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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1908)
THE JOHEGOTT . 5UNMV. r J0TJRNA1, . PORTLAND, ; SUNDAY. MORNING,: tTOVESIBSR: 29,:: 1908 7' .. -, 4 U V I . YVIhVII JL . AXWTIAUI A 1 Ufl M KM LS I n rrf I 1 J "T -V 1 'I. V": V L. - !;Tw,v. .,;i,.ll..,.XI K llil lie 9 .'. . V . V. "SB "d. ' . V 1 .. fSSK. : if "j t 1 4 ' f , Ife ISSA J "1 ""Ml f .1 ' mmMmwimmitixMmmmiiii i f THE MANY ELEMENTS OF,PEOPLE5 TO BE HARMONIZED IN THE PHILIPPINES T J 1 1 I 3 ' X!7 l-'; 41 -fJttili ' T ! ' . 7 ' r" By Eleanor Franklin Egan . T IS a stupendous and most interest ing task to take a lot of human hash and make a nation of it. Yet , that is the task on Uncle Sam's hands. So much misinformation or, perhaps, it might be better to say so little accurate information has been circulated in the United States uith regard to the Philip fine islands that most Americans are gen uinely surprised when they are told that there is no such thing as a Philippine peo ple, or a "Filipino people," as you will. A Filipino may be anything from a crinkly headed, naked, forest-dwelling Ne grito savage to an educated, refined and extremely attractive gentleman. The man of fine mind and splendid education whom one meets and likes in everyday social existence, and to whose abilities one must yield the most sincere ad miration, may be a Filipino but so also is the unchristianized and uncivilized Bontoc Igorrote of the northern Luzon hills, who has been wont to fare forth on annual man hunts and to bring home the reeking heads cf his enemies with which to decorate his doorposts. 1 a za 1 S'' ' ' .V 1 Sft i -F,i f ..;' fV' : , jr. U PillV?J ft'. I it "v" 5i 4 f V f V 4 1 V - . f JF. A -1 , l I Wififj 1 ''f, "IP - r-;T; iff tykz?) i -?- -f V91 5 .-A 111 I , '.life -ir to si " "'--A ' ' if , I told that It might not be wta to publish them, because tho people In Manila would reaent In fact, have always resented having type of the uncivil ized Filipino shown to the world. This, to my mind, proves conclusively that these people know as well as anybody how little prepared they- are for really "national Independence." This Is not meant as a criticism of the better class Filipino. As a matter of fact. It is the most natural thing- In the world, and If I were a Filipino . gentleman, educated and re lined, living: my life la occidental comfort and cleanliness, and feeding; my( mind on good modern thought, I, too, should object to having a naked little Negrito or a. filthy Ilongot savage brought forward and presented to the world as my own kith and kin, if not my own bloodt brother, I think I should say, "Back to your mountain! back to your jungle! and- stay there until I hava, wrested from the world the right to rule you as t think you should be ruled."' Unfortunately .the American people have gone,' themselves into the mountain and Into the Jungle) and have brought forth the half savage and the non-civlllsed among Filipino peoples; they have gone Into the highways and the byways, Into the hovels and the homes, and have brought forth thai unformed and the densely Ignorant the down-trod-den millions among the Filipino peoples. It is a great pity that .the Philippine peoples should' have been so unevenly developed. . Consider ing that they are so few, and that they have beea for three hundred years In contact with western civilisation, it seems inexplicable. Somebody will be sure to say, "So have the American Indians beea for three hundred years in contact with a much! better civilisation, and yet, behold!" Well, thatj too,' is Inexplicable. But it does not Justify anyj neglect of the problems presented by the Filipino) now that we have his destinies under our direction,' And anyhow, he Is made of more pliable material1 than our untamable Indian. j The only tribe in the Philippine islands which' does not show any likelihood of ever responding to a civilising influence is the Negrito. The Negritos are supposed to be the aborigines of the islands.' The Spanish records show that they were at one time Very numerous and were to be found in raany; parts of the archipelago. But their number has steadily decreased by death and inter-tribal fusion,' until tbev may be said to be a rapidly disappear ing people. Like the fifteen or twenty other tribes In the Islands, the Negritos apeak a dialect all their own ' and from the beginning they have resisted all ef-J forts to civilise them or to even lift them above the plane of medieval savagery. The, Negritos are the only absolutely hopeless among the non-Christian tribes In the islands that o have to deal with, "and these people," says Commissioner Dean C. Worcester, the Philippine secretary of the Interior.! "offer no more serious problems than those Involved iff- - fr:f HALL, we give the people of the" Philip, pines pullucal independence? Tea, by means. When we have created-" people of the Philippines." Just now there is ho such nation existent, and this Is what makes Uncle gam's Philippine problem so difficult of solution. I know that this statement will be bitterly resented by-such Filipino gentlemen as I might name, who are among our ablest Judges and legislators, 'who' are business men of Urge means and good abilities. It will be re ented by professional men .In Philippine medical,-legal .and educational circles, and by the thousands of good Filipino citizens who look upon themselves as amply able to decide for themselves what is best for the country whose affairs they, are so anxious to admin ister. -- However' they 'may resent Jt, they cannot gainsay the truth of the statement. There Is' ne t'FMplno. people"; therefore, under the clr cumstanens. we must shoulder the responsi bility and assume the divine function of ere.' atlon In order to Justify a national altruism. Nobody Jia'i, , 'as yet, satisfactorily . ex plained the high-class Filipino1. In compari son witn tils origin ana nis opportunities he l A npranc! an'dllteral' siavei to lheUMst ttlementsjry - of human demands. , ,. :; , wnen tneae nve. or six millions who, are .called . "the people" ' shall, have .earned the right to be re ' .f erred 'to "as'the educated masses" then .will Amer ica' "Philippine problem" be solved and not before. : The : non-Christian peoples -and the more or less savage tribes do not master. Their further devel opment may. well be left in. the hands of "the Phil- Ipplne people" when this people shall have become -sufficiently well trained in Its responsibilities to be . trusted 'With i such a mission.- But at present the :, attitude of -the better class Filipino toward his less xoriunaie oromer-is sucn tnat ne cannot do irusiea and then, too, he is seldom, without the lea,. a of foreign biood. If all thePhilippine Islands were inhabited by such people as-one bows to on the Luneta on golden Manila evenings, together with juch ordinary work-a-day citizens as one knows and respects In the dally routine of Manila life,, then would there.be no "Philippine problem"; then , could . we -with, a clear national conscience and ".with. Infinite satis faction make ' ourselves Immediate sponsors for a new republic which we could depend upon "to fully u,iV.!u own nr Prona.- , ' . . to deal fairly with him even under American direc ui tne approximately eigni raiiiioni i miu- tion end control. , f . . . Itants of the Philippines there are- not enough mod- r We 4r ac0Ulea byi" those "who call themselves erately educated men and women wn ijnf.. 'aJ'" -."the Philippine people'"of giving entirely too much slsed city,-while the highly educated- and wholly- attentron.Tand attaching too much importance, to refined Dure-blooded Filipinos are SO scarce that ' ,hhh.f!hfl Mtlan tnhB anrt-tha lower class FIU- they cannot be said ;to-even form a. class, j ' Pin0s. It -is considered by them right that there Among the-eight millions 'P800.1 ff? r should be a serving class and only natural tht the third of theset te be saieiy conwrviuTB, nj said to be quite uncivilised. ..Thereare a Jialf mUl ibn or njore Mohammedans, called by , the Spaniards Moros, or Moors. v '..,- ZZ';L1 . pie," merely ."the people" the five or six rnllllonsof ' Suman belrigs who7 have -arrived at s, point wb . h iuiiuh th fimcltf for rndst satisfactory Js ah anomaly, but his three centuries old en-H velopmenV but 'Who- as-yet,-have never hs an ; vlreoment accounts) for hiny.ta soma extent: , opportunity to lUt above a.plaat, of f jatn i' hilt n-nn)oa'whn ha v ' neVer known or seen civlll- iinn -hnntt h- what thev are. "and. lor-conven- ience sake, be ' kept so. Anyhow.- it is 'troublesome in the, midst of a discussion of "national Independ ence" to have their existence Insisted -upon to such an extent that they are made a block in the path- TS the ambitious few;. '?.:- f "'. " . ' ' lri" '" . WhenU left the Philippines with, a; great. eolle- , tlew of . photographs. , which' mciuaea pictures mea tui women-of every trlb In th ites. I wu In protecting them from abuses at tne hands of" their Christian neighbors and In restraining their own tendencies toward thlevlshnesa and occasional malicious or revengeful acts of violence." f The various Igorrote tribes, familiar to most! Americans because of the spectacular and ploturjj esque propensities of some of them for decoratings their doorposts with detached human heads ao-T quired by violence, are not all uncivilised, by any,1 means, but they are non-Christian which means); that their civilisation is of a peculiar character! and of their own evolving. They have good tribal laws, many of them; they, live in houses, cultivate the soil and recognise mosr of the fundamental rules of family life. But thsy. are densely ignorant, and even among themselves could not erect a tower of Babel, since they speak, various dialects, each of which amounts almost to a separate language. There are Ilongot Igorrotes, Ifugao Igorrotea Benguet Igorrotes,. Bon too Igorrotes and other Igorrotes. They all live in different parts of orth-' em Luson, and they are all more or less lovable) people. , The director of education will tell you that-they! do not rise up and clutch at enlightenment wltnv unseemly eagerness, but the young generation 1st, yielding to the efforts of our educators In -a wayy that is at least encouraging, and there Is more thaw one teacher in the hills of Luson who can point . with pride to a class of erstwhile naked Igorrote babies who can now speak English fairly well and) do other things, too; who are fully clad and wholly, civilised, and who are developing Into useful young), citizens who will help to guide others along thev dlffloult way that they have traveled. . The Moros are, of course, a problem all by them selves. There are a half million of them, according! to the latest statistics, and they are all Mohamme dans, as their name implies. They, too, speak va- . rious languages, or dialects, and are not of on race, by any means, though they are generally sup posed to be. ; They will have one language within a genera s tion or two. because English is being forced upon? - them with the same gentle Insistence exercised by. 'the educational corps in all . other parts of the islands; with the same mild but unceasing presiure that is brought to bear upon the Vlsayan and tha . Tagalog, the -Ilancano and the Pangasinan, .tha - Pampangan- and Cagayan, the-Bukidaon and tha 7.mhiantht Bocobo and "the Subano and. all tha other tribes, which we ere seeking to -mould to gather Into a "Philippine people." This giving a people a li thing to do, and when we have approximately com jruuivviucj Titt the task' and find otherwise developed accordln anguage Is a wonderful ive i the people"' K to, our expectations. 1 shall not be at all surprised If it hurts our feel ings most awfully to have to keep our promise and turn our then truly 'little brown brothers" loos "to shift for themselves. Ii.: ;, : .-, y A' V; v . - - - - 1 i-
