The Philippines 



363 



Orient and of most of the Oriental liars ; 

 and they, becoming established there, 

 became very well known in Manila in 

 my time as ' ' Shanghai roosters. ' ' They 

 occupied most of their time in libelling 

 the American government. I am bound 

 to say that Mr Foreman has established 

 his claim to take a position on that roost. 



The next of these British critics is Mr 

 A. R. Colquhoun, a gentleman of a very 

 different order from Mr Foreman, if we 

 may judge by the writings of the two. 

 Mr Colquhoun has been the correspond- 

 ent of the London Times, was at one time 

 in the colonial service of Great Britain, 

 was the district governor, or commander, 

 of a district in Burma, is a gentleman 

 in every way, and has written two very 

 interesting books — one ' 1 The Mastery 

 of the Pacific, ' ' and the other ' ' A Greater 

 America. ' ' Mr Colquhoun traveled with 

 the commission when we were establish- 

 ing civil governments in the islands. He 

 was about three weeks in the islands at 

 one time, and about ten days at another. 

 I have a great respect for him, and read 

 what he had to say with keen interest. 

 I shall not take up what he had to say, 

 because what he has had to say has been 

 amplified and treated with more elabora- 

 tion, and possibly with more authority, 

 by another Englishman or Scotchman, 

 Mr Alleyne Ireland, now connected with 

 the Chicago University, and whose ex- 

 perience in the investigation of tropical 

 colonies makes what he says worthy of 

 consideration, and makes it, also, most 

 interesting. 



THEY SAY WE ARE SPENDING TOO 

 MUCH FOR EDUCATION 



Now, his first criticism of the Philip- 

 pine government is that it has devoted 

 three million dollars a year, or at least 25 

 per cent, and perhaps more, of its total 

 revenue, for education, and he says that 

 that money would be much better ex- 

 pended in the construction of roads and 

 in the material development of the coun- 

 try . He says this because experience in 



English colonies makes him think that 

 the Filipino needs material development 

 much more than he does mental develop- 

 ment, by no means admitting, however, 

 that he has mental development sufficient 

 to dispense with any of it. Upon this 

 subject those of us who are responsible 

 for the course pursued in the Philippines 

 must take issue. The question as to 

 which is right of the two policies de- 

 pends upon and goes back to the pur- 

 pose of the colonization . We blundered 

 into colonization; we did not go into it 

 with malice aforethought. We found 

 ourselves in possession of the islands 

 because we could not help it, and then 

 we determined that we would do the 

 best we could with them, working out a 

 policy as nearly consistent with the prin- 

 ciples of our own government as was 

 possible. Now, then, that means in the 

 end a government of the people, by the 

 people, and for the people; but a gov- 

 ernment of the people, by the people, 

 and for the people is absolutely impos- 

 sible unless you have the great body of 

 that people with intelligence enough to 

 exercise the strong public opinion that 

 is necessary to sustain and restrain any 

 popular government. If it be true, as 

 Mr Ireland says, that tropical peoples 

 are incapable of self-government and 

 incapable of education up to self-govern- 

 ment, then I agree that the argument is 

 with him And he assumes as the basis 

 of his argument the experience that the 

 English have had in their colonies. 



OUR COLONIAL PROBLEM IS EN- 

 TIRELY DIFFERENT FROM ENGLISH 

 COLONIAL PROBLEMS 



Well, you judge of how experience 

 ought to lead you in your conclusions 

 by how far that experience has gone. 

 I am not aware as yet of any attempt 

 on the part of England to try the peo- 

 ples of tropical colonies in self-govern- 

 ment or to educate them up to the point 

 where they may be capable of self-gov- 

 ernment. Again, experience is useful 



