Note 12 — Chapter XXXIV · Peace and Prosperity

Specific assurance that the United States would not surrender sovereignty over the archipelago until its inhabitants had demonstrated both ability and inclination to maintain a stable, just and effective government would be followed by a steady, healthful commercial development which would bring in its wake a degree of prosperity hitherto unknown and undreamed of. The Philippines have the best tropical climate in the world; soil of unsurpassed richness; great forest wealth; promising mines; and a constantly growing population willing to work for a reasonable wage. Give assurance of a stable government, and prosperity will increase by leaps and bounds. Turn the country over now, or ten years from now, to the Filipinos to govern, and the reputable business men, mindful of Aguinaldo’s demand for his share of the war booty when Manila was taken; of the attempted confiscation of the lands of the religious orders and of Spanish citizens generally,12 of the proposal to tax foreigners13 as such, and of the torturing of friars, other Spaniards and Filipinos as well, in order to extort money from them; of the widespread brigandage, the raping, the officially authorized and directed murdering and burying alive which prevailed during the period of undisturbed Filipino rule, will fold their tents like the Arabs and quietly steal away. There will remain that peculiar class of business men who, as the Filipinos put it, love to fish in troubled waters. They will not lack good fishing grounds.