chapter 1 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company).

{397}

In the other view there is an appeal to results which cannot easily be divested of force. They are set forth in the following:

"The ideals of civilization for the Spanish missionary priests in the Philippines were substantially the same as those of Bacon and Raleigh, of the founders of New England and the founders of New York. In the mind of all, a civilized people was one which lived under settled laws by steady labor, which was more or less acquainted with the material progress made amongst the races of Europe, and, as all would say, which was Christian. The Spanish friars undertook the task of giving such a civilization to the Malays of the Philippines, and no other body of men of any race or any faith have accomplished what they have done. A task of somewhat similar kind has been attempted by others in our own day in the name of Christian civilization but not the Catholic Church. Hawaii has been under control of missionaries from New England for seventy-five years more completely than the Philippines were ever under that of the Spanish friars. The native kings adopted the new creed and enforced its adoption on their subjects by vigorous corporal punishments. The missionaries were abundantly supplied with such resources of civilization as money could buy, and they have grown wealthy on their mission; but what has been the fate of the natives? They have dwindled in numbers to a fourth of what they were when Messrs. Bingham and Thurston entered their islands, their lands have been taken by strangers, their government overthrown by brute force, and the scanty remnant has dropped the religion imposed on them. In the Philippines in a hundred and forty years a million of Catholic natives has grown seven fold. In Hawaii under missioners of the world's manufacture a hundred and forty thousand of the same race has shrunk to thirty-eight thousand. Have the promises of the Spanish friars or those of the American ministers been the most truthfully kept? The actual condition of the Catholic population formed by the work of the religious orders should not be judged by the excesses which have marked the present revolution. Many old Christian nations have gone through similar experiences. It would be as unreasonable to judge the Christianity of France by the Reign of Terror as to condemn the Filipino population for the atrocities sanctioned by Aguinaldo. The mass of the country population has taken no part in these deeds of blood which are the work of a small number of political adventurers and aspirants for office by any means. Until lately revolutionary disturbance was unknown in the Philippines. During three centuries there was only one serious Indian rebellion, that of Silan, in the province of Illocos, at the time of the English invasion. The Spanish military force was always too small to hold the islands had there been any real disaffection to the Government. The whole force at Manila in the present war, as given by General Otis, was only fifty-six hundred, and about as many more represented the entire Spanish force among a population of seven millions.

"The disposition of the Catholic Filipinos is essentially law abiding. One of the friars lately driven from the islands by the revolution assured the writer that in Panay, an island with a population of half a million, a murder did not occur more often than once or twice in a year. In our own country last year the proportion was more than fifty times as great. There is no forced labor as in the Dutch Indian colonies to compel the native Filipinos to work, yet they support themselves in content without any of the famines so common in India under the boasted rule of civilized England. A sure evidence of material prosperity is the growth of the population, and of its religion a fair test is the proportion of Catholic marriages, baptisms and religious interments to the whole number. The proportion of marriages in 1806 to the population among the natives administered by the friars was one to every hundred and twenty, which is higher than England, Germany, or any European country. The number of baptisms exceeded the deaths by more than two and a half per cent, a greater proportion than in our own land. Compare this with Hawaii and one feels what a farce is the promise of increased prosperity held out by the American Press as the result of the expulsion of the Spanish friars. It is not easy to compare accurately the intellectual development of the Catholic Filipinos with American or European standards. The ideals of civilization of the Catholic missioners were different from those popular with English statesmen and their American admirers. The friars did not believe that the accumulation of wealth was the end of civilization, but the support of a large population in fair comfort. There are no trusts and few millionaires in the islands, but their population is six times greater than that of California after fifty years of American government. The test so often applied of reading and writing among the population finds the Filipinos fairly up to the standard of Europe at least. Of highly educated men the proportion is not so large as in Europe, but it is not inconsiderable, and neither in science nor in literature are the descendants of the Malay pirates unrepresented in their remote islands. The native languages have developed no important literature of their own, but they have a fair supply of translations from Spanish works in history, poetry, and philosophy. In that they are superior to the Hindoo of British India, though spoken by nearly a hundred millions. These are facts that throw a strange light on the real meaning of civilization as planted by the Spanish friars among a barbarian race. Compare them with the fate of the Indian races on our own territory and say what benefit the Filipinos may expect from the advent of 'Anglo-Saxon' civilization."

_Bryan J. Clinch (American Catholic Quarterly Review,