SPANISH OPINION PREJUDICED.

15

Rebellion, now the army of Freedom in the Philippine republic. All who have read the history of the revolts of the Spanish colonies in America will surely remember that the rebels were always in discord, and that their generals betrayed, deserted, and, even in the very presence of the enemy, fought each other. Yet, with few exceptions, those generals belonged to the white race, the creole nobility In the Philippine army, on the contrary, that was drawn together from so many provinces and whose generals were chiefly Malays, all ran smooth, and, if we except the single case of General Luna (which has not yet been cleared up), there ruled a spirit of subordination and discipline which the Filipinos could not have learned from their former Spanish masters. Germans who have lived both in Japan and the Philippines assert that the Filipino is the equal of the Japanese in many respects, and far his superior in a sense of honesty and justice. The character of the Filipino as a host and friend is well known, and I have so often experienced this that I cannot sufficiently praise it.

"In judging the Filipinos, one should not accept the opinion of the Spaniards nor form his own opinion from contact with servants and such people; neither should he take the people of Manila as a standard, for the air of a great city denationalizes and promotes degeneration. Many travelers speak of their proclivity to lying and hypocrisy, but they omit to state that, under the monkish regime, lies and deceit were the only means the people had to protect themselves against the aggression of their all-powerful masters. Germans and Englishmen who are not familiar with the polite phrases of the Spanish world, take as genuine what the Spaniards and people trained by them consider to be merely non-committal words of politeness, and then when undeceived, they complain of falsehood, etc. But anyone who knows the abundant wealth of phrases which Spanish politeness has at command, every one who is at home in the Spanish world, will easily distinguish the conventional from the genuine falsehood.

Speaking of Spanish, we may state that it is the language of the official and business world, but that it is fluently spoken only by the educated. The larger the city, the greater the number of those who speak it. The common people (except in Manila, Zamboanga and some other places), and also the middle classes in remote districts, speak their own language. The monks themselves opposed, secretly but successfully, the spread of the Spanish language, in order that at each change of ministry the incoming officials should be dependent upon them. The law, indeed, prescribed that Spanish should be taught in all schools, but the parish priest being school inspector, it happened to that law as to all other laws which the monks did not approve it remained, more or less, merely a written or printed paper. Consequently, instruction was given in the common schools only in the language of the people.

"Every parish had at least two parish schools, one for boys and one for girls. The attendance was in many provinces larger and the percentage of illiteracy smaller than in Italy, Hungary and Dalmatia, not to mention other interesting counties of Eastern Europe. In the secondary schools, which, under the Spanish rule, were found only in Manila, and in the university, instruction was given in Spanish. It was a frequent occurrence that young men thirsting after knowledge would enter Spanish families as servants so as to learn enough Spanish to attend those higher schools. The talent of the Filipino for languages is very great. I have seen with astonishment how quickly my friends learned European tongues. In Barcelona, a young Bikol named Panganiban, learned German so well in forty-five weeks that he spoke it more correctly and more intelligibly than most of my Slav countrymen do. In Pangansinan and Nueva Ecija many people speak three dialects, Tagalog, Panganisanan and Ilocoan.

"At all events, we have in the Filipino coast Malays a highly gifted and ambitious people, who deserve and will continue to deserve the sympathy of civilized Europeans.

In number they run from six and a half to eight million individuals, and some estimate them at still more. The Tagals constitute less than one-third and more than one-fourth, the Visayans nearly one-half, the Ilocoans three-tenths, and then come in descending series the Bikols, Panganisanes, Pampangos, Zambales, Kagayanes, Koyuvos, Kalamianes and Agutainos."

"The Malays are in large part Roman Catholics, settled in villages, and engaged in agriculture and fishing. They possess many fine branches of industry, as, for instance, their beautiful mats and their elegant linen fabrics, and they imitate European industry, ship-building, leather-dressing, carriage-building, etc., with great success. The Chinese and Mestizos, descended from Chinese fathers and native mothers, are mostly engaged in commerce. Very few Spaniards reside in the islands, but the Chinese are very numerous, and natives of the Malayan race form the vast majority of the population."

* Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia, quoted in Senate Document 62, 55th Cong., 3d Sess., page 359.

III. HISTORICAL SKETCH.

1. Acquired by Spain.

"The Philippine Islands were discovered in 1531 by Magellan, who died here in the same year, and a few years later the Spaniards, under Villalobos, took possession of the group and named it in honor of King Philip II. of Spain." *

2. Abuses of the Friars.

The government of the Philippines under Spain was characterized by many oppressions. The great difficulty was that the whole government of Spain rested on the friars. The Taft Report states :

"To use the expression of the provincial of the Augustinians the friars were 'the pedestal or foundation of the sovereignty of Spain in these islands,' which being removed, 'the whole structure would topple over.' The number of Spanish troops in these islands did not exceed 5,000 until the revolution. The tenure of office of the friar curate was permanent. There was but little rotation of the priests among the parishes. Once settled in a parish, a priest usually continued there until superannuation. He was therefore a constant political factor for a generation. The same was true for the archbishop and the bishops. The civil and military officers of Spain were here for not longer than four years, and more often for a less period. The friars, priests and bishops, therefore, constituted a solid, powerful, permanent, well-organized

* Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia, quoted in Senate Document 62, 55th Cong., 3d Sess., page 539.

† Reports of the Taft Philippine Commission, page 26.

POWER OF THE FRIARS.

19

force in the islands which dominated policies. The stay of those officers who attempted to pursue a course at variance with that deemed wise by the orders was invariably shortened by monastic influence.

"Every abuse of the many which finally led to the two revolutions of 1896 and 1898 was charged by the people to the friars. Whether they were in fact to blame is perhaps aside from our purpose, but it cannot admit of contradiction that the autocratic power which each friar curate exercised over the people and civil officials of his parish gave them a most plausible ground for belief that nothing of injustice, of cruelty, of oppression, of narrowing restraint of liberty, was imposed on them for which the friar was not entirely responsible. His sacerdotal functions were not in their eyes the important ones, except as they enabled him to clinch and make more complete his civil and political control. The revolutions against Spain's sovereignty began as movements against the friars."

3. Early Insurrections and La Liga Filipina.

There were many insurrections in the islands. The first occurred in 1622 on the island of Bohol. In 1629 a rebellion began in Mindanao, which lasted three years. In 1649 a considerable portion of the Visayan district was in armed opposition to Spanish rule. In 1827 came an uprising in Cebu, and in 1844 one in Negros.* Mr. Foreman calls these various uprisings "struggles for liberty," but just how much liberty the Filipinos aimed to achieve at that time it is dif ficult to say.

In 1872 came an insurrection in Cavite Province, island of Luzon, which failed at once, owing to a mistaken signal, but whose results were far-reaching. A certain native Filipino

* Mr. Foreman's dates, as given in his "Philippine Island," page 111 et seq.