The Subjugation of Inferior Races [pp. 49-60]

The Subjugation of Inferior Races
The American people, after almost
interminable hostilities and many years
of the most brutal cruelty on both sides,
have nearly exterminated the Indians.
We did not succeed in teaching the
Indians self-government, and we failed to
govern them either wisely or efficiently.
We are now ruling the negroes of the
Southern States by a system of local repression which deprives them of real
political action quite as completely as in
the days when they were slaves. We have
amended our "paper constitution" to
give the negro political liberty, but he has
never yet obtained the privilege of voting
for his real preferences. Southern people
are not to blame for this slavish condition
of the negroes. Transfer the people of
New England to the South, give them the
negroes, and in a short time the results
would be the same, or possibly worse, for
a greater personal antipathy is felt toward
the negro in the North than in the South.
One race or the other must rule,.for union
is impossible, so the strongest and most
intelligent race triumphs and holds the
other in subjection-a form of imperialism that is already with us. The disgraceful and disheartening social condition of
the Southern States is merely the confession of our own impotence as a people to
deal with these terrible problems of race
antipathy.
Our more limited experience with the
Chinese has been equally instructive. If
the Chinaman were not of a distinct race,
and if he were capable of assimilation in
this country by marriage, he would be no
more undesirable as an immigrant than
the uneducated and clanish denizens of
Europe who flock to our shores. The
Chinaman is shrewd, industrious, and
enterprising. If he were capable of absorption, like people of our own race, there
would be no necessity for preventing
Chinese immigration. Divergency in race
produced the boycotts, the riots, and the
murders of recent Pacific Coast history,
however, and we parted company with the
Chinese. If our people pursue the plans
of expansion and meddle with the affairs
of China, thus again coming into social
contact with these people, they will learn
that locality is not the cause of these
miserable conditions, but that they occur
whenever two antagonistic races are
brought together, and as readily on one
side of the Pacific Ocean as on the other.
In spite of these painful lessons, the
American people are now asked to indorse
a policy that will inevitably bring them
into political and social relations with
several millions of Malays, with whom
marriage and amalgamation are no more
desirable or possible than they are with
the Chinese. The only alternative to
amalgamation is continuous hostility
between the Americans and the Filipinos,
which will terminate only with the extermination of the weaker people, or with
their separation into distinct and separate
political organizations. The negroes
have lived among us in America for more
than two centuries, yet social unity
between the two races is apparently as far
away as it was in the beginning of social
contact. We still rule the negroes, but
every increase in their numbers, intelligence, and military spirit will make the
undertaking more dangerous.
We are to consider what is to be done
with the Filipinos after they have been
subjugated. One method is to organize
them unader territorial and state governments. This policy will make the Filipinos partners with us in our national
affairs. In degree of civilization the
higher types of the islanders appear to be
similar to the Japanese. The lowest types
are no better than the native races of California and Nevada. Between these two
extremes are found every gradation of
savage and barbaric development. Such
people can never become desirable elements of this republic.
Another method is to hold the Philippines permanently under a colonial policy
similar to that enforced by Great Britain
in India, Egypt, and the Soudan,-an
appointive government, upheld by military power. This policy is imperialism in
spite of the protests of expansionists that
they do not contemplate any departure
from democratic ideals. A colonial policy
enforced by an army deprives a colony of
self-government, substitutes the government of another people, and is the very
essence of imperialism. The characteristic Briton frankly admits that such
government is imperialism, but urges that
English domination of an inferior people
is better for the subject race than complete
liberty and self-government. The British
colonial policy is really the doctrine of the
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