The Philippines: Past and Present (Volume 1 of 2)

by Dean C. Worcester

A School Athletic Team

Calisthenic exercises taught in the public schools are converting puny youths into vigorous athletes.

Successful prosecution of the work of chasing ladrones in the Philippines requires a thorough knowledge of local topography and of local native dialects. Spanish is of use, but only in dealing with educated Filipinos. A knowledge of the Filipino himself; of his habits of thought; of his attitude toward the white man; and toward the illustrado, or educated man, of his own race; ability to enter a town and speedily to determine the relative importance of its leading citizens, finally centring on the one man, always to be found, who runs it, whether he holds political office or not, and also to enlist the sympathy and coöperation of its people; all of these things are essential to the successful handling of brigandage in the Philippines, whether such brigandage has, or lacks, political significance.

The following parallel will make clear some of the reasons why it was determined to use constabulary instead of American soldiers in policing the Philippines from the time the insurrection officially ended:—

United States Army	Philippine Constabulary
Soldier costs per annum $1400. (Authority: Adjutant General Heistand in 1910.)	Soldier costs per annum $363.50.
American soldiers come from America.	Constabulary soldiers are enlisted in the province where they are to serve.
Few American soldiers speak the local dialects.	All constabulary soldiers speak local dialects.
Few American soldiers speak any Spanish.	All educated constabulary soldiers speak Spanish.
American soldiers usually have but a slight knowledge of local geography and topography.	Constabulary soldiers, native to the country, know the geography and topography of their respective provinces.
Few American soldiers have had enough contact with Filipinos to understand them.	The Filipino soldier certainly knows his own kind better than the American does.
The American soldier uses a ration of certain fixed components imported over sea. (A ration is the day’s allowance of food for one soldier.)	The constabulary soldier is rationed in cash and buys the food of the country where he happens to be.
The American ration costs 24.3 cents United States currency (exclusive of cost of transportation and handling). Fresh meat requiring ice to keep it is a principal part of the American ration. To supply it requires a regular system of transport from the United States to Manila and from thence to local ports, and wagon transportation from ports to inland stations.	The constabulary cash ration is 10.5 cents United States currency. (No freight or handling charges.) The constabulary soldier knows not ice. His food grows in the islands. He buys it on the ground and needs no transportation to bring it to him.
The American soldier is at no pains to enlist the sympathy and coöperation of the people; and his methods of discipline habits of life, etc., make it practically impossible for him to gain them.	The idea of enlisting the sympathy and coöperation of the local population is the strongest tenet in the constabulary creed.

Before preparing the foregoing statement relative to the reasons for using Philippine constabulary soldiers instead of soldiers of the United States army for police work during the period in question, I asked Colonel J. G. Harbord, assistant director of the constabulary, who has served with that body nine years, has been its acting director and is an officer of the United States army, to give me a memorandum on the subject. It is only fair to him to say that I have not only followed very closely the line of argument embodied in the memorandum which he was good enough to prepare for me, but have in many instances used his very words. The parallel columns are his.

The constabulary soldier, thoroughly familiar with the topography of the country in which he operates; speaking the local dialect and acquainted with the persons most likely to be able and willing to furnish accurate information; familiar with the characteristics of his own people; able to live off the country and keep well, is under all ordinary circumstances a more efficient and vastly less expensive police officer than the American soldier, no matter how brave and energetic the latter may be. Furthermore, his activities are much less likely to arouse animosity.

Incidentally, the army is pretty consistently unwilling to take the field unless the constitutional guarantees are temporarily suspended, and it particularly objects to writs of habeas corpus. The suspension of such guarantees is obviously undesirable unless really very necessary.

Let us now consider some of the specific instances of alleged inefficiency of the constabulary in suppressing public disorder, cited by Blount.