of higher mathematics, literature, and history,
without concurrent material improvement to an equal extent, is like
feeding the mind at the expense of the body. No harbour improvements
have been made, except at Manila; no canals have been cut; few new
provincial roads have been constructed, except for military purposes;
no rivers are deepened for navigation, and not a mile of railway
opened. The enormous sums of money expended on such unnecessary works
as the Benguet road and the creation of multifarious bureaux, with a
superfluity of public servants, might have been better employed in
the development of agriculture and cognate wealth-producing public
works. The excessive salaries paid to high officials seem to be out of
all proportion to those of the subordinate assistants. Extravagance in
public expenditure necessarily brings increasing taxation to meet it;
the luxuries introduced for the sake of American trade are gradually,
and unfortunately, becoming necessities, whereas it would be more
considerate to reduce them if it were possible. It is no blessing to
create a desire in the common people for that which they can very
well dispense with and feel just as happy without the knowledge
of. The deliberate forcing up of the cost of living has converted
a cheap country into an expensive one, and an income which was
once a modest competence is now a miserable pittance. The infinite
vexatious regulations and complicated restrictions affecting trade
and traffic are irritating to every class of business men, whilst
the Colony's indebtedness is increasing, the budget shows a deficit,
and agriculture--the only local source of wealth--is languishing.

Innovations, costing immense sums to introduce, are forced upon the
people, not at all in harmony with their real wants, their instincts,
or their character. What is good for America is not necessarily good
for the Philippines. One could more readily conceive the feasibility of
"assimilation" with the Japanese than with the Anglo-Saxon. To rule and
to assimilate are two very different propositions: the latter requires
the existence of much in common between the parties. No legislation,
example, or tuition will remould a people's life in direct opposition
to their natural environment. Even the descendants of whites in the
Philippines tend to merge into, rather than alter, the conditions of
the surrounding race, and _vice versa_. It is quite impossible for
a race born and living in