for believing that Filipino control of the more pacific
non-Christian tribes would not promptly result in the re-establishment
of the old system of oppression which Americans have found it necessary
to combat from the day when military rule was first established in
these islands until now. I speak whereof I know when I say that the
people of these tribes have been warned, over and over again, by
those interested in re-establishing the old regime, that American
control in the Philippines will be only temporary, and that when
the government is turned over to the Filipinos the tribesmen will be
punished for their present 'insubordination' and failure tamely to
submit to injustice and oppression, as many of them formerly did."

These extracts speak for themselves. So far as is known, the report
from which they are drawn has gone unchallenged. Is it necessary any
further to consider the question of a transfer of control from the
present authorities to the Filipinos or to any other authority? Would
not any change in the present administration be singularly unwise? Of
course, the views and arguments set forth here are extremely unpopular
among the politicians of the native ruling class. But then no Filipino
likes the plain, unvarnished truth, a fact that should receive full
weight in considering any demand or request of native or racial origin,
involving questions of government.

With our own treatment of the American Indian in mind, our people
should be the last to consent to any change in the relations or
administration of the wild men of the Philippine Islands not fully
justified by the amplest necessity, not warranted by well-grounded
hopes of greater improvement. These men, for the first time in their
history, are having a chance. That chance is fair to-day, and will
continue fair so long as its administration lies in American hands.,
competent, trained, and experienced.

In taking over the Philippines, we have incidentally become responsible
for a large number of wild men. Their fate is bound up in that of
the Islands. Now, these islands may remain under our control, or
they may not. Obviously, then, the question has its political side:
we may grant full international independence to the Philippines. In
the belief of some this would be merely a signal for civil war in the
Archipelago, the issue of which no man can guess. But whether or not,
in granting independence to the Philippines, we shall be signing the
death-war