ensible person who examines it. Let us assume that
the United States Government decides at this time to give ear to the
plea of those who are politically active in the Philippines--what will
happen? It will dispatch a commission or committee to the Islands
to examine the representations of those who make the plea. It is
admitted by even the Nationalist leaders, when speaking privately on
this question, that the people are not ready to shift for themselves
and can not be made ready for some years. Surely it is not believed
that the investigators are going to be deceived about the real truth
as to conditions in the Islands, and we are unable to see what good
is to be accomplished by having this inquiry made.

"Would it not be infinitely better for the Nationalist and other
leaders in this country to squarely face the facts and base all their
future operations on the facing of those facts? One difficulty is
that they have made a lot of promises and professions to the people
that they are incapable of fulfilling, and another is that they have
largely aided in deceiving the people themselves as to where they
really stand and as to what they are really capable of under present
conditions. But to go on means discredit and failure in the end, and a
greater work could be done for the country at large by squarely facing
the facts. It must be admitted that neither position is especially
pleasant. There has been created among the people a vanity of ability
and power that will make the blow a hard one; but unless there are
Filipino leaders capable of making the people realize the truth about
their position, there is really not much hope for them in the future.

"The truth is, that the race must be built up physically and its
numbers be enormously increased before it may seriously assume the
obligations of statehood; and, for our part, we await the statesman
who is prepared to drive this and other important lessons home to
the minds and hearts of the people.

"Assurance and pretense serve their purposes on many occasions, but
they must be set aside when it comes to the test that will be applied
to the plea that Filipino leaders now make with such persistency."

It is maintained that the matter of this short editorial deserves to
be as deeply pondered by the people of the United States as by the
Filipinos to whom it is specially addressed.

That all this talk of independence, the motions to that end
occasionally made in Congress,