412 COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION 



the conditions which make healthy life possible. As long as a state 

 has not solved this elementary problem, as long as periodical famines 

 sweep away large numbers of peasants, or accumulations of filth 

 make residence in the towns a constant danger to health and life, the 

 state or society which permits such conditions cannot be called fully 

 civilized. No efforts should, therefore, be spared in the prevention 

 of plague and famine, the two dark thunder-clouds which overhang 

 backward communities and which relentlessly threaten suffering 

 and destruction. No society, no group of individuals, can attain to 

 a state of self-realization and of true inward freedom, as long as it 

 is under the spell of such sinister powers. 



It is, however, not only our duty to free these populations from 

 terrors and dangers inherent in their civilization and surroundings, 

 but to protect them against the even more serious risks which are 

 involved in the meeting of civilizations on different planes of devel- 

 opment. These dangers are twofold, arising from the use of 

 deleterious substances and modes of life, or from the creation of an 

 apparent individual freedom of contract, which, however, usually 

 results in the entire destruction of economic independence. The 

 surest means of protection against these risks lie in a scrupulous 

 maintenance of the native morale and social organization; any 

 attempt to deal with natives merely as individuals in the Western 

 sense will, without fail, endanger their independence, their health, 

 and their life. It has been abundantly experienced that when the 

 ordinary members of a backward race are dissociated from the organ- 

 ism to which they belong and are brought into direct contact with 

 a higher society, they will usually lose their native morale and add 

 only the dangerous and even vicious sides of the advanced civiliza- 

 tion. The only way to protect the individual is to protect the society 

 to which he belongs, and if any improvement of his condition be 

 attempted, it should not involve the weakening of social relations. 



To foster the cohesion and self-realization of native societies, while 

 at the same time providing the economic basis for a higher form of 

 organization, that should be the substructure of an enlightened 

 colonial policy. We can conceive of no greater crime than the wanton 

 destruction of such societies, for it involves the moral and physical 

 degeneration of their members. This is true of even the lower forms; 

 there is no excuse for destroying the tribal organization ; it should be 

 allowed to develop into the higher phases of social life. But when 

 we have to deal with such nations as the Annamites, Burmans, and 

 Chinese, the insensate folly and criminal cruelty of treating their 

 civilization as mere rubbish to be cleared away would seem too ap- 

 parent to need further emphasis. Such nations should rather be 

 encouraged to take pride in their own historic character, to develop 

 their marvelous inborn artistic talents, and thus to impart to the 



