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manage their own affairs, through officers elected by themselves, to the fullest extent to which they were capable; in filling offices, natives, when competent, were to have the preference; their customs, habits and even prejudices were to be respected, and their civil and political rights protected; all subject to certain great principles which the United States deemed essential for the rule of law and the maintenance of individual freedom.

But the United States was charged with placing undue confidence in the governmental value of education. All colonizing states now provide a certain amount of education for their native subjects. Great Britain makes order and material prosperity the primary objects of her governments and applies what money is left toward education, regarding it as a necessity but nevertheless the generator of difficulties innumerable. "In the long course of our history," says Lord Cromer,98 "many mistakes have been made in dealing with subject races, and the line of conduct pursued at various times has often been very erratic. Nevertheless, it would be true to say that, broadly speaking, British policy has been persistently directed toward an endeavor to strengthen political bonds through the medium of attention to material interest."

It seems unnecessary to say that the Americans also recognize that order is the first essential of every government. But the work of education was commenced in the Philippines at once upon the restoration of comparative order. In speaking of English and Dutch colonization, Governor Taft said: "The chief difference between their policy and ours in the treatment of tropical people arises from the fact that we are seeking to prepare the people under our guidance for popular self-government. We are

98 Cromer, "The French in Algeria," The Spectator, May 31, 1913. See Ireland, The Far Eastern Tropics, p. 240.

In reference to Lord Cromer's policy in Egypt, Sir Auckland Colvin (The Making of Modern Egpyt, p. 406) says:

"Moral and intellectual progress have not been lost sight of, but they have been deliberately relegated to a subordinate place. The economic base of the Agents' policy has been the desire to leave an appreciable margin in the hands of the taxpayer." And yet Lord Cromer says:

"They [certain Pashas] recognized that the acquisition of knowledge was the sole instrument by the use of which Egypt might perhaps eventually be free from foreign control." Modern Egypt, II, p. 528.

attempting to do this first by primary and secondary education offered freely to the Filipino people. Our chief object

is to develop the people into a self-governing people, and in doing that popular education is in our judgment the first and most important means."

Time tends to show the wisdom of this policy. No British, Dutch, German or French colony has made more progress materially than have the Philippines, during the last ten years, or enjoyed a higher degree of order and justice. Considering the educational work which has been done in Egypt, Mr. Cunningham says:99 "A larger measure of education might conceivably have made the task of government easier and facilitated the progress of civilization. A similar view was taken by the United States when the responsibility for the government of the Philippines was thrust upon her, a responsibility which, as in the case of England and Egypt, was unpremeditated and undesired. America came promptly to the conclusion that the first step to be taken was the education of the people and they set about it in their characteristic fashion. Instead of sending a score or two, as we have done in Egypt, they sent teachers out in battalions starting schools everywhere and improving the many scholastic institutions already in existence."

Without much exaggeration it may be said that the American common school was carried to the East as a part of the matériel of the army. Probably nothing exactly like it was ever before witnessed. Soldiers left to guard the towns, opened extemporized schools for the instruction of the children while their comrades were in the fields fighting the parents. It may have been foolish, but it was a powerful agency in convincing the Filipinos of the good will of the Americans.

"Behold, they clap the slave on the back, and behold he ariseth a man!

They terribly carpet the earth with dead, and before their can

non cool,

They walk unarmed by twos and threes to call the living to school."

99 To-day in Egypt (London, 1912), p. 48.

1

It has been said that the Englishman's sense of justice and the Frenchman's sense of humor are their chief assets as successful colonizers and rulers of alien people, and that the German, possessing neither of these invaluable attributes, is heavily handicapped. Americans possess the sense of justice and of humor and possibly something more.

America has controlled the Philippines for seventeen years, nearly a third of which were years of war and organization. In that short time she has demonstrated not only that her people possess the Englishman's capacity for governing dependencies but that they have a certain quality of enthusiasm for high ideals which British colonial history has not always disclosed and to the lack of which friendly foreign critics attribute her present difficulties in India and Egypt. Law, order and justice prevail in the Philippines as in all British colonies. The Filipinos have their national aspirations, their agitators, sedition mongers, irresponsible politicos and objectionable newspapers. They are as eager for self-government as the Indians and Egyptians, but it is a noticeable fact that these conquered, irritable and excitable people have not thrown a bomb or attempted to murder an American official. America's policy has not been repressive; it has not presented a stone wall of opposition to native aspirations, and it gives every indication of being successful. Never in the whole course of history has there been a better illustration of the profound truth of Edmund Burke's statement that "magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom."

PART I

The Land and the People

"From the cape of California, being the uttermost part of Neuva Espanna, I navigated to the Islands of the Philippinas hard upon the coast of China; of which countrey I have brought such intelligence as hath not bene heard of in these parts. The statelinesse and riches of which countrey I feare to make report of, least I should not be credited; for if I had not knowen sufficiently the incomparable wealth of the country, I should have bene as incredulous thereof, as others will be that have not had the like experience." Thomas Candish to Lord Hunsdon (1588), Hakluyt's Principle Navigations, XI, p. 376.