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

The Subjugation of Inferior Races
have now the improved civilization of a
race of people who, alas! are not willing
to extend to other human beings, undeveloped as our forefathers were, the liberty
they would have demanded for themselves
at any time in their race history. No race
of people ever lived who were not at all
times capable of self-government, and no
people ever lived, or ever will live, who
can govern a weaker or inferior people better than they can govern themselves.
Even a monkey, to say nothing of monkeylike lhumanity, can make its own life happier and better, and less troublesome. in
the end to its superiors when existing free
from meddlesome control, and uncursed by
cages and constant interference, however
benevolent its spirit.
It may be assumed that the meaning
whichl expansionists attach to the phrase,
"incapable of self-government," is that
the Filipinos will not be able to maintain
independently either a true republic or a
very stable government of any kind. Even
granting that this may be true, what right
have we to complain? Government is not
a political garment that may be made for
a people as a tailor makes a coat. It is
easy to change the form of government,
but impossible to change its nature save by
the slowv march of centuries that transform the character of the people. The
American people can not teach any nation
the real spirit of democracy or republicanism. Every nation has to slowly evolve its
government as a plant develops its buds,
its blossoms, and its fruit. It is not our
business to attempt the impossible by making governments for other growths, but to
guard our own national development.
We can not make a government for Filipinos nor teach them governminent anv
more than we can legislate for apes or angels.
If armed revolution should occur tomorrow in the iUnited States, and comnmerce thus be disturbed a thousandfold
more than anyi Filipino rebellion can ever
disturb it, would any European power or
coalition of powers be justified in placing
our people under a protectorate, with the
plea that our government was not stable
enough for commercial interests? Our
complaint against the warlike tendencies
of the Filipinos among themselves is an
absurdity. We have no right to complain
of any nation. For four long, dreadful
years of carnage our people fought among
themselves like demons over the evil heritage of slavery. During that fearful
period, we destroyed more lives and property, and caused a greater disturbance of
the world's peace and well-being by our
own inability to control our destiny without internal warfare, than the Filipinos
can accomplish under complete independence during the next century. We have
completely outdone their ablest efforts in
rebellion and brotherly slaughter, and yet
we preach to them of self-government!
The only essential difference between
the self-government of our grade of civilization and that of the Filipinos is that
they will experience intestine struggles
frequently, and with comparatively little
harm, while we, in more modern developmenit, will battle among ourselves less frequently but a thousand times more
destructively when the actual contest is
waged. An armed revolution among people like the Filipinos is the ancient and undeveloped form of holding an election.
We, in our progress, have evolved the later
method of counting heads to save the pains
of breaking them. Let no benevolent expansionist suppose that in the endless
progress of civilization, our people have
acquired such ability in self-government
that the stern arbitrament of civil war has
finally been abandoned. It is a poor, shallow, unjust plea to say because a race of
people in the universal march of civilization have not quite reached our own stage
of advancement, that we must dominate
their destinies and force them to accept
our own weak, imperfect conceptions of
what really constitutes self-government.
May God pity our unconscious egotism!
Self-government, in its real significance,
would mean a heaven on earth free from
all wars and thoughts of domination. A
long painful struggle toward genuine selfgovernment must be waged by the descendants of the existing American people
in the dim future which lies far ahead of
our present stage of civilization. Let us
turn our eves away from the imperfections
of the Filipino and bend them reverently
in the direction of our own future, with a
prayer that our nation may grow out of
the evils and dangers that beset us. No
nation on the face of the earth is fit to
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