Municipal Governments Aiding Insurgents in the Philippines
The commander-in-chief of the armies in the Philippines, in his annual report, says:— The institution of municipal government under American auspices, of course, carried the idea of exclusive fidelity to the sovereign power of the United States. All the necessary moral obligations to that end were readily assumed by municipal bodies, and all outward forms of decorum and loyalty carefully preserved. The presidents and town officials acted openly in behalf of the Americans, and secretly in behalf of the insurgents, and, paradoxical as it may seem, with considerable apparent solicitude for the interests of both. In all matters touching the peace of the town, the regulation of markets, the primitive work possible on roads, streets, and bridges, and the institution of schools, their open activity was commendable; at the same time they were exacting and collecting contributions and supplies, and recruiting men for the Philippine forces, and sending all obtainable military information to the Filipino leaders. Wherever, throughout the archipelago, there is a group of the insurgent army, it is a fact beyond dispute that all contiguous towns contribute to the maintenance thereof. In other words, the towns, regardless of the fact of American occupation, and town organization, are the actual bases for all insurgent military activities; and not only so in the sense of furnishing supplies for the so-called flying columns of guerrillas, but as affording secure places of refuge. These remarks apply with equal force to the entire archipelago, excepting only that part of Mindanao occupied by Moros, and to the Jolo Group. There is every reason to believe that all the Moros are entirely satisfied with existing conditions, and are anxious to maintain them. The Jolo Group, whose people are entirely satisfied with existing conditions, and are anxious to maintain them, is the Sulu Group, whose sultan and datos practice polygamy and hold slaves, and who are paid ten thousand (Mexican) dollars a year by the United States. If the United States would pay the Filipinos ten thousand (Mexican) dollars a year, or at that rate, for maintaining an undisturbed republican government, as it pays the sultan and datos of Sulu for maintaining undisturbed a polygamous and slave government, does anybody suppose that there would be any further war even for a day? And if such a proposition had been made to them in the beginning, as the other arrangement was made with the sultan and datos of the Sulus, does anybody suppose that there would ever have been any Philippine war even for a day? And when no such proposition was not only never made, but has been persistently repudiated and warred against, by the United States, while at the same time recognizing, and by cash payments maintaining, a polygamous and slave government in the same region, how would it be possible for the United States more plainly and forcibly to show that she absolutely repudiates the whole principle of republican government, and prefers rather a polygamous and slave government?