or which we should then be directly responsible. If a general or
universal request could be taken to show that lack of independence is
operating to deprive the Filipino of his liberty and to estop him in
the pursuit of happiness, the situation of affairs would be confessedly
acute. But it is a fact patent to all who know the country, that the
Filipino enjoys a freedom at least as great as that of the average
American citizen, and is at complete liberty to pursue happiness in
any way consistent with the law of the land and with the rights of
others. We must conclude that a request, even if universal, would not
necessarily be for us a safe guide of action. The universality shown
might prove merely that all had agreed to what had been proposed by
the leaders, and would leave untouched the merits of the case.

V.

Intimately allied with this question of reasonableness are those of
readiness, preparedness, capacity to assume the burdens as well as
the rights and privileges of independence.

On readiness, we need not dwell; it is the readiness of acquiescence,
not of preparation: the Filipinos are ready, just as children are
ready to play with matches. But preparedness and capacity call for
more consideration, however brief.

No one will pretend that the Filipinos have had any political
training. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, only 350 years ago,
they were all uncivilized. Many of them are still semi-savages; others
are savages pure and simple. These facts are indisputable. If, then,
we turn to history for assistance, we can not find a single instance
of any real political evolution in any of the various divisions of
the inhabitants of the Archipelago. The exception furnished by the
debased Mohammedan sultanates of the great Island of Mindanao is only
apparent. The germ of fruitful growth is everywhere missing. Now,
the Spaniards assuredly took no steps to teach their new subjects
the art and science of government; there was every reason, from their
point of view, why they should not teach this art and science. On the
other hand, our own course has been totally different. We have lost
no time in putting political power into the hands of the natives,
so that to-day, after fourteen years' possession, municipal and
provincial government are almost wholly native. To crown all,
we have given the Filipinos an elective legislature, an Assembly,
all the members of which are native. Students of the subject at
first hand,