Note 20 — The Spanish Friars, After 1898

The question of the Filipinosʼ capacity for self-government has been frequently debated since the Rebellion of 1896. A quarter of a century ago the necessary 500 or 600 Filipinos, half-caste in the majority, could have been found with all the requisite qualifications for the formation of an intelligent oligarchy. The Constitution drawn up by Apolinario Mabini, and proclaimed by the Malolos Insurgent Government (January 22, 1899), was a fair proof of intellectual achievement. But that is not sufficient; the working of it would probably have been as successful as the Government of Hayti, because the Philippine character is deficient in disinterested thought for the common good. There is no lack of able Filipinos quite competent to enact laws and dictate to the people what they are to do; but if things are to be reversed and the elected assembly is to be composed of deputies holding the peopleʼs mandates, there will be plenty to do between now and March, 1907, in educating the electors to the point of intelligently using the franchise, uninfluenced by the caciques, who have hitherto dominated all public acts. According to the census of 1903, there were 1,137,776 illiterate males of the voting age. In any case, independently of its legislative function, the Philippine Assembly will be a useful channel for free speech. It will lead to the open discussion of the general policy, the rural police, the trade regulations, the taxes, the desirability of maintaining superfluous expensive bureaux, the lavish (Manila) municipal non-productive outlay, and ruinous projects of no public utility, such as the construction of the Benguet road,20 etc.