary silver
coins, while only lei;al tender to the amount of ten dol-
lars, are, like Philippine minor coins of nickel and cop-
per, exchanQ;eable on demand at the insular treasury or
at any provincial treasury, when offered in sums of ten
pesos or any multiple thereof, for Philippine silver pesos
of full legal tender.

The question of the receivability of currency for pub-
lic dues is entirely distinct from the question of legal
tender. The Supreme Court of the United States (Lane
County I's. Oregon), as well as the Supreme Courts of
several states (see, for example, N. J. Supreme Court
decisions — City of Camden I'S. Allen. 1857), has taken
the position that a tax is not a debt in the sense of that
word contemplated by legal-tender laws. Section 7 of
the Act of Congress, appoved March 2, 1903, provides
''that the Mexican silver dollar now in use in the Phil-
ippine Islands, and the silver coins heretofore issued by
the Spanish government for use in said Islands, shall be
receivable for public dues at a rate to be fixed from time
to time by proclamation of the civil governor of said
Islands until such date, not earlier than the first day of
January, nineteen hundred and four, as may be fixed
by public proclamation of said civil governor, when such
coins shall cease to be so receivable." In accordance
with this provision the civil governor issued a proclama-
tion on October 23d, providing that "Mexican silver
dollars shall be receivable for public dues at a rate to
be fixed from time to time by proclamation of the civil
governor, until the first day of January, nineteen hun-
dred and four, and that on and after that date such coins
rhall cease to be so receivable."

340

The Philippines and the Far East.

The legal tender quality has nothing to do with cur-
rent transactions. There is nothing to prevent a person
from making purchases and sales in Mexican currency
after December 31st, if he wishes to do so. The fact,
however, that the value of Mexican money is extremely
unstable, that it is rapidly being given up and discredited
by most of the countries v/hich have heretofore used it,
that the government will not receive it after December
31st in payment of obligations due itself, and that it
will not be a legal tender for debts contracted after that
date, will altogether make it an undesirable form of coin
to use, and self interest on the part of the trading com-
munity should tend rapidly to banish it from the Islands.

CHAPTER XIX.
The Government and Ri;rjr.ious Conditions.

The path that PhiUppine officials have been called
to tread has been far from easy. Conditions were new.
Problems familiar in some aspects in our own national
past took on features wholly unfamiliar, and called for
expedients never before used by rulers of American blood.
N^early all the members of the Civil Commission were
inexperienced in Oriental life, or had acquired little more
than ordinary familiarity with conditions prcvailint^
among Asiatic peoples in the tropics.

In the religious aspects of their duties there were the
most vexatious and delicate complications. Here was a
people who had no acquaintance with a government that
rigidly separated things that dififer so widely as the func-
tions of the Church and State. Spanish leaders had no
k-nowledge of the possibility of governmental neutrality
in religious matters. These were yet under the leader-
ship, in Manila, at least, of priests equally blind and
warped. If officials did not accede to all petitions for
civil interference in religious squabbles they were de-
nounced as Protestant sympathizers. If they insisted
that no Catholic should teach religion in the public
schools, the conclusion was instantly drawn that they
])roposed to make these schools Protestant. Stories were
set afloat to the effect that Protestant ministers and mis-
sionaries were largely represented in the body of public-
school teachers, and that their faith was threatened.

341

342 The Phiijppines and the Far HasT.

When Protestant missionaries appeared on the scene
the situation was still more complicated. Friars could
not comprehend that toleration did not mean support.
Doubtless many of these medirevalists yet believe that
the officials are secretly supporting the Protestant move-
ment with public funds, and giving us official aid and
comfort in other ways, and all this for the simple reason
that they try to be fair and maintain inviolate separation
between the Church and State, which has been our policy
from the dawn of the Republic.

With the advent of the Independent Catholic Church
movement, better known as the Aglipay movement, from
the name of the priest who stands forth as the leader,
confusion became more than ever confounded for the
Catholic of conventional ideas as to the oneness of things
civil and religious.

One case will illustrate what is meant. In the sum-
mer of 1901 the Filipino priest of Tarlac, province of
Tarlac, Father Eusebio Natividad, complained to Gov-
ernor Taft that the Municipal Council of that city had
attempted, by ordinance or resolution, to regulate the
fees which he was charging for religious functions per-
formed by him as priest. Governor Taft at once ad-
dressed a letter to the civil governor of the province,
Captain Wallis O. Clark. The letter was intended to
meet all similar cases, and was therefore ordered put into
a number of native languages and given the widest pos-
sible publicity. It was the plainest possible statement
of our historic position as to the relegation of Churchly
affairs to Churches, and the management of civil affairs
by officials of the State. It is too long to reproduce here,
but was what would have been considered even platitu-
dinous in anv American circles, so simply did it put the
familiar truths and some of the chief reasons for our

Government and Religious Conditions. 343

national adhesion to them. Tlie application of the law
to the case in hand was in the concluding- portion of the
letter. It was as follows :

"What fees or compensation shall be charged by a
minister of relig;ion for religious services performed by
him is a matter wholly within the control of the Church
authorities, and is one in which the civil government,
whether municipal, provincial, or insular, can have no
voice whatever. No one is obliged by civil law to partake
of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church ; no one
is required by law to solicit from the priest the burial
ceremony, or the marriage ceremony of the Catholic
Church. If he does so, under the government as it now
exists in these islands, he does it voluntarily. If, how-
ever, his religious conscience requires of him that he
should secure the performance of any such ceremony by
a priest of the Catholic Church, and deems the fee ex-
acted excessive, he can have no recourse to civil govern-
ment, but must apply for relief to the Superior ecclesias-
tical authority in the Catholic Church."

The governor took the necessary executive action to
protect the aggrieved priest, and had reason to suppose
that Catholics, of all men, would applaud the fairness
of his action. But not so. Within a few days there
appeared an attack on him and his administration, which,
better than any one utterance of the friar party that has
come to my attention, illustrates their psychological
state. It was published by an organization of laymen
and friars called "Centro Catholico," at their headquar-
ters. No. 49 Calle Cariedo, Manila. The heading and
portions of it are given. They are excellent samples of
pages and pages of stuff that has appeared in tracts and
periodicals in criticism of official actions equally fair :

"to the conflict, Filipino catholics!
"Not many days since a miserable paper, rabidly im-

544 The Philippines and the Far East,

pious, saw light in this capital, a monstrous abortion of
perversity, a banneret of enrollment in the interests of
apostasy, in which freely and unmasked the cry is raised,
'War against God !'

"To arms, then, warriors of Jesus Christ! The chal-
lenge is thrown down ! To the strife. Catholic soldiers !
Not with resort to worldly arms, but to the powers of
prayer, of faith, of a union of all true Catholics, of public
manifestation of our religious sentiments, to defend them
by all the means that are in our power.

"Yes ! War against God ! This is the motto of this
infernal proclamation. They say, 'that they can not,
nor do they desire, to intervene in religious questions,'
then, lying with hateful cxnicism, they excite the people
to make in all parts manifestations of distrust against the
Catholic priests. War against God ! they have said ; and
ir. truth what is intended by this procedure except the
overthrow of the apostolic ministry, preaching, the ad-
ministration of the sacraments in due time as ministers
of the Church ; and in overthrowing these, is it not re-
sisting the Church itself, the bishops, the Holy Father,
God Himself, in a word ? And all under the guise of a
pernicious liberty ! Buffoons ! Pusillanimous and false
politicians ! You see the poor Filipino, despised and re-
jected, and now you allure us with the fatal error of
impiety and irreligion. You desire to eclipse the sun of
the moral world, which is the Catholic faith. We shall
walk in darkness ; the scene of Sennar will be repeated ;
the Philippines will be as Babylon. . . . Will you con-
sent to have your faith torn from you by violence? Will
you consent that it disappear from the Philippines, because
it so pleases four rickety brawlers [meaning, no doubt,
the members of the Commission] — the religion in which
you have been educated? . . . The Catholic Center
protests in your name against the nasty, miserable paper,
and its reprobate propositions. . . . We despise these
talkative pigmies. . . . Away with cowardice ! Com-
plete unity ; close alliance, and Forward ! What if the
tempest increases and hell roars? Here are our ada-

Govi;k\^[Knt and Rkligious Conditions. 345

niantine breasts in order to receive the first blow ; ani-
mated by the splendid shade of Risis and Garcias More-
nos, and all the heroes who have wisely sacrificed them-
selves for God and the Holy Mother Church. . . .
To-day impiety reigns, and it is a time of ruin, of fury,
and of indignation. Therefore be zealous to-day for the
law. and give your lives in defense of the will of your
parents. Be resolved by the valor of your ancestors, and
you shall acquire imperishable fame and eternal renown."

Now-, what possible way is there to deal with such
a state of mind as is disclosed in this official answer to
an innocent declaration of religious neutrality? How
can sane Catholics believe that men who indulge in such
mock heroics as otTering their "adamantine breasts" to
some undefined "blows," and otherwise making them-
selves a laughing-stock for serious men, can profitably
continue in the Philippines under a kind of rule which
they perfectly fail to comprehend? Of what possible
use can they be as a religious agency, or what can they
accomplish as a social force working for the good of
this or an\- other people?

The official records of the cases of a purely or par-
tially religious character wdiich have been referred to the
Executive Bureau of the Philippine government have
been placed at my disposal, and the evidence they fur-
nish of the thorny questions submitted for adjudication
or action would make anv self-respecting American
Catholic ashamed of his Philippine representatives. He
would be ashamed of their lack of common intelligence.
They appear in this official correspondence as ecclesias-
tical Rip van Winkles, just awakened after three cen-
turies of modern life had slipped over their somnolent
heads. They are still in the Dark Ages. They talk the
language of a dead past. They are out of joint with the
times.

346 The Philippines and the Far East.

It is far from true that only the friars who have al-
ways lived in the dim liiiht of the Philippines are thus
in the dark as to what are the limitations of the civil
power; M_2:r. Guidi, the Apostolic Delegate, fresh from
Rome, stumhles equally upon this unfamiliar path of
religious toleration.

In March of 1903 a Filipino priest near Iloilo was
persuaded to cast in his lot with the Aglipay movement.
He tells his own story of pitiable vacillation and Jesuit-
ical decision to join them, and afterward declares that
he was threatened with violence in case the movement
did not win, and he felt it was wise to make his peace
with Rome again. It is the letter of a weak, hysterical
old man. It does not allege threats of violence, but
plainly says, "I signed, for I knew^ not what was passing
with me, and I did these things so that they would leave
me alone."

This letter he forwards to his immediate superior,
vdio, in turn, sends it on to the Apostolic Delegate, who
submits it to Governor Taft, with a comiuunication from
which I quote :

". ... Its contents will serve to show what
peaceful and hncfiil means Aglipay makes use of for the
furtherance of schism. The poor priest in question
yielded to sheer force, as you will see, but on the follow-
ing day wrote the inclosed document reaffirming his fidel-
ity to the Catholic Church. ... In view of the pernicious
effects which these methods of procedure have both in
the Islands and abroad, I would entreat Your Excellency
to issue such orders as will efifectually put a stop to this
disgraceful state of things. ... I have the honor
to remain, Respectfully yours,

"(Sgd.) John Baptist Guidi,

"Archbishop of Stauropoli,
"Apostolic Delegate."

Government and Religious Conditions. 347

In his reply Governor Taft says, in part:

". . . . I am obliged to sa}-, after reading the
same [the letter of the priest], that, while the method of
proselytizing as described in that letter pursued by Sr.
Aglipay and others may be subject to severe criticism
on the ground of taste and morality, there is no statement
in the letter of the priest of an}- fact which would justify
the belief that he was threatened with personal violence
or suffering. He does not state any specific threat, but
says that he was nervous and was overcome b\- their un-
due pressure. This does not present a case for criminal
prosecution, but is an instance of a nervous, weak old
man, yielding to importunate and undue influence. The
expressions of contrition by the priest, the statement that
he first sought Aglipay, and called on him, the further
statement that the prominent people of his town were
all in favor of Aglipay, and that they claimed the Church,
indicate the character of the pressure that was brought
to bear on him to influence him to consent in words which
he did do, though he says that he intended to protest the
next day. I confess that I can not see that the circum-
stances present a case for the interference of the Execu-
tive. . . . It is a case of weakness on the part of
the priest, and not a case of crime on the part of those
who induced him to take the course which he took.
"Very respectfully,

''(Sgd.) Wm. H. Taft,

"Civil Governor."

Archbishop Martin Algocer attacked the governor
one day in his oflfice with bitter charges of unfairness in
a certain matter of considerable local importance. The
governor turned to his private secretary and asked for
the letters in which he had been attacked for the action
which he had taken in the case, and the secretary imme-
diately asked, "Which letters, the Catholic or the Protes-
tant ? I have as many of one as of the other." Both sides
criticise, and I am forced to believe that many of those
who are the most violent in their criticism have the least

348

The; Philippines and the Far East,

actual knowledge of the difficulties of the situation in
general, and the smallest stocks of exact information
upon the particular cases of which they complain.

In one case, among many others, the government has
shown its entire readiness to be fair, whatever friar op-
ponents might think, or however they might bare their

THK FILIPINO S POINT OF VIEW.

'adamantine breasts" to "blows" of religious neutrality.
In early October, 1901, the officers of the Methodist
Episcopal Church for American people selected a good
corner lot on a principal thoroughfare, and took steps
to purchase it with a view to erecting thereupon a house
of worship. When it came to making out the deed it
was discovered that all non-Catholic religious activity

Go\r-;KN^ri:xT .\\n Ri:i,ir.i()us Conditions. 349

was torljiddcn in tlie most definite and undoubted fashion
in the Penal Code. We were unwilling to go on without
legislative relief, and feared that time would be lost be-
fore this could be provided. I laid the case before Gov-
ernor Taft late one Friday afternoon, stating all material
facts briefly, and asking the enactment of a law making
it possible for all Protestant Churches to purchase, hold.
and convey real estate as they do in other countries.
After a few minutes conversation he called his stenog-
rapher, dictated a law which follows the ordinary "Re-
ligious Society" acts in the several States, and asked that
ir be put into shape for presentation to the first legisla-
tive session of the Civil Commission. Before noon the
next day it had been enacted, and the efifects of three
centuries of religious bigotry, as applied to this one point,
were rolled away !

The police and judiciary of the Philippines, in so
far as they are American in their personnel, comprehend
the idea of religious neutrality, and enforce the laws in
an admirable spirit of fair play. Some of the Filipino
police and judicial force also merit high praise for im-
partiality ; but in many cases subordinate police and judi-
cial officials are yet governed by partisan ideas, and pro-
tect Catholics W'hile the Protestants are left to the ston-
ing of mobs, the hooting of the rabble, and the hate of
persecuting padres.

Our members have been imprisoned in almost every
place in which work has been opened. The charges have
always proven false, and orders for immediate release
have been given in all cases. The police who arrested
them did so at the instance of friars or their immediate
sympathizers. In Hagonoy, r)ulacan, the municij^al
secretary, Senor Cruz, threatened that services should

350 The Philippines and the Far East.

never be held in the Methodist chapel which was being
built opposite his house. On July 26, 1903, the little
place was dedicated. All the hours of service a band of
cheap musicians were performing in or near his house,
with evident intention of breaking up the service ; but
we said nothing. A month later a crowd was gathered,
and, with tin cans, paddles, drums, horns, and a general
uproar, the mob in the street in front of the chapel pre-
vented the preaching from being heard. Our missionary,
Rev. W. A. Goodell, sent for a policeman, who said that
the disturbance was in the street, and he could do nothing
to prevent streeet merriment ! Mr. Goodell then took the
names of at least thirty of the chief participants, and, on
formal complaint, the attorney-general's office investi-
gated the case, and directed the prosecuting attorney for
the province to bring the offenders to trial. He is a
Filipino, and the case was tried before a Filipino justice ;
but fifteen of the party were found guilty and fined $10
each and costs. The attitude of the government in this
case has had a profound influence over all that part of
the country. It is a matter of amazement to the people
to find that principal men can be fined like common taos
for disturbing a Protestant service. In Bataan a native
priest. Primitive Baltasar, snatched a Testament from
the hand of Senora Maria Apolonario, a poor woman
who was reading it to her husband as he lay in the last
stages of cholera. This padre tore the Bible leaf from
leaf, throwing each torn scrap into the fire, and declaring
that such an evil book would send her soul to hell, that
the soul of her dying husband was already lost from
hearing it, and that he had sickened of the cholera as a
just punishment from God for reading it. The woman
had him arrested, and now Rev. Primitivo Baltasar is
out of jail by virtue of a bond for $1,000 to answer in

Go\i;unmi;nt and Rklicious Conditions. 351

the Superior Court. If found guilt\ , the tine will be at
least $125, and may be $625.

The government has been severely criticised for its
allegetl hostility to religious matters in the public schools.
There is more ground for such criticism than for many
others. Still it should be remembered what almost in-
superable difficulties hedged their way in establishing
any such a system. It was dinned into their ears on all
sides that the entire population of the Philippines was
a unit in its passionate adhesion to the Catholic Church,
and that the parents would on no account permit their
children to attend schools which did not teach the Cath-
olic religion. This we all know^ now was a complete
misstatement of fact. As will be shown hereafter, the
Filipino people are very far from being united in loyalty
to the Catholic Church. The government was also as-
sured by many that if teachers attended Protestant
churches on Sundays, or in any way showed that their
personal sympathies were non-Catholic, the schools
would be immediately deserted by all the children of the
faithful. It was felt by officials that the schools would
do indirect good to a degree almost inconceivable if they
could only hold the pupils for a few years. Hence they
were not in sympathy with religious work on the part
of their teachers. A prominent educational official left
a train lest he be supposed to be in company with a
Protestant bishop and a missionary. Circulars might be
quoted in cxtcnso to show the attitude of the department,
but one or two cases will show what is meant.

One of the most prominent teachers in Manila, him-
self a devout Christian gentleman, and one long accus-
tomed to take active part in Church work, was asked to
address the men at the Young Men's Christian Associa-
tion, Mr. Moses, who was at that time the commissioner

352 The Philippines and the Far East.

having immediate secretarial charge of schools, conveyed
the information to this gentleman that the address as
announced in the local dailies would better not be de-
livered, as it would complicate matters in the department !
He was obeyed, but the incident caused much feeling.
Here was a case the most marked, perhaps, that has oc-
curred in which an official clearly "stood so straight that
he leaned over." He exceeded his rights, and the inci-
dent should have had a very different ending. But this
was the act of one man, and not of the Commission as a
whole. However, it is true that the impression was prac-
tically universal among the entire teaching body that the
government put a premium upon the men and women
who were non-religious, to put it mildly. The results of
this policy have been sad. In more than a score of cases
personally known to me it has caused the religious ship-
wreck of good young people. They understood in a
general way that they were not so well liked and not so
sure of their posts if they were active in the practice of
their usual habits of church-going and Scripture study,
and by little and little they lost their hold upon a Chris-
tian life.

This attitude of the Educational Department has not
aided in keeping the moral tone of the teaching body up
to normal grade. While, as a rule, the teachers have
held a high ideal before them, it is a matter for regret
that there is so much Sabbath desecration, so much drink-
ing, and so much compliance with questionable customs
of the Filipino people. One teacher, a man who had been
professor in a Church college in the States, and an active
worker in the Young Men's Christian Association in
every city and town in which he had lived, takes beer
with his Filipino hosts, and keeps it in the house for his
guests, and has been led to do this, he tells me, by his

Gu\'krnmi:nt and Ria.ic.iors Conditions. 353

desire to meet the wishes of the department that he make
himself one with the people. I am quite sure that he
misunderstands the point the department tried to make ;
Init it is clear to nearly all the earnest Christian people
in the Philippines that, while this attitude of extra-re-
ligious neutality has not attracted students to the schools,
its general effect on the morals of the teaching force has
been unfortunate. Over and over again, as pastor of a
Church for American people, my invitations to teachers
to attend divine services has been met with the answer,
"O, you know the department does not want us to be
religious." It is to be profoundly regretted that this im-
pression was made. It has helped nothing that the gov-
ernment desired should be helped, and has hindered the
exertion of much indirect influence for the best ends on
the part of teachers.

It is to be deplored that so many of the prominent
officials of the Philippine government, from the governor
down, have given the impression almost from the first
that attendance upon the public worship of God was not
a part of the duty of Christian men and women. I am
not prepared to allege that there was any ulterior mo-
tive in remaining away from religious services — such as
a desire to appear liberal in matters of religion, or not
to alarm a Catholic constituency by too prominent proofs
of Protestant tendencies — but, from whatever cause or
motive, the fact remains that the great majority of the
leading Philippine officials have not given public support
by their example to the sanctity of the Day of Rest, nor
to the valvie of the public worship of God as a social and
moral force in the world. I prefer to believe that this
state of things arose from the regrettable fact that tlie
same men were not habitual attendants upon the services
of the Christian Church before coming to the Philippines.
23

354 The Philippines and the Far East.

I would find it difiicult to express my opinion of an offi-
cial of a government such as this one who would delib-
erately suppress his conscientious convictions for the
sake of currying favor with any party or any interest.
Neither in moral fiber, nor ability to take a long, clear
look into the ultimate significance of such a course,
would such a person be fitted for a task, so solemn as
that which devolves upon every man associated in the
work of giving to this oppressed people a purer national
life. Possibly part of the blame lies at the door of the
Churches in America for not sending always their ablest
men to preach and labor among them, and probably if
those of us who were here had been more faithful to the
religious needs of the men we criticised for their failure
to throw their infiuence into the balance in favor of piety
and sobriety, had gone to them in kindliness and plain-
ness, they would have been won to our views. Certain
it is that they did not give clerks and all kinds of subor-
dinate officials to understand that it was a wholesome
thing to seek the restraints and inspirations of the Chris-
tian life to keep them up to the levels of home ideals
amid the terrible downward pull of tropical residence
on white men and women.

All day Sunday, and that week after week, the Com-
mission would be in session, grinding out business either
in Manila or in its provincial trips. On Sunday, April
21, 1901, to instance one case, the Commission met in
public session in Tacloban, Island of Leyte, and discussed
the preliminaries leading to the organization of a provin-
cial government all day — who should be the officials,
rates of taxation, school matters, and such other topics
as were necessary. All this was un-American, and calcu-
lated to give a wrong impression of the bast type of our

GuVlvKNMICNT AND RlCLlGIOUS CoXUlTlONS. 355

national life. It has hurt the Commission. It has hurt
the government. It gave the impression to lesser men
that it was not needful to comport themselves in the
Philippines as would be required in Ohio or Connecticut,
and defalcations due to fast living have been alarmingly
frequent. An American President could never hope for
re-election if he were so openly to trample on the sanc-
tity of the Sabbath as it has been the custom of officials
in the Philippines to do from the very first.

There has been a marked change for the better within
the past year. The wind now sits in another quarter. It
is now considered quite the correct thing to attend divine
service on Sunday. The governor himself sometimes
attends. On all hands there is a different atmosphere.
The governor gave a public dinner to all the members
of the Evangelical L'^nion in Manila in Januar}' last, to
meet Dr. Pentecost. On the occasion of my return to
the Philippines in December, the governor and two of
the American commissioners, and many prominent offi-
cials, were present at our reception, and I could discern
a great change in the attitude of officials generally. In
the latter part of 1902 the complications growing out of
the then rapidly-spreading Aglipay movement called out
a letter from Governor Taft. In this letter he said :

"The policy of complete separation of Church and
State is enjoined upon those who serve under the Amer-
ican sovereignty. This does not mean that officers of
the State as individuals may not attend church and take
part in religious controversies, and may not aid the
Churches of which they are members ; but it does mean
that no officer of the government has the right to use
his official position or the authority which he exercises
as an official to further the interests of the Church of
wdiich he is a member as against the rights and claims of

356 The PiiiLippiNiis AND THE Far East.

other Churches to which he may be opposed in reUgious
views."

Major EHjah W. Halford, in an address before the
Evangelical Union, January 19, 1903, said with reference
to this most generous official utterance that had yet been
made in the Philippines :

"We are to be congratulated that finally 'the open
door' has swung onward even to include within its in-
vitation Protestantism in the Philippine Islands. A man
may now be a Protestant Christian man, letting the fact
be known and properly emphasized, without fear of the
gibbet or ostracism, official or unofficial. It is furthest
from the desire to call up from the past any unpleasant
remembrances, but it is matter for sincere congratulation
that the day has passed wdien one, more or less directly
related to the government, can not ride upon the same
railway train with a Protestant bishop and clergyman,
and continue persona grata with the powers that be. The
day is passed, and passed forever, when a inan in any
wise related to the government will not be permitted to
speak before a respectable, reputable Protestant assem-
blage, upon even a non-religious topic. Who knows —
we may not be too sanguine — but it may be permitted
to a lowly servant of the government in an humble ca-
pacity to give a cup of cold water, or extend the hospi-
tality of a night's lodging, even to a Protestant mission-
ary, without violating the unwritten law. I thank God,
and congratulate you, my fellow men and women in the
kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ upon the changed
conditions."

Religion is the mightiest agent for controlling the pas-
sions of men. True religion is better dependence for
public order than the bayonets of an army. No more
profound mistake could be made by any official of any
government than that of ignoring or opposing the estab-
lishment and maintenance of this matchless force in every
country. Upon a profound sense of religious obligation

GOVKRNMKNT AND RkIJOIOITS CONDITIONS. 357

depend individual intcs^rity and national honor. No rea-
sonable Protestant would demand that all offieials should
attend any particular Church ; but that those who are set
in high places of power should acknowledge God, is not
an inn'easonable expectation. Unless they do so it will
be in \'ain that they look for probity and trustworthiness
in those who will follow their powerful example.

MOUNTAIN P1NF,S, NKAR I;A(;UI0, THE NEW
SUMMER CAPITAL.

CHAPTER XX.
Why is Protestantism in the Philippines?

Within three months from that memorable Sunday
in May, 1898, on which Commodore Dewey daslied the
Spanish fleet in pieces "with a rod of iron," representa-
tives of several missionary societies of the United States
were consulting as to the wisest and most effective means
of establishing Protestantism in the newly-opened Phil-
ippine Islands. They were seers in a literal sense. They
saw the United States must take and carry the role of
liberator and deliverer among the Filipino people whose
sovereign power had passed into her hands, and laid
their course accordingly. Pursuant to plans entered into
at that conference, anrl those which have been framed
later, Protestantism is in the Philippines. It is preach-
ing, teaching, and building, with every indication of a
purpose to remain and become a permanent factor in
the future of the Filipino people.

From many sources questions are asked as to why this
has been done. It is to be expected that Rome is not
pleased that it should be so. It is not wholly a surprise
that some irreligious people who, like Gallio, care for
none of these things, should question the wisdom or the
charity of such a course ; but questions come from offi-
cials and from those wdiom one might have reason to re-
gard as enlightened and earnest Christians, in some good
degree abreast of the religious life and thought of the

358

Why is Protestantism in Philippines? 359

modern world. To all these it will be well to make a
serious answer to the question which forms the caption
of this chapter — "Why is Protestantism in the Philip-
pines?"

Protestantism is not in the Philippines to avenge the
wrongs wreaked upon those who espoused her principles
before her advent. By statutes framed to accomplish
that precise end, all teaching of Protestant doctrine was
made a crime under the Spanish regime. Sections 219-
228 of the Codigo Penal, or Penal Code, enacted by
Spain for the Archipelago, makes preaching, teaching,
or propagating, in any public or private manner, of any
doctrine other than that established by the State, a crime
to be punished by heavy fines, or imprisonment at hard
labor, or both. Under that law, with all the resources
of the civil arm at their command, the ecclesiastical au-
thorities made life a burden to all men who longed to
know for themselves the truths of the Word of God, or
to express in their own way their love and adoration to
the Father of their spirits. Deportations, imprisonments,
and martyrdom itself, was meted out with no sparing
hand. But those dark chapters- are written. The\- are
history. None of our eiiorts can change a line or letter
of the verdict passed upon them. Protestantism has no
desire to usurp the throne of judgment, but leaves that
to Him who will judge all men according to the deeds
done in the body, accordmg to what they have done,
whether they be good or evil.

Protestantism is not in the Philippines to gloat over
the faults which may be proven to have existed in the
lives and methods of those who have been religious
leaders of the Filipino people. Its leaders solemnly de-
clare that such faults existed, and adduce proofs when
partisans of the friars say that they had no sin. That

36o The Philippines and the Far East.

must be done. The world has a right to know, and must
know, what has been the record of these men who now
claim that they are deeply wronged, and that they have
been good under-shepherds of the flock of Christ. It
must be made plain that this is not the case, but that "with
force and cruelty they have ruled them." But this need
not be done often, an^l need not and will not be a pron.i-
inent part of the program of Protestantism in the Phil-
ippines. Such faults and sins as may be proved grieve
us as fellow-men and fellow-workers for the moral and
social well-being of our common humanity. Only so far
as the interests of truthful history are concerned will
Protestantism speak out on these matters. Such speak-
ing is no part of her work as a whole.

Nor are the leaders of Protestantism ignorant of the
good that there is in Roman Catholic literature, hymnol-
ogy, and doctrine and history. Together Catholic and
Protestant sing the soaring hymns of religious praise and
adoration written by Bernard of Cluny, and Faber, and
Newman. In literature of the devotional life we would
be poor indeed without a Kempis, and Rodriguez, and
Fenelon.

"Through the Dark Ages of semi-paganism in Europe
the Roman Catholic Church, in spite of its awful corrup-
tion, kept alive the belief in God, in the Christian re-
demption, in the future life. Abominations have crept
in. hideous superstitions have become part of its life,
much important truth has become corrupted ; but there is
no body of Christians in the world that holds the great
fundamental truths of Christianity regarding the Divine
Personality, the Supreme Divinity of Christ, the opera-
tion of the Holy Spirit, and the supernatural life, more
firmly that Roman Catholicism. Whatever there is of
mystery, of height, and of inspiring power in the Prot-
estant doctrine of the Incarnation or of the Trinity, is
found in Romanism as well ; whatever of solemn motive

Cfq

o
o

3 _

i^re

n;«

O -

Why is Protestantism in Piiilii'pinl;s? 363

and warniiif^ is found in the doctrine of the Fall, and of
human depravity, and of the jud^qment for which we wait,
is cdmmon alike to Romanism and Protestantism."*

It was a Catholic who wrote,

" There 's a wideness in God's mercy
Like the wideness of the sea ;
There 's a kinchiess in His justice
That is niore^than liberty.

For the love of God is broader

Than the measure of man's mind ;

And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.

If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word,

And our lives would be all sunshine
In. the sweetness of our Lord."

Nor is Protestantism concerned simply to wa.^e a
war of denunciation against the errors in doctrine which
so grievouslv distort the message of Christ. Mere nega-
tion accomi)lishes nothing. It may destroy, but build-
ing is the sore need of the hour. Like our Lord, these
new religious forces "come not to destroy, but to fulfill."

In |)rosccuting this positive program of intellectual,
spiritual, moral, and social fulfillment. Protestantism is
not concerned chiefly to carry on a war of mere prosely-
tism. True, the Churches organized under the new
movement receive, and will continue to receive, members
on profession of faith. But that is not their first aim,
nor in success in this direction do they place their main
hope of a broad and enduring success. If error and
darkness can be put away from the old Church which
has so long held this field, and if those who are wdthin
her fold can be quickened by a godly emulation to live lives
more in keeping with the teachings of Jesus, the leaders

■•'■Editorial in Indian Witness, August 6, 1903.

364 This Philippinks and thr Far East,

of Protestantism will rejoice with even a deeper glad-
ness than over the mere swelling of their own lists of
members. If the Church of Rome would only puiify
herself of those gross errors which hide the face of
Christ from the souls for whom He died, that result
would be hailed by Protestants with a joy that could not
be measured.

Protestantism is in the Philippines for the same
reason that she is in all countries of Europe and South
America — because her testimony is needed to counteract
those errors of Roman Catholic teaching which put in
peril the salvation of the individual sinner, and thus
jeopard the whole program of Christ for this world as
well as the next.

Protestantism is in the Philippines to exalt the Word
of God. The most deadly, because the most fundamental,
error of Catholicism is her relentless antagonism to the
Bible and to its unhindered use by all people. All the
people heard Christ. Each individual formed his own
conclusions as to what was meant by those words of life
that He spake. He inspired holy men to write down
such of these words as were needed for our learning, and
said to us that His Word was spirit and was life ; yet
this professedly Christian Church will not permit the
people — the common people who heard Christ gladly
when He was in the world — read His words, now that
He is no longer here to speak to them. Worse than this :
Rome reverses the Divine order. Instead of making the
Word of God the source of authority and rule of guid-
ance for the Church, she ordains that the Church shall
be the fountain and origin of authority to decide what
portions of the Word of God shall be made known to
the Church, and when and by whom. Protestantism
says that the Church was born from the loins of the in-

Why is Pr{)I'i:si'.\xtism i.\ I'iiimi'I'inics? 365

spired W'ortl, ami owes all its existence and insi)iration
to that Word; that in the day that Rome reverses that
order she chokes the springs of Divine truth, and the
solitary places are not made like a watered garden.
Protestantism teaches the Scriptures to all the people,
and tells them that in those words of their Heavenly
Father they will tind how to worship Him who seeketh
those who worship in truth and in spirit. Rome teaches
the people that the Bible is a book full of deadly danger
to untaught souls, and only such portions are helpful as
a human priesthood approves, thus setting the decisions
of a priest against the words of the living God. Such
an error goes to the very roots of faith. It nmst be an-
tagonized wherever it is found. Ultimately civilization
itself becomes impossible if the fountain of all light and
truth and salvation is to be fenced away from the people
for whom Christ opened its healing streams. Protestant-
ism may be criticised for establishing herself where such
fundamental errors are commonly taught ; but she must
persist. The welfare of her critics, even, demands that
she continue to bear her testimony at all cost and in all
places, until all the people shall have it in their power
to read God's Word in their own tongue. In the work
carried on by the leaders of this host of v^orkers very
little will be said in antagonism of the position of Rome
on this point. But by all possible means, and with fer-
vent prayer following the work, they will meet the cry-
ing need of the people for the Scriptures. They will
"fulfill" the plan of God, and not "destroy" by labored
argument the error of Rome. Such fulfillment is the
surest and swiftest means of destruction. Its method is
regnant in all realms of both nature and grace.

Testimony to the vital error of Roman Catholic teach-
ing as to the sacrificial work of Christ is an absolute

366 The Philippines and the Far East.

necessity to the interests of truth. With all possible
finality the Scriptures tell us that Christ died for our sins,
and in that death "bore our sins in his own body on the
tree." Paul says "Christ was once offered." In an-
other place he says, "But now once in the end of the
world hath He [Christ] appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself;" and in yet another passage,
"But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down on the right hand of God." In the
plainest conflict with this is the teaching and practice of
Roman Catholicism. She teaches that the sacrifice of
Christ is offered in all its fullness — the sacrifice of the
literal body and blood of the Son of God — every time
a priest performs the ceremony called mass. A man of
like passions with ourselves, according to this amazing
doctrine, makes the Incarnate Lord of Glory from a
simple wafer, and ofifers his sacrifice of redemption for
a world's sin every time he says mass ! The blasphemy
of it is not more apparent than its utter lack of conformity
to Scripture and sound reason. The practical conse-
quence of the doctrine is, that the salvation of individuals
is put into the hands of a priesthood, and that priesthood
thereby lifted to a height of power over mind and con-
science which only God himself can rightly hold. It
puts a man between the sinner and his Lord. It lays the
foundation upon which the entire edifice of sacerdotalism
is reared. Protestantism can not rest while such mon-
strous perversions of the redeeming work of the Son of
God are set before people as Divine truth. Its people
can not but speak the simple yet glorious truth to all
men that no priest or angel or saint or ceremony can
shut one poor sinner away from the Redeemer; that
Christ died once for all. and that, by penitence and faith
in this finished work of atonement ofit'ered without spot

Wiiv IS Protkstan'i ISM IN' Piiiijppixics? 369

unto God. the}- may each Ix' dircctl}' fori;iven and as-
sured of their adoption into the spiritual family of God.
In logical harmony with this assertion of priestly
power to give or withhold salvation to men to whom it is
"the gift of God," is the doctrine of Rome regarding the
Church of Christ :

"The Roman Catholic Church is a close corporation
consisting of the ])ope (the so-called Head of the Church),
the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests. These,
and these only, constitute the Church. The so-called
laity, or common people not in the priesthood, are the
mere subjects and beneficiaries of the Church, entirely
dependent upon the priesthood for any and all spiritual
benefit. This priesthood holds the keys of salvation in
its hands. No soul may or can have access to God, or
receive any grace from God, except through this priest-
hood (clothed, as they claim, with supernatural power),
which becomes the only mediating agency between God
and man. Now, this whole theory and claim Protestants
utterly deny and repudiate, holding that the Church is
composed of all believers without distinction. That One
is our Master, even Christ ; and that all believers are
brethren. They utterly deny the sacerdotal character of
the priesthood, and teach that access to God is open to
all men through Jesus Christ, who is the only Mediator
between God and man ; that ministers of religion, whether
preachers or administrators, are but brethren set apart
on account of peculiar gifts which better qualify them to
do the work of the ministry. They are not 'lords over
God's heritage,' but the servants of God and their breth-
ren."*

Rome postulates mental incompetence in the race, and
then works upward from that basic level. Her dogmas
say, in eiYect, that men left to their own unaided judg-
ments run into all kinds of error ; therefore, God has
founded one institution in the world in wdiich religious

*Dr. George F. Pentecost.
24

370 The Philippines and the Far East.

certitude can always be found. The Roman Catholic
Church, unchangeable and infallible, offers a haven for
the storm-stressed sons of men. Drop anchor within this
haven, says the Romanist, and you are safe. But you
must surrender mind, will, judgment, conscience — all.
Intellect can not be made a judge or an arbiter of your
course. To ask so much is to dig up the base of the
edifice. Catholicism ofifers to be a director of conscience
and an arbiter of truth. What it asks of those who enter
is not faith, but the abjurement of faith in the New Tes-
tament sense, and the acceptance of the decisions of the
Church as the end of the law on all things. Such a
course kills individuality. When Spain had killed the
Reformation in her own borders, she had killed indi-
vidual initiative in the highest realms of thought, and
the blight has been on her fields and mines, factories, and
her offices of state from that day. Rome kills individ-
ualism. She reduces all men who accept her teaching
to abject and unreasoning obedience to her dictates. Her
scientists must not think contrary to Catholic dogma.
Her authors must not write contrary to dogma. Her
priests must have no mind and know nothing except the
infallible decrees of the man who happens for the time
being to fill the papacy. Proofs could be quoted bv the
chapter, but one case will illustrate my meaning. It is
a letter taken from the Chicago Tribune. It is written
by a member of the Catholic Church, and evidently under
pressure :

"Chicago, April 21. 1903.
"Editor of The Tribune :

"On Sunday, May 4, 1902, I acted as the chairman
of a meeting to protest against the legitimate removal of
the Rev. J. J. O'Meara from St. Agatha's Parish to Free-
port, 111., and in order to make public reparation for my

Why is Protkstaxtis.m ix Philipi'Ini^s? 371

unwarranted action as a Catholic, T kindly beg you to
afford me space for the following apology:

"Knowing as I now do that my action was ill-advised,
and at the time I uttered words which, after retiection, 1
find were unwarranted, I desire to state that I did not
know at that time, nor do I at the present, of anything
which would reflect aught but credit upon those who
were in authority, nor did I know the reason for such
removal.

"I. therefore, wish that it be thoroughly understood
that I know naught against any one in authority, and
stand ready at all times, as a devoted adherent of 'Mother
Church' to make amends for any and all evil effects
which my action may have caused ; and promise that
whenever the constituted authorities deem fit to issue a
command that I will bow in humble obedience, with the
firm belief that whatever may be done is done for the best
interests of the Church and to the advantage of her
members. Edward A. Kennedy."

Can any sane man believe that a system which can
I)roduce such blind and abject submission of intelligent
men to ecclesiastical authority can be productive of good
social or political results? One blushes for the manhood
of Edward A. Kennedy, and all other men who allow
their divinely given reasons to be thus bound and dragged
captive at the wheels of a human organization. No
wonder that Dr. Horton says :

"Men will increasingly, year by year, without heat or
passion, but with a will that turns not back, reject the
system which is not Christianity, but a growth, a para-
sitic growth, which has intertwined itself with that im-
perishable plant that is yet to overshadow all nations."

If the fond hopes of our martyred President, and
those of the leaders of our nation to-dav are ever realized
lor the Filipino people, and the day comes when they
shall assume among the nations of the earth that sep-
arate and equal station to which some of their best nicn

372 The Philippines and the Far East.

believe the\- will some day be entitled and able to main-
tain, their leaders will be men who "without heat or
passion, but with a will that turns not back," have
stepped outside the pale of an ori:::;anization which crushes
individuality, and puts iron clamps upon the minds of
its members. Romanism can not furnish such men. Her
method makes it impossible. Roman Catholicism has not
produced a great invention, nor a great author, nor one
commanding statesman within three centuries. No Re-
public ever stood firm except those whose voters had
learned and practiced intellectual liberty in matters of
religion. Mexico is yet only semi-Republican. Protes-
tantism will render a fundamental service to the Phil-
ippine State that is to be in two ways : it insists upon a
high morality in its membership, bidding them to have
done with the vices which enfeeble and debase men, and
so contributes a purer type of citizen for that State ; and
second, it admits laity to an equal share of the govern-
ment of ecclesiastical affairs, and in the offices given
them by the franchises of their brethren, or the appoint-
ment of their brother, the pastor, they learn how to carry
on the larger concerns of the State. In short, the method
of Protestantism is to exalt the individual ; to teach him
that it was for him that Christ died and rose again, and
that he may find salvation without the aid of priest or
sacrament, and then help him to realize his own complete
manhood in the unfettered pursuit of all knowledge and
in the service of God and his fellow-men. It was men so
taught and so led out into independence of thought and
action who subdued a tyrannical king under Cromwell,
successfully resisted colonial oppression in the days of
the infancy of our Republic, and settled the relation of
States to the Union, and the holding of slaves under our
Hag in the Civil War. It is sheer madness to suppose

FIRST TRAIXIXG-SCHOOL FOR FILIPINO WOMKN.

Miss Spaulding in foreground, Miss Parkes above and beliind len
girls. Opened June, 1903.

Why is ProtivSTantism ix Phiijppines? 375

that such citizensliip can be secured from the narrow
molds into which Rome runs all her ecclesiastical mate-
rial. All history bears witness against its possibility.
The experience of Europe and South American States
are l)ut foot-notes to the pages of European history.
Protestantism has an errand in the Philippines. She must
lift the individual to his feet, and bid him take his place
as a son of God and a partner in God's work for his
world. She must do this for His sake, and for the sake
of society and the State.

Protestantism is in the Philippines because it is not
good for Churches to be alone. Competition in religion
may seem a shocking thing to some minds, but it has
served the ends of greater purity of teaching and life
from the days of Pharisees and Sadducees to the times
of Catholic and Protestant. One of the Philippine Civil
Commissioners said in a session of that body, when a
petition from the IMethodists of Manila for a long lease
on certain government property formerly administered by
friars was before them for consideration : "I shall vote
to grant the petition. I am a Catholic, but I believe in
competition in religion." It is not good for man to be
alone. That is true of him as an individual, and equally
true of him in his organizations for social or religious
ends. Monopolies become bigoted. Catholicism has had
its own way in the Philippines for three centuries, and
she is not so healthfull}' prosperous here as she is in
lands where other faiths have lived by her side, and ex-
erted the pull of their example upon her doctrine and
spirit. It will be a tonic for Catholicism to have the
Protestant Churches by her side. She will purge out some
of the bad doctrinal leaven that has been spoiling her
measures of Filipino meal. She will scrape some barna-
cles from her hull in the shape of questionable and im-

376 Till; Phiijppinks and thic Far East.

moral courses among her priesthood. All this will be
painful, and her members and leaders will cry out against
the process. Surgery is always painful. Yet we can not
do without surgery.

Is Protestantism disturbing the religious peace of
the Philippines? On the alleged ground of such disturb-
ance, some earnest people are distressed that the move-
ment has begun. But do they know where there is any
religious peace in the Philippines? The fact is, that the
Protestant leader who goes wisely and constructively
about his work finds hundreds and thousands of earnest
souls who have not now, and who never did have, re-
ligious peace. They hunger for it. They welcome, as a
very angel of God, the Protestant with his Scriptures,
and his simple message of attainable, conscious salvation
in this world for all who repent and believe on the Christ.
Who does not know that the claim that the Filipino people
are "entirely Catholic," as the pope solemnly assured
Governor Taft in his correspondence about the friar
lands, is a misstatement of the facts ? It is said with much
emphasis that the disloyalty of the Filipino Catholic is
against the friar, but not against the Church. But when
the recent history of the Philippines is dispassionately
sifted, and when the attitude of the population that would
kill forty friars, all of them serving under the orders of
the Church to which their murderers are said to be un-
swervingly loyal ; when they imprison four hundred more,
and chafe like tigers in a net to think that it was im-
possible to kill all the latter as they had killed the former,
it will appear how loyal they are to the organization send-
ing and supporting these offending priests ! When it is
considered that the Filipino people have been buying
Bibles at the rate of more than five thousand a month for
every month since the beginning of 1902, in spite of the

W'liN' IS Pkoticstaxtism i\ 1^11 11,11'i'i .\i;s? 377

burniiii;" (Icniiiicialion of all who dare to l:)uy ihcni, ut-
tered by priests and bishops and Church periodicals, al-
most daily, threatening' tlieir souls with the torments of
hell after death, and intiniatin<;- that the full weii^ht of
ecclesiastical disabilities, plus cholera and smallpox and
the death of their cattle — all sorts of heathen curses on
basket and store — would li.^ht on them in this world if
they persisted in their course, it can be seen that this plea
of a solid Catholic population is without foundation. The
Protestant does not need to proselyte. He finds an easier
constituency waitins^" him. Thousands of natives, men
and women, are receiving Protestant Christianity eagerly,
joyously. They sing its soul-stirring hymns ; they are
reading its vernacular Scriptures ; they are meeting day
after day in little companies for mutual inspiration and
help. They come miles to services, on foot across rice-
paddies, and in rain and darkness. They entertain
Protestant ministers in their homes, an.d feed them with
the best that the neighborhood affords. They are not
loyal to the Church as a people. Protestantism comes
not to disturb a condition of religious peace, but to quiet
a condition of religious unrest. Protestantism comes to
bring true peace by bringing that "righteousness" which
St. Paul declares must ahvays precede both "peace and
joy in the Hol\- Ghost." (Rom. xiv, 17.)

There will be turmoil at the first, and the appearance
of unseemly strife ; but it is the inevitable clash of opinion,
and out of it will come the larger purpose of the good
God of us all for people who have had but three centuries'
lift from practical barbarism, but who show, by their
rapid strides under conditions far froni favorable, what
may be expected when they find Jesus Christ in the full-
ness of His power to save, and enter into all the fullness
of life which He came to give.

CHAPTER XXI.
The Religious Situation — A General View.

Fundamental religious conceptions undergo change
very slowly. In some triumphant future of Pentecostal
power such as has not yet rested upon the Church of
Christ, it will probably be true that a nation will be born
in a day, and that this birth will be into a life so utterly
different from that out of which the converts have come,
that they will leave their old conceptions "by life's un-
resting sea," never to resume them again. But the his-
tory of religious thought bears many testimonies to the
conclusion that evolutionary processes more or less rapid
have controlled in the development of the religious con-
sciousness of peoples. The postulates of Platonic thought
persisted in Christian theology long after New Testament
times. The fiery evangelism which swept the Goths and
Vandals into a professedly Christian faith left them in
possession of much of their gloomy and severe concep-
tions of Deitv and of human relationships. Druidism left
its dark trail across centuries of teaching in Christian
England.

While it is true that six millions of the Filipino people
are counted as Roman Catholics, it is yet true that, to a
far greater degree than is commonly known, they yet
retain the fundamental notions of God and the controlling
ideals of their idolatrous faith. In proof of this we have
but to know a little of their religious past, and to come
into close contact with them in their religious worship,

378

Tm: Rivi.iGious Situation. 379

their ordinary ways of thinkinf^ and speaking of God,
duty, immortality, and eschatological subjects in general.

From the meager stocks of knowledge which we pos-
sess of that earlier faith we can glean but little. The
Malays who were here when Legaspi, the ruler, and
Urdaneta. the friar and evangelist, came to establish the
authority of Spain and found the Christian faith, had
never reduced their religious ideas to writing. There-
fore it is impossible to study them as Buddhism, Hindu-
ism, and Mohammedanism are studied. The friars who
came to displace the old faiths were iconoclasts. Every-
thing not of Rome was of the evil one. Rome has not
yet produced one sympathetic student of Comparative
Religions, or, if any studies by such a writer have seen
the light of the printed page, that light has been quenched
by papal order as was the book on New Rome in Zola's
"La Roma." In any case, no records are left us of pains-
taking effort on the part of the friar missionaries really
to understand what the poor people for whom they la-
bored did believe, and what were the hopes which those
beliefs kindled in their bosoms.

From what little we know of the religious belief of
the Malay invaders of the Philippines, we are led to con-
clude that it was an idolatrous form of demon-worship.
It postulated malevolence as the chief characteristic of
Deity, and its worship was a series of fear-born attempts
to propitiate the wrath which they conceived burned
against them unceasingly. This vmseen and malevolent
Being was believed to exist in many forms. Their idols
were numerous, as idolatry can never be exactly certain
that it has secured a correct representation of the Unseen,
and with pathetic eagerness to be right continues the
weary unavailing search for God if haply they may find
Him who is near to everv one of us.

380 The Philippines and the; Far East.

These idols were of the rudest and most inartistic
forms. They show indisputable marks of both Hindu and
Buddhistic thought, and are not wholly unlike idols found
in Java and in parts of Borneo at this time. Several
images of Buddha in the sitting posture, with folded
hands resting on his knees, palms upward, have been dug
up by excavators for foundations, and in plowing the
fields of the central and southern islands. Idols similar
to that of Krishna and Ganesh are to be seen here and
there in old buildings and in out-of-the-way corners of
the provinces.

It was the custom of the Malay invaders to secrete
their idols, or Aiiitos, in remote caverns and wooded
dells. They were supposed to possess miraculous power,
and yet this power could not be conceived of as being
exerted otherwise than in punishment for faults.

It was firmly believed that it was well pleasing in
the sight of these gods to seek vengeance for wrongs
sufifered at the hands of another worshiper. The wor-
shiper who failed to exact an eye for an eye was sup-
posed to be out of favor with his Anito, and could not
see his face in peace while his injury went unavenged.

Such, in briefest possible outline, are the main points
which may be considered well established in the religious
belief of those whom Spain found in tlie Philippines at
the time of conquest.

The conversion of these idolaters to Catholicism was
rapidly accomplished. The king of Cebu accepted bap-
tism almost at once. Crowds knelt and were baptized
in rows. Where reluctance to accept the new faith was
apparent, a large and influential party of the missionary
friars were ready to employ force. In fact, one of the
burning questions of early friar evangelism was whether
it was right to use force in securing conversions to the

AN ANTING-ANTING SHIRT. ^'^

(Letters are supposed to be mystic symh )ls. Wearer believed to
be impervious tt) bullets or bolos. )

The Religious Situation. 383

Christian faith. A delegation finally went to Rome to
secure papal lis^ht on so abstruse a question as that (jf
compelling- men at the point of the sword or the mouth
of a cannon to renounce their old beliefs and accept those
of Him whose gospel is love and compassion. Within
fifty years after Urdaneta and his helpers began the work
of evangelizing the Malays, the work was practically
completed. The aboriginal Negritos, and Igorrotes, as
well as the bloodthirsty Moros, were practically unaf-
fected by all that friar persuasion could do for them in
all the centuries of efifort.

It must be said, also, that this work of conversion
was most superficially accomplished. Little positive in-
struction was given to converts. Rome never relies upon
that in her attempts to break ground in solidly heathen
countries. It is a line of work for which her limitations
on liberty of thought fetters her. The so-called conver-
sion of the Filipinos was accomplished by a substitution
of images, while their fundamental conceptions of the
Deity behind those images remained, not wholly un-
touched, but in a modified form. It is little wonder that
such methods met with instant success. The Malay loves
beautiful things with all the passion of his soul. His
own idols were rough and unattractive. Here were
images of the Christ, the \'irgin, and many saints dressed
in rich colors, with gems and tinsel and brocade work,
and all this beauty set aglow by the light of scores of can-
dles. Here were priests in rich robes, chanting their
service in rolling music that set every fiber of this natur-
ally musical man thrilling, while clouds of incense alter-
nately veiled and disclosed those forms of supernal beauty
before the altar, and over all the solemn bells called at-
tention to God and his worship. Here were Anitos that
were attractive. By this worship Deity must be more

3^4 TiiR Religious Situation.

readily propitiated. These saints who had power to
ward oil ilhiess. avert plagues, still the yelling tempests
that swept their shores and wrecked houses with crops,
and in general turn away the wrath of an angry God were
surel)' the right objects of worshiji, and henceforth were
to be accepted as divine, and the mandates of their min-
istry obeyed. Thus these poor people reasoned, and with
no more alteration of underlying conceptions of the char-
acter of God and those resultant ideas of the duties men
and women owe to Him and to one another, they became
Christians.

This use of images in the work of evangelism is not
in contiict with the beliefs and practices of Rome. She
has cut the Second Commandment out of her Bible and
her catechisms, and divided the Ninth Commandment
into two to keep the total number correct. No thunderous
"thou shalt not" from Bible or catechism startles Roman-
ists as they bow down to images and likenesses of people
and scenes both in heaven and in earth, and in the waters
under the earth. Nothing took place, therefore, in the
conversion of the Malays of the Philippines which was
calculated to eradicate their false notions of the character
of God nor of the duties which men and women owe to
Him and to one another.

Therefore we find that the Filipino Catholic still con-
ceives of- God as a Being burning with wrath against
the work of his hands, and seeking to devour them and
thwart them, and exact vengeance for their shortcomings.
For this diversion of the wrath of God he attends mass,
has his little ones baptized, counts his beads, and attends
to all the mint and anise and cummin of the Catholic
law. For this he pays his money lavishly for masses
to have the souls of his departed loved ones taken from
purgatory to the heaven that is promised to all them that

Thi-: Ri'i.iciors v^itiatiox. 385

love his appcarins;' and kingdom "without money and
without price." There is scarcely an act of worship that
he performs which is not caused by this hauntin<^ fear
which has followed him from his old faith. The dead
hand of that idolatry lies across his entire tliDUght of
God. The baleful shadow of this slanderous thoui^ht of
a God who so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him might not
perish but have everlasting life, so darkens his life that
his religion is not one bringing joy and exulting confi-
dence, but fear rather, and at best a sense that the per-
formance of all the rites prescribed has purchased im-
munity for another period, and until that is ended it is
as well to breathe easily, and take what comfort in life
one can find. That God is a Being full of love, and that
He has provided a salvation that' rescues men from sin
in this life, and gives them dominion over sin here and
now, and that heaven is merely the destination of a people
who walk with this loving Father in paths of humble
service to the end of life's journey, — all this is far from
their thoughts, and Rome has done but little to bring it
rear.

Vengeance for individual wrongs is deemed a duty
by the majority of Filipinos It is an unimpaired sur-
vival of that old belief that he who suiYered one who
wronged him to go unpunished was displeasing in the
sight of his Anito. Not until the teachings of Christ dis-
place those which have persisted from a dim past will
this cause of so much bitterness and feud be removed.
It is rooted in the belief of the people. A generation
or more will pass before it can be cast out.

A careful study of the religious situation discloses
great lack of intelligent loyalty to the Catholic Church.
The teaching which she gives her members is hardly
25

386

The Ri-xigious Situation.

"sincere milk." It certainly never becomes "strong-
meat." The catechisms in use in so-called religious
schools for Filipinos are wishy-washy things. A little
Scripture history, a few pages of dogma, half of it ut-
terly unsupported by so much as attempts at proof, and
pages of miracle-studded saint-lore, with the forms of

A RELIGIOUS PROCESSION IN MANILA.

(Friar in gown and white cuffs of lace in the rear at left.
Cathedral in background.)

prayer and the usual responses used in worship, make up
this book. This is all to be learned by all candidates for
confirmation. It is committed to memory blindly, with
no attempt to make meanings clear to the children who
rock back and forth on the floors by the hour, singing
over meaningless words to themselves in a high monot-
onous key until they can rattle them off glibly when the

Tiiiv Ri'i.icious Situation. 387

priest comes to catechise them. Often the whole book
is in an unknown tony,ue to the pupik That has no effect
whatever on the method of in-struction. Repetition is
perfection. Thought is not required. The only possible
result follows, and that is that intelligent loyalty — the
loyalty that is true and can give a reason for that ad-
liesion to his chosen Church — is hard to find. Arch-
bishop Chapelle and Archbishop Guidi have both been
convinced that Filipino is loyal to the Catholic Church.
Sentiment and powerful social reasons hold thousands
in line, and give the impression to those in authority that
loyalty is well-nigh universal ; but this is not that in-
telligent loyalty to doctrine which holds men and women
steady when other teachings come to their attention.

Superficially converted at the first, superficially taught
until the present hour, this people have been alienated
from the Church through the conduct of a majority of
the friars whose predecessors first offered them a better
faith. It is idle to deny this charge. Previous chapters
furnish proof that no fair-minded man can refuse to ac-
cept as final that the loyalty of Catholics has been sub-
jected to a fearful strain by the greed, the cruelties, and
the immoralities of those foreign members of monastic
orders who served as parish priests. Under this strain
the faith of hundreds of thousands has given way. At
least one-third of the Filipino people have no sympathy
with the Roman Catholic Church. In their own person,
or in the case of loved ones, or of friends, or perhaps in
their property rights, they have felt the merciless hand
of the friar-curate, and their allegiance to the Church
which sent him and stood sponsor for his acts is at an
end. \\'hile Rome was in power and could re-enforce the
might of ecclesiastical processes with those of the civil,
and, if necessary, the military power, these men and

388 The; Philippines and the Far East.

women were outwardly observant of customary forms.
But now that it becomes increasingly apparent that the
padre with his robe and cross must keep within the limits
of ecclesiastical power in enforcing discipline upon re-
fractory members of his flock, these men and women are
lifting up their voices, and clamoring for a faith that
satisfies their souls. Let no one suppose that this restless
turning away from the old to something better is always
an intelligent revolt. It is often densely ignorant, and
rather in the nature of a pathetic feeling in the darkness
for light than well-instructed search for truth. These
masses are on the move. They are like a herd of thirsty
cattle. They know their thirst. They know that waters
to slake it can not be found in the old grazing grounds,
and they are on the move for possible satisfaction. They
move rapidly. They move eagerly. They are liable to
be stampeded. They fall victims to pretended popes and
false Messiahs, and heresies wilder than Dowie teaches
secure ready hearing". Some Americans, and more Cath-
olics, pour ridicule upon the success of the Protestant
movement in securing converts from these people. They
say that the people are ignorant, and do not know what
they are doing. Admitting that they are ignorant, though
many of them are far from being so, is it not a sight
to melt the heart of any follower of Christ to see such
spiritual thirst, and to witness such eagerness to try any
cup that offers to satisfy that thirst? These masses are
on the move. It is not a question of whether one-half or
more of the entire body will remain within the Church
of Rome. In no true sense are they within that Church
now. They will go somewhere. Some form of unbelief
or misbelief will receive them.

Thousands of the leaders of public thought have given
up all pretense of religion. Sickened with the shams

TiiK Rkmgious Sittation. 389

they have seen, thcv are hi open revolt. Many of these
are men who have stuched in European universities, and
ob«>erved the behcfs of other nations. Is infidehty to
cl"^ini all these, the natural leaders of Filipino thought ?
Rome will never hold them. She has lost that hold. For
form's sake and for social reasons, they may not utterly
and openly break with her unless they find satisfaction
for their thirsty spirits ; but members they are not, and
never will be, in any true sense of that term. Either
Protestantism must win them with a reasonable presenta-
tion of the claims and promises of Christ, or they will
not only be lost, but will drag others down with them.

Hundreds of thousands will run into superstitions
yet deeper than those which hold them now, if that is
possible, unless help is given soon. As a class, supersti-
tion rules the larger portion of this great horde of rest-
less souls. Will they plunge yet deeper into this abyss?

"Many of these superstitions are survivals of former
idolatrous beliefs. One of the most prominent of the
latter su])erstitions is that of 'anting-anting.' The most
ignorant classes firmly believe that certain persons are
possessed of a diabolical influence called anfiiig-antiiig,
which preserves them from all harm. They believe that
the body of a man so affected is even refractory to the
effects of bullet or steel. Brigands are often captured
wearing medallions of the Virgin Mary or the saints as
a device of the anfing-aiifing. . . . Some highway-
men, too, have a curious notion that they can escape pun-
ishment for a crime committed in Easter week, because
the thief on the cross was pardoned his sins."*

Certain images like that of the Holy Child of Rangi,
the Santo Nino de Cebu, St. Francis de Assisi, Our Lady
of Caysaysay, and the Virgin of Antipolo, are believed
to have miraculous powers, and to exert them on behalf

^ Foreman.

390 The Philippines and the Far Kast.

of penitents on occasion. The fact that there seems to
be a direct connection between the size of the fee paid
and the readiness of the image to respond, would cause
suspicion in the mind of one who had ever been encour-
aged to use his mind in connection with his religious
worship. St. Francis of Assisi is only an image of wood,
but it sheds tears sufificient on occasion lo moisten a
number of cloths. The Virgin of Antipolo has five
times crossed the seas between Mexico and the Philip-
pines, and on each voyage saved the royal galleon from
being ingulfed in the roaring waves by miraculously
stilling the tempest. Thrice the building in which she is
kept has been burned to ashes, and each time this gaudily-
be-tinscled image has been found amid the ashes with
not so much as a curl of her false hair singed, and with-
out the smell of fire on her garments. The village of
Antipolo is her shrine All that gives it life is the pil-
grim trade called thither by the sale of handkerchiefs and
prints of saints and rosaries blessed with the blessing of
this wonder-working image. In spite of this fact, Anti-
polo is a center of brigandage, even as Kali-Ghat was
the focus of Thuggism in India.

All-Saints' Day, November ist. Catholics are taught
that one lighted candle placed at the foot of a shrine, and
a prayer repeated, will deliver souls from purgatory.
Sorrowing relatives throng these places of worship. The
crush is often unbearable. xA father, a mother, a loved
husband, or beloved child may be gotten out of purga-
torial fires for a candle and a prayer ! Who that so be-
lieved would not undergo discomfort? Sacristans make
them move on after two or three minutes ; their candles,
which must be left burning at the shrine, are promptly
extinguished, and coolies can often be seen carrying them
away to the priests' storeroom to be resold to dealers.

The Religious Situation. 391

In 1887, one church is said to have gathered forty hun-
dred weight of candles worth $37 each on that one day
of superstitious worship.

Sweating" images are most popular with the devout.
Standing in dark corners, with wax spread over their
surface, they are only to be approached with large can-
dles. Prayers to be effective must be of some length.
By the time they are concluded, the wax is melting, and
the drops trickling down the image is the promised per-
spiration, and proof that the prayer has been heard.
Other images are jointed, and for a sufficient consider-
ation will bow or move their arms in token that the prayer
of the penitent before them has been heard. But now
and then the string breaks, or the joints stick, and the
prayer is said to be devoid of faith. Great profit is made
from dressing up doll-like images of saints and martyrs
and carrying them from door to door, that they may bless
the houses of those who pay the right fee, and permit
these holy personages to tarry in their homes. The fee
is regulated according to the length of the domiciliary
visit. The friars formerly hired a man for a few pesos
a month to carry the image from home to home, and all
receipts over and above the wages of the custodian were
net profit for holy funds !

P'ictures of almost all sorts are sold to the native wor-
shiper, with stories of miraculous power they can exer-
cise. The pitiable credulity of ignorant worshipers is
apparent in almost every hut. Dean Worcester tells of a
family who secured a cartoon of President Cleveland in
the garb of a friar, with a tin halo about his head, from
an old copy of Judge which he happened to leave out of
his baggage, and when he next visited that family he found
them all on their knees before this wretched cartoon, en-
gaged in their evening devotions! He says, "So far as

392 The Philippines and the F'ar East.

I know, Mr. Cleveland is the first American President
to have been canonized"

To whom will this multitude go if they are left to them-
selves ? Can any one question that their future is a dark
one, and that, this being the case, the future for which the
best class of the Filipinos ardently hope will never be
realized ? Thousands have gone off after a self-styled
pope in Southern Luzon within the past two years. He
has been convicted of imposture, murder, and other seri-
ous crimes, and e:=cecuted, and yet many of his followers
cling to the belief that he was to be their deliverer, and
could have set them free if he had been let to escape the
gallov/s.

When the Aglipay movement began in October of 1902,
it spread like wildfire. Within eight months its leaders
claimed three million followers, and had actually taken pos-
session of all the Romish Churches over entire provinces,
priests, members, and all coming into the movement. All
that Aglipay promised them was freedom from Rome, and
a Church of the Filipinos, by the Filipinos, and for the
Filipinos. Doctrinally he took Romish ground with the
exception of belief in the papacy. While his claims were
probably based upon the hopes and expectations of his fol-
lowers rather more than upon statistics gathered and sifted
with the care that should accompany such work, it still re-
mains that more than a million of this eager, restless peo-
ple have followed Aglipay out of the Roman Catholic
Church, and more are joining the movement every day.
While I have no hard words to sav of this independent
Filipino Church movement, I must say that it will not
give the people a true idea of Christ and His power to
save, and that it will leave all the more for a pure form of
Protestantism to do, as it fails to edify and lead those
whom it seems satisfied to detach from Rome.

YhR PlIII.iri'lXKS AND TIIK FaR TtAST,

393

The religious situation is one that must appeal to every
lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is a nation ready to
he led to the Christ. Sick of the impotence of their old
faith, they wait to he helped into the pool of true spiritual
healing. Will the Protestant Churches of America rise
to the novel and urgent demands of the situation? Or
will they 1)e content to apply their usual rules to this tin-
usual condition, and go so tardily and so pinchingly about
the work of saving a whole people that the door of oppor-
tunity will swing shut in the faces of those who seek
most eagerly to enter with the message of a salvation
that saves?

(C|,

fcJMifn

ir '#1^

.■^''■i

INTERIOR CATHOLIC CHURCH, MANH.A. WOMAN KNEELING.

CHAPTER XXII.

The Bible Societies.

It was a Hindu who said, 'If I were a missionary I
would not argue ; I would print the New Testament, and
would say to all the people, 'Read that!' " The first v/ork
of the missionary in reaching- his field of work is to see
that all the people have the Scriptures in their own tongue
in which every man was born. He believes that the leaves
of the Word of God are for the healing of the nations.
He is assured that what man says may fall into the soil
of his field and perish, while the words of God are vital
with the life of Him who spoke them, and are certain to
bring forth some sixty and some an hundred fold. He
knows, too, that the Scripture is able to reach waiting
thousands with their silent appeal long before the living
messenger can possibly come to them, and that its testi-
monies to the love of God and the redemptive work of
Christ will be given with undiminished force after the
messenger has gone to other cities also. To attempt the
evangelization of a people without giving them the Word
of God would be to write in the sand of their history.
Successive waves of time would wash out every mark of
evangelism which had reared no mighty corner-stone of
inspired truth upon which to found its building. Carey in
India, Morrison in China, Mofifatt in Africa, Judson in
Eurmah, — these all were led of the Spirit, who wrote the
Word to put first things first in their various fields, and
immediately put the Sacred Book into the language of
those among whom they had come to labor.

394

The Bible Societies. 395

Two Bible Societies saw the need in these Islands, and
took steps to meet that need long before the clouds of war
had risen. The American IHble Society in New York-
ordered its agent for China, Dr. John R. Hvkes, to visit
Manila, examine into conditions, and report to the society
as to the advisability of establishing an agency at Manila.
He reached Manila in September of 1898, looked into con-
ditions, and made a report. This report was favorable to
such action, and in 1899 Rev. Jay C. Goodrich, a minister
of the Methodist Episcopal Church from the Newark Con-
ference, was appointed, and, with his wife, took his place
at Manila, arriving in November of that year.

The British and Foreign Bible Society had meantime
sent the Rev. H. F. Miller from Singapore on an errand
similar to that of Dr. Hykes. Later, Mr. Miller was him-
self appointed agent, and had arrived at his post some
time before the arrival of Mr. Goodrich. Both these soci-
eties have been steadily at work during the past four years.

It was not the first attempt of the British and Foreign
Societ} to open work in the Philippines. Through its
agency in Singapore, to which city so many Fipilinos
resorted when friar antagonism became too pronounced,
and through its larger body of workers in Spain itself,
that organization had come into close association with
many of those Filipinos who waited most anxiously for a
new spiritual condition to prevail in their native land.
With the help of some of these men, translations of por-
tions of the Gospel, more or less accurate, were made into
I'angasinan and Tagalog. In 1888 a converted friar
named Lallave, who had spent twelve years in the prov-
ince of Pangasinan — a Dominican — with a companion
named Seiior F. de P. Castells, sought and received from
the British and Foreign Bible Society permission to under-
take the distribution of the Word of God in the Philippine

396 The Philippines and the Far East.

Islands. With a stock of Spanish Scriptures and the four
Gospels in the Pangasinan language, which had been
translated by Sr. Lallave while in Spain, these two men
took their lives in their hands and entered Manila. They
at once began to encounter difficulties. Their books were
held up in the custom-house, and their work of distributing
the Scriptures was brought to a sudden end by order of
the officials. While seeking to unravel the complications
which had arisen so that it would be possible for them
to carry on their work, and within a week of their arrival
in the city, Sr. Lallave, the elder of the two, died of poison
in his room at the Oriente Hotel, where they were stop-
ping. He was buried in the Protestant cemetery at San
Pedro Macati. His companion was also taken violently
ill with similar symptoms, but did not die. It is not
capable of exact proof such as would be demanded in a
court of law, but on all hands it is believed that the death
of Sr. Lallave was due to friar intrigue. They hated him
on two separate grounds : he had become a Protestant,
and was now engaged in an attempt to put the Bible into
the hands of the common people. Foreman says that mur-
ders by friars were not uncommon :

"The mysterious deaths of General Solano (in August,
i860), and of Zamora, the bishop-elect of Ccbu (in 1873),
occurred so opportunely for Philippine monastic ambi-
tion, that little doubt existed in the public mind as to
who were the real criminals. When I first arrived in
Manila, nearly twenty years ago, a fearful crime was still
being commented on. Father Picrnaviaja, formerly
parish priest of San Miguel de Mayumo, had recently
committed a second murder. His first victim was a na-
tive youth. His second a native woman cncicnte. The
public voice there could not be raised very loudly against
the priests, but the scandal was so great that the criminal
friar was sent to another province — Cavite — where he
still celebrated the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist. Nearly

TiiK Brr.i,K, SocricTiKS. 397

two decades afterward — in January, 1897 — this rascal
met with a terrible death at the hands of the rebels. He
was in captivity, and having' been appointed 'bishop' in
a rebel diocese, to save his life he accepted the mock
dignity ; but imfortunately for himself he betrayed the
confidence of his captors, and collected information con-
cerning their movements, ]ilans, and strongholds, for re-
mittance to his community. In expiation of his treason
he was bound to a post under the tropical sun and left
there to die. See how the public in Spain are gulled !
In a Malaga newspaper this individual was referred to
as 'a venerable figure worthy of being placed high up
on an altar, before which all Spaniards should prostrate
themselves and adore him. As a rcligiciix he was a most
worthy minister of the Lord ; as a patriot he was a hero.' "

The companion of Lallave was first imprisoned, and
then banished from the Islands. But the society "felt that
its first effort, attended as it had been with the death of
one agent and banishment of another, bound it to the
Philippines, and made it incumbent upon its officers to
avail themselves of the first opening to enter the Islaiuls
and carry forward the work to which Lallave gave "the
last full measure of devotion !"

Nothing further was attempted by this society mitil
1898, when Mr. Randle arrived with translations of the
first three Gospels and Acts in Tagalog, St. Luke in Bicol,
and St. Luke and the Acts in Ilokano, all of which trans-
lations had been done by our agent in vSpain. with the help
of exiled Filipinos, — exiled chietiy through having in-
curred the displeasure of the friars. Air. Randle was suc-
ceeded by Air. Miller.

The first work of Mr. Miller was to translate the New
Testament into Tagalog. It was found that the trans-
lation which had been made in Spain was too faultv to
send out in anything approaching permanent form, and
such portions as had been put into this vernacular were

398 Tnii Philippines and the Far East.

all gone over as carefully as though it had been new work.
The undertaking was one calling for really immense toil.
Mr. Miller did not know the Tagalog. His familiarity
with Spanish had to be largely acquired after he came to
Manila. No Filipinos could be found whose English was
sufficiently perfected to enable them to translate directly
from English into the vernacular. The Spanish text was
necessarily made the basis for general work, and native
translators under vigilant supervision put the Spanish
Testament into idiomatic Tagalog. Then the work was
carefully copied, and submitted to good judges of both
tongues. Then, after their corrections had been made, the
final test was made. That consisted in having the trans-
lator or some other person familiar with Tagalog read the
vernacular translation back into Spanish, while the agent
and his assistants noted carefully every shade of meaning
expressed to see that the full sweep of the original thought
was secured. It was a toilsome method, and one which
was sure to leave more or less of inaccuracy in the finer
shades of thought ; but it was the only method that could
be employed at that time, and was therefore used, in de-
fault of more perfect but wholly unattainable methods.
It required practically two years to complete this task, and
two years of as severe labors as any man should attempt
to perform in this climate. The work was completed in
February, 1901. but a revision was found to be imperative
to correct certain grave defects. This was completed dur-
ing 1902, and the "Bagon Tipan/' or New Testament in
Tagalog. was ready for the mission for which it had been
prepared.

In 1901 this agency reported 36,859 Gospels and Acts
printed in Tagalog, and 9,000 Pangasinan Gospels, Of
these books, 21,000 were printed for the American P)ible
Society, which, in turn, printed 6,000 Ilokano Gospels

The Bii'.i.i': Sociktiks. 399

for them. The circulation of Scriptures for 1901 was
26,825 Gospel portions in IMiilippine vernaculars, 3.671
Spanish Testaments and portions ; 3,528 Chinese Testa-
ments; English. 132; all other languages, 102; total.
34,258 copies of the Word of God or of some portion
thereof. Besides the work of three English colporteurs,
the society employed two Bible women, who did incalcti-
lable good in reading the Scrij^tures to women from hotise
to house, and in selling such copies as were asked for in
their visits. This work went to the verv citadel of Rome —
the blind allegiance of the women to all the superstitions
and errors by which they have suffered so much.

Besides the totals given above during 1901, this society
used a novel kind of agency for wide distribution — polit-
ical prisoners — to whom 1.380 Scripture portions were
given at the time of their discharge. The Gospels were
thus carried to many remote places in the more distant
provinces, and doubtless penetrated to many a village
where no regular agent or colporteur of the society will
ever be able to go. One of the workers records this inci-
dent of her work among the people :

"At one house I had a splendid gathering of nine or
ten women sitting on the floor all around me, waiting to
listen to whatever I had to say. I read and sang to them,
and tried to talk to them about Jesus, the only Way of
salvation, looking up the various texts in Tagalog as
best I could. . . . .\t a little shop there was quite
a gathering of men and women and children. On hear-
ing the hymn, 'The Light of the world is Jesus,' one
man undertook to explain it to his neighbors : making a
straight motion upwards with his arm, he said, 'The
hymn says you can go straight away to Jesus, but the
friars say no — round by this.' making a circle around
his back, and looking knowingly at his companions."

The report for 1902 shows a total circulation of 64,477

400 Thk Philippines and thk Far East.

copies, or an increase of 28,839 over the circulation of
1901. Many of these copies are sold to Roman Catholics
who are curious to see the entire Scriptures, of which they
have only been able to hear detached bits of history and
teaching. Rev. H. F. Miller resigned the agency on
account of illness in his family, and, though serving as a
rector of a parish in Australia, is carrying forward the
translation of the Old Testament into Tagalog, with the
help of the man who aided most effectively in the trans-
lation of the New Testament. It is hoped that this society
will be able to bring out the entire Bible in Tagalog within
a year. There will be a large sale for it now, and that
demand will increase rapidly, as the new Aglipay move-
ment has openly indorsed the study of the Scriptures.
The new agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society
is Mr. Percy Graham. The same staff of colporteurs re-
mains, but the services of the Bible women have been dis-
continued.

The American Bible Society has also undertaken trans-
lation work. Its first heavy work was to put the New
Testament into the most virile of all the languages of
Northern Luzon — the Ilokano — using as a basis the trans-
lations of St. Luke and Acts which had been prepared in
Spain. This language is spoken by more than a million
of the most alert and progressive people to be found north
of the Tagalog limits in Bulacan. Though their home
is in the narrow coastal plain at the foot of the Cordil-
leras north of Pangasinan, they have overflowed into all
the surrounding provinces, and the lingua franca of fertile
provinces bearing dense populations is the Ilokano. This
people are the natural leaders of all that portion of the
island of Luzon, and it is a matter for much gratitude that
the American Bible Society was guided early in its history
in the Islands to see that fact, and to undertake to put the

Till'; Tlir.i.i-; Societies. 401

words of Christ into its conquering forms of speech. Mr.
Goodrich spent several months in Japan during' 1902-3,
with the help of Sr. Isabelo de los Reyes, putting the final
touches to this important work. The work is completed,
and the sales of the entire New Testament in this tongue
have already been large.

Simultaneously work was carried forward on the trans-
kition of the Gospels into Pampanga. This is a language
or dialect spoken by more than three hundred thousand
people immediately north of the Tagalog province of
Bulacan in Luzon. The people are among the most intel-
ligent and trustworthy of the Filipino people. The entire
New Testament is now in manuscript, awaiting final re-
vision. The manifold tluties of the agent, and the diffi-
culties of securing and retaining efficient assistants for
the book-keeping, the correspondence, and management
of shipping details, makes translation, or other work de-
manding careful and consecutive thinking, move very
slowly. Added to this is the fact that no vernacular in
the Philippines has ever been taught in the schools. Very
few of the best-trained Filipinos have ever made a gram-
matical study of their own language. While they have
spoken it from their infancy, and have no difficulty what-
ever in expressing their own thoughts in its terms, it is
not easy for them to determine what precise verbal forms
will best convey the thoughts and words of Scripture.
The decisions necessary to be made in the abstract as to
the right case, the proper mood, the correct tense, and the
precise content of terms never used for conveying relig-
ious ideas until the present, are such as puzzle and delay
the best vernacular assistant that can be secured. It is
probable that revision of all translations made at present
will need to be made when men who know English thor-
oughly, and who also know their own vernaculars in a
26

402 The Philippines and the Far East.

scientific way, have been raised up through the present
pubUc schools, and in the private pursuit of Unguistic
research certain to follow the introduction of a new spirit
of inquiry.

The American Bible Society has also undertaken to
translate, or aid others in translating, into two dialects of
the \'isayan, Iloilo, and Cebuyan. These versions get on
slowly, but will be ready some time during 1904.

In the distribution of its printed product the American
Society has been handicapped by that fact that it is not
the policy of the secretaries to send colporteurs from the
United vStates, and the agent in Manila has been compelled
to secure his help on the field. It was not possible at first
to secure Filipinos who could do the work.. He has had
some noble men ; but the best of them were not perma-
nently given to the work, and their very brevity of service
crippled them for the most effective work. Only one man
has been brought from America for the general work of
the Society, in addition to Mr. Goodrich — Mr. Paul Barn-
hart. He served two years, and was compelled to return
to the States in 1903 after a dangerous fever. Despite
these hindrances the work of circulation has gone steadily
on, increasing with each month.

The trials of American or European colporteurs in
their travels into interior provinces are as hard as would
be experienced in Africa or the heat of China. There are
no roads. The food of the Filipinos is such as will not
long satisfy an American or English stomach, with its
everlasting rice and fish, its garlic and interminable gravies
seasoned so as to suit the native tastes, but impossible
to Americans. Night after night they must sleep on the
split bamboo floors of native houses, with noises of all
uncanny sorts to interrupt the rest so sorely needed after
et day of tramping and talking in a strange tongue. The

TlIIv BlIiLE SOCIKTIES. 403

remuneration is barely sufficient to meet living expenses,
if one lives on food that nourishes his powers for the best
service, and the supply of young men willing- to do the
kind of work demanded of a colporteur, and at the same
time having a real spiritual interest in the welfare of the
people, is not always abundant, and is always hard to re-
tain. The British and Foreign Society has the advantage
of having English colporteurs on long-time agreements.
These men are secured and appointed from among hosts
of earnest Christian men in home Churches. This is the
better plan. It relieves the agent on the field of a wear-
ing responsibility, and insures the exertion of the proper
kind of personal influence by the field men.

Several sad things have occurred. Mr. Carroll R.
Bear contracted cholera while in the service of the society,
and died of that disease on the 15th of July, 1902. Mr.
Bear was a Christian soldier lad, and was one of the best
men the society has had in its employ. Mr. Barnhart was
with him when the illness came on, and remained with him
until the end, like a good soldier of his Lord.

"Mr. W. T. Gugin began work for the society in
June (1902), taking the im])ortant field resigned by Mr.
Kelso. IMr. Gugin makes warm friends, and succeeds
in convincing people of the truth of the Gospel he is dis-
tributing. In one village \n Tarlac province he so faith-
fully presented the truth that the principal men in the
town insisted upon his remaining and becoming their
pastor ; instead, he assisted them in organizing a con-
gregation, and they have since built a church and have
regular services. In October, Mr. Gugin took up the
new field of Leyte, Samar, and adjacent islands, where
he has had his usual success. At the instigation of the
priest he was mobbed in a barrio of Tacloban shortly
after his arrival, but escaped uninjured, and succeeded
in winning the people with weapons of love, so that they
have since begged his forgiveness. Unusual courtesies

404 The Philippines and the Far East.

have been extended to Mr. Guijin by the officers of the
army and civiHan authorities wherever he has gone."

Mr. Gugin met his death at the hands of unknown
enemies while selhng the Scriptures in the island of Leyte
early in 1903. No trace of his murderers can be found.

Mr. J. G. Milloy is a most effective salesman. He has
learned the Tagalog, and speaks it fluently. He goes
into the midst of crowded fiestas and into the throngs
which gather at the doors of cockpits, and sells thousands
of copies of the Scripture portions with which he is sup-
plied. The circulation of Scriptures during the years
1901-2 were as follows: In 1900, 10,873 copies of Bibles,
Testaments, and portions; in 1901. 52,793;, and in 1902,
91,260, — making a total of 154,926 volumes in the three
years. The statistics for 1903 are not yet complete, as at
the time of writing it lacks some weeks of the end of the
year; but Mr. Goodrich assures me that the circulation of
the present year (1903) will not fall under 125,000 copies.
The factors which have conspired to increase the sales this
year are, first, the possession for the first time of the New
Testament in Ilokano ; and, second, the strange fact that a
Catholic Church has gone into the business of buying and
selling Bibles. Through the influence of Mr. A. W.
Prautch, more than that of any other person. Archbishop
Aglipay, of the Independent Filipino Catholic Church, has
taken an open stand in favor of the reading of the Scrip-
tures. In a letter on file in the office of Mr. Goodrich,
Aglipay says :

"Es mi opinion que de la lectura de la Biblia resul-
talla illustracion del individuo y el progresso de la ria-
cion."

"It is my opinion that the reading of the Bible will
result in the edification of the individual and the progress
of the nation."

TiiK BiBLF, Societies. 405

Opposition has been hot and persistent. An,c^ry priests
snatehins;- Bibles from the hands of the people, and burn-
ing' them before their eyes, have been found in many
places. A voung woman converted in one of the many
services in Manila received a Testament as a g'\it from
the missionary who married lier. Within a week the priest
who had formerly ministered to the family had secured
the Bible and destroyed it. A few weeks ago a woman by
the name of Maria Apolonario had serious trouble over a
copy of the Scriptures sold her from the American depos-
itory in Manila. Her husband lay dying' of cholera. The
local priest, a Filipino named Primitive Baltasar, came to
the home to confess the dying man and administer the
sacrament of extreme unction. He was informed that they
did not need his services, as they prayed to Christ Himself
for what they desired. He espied a copy of the Tagalog
New Testainent near the head of the dying man, and, seiz-
ing it, began to tear out the leaves, saying to the woman
that her husband had taken the cholera as a Divine pun-
ishment for the awful crime of reading a book full of all
mischief and the power of the evil one. He told her,
with loud and threatening tones, that he would surely
lose his soul, that she and the children would follow him
into hell, and that, to prevent her spreading the terrible
influence any farther in the community, he would have her
and her family removed to another town in a distant
province. After her husband was buried, this poor fish-
woman had the Rev. Primitivo Baltasar arrested for his
offense. In retaliation he had her put in jail ten days
for violating sanitary laws. He pleaded not guilty, but
on the preliminary hearing he was found guilty, and
bound over to the Court of First Instance under bonds of
$1,000. It is the first case in the Philippines in which we
have really caught a priest redhanded in the act of de-

4o6 The Philippines and the Far East.

stroying a Bible, and have made the law as effective in his
case as though he were not a padre. It has caused im-
mense delight among the little band of Protestants in the
city of Orion, Bataan, where it occurred, and the news of
it has gone far and wide among our native Christians.
Formerly the person of a priest was immune to all pro-
cesses of the civil law. It comes as a great shock to these
men who have ruled like despots in every community to
find that under the American flag that kind of thing has
its limits, and that they must answer before the judges
of our courts for offenses committed precisely as any one
else who has broken the law.

The following quotations from the travel diaries of
some of the colporteurs will show what the difficulties and
rewards of their work are :

"From Dagupan to Sto. Tomas is a distance of thirty
miles, and we were obliged to do it on foot by the side
of an ox-cart which conveyed our books. It was a long
and hard day's march. We left Dagupan at half-past
seven in the morning, and reached our destination just
as taps sounded at nine o'clock. We reported to the ser-
geant in charge, had our books unloaded and cared for,
and were shown places to lie down. A little supper
would have tasted good about that time, for all we had
had to eat on that long tramp was a small slice of bread
and some bananas ; but there was no help for it, and we
retired to our plank bed to dream of the supper we should
have had.

"In the morning we had an interview with the presi-
dent about our work ; at first he hesitated because the
books were not Catholic. We explained that they were
Christian. He read passages; his counselors read, and
at last bought eagerly."

Mr. Leon C. Hills, of the Presbyterian Mission, writes
from Iloilo :

"The distribution of the Bible is meaning much to

Tiiii Bible Societies. 407

the Msayan people. One not interested would scarce be-
lieve, should he hear, the extent of distribution the liible
has had in these parts. The sale of Bibles in Spanish and
of portions in X'isayan has been confined quite largely
to the common people. This is well, for they constitute
the most fertile soil for efifective propaganda. The idea
of having a religion in which they can read and think
for themselves is marvelous to their eyes. And they are
capable of thinking sj^ritual thoughts, such as are often
hidden to the wise and prudent."

"In regard to the distribution of the precious Bible
in the territory of Northern Luzon, it may safely be stated
that such work is the very preparing of the way for ef-
fectual work by the gospel preacher. People who have
any knowledge of God at all wish to know all that is to
be known of Him, and when they know that God has
revealed His Word and will in such a form as that it may
indeed be read and studied, may be grasped by all through
the medium of language or dialect, it must mean that
there will grow a hungering and thirsting for it. They
have now tasted of the good Word of God, and they find
it is the Word of life."

Mr. Goodrich says in his report for 1902:

"Some months ago we received a letter from an aged
presidente in the interior asking for a New Testament.
We sent him two Spanish-English in parallel columns.
In reply he writes the following :

" T have received with greatest satisfaction your let-
ter and the two copies of the New Testament, which I
have read with great care, and in which I have at last
found the experience of a good Christian.'

" 'It is true that the religion taught by the Roman
Catholic Church is the only one known in the Philippines
during the period of three centuries, during which time
the Filipinos have had the misfortune of living with the
friars, who have taught nothing else than the doctrines
made by them, and other religious books than their own
were absolutely prohibited. I do not desire to attack the
authors of these doctrines, for, in my humble opinion,

4o8

The; Philippines and the Far East.

they did not make them to force them upon the people,
but for those who wished to receive them.

" 'But as the weather changes, so has changed the
fate of the FiHpinos. Perhaps God has so ordained, and
we have now the opportunity to read and learn the truth
concerning the soul, especially the New Testament which
has been lying in the dark alDvss of the ignorance of the
people because the Spanish government intrusted to the
friars the religious education of the inhabitants of these
Islands, and the friars had refused to publish the truth
for fear the Filipinos would discover their false doctrines
and erroneous beliefs, declaring that they represented the
apostles of Jesus Christ.

" 'For the advancement of Christianity, please tell us
how we are to aid you financially in the circulation of
the Word of God.' "

This translation and distribution of the Word of God
carried on by these two societies makes mission work pos-
sible. Without the Scriptures we would be powerless.
Wherever our men go they find the ground already broken
by these plowshares of truth.

THE BENGUET ROAD.

CHAPTKR XXTIT.
Missionary Bkc.inninos.

The Holy Sjiirit never throws a land open to evan-
gelistic effort until the burden of its salvation has been
placed upon the hearts of His children. One of the most
convincing proofs that anv one can have of the intention
of the Almighty Lover of souls to open a closed land is
the presence of this holy burden upon the hearts of those
whose position and consecration make them likely instru-
ments in effecting" that entrance when the hour of God
shall strike.

Man}- hearts were burdened for the salvation of the
people in the Philippine Islands long before the barred
doors which shut out all evangelical truth were blown to
shivers by the iron hail of Dewey's conquering fleet.
Chief among those who felt this burden, and wdio took
active steps to make possible the entrance in God's good
time, was Dr. James Mills Thoburn, Missionary Bishop
of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Southern Asia.
His field embraced India, Burmah, "the Malay Peninsula
and all adjacent islands inhabited by the Malay race."
Though this precise definition of that field was not inserted
in the Discipline of the Church until 1896, it was inserted
for the reason that this had been his own mental definition
of it from the beginning. In the early eighties the city
of Singapore and its salvation was placed upon his mind
and heart in a way that he could neither explain nor shake
oft'. It seemed to him the key to all the vast island world

409

4IO The Philippinks and the Far East.

of the East Pacific. He was buried in work in Calcutta.
It seemed impracticable to undertake the founding of a
Church at go remote a place. But the impression deep-
ened into a conviction of duty, and he mentally prepared
to be obedient to what had come to be clearly "a heavenly
vision." When Bishop Hurst arrived in India in 1884
to hold the Conferences, the first thing he said to Dr.
Thoburn was, "Have you had any thought of occupying
Singapore?" Coming as it did after these spiritual and
mental struggles, this question was accepted by Dr. Tho-
burn as the final word of the Lord in the case. At the
Conference that followed the name of Rev. W. F. Oldham
was "read out" for Singapore. As soon as possible after
Conference, arrangements were made to go to that far-
away city. Friends made up a fund sufficient to pay the
way of Dr. Thoburn and wife and the Oldhams to Singa-
pore, and they trusted the Lord to enable such as needed
to do so to return. They were warmly welcomed by peo-
ple of God who had in a strange way been led to expect
such help, and within a few weeks had seen the salvation
of at least three scores of souls — chiefly among the English
and Eurasian population — the purchase of a desirable lot
for a church, and the installation of a pastor where there
had been neither church nor congregation until their ar-
rival. Thus was occupied and fortified the city which was
to prove the starting-point for the on-march of the Church
to the heart of the Philippines.

It is instructive to note the dates of these respective
steps in the Divine approaches to the spiritual conquest
of the Malay Archipelago. It was in 1883 that the burden
first began to rest upon Dr. Thoburn. It was in 1884 that
Bishop Hurst and Rev. W. F. Oldham were led of the self-
same Spirit to feel its weight. It was early in 1885 that
the first parallel was advanced against the enemy's po-

Missionary Beginnings. 411

sition, in the occnjiation of Sing'apore. It was in 1887 that
Senor Lallave first felt impelled to return to the islands
where he had served as a Catholic friar, and give the peo-
ple the pure Word of God, and to that end translated and
had printed hy the British and Foreign Bible Society por-
tions of that Word in one of the languages of the popula-
tion. It was in 1889 that Senors Lallave and Castells
entered Manila as the accredited agents of that pioneering
society, and the ex-monk gave up his life as a sacrifice to
the bigotry of the Spanish friars. It was then a long wait
until 1898 when the causes which had been so long in
operation ])roduced the outbreak which ultimately over-
threw Spain both in Cuba and the Philippines. But a day
with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years
as one day. He waits, but He forgets not. In His own
good time, and through the employment of agencies which
men would not think of using, he opens "the two-leaved
gates" which shut His children away from their largest
liberty.

Bishop Thoburn was in London in May, 1898, on his
way to the United States. He was awakened on the morn-
ing of May 2d by a newsboy crying the paper under the
window of his hotel. Above the general indistinctness
of the monotonous call rose the words, "Manila Bay!"
The bishop rose, purchased a paper, and read the wonder-
ful Jericho-like victory of Commodore Dewey in Manila
Bay. His spirit was strangely stirred. He saw the ful-
fillment of the hopes and prayers of years. God had
spoken. The Philippines were open to the gospel. He
had wondered whether it would be Japan or Russia or
England, or perhaps Germany, in search of new Asiatic
leverage, that would drive the Spaniard from the posses-
sions which he had wasted and robbed, and throw them
open to the gospel and to the vitalizing currents of the

412

The Philippines and the Far East.

modern world. America as such an agent had never been
dreamed of as a possibiHty. But here it was before
his eyes. The flag of his own land had been raised over
Manila Bay, and it had been raised as an incident of a
war of humanity and compassion. It would stay. It
would guarantee liberty and the possession of the gospel

^ — .. — . ^. ^^, by the millions who

. were groping in the
;• mists of Romanism.
He immediately
wrote and sent to the
Christian Advocate an
ordered account of
llie steps which had
led to this interven-
tion, foretold perma-
.; nent American occu-
■i pation, and exhorted
i the Churches of Prot-
' estantism to enter in
the name of the Lord
and give the people
ORDINARY COASTING BOAT. of thc Philippines a

(Carries fish, chickens, pigs, and passengers, pure gOSpel. However
Taken near Bataan Province, Orani.) others might have

been stunned by the news from Manila that May morning,
it came as a long-expected message to this watcher. With
as clear a vision as though the events of the past five
years had unrolled before his eyes, he foretold what would
happen, and what should be the policy of both State and
Church in the premises. The article made a profound im-
pression upon some readers of the Advocate. Others made
light of it, and said it was visionary. But this world has

]\IISSI()^■.\K^■ Bkcinnings.

413

always needed the man who could see visions, and the race
will be poor indeed when those to whom the definite prom-
ise of seeing visions was made let their spiritual eyesij^ht
become clouded. It was visionary in a high and holy
sense. It was the vision of the man who waits at the posts
of God's doors, and hears when he calls, "Whom shall we

send, and who will go , — .,^^- — ,_

for us?" From Paul ' '"
at Troas to Thoburn
in IvOndon may seem
a far cry to some, but
who will say that it
was not by the same
Spirit that both were
led to see the vision
of needed help in na-
tions yet vmblesscd
with the pure Word
of redemption?

Bishop Thoburn,
after a few days, re-
turned to the United
States, and, with oth-
ers like-minded, did
all in his power to stir the Church to a sense of her duty
to give the gospel to the Filipino people. Two other
persons now come into view in the commitment of large
sections of the Protestant community in the United
States to a missionar)- beginning in the Philippines.
These are, in the order of time. Dr. Arthur J. Brown,
Foreign Secretary of the Presbyterian Missionary So-
ciety, and Dr. George F. Pentecost. Dr. Brown stirred
up the society of which he was secretary to take action.

OX-CARTS IN THK I.A\ , iWAlllNc,
SENGERS FOR THE SHORE.

414 The Philippines and the Far East.

On the 6th of June, 1898, that society took preliminary
steps toward " the opening of mission work in the Phil-
ippine Islands." On the 20th of June the Executive
Council, to which the matter had been referred, reported
that

"The Christian people of America should immediately
and prayerfully consider the duty of entering the door
which God in His providence is thus opening. This ap-
pears to be, so far as we can judge, the feeling of the
Presbyterian Church. It is significant that already let-
ters have come to the Board from persons in five different
States urging the importance of taking up this work,
and making offers of co-operation in men and money.
. . . However, it is only fair to presume that this senti-
ment is not peculiar to Presbyterians. Indeed, there are
rumors that the Foreign Ivlissions Boards of other
Churches are disposed to consider the relation of their
Boards to these opening fields. We feel that it would be
quite unfortunate if several Boards should enter any one
of these fields at the same time, thus unnecessarily dupli-
cating expenses, and perhaps introducing elements of
rivalry. . . . We believe that the new situation thus
providentially forced upon us affords us excellent op-
portunity not only for beginning this work, but for be-
ginning it right from the view-point of Christian fel-
lowship and the economical use of men and money. To
this end we recommend that the Executive Council be
directed to hold an early conference with the represen-
tatives of the American Board, the Baptist Missionary
Union, the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, the Board of Foreign and Domestic Mis-
sions of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the Board
of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America,
with a view to a frank and mutual understanding as to
the responsibilities of American Christians for the people
of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands, and an
agreement as to the most effective distribution of the
work among the several Boards, if it shall be found ex-
pedient and practicable to undertake it."

Missionary Beginnings. 415

On July 13th this Conference was held. As a result,
a perfectly amicable understanding; was arrived at with
regard to all the new possessions. In July, Dr. George F.
Pentecost spoke before a Bible Conference at Winona
Lake, Indiana, on the situation created for the nation and
for Protestantism in the Philippines, and with great power
urged the occupation of the Philippines by forces of evan-
gelical Christianity. God spoke that day by the mouth of
His servant.

A greater degree of co-operation was never seen in be-
ginning a work of national evangelism than in the plans
for the occupation of the Philippines. The Spirit removed
every obstacle to the best and most effective prosecution
of that work for which He had prepared the way.

Chaplain George C. Stull, of the First Montana X'olun-
teers, a member of the Montana Conference, Methodist
Episcopal Church, held the first Protestant service on
shore in the Philippines. Here is the entry he made in his
journal :

"Sunday, August 28, 1898. — What a wonderful day
this has been ! Arose early from my bed in the MortuarV
Chapel and looked about for a place to hold services. The
most acceptable place was one of the old Spanish dun-
geons facing the bay. Dark and gloomy. But the sun was
shining, and the men came, and the natives sat about on
the outside and near the door and barred windows. How
we sang; how the place was transformed ; how the people
wondered at our service ! My text was, 'The power of
God.' How He showed Himself to us. Eight responded
to the invitation at the close of the service to identify
themselves with God's people: not to start a Methodist
Church, but to band together to honor God. This was
the first distinctive Protestant religious service, so the
people tell me ; for to hold any but the State service here-
tofore meant death. That the power of God will use this
dav to make a good Catholic better, anv weak American

4i6 The Phiuppines and the Far East.

stronger, any backslider ashamed, and the gloomy old
dungeon the beginning- of wonderful things in these
Islands, is my prayer."

Meantime the Spirit was also at w'ork in the Philip-
pines raising up those who would come to the aid of the
first workers, and by whose familiarity with local con-
ditions, the native languages, and the needs of the multi-
tudes, the planting of the new Churches was to be facili-
tated. Three names emerge from the goodly number of
these early instruments of the work of God in the work
of opening the Philippines to the gospel. These are
Arthur W. Prautch, Paulino Zamora, and Nicholas Za-
mora. The first named is an American who labored for
some twelve years in connection with the Bombay Con-
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but who came
to Manila to carry on business and at the same tmie help
found the work of the Church early in 1898, as it was
possible for him to get passage from San Francisco. The
second named is one of the thousands who had sufit'ered
at the hands of the friars ; and the last is his son, a man
now less than thirty years of age. Senor Paulino Za-
mora had many ties to bind him to the Catholic Church.
His uncle was a prominent Filipino priest. His brother
was also a priest. His son Nicholas was as good as
named for the priesthood when he should have completed
his course in the College of Santo Tomas and secured
the necessary training in theology. But one act of black
injustice opened his eyes to the hollowness of Roman-
istic pretensions of piety, and to the pitiless cruelty of
her accredited ministers when their plans were interfered
with by Filipinos.

The uncle of Sefior Zamora was one of many Filipino
priests who firmly believed that friars were legally dis-
qualified to hold parish curacies, and stood ready to cit?

Missionary Beginnings. 417

chapter and section of Church law to clinch their claim.
But everywhere that the livings of the curate were re-
munerative friars were in charge. They claimed that
Filipino priests were incompetent, and that it was in-
cumbent upon them thus to fill the positions of importance
until a Filipino priesthood having the necessary qual-
ifications of character and learning could be raised up.
Meantime they did little but decry the possibility of mak-
ing priests of the natives of the country, and made but
feeble attempts to give to even the most promising that
thorough preparation which could alone qualify them
for the work. This party of opposition to the program
of the friars waxed more and more strong and became
more outspoken from year to year. Finally, in 1872, as
is firmly believed by those informed, the friars stirred
up an insurrection in which no one but their own tools
and dummies performed any acts that would lay them
open to the charge of being violaters of the law. These
they protected by their powerful influence in official
quarters. As soon as the first moves had been checked,
and the so-called "insurrection" put down, they took oc-
casion, however, to bring the leaders of this movement
against friar curacies under suspicion as the instigators
of the insurrection. By means of questionable evidence
they proved some of them guilty of having fomented
the uprising, and they were sentenced to death by the
score !

Reference has already been made to this bloody chap-
ter of friar history (Chapter VIII). Among the victims
that were shot on the Luneta as guilty of treason was
this relative. Paulino Zamora knew he was innocent.
Forbidden all his life to allow his own judgment to de-
cide any question upon which the Church had pronounced,
or to criticise any action taken by her officials, he now saw
27

41 8 The Philippines and the; Far East.

that he must abandon all use of his reason if he accepted
this deed of perfidy and blood as right in the sight of
God. His disaffection led him to procure a copy of the
Scriptures in Spanish. This he studied in secret, hiding
it away from the notice of any one likely to bring its
possession to the notice of the friars. In reading the
words of Christ the scales fell from his eyes, and he saw
that the system of the priesthood is a human invention.
During the long years that followed he became a marked
man — a Bible reader ! When the insurrection of 1896
broke out he was caught in the dragnet let down into
Manila depths by orders of a government acting under
the direction of the friars. He was banished to the island
of Chafarina, in the Mediterranean, north of Africa.
Nearly three hundred others, also under friar condemna-
tion, accompanied him in the prison-ship, many of whom
died from the rigors of their treatment on the way. He
was there until the signing of the Treaty of Paris, and
was one of the many prisoners for conscience' sake set
at liberty under its provisions. He immediately went to
Spain, where he sought out religious services of the
Protestants, of whom he had until that time only read
and heard. He found his spirit refreshed as he com-
muned with them, and, loaded with Bibles and Testa-
ments, and filled with a desire to carry to his countrymen
the Gospel of Christ in its simplicity, he returned to his
home in which, at last, it was safe to worship God ac-
cording to the dictates of his own conscience.

In his absence his son had completed his course in
the College of Santo Tomas, and had received his Mas-
ter's degree. Already imbued with his father's ideas of
true religion from long secret study of the Scriptures,
he was ready to avow his faith in Christ as a personal
Savior when his exiled father again ventured back wdiere

Missionary Bicginnings.

419

he had heard that the Stars and Stripes protected him.
Soon they were both in attendance upon, and aiding in,
services estabhshed for their countrymen. God owned
their labors, and, after nearly five years, they are both
standing firmly and boldly for the truth that Christ is
the Savior of the individual, and that all who call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Many worked with
them ; but these are fairly representative names to be
remembered by those who would keep in mind the won-
derful story of how God the Spirit prepared the human
agents who were to open the doors of life to the Filipino
people.

CHAPTER XXIV.
The Methodist Episcopal Churcpi : Beginnings.

The Methodist Episcopal Church was the first to
send a regularly accredited representative of its Mis-
sionary Society to found its work in the Philippine
Islands. That representative was Bishop James M.
Thoburn, D. D., in episcopal charge of Southern Asia.
His instructions came to him by cable from Bishop An-
drews and Dr. Adna B. Leonard, secretary of the Mis-
sionary Society of that Church, in February, 1899, while
he was holding the annual session of the Malaysia Mis-
sion Conference in the city of Singapore, to which he
had been strangely led from Calcutta in 1885.

It was good news to the bishop. His heart had longed
for such orders for more than a decade of investigation
and prayer for open doors to the Filipino people. Now
the doors were open. The orders had come. It was a
period of storm and stress in the Philippines. On the
4th of February had occurred the outbreak of hostilities
between the Filipinos and American troops, and rebel-
lion was aflame on all hands. But it was with keen de-
light that the bishop set out on this trip, which he well
knew was to make history.

On March 2, 1899, he preached his first sermon in
Manila. Mr. A. W. Prautch, to whom reference was
made in the preceding chapter, secured the Filipino
theater in Calle Echague, and about one hundred per-
sons gathered to hear. It was a service held under diffi-

420

MirniODisT EpiscorAL Church. 421

culties. Firing was going on so near the city that the
shots could be plainly heard. All the city was under
strict military guard. Permission to hold the service had
to be secured from the commanding officer of the city.
Nearly all the Americans in INianila were soldiers, and
]iractically all of these were either on duty or in momen-
tary expectation of a call to duty. Filipinos had not yet
learned much of their privileges in the matter of attend-
ance upon any form of non-Catholic services, and a serv-
ice of a religious character held in a theater was not
inviting to them. There were few of the customary aids
to worship ; but the Spirit of prophecy rested upon the
speaker. He traced the history of God's kingdom in
Asia, showed the providential character of American oc-
cupation, and spoke freely of the evident purpose of God
to make possible to the entire Filipino people a career
of peace and righteousness. With great power the bishop
enforced the text, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he have set judgment in the earth ; and the isles shall
wait for his law." In the afternoon of the same day he
spoke in one of the military hospitals. During his stay
of two weeks several steps were taken looking toward a
permanent occupation of Manila and the Philippines. A
Church was organized. Arrangements were made to
carry forward regular preaching services in both English
and Tagalog. Mr. Prautch received license as a local
preacher, and the aid of Chaplain George C. Stull, of
Montana, and other workers who had a mind to help,
was enlisted in maintaining these services until the ar-
rival of regularly-appointed workers from the United
States.

A Soldiers' Institute was opened under the care of
Mr. and Mrs. Prautch. It had a great field among the
crowds of soldiers, mostlv volunteers, manv of whom

422 The Philippines and the Par East.

had never been away from their homes until they came
to this distant part of the world. There was much home-
sickness. Much of the drinking which disgraced us as
a nation from Yokohama to Adelaide was due to the
fact that the army furnished its men beer in the can-
teen ; but no recreation-
rooms w^ere furnished,
and no facilities with
which to while away the
hours that hung so heav-
ily. The military gov-
ernment also permitted
greedy brew^ers to import
unlimited amounts o f
American liquors and
keep it on sale in the most
public thoroughfares.
The yearly license fee
for a saloon in Manila was
fixed at onlj^ $4. Among
these soldier lads, only
God will ever know how
much of lasting good was
done by those who kept
open this place of refuge
and hope. Captain Plum-
mer, a business man in
Manila, gave lavishly of his money and time to make
this Soldiers' Home a success. His sudden death in the
latter part of 1899 was the first serious blow that was
suffered by the infant Church. The help rendered by
Chaplain Stull and Mr. and Mrs. Prautch was invalu-
able. Without their labors in preaching and in carrying

REV. NICHOLAS ZAMORA.

Methodist Episcopal Church.

423

forward the work, it would have been impossible to
make the beginning.

Mr. Prautch soon opened regular services for Fili-
pinos, speaking as best he could in the Spanish which
he had picked up in Manila, or using the services of two
interpreters. The attend-
ance at these meetings
in the Soldiers' Institute
grew. Timid souls who
had worshiped God in
secret for many years, but
who had never dared
open!}- to own a Bible,
came one by one into
these services, and went
awa}^ to invite others. By
little and little it became
clear to the native people
that under the flag of the
United States they were
really at liberty to wor-
ship as they chose. It
was a boon so precious
that they hardh* dared to
accept it. The hated friars
were still in the cit}-. It
was long before they could

be made to see, and to this day the poor people in the prov-
inces do not see, that the day of friar rule is over, and that
no more will men be flogged at the church doors, or fed
on pounded glass by hired assassins, or sent into foreign
penal colonies, or shot by firing squads, for presuming
to worship God after the dictates of their own hearts.

MK. I^AI'LINU ZAMOKA.

424 'The Philippines and the F*ar E!asT.

The disturbed conditions made it a marvel that rehgious
services could be held at all. The most intense excite-
ment prevailed on all hands. Battles were the order of
tiie day. There was scarcely a family in Manila that
did not have some personal interest at stake in the con-
flict vyhich had been brought on by the headlong personal
amhition of Aguinaldo and a few who were associated
witli him. But in the storm of war the infant Church
was being securely rooted in Philippine soil.

Among those who came to worship was Senor Paulino
Zamora and his son Sehor Nicholas Zamora. More than
ony others who came at that time, these men were famil-
iar with the Scriptures and with the tenets of Protestants
generally. The elder had suffered sorely for his faith,
and was full of zeal for the salvation of his own people.
The younger was warm in his attachment to the new
faith, but had not yet rendered any service to the cause.
Mr. Prautch was much troubled to find interpreters and
speakers for his meetings. Only those who have stood
before audiences speaking other tongues can appreciate
how helpless a man is who has a message, but has no
power to utter it, and is unable to find those who can
put his thoughts into verbal forms familiar to those to
whom he would address himself. In one of his times of
quandary he pressed the elder Zamora to speak. He
declined, saying that it was not possible for him to be a
public speaker, as he had neither the gift nor the prepara-
tion for such a work. Mr. Prautch then pressed Senor
Nicholas to tell the people what God had done for him.
and how he had opened his eyes, and immediately the
spokesman needed for the hour stood forth ! Brother
Zamora arose, and began to speak to the people in their
own tongue in which they were born. After the first
sentences he spoke freely, and as he warmed to his story

H
^ O

r o

r O

r u»

Mkthodist Episcopal Church. 427

he spoke with ease and power. For absolutely the first
lime in the history of the Filipino race they heard from
one of their own number the Word of God as it was
wrillen. From that time this new Filipino preacher was
kept to his newly-discovered work. Mr. Prautch opened
services in other places as opportunity offered, and
kept him at work telling the good news to his country-
men. His father aided in all ways in his power, and
crowds filled any building in which Nicholas was an-
nounced to speak. Meantime he was coming into deeper
spiritual experiences, led and taught of God as from day
to day he pored over the Word, and studied the Spanish
books which his father had brought from Spain, and
such others as could be secured from Spanish countries.
During all of 1899 this work went on, and until
March of 1900, before there was any new direction given
to it. Then occurred the second visit of Bishop Tho-
burn, this time having as a traveling companion Dr.
Frank W. Warne, of Calcutta, who was elected Mis-
sionary Bishop in May of the same year. Bishop Tho-
burn was in very frail health. His heavy burdens of
labor, the long and serious illness of his wife, coming
immediately after the death of his only son. were too
much for his strength to bear. But his mind was as
clear as ever. He immediately saw in Nicholas a man
whom God had raised up and thrust out into this field
for special service. After examining him and listening
to his preaching, he resolved to ordain Nicholas Zamora
to the Christian ministry. According to the law of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, no man can be ordained
to the ministry until he has been elected to meiubership
in an Annual Conference on trial, and then, on a separate
and specific motion, elected by his brethren to receive
ordination. It was necessary, therefore, that Brother

428 The Philippines and the Far East.

Zamora be received into an Annual Conference and so
elected. But the Conference within the bounds of which
the Philippines would be embraced had already adjourned.
No other Conference in Asia was then in session. By
reference to his schedule of Conferences in the United
States he saw that the South Kansas Conference was
then in session in Chanute, Kansas, under the presidency
of Bishop Vincent. He sent a cablegram to Bishop Vin-
cent through Dr. Leonard, secretary of the Missionary
Society, asking that Nicholas Zamora be received into
the South Kansas Conference, elected to deacon's orders
"under the Missionary Rule," and transferred to the
Malaysia Conference for ordination, and that an immedi-
ate reply be sent to him at Manila when such action harl
been taken. It was a bold move. Probably no Annual
Conference had ever been asked to receive a man on trial
who had not been recoiumended in due form by the regu-
lar authorities, and examined by its ov^^n committees.
But the South Kansas Conference rose to the occasion.
Dr. Henry J. Coker moved that the request of Bishop
Thoburn be granted, and said that for him no recom-
mendation by a Conference Committee could have greater
weight than this silent request which came throbbing
under the seas from Bishop James M. Thoburn, away on
the firing-line of the Church in the Far East. The mo-
tion was put by Bishop Vincent, and carried with great
enthusiasm. The South Kansas brethren are thus linked
with the work in the Philippines in a peculiarly sacred
way. It was" by their franchises that our first Filipino
minister was permitted to receive ordination.

As soon as the cable had come from Dr. Leonard
saying that all things had been done as he had requested,
the bishop proceeded to ordain Brother Nicholas Zamora
as deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was

Methodist Episcopal Church. 429

a solemn occasion, and all care was taken to make it full
of holy meaning to this Philippine Timothy. The ordi-
nation service was a quiet one. The kingdom of God
Cometh not with observation. Spiritual forces are seldom
attended with pomp and circumstance. The voice of
God was not in the wdiirlwind nor in the earthquake, but
in the still small voice that followed both. Results have
shown that the work of that day was sealed with the
blessing of that Spirit who said to the Church in Antioch,
"Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work where-
unto I have called them." Nicholas has been preaching
practically every day from the hour of his ordination,
and he has seen many others of his own countrymen de-
veloped who have for more than three years now borne
with him, and with the Americans who have been se'it,
the burden of telling the people what Christ can do for
all who call upon him.

During the latter part of 1900 four ladies came to the
rhilijipines at the instance of the Woman's Foreign Mis-
sionary Society to carry forward school w'ork and work
for the soldiers. These were Miss Julia E. Wisner. for-
merly of the Girls' School, Rangoon, Burmah ; Miss
Margaret Cody, a trained kindergartner ; Mrs. Annie
Norton, M. D., a medical missionary; and Mrs. Moots,
who came to nurse her son who lay ill in a hospital in
Manila. Mrs. Moots had arranged with the Woman's
Foreign Missionary Society authorities to undertake
such work as she found possible among the soldiers after
her arrival, and after the death of her son she was regu-
larly maintained by that society while she was in the
Philippines. Miss Wisner and Miss Cody were sent out
to establish a boarding-school for Filipino girls. From
glowing reports sent to the United States as to the eager-
ness of the Filipino people to study English it was made

430

The Philippines and the Far East.

to appear that such a school would be filled witli pupils
from the day it opened its doors. The ladies lost no
time in providing workers and sending them on. Two
things militated against their success : First, sufficient
time had not elapsed to give the Filipino people confi-
dence that Protestant schools were fit places to send their
daughters. They had always heard Protestants reviled

^^^^HHH|P^

^I^^^bH

Ik ^'«

^^s

i^~^

-^p*^'

|[|

lf^/]0 i I

METHODIST CHAPEL ATLAG, MALOLOS.

as "dogs," or "the spawn of hell," and had most mistaken
ideas of our character and mission. Second, the govern-
ment opened up its educational program at the time when
these ladies had opened their school, and free education
in all the branches which they would pursue in the board-
ing-school could be had at the day-school, and the pupils
be with their parents. The latter fact would have been
sufficient to defeat the project. In any case it was found
impracticable at that time to carry forward the kind of

]\lKTnonisi" Ki'iscoi'Ai. CiuRcri.

431

work for which thcv had come, and later in the year of
1900 it was discontinncd, and Miss Wisner and Miss
Cody sent to schools in India and Singapore, respectively.
Mrs. Moots carried on her work with great zeal and
success until the last of the volunteer regiments liad been
returned to the States, and then her health demanded a
change, and she returned early in 1902.

REV. FELIPE MARQUEZ AND SONS.

Mrs. Annie Norton found so little response to her
efforts as a medical missionary that it was deemed wisest
to use her medical skill in lands where such aid is needed,
not only for its own sake, but as a means of opening
doors of opportunity for the entrance of the truth.

Our chief opportunity was evangelistic. The people
wanted the gospel. They were ready to hear it by the
thousand. We did not need medical missions to open
the doors. Therefore it was deemed wisest to permit

432 The Philippines and the Far East.

Mrs. Norton to- use her medical knowledge in a field
where there was more demand for it than in the Philip-
pines, while women should be sent to the Philippines to
enter vernacular work, learn the languages, and begin
the education and training of women and girls for the
part they must play in the salvation of their people. J\Irs.
Norton sailed for India late in 1902.

In his report to the General Conference of 1900
Bishop Thoburn says :

"But our most noted advance [during the quadren-
nium then closed] has been in the new American posses-
sions in the Far East. By the action of the last Gen-
eral Conference these rich and beautiful Islands had been
included in the Malaysia Conference, and accordingly,
as soon as they had been formally ceded to the United
States, Bishop Andrews and Dr. Leonard, acting in be-
half of the Missionary Society, cabled to me a request
to proceed to Manila and carefully examine the situation.
For more than a dozen years God had been turning my
thoughts in that direction, and it was with a thankful
heart that I set out upon that voyage. My stay in Ma-
nila was brief ; but I secured a theater and began preach-
ing, and before leaving made arrangements for perma-
nent religious services. I also took steps to open a place
both for religious meetings and for public resort for our
soldiers. During the vear this provisional arrangement,
although attended with many difficulties, received God's
blessing, and when I returned two months ago, I found
not only a good work among the soldiers, but over eighty
Filipino probationers in our Church, with four or five
well-attended preaching-places among the natives of
the city and suburbs. Owing to ill-health I had brought
Dr. F. W. Warne with me from^ Calcutta, not only to
do the preaching, but to take my place in everything ex-
cept my purely official duties. God blessed this good
brother's labors, a revival began, and. although a dele-
gate to the General Conference, he cheerfully remained
behind to carrv on the work for a few weeks, while I

IMrtiiodist Ei'iscoPAL Church. 433

proceeded on my way. A recent letter from Brother
Warne states wc have now an American Church in Ma-
nila with fifty members, a Filipino Church with two hun-
dred members, and weekly services attended by about six
hundred Filipino adherents. Four ladies rei)resent the
Woman's Foreii^n Missionary Society, and active work
has been commenced among- the Filipino women. \\'e
have also a small but hopeful band of Chinese Christians,
and in the earl}- future liope to have a vigorous Chinese
work among- the large Chinese populations of Manila.
A few hours before leaving Manila I had the pleasure of
ordaining the first Protestant Filipino preacher ever ad-
mitted to the Christian ministry. In order to provide for
this extraordinary emergency I cabled to P.ishop \'in-
cent, through Dr. Leonard, to have the brother admitted
on trial by the South Kansas Conference, elected to dea-
con's orders under the Alissionary Rule, and transferred
to the Malaysia Mission Conference. A prompt response
enabled me to place an intelligent pastor over the Filipino
converts, and thereby greatly strengthen the brave com-
pany of those who had come out from the house of
priestly bondage. In that hour of need I felt devoutly
thankful that I served a Church which had a t^exible
cconomv."

28 A NTPA HOUSE,

CHAPTER XXV.
The; Methodist Episcopal Church. — Continued.

It was more than a year after Bishop Thoburn
founded the mission and set its different agencies to
work before the arrival of a regular missionary. The
first man appointed was Rev. Thomas H. Martin, who
arrived in Manila March 26, 1900. He was followed
on the 9th of May by the Rev. Jesse L. McLaughlin and
wife, and in November, Rev. W. G. Fritz came to join
these first arrivals.

The work in the Philippines was made a Presiding
Elder's District of the Malaysia Conference, and Mr.
McLaughlin was made presiding elder, with the addi-
tional burden of caring for the work in Manila, both
Filipino and American.

In July, Bishop Warne reached the Philippines on
his way back to his field in India and Malaysia. He
held the first District Conference in August. During
the session of this body, no one matter was more plain
to the minds of all concerned than the need of experienced
leadership in the pastorate of the American Church and
in the work of the mission in general. It was felt by
the men who came at first that their lack of years and
missionary experience was certain to tell against their
largest effectiveness, and they, as well as others, felt
that something should be done to provide this kind of
help.

On the 24th of August the members of the District
434

Mm'iiODisT Episcopai. Ciukcii. 435

Conference, after much prayer for t^^uidance. and with
the approval of IHshop Warne, united in a written peti-
tion askini;- that I leave the pastorate at Mount Vernon,
Iowa, and assume the pastorate of the Church for "the
unchurched Americans in Manila and the Philippines."
Believing that my eight years in India would be of great
value to me here, as soon as suitable arrangements could
be made for that important college pastorate, I came,
doubting not that I followed the Voice.

I left my family in Iowa, as conditions were still un-
settled, rents high, and the cost of living excessive. Rev.
Willard A. Goodell accompanied me, and makes one of
our effective vernacular missionaries at the present time.
We reached Manila April 19. 1901, and were heartily
welcomed, and I entered immediately on my new duties
as pastor of the American Church and presiding elder of
the Philippines District. One year has since been spent
in the Open Door Emergency campaign in the United
States ; but, aside from that, I have been in the field to
which God so clearly led me.

The first week after my arrival all the missions then
represented in the Philippines united in forming what is
known as the Evangelical Union of the Philippine Islands,
under which we agreed to co-operate for the most speedy
and thorough evangelization of the entire population.

This union is one of the most marked of all the larger
movements of recent times toward Church federation or
unity, and deserves a word of special mention. It was
formed in response to the conviction on the part of the
men on the field that it would be a pity to inaugurate
the w^asteful missionary program in the Philippines which
has come into play in older fields. The action of the
Boards occupying the field had made it easv for their
representatives to get together in such plans as would

436 The Philippines and the Far East.

render possible the most rapid and effective covering of
the territory. One of the essential features of this organ-
ization was the division or allotment of the Archipelago
among the various missions then at work, so that each
mission became responsible for the evangelization of a
well-defined area, thus enabling a small force to cover a
wide field without overlapping or friction. In this ten-
tative division, which was to be observed for three years,
Methodism was assigned all the island of Luzon between
Manila and Dagupan from sea to sea, with a free hand in
Manila itself. Later action extended that field by mak-
ing it cover all the Cagayan Valley, and according the
mission equal opportunities for work in the Hill province
of Benguet with all other Boards. The Presbyterians
were given all Southern Luzon by the same agreement,
and they and the Baptists were to divide the work in
Panay and Negros between themselves as might seem
to them mutually desirable. The United Brethren were
allotted the coast provinces of Northwest Luzon — all
Ilokano territory, and one of the most ripe for imme-
diate evangelism, as well as one of the most progressive
and prosperous portions of the entire Islands. Other
islands were left free for occupation at such time and
in such manner as should prove best adapted for the
prosecution of the whole work.

The Presbyterians had begun a fine work in Bulacan
and Pampanga provinces, having one Church organized
at Hagonoy, and a following gathered in San Fernando,
Pampanga. We gave them our work in Cavite, and
they put us in charge of their congregations in the places
named, and the work of permanent occupation of our
respective portions of the Philippines immediately began.

It was immediately seen that the occupation of pro-
vincial capitals was a necessity in so far as possible.

Methodist Episcopal Church. 439

American missionaries for these places were asked for
from the Board, and as rapidly as possible placed in
those centers in which (i) there was the greatest strate-
gic significance, and (2) the most urgent invitation and
the greatest apparent ripeness for evangelization. On
this principle, Malolos and San Fernando, Pampanga,
were almost immediately taken possession of, and plans
laid for the permanent occupation and development of
Dagupan, at the northern extremity of the only railway
in Luzon — in the Philippines, in fact.

It was speedily found that the Spanish language was
of no value as a means of directly reaching and influenc-
ing the native population. It was commonly reported to
me in the United States that a Spanish-speaking mis-
sionary would be perfectly at home here from the first
day, and able to command a hearing from the multitudes.
That impression was shown to be totally erroneous. Ac-
cording to the most careful estimates made by men of
wide familiarity with the people, not more than eight
per cent of the entire Philippine population can under-
stand even colloquial Spanish. The other ninety-two
per cent must be reached by means of their own vernacu-
lars. These vernaculars are hard to acquire. It was
with great reluctance that we abandoned hope of using
the Spanish in our work. Only as we could readily find
men in every community who could translate our preach-
ing from Spanish into the birth-speech of the people was
that language of real evangelistic use to us. Hence it
became necessary at the very outset to set all our men
and women to the mastery of these Malayan dialects ;
for that is all that they can be called. They are sepa-
rate languages only by long separation of the peoples who
originally came to the Philippines speaking one common
Malayan speech. This difficulty nearly dismayed us. It

440 The Philippines and the Far East.

reached ver}^ far. It meant that not only our speech and
our preaching must be in these comparatively barren
tongues, but that in them, also, all our periodical litera-
ture must be printed, and some of that which was funda-
mentally necessary to the development of a native min-
istry.

Not a few of our American sympathizers were im-
patient with us for attempting to learn and use the local
vernaculars. Their arguments were that English is to
be the official language of the Philippines in 1906. All
the public schools are teaching English. All business
soon will be done in English, and to learn and use the
vernaculars was in their eyes worse than a waste of time.
It was an indirect way of defeating the effort of the
schools to teach the English speech to the whole people.
They insisted that within a few years it would be pos-
sible to reach all of the people through the medium of
English, and until that time we would far better employ
interpreters. All such argument could only be advanced
by men and women who had never come into close daily
contact with the mass of tlte native population, and who,
at the same time, were quite unfamiliar with the efforts
of other nations to change the common speech of a whole
people. Upon no one point can progress be made so
slowly as that of language. People will adopt political
ideas, social improvements, and much of the best of our
science and culture in general ; but to throw away the
language learned at the mother's knee is the one thing
that will not be done, or, if done at all, done so tardily
and grudgingly that it seems destined never to succeed.

It was plain to those of us who were charged with
the responsibility of deciding upon a policy in the case
that our only way to reach the generation now living
was by means of their own speech. The schools teach

Methodist Episcopal Ctu'Rch. 441

English. They teach it well. The pupils go from the
school, however, to speak their own language all the
time they are not in the schoolroom. A few hours a day
learning a theoretical notion of a foreign tongue enable
the student to make but slow and imperfect headway,
when he spends twice that number of hours in speaking
and hearing his mother tongue. We came to believe that
at least one generation must pass off the stage, and more
likely two or three, before evangelistic work, and the
work of building up a Church in the knowledge of God,
could be done in the English tongue in the Philippines.

In October, 1901, the Official Board of the Central
Church (for Americans) bought an excellent corner lot
for the church which is needed for that work. It was
the first real estate bought in the Philippines for the
purposes of Protestantism. One other property had been
contracted for by the Episcopalians ; but this was the
first that was actually purchased and the deed placed
upon record. The Board had no money. The entire
$3,250 was borrowed from our friends for six months
without interest. Within four weeks it had all been
raised here in Manila, less than one hundred dollars com-
ing from good friends in the United States and the
provinces. Major E. W. Halford was a tower of strength
to us in this first real-estate campaign, as he was in all
the work of the Church and of the Evangelical Union.
At once the heroic little congregation erected a temporary
chapel seating one hundred and fifty, and this was dedi-
cated free from debt Sunday, December 22, 1901 — the
first chapel built for work among our own countrymen
in this city of churches.

On January i. 1902, the publication of the Philippine
Chrtstmn Advocate was begun. It was published by the
Mission Press, and printed in English, Spanish, and

442 The Philippines and the Far East.

Tagalog. This has grown into an arm of power in the
work whose reach and strength are growing daily. It
will be entirely self-supporting within a year. Mr. Mc-
Laughlin is the editor.

Almost at once upon this occupation of the field a
great and blessed work began to grow up under our very
eyes. At Malibay, a few miles south of Manila, Brother
Zamora began to preach in the early part of 1900, and
by midsummer of 1901 there had been compacted there
a total of members and probationers such as exceeded
the total visible missionary results that were secured in
China for fifteen years. In Malibay there was a Roman
Catholic chapel, built by the pueblo for their services.
It was built well. It had heavy stone walls and a corru-
gated iron roof, and though it had been badly battered
by insurgents and United States troops, it was still a
shelter, and in a fair condition for use. No friar dared
put his foot in the place for fear of the vmmeasured hatred
of the people, and our little congregation used it for their
services. Practically the entire population came into the
Church. They bought Bibles and portions of the New
Testament as they were translated and printed, and, like
the Bereans, daily studied the Word of God. When I
arrived there were nearly two hundred members. By
midsummer it was three hundred, and on Christmas-day,
1901, I received more than three hundred from probation
into full connection in the weather-beaten old chapel. It
was a great day in Zion. After receiving eight times
over as many people as could stand in a double row in
front of the altar, we had the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper. It was the first time many of these poor people
had ever received the cup. The wafer was all that had
ever touched their tongues. There was perfect rever-
ence, and deep spiritual interest. Many eyes were wet

X E £.

Methodist Episcopal Ciiuucii. 445

with tears of holy gladness. One old man who had been
a captain in the forces of the insurG;ents took the sacra-
ment saying, "I ani unworthy, I am unworthy." His
hands shook so that he could scarcely hold the cup when,
for the first time, the symbol of the shed blood of his
Lord touched his lips. It moved me to tears. Here
were over four hundred partakers of the Holy Supper,
nearly all of whom were in the possession of as clear and
definite a knowledge of the forgiveness of their sins and
their acceptance in Christ as any whom I had *ever min-
istered to in settled pastorates in the twenty years of my
ministry. It was a great day. It spoke eloquently of
the possibilities of the work all over the Islands when
similarly hungry souls in other places heard and heeded
and were saved from sin by coming directly to a personal
Christ of love and tenderness.

That church at Malibay is now over four hundred
strong, and has never cost the missionary appropriations
from the Board one cent. It carries on services in sev-
eral barrios, and will soon have another Church formed
from the results of the voluntary labor of its member-
ship in a neighboring place.

At Alalolos, the provincial capital of Bulacan, we
prayed and waited for an opening for several months be-
fore it came. It was the capital of the Aguinaldo gov-
ernment, and was supposed to be full of those who hated
the Americans, and who would therefore discount a
gospel preached by the hated race. At least that is what
the military authorities led us to believe. Mr. Goodell
went there to investigate several times. When he in-
quired, on his second or third visit, if there were any
"Protestantcs" in the place, he was directed to the house
of an elderly woman who had the name of being inter-
ested in Protestantism. Senora Narcissa welcomed them

446 The Philippines and the Far East.

"as the angels of God." Her joy knew no bounds. Here
were the men for whose coming she had prayed so de-
voutly three times each day, as she afterward told me,
from the time she had heard the good word in Manila
until the day that Mr. Goodell knocked at her door. Im-
mediately services were arranged for. This was in May
of 1902. In August a membership of one hundred and
eighty-five had been gathered, and, with $50 from funds
of the Church Extension Society, they had found it pos-
sible to erect one of the neatest of all our bamboo and
thatch chapels, seating one hundred and fifty people, and
very neatly arranged within and without. Aside from
the fact that the missionary received a salary from the
society, not a dollar of the annual grant from New York
was spent in founding this Church. The local preachers
and exhorters do the preaching when the missionary can
not be there. They raise by collections and subscriptions
all funds needed to seat, clean, and light the place, and
are entirely independent of foreign support as they have
been from the first day.

Within a few days of the opening at Malolos another
equally good opportunity was presented in Calumpit, a
town a few miles away. Soon a Church equally numerous
and spiritual was raised up there, and a chapel built.
This year (1903) this latter Church has "swarmed ofif,"
and the new colony has built a church twice as large as
the original building. A revival was enjoyed all along
during the summer in the regular services, and now the
membership at that point is above two hundred, and con-
stantly growing. Here again there has been no expense
to the Missionary Society aside from the fact that the
missionary who led in the work is supported from that
fund.

In Manila, Mr. McLaughlin has seen the work grow

Methodist Episcopal Church, 447

from about two hundred when he arrived, to more than
two thousand, and from one chapel, dedicated in August
of 1900, to eleven chapels within and near the city, all
built by the people themselves, and, besides this local
membership, literal scores converted, who return to their
homes in various parts of the provinces and form centers
of interest and excellent advertisers of our work. In
nearly all the cities in which work has been opened in
the provinces men and women have started the work
whose eyes had been opened of the Lord in the services
of our own or of the Presbyterian Church in Manila.
When Bishop Warren visited the Philippines in October
of 1903 a typical Methodist class-meeting was held in
the Rizal Theater, Manila. Admission was to Method-
ists only, and that by free tickets. This was done in
order to make it possible to show the bishop to the hun-
dreds of our people who wanted to see him, and to permit
him to see the kind of work and the measure of blessing
that had attended the labors of the missionaries here in
this insular metropolis. Over eighteen hundred adults
were crowded into the building, and the meeting was
gotten up so hurriedly that many did not receive notice
in time to secure tickets. It was a deeply spiritual meet-
ing, and proved that this work is of the kind that Asbury
and Lee saw grow up under their preaching and admin-
istration in the latter part of the eighteenth century in
the United States. The testimonies rang with certainty.
The faces of men and women shone with the joy that
comes only from the consciousness of forgiven sins.

In Malabon, just north of Manila, the owner of a
large cockpit, by the name of Simeon Bias, became in-
terested two years ago. He is a man of considerable
wealth, but had a reputation as a gambler. He invited
our missionaries to preach in his part of the town. Later

448

The Philippines and the Far East.

he built a chapel at his own expense, and gave reverent
attention to the Word. At this time he sold his cockpit,
as a matter of business purely, and was soon afterwards
received into the Church and given license to exhort. The

A PROTESTANT GROUP IN BATAAN.

(Mr. Goodell, myself, native preacher, and friends. About to take
boat for Manila after a long, hard trip in the province. )

first thing- Mr. McLaughlin knew, this man had bought
another cockpit, and was putting in at least one-half of
his Sundays attending to it. When he was not preach-
ing the gospel in Methodist services he was holding the
stakes of betters on the fights in his gallcra or taking
gate-money ! Some of our people counseled severity.

Methodist Ei'iscoi-ai^ Church. 449

They arG;uc(l that his inlliiencc would corrupt the infant
Church. We saw the harm, but determined to save the
man and the cause as well. When Mr. Rader and wife
came from Denver in May of 1903, they were sent to
Malabon to learn the language, and to save the day.
With the help of the Lord and of one of the missionaries
who speaks the vernacular fluently, this brother has re-
nounced the business, gotten completely out of all rela-
tions with gambling and Sabbath desecration, and has
been preaching with power — real spiritual power that
moves and burns — ever since his public confession and
renunciation of the business. The last Quarterly Con-
ference recommended Simeon Bias for ordination as a
local deacon. A happier man or one more utterly devoted
to the work of preaching Christ was never seen in early
Methodism in America. In that circuit of Malabon the
gain in membership this year has been nearly five hun-
dred, and three chapels have been built and paid for from
local resources.

In Panpanga, Mr. Fritz saw a glorious w^ork begun.
But his health broke, and he is our first man forced from
the active ranks by illness. This was partly due to a
malarial inheritance, from five years' South American
residence. At last Conference Air. and Mrs. W. A.
Brown were given charge of this great work. Pam-
panga has a population of nearly three hundred thousand
people. In the two cities of San Fernando and Mexico
we now have nearly one thousand members and proba-
tioners, and a wealthy family who owned a large and
well-built theater have given their hearts to the Lord and
their theater to the Church ! One of them is an exhorter,
and preaches with much power and acceptance every Sun-
day in what was built for a Sunday theater. I have
spoken there to one thousand people. The Cunanan
29

450 The Philippines and the Far East.

Brothers, as they are known, gave Bishop Warren a
twelve-course dinner when he was on his ofificial visit,
which for elegance of service was not surpassed, the
bishop averred, by a banquet given by President McKin-
ley in the White House. I participated, and certainly I
never saw finer appointments in decorations, silver, spot-
less linen, or noiseless service. These brothers are happy
in the Lord. When they recover from the terrible losses
of the war and the rinderpest, they will be in a position
to help our work substantially.

As an indication of the ripeness of that field. Brother
Brown opened services in the city of Guagua recently,
and in less than a month he has more than two hundred
members on probation, and that will easily be doubled
within a few weeks. It would be easy to receive thou-
sands ; but when tests as to gambling, drinking, and
other evils are applied, they flinch, and draw back. But
in every community a remnant push on and are saved.

In Eastern Bulacan Mr. A. E. Chenoweth and wife
have a truly wonderful work. Beginning at Baliuag, a
city of fifteen thousand people, less than two years ago,
they now have over six hundred members and proba-
tioners, six chapels, and work in all directions coming
at them more rapidly than they can care for it. It would
take a whole chapter to tell of the openings just now
pressing for attention in that field.

Rev. Ernest S. Lyons and wife were transferred from
Singapore in March of 1903 and appointed to Dagupan.
He has now eight organized Churches, all gathered within
seven months, with a membership of over eight hundred.
He has invitations from over twenty cities in which he
has not yet been able to open. If he had the time and
strength it would be easily possible for him to open as
many more Churches with as many converts before Con-

Methodist Episcopal Church. 451

ference in the coming March. The province of Panga-
sinan is one of the most bigoted of any that we have yet
entered, and this is the more reason for gratitude that
he has seen the pleasure of the Lord thus prosper in his
hands.

Brother Thomas H. Martin gathered several hundred
converts in Tarlac province, and built a chapel at Gerona.
He acquired both the Spanish and Ilokano languages,
but illness caused by bad food, and exposure in living
constantly among the Filipino people broke his health.
He is now in Manila working at the creation of sorely
needed booklets on the History of Protestantism, Prayer,
Aids to Bible Study, and works of a nature calculated
to meet our most urgent needs in the way of Christian
literature.

Rev. F. A. McCarl has pushed the Mission Press
hard as his part of the work, and also done efifective work
in as much of the Filipino and American Churches as his
time and strength permitted. He is the treasurer of the
mission in addition to his other work. Time and space
fail to tell of the faithful work done by the consecrated
women. God only knows how well they have toiled and
how rich will be their harvest.

In May of 1903 Miss Winifred Spaulding arrived
from Kansas City, Mo., and opened a training-school for
women under the auspices of the Woman's Foreign Mis-
sionary Society. The effort has been crowned with suc-
cess from the first day. Ten young women are enrolled.
If we had had room, instead of these ten there would be
one hundred in training ! The cost of supporting each
i? not more than $50 per year of nine school months. A
deaconess teacher costs $850 to support — allowance,
board, carriage hire, and other expenses, all reckoned in.
It is my deep conviction that in no part of our work are

452 The Philippines and the Far East.

we more fundamentally affecting the lives of the mem-
bers of to-day and to-morrow than in raising up a body
of trained women to work for Christ in their local
Churches, and in such special lines of labor as the Spirit
will throw open to them. I hope to see the day when this
arm of the service turns out fifty graduates of a stiff
course of theoretical and practical deaconess training
each year. Miss Spaulding has for an aid in the work
Miss Parkes, an English lady who served her mission-
ary apprenticeship in the Philippines as a Bible woman in
the employ of the British and Foreign Bible Society. She
visits and carries on the house-to-house spiritual clinics
so necessary for the girls in training. God has given
her special gifts as a winner of souls in personal con-
tact. She was sent us by a kind Providence, and will
exercise a lasting influence for good upon all these women
whose lives are touched by her own.

As will be seen, our work is almost wholly evangel-
istic. This is the crying need of the hour. The press
is an engine of great power. It turned out nearly 4,000,-
000 pages of literature in 1902, and is doing a good work
this year also. It is expensive, but it pays big spiritual
dividends. We need at least $1,200 annually to feed it
with white paper and ink, and to meet the expense of
power and help. That must be given by friends in the
States.

The feature of self-support is one to which we give
the closest attention. From the beginning it has been
on the minds and hearts of the members of the mission
staff to profit by the lessons learned in other and older
fields, and to insist upon as large a measure of self-sup-
port from the very first as possible. To that end all our
native workers are divided into two classes — pastors and

Methodist Episcopal Church. 453

evangelists. We support as many evangelists as the
special gifts that come to us will permit, always with the
understanding that such support is temporary, and may
fail at any time. These men are kept on the move from
point to point opening up new cities, and caring for the
converts made at places not quite so new for two weeks
or a month at a time. When a Church asks for a pastor,
they must be willing to unite with others in a circuit, so
that his support may come wholly from them. Against
almost inconceivable pressure coming from many quar-
ters, God has helped us to keep from spending one penny
of the regular appropriations from New York for the
support, traveling expenses, or rent of any native
preacher, or for the erection of any building for the use
of the native people. Special gifts have been used in
that way as need demanded. Marriage fees from the
something like 2,475 weddings that our staff has con-
ducted, nearly all in Manila, have been used in this form
of work, and in printing as need arose ; but self-support
is absolutely the rule as to pastoral service. We do not
claim to have solved the question, but we are determined
to continue the attempt, and avoid, if possible, mistakes
that cost us dearly in fields in which our workers were
forced to the use of methods which we do not need to
employ. It costs from $200 to $300 annually to support
a good Filipino evangelist. We shall need the services
of these men for many years to come. Their lot is a
hard one. They live on the circuit. They are in very
truth "traveling preachers." But their work breaks new
ground, and pioneers the way for Churches which spring
up in their tracks wherever they go.

Our growth has been phenomenal. The statistics
which will appear in the Missionary Report for 1903-4
are as follows :

454 The Philippines and the Far East.

Foreign missionaries *g

Assistant missionaries 7

Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, missionaries 2

Native ordained preachers 3

Native unordained preachers 67

Other helpers 30

Members 3.091

Probationers 3.751

Adherents,. 4,180

Average attendance on Sunday 6,540

Conversions during year 2.663

Adults baptized ^ 1.094

Children baptized .'. ., 302

Number day schools . . 2

Number day scholars . 28

Collected for church building and repairing $2,823

Number Sabbath-schools 15

Number Sabbath school scholars ... 797

Number churches and chapels 35

Estimated value of churches and chapels $24,410

Number halls and other rented places of worship 7

Value of parsonages or homes $21,000

Collected for missionary society. $210

Collected for other benevolent societies $86

Collected for self support $3,220

Collected for other local purposes $',477

This gives us 6,842 members and probationers, with
4,180 adherents, all of whom consider themselves as fully
admitted to our membership. Comparing this total of
members and probationers with the totals of last year
in other mission fields solely for iJic purpose of empha-
sising the ripeness of this Held, and shozving how urgent
is the need that zvise counsels shall prevail in conserving
and extending the zvork to the utmost possible extent we
find the followine:

Members

and
Proba-

Year.

tioners.

6,842

1903

6,561

1902

5,855

1902

5.592

1902

5,863

1902

3.632

1902

Woik
Begun

Philippine Islands

Japan

Korea

Mexico

All South America
All Africa

1900

1873
1885

1873
1S36

1833

■One missionary, Rev. R. V. B. Dunlap, with his wife and
child, have arrived since these statistics were sent forward.

Methodist Episcopal Church.

455

Truly the Spirit has flung open a wide door of op-
portunity before the Methodist Episcopal Church in the
Philippine Islands. We should have at once twenty-five
of the best men the Church contains to man centers of
importance, and to put on sound foundations a training-
school for native ministers and a college for our own
young people. We must plan according to the magni-
tude of our opportunity, or be guilty of treason to the
purposes of God.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Presbyterians and Baptists.

No ONE of the six Churches now at work in the Phil-
ippines showed greater foresight than the Presbyterian.
In the promptness and wisdom of its action it set an ex-
ample to all the Boards. Rev. James B. Rodgers was
transferred from their work in Brazil after years of suc-
cessful experience, and was enabled to enter upon his
work with the Spanish language at his command, and
with a thorough familiarity with the difficulties and
weaknesses of work in Catholic countries. He arrived
in Manila, April 21, 1899, with Mrs. Rodgers and their
family. It is interesting to note the coincidence of his
arrival with the first anniversary of the declaration of
war against Spain. While Bishop Thoburn, of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, was the first regularly-au-
thorized appointee of a Missionary Society to visit the
Islands and open work, the unique honor of being the
first regularly-appointed, permanent missionary belongs
to Mr. Rodgers. Within one month these workers were
joined by Rev. David S. Hibbard and wife. At the end
of their first year they reported one Church organized,
and services held semi-weekly in four places in Manila,
with English-speaking services among soldiers and such
others as cared to attend.

The Board had already decided that Iloilo would be
one of the cities occupied, and Dumaguete, on the island
of Negros, was chosen as anotlier point in the southern

456

Presbyterians and Baptists. 457

islands durin.c; the summer of 1899. In December the
PhiHppine ^lission of the Presbyterian Church was for-
mally constituted. In January, Dr. J. Andrew Hall ar-
rived to take up medical and evanp^elistic work in Iloilo.
Rev. Leonard P. Davidson came in February to give him-
self to evangelistic work.

By the tentative allotment of "spheres of influence"
to the several missions which was one part of the ex-
cellent work of the Evangelical Union, the Presbyterians
were given a free hand with all other missions in Manila,
and all Southern Luzon, with the work in Negros and
Panay divided between them and the Baptists, as those
two missions might agree. This gave the Presbyterians
a compact territory in Luzon with but two languages,
and one of those — the Bicol — spoken by but a small frac-
tion of the whole population in their Luzon field. It
also gave them portions of the fertile islands of Negros
and Panay, with centers at the two largest cities in each
island. By later action Cebu was added, and work in
the entire X'isayan group was tentatively assigned to the
Baptists and Presbyterians. This gave them a popula-
tion in Cebu alone of six hundred and fifty thousand, all
homogeneous people, speaking one dialect of Visayan,
and in Leyte and Samar which they have occupied since,
an added population of about two hundred and fifty
thousand, whose dialect is sufficiently like that prevailing
in Cebu to enable the workers from the former island to
be fairly well understood from the first in the latter large
islands.

The fighting line of the Presbyterian Church is thus
flung out over four hundred miles in length, and holds
positions on eight islands. Its work is in three main lan-
guages, though the Visayan of Panay and Occidental
Negros differs almost as sharply from the Visayan of

458 Tnii Philippines and the; Far East.

Cebu and Leyte as Pampanga differs from Tagalog, or
Italian differs from French.

No one person did so much to bring about the organ-
ization of the EvangeUcal Union as Mr. Rodgers. He
was ready to make any reasonable sacrifice of the inter-
ests of their mission in order to secure greater unity of
action, and thus diminish the friction and overlapping
which he had seen and regretted in his work in South
America. He was ready to go so far as to unite with
other Churches in some loose federation in which de-
nominational names would drop out of sight, and what
would amount to a new organization would be perfected.
Many felt that missionaries on the field had no power to
do this, if it were desirable. His efforts, with those of
Mr. McLaughlin, of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
bore fruit in the formation of the Union.

The Presbyterian Church carries on evangelistic, med-
ical, and educational work. In the nature of the case its
chief energies are devoted to the evangelistic, as that is
the chief opportunity confronting all the missions. In
Manila several congregations have been gathered, and one
fine church building has been erected. This is on an
American model, and seats about seven hundred people.
They have a membership of more than two hundred. A
rented building in another part of the city is the center for
more work of an evangelistic character. In Cavite, just
across the bay from Manila, there is a strong Church,
and beginnings have been made at other places in Cavite
province and the province of Laguna de Bay.

In Iloilo a good evangelistic beginning has been made,
and such work being done as the force will permit. In
Cebu much opposition has been met. It is a very bigoted
island. Friar influence is stronger than in any other part

PRKSr.VTlvRIANS AND RapTISTS. 459

of the Philippines. Mr. and Mrs. Jansen opened work
there in 1892. They were able to make but slight headway
for six months. Meetings were stoned. Converts were
terrorized. Threats were freely made that the lives of the
missionaries would be taken, and that of their converts.
No hall could be rented. The missionary could scarcely
find a house to live in. But finally the ice began to break
up, and a freshet of blessing- has followed. Converts are
now coming into the Church in the city of Cebu almost
every week, and calls for Protestant services reach the
workers from interior cities and from those on the oppo-
site coast. Cebu is the head of one of the Catholic sees,
and the American bishop there will do all in his power to
stem the tide of Protestant sympathy.

In the latter part of 1903 work was opened in the island
of Leyte, and from the apparent ripeness of the field and
the results already attained, there is reason to hope for
a rapid spread of the work. This will also command the
island of Samar, which lies across a narrow strait, and can
be reached with the same \ isayan dialect.

The mission has inaugurated medical work at Iloilo
and Dumaguete. Dr. J. Andrew Hall finds much of his
time occupied at the former place in ministering to the
bodies of the hundreds who seek his aid. He finds the
medical work leads to the evangelistic, even though Cath-
olic opponents insist that he gives poisons for medicines,
and one poor patient was stopped while carrying home
medicine for a wife burning with malarial fever, and com-
pelled to drink the entire prescription. His superstitious
persecutors insisted that he was securing the medicine to
poison the wells. Dr. Langheim, at Dumaguete, has done
royal service as president of the Provincial Board of
Health in staying the ravages of cholera and smallpox,

460 The Philippines and the Far Ii^ast.

and his work has challenged the attention and secured
the friendship of all the influential Filipinos of Oriental
Negros.

People come miles to hear the gospel and receive treat-
ment. Dr. Arthur J. Brown, in his recent book, "The New
Era in the Philippines/' says :

"One of the most notable sights of the Philippines
is to be seen in Iloilo Saturday evenings. My room, on
the second story of Dr. Hall's house, opened into a wide
Spanish hall, with a broad flight of stairs to the story
below. About five o'clock I was startled to find the hall,
landing, and stairs packed with Filipinos, sitting quietly
on the floor and steps. They had walked in, men, women,
and children, from the outlying villages, some of them
four hours' distant, in order to attend the Sunday serv-
ice. So many regularly do this, coming Saturday and
remaining till Monday, that the missionaries have been
obliged to rent a large room in which the men can spend
the nights, the women occupying the chapel. The people
are quiet and well-behaved. They bring their own food,
or buy it in Iloilo, and they contentedly sleep on the floor.

"I wish that those critics who insist that the Filipinos
are all Roman Catholics, and that they do not want Prot-
estantism, but only relief from the friars, could look into
that great room in Iloilo any Saturday night, and see
that dense throng of people who have patientlv trudged
past stately Roman Catholic Churches to a plain chapel,
where there are no altar lights, or gorgeous vestments, or
fragrant incense, but only the preaching of the Gospel
of Divine Love. When men and women would rather
walk fifteen miles under a hot sun, and sleep two nights
on a board floor to attend a Protestant service, than go
to a pompous stone church in their own village, there is
certainly something more than curiosity in their hearts."

In Dumaguete the work is largely educational. Early
in the history of the mission. Dr. Horace B. Silliman, of
New York, gave $10,000 for the establishment of an insti-

PresbvtivRians and Bai'Tisps. 461

tution similar to that at Tuskcgec. Alabama. Emphasis
was to be laid on agricultural and manual-training. A
roomy building was erected, and the institution opened
its doors. Success in securing pupils and in carrying for-
ward the work of an ordinary school has been the lot of
this institution from the first day. But to secure pupils
who were willing to learn to work in the dirt, or push the
plane or wield the hammer, has been difficult. Whether
such pupils will be found in sufficient numbers to make the
institution fully answer the ends for which Dr. Silliman
gave the money, is not yet apparent. Filipinos of the
better classes have a truly Spanish idea of the menial
character of manual labor. In fact, it is more Moorish
than Spanish, and, like so many features of Spanish archi-
tecture, language, and national spirit, is Spanish because
of the long contact of the Spaniard with the Moor. Dr.
Silliman was right in his estimate of the need of the Fili-
pino people. They need to be taught the true dignit}- of
all honest toil ; but the tuition is not welcome, and the in-
stitution will have much difficulty in securing pupils to
take such courses as contemplate a life of toil. The school
will exert a good influence as a school, and is worth main-
taining even if its manual-training features do not succeed
at once. The difficulty with its maintenance, as that diffi-
culty is felt by the mission, is that it absorbs the time and
energies of so large a proportion of the staff, while urgent
calls for evangelistic work come from all parts of the sur-
rounding country.

Rev. Leonard P. Davidson died of appendicitis in Au-
gust of 1901, after a brief illness. He was the first of the
missionary stafif of any Church, and so far the only one,
to lay down his life in the work. He was one of the most
devoted men I ever knew. His love for the Filipino people
was deep and constant. His was a rare nature, and his

462 Thu Philippines and the Far East.

death was a severe blov/ to the mission of which he was a
member.

The present staff of the Presbyterian Mission is. Revs.
James B. Rodgers, J. Andrew Hall, Walter O. Mclntyre,
H. W. Langheim, J. E. Snook, Lewis B. Hillis, A. A.
Peters, Paul Doltz, F. J. Pursell, George W. Wright,
Charles E. Rath, Roy H. Brown, Fred Jansen, and Dr.
Stealy B. Rossiter. Mr. Hillis is serving as pastor of the
English-speaking Church in Manila, and will probably
work with Dr. Rossiter when the latter arrives to assume
that pastorate. The total membership of the Presbyterian
Church is about one thousand.

The first Baptist missionary was Rev. Eric Lund. He
arrived at Jaro, on the island of Panay, with Mr. Braulio
Manikin, a native Filipino, who had been educated for the
priesthood at the Roman Catholic school at that place, on
May 2, 1900. Mr. Lund came from Spain to the Philip-
pines. Mr. Manikin had worked with him in Spain, and
together they had made considerable progress in trans-
lating the New Testament and preparing tract literature
in the Msayan language. Five tracts of editions of five
thousand each were soon run off from a small handpress
which they set up in Jaro, and when they were distributed
produced a deep impression. A small newspaper, called
the Herald of Truth, was soon put out, and met with a
hearty welcome. Mr. Lund was soon j-oined by Rev.
C. W. Briggs, and since that time their evangelistic work-
has gone forward with great rapidity.

Their field was deliberately chosen, and is adhered to
without thought of spreading to other islands. They work
in the Visayan language only, and in the two islands of
Panay and Negros. The chief cities occupied so far are
Jaro, Capiz, and Bacolod, the capital of Occidental (West-
ern) Negros. Practically a million people are within their

Presbyterians and Baptists.

463

field, and with their somewhat hmitcd staff they feel that
this number is all that they dare undertake to evangelize.
The latest statistics of this Church are as follows: Central
Stations, 3; Out Stations, 13; JMembers, 564; Dispensary,
1, Missionaries (counting wives and single ladies), 14;
Churches organized, 5; Medical Mission Station, i.

The staff of the Baptist Mission is Rev. C. W. Briggs,
Rev. George E. Finlay, Dr. Peter Lerrigo, Rev. J. C.
Robbins, and Rev. A. A. Forshe.

MANILA. botanical GARDENS.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Episcopalian and Other Churchks.

The Protestant Episcopal Church has occupied the
Phihppine Islands in strength. The work of this Church
began through the efforts of army chaplains who were
Episcopalians. Chaplains Charles C. Pierce, David L.
Fleming, Walter Marvine, and Henry Swift, in the early
days of 1898 and 1899, and Chaplain Walkely at a later
stage, did all in their power to establish the Episcopal
Church among both Filipinos and Americans. Chaplains
Pierce and Walkely served as regular pastors in Manila
while on duty with their regiments, and performed as
much labor in the pulpit and in pastoral visitation as the
average pastor of any Church finds time to do.

However, it is scarcely correct to say that the history
of a Church in the Philippines can be dated from the gra-
tuitous services of men who were not sent to do that spe-
cific work, but who were sent and supported to do another
and a wholly unsectarian work. It is only right and fair
in summing up the beginnings of Church life in the Archi-
pelago to date the formal inauguration of the several
Churches from the arrival of regularly accredited agents
of the various Mission Boards of such Churches. This
does not minify in any degree the excellent work of armv
chaplains. But it does make clear the definite beginnings
of those Church activities which were avowedly directed
and supported by the home organization. In fact, it may
as well be said that it will always be a question how far

Episcopalian and Other Churches. 465

the avowed denominational activities of army chaplains
can be allowed to go in strict justice while they are sup-
ported from public funds, and have assigned to them tasks,
which, if properly done, will not leave time for assuming
pastorates of Churches and directing the formation of
Church policies in such fields as the army may occupy.

Rev. James L. Smiley was sent to the Philippines by
the Brotherhood of St. Andrew in i8gg, and afterward
accepted appointment as the first representative of the
Domestic and Foreign Missionary vSociety of the Epis-
copal Church. Ill-health subsequently demanded his re-
turn to the United States. In November, 1901, Rev.
Walter C. Clapp and Rev. John A. Staunton, Jr., arrived
in Manila, and took charge of the work of the Church on
behalf of the Board of Missions. On October 5, 1901,
the General Convention of the Church, sitting in San Fran-
cisco, erected the Philippine Islands into a Missionary
District (contradistinguished from a Diocese), and on the
14th of the same month elected the Rev. Charles Henry
Brent, D. D., rector of the St. Stephen's Church, Boston,
as the first bishop. Dr. Brent was consecrated in Em-
manuel Church, Boston, December 19, 1901, and until the
middle of the following May devoted himself to the task
of securing funds, in addition to the appropriations from
the Board of Managers, for the prosecution of the work
committed to him. He succeeded in raising about
$150,000. One gift of $100,000 was for a cathedral to be
erected in Manila. Another, for $25,000, was for a parish
house. The bishop arrived in Manila August 24, 1902.
Within the next few weeks he was joined by the Rev.
Irving Spencer and wife. Miss Harriet B. Osgood, kinder-
gartner, and Miss Margaret P. Waterman, parish visitor.
Other additions to the staff to date include Miss Beatrice
Oakes, Miss Clara Thacher, and Miss Jane S. Jackson,
30

466 The Philippines and the Far East.

missionary nurses; Miss Emily M. Elvvyn, deaconess; Dr.
C. Radcliffe Johnson, missionary-physician, and wife ;
Rev. Mercer G. Johnston and wife; and Mr. Hobart E.
Studley and Mr. Santos Javier.

In Manila, work is going forward in four distinct
directions. First and foremost is that among the Amer-
ican and English community. St. Stephen's Church, now
v/orshiping in a temporary chapel in Ermita, is served by
Rev. Mercer G. Johnston as rector. A parish house is
soon to be built at a cost of $25,000, for which the money
is in hand. The plans for the parish house include a
gymnasium, a billiard-room, a library, and an assembly-
room, and is to be furnished by the students of Harvard,
Yale, Columbia, and Pennsylvania Universities. It is in-
tended to serve as a respectable rendezvous for the young
men of the city, and a valuable adjunct to the pastoral
work of the cathedral. This is to be called the Cathedral
of St. Mary and St. John.

Next is the Settlement Work, two miles away from the
proposed location for the cathedral, and among the Fili-
pino population. This work is carried forward on lines
similar to those followed in such work in London or Bos-
ton. A kindergartner and a parish visitor give their
entire time to the work which their designation suggests.
Besides this, there are classes in sewing and writing, and
clubs for boys and girls. There are no religious services
for Filipinos held in the Settlement House. Bishop Brent
has not yet seen his way to beginning definite religious
work in that part of the city.

Next comes the medical work carried forward by Dr.
Johnson. This is maintained in connection with the Settle-
ment House. Dispensary patients average one hundred
and fifty per week. The response of the Filipino to Amer-
ican medical treatment, even when wholly free, is not ini-

Episcopalian and Otihir Cihrches. 467

mediate in Manila, whatever it may be in other places less
plentifully supi)lie{l with native medicos and practicantcs.
A number of American physicians practicing in the city
g^ive their time several hours each week to make this med-
ical work a success.

Chinese work has been be^^un also. Rev. Hobart E.
Studley, a regular missionary of the Reformed Church in
Amoy for six years, has opened services for Chinese. He
is to be ordained (or reordained) at a later date.

Outside of Manila the Church has undertaken work in
Iloilo, where Rev. Irving Spencer ministers to the Amer-
ican population, occasionally visiting Zamboanga, in Min-
danao, and holding a service among civilian Americans
resident there.

In Baguio, the newly chosen summer capital of the
Philippines, "in the pine belt," Rev. John A. Staunton, Jr.,
serves as rector, and ministers, "by request," to Catholic
Filipinos at Trinidad, a few miles away, from time to
time. It is hoped that when the American summer popu-
lation in Baguio reaches into the hundreds that this Church
will exert a strong influence. Baguio is to be the recuper-
ating station for the Episcopalians as well as for other
missions.

Farther north in Luzon. Rev. Walter C. Clapp, assisted
by a trained nurse and deaconess, are at work among the
Igorrotes in the mountain regions of Lepanto, Bontoc.
Another clergyman and a medical man are to be sent there
soon to strengthen the force. Mr. Clapp also ministers to
a Catholic community which has been deserted by its
priest.

Bishop Brent finds himself imable to take the view of
other Protestant missionaries as to directly attempting to
influence the thought of the Catholics in the Philip-
pines. He does not commit himself as vet to the statement

468 The Philippines and the Far East.

that he will not open work among the so-called Christian-
ized Filipinos ; but up to this time he has not seen his way
to do so. I quote from his First Annual Report to the
Presiding Bishop enough to show his point of view, only
stating that Bishop Brent and all his staff, so far as I am
mformed, take the position of High Churchmen, with all
that this implies. With the sacerdotal theory of Church
and ministry which this involves, his position is more
easily understood.

The bishop says as to the general policy of the mis-
sion :

"From every point of view, the most important sec-
tion of our work at present, and it will be for some time
to come, is among Americans and other English-speaking
people. . . . The question of native work is an ex-
tremely difficult and perplexing one. I can not feel it to
be the duty of the Church which I represent to build up
a constituency by deliberately drawing upon the Roman
Church. It is here that I find myself differing from the
Protestant Churches at work in the Islands, and for this
reason, if for no other, I am unable to enter into any
formal relationship with them. The Evangelical Union
have extended us a cordial invitation to membership in
their body, but we are unanimous in feeling that we can
not subscribe to some of the principles implied or set
forth explicitly. This, however, will in no wise prevent
friendly relations with our Protestant neighbors, or the
observance of Christian considerateness where a division
of territory is concerned. Though I can not say that I
shall never place missionaries at points where mission-
aries of other communions have preceded, I shall do so
only in cases where my conception of duty leaves me no
choice. . . . The greatest satisfaction I could have
would be to see the Roman Church purify her skirts.
But when there has been and is such an absence of verac-
ity, such a suppression or denial of facts — facts which,
until I came out here, I could not believe, but which are
painfully and palpably true — how can there be any deep

MOUNTAIN WATERFALL.

Episcopalian and Other Churches. 471

reformation? In the coast regions the people are ahnost
sohdly Roman Cathohc, in name at least. I except the
country of the Moros, of course. Among the better edu-
cated there is more or less breaking away from the old
faith, shown rather by indiiTercnce than by active opposi-
tion, though there is not a little of the latter "in some
quarters. While the Churches in most places are well
attended, here as elsewhere largely by women, there is
a vast population whose Christianity is so purely nominal
that it would offer no indignity to the Roman Church
were an earnest effort made to win them to religion.
How to reach them is a problem yet to be solved."

Bishop Brent and his clergy still hope for the refor-
mation of the Catholic Church from within. Their opinion
is entitled to respectful consideration ; but the martyr roll
of Catholicism is so long, and her dungeons and scaffolds
are so eloquent, that one can not but wonder that any one
conversant with her history should venture so daring a
hope as that her faults of doctrine and life would be purged
except as outside pressure compels such purging. The
Churches in the Evangelical Union are a unit in believing
that the Catholic Church in the Philippines will never lead
the Filipino people out of sin into lives of righteousness.

The effort to reach the Igorrotes and other uncivilized
tribes in the interior is thus set forth by the bishop in the
same report :

"When we turn from the coast to the interior of Luzon
a new situation greets us. In the northern and eastern
sections there are multitudes of non-Christians, variously
denominated as Alzados, Igorrotes, and Calingas. No
work of any sort is being attempted among them. For-
merly the friars had a few uiissions in the interior prov-
inces of Lepanto and Bontoc, but they reached only the
Ilokanos, who were in the employ of the Spanish gov-
ernment, and accompanied officials to their various sta-
tions. The great heathen population was almost un-
touched. For several years past there have been no min-

472 i*HE; Philippines and the F^ar East.

istrations whatever, even where considerable communi-
ties of Christians are estabUshed ; as, e. g., in the Ilokano
town of Cervantes, though a request for a priest has
earnestly been made. This condition of afifairs is due
partly to the insufficient supply of native priests, and to
the fact that the friars dare not return thither, and partly
because they are poor communities, where the tempo-
ralities of the Church are of small value and temporal ad-
vantage wholly wanting. A fair field is offered for the
work of our Church among these unshepherded Chris-
tians and the non-Christian tribes among whom their lot
is cast. But with our inadequate force of clergy we can
accomplish but little. The tribes of the highlands are
numerous (the Negritos excepted), domestic, industrious,
and naturally religious ; they are primitive people of con-
siderable promise, the superiors of their lowland neigh-
bors in physique and energy, and seemingly their peers
in intelligence."

The Christlike work of lifting up the ignorant and
barbarous races of the interior of Luzon is one that will be
watched with the kindliest interest and most earnest prayer
by those missions which have felt bound to do all in their
power immediately to iniluence that mass of the real Fili-
pino people in whose hands are the levers which move the
future.

It is a matter of deep regret to all the other missions
at work in the Philippines that the Episcopalians will not
enter the Evangelical Union. It was in the interest of
practical unity and fraternity that the Union was organ-
ized. Major E. W. Halford, its first president, prophesied
a glowing future for the work in the Philippines when all
the forces which make for the salvation of these Islands
should be really united. That the Church which so
strongly emphasizes the necessity of Church unity will
not unite with all others for such ends can not but dis-
appoint our hopes. But nothing could exceed the beau-

Episcopalian and Other Churchks. 473

tiful spirit of brotherliness which characterizes Bishop
Brent and his force of workers. It may be that we are
mistaken in our notions of the best way to secure unity,
and that these our brothers in the EpiscopaHan Church are
risjht. In any case we be brethren, and will work together
for the uplifting of a people scattered and peeled by cen-
turies of misrule and oppression.

The United Brethren were first represented here by
Rev. E. S. Eby and Rev. Sanford B. Kurtz, who arrived
April I, 1 90 1. Rev. L. O. Burtner arrived later as super-
intendent of the mission. Owing" to differences of judg-
ment as to the occupation of the territory assigned them
by the Evangelical Union, and to the determination of Mr.
Burtner to reside and labor in Manila, both Mr. Eby and
Mr. Kurtz accepted work with the Army and Navy Branch
of the Young Men's Christian Association, with which
organization ihey are yet engaged. Mr, Burtner came to
Manila, where he has been living for more than two years.
No mission work has been begun as yet either in INIanila
or the assigned field. Mr. Burtner will retire from the
field early in 1904. No portion of the entire Archipelago
was more ripe for evangelistic effort than the Ilokos prov-
inces, which were given to the United Brethren in the
tentative allotment of territory arrived at by the Union.
Now practically the entire population has gone over to
the x^glipay movement. In Ilokos Norte the Catholic
Church holds but three churches and priests in the entire
province. Thousands of souls might have been gathered
in if the mission had entered vigorously upon the evangel-
ization of the people to whom their representatives were
first sent. At present the mission is represented by Rev.
H. W. Widdoes, who intends opening work in Manila.

The Disciple Church is represented by Rev. Hermon
P. Williams and Rev. W. H. Hanna. They came to the

474 ^HE Phiuppines and the F'ar East.

field in August and December of 1901, Mr. Williams hav-
ing formerly served in the Islands as chaplain of a volun-
teer regiment. Mr. Hanna undertook English work in
Manila ; but at the end of a little more than a year this
work was closed, and both workers went to occupy Loag,
the capital of Ilokos Norte, in Luzon. They have now
been joined by Dr. J. H. Pickett, who comes to undertake
medical work.

The Congregational Church is at present represented
by but one missionary — Rev. Robert F. Black. He has
selected the island of Mindanao as his field of labor, and
occupied the city of Davao, on the southern coast. He
intends to devote his efiforts chiefly to the pagan tribes.
In that part of the island there are Atas, Bogobos, Bilanes,
Caliganes, Guigangas, Mandayans, Manobos, Tagacoalos,
Samales, and Tanguils, aggregating more than fifty thou-
sand people, all wholly uncivilized, having no written lan-
guage, and, of course, only the crudest ideas of things
spiritual. Mr. Black finds an eager welcome for the Scrip-
tures among the Christianized Visayans settled in the
Islands. The vast majority of the population of Mindanao
is Mohammedan. Among these, mission work will pro-
ceed very slowly. They are a bloody and treacherous peo-
ple, and give little promise of yielding to the efforts of the
government either to control them or improve their con-
ditions. It is expected that the American Board of Com-
missioners for Foreign Missions will soon re-enforce this
important work.

The Army and Navy Branch of the Young Men's
Christian Association limits its activities to the work
among soldiers and sailors. Among these classes its work
is most profitable. The delay in starting work among the
young civilians in Manila is inexplicable. The present op-

Episcopaijan and Otiikr Ciiurciiks. 475

portunity for Cliristian usefulness among- these thousands
is many-fold greater than among soldiers or sailors.

There seems to be no way for arriving at an arrange-
ment by which Churches which can not undertake work
on anything like a large scale shall be induced to confine
their efforts to other fields. If this could be arrived at,
and this Philippine field be left to four or five of the strong
Churches, it would minister to the most rapid and satis-
factory accomplishment of that end for which all devoutly
pray — the moral and spiritual redemption of the Philip-
pine Islands.

There have been but few instances of a lack of fra-
ternity thus far. In one case a local preacher, who had
refused to accept the work given him, and was pouting in
his tent, was taken by the representative of another mis-
sion, immersed, and later given work. This kind of thing
is fatal to missionary fraternity. In the degree in which
it is allowed to go on, it defeats all those high ends for
v.diich the Evangelical Union stands. It is to be hoped
that such a flagrant breach of missionary comity will never
occur again, and that in all parts of the field the same
spirit of brotherl}' consideration and unselfishness will pre-
vail which has been the rule from the beginning to the
present. "By this shall all men know" that we are Christ's
disciples, if we have love and consideration one for an-
other. The missionary who is here in the Philippines
primarily to build up a denomination should be immedi-
ately recalled. We are here to build up the Kingdom of
Righteousness, and only so far as our native Churches
hasten this end arc they of any real use to Him in whose
name we labor.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SoMij Difficulties Confronting Mission Work.

In all lands the chief hindrance to the rapid advance
of the kingdom of God is the hardness and impenitence
of the human heart. Men will not be saved because they
love darkness rather than light.

Particular hindrances which afifect us here may be
limited to three. These are the almost invincible tendency
to religious formalism on the part of the people, the vicious
example of worldly and godless Americans, and the lan-
guage barriers which rise between us and those to whom
v/e would minister.

Form and ceremony have been the whole of religion
to the Christianized Filipinos so long that it is with the
utmost difficulty that the essentially spiritual character
of true religion is grasped by the Filipino mind. When he
had confessed and knelt at the mass the Filipino Christian
had been religious ! When the women have said the cor-
rect number of paternosters, and crossed themselves at
the right times, and counted their beads correctly, and
otherwise "gone through" the daily religious program,
there was no more consciousness of obligation. The fact
that the heart was seething with hatred, or that the lips
spoke blasphemies or poured forth torrents of abuse or
falsehoods, weighed as the small dust of the balance
against the other fact that all the regulations of worship
had been strictly complied with. That God demands in-

476

Difficulties Confronting Mission Work. 477

terior purity, and that He will have none of our cere-
monies if sin is intrenched in tlie life, is a notion so foreign
to the mind of the Filipino people as a whole, that one of
the main difficulties that looms on all our horizons is that
of removing this deep-seated notion and supplanting it
with the opposite belief. The people are ready to be bap-
tized, to read their Bibles, to unite with our Churches, and
to comply with our outward requirements ; but in too many
cases they are not clearly converted as we understand
that term, and their spiritual regeneration must come be-
fore their eyes are open to spiritual things. Here is the
peril of the rapidly-growing Protestant Churches. If their
founders can walk so closely with God, and have so large a
measure of the Holy Spirit's presence that the work of
conviction for sin can go on among those who are dis-
cipled unto Christ, then the work will run with swiftness
to all parts of the Islands, and will abide as a permanent
regenerating force. Christ gave the condition upon which
alone this connection with the Spirit of conviction could
be enjoyed by His workers when He said, "And He, when
He is come [unto you] will convince the world of sin and
of righteousness and of judgment." Only as the Spirit
comes unto and abides in us who labor in His name will
He be a Spirit of conviction in the hearts of the spiritually
dead.

Those Churches which are receiving members most
rapidly are face to face with this difficulty in a grave form.
But it can not but be mightily encouraging to know that
the real spiritual life of the native Churches of our own
planting, at least (for I can only speak with authority of
them ) , is steadily deepening. Through special services,
in camp-meetings, in class-meetings, in personal inter-
course, we v/ho labor in the Philippines must confront

478 The Philippines and the Far East.

this peril of formalism, and spare no effort to break its
force in the Churches which are founded.

It is. sad but true that one of the most powerful hin-
drances to our work of evangelization of the native popu-
lation of the Philippines is due to the worldliness and
open godlessncss of many Americans. The worldliness
that smites the most of Americans who come to the Philip-
pines is chiefly seen in the neglect, if not open and sneer-
ing contempt, for all forms of religious worship. Out of
eight thousand Americans in Manila, not more than five
hundred different persons can be found in the three Amer-
ican congregations which minister to the American popu-
lation on any Sunday. These Churches have as good
preaching as will be found in similar Churches in the
United States. Their choirs furnish excellent music. The
buildings are well located. All publicity possible is given
to the services in newspapers and through other means of
public announcement. But the people do not go to church
in any considerable numbers. A partial explanation may
be found in the lack of adequate means of communication
in the city. But this does not hinder crowds from going
to any other place which they wish to attend. The fact
is that a spirit of extreme worldliness prevails in Manila.
Men and women who always went to church at home
never go here. Men and women who were scrupulous
about the right observance of the Sabbath here are found
at the Sunday races, Sunday ball-games, or going for
Sunday excursions on the bay or river. Government offi-
cials have set the example, as was shown in another chap-
ter. It was considered the right thing to comport one's
self as an official so as to allay any possible fear that the
government was to use its influence in favor of Prot-
estantism, and clerks and heads of departments took the

Difficulties Confronting Mission Work. 479

cue quickly. This has chang^ed somewhat, but there is
large room for improvement.

The society life of Manila seems given over to bridge
whist, dancing", Sunday games and fetes, and other occu-
pations which do not tend toward religious living. Many
of the American women have little to do. Their Chinese
cooks prepare the meals. Filipino house-boys do the house-
keeping. A native nurse looks after the children. A
steamstress keeps the sewing-machine whirring, and the
wife and mother can spend her time in going from one
function to another with not much concern for domestic
affairs. All this tends away from spirituality, and affects
the tone of social life unfavorabh'.

The largest items in the indictment are drink, lust,
and gambling. It will forever remain a mystery to the
thoughtful why the military government admitted ship-
loads of liquor in the beginning, and permitted private
greed for gain to supplement the evil of the regimental
canteen in ruining our soldiers and setting an evil example
to the natives of the Islands. One word from the military
authorities would have made it impossible for liquor to
land. But it was not spoken. The annual license was
fixed at the utterly ridiculous figure of $4 ! Saloons
sprang up on every hand. Soldiers lay sodden drunk on
the public roads. Our national honor was dragged in the
very dirt of the streets.

It is vastly to the credit of the civil government that
as soon as it came into power all saloons were banished
from the Escolta, and from all the principal business
streets of Manila. Also, that in framing a charter for
Manila, they included a set of laws on the liquor question
which were superior to those prevailing in man_\' of our
home cities. Saloons have to pay from $600 to $800 per

480 The Philippines and the Far East.

year for their licenses, and must close at eleven o'clock
at night and remain closed Sundays. A pane of glass
must be set in all doors leading to the streets from which
a view of the bar can be had, and offenders are promptly
and severely punished. While the whole number of native
wine-shops in Manila has been reduced from over 4.000 at
the time of American occupation to 1,168 on the last day
of June, 1903, yet there has been the introduction of the
American saloon with all its attractiveness as a totally
new factor in the life of the city. On June 30, 1903, there
were 157 places licensed in the city of Manila in which
liquor could be bought and consumed on the premises.
Of these, 61 were what we understand in America by
saloons, called here "first-class bars ;" 63 were second-
class bars, or bars at which liquors were kept in a semi-
private way ; 48 were restaurants, and five were hotels.
Restaurant licenses require the taking of a bona fide meal
with every sale of liquor. Hotel licenses do not. Of the
63 second-class bars, 57 are in the houses of prostitution
in Sampaloc. An earnest efi^ort is being made to compel
the authorities to banish liquor from these brothels. There
were 61 wholesale liquor licenses in force on the date men-
tioned above. Three or four large "commercial com-
panies" in Manila sell little else than liquor, though seek-
ing to be known as respectable merchants. There are
seven licensed distilleries in Manila, one brewery doing an
immense business, and 86 licensed groceries handling
liquors. Taking saloons as that term is understood in
America, there were 129 in operation at the close of the
last fiscal year, June 30, 1903. As compared with Amer-
ican cities, that is not a bad showing. The following
table is the most recent procurable in Manila. I take it
from Dr. Brown's book :

DlFFlCULTIKS CONM-ROXTINC, IMlSSIOX W'oKK. 481

Popula-
tion.

Saloons.

Washington .,

Cleveland

Cincinnati. .
New Orleans .
Milwaukee ....
San Francisco

St Louis

Baltimore

Boston ..

Philadelphia .

Chicago ..

New York

278,718

381,768

325.902

287,104

2S5.310

342.782

575.238

508 957

560.892

1,293.697

1.698,575

3,437,202

513
1,888

1.727
1.370
1.747
3.007
2,000
1,988
799
1.709
6,400
10,832

But it must be remembered that the American and for-
eign population of Manila to which these saloons furnish
liquor, and to them almost cvcliisii'dy, is not more than
ten thousand, so that the consumption per capita is appal-
lingly large, with correspondingly evil effects on our work
for the uplifting of the Filipino people. They arc nearly
all users of intoxicants of their own making. They drink
biiio, a deadly white liquor distilled from the nipa palm,
and tuba, an intoxicant made from the juice of the cocoa-
nut-tree ; but they are not an intemperate people. They
are seldom seen drunk. The habit of drinking to intoxi-
cation is an American habit here. And such a habit, with
its concomitant vices, does not lend itself to efforts which
are being put forth to better the moral condition of the
native population.

Concubinage is a terribly common sin among Amer-
icans. The system of contract marriages which grew up
under the excessive demands of the friars for marriage
fees has lent itself to this evil. Conditions in this respect
are better than they were two years ago ; but they are yet
sufficiently shameful to cause us to blush for the influence
exerted by scores of Americans who have been reared
to know better than to live in open sin.
3^

482 The Philippines and the Far East.

Gambling is in the very atmosphere of the East. Our
countrymen fall victims to it with fatal facility. The
balmy air, the easy conditions of life, the thousand oppor-
tunities which the white man has of recouping himself
when the fickle goddess of the game is unfriendly. — all
these make gaming more fascinating here than in lands
where conditions are more rigorous.

The American influence is not all bad. It is not true,
as some say, that we are imparting all our vices and none
of our virtues to the Filipinos ; but there is enough truth
in the statement to sadden every one who loves righteous-
ness. There are hundreds of our countrymen who are
living purely and unselfishly in the midst of this people,
and to these we give our hands, and with these we join
our forces in the firm belief that "grace is stronger than
sin."

The difficulty of acquiring the local vernaculars so
that every man may hear in his own tongue the wonderful
works of God is one that confronts us in every part of the
Islands. At my request, Rev. Willard A. Goodell of the
Methodist mission, who has probably acquired the Tagalog
language more perfectly than any other American in the
Philippines, has prepared the following Notes on the
Tagalog Language :

"I. Tagalog is essentially a spoken language and full
of idiom. The people themselves know very little about
its why's and wherefore's, even those who have some
education in Spanish and Latin. They merely know
it as they have learned it, without a question as to its
make-up. But it is not without system. The Spanish
friars wrote fairly good grammars of the language in
Spanish, and Constantino Lendoyro has written a very
good one in English.

"Aside from the devotional books of the Catholic
Church and the grammatical works of the friars in Span-

Diri'icui,Tii;s Conm-ronting Mission Work. 483

ish-Tas^aloq-, there is practically no literature in the lan-
i;uaii"e prior to the work of the Protestants.

"II. The pronunciation of Tagalog is very simple,
and there are no sounds to which the American vocal
org-ans are not accustomed. The letter most difficult to
get is 'ng,' which has exactly the sound which it has in
the middle of the word 'ringing ;' but which becomes dif-
ficult when at the beginning of a word, as in the word
'nguni. t,' — one of the words translating the conjunction
'but.' and which often comes at the beginning of a sen-
tence.

"But although so simple in word pronunciation, Taga-
log is extremely difficult in utterance, for one reason be-
cause of the great number of very long words it contains,
and for another and more important still, because of the
rhythmic movement of the language, — a quality that can
not be described, and a characteristic for which no rules
whatever can be given, but which is entirely as much a
part of the Tagalog language as are its words them-
selves.

"III. In grammatical construction, with the excep-
tion of the verb, the language is verv simple. The nouns
are not declined, the cases being indicated by the article,
which is declined in singular forms only. All plurals
are formed by prefixing the article 'manga' to the word
or expression to be pluralized.

"There is no gender in Tagalog. With the exception
of the words for 'father.' 'mother,' 'uncle,' 'aunt,' 'brother-
in-law,' 'sister-in-law,' 'young-man,' 'young-woman.'
there are practically no nouns which could be said to
have gender forms. It is expressed by the use of the
adjectives 'male' and 'female :' even such common words
as 'man,' 'woman,' 'son,' 'daughter.' 'brother,' 'sister,' etc.,
are used as 'male person,' 'male child,' etc.

"The pronouns are declined almost exactly as Eng-
lish pronouns and are used in the same way. There are,
however, a few pronouns in the first person plural that
are not found in English : one excluding the person ad-
dressed, 'we, but not you ;' one including the person ad-
dressed, 'we all ;' and one meaning 'we two only.'

484 The Philippines and the Far East.

"IV. It is in the use of the verb that Tagalog baffles
the student and makes its mastery a matter of years. In
the actual matter of conjugation, the commonly-used forms
of any verb are simple enough. There are really only three
tenses, and only one mood. There is but one form in each
tense for all three persons. There is a pluralizing particle
which may be used or not, which, in fact, is not commonly
used in the spoken language. The verb in the sentence
must have a subject, either noun or pronoun, very much
as in English.

"But simple as is the conjugation of the verb at its
root, in actual use it grows into a system of ramifications
and variations and inexplicable and indescribable differ-
entiations, which fairly overawes the student accustomed
to perhaps five conjugations and a few hundred irregular
verbs. For the conjugating in Tagalog is not by endings,
but by particles prefixed, inserted, or suffixed, often all
three in the same form. And as there are seventeen com-
plete sets of these particles, active and passive, with vari-
ations uncountable according to euphony or sense; and
as these seventeen sets of verbalizing particles when ap-
plied to one root may produce entirely different effects in
signification from what thev do when applied to another
root ; and as, in addition, the passive voice is much more
used than the active, and in places where English would
always use the active, and as all this is done without law
or order or any possible explanation, but merely intuitively
by the natives who have had their language handed down
from generation to generation, it is easily seen what an
intricate and interminable task is set the student of the
language.

"In Tagalog much confusion comes from the similar-
ity of ideas, which in English are quite distinct. For in-
stance, the same root differently conjugated means 'to
buy' and 'to sell ;' in the same way one root means 'to
borrow,' 'to lend,' 'to be debtor,' and 'to be creditor;' and
one root is conjugated to mean 'to study,' 'to learn,' and
'to preach.' Some examples of the last cited root, taken
from Lendoyro's 'The Tagalog Language,' may serve to
illustrate the complexities of this system of conjugation.

DiFFicui<Tir:s Confronting Mission Work. 4S5

"The root is 'aral.' Used alone it means 'a doctrine or
teaching.'

nmaral to teach.

magaral to learn, to study.

mangaral to preach.

macaaral to be able to teach.

magpapagaral to order or bid one to study.

macjuipangaral to join with one in preaching.

papangaral to ask for or wish preaching.

magpacapangaral ... .to try to preach one's very best.

ang pagaral the lesson taught.

ang pagaaral the lesson studied.

ang pagaaralan the book from which one studies.

ang ypinangaral the sermon preached.

ang pinangangaralan.the audience to which one preaches,
ang mangangaral. . . .the preacher.

ang ungmaaral the teacher.

ang nagaaral the student.

"Although most of the roots in the Tagalog language
are short, yet by reason of the multitudinous particles used
in conjugating, it becomes a language of long words, and
these often of strange alphabetical make-up. A root of
four letters may be conjugated into a word of five times
that number of letters, thus : 'olol,' crazy, becomes 'nan-
gasisipagololololan,' meaning 'they feign madness ;' and
'usap,' to converse, becomes 'nangagsisipagusapusap,' to
mean 'they gossip.'

"V. The system of conjugation in Tagalog begets
many peculiarities. Nearly all words, whatever part of
speech the root may be, may be converted into other parts
of speech by the proper particles prefixed, suffixed, or in-
serted. For instance, there are no verbs 'come' and 'go'
in Tagalog. Instead the adverbs 'here' and 'there.' Thus
one 'heres' and 'theres,' not 'comes' and 'goes.' Pronouns
thus conjugated make odd examples. I 'mine' a thing,
or 'yours'- it or 'his' it, that is, I impute it to be mine, or
yours, or his.

"Nouns are also thus used : 'binabalang ang palay' lit-

486 The Philippines and the Far East.

erally says 'is being locusted the rice; meaning 'the locusts
are destroying the growing rice ;' likewise 'was ratted the
cheese' for 'the rats nibbled the cheese.'

"Vl. There are many idioms in Tagalog. although it
is not a language rich in allusions and folk-lore. Instead
of saying 'the sun sets.' it is 'the sun drowns.' The verb
'walk' is used for almost any kind of movement. 'The
clock is dead ; it is not walking.' 'The present month' is
'the month now walking.' 'The telegraph is not walking
on account of the storm.'

"On being asked why a certain lamp was not lighted,
the servant replied, 'The oil does not like to walk up the
vs^ick,' meaning 'the wick was bad.' 'Time walks,' for
'time passes.'

"VII. In Tagalog the adverbs 'already' and 'still' are
very distinct, and are used strictly and constantly. This
accuracy is quite difficult for the English student to ac-
quire. Added to this difficulty is the fact that in Tagalog
the negatives of the verbs 'to be,' 'to have,' and 'to want'
are themselves positive verbs. 'May,' to have, and 'ay,'
to be, have for their negatives the active verb 'uala,' to be
w^ithout. or not to be ; and 'ibig,' to want, has for its nega-
tive 'ayao,' not to want, to dislike. Thus, 'Ibig mo pa
tubig?' — Do you want more water? (literally. Do you
still want water? — has to correspond w'ith its negative
answer in English the positive answer in Tagalog, 'Ayao
CO na,' I do-not-want already ; literally, 'already I have
gotten to the point where I do not want.'

"VIII. But by far the most striking peculiarity of
Tagalog is found in the use of the passive, — a veritable
backing into a statement ! Nearly all simple commands
are in the passive : 'be washed by you the dishes,' 'be writ-
ten by you the letter.' The plain active sentence in Eng-
lish, 'He wants you to bring him a net because the mos-
quitoes are biting him,' when stated in the simplest Taga-
log reads literally, 'Is wanted by him to be brought by you
a net because he is being mosquitoed ;' and 'Tell him to
call a doctor for this fever patient' would become, 'Be told
by you to him that is wanted by me to be called by him a
doctor for this person which is being fevered.' "

Dii'i*ici'i;rii:s CoNin^oNTiNC Mission Work. 487

Rev. A. E. Chenoweth, of the same mission, says:

"The followinc,- will illustrate both the use of the pas-
sive voice and the genitive case:

" 'And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we
shall say from heaven ; he will say, Why theni' did ye not
believe him?' (Mark xi. 31.) The Tagalog reads, 'At
camilang pinagbubulay-bulay sa camilang sarili na sina-
sabi ; Cung sabihin nating mula sa langit, ay sasabihin
Baquit, nga hindi ninyo siya pinanampalatayahan ?' The
literal translation of this is, 'And of them was reasoned
with themselves and was said. If to be said of us, from
heaven, will be said (of him), Why, then not of you he
was believed ?' "

BISHOP JAMES M. THOBURN.

CHAPTER XXIX.

The Agupay Movement.

Catholicism in the Philippines is no longer of one
kind only. A schism has taken place. Under the leader-
ship of Gregorio Aglipay at least one million and a half
of the Filipinos have left the Holy and Apostolic Roman
Catholic Church, and set up the Independent Catholic
Church of the Philippines. Whatever may be the future
of the movement, it has rent the old Church in twain from
top to bottom, and now holds the attention of Catholic
leaders to a far greater degree than Protestantism, for
the reason that it is just now more to be feared by Cath-
olic leaders than Protestantism.

Archbishop Aglipay is an ex-communicated Catholic
priest. He is about forty years of age. He is an Ilocano
by birth. He was carefully educated for the priesthood
in a Catholic seminary, and was ordained in Manila about
1890. His advancement was unusually rapid. He was
trusted by his friar superiors, and given charge of im-
portant and delicate interests. But in the stormy days of
the insurrection and beginnings of American occupation
he fell into ill-favor with the Church authorities over some
irregularity in Church order, and was excommunicated.
The action was glaringly unjust and entirely irregular.
But he was a Filipino. He was far away from the pope.
By no means at his disposal could he secure a removal
of the illegal and unjust sentence. Hence he cast his lot
in with the Insurrecto government, and Aguinaldo made

488

'The Agi.ipay Movement. 489

Jiim X'icar-Gencral — an empty honor. Once or twice he
led troops in action in exigencies of the guerrilla warfare
which the scattered troops of the insurgent army were
able to maintain. Very soon after the proclamation which
the Schurman Commission issued on the 4th of April,
1899, he saw the futility of further resistance to Amer-
ican arms, and the probability that under American sover-
eignty all those ends for which the Filipinos were fighting
could be secured more certainly than by the triumph of
Insurrecto arms. Hence he "came in," and took the oath
of allegiance.

In August of 1901 he sought a private conference with
several Protestant ministers to discuss the religious situ-
ation in the Philippines, outline his own plans, and seek
some form of co-operation if union of efifort proved im-
practicable. He took the initiative. It was his first con-
tact with Protestants, whom he had always denounced
as the offscourings of the earth. The fact that he sought
us out was an indication of his intellectual hospitality.

The conference was held in the ofifice of the American
Bible Society in the Walled City, Manila. Those present
were : Rev. Jay C. Goodrich, agent of the Bible Society ;
Rev. James B. Rodgers, senior missionary of the Presby-
terian Church ; Rev. J. L. McLaughlin and myself, of the
Methodist Episcopal Church ; and Sefior Isabelo de los
Reyes, a Filipino gentleman of good education, and an
inveterate fondness for agitation. We spent several hours
in hearing the first disclosure of a plan to rend the Roman
Church in the Philippines in twain. Senor Aglipay. with
great clearness, set forth the situation as he saw it. He
pictured the popular hatred of the friars as we had seen
it. He pointed out the systematic ill-treatment of the
native clergy by the foreign friar, and the unrest which
this caused among the entire native community. He

490 The Phiijpi'ines and the Far East.

showed us proofs of the passionate fervor of all Filipinos
for their own Islands. He then told us that he proposed
to lead in the establishment of an independent Catholic
Church in the Philippines, and that he wished us to make
common cause with him. The first item on his program
was separation from the papacy and complete autonomy
in the Philippines. His next step was to declare for and
stand "for Catholic doctrine in its purity." Other details
were of less importance.

We pointed out to him the impossibility of any attempt
to unite with a movement which did not make the Scrip-
tures the rule and guide in doctrine and life, and urged
him to study the situation more carefully and throw his
strength into the Protestant movement. If he could not
do that, we all represented the certainty of failure, if only
a program of negation and protest were entered upon,
and secured a promise that he would carefully consider
the question of the indorsement of the Word of God, mar-
riage of the clergy, and the abolition of Mariolatry.

Little more was known of Aglipay until October of
1902, when he called together the priests and laymen who
had consented to join his movement, and with their aid
framed and adopted a constitution for the new movement,
named it the Independent Catholic Church of the Philip-
pines, and was, by the votes of these sympathizers, elected
"Archbishop." Several priests were elected bishops at the
same time. The following Sunday the new archbishop,
in full regalia, celebrated mass in Tondo, Manila, in the
open air, before several thousand people. The sensation
produced was tremendous. Sympathizers multiplied. A
native priest at Pandacan, Manila, made some insulting
references to Aglipav and his followers, and when he came
out of the church a mob of women assaulted him, tore his

Till-: Agijpay AI()VF,.mf,nt, 491

cassock to shreds, rolled him in the dirt, and so hustled
him that he was glad to escape without a hroken head.
Members of that congregation sent for the new arch-
bishop to come and say mass in Pandacan Church. He
came and said mass before a vast crowd, while over two
hundretl irate women took their bedding and cooking
utensils and slept in the churchyard to prevent the regular
priest from again entering the building. Other Churches
invited Algipay to use their buildings, and the city was in
a furore.

Aglipay and his advisers demanded confirmation of
their possession of the Pandacan Church. Roman Cath-
olic authorities demanded his ejection as a trespasser and
a blasphemer. Governor Taft's office was besieged by
be-gowned ecclesiastics. He was in shoal seas, with
breakers on all sides. A mistaken decision, and a civil
war was far from an impossibility. With perfect justice
and consummate adroitness he issued a proclamation
known in the Philippines as The Proclamation of Peace-
able Possession. The gist of this order is that the party
which is in peaceable possession of anv house of worship
shall be deemed to be the rightful occupant, and the con-
trary must be proven in the courts before ejection can
take place. Under this order the court restored the Panda-
can Church to the Roman Catholic authorities, as they
were only driven from their peaceable possession by a
mob. The evident justice of this order quieted public
clamor, and trouble was averted.

The movement spread with a rapidity surpassing be-
lief. Whole provinces with every pueblo, every priest,
every church with its attached convcnto, or priest's house,
went over to Aglipay solidly. In North Ilokos province
but three Churches and priests remain loyal to Rome. At

492 I^he: Philippines and the Far East.

least 1,500,000 people and Church property worth hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars went into the control of
"Arzohispo" Aglipay as rapidly as he could pass in a
kind of triumphal procession from town to town. Under
Governor Taft's proclamation his forces were "in peace-
able possession." They still remain in possession.
Whether the hierarchy will bring suit for the recovery of
every church and convento can only be a matter for con-
jecture. It is probable that such action will be taken.
It is not likely that there will be a tame submission to the
loss of all of this valuable property. The legal battle that
will open when this question is formally taken up will be
one well worth watching. Aglipay will base his claim to
the permanent retention of the property upon the alleged
fact that churches were erected for all pueblos or cities
from public funds supplemented by local contributions,
in exactly the same manner in which the government pro-
vides public offices, jails, and schoolhouses, and that by
the law all such buildings became the property of the
pueblo for the use of its inhabitants.

He will be met with citations from canonical law, and
from the practice of the Roman Catholic Church accord-
ing to which all titles of houses of worship pass auto-
matically to the archbishop of the diocese in trust for the
Church by the act of dedication. Equity appears to be
on the side of Aglipay and his followers. It is to be
feared, however, that a strict interpretation of the law
will not give them the hundreds of churches in which
they are now worshiping. The courts must decide.

The strength of the Aglipay movement lies in its ap-
peal to a growing feeling of nationality, its recognition
of the Word of God, its partial satisfaction of the large
class whose hands have long waited for an available club

The Agijpay Movement. 493

with which to smite the friars, and to its easy prog'rani
of rehgious reformation.

It is a FiHpino movement. It throws ofif the yoke of
the pope, and cuts all other ties of a foreiijn character.
Its entire ministry, from the "Arzohispo" to the humblest
padre, is Filipino. It is altogether of the soil, and there-
fore he who does not support it is not a good iMlipino.
He does not love his Fatherland unless he joins the Inde-
pendent Filipino Catholic Church. This form of pressure
is very efifective. It brings thousands into the ranks of
"Aglipayanos" who have precious little concern about
merely religious matters. They habitually stand up for
anything that exalts the Philippines, hence they put down
their names and accept places on the committees which
Aglipay leaves in charge of his interests in every place
where a Church is established.

The success of Aglipay cuts the Catholic Church to
the quick. Therefore friar haters welcome the move-
ment. Any weapon that will give promise of humbling
the haughty, tyrannical friar is welcomed and used most
lustily. The same motive leads hundreds to welcome
Protestantism, as they suppose that our first business is
to fight Rome. When they find out the spiritual and
moral demands which Protestantism makes, they flinch.
It was not for this that they desired "a new religion."
To a very great degree the immediate visible success of
the movement is due to this cause.

Aglipay recommends the reading of the Bible by his
priests and people. Over twenty-five thousand Scripture
portions have been purchased outright by Aglipa\ leaders
within the last six months, and sold to their people. All
that is permanently good in the movement comes from
this attitude toward the inspired Word.

494 The Phii^ippines and the Far East.

Its easy program of religious reformations attracts
thousands. It promises a better order of things, but
makes no spiritual or moral demands. Priests may come
into the movement, and keep their mistresses and continue
their gambling. Aglipay himself has never been accused
of immorality or gaming, but he sets up no standard of
purity in his priesthood or among his people. The cock-
pit, games of cards and dice, the bino habit and all other
national vices come into the new Church without direct
rebuke. This, its real weakness, gives it apparent
strength. Because of this it is enabled to count its mem-
bers by the million within less than two years from its
birth.

Indirectly the Aglipay movement is of great help to
Protestantism. It breaks the solid front of Romish oppo-
sition. When we are told that the Catholics are against
us we can ask, "Which Catholics?" It attracts the chief
enmity of the hierarchy. Since this schism began Rome
has shot fewer arrows toward our lines. Her fury against
the assumptions of an ex-communicated member of her
own body has burned day and night since October. 1902.
and the Protestant has come off with but a few curses,
and a tract or two. This will continue so long as the
numerical strength of the Aglipay schism is being aug-
mented.

The Aglipay movement helps us by detaching tens of
thousands of members from a nominal connection with
the Church of Rome, and leaving them without positive
instruction in a more excellent way. Our preachers get a
hearing with them, and hundreds of them accept the Word
and are saved. These people would never have left the
Roman Catholic Church to become Protestants, feeble as
was the hold of the old Church upon them ; but once out-

Till-; ACLll'AV MOVKMKNT. 495

side and Imngry for spiritual food, ihcy hear and are
saved. Aglipay loosens this fruit from the tree, and we
gather it. God is thus overruling the shortcomings of the
leaders of this revolt against the Romish Church to the
spiritual good of many souls.

I am not without hope that Aglipay will yet take more
advanced spiritual and moral ground. His own personal
belief is far from being in accord with some errors at
which he feels it necessary to wink lest he lose his follow-
ing. He hopes to be able to lead them to greener pastures
later on.

The new American Catholic bishops have helped .Agli-
pay by illegal attempts to seize the churches now held by
the schismatics. Bishop Rooker had been less than a
week in his diocese in Iloilo before he deliberately took
possession of a former Romish Church, now for nearly a
year "in the peaceable possession" of Agiipayaiios, when
he chanced to find it open and empty between services.
He sent for the presidente, or mayor, and demanded the
keys. The presidente properly disclaimed any authority
in the case, and declined to act. Bishop Rooker then sent
for locks, and locked all doors and carried off the keys.
It was an open violation of the Taft proclamation, and he
was called to account.

In Northern Luzon Bishop Dougherty tried the same
high-handed methods, going- to church after church, plac-
ing his hands upon the door-sill and saying in Latin, "In
the name of the pope of Rome I take possession of this
church." Several times he was assaulted by the custo-
dians of the buildings, and was forced to travel under a
heavy escort of constabulary on his return to his head-
quarters at Vigan. Governor Wright has not made public
his orders in these cases yet, as they are of recent occur-

496

The Philippines and the Far East.

rence. It would seem that they are in plain contravention
of the order directing all disputes as to rightful occupancy
to be determined by the courts.

The Independent Filipino Catholic Church has come
to stay. Just how strong a hold it will be able to keep
over the multitudes which have flocked to its standard of
revolt against the pope can not be foretold. But it may
be reckoned with as a permanent factor in the religious
future of the Philippines.

CARVED CHURCH DOOR, MANILA.

CHAPTER XXX.
TiiK Philippines and the Far East.

Reduced to its lowest terms, the Eastern Question is
the question whether or not Russia shall dominate Asia.
Other elements enter the problem. Other Powers have
interests, and Japan's very existence is at stake ; but it is
the iron determination of Russia to control all of Asia
which makes the Eastern Question.

Russia wants the Far East for at least three reasons.
She wants it because there she can get access to salt water.
No nation can be truly great without open ports on the
blue highw^ay of the nations. History shows that every
nation which has built up its commerce until that com-
merce furnished solid foundations upon which national
life could be established has had sea-room. When the na-
tions which have left the largest contributions to the laws
and literatures and institutions of all after time were in
the height of their power, it was to the Mediterranean
that they were indebted for that power. It was the sea
which carried their corn and their silks and their armies.
Rome and Greece, Egypt and Phenicia were sea-powers.
Their continental hinterland would have had little mean-
ing, no matter how fertile, had it not been possible to send
its products swiftly to markets where it could be bartered
for other products for which the trade of the country
called. When the maritime activities of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries had discovered another continent richer
32 497

498 The Philippines and the Far East.

than any yet exploited, at the farther edge of the Atlantic.
tlie center of the world-life and world-trade shifted to
this larger highway, with its watery roads leading to all
ports of the Americas and Europe. Without the Mediter-
ranean, there could have been no Egypt, and Rome would
have been a puny nation. Without the open paths of the
v.ide Atlantic, England's greatness would have never
come.

But Russia can not reach the Atlantic at open ports.
Her land is nearly all hinterland. Nowhere does she face
salt water. All her efiforts to reach it toward the south
have been defeated by the jealousy of England. Defeated
at the south, she has turned to the East, determined to find
on the Pacific what she has been denied on the Mediter-
ranean. How deeply rooted is this conviction that open
ports on the sea are necessary to her existence and devel-
opment can be seen in the vast expenditure of not less
than $500,000,000 for that most daring railway project
of all that have ever been attempted, the Trans-Siberian.
If further proof of her settled policy is needed, it may be
found in her audacity in wresting from Japan the fruits
of the latter's victory over China at the close of the
China-Japan War, and holding Port Arthur and Man-
churia. Russia now has reached the sea. At Port
Arthur, at Vladivostock, and now at Dalny, the Russian
city of the future in the Far East, she has attained her
end. Those who imagine that she intends to retire from
Manchuria must be wholly ignorant of the policy which
has held her steadily to the stupendous task of creating
the railway.

The second reason why Russia lusts for the domina-
tion of Asia lies in her desire to find outlets for her im-
mense trade. Asia is filled with millions of earth's popu-
lation. At least seven hundred million people are within

The PiiiLirpiNES and Tiit; Far East. 499

the territories which Russia has determined to control
with a more or less direct hand. These people are buyers
of the things which Russia can grow and manufacture.
At present England and Germany have the larger share
of this immense market. Neither England nor Germany
has a tithe of the natural resources which Russia pos-
sesses. In her continuous continental territory of more
than eight million square miles she has mines of all kinds
of ores, with enough of each to supply a world. In her
millions of ^cres of forest she has lumber to build for
the nations. In her far-reaching acres of rich soil she
has resources only equaled by the United States, and
nearly all undeveloped. For all these she craves markets.
With the sea for a highway, and the Far East for her
customers, she can carry and sell, and buy and carry
home those rich spoils of field and mine out of which
national wealth and greatness is to be had. All the prizes
for which Rome played her game of power are petty
compared with the colossal schemes which the diplomats
of the White Father have matured. He plans to control
one continent that he may ultimately control another
nearer home.

The third reason why Russia has settled it that all
Asia must come under her swa\- is, that by this means
it will be possible for her to fall heir to the riches of
China. China will ultimately fall and be seized by some
other Power or Powers. Russia proposes to be that
Power. For this, in part, the railway and the construc-
tion of coterminous land frontiers of thousands of miles.
For this, in part, the seizure of Manchuria, and the pres-
ent readiness to fight Japan, if necessary, to hold both
Manchuria and get a better grip on Korea. As the vul-
ture wheels in the upper air above the doomed and stag-
gering horse about to die in the open, so Russia stands

500 The; Philippines and the Far East.

b}' the bedside of a decadent China, waiting but ready to
strike when the gasping patient gives final indications of
national dissolution. Russian money supported the Boxer
movement, Li Hung Chang w^as in the pay of Russia
to his last breath. More than one high official of China
to-day is being enriched from the coffers of the Bear,
and in return gives information and helps on treaties and
concessions and franchises otherwise unobtainable. An
elaborate system of espionage leaves no move in the great
game unknown to the astute diplomats of the Czar. It
is a waiting game, but it is a mighty game. When the
old Chinese junk goes to pieces on rocks that lie not far
ahead, there will be one wrecking crew ready with all the
tackle to secure both cargo and passengers. A nation
of four hundred million people, with all the unthinkable
wealth of forest and field and mine, is to be gained in
some such way as England has gained India. Advan-
tages of trade, national prestige, uncounted wealth, —
these, and the control of other nations and peoples to
whom China is the key, are the immense stakes for which
Russia plays her game.

Can she accomplish these vast purposes? Has she
the financial soundness, the military strength, and the
national resources with which designs so titanic may be
realized? On this point there is widespread misappre-
hension, which it has been a part of Russian policy to
create and maintain. The impression prevails that Russia
is a reckless spendthrift, and has borrowed in all direc-
tions and with desperate eagerness. It is commonly be-
lieved that Russia is on the verge of bankruptcy, with
imperiled credit and exhausted resources. Nothing could
be farther from the truth. The national debt of Russia
is less than that of France or England. It stands now at
$3,331,000,000. The annual interest is $132,500,000. Yet

The Philii'pinks and thf. Far East. 501

this interest is being' met, and the main (MA has been re-
duced $150,000,000 within ten years. vSince 1887 Russia
has borrowed $447,000,000, but not one dollar of this
sum except for one of two purposes, either to convert
loans from a higher to a lower rate of interest, which is
good financial policy always, or to construct productive
improvements such as irrigation works, the Central Asia
Railway, and such other lines as are either immediately
profitable or will be so in the near future. Russia receives
enormous revenues from sources which are unproductive
in other nations. She has 200,000,000 acres of real forest
lands as yet untouched ! She has 38,250 kilometers of
State railways worked at a profit. Her net revenues from
all these sources amount to 640.000.000 of francs out of
the 650,000,000 of interest on her public debt. The bal-
ance to the good on her budget for 1898-99, after allowing
for a bad harvest and for $47,000,000 extra naval ex-
penditure, was $26,000,000. The Trans-Siberian Railway
is already yielding profits far in advance of the most san-
guine estimates of M. De Witte, the finance minister of
Russia. It is impossible for sufficient cars to be provided
to move the wheat which lies rotting in the open at Cen-
tral Asia stations. Russia is rich. Russia is rich beyond
the estimation of mere arithmetic. She is just beginning
to acquire wealth, and is destined to have one rival for
national wealth, and that is our own nation.

Her vast populations of the most stalwart and rugged
people possessed by any country furnish her soldiers by
the hundred thousand. Russia is an autocracw The
Czar can say to this one. "Go," and he goeth, whether to
war or to the settlement of the fertile prairies of Siberia.
I am deeply indebted to Mr. Henry Norman for data re-
garding Russia. His "All the Russias" should be in the
hands of every man who has his eves on the future. In

502 The Philippines and the Far East.

this book Mr. Norman relates a conversation with a
Russian officer, in which the latter said that the weakness
of other European nations from a military standpoint lies
in their inability to get soldiers. With a wave of the hand
toward a drill-ground, where a large body of troops was
being put through its evolutions, this officer said, "Russia
can spare one hundred thousand such men any day, and
not know it." This is brutal, but it is true. In this fact
lies one of the immense resources of Russia when her
military possibilities are under consideration. What
forces are arrayed against Russia? What are the prob-
abilities that these imperial plans will be defeated by any
nation or by any coalition of nations?

Japan is the nation which just now ventures to oppose
this huge giant of the North as he shoulders his way to
the Eastern Sea, and proposes to enrich himself with the
spoil of her millions. Japan has made wonderful strides
toward greatness in recent years. Her development is the
modern national miracle. But look at her territory. Look
at her people, not one in five hundred of whom has been
touched by the civilization which she boasts she has
adopted. No nation is enduringly great whose people are
at once few in number and low in the scale of intelligence.
It is a hard thing to say, but the people of Japan — the men
who till the petty fields, dig in the mines, and live in the
doll-houses of her toy land — are, on the average, very
much what they were when Commodore Perry blew off
the doors of the Empire and let in the outer world. Edu-
cation has reached the classes. The masses are unleav-
ened. The people are but few. Only forty millions as
against the untold millions of Russia with all her Euro-
pean and Asiatic dependencies. Her resources are small
in comparison with those of the Titan against whom she
is so eager to throw herself. She has a navy that is re-

TlIK rillMI'l'lNKS AND TIIR F*AR EaST. 503

puted to be powerful. Allow that it is so, and that the
men behind the guns are as good in their places as the
guns are for the grim work for which they were cast, and
allow that in a sea-fight she could blow the Russian fleet
out of the water, — what then? The bulk of Russia's
fighting force is on the mainland of Manchuria. There
is but one way to reach them, and that is to capture the
only road. That road is the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
With hundreds of thousands of men at her call and within
a few days' ride from the edge of the continent, and with
every point of advantage in her hands, how is it thinkable
that Japan can land armies and force Russia to give up
her land position ? Russia can afiford to let Japan whip
her on the sea, and never swerve for one moment from
her course. Japan fighting Russia is the game little ter-
rier flinging himself daringly into the red jaws of the
Bear. He will inflict some wounds, but will neither kill
his enemy nor turn him from his mexorable purpose.

"But England will join Jaj^an," says some one. Per-
haps ; that is not certain. England will join Japan for
certain ends. But England is now exhausted with a
wasteful war, and in no mood to help another nation pull
its chestnuts from the coals. Only when English inter-
ests are touched to the blood will she unlimber a gun for
Japan's defense against Russian encroachments. And
suppose she does help Japan, — what then? I maintain
that the position of Russia backed away up into the heart
of a continent, and fed by a good railway from her own
base of supplies in Europe, is impregnable. There is no
way that either England or Japan, or both together, can
strike Russia at any vulnerable point in the Far East.

France, too, will come into the play as soon as real war
reddens the horizon. France will help Russia. Other
Powers will be dragged into the fray. Germany has

504 The PhiIvIppines and the Far East.

great designs in Asia, and will yield them only after a
supreme effort. Her present emperor has never lacked
courage to do whatever seemed for the interests of Ger-
many, whatever the political hazard. Only by following
Napoleon's method can Russia be struck where she will
feel the blow. Invasion of Russian territory by a com-
bined force might succeed where the audacious French
leader failed so conspicuously. But this we scarcely ex-
pect Japan to attempt or England to support if so foolish
a campaign were begun.

What if Russia wins? What if all Continental and
Insular Asia come under the rule of this White Giant of
the North? This: the indefinite postponement of all the
unfinished business of niissiojiary and philanthropist, as
tvell as that of enlightened statesmen zvho have labored
for the welfare of the Far East. Russia has a State
Church. It is a cold and empty formalism, with a dreary
round of stately services. Her religion is barren of
mercy, compassion, and that love which is the heart of the
Gospel. Russia has no room for programs of national
welfare except as welfare is spelled in terms of material
prosperity. Russia will stimulate the trade of so much
of Asia as she may dominate ; but her intolerance and her
bigotry will freeze the very fountains of Christian civil-
ization which have been unsealed in China and Japan
and Korea, as well as in other portions of the Far East,
by the labors of the Christian missionary in the last hun-
dred years. No calamity now impending in any quarter
of the world can be compared in its baleful significance
for the Kingdom of Righteousness with the Russian
menace. It affects more souls for whom Christ died, and
affects them more immediately and profoundly, than any
other national situation which can be discerned on any
world-horizon. Let this mighty national glacier push

The Philippines axd the Far East.

505

its frozon bulk over these dense populations, and it will
be winter indeed, with frosts that kill those growths from
the fruitage of which these numberless millions would
eat and live.

Here it is that we can see the relation, or at least the
beginnings of the relation, of the American occupation of

the Philippines to the Eastern Question. Just when
Russia wrested Manchuria from China and Japan, and
defiantly occupied Port Arthur, and was congratulating
herself that the progress of a century toward the realiza-
tion of her plans had been made in a few months, a new
force appeared in the East. As a mere incident in a war
arising primarily from causes the diameter of the earth
away from these seas, the Philippines passed under the
sovereignty of the United States of America, the only

5o6 Ttie Philippines and the F*ar East*.

nation which may hope to measure strength with Russia
in the long future that lies before nations. Almost im-
mediately came the alteration of Russia's tone toward
Japan. Almost immediately aggression on her part
ceased. Within a few months England, emboldened by
the near presence of her kinsman, entered into alliance
with the doughty little Island Kingdom to resist farther
Russian advance, and to insist upon the fulfillment of
such pledges as had been made. After the policy of op-
portunism followed by Lord Salisbury for so many years,
this was one bold stroke for which many thanked God
and took courage. One more hurdle would have to be
cleared before Russia reached her goal.

Our forces had been in the Philippines but a few
months when the Boxer movement ilamed up in China.
Our minister was shut into Peking a prisoner. Hundreds
of our citizens, missionaries and others, were in imminent
peril with him. The German ambassador was murdered
in daylight, and the extermination of the foreigner deter-
mined upon. Orders from Washington put General
Chafifee and a force of men into China as fast as steam
could speed tliem. Rains had made roads almost impass-
able. The only railway from Tientsin was in the hands
of the enemy. Supplies 'were scanty. Transportation
was almost wholly lacking; but while the English force
waited for one condition to be altered, and the German
and Japanese troops for another condition to improve.
General Chaffee said: "I have my orders from Washing-
ton. I march on Peking at once !" The march, the
rescue, and all that splendid story are known to an ad-
miring world. But the incident reads large in its ultimate
significance. Imperiled American interests have com-
pelled our nation to invade China with one armed force,
and shotted our cannon against the inner sanctuaries of

The PlIII.Il'l'lXKS AND TIIK FaR IlAST. 507

her holy city. IVJiat has been done once will be done
again ichen similar conditions make similar demands.
And Russia knozcs it. Captain IMahan has studied these
matters as profoundly as Lord Curzon, or M. Leroy
Boileau, or Mr. Henry Norman, M. P., and Captain
Mahan utters words of truth and soberness when he says:

"Americans nuist accept and familiarize their minds
with the fact, that, with their irrevocable entry into the
world's polity, first, by the assertion of the Monroe Doc-
trine, and since by their insular acquisitions — above all,
the Philippines — and by the interests at stake in China,
they can not divest themselves of concern, practical as well
as speculative, in such a question as the balance of power
in the Levant, or at the entrance of the Persian Gulf.

"As contrasted with the political unity of Russia and
her .geographical continuity, the influences that can pos-
sibly be opposed to her are diverse and scattered. They
find, however, a certain unifving' motive in a common in-
terest of unfettered commerce and of transit in the regions
in question. It is upon the realization of this interest, and
upon the accurate appreciation of their power to protect
it, and not upon artificial combinations, that correct policy
or successful concert in the future must rest."*

Russia is no friend of the United States. When it has
cost her nothing she has smiled on us, on the principle
that it is as well to have as few enemies as possible when
large interests are at stake. But let any Russian interest
antagonize this alleged friendship, and the heat evoked
by the contact will burn this so-called friendship like tow
in a furnace.

There is no force making for the stay of Russian
progress in the Far East which is comparable with that
of American influence. There is no single reason which
so powerfully operates to continue a condition of actual

■■■■ The Problem of Asia, pp. 68 and 57.

5o8 The Philippines and the Far East,

peace in the midst of inflamed conditions as the fact that
Russia is aware that there is a new force in the Orient,
and knows that it will not be wise to take any steps which
will draw the United States into China, whose territory
she is determined to possess. She relies upon diplomatic
victories rather than the triumph of her fleets and armies
to get her men into the king row in North China. If it
had not been for this new force in the Far East, the duel
between Japan and Russia would have been over a year
ago. Uncertainty as to just what this mighty nation
with the terrible navy will do makes certain the delay of
hostilities. It can not but be that an Almighty Ruler of
events placed this nation here fronting the greatest peril
to his little ones in order that He might use us, as He
has always used nations, to advance the long parallels
of His purposes against foes which would injure His
kingdom. It is, of course, impossible for uninspired man
to see the future ; but unless God means to use America
mightily in the resolution of the Eastern Question, all
those signs fail from which men destitute of inspiration
must spell out the significance of events as they unroll
and impend before their eyes. How this use will be made
of us is still in the womb of the future. It may be by the
same means which He used in unhinging the barred gates
of these Islands — cannon and shell and all the horrid
din of war. It may be that it will be by silently wafting
the bloom of our civilization over the vast populations of
the Orient, pollenizing them with ideals destined to bear
fruit where despotism and ignorauce and vice yield their
apples of Sodom. He has made America for a mighty
destiny. He has set her in these seas not for her own
aggrandizement, but that she may work out His sovereign
will of righteousness among these nations. Our rule
must be righteous. Our missionary labors must be ener-

The Piiii.ippinks and thk Far East.

509

gized of the Spirit of the Hvinj;" Ood. Every man who
would enter into the plans of the Father of us all must
do whatever work is given to him to do as though the
whole burden of our duty rested upon his own shoulders.
When we who now toil among these belated populations
have been gathered to our fathers, the American occu-
pation' of the Philippines will have become historw and
if it is history creditable to Washington and Jefferson
and Lincoln and McKinley, it will be because the Presi-
dent, Congress, Philippine officials, and missionaries sub-
mit themselves to Him who worketh all things according
to the counsel of His own will.

*'THE end'

INDEX.

Acts of the Civil Commis-
sion 170

Acts, List of, 184

Aglipay, Archbishop Grego-

rio, . 48S

His Schism, 490

Success of his movement, 493
Recommends reading the

Bible 493

Independent Catholic

Church 496

Agriculture, 238

Aguinaldo, 141

Alienation of the Filipinos

from the Church, .... 387
American Influence in the

East, 507

American Occupation, . . . 135
Area of Philippine Islands, . 15
Arsenic, 28

BiBi^E Societies, 595

Distribution, 396

Translations, 397

Colporteurs 403

Blanco, General, the Gover-
nor, 126

Brigandage, 181

Cacao •• ... 255

Capture of Manila by Amer-
icans, 145

Caste, 42

Catechisms used, 386

Centralization of influence, . 45
Cession of Philippine Isl-
ands, 149

Characteristics of the Fili-
pinos, 46, 53

PACK

Character of the Archipel-
ago 16

China and the Boxer move-
ment, 506

Chinese in the Philippines, . 265

Number, 272

Laborer, merchant, or spec-
ulator, ... 272

Comnmnity interests, . . 276
Question of exclusion, . . 28.)

Christianity taught 86

Christianized I'^ilipinos, . . 39
Cliurcl! and State separation, 355

Church schools, 198

Civil Commission Report, . 92
Civilizing Influences, ... 88

Climate, 20

Coal, 262

Coff'ee-growing, .... 240, 254
Condition of Affairs at Ma-
nila 138

Congregational Church, . . 474
Conquest of the Philippine

Islands, 62

Copra (dried cocoanut), . . 253

Constabulary Act, 180

Conversion of the natives to

Catholicism 380

Course of Instruction in

Church schools, .... 201
Currency Act, 337

Day laborers, Filipino, . . 231
Death-rate in Manila, . . . 237
Department of Public In-
struction, 189

Dependientes 43

Despotism of the Friars, . 114

Dewey at Manila Bay, ... 136
I

512

Index.

PAGE

Difficulties in Mission work, 476

Saloons, 479

Concubinage, 481

Gambling, 482

Strange Languages to be

learned, 482

Disciple Church, 473

Division of Mission work, . 436
Dutch traders, 72

Early religion of the Phil-
ippine Malays, 379

Earthquakes, 17

Eastern Question, The, . . 497
Ecclesiastical domination il-
lustrated, 370

Educating a Nation, .... 185
Education and Scholarship, 54
English Language in the
East, 210

Farm Crops, 246

Filipino Catholic's concep-
tion of God, 384

Filipinos; who are they ? . 31
Finance, Phillippine, . . . 322

Food and Shelter, 50

Forest products, 258

Framing a policy, 155

Freemasonry, 121

Friar Lands, 284

Correspondence between
Pope Leo XIII and Gov-
ernor Taft 293, 303

Secretary Root's Instruc-
tions, 298

Purchase of, by U. S. Gov-
ernment 317

The owners of the titles, . 320
Disposition of the lands, . 321
Friars ; their missionary

zeal, 67, 79, 85

Fritz, W. G., 434

Funeral fees, 107

Future Improvements, . . . 216

Gambling, 52

Goodell, Willard A., . . . . 435

PAGE

Government and Religious

Conditions, 341

Gypsum, 29

Halford, Major E. W., 356, 441
Harbor Improvements, . . 223

Hard woods, 258

Hatred of the Friars, ... 91

Causes of, 94

Healthfulness of Islands, . 22

Hemp, 246

Historical Summary, ... 60
Hostility of government to
religion, 351

Idolatry of the Malays, . 380

Igorrotes, 33

Ilocanos, 41

Images used in Catholic wor-
ship. 383

Immorality of the Friars, . 109
Imports and Exports, Value

of, 329

Summary of, by Coun-
tries, 333, 334

Independence and Self-Gov-

ernment, 168

Independent Catholic Church
movement, .... 342, 392

India-rubber 262

Insurgents, 146

Insurrections, 74

Insurrection of 1896, . . 119

Japan; its progress, .... 502
Judicial system, 182

LEE-Ma-Hong, Chinese pi-
rate, repulsed, 67

Legaspi, Don Miguel I^opez,
Captain-General, .... 62

Lepers, 240

Malay Invaders, 42

Malay Peninsula, 19

Manila Fleet Destroyed by

Dewey, 137

Marble 29

Marriage fees, 106

Index.

513

PAGE

Martin, Thos. H 434

McKinley, President, Views

of, . • 143. 159

McLaughlin, Jesse L., • • • 434
Medical work, Presbj-terian

mission, 459

Metals, gold, iron, copper, • 262
Methodist Episcopal Church:

Beginnings, 420

Woman's Foreign Mission-
ary Society, Teachers, . 429
Methodist Missionaries ap-
pointed, 434

Methodist missionaries

sent, ... 4^,4, 449. 450, 451

Statistics 454

Minerals, 27

Missionary Beginnings, . . 409
First Protestant service, . 415

Molave-wood 259

Monsoon or wet season, . . 23

Montojo, Admiral, 137

Moros, and their customs, . 36

Municipal Code, 171

Music, 56

National spirit in the Phil-
ippines 162

Native Teachers, 213

Negrito Population, .... 32

Normal and Industrial

Schools 219

Number of Teachers and
schools, 206

Official corruption, Span-
ish 217

Opposition of the Church to
schools 197

Paterno, Senor Pedro A., . 133

Petroleum, 29

Philippine Archipelago, . . 15
Philippine Christian Advo-
cate begun 441

Polavieja, General 131

Prantch, Arthur W., . . 416, 420
Presbyterian mission, . . . 436

. 33

PAGE

Presbyterians and Baptists, . 456

Principales 43

Protestant Episcopal Church, 464
Bishop C. II. Brent, . . . 465
High-Church principles, . 468
Refusal to co-operate with

other Churches, 472

Protes^^antism in the Philip-
pines 359

Protestant missionaries, . . 358
Provincial Act 176

Raci.al and Linguistic sub-
divisions, 39

Railroads projected 233

Regulative Principles, . . . 160
Religious Instruction in

Schools 190, 205

Religious Liberty, 349

Religious neutrality, .... 343

Religious practices 390

Religious situation 378

Resources of the Philippines, 244

Rial, Dr. Jose, 99

Rice, 250

Rivera, General Primo, . . 132

Roads 230

Running amuck 37

Russia's lust for dominion, . 498
Influence in Asia 499

ScENERV 29

Scholars in the Public

Schools, 209

Schools among the Filipinos, 186
Seasons, Character of, . . . 243
Sewerage System and Sani-
tation, 234

Social order : pueblo, baran-

gay, etc 42

Struggles for possession of

the islands, 72

Stuntz, Homer C, appointed

missionary, 435

Sugar 253

Sulphur 28

Superintendent of Public In-
struction 189

Superstitions, 389

514

Index.

PAGE

Taal Volcano i6

Tagalog Language, Notes on, 482

Tagalogs, 40

Tao, or common man, ... 45
Taxes under the Spanish re-
gime, • • • 50

Teachers sent to Manila, . . 193

Temperature 242

Theatrical Amusements, . • 57

Tinguianes, 35

Tobacco 251

Transportation, Means of, . 226
Treasury Statement, .... 322
Treaty with Spain, .... 149
Typhoon, 24

PAGE

United Brethren, . . 436, 473
Urdaneta, Andreo, Augustin-

ian friar, 62

Instructions given to him, 82

VisCAYANS, 41

Why the Friars are Hated, 94-1 18

Young Men's Christian As-
sociation, Army and Navy
branch, 474

Zamora, Nicholas, .... 418
Zamora, Paulino, . . . 102,417

DATE DUE

CAVLORO

PmNTEDINUS.*.

BftNGOR THEOLOGICAL SEdlHflRV

The Philippines and the Far Eas
nOUB 959.9 St95p

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