CONTROL OF DEPENDENCIES 393 



hold dependencies throughout the future periods of its existence. 

 If this should happen, made advisable by the character of the inhab- 

 itants of the districts in question, there is no reason to suppose that 

 our institutions would, on this account, suffer deterioration. There 

 is, moreover, no reason to suppose that the inhabitants of territories 

 so held would be deprived of any privileges essential to their well- 

 being. If, in the future, the discussion on this subject should refer 

 to the Filipinos, evidence will probably not be wanting to show 

 that in their relation to the government of the United States the 

 Filipino people will enjoy more rights and privileges and a greater 

 degree of security and prosperity than under any government that 

 would be created for them if they were politically independent; for 

 all their traditions,- whether from the days of their tribal barbarism 

 or from the days of Spanish occupation, are traditions of absolute 

 rule. They entertain only such conceptions of political organization 

 and administration as are consistent with their antecedents. What- 

 ever political ideas they derive from the United States will be ideas 

 of individual liberty and of a tolerant government. 



America's undertaking in the control of dependencies, whether 

 within the limits of the continental territory or elsewhere, repre- 

 sents or emphasizes the administrative policy which the enlightened 

 nations have been and are gradually approaching. When England, 

 France, and Portugal made their first settlements in India, they had 

 no plans for changing the condition of the people among whom they 

 settled. They sought to trade with them as they were. Gradually 

 it has become clear to the leading nations that highly developed 

 peoples are both better producers and better purchasers than rude 

 nations in the beginning of their economic development. California 

 is of more advantage to the commercial world to-day than it was 

 when its population consisted of a few thousand domesticated In- 

 dians and their contented masters, and its wealth was measured by 

 the herds that roamed over its hillsides and along its fertile valleys. 

 The dependency of great natural resources manifests its full com- 

 mercial significance only when its population has developed the 

 higher as well as the lower needs of a civilized society. Herein is 

 a justification of the new colonial administration. To undertake 

 to develop the wealth of a dependency peopled with semi-civilized 

 inhabitants, without at the same time bringing about that social 

 differentiation characteristic of a high grade of society, is simply 

 to exploit that dependency, for without the forms and institutions 

 of a cultivated society, accumulated wealth will not be largely 

 sought and cannot be maintained. Sometimes a differentiated 

 society is formed in a dependency by introducing members of the 

 dominant nation to constitute the higher ranks. These members 

 then assume all the higher occupations, while the natives are rele- 



