CONDITIONS IN PHILIPPINES

Mr. Moorfield Storey '66 delivered a forcible lecture on "The Philippine Question" in the Living Room of the Union last evening. He outlined the present conditions in the islands and explained the only possible method of doing away with the existing evils.

Mr. Storey began by saying that he disagreed utterly with the ideas of Mr. W. Cameron Forbes '92 in regard to our government in the Philippines. Abraham Lincoln was not a dreamer but a practical man; he stated that all men have equal rights, and so the Filipino is not a slave. A man has only the right to govern himself; when he governs others, therefore, he may only do so with the full consent of the governed. Lincoln stated an undeniable truth when he said, "No man is good enough to govern another without that one's consent." Yet we keep the Philippine Islands without the least regard to the wishes of the natives. Out of these conditions two questions arise: first, the question of right and the possibility of success; second, the method of escape from our position, in case our present policy is sure to fail. This is the Philippine problem.

The governor sent out to a people must rule for the benefit of the governed and must understand them. Although we take great care in the selection of the men who are to fill the political positions in this country, we send young and inexperienced men out to the Philippines. Lord Cromer was in Egypt for 18 years; we have had four governors of the islands in eight years. The news that we receive from the East is neither complete nor exact. Only the reports that are allowed to be sent are what we get in this country. There is no method of expressing public opinion and feeling in the Philippines; as a result our officials, secure in their distance from America and without the ever-threatening power of the press, do whatever they please.

What would be the objection to giving the Filipinos their liberty? Admiral Dewey stated that he believed them more capable of self-government than the Cubans, and yet we gave the latter practically complete freedom. Unless we do follow this plan they are likely to fight for their liberty, as has happened often before. Thus we first submitted to England and ended by gaining our liberty, although we were then but a small and weak country. The other great colonizing power of the world, England, has given Egypt a form of self-government. This is our duty; the longer we put it off, the harder it will be. The freedom of the Philippines will be an advantage to the United States as well as to the islanders themselves.