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The National Geographic Magazine 



recompense, have we had it in the con- 

 tinuing gratitude of the people whom we 

 have aided? There have been many ex- 

 pressions at various times showing that 

 at such times a feeHng of gratitude ex- 

 isted, but he who would measure his al- 

 truism by the good will and sincere 

 thankfulness of those whom he aids will 

 not persist in good works. There are 

 many reasons why we need not expect a 

 continued feeling of gratitude from the 

 peoples we have benefited. It is impos- 

 sible always to secure American officials 

 who are properly imbued with the spirit 

 of sympathy for the natives that is es- 

 sential to prevent race friction. We 

 strive, of course, to go as little counter to 

 the customs of the people as possible, but 

 to secure needed reforms it is necessary 

 sometimes to enforce laws that are not 

 popular. Thus sanitary regulations 

 needed to secure good health are irksome 

 to such a people. They do not see the 

 use of such severity. 



Again, to carry on a government we 

 must employ many Americans in the 

 service, and we must, in order to secure 

 them, pay them at a higher rate than the 

 natives. Offices are much sought after 

 by the natives, and the greater pay and 

 discrimination in favor of the Americans 

 are sure to engender dissatisfaction. We 

 have tried to substitute natives for Amer- 

 icans as rapidly as possible, but we must 

 retain some Americans for guidance. 

 Then the native newspapers avail them- 

 selves of the freedom of the press and 

 abuse the privilege by every kind of un- 

 fair statement to stir up native prejudice 

 against the government and so against 

 the Americans. This is not decreased by 

 the hostile attitude of unthinking and 

 unpatriotic American business men 

 against the natives. 



Finally, the character of the benefits 

 we have conferred on these Spanish- 

 speaking peoples is such as necessarily 

 to imply our sense of greater capacity 

 for self-government and our belief that 

 we represent a higher civilization. This 

 in itself soon rankles in the bosom of 

 the native and dries up the flower of 



gratitude. It is natural that it should be 

 so. We cannot help it. It is inseparable 

 from the task we underake. Our reward 

 must be in the pleasure of pushing the 

 cause of civilization and in increasing the 

 opportunity for progress to those less for- 

 tunate than ourselves in their environ- 

 ment, and not in their gratitude. 



I have not touched upon and do not in- 

 tend to discuss, for lack of time, what our 

 future policy toward these three peoples 

 must be. The problems to be presented 

 are difficult and need a clear and calm 

 judgment and a generous altruistic spirit 

 for their satisfactory solution. Neither 

 will be wanting, I am sure. 



Our experience in the three countries 

 of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines 

 has many points in common, and the chief 

 common feature has been the desire on 

 the part of the American people, repre- 

 sented by the American Congress and the 

 American Executive, to stimulate busi- 

 ness, to elevate and educate the people, 

 to maintain and preserve order, to intro- 

 duce internal improvements of all sorts 

 into the islands, to btiild roads and 

 bridges and harbors, and gradually to 

 enlarge as far as possible the control 

 which the natives shall have over their 

 own local government. 



There have been times when abuses 

 have crept into the administration of the 

 islands on the part of some of the civil 

 and military servants of the United 

 States, but the record of the nine years 

 since the beginning of the Spanish War, 

 looked at from an impartial standpoint, 

 is on the whole an unblemished record 

 of generous, earnest effort to uplift these 

 people, to help them on the way to self- 

 government, and to teach them a higher 

 and a better civilization. It is a record 

 I confidently submit will always redound 

 in the coming century to the high credit 

 of the people of the United States as a 

 generous civilizing nation charged by the 

 accident of war with the responsibilities 

 of guardianship of a less fortunate peo- 

 ple and discharging that God-given re- 

 sponsibilit}' in accordance with the high- 

 est ideals of the brotherhood of man. 



