Good old Arcadio del Rosario, at one time insurgent governor of Benguet, who has a kindly feeling for the wild-men and was glad to note certain immediate results which followed the publication of my report, has said: “Would that Sr. Osmeña[20] might have had the glory of doing what Sr. Worcester has done.”
What is needed to end slavery and peonage is congressional legislation enforced by Americans.
Without hesitation I assert that their existence in the Philippine Islands is the greatest single problem which there confronts the government of the United States, in its effort to build up a respectable and responsible electorate and establish representative government.
Is it reasonable to suppose that the hand which to-day crushes down the Filipino servant, the Filipino labourer, and the wild-man of the hills, will to-morrow raise them up and point them on the way to freedom?
[1] Rizal’s 1890 edition of Morga’s “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas,” p. 297, et seq.
[2] “Sucesos,” p. 300.
[3] Ibid., p. 305.
[4] “The Filipino People,” Vol. 2, No. 1, p. 15, September, 1913.
[5] On July 15, 1913, I published an official report, as secretary of the interior, on “Slavery and Peonage in the Philippine Islands.” It is hereinafter referred to in foot-notes under the title of “Slavery and Peonage.” Beginning on p. 84 of this document will be found extracts from court records showing convictions obtained under this act, which is quoted in full on p. 83 of the same document.