Note 2 — Chapter XXIII · “Non-Christian” Worcester

In Chapter VI (ante), we made the acquaintance of two young naval officers. Paymaster W. B. Wilcox and Naval Cadet L. R. Sargent, who, in the fall of 1898, while the fate of the Philippines hung in the balance at Paris, and peace still reigned in the Islands between us and the Filipinos, made a trip through the interior of Luzon, covering some six hundred miles, and afterwards furnished Admiral Dewey with a written report of their trip, which was later published as a Senate document. Professor Worcester’s greatest value to President Taft, and also the thing out of which has grown, most unfortunately, what seems to be a very cordial mutual hatred between him and the Filipinos, is his activities in the matter of discovering, getting acquainted with, classifying, tabulating, enumerating, and otherwise preparing for salvation, the various non-Christian tribes. These tribes have already been briefly dealt with in Chapter XXI. (ante), apropos of that part of the Great Peace Certificate of 1907 which related to the “Moros and other non-Christian tribes”—uncivilized tribes which, being as distinct from the great mass of the Filipino people as islets from the sea, had had no more to do with the insurrection against us, than the Pawnees, Apaches, and Sioux Indians had to do with our Civil War of 1861–5. They were also dealt with, somewhat, in the chapter preceding this. Long before Professor Worcester was permanently inflicted upon the Filipino people, one of the young naval officers above mentioned, Mr. Sargent, published an article in the Outlook for September 2, 1899,2 based on this trip through the interior of Luzon, made by authority of Admiral Dewey the year before. In the course of his article Mr. Sargent says: