"Did—" asked Mrs. Lathrop.
"He says," continued Susan, "that the United States is just so happy sittin' back an' observin' the Philippines, an' the Philippines is so far off that if they die of starvation while being observed no one'll ever be the wiser. He says the United States is payin' for the army, an' the Philippines is tryin' to live with it, an' seein' as they don't work much an' the Chinese is forbidden to work for 'em, he don't see no help nowhere. What he said about the Chinese was very interestin', for I never see one close to, an' it seems they're a clean race only for likin' to raise pigs in their garrets. It seems, too, as if you let 'em into any country they'll work very hard an' live very cheap an' pay most of the taxes with the duty on opium as they've got to eat, an' games as they've got to play."
"I sh'd think—" said Mrs. Lathrop, looking startled.
"Well, I should, too," said Susan, "but accordin' to the book the Philippines ain't to be allowed any such luxury as havin' the Chinese to develop their country an' pay their taxes. No sir, they've all got to go to school an' learn English first, an' although he says right out plain that the Philippines needs Chinese an' good roads a deal worse 'n they need the army an' the schools, still it's the army an' the schools as America is going to give them, an' they can get along without the roads an' the Chinese as best they can. They certainly must be gettin' a good deal of schoolin', but the man says all the teachers teach is English, an' as none of the children can speak English they don't get much learned. I thought I could sort of see that he thought we 'd ought to of straightened out the South of our own country afore we begun on any other part of the world, an' it is the other half of the world, too, Mrs. Lathrop, for I looked it up on a map an' it begins right under Japan an' then twists off in a direction as makes you wonder how under the sun we come to own it anyway, an' if we did accidentally get it hooked on to us by Dewey's having too much steam up to be able to stop himself afore he'd run over the other fleet, we'd ought anyway to be willin' to give it away like you do the kittens you ain't got time to drown. The whole back of the book is full of figures to prove as it's the truth as has been told in front, but the man who wrote it didn't think much of even the figures in the Philippines for he says they put down some of what they spend in Mexican money an' some in American an' don't tell what they spend the most of it for in either case. He says he met some very nice men there an' they was workin' the best they knew how but they did n't think things were goin' well themselves an' it's plain to be seen that he spoke of 'em just like you give a child a cooky after a spankin'. What interested me most was there's a Malay country over there as the English began on twenty-five years ago an' have got railroaded an' telegraphed an' altogether civilized now, an' we've had the Philippines ten years an' ain't even got the live ones quieted down yet."
"What do you—" asked Mrs. Lathrop, earnestly.
"Oh," said her friend, "I ain't never had no ideas on the Philippine question since Judge Fitch got his brother made a captain in the war just because he was tired supportin' him. Mr. Kimball said then as all wars was just got up to use up the folks as respectable people did n't want to have around no longer an' I must say as I believe him. Mr. Weskin told me as it's been quietly knowed around for hundreds of years as the crusades was a great success as far as gettin' 'em off was concerned just for that very reason, an' I guess we're hangin' on to the Philippines because it's a place a good long ways off to send poor relations after good salaries. The man who wrote the book said a man did n't need to know hardly anythin' to go there an' I must say from what I see of the few who have come back they don't look like they spent much spare time studyin' up while they was in the country."
Susan stopped knitting suddenly and stuck her needles into the ball.
"I've got to go home," she said. "I've just remembered as I forgot to fill the tea-kettle. Well, Mrs. Lathrop, we've had a nice talk about our foreign possessions an' all I can say in the end is as that whole book made me feel just like we'd all ought to get to feel as quick as we can. Lots of things in this world might be better only the people that could change 'em don't often feel inclined that way, an' the people who'd like to have a change ain't the ones as have got any say. If I was a Philippine I'd want a Chinaman to do my work an' I'd feel pretty mad that folks as had so many niggers an' Italians that they did n't need Chinamen should say I could n't have 'em neither. I'd feel as if I knowed what was best for me an' I would n't thank a lot of men in another part of the world for sittin' down on my ideas. However, there's one thing that comforted me very much in the book. All the countries around is run, an' pretty well run too, by other countries an' if the Philippines get too awful tired of being badly run by us all those of 'em as know anythin' can easy paddle across to some of them well run countries in the front half of the book to live, an' as for the rest—"
Susan stopped short. Mrs. Lathrop was sound asleep!