YALE ALUMNI WHEHEKLY
PRESIDENT SCHURMAN’S VIEWS
His Address to Cornell Students on
the Philippine Question.
President Schurman of Cornell, who
served as Chairman of the Philippine
Commission and who has just returned
to his work at Ithaca, delivered his
annual address to the students of the
University on Thursday, September. 28.
The audience filled the Armory. He
began by announcing that the University
would observe Friday and Saturday as
Dewey days. He then spoke of the
great satisfaction it afforded him to be
again at Cornell and to take up once
more the work of education. Absence
had but strengthened his belief that the
noblest work a man can undertake was
the work of education, the “making of
men.” ;
President Schurman then discussed at
great length the Philippine question.
His views are the views of an educator,
who is a man of affairs also. Some ex-
tracts from the very complete report
of the address in the Cornell Alumni
News will give its main drift. These
are some of the sentences of the speech:
“Now what lesson may be drawn from
the colonial history of Europe? The
most obvious, but also the most funda-
mental, is a warning. Let no ruling race
ever treat its colonies or dependencies
as tts possessions. * *
“The next lesson I draw from the his- .
tory of colonization is cognate to the first.
The government of colonies or depen-
dencies is not a money-making enter-
prise for the sovereign power or its citi-
zens. This follows as a corollary from
the proposition that subordinate states
are not the property of the power which
exercises sOvereignity over them. But
the confusion in the popular mind be-
tween. ownership and government is so
deep-rooted and so universal that the
point demands special emphasis. In a
commercial age it is easy to associate
the extension of trade with the founda-
tion of colonies. But there is no in-
stance in history of the successful
government of a colony where profit to
the parent state or its citizens has been
a leading consideration. On the other
hand there are many examples of disas-
ters and rebellions from such unworthy
greed and exploitation. * * *
“This leads me to a paradox. You
know that we never find happiness by
seeking it. But if we perform our daily
tasks and strive to do our duty, Provi-
dence adds happiness as an inseparable
gift. The man who deliberately aims
at happiness, the spendthrift, the sen-
sualist, the aestheticist or the religionist.
always misses it. Now I find an anal-
agous paradox in the attitude which
colonizing powers assume towards their
dependencies. There is a nemesis in
economics and politics as well as in
ethics. Let a nation seek to enrich
itself or its citizens at the expense of its
colonists and it impoverishes all. But
let a nation in all its dealings with its
colonies take as its sole criterion of
judgment and standard of conduct -the
welfare of the colonists, and it will re-
sult, as history everywhere demon-
strates, that the enriched dependencies
become the most profitable traders with
the ruling country. Take India and
Egypt as examples. You know that
India was conquered, and, till the reign
of Queen Victoria, held by a trading
company. Was England enriched by
their exploitation? Why we have the
evidence of McCulloch that in 1881 the
trade between England and India was
utterly insignificant, of little more im-
portance than that between England and
the Isle of Man. In 1858 the govern-
ment of India was transferred to the
Crown and in her proclamation the
Queen said: ‘We hold ourselves bound
to the natives of our Indian territories
by the same obligations of duty which
bind us to all our other subjects.’ And
what is now the condition of trade be-
tween England and India? Is it stil]
to be compared with the trade between
England and the Isle of: Man? The
very thought of such a comparison’ is
ridiculous. Why, England sends more
of her exports to India than to any
other country except the United States,
and she imports more from India than
from any other country except the
United States and France. What a
splendid economic compensation to Eng-
land for single-hearted devotion to the
welfare of her great dependency and
scrupulous impartiality in administering
the trust of government. In the same
way while English rule in Egypt—with
an open door and no favors—has more
than doubled the consuming and pur-
chasing power of the Egyptian, England
gets three-fifths of all Egyptian exports
and furnishes two-fifths of all Egyptian
imports. I have not time to give fur-
ther illustrations. But I lay it down as
a cardinal principle that the way to get
profit from colonies is not to seek it at
their expense. On the contrary, a
colonizing power should aim at nothing
but the welfare of its colonies. And by
far the largest element in their welfare
is good government.
“There is another principle of coloni-
zation, which is complementary to the
last. Colonies and dependencies should
be self-supporting. If the ruling power
gets nothing from them neither should
it be called upon to give anything to
them. It might have been supposed that
this principle, being in line with their
own interests, would always have com-
mended itself to colonizing powers.
But the history of colonization disap-
points such an expectation. It would
rather appear that the great colonial
powers when not animated by sordid
rapacity, which, however, was their
habitual condition, indulged in fruitless
prodigality towards their dependencies.
Both practices were pernicious; for if
exploitation improverishes a_ people,
coddling weakens and undermines its
moral fibre. Financial independence is
the golden mean which lies between
x
these vicious extremes. *
“T will now mention a fourth prin-
ciple of sound colonial policy, which,
though less obvious than the foregoing,
has been not less conclusively demon-
strated by experience. To authorities
established. in the colonies and depen-
dencies the sovereign power should dele-
gate all the functions of government.
eo ee
“Now it is different with dependencies
peopled by alien races incapable of gov-
erning themselves. Here the reason
why the sovereign state divests itself
of the right to govern directly is not the
same as that which leads to colonial
autonomy; but the policy of delegating
authority is equally imperative. And
we can easily see why. Government
must be adapted to the governed. An
unsuitable government may be as bad in
its effects as an oppressive one. And
rulers must take account, not only of
the ideally good, but also of the needs
and peculiarities of the people, their cus-
toms, traditions, sentiments, aspirations,
and even their prejudices and aversions.
Clearly no one but men on the spot can
form a judgment worth anything as to
the machinery of government for, say,
an Asiatic people or still less, of the
manner in which that machinery should
work from day to day and year to year.
Spain and Portugal and France gov-
erned their subject peoples from Madrid,
and Paris, and Lisbon; and the loss
of their empires is the condemnation of
the policy. On the other hand, the sov-
ereignty of Great Britain has extended
and still extends at a wonderful rate
over the alien races of Asia and Africa;
but alike in India, Hong Kong, the
Malayan States and in Egypt it is exer-
cised by resident and native officials,—
the Crown, Parliament, and Courts of
Great Britain having most or quite as
little to do with it as they have with
the government of Canada or Australia.
The practice in all cases is to pass an
act of parliament instituting the govern-
ment of a dependency, and then stand
aside while the properly constituted au-
thorities in the dependency administer,
in the full light of local experience, the
great trust committed to them. There
is a simple but very effective method of
supervision in two cabinet offices—the
Secretaryship for India and that for the
colonies. And these are the only or-
ganic filaments that connect England
with its Empire beyond the seas. Was
ever world-empire held by so slight an
attachment? Yet that is the secret of
success. Decentralization, home-rule,
hand-off: these are the magical words.
“The fifth principle calls for men to
run the machinery of government. To
colonies and dependencies not capable of
complete self-government the sovereign
power “must send some or all of the
higher officials; but the number of this
ruling class should be small and the
character, ability, and aptitude of each
official not only above the average, but
exceptionally high; and in order to at-
tract and retain stich men, salaries
should be high and positions permanent.
I have endeavored to compress into a
single sentence the nature of the demand
and the conditions essential to secure the
supply. The end to be attained is a
good, efficient, permanent, and economi-
cal government for the dependency.
The great majority of the offices may
and should be filled by natives. But the
initiative and the directing power be-
long to the sovereign nation and must
be exercised by her representatives. A
few will suffice. Of course there must
be one responsible head. But with an
organizing genius at the helm it is
simply astonishing how much can be got
out of the natives. The English offi-
cials of India are but a drop in the
ocean of population about them; but
what able governors-general the coun-
try has had in men like Hastings and
Marquis Wellesley and Lawrence and
Dufferin. Singapore and the Malayan
States are in large part the work of Sir
Stamford Raffles and Sir Andrew Clark.
And in our own day Lord Cromer, with
less than 200 English officials, has made
and rules the Egypt we know.
“After all, your government will de-
pend upon the men who administer it.
Spain used her empire to give official
positions to Spaniards; and the rulers
exploited the people they ruled. The
whirligig of time -has brought its re-
venge. I was often asked in the Philip-
pines if our Civil Service was better than
that of Spain? Here is a point where
the Filipinos suspect and fear us. We
must allay their anxiety and suspicion
by a splendid Philippine Civil Service.
I believe we shall. It is absolutely
necessary. But there will be no harder
task in connection with our government
of the Archipelago. I repeat, however,
that the success of our administration
in the Philippines will depend upon the
men we send out to conduct it much.
more than upon Acts of Congress or any
other circumstance.
“Lastly, what is the end of Coloniza-
tion? Every undertaking, and especially
one of stich magnitude, should be
guided by an ideal or controlled by a
purpose. What then is the subject of
national expansion? Why should we
extend our sovereignty over remote
countries and alien peoples. I answer
that the only justifiable object of such
expansion is the establishment of good
government in the teritory annexed, the
elevation of its people in civilization, and
the training of them in progressive self-
government with a view to ultimate in-
dependence whether by partnership in,
or separation from, the sovereign state.
sect ae: | :
“In the Philippine Islands our own
mission is to educate and elevate the
Filipinos and aid them in governing
themselves. We shall not adopt the
policy of scuttle, nor, although American
sovereignty must be established even by
force, shall we ever dream of the policy
of extermination? Not oppression, nor
‘yet abandonment and desertion; no, not
these, but honest and fraternal codpera-
tion with the Filipinos for the establish-
ment of a just and stable government in
which the natives shall have ever increas-
ing participation in proportion to the
development of their political capacities,
the growth of their political experience,
the progress of the masses in education
and civilization, and the evolution of the
idea and sentiment of nationality,—a
sentiment and idea which will be nour- .
ished and developed by the habit of
common action, the improvement of the
means of communication, the freer in-
termingling of the tribes and races, and
hearty native codperation with the
Americans whose best political traditions
are but the realization of the dearest
ideals of the Filipino <peoples.”
LL»
m AB
Game Patrons Will Walk.
The work which was begun on the
improvement of the Derby Avenue ap-
proaches to Yale Field is still in pro-
gress, but may be completed in time for
the big game, Nov. 25. The much
needed bridge has been built over West
tiver, wide and strong enough to carry
the cars of the street railway, and dou-
ble car tracks have been laid across it.
But at the present writing it looks as
though the patrons of the football games
would be obliged to walk from _ the
bridge to the gates of the Field as be-
fore. Two years ago the Fair Haven
& Westville Street Railway said that
they were willing to lay tracks and run
their cars to the gates of Yale Field
if a bridge were built of sufficient
strength to carry the weight of their
heavy cars. This Summer a substantial
iron bridge was built in place of the old
wooden one, by the city, at the cost of
$40,000. When the railway officials had
received permission from the State to
extend their tracks to the Field, the New
Haven Court of Common Council de-
cided that the company should pay $1,000
for crossing the bridge and should be
bound to pay $300 each year for the
partial maintenance of the bridge, a not
unfair demand. ‘The street railway offi-
cials, however, say that they will not
pay a cent of taxation imposed by the
Court, and there the matter stands,
while the game patrons walk. A
macadamized road from the bridge to
the Field gates will make that mode of
progress easier than last year.
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