idea involved and conveyed by the use
of the singular number. Similarly, there is no objection to the term
"Filipino" or "Filipinos," so long as we understand it to mean merely
an inhabitant or the inhabitants of the Philippine Archipelago,
more narrowly the Christianized inhabitant or inhabitants; but it
is distinctly wrong to give to the term a political or national
color. It may be remarked now that the divisions, both Christian and
non-Christian, of which we have been speaking, determined as they are
by natural conditions, are likely to survive for many generations to
come. At any rate, the fact that many, and those the most important,
constituent elements of the proposed independent government are widely
separated by the seas, and that even those situated on the same islands
are confined by mountain ranges hitherto extremely difficult to cross,
makes it plain that the homogeneity necessary to the formation and
permanency of a strong government will be hard to secure, or, if ever
secured, to maintain.

When, therefore, it is proposed to grant independence to the
Philippine Islands, let it be recollected that this grant is to
be made not to a single homogeneous people, of one speech, of one
religion, of one state of civilization, of one degree of social and
political development, but to an aggregation of peoples, of different
speech, of different religions, of widely varying states of social
and political development, of little or no communication with one
another--to an aggregation, in short, whose elements, before 1898,
had had but one bond, the involuntary bond of inherited subjection
to Spanish authority, and all of which to-day are distinguished by
the characteristic trait of the Oriental, absence of the quality
of sympathy.

IV.

Since, at international law, our title to the Islands is unclouded,
it follows that our responsibility in the premises is complete. If,
therefore, in the administration of our responsibility, our wards
should make a request for independence, it is our duty to examine
this request, to inquire into its origin, and then to investigate
its reasonableness with the purpose of determining whether, in the
circumstances, our wards are able, prepared, or ready to undertake
the responsibilities which they pray us to discharge upon them.

That the request for independence is made, and frequently made, there
can be no doubt. It has been made in the past and it will continue
to be made in t