It is not necessary that there should be much retrogression to cause serious trouble. I have discussed the character and attitude of the present Filipino legislative body. I have shown indubitably what sort of a government the Filipinos themselves established while they had a free hand. I agree absolutely with Blount’s contention that they would again establish precisely the same sort of a government if left to their own devices. There would follow, first aggression against the property of foreigners, and then attacks upon their persons, which would not only excuse, but would necessitate, intervention by other governments to protect their citizens. Some of the more intelligent Filipino leaders would set their faces against such conduct as firmly as they did during the rule of the so-called Insurgent government, but now, as then, would be powerless to restrain either the more unprincipled among the intelligent, or the great body of the ignorant rank and file, and nothing more than a fairly plausible excuse would be needed to start the ball of foreign intervention rolling.
Many Americans may, in their present deep ignorance of the value of their most recently acquired possessions, agree with that distinguished representative who announced on the floor of the House of Representatives that the Philippines were “a lemon,” but agents and spies of Japan have worked throughout the entire archipelago and she knows better. England and Germany have had their business men in the islands for many years, and they know better also.
The Filipinos are not yet fit to govern themselves, much less to govern the Moros and other non-Christian tribes, even if let alone, and they would not be let alone should we turn their country over to them.
Philippine independence is not a present possibility, nor will it be possible for at least two generations. Indeed, if by the end of a century we have welded into a people the descendants of the composite and complex group of human beings who to-day inhabit the islands, we shall have no cause to feel ashamed of our success.
[1] This name is properly applicable to the civilized peoples only.
[2] P. I. R., 1097. 2.
[3] Ibid., 1157. 8.
[4] Ibid., 1018. 1.
[5] Title X.—Of Public Instruction.