Manila, P. I., June 21, 1900: Filipinos and Friars

The Filipinos are a race quick to learn, to profit by knowledge. He would be rash who, with the teaching of contemporaneous history in view, would fix a limit to the degree of culture and advancement yet within the reach of those people if our duty towards them be faithfully performed.

The insurgents, as the Filipinos are termed, kept the war alive just the same notwithstanding the pacific tone of the message.

Congress had many excited debates upon the general question of proclaiming our intention to retain the Philippines and assume a protectorate over the archipelago. The war of words between expansionists and anti-expansionists has not yet ended, as principles are at stake. The Friars had caused considerable trouble all round, and General Otis met certain demands of theirs by issuing a decree granting individual religious liberty in Luzon. Their power may be gauged by the following statement copied by an American journal, the Catholic World from the Etudes, dated July, 1898:

"With Legaspi, founder of Manila, in 1571, came a band of Augustinianmonks. They were followed some five years later by a body of Franciscans, and before a dozen years had passed Manila had a Dominican bishop and an addition of missionaries of the Order of Preachers and the Society of Jesus. To-day the spiritual charges of the various communities are represented by the following table:

1892-Augustinians. 2,082,131 souls

1892-Recollects. 1,175,156 souls

1892-Franciscans. 1,010,753 souls

1892-Dominicians. 699,851 souls

1895-Jesuits. 213,065 souls

1896-Secular Clergy. 967,294 souls

"Most significant in the above table is the comparative fewness of souls cared for by the secular or native clergy. The work is all done, the power all possessed by the monks.

Whatever the reason-we may be able to guess-this is most unfortunate. Antagonize religious sentiment and patriotism, and you have done much to uproot the in-fluence of the spiritual authority."

These Friars were a thorn in the flesh of the Spaniards when owners of the islands. It appears that there is one Friar to every 5,000 native Filipino Catholics, who are only about one-half of the native population. Yet the Friar counted for more than all his flock in both ecclesiastical and secular affairs. It is recorded that Governor-General Blanco, before he left the Philippines in 1896 to rule Cuba, had found the situation so intolerable there that he had demanded either the immediate expulsion of the religious orders or reinforcements of an army of 80,000 men to crush the insurrectionary movement against the Friars. Failing to secure either the expulsion of the Spanish monks, or the Spanish army for the enforcement of their obnoxious rule, he resigned.

The Friars were put under subjection, virtually deposed from their secular thrones, under American rule. An anti-Catholic or anti-Friar movement has developed, with indications that their day is over. Archbishop Chapelle has stated that they will not henceforth be sent into districts where the people object to them. It is only fair to note that it is generally admitted that the Friars are to be credited with many excellent qualities, not only in their spiritual capacity but as administrators in civic affairs. They were often the only persons qualified by education and training to guide the practical conduct of local commercial business.

Now, having presented the case against the insurgents from the government standpoint, it is proper to place the reader in possession of such facts and utterances of responsible persons as may exhibit the other side of the controversy. The vital thing to know is the truth about the Filipinos, the insurgents, who presume to resist our philanthropic efforts to coerce them to accept our aid in raising their standard of civilization to the level of ours. We do not need to go outside the ranks of the eminent Americans who, as soldiers, sailors, diplomatists, and statesmen, have spoken from personal knowledge, gained on the spot, as to the character and qualities of the native race we have not yet reconciled nor subjugated.

The first commissioners to the Philippines gave frank testimony to the character of the Filipinos as prospective rulers of their native land. They stated as follows in their official report:

The commission, while not underrating the difficulty of governing the Philippines, is disposed to believe the task easier than is generally supposed. For this confidence..it has the following among other grounds:

First-The study by educated Filipinos of the various examples of constitutional government has resulted in their selection, as best adapted to the conditions and character of the various people inhabiting the archipelago, of almost precisely the political institutions and arrangements which have been worked out in practice by the American people; and these are also, though less definitely apprehended, the political ideas of the masses of the Philippine people themselves. This point has been frequently illustrated in the course of the preceding exposition, and it must here suffice to say that the commission was constantly surprised by the harmony subsisting between the rights, privileges and institutions enjoyed by Americans and the reforms desired by the best Filipinos.

Secondly-In addition to the adaptation of the American form of government to the Filipinos, the Filipinos themselves are of unusually promising material. They possess admirable personal and domestic virtues; and though they are uncontrollable when such elemental passions as jealousy, revenge or resentment are once aroused, most of them, practically all of the civilized inhabitants of Luzon and the Visayas, are naturally and normally peaceful, docile and deferential to constituted authority. On the suppression of the insurrection the great majority of them will be found to be good, law-abiding citizens.