The American Occupation of the Philippines, 1898-1912 by James H. Blount Review by: Payson J.

Treat The Journal of Race Development, Vol. 4, No. 4 (Apr., 1914), pp. 490-494 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29738015 . Accessed: 10/03/2014 07:33
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NOTES AND REVIEWS

The 1898-1912. American Occupation of the Philippines, By Officer of United States Volunteers James H. Blount, in the United States District 1899-1901, Judge in the Philippines, New G. P. 1901-1905. York: Putnam's Sons. Philippines,

Fifteen years have passed since the guns of Commodore Dewey These announced the birth of our Philippine years problem. have been full of incident and the historian has been called upon to record events vastly different from those of our earlier history. seven to conduct a campaign Our army was suddenly compelled Our naval and military from its base. officers thousand miles were drafted in as diplomats the months of during uncertainty and indecision which only ended in a bitterly fought insurrection. came months Then when the organized forces were scattered, of less glorious and more nerve-wracking warfare. guerrilla And, civilians were sent out to meet and solve vexed finally, untrained of tropical administration. For six years a peace un? problems known in their history has reigned in the islands, and along all lines marked progress has been made. The time was ripe for a careful study of the work of the Ameri? cans in the Philippine The American Islands. people have known cared less about what has occurred there. little and apparently the insurrection considerable material, generally of a criti? During in this country, and in the political cam? cal nature, was published paign of 1900 an attempt was made to interest our voters in the So the announce? general question, but with no apparent success. ment of a work entitled The American Occupation of the Philip? was with bound to interest be hailed pines, 1898-1912, by students of our work in those islands. The author, moreover, Mr. James in the volunteers and H. Blount, had served there as a lieutenant later for three and a half years as a judge of the Court of First Instance States district judge, as the title page (not as a United was well qualified for his appointed he so, indicates), apparently,
task.

Mr. Blount's work, however, is not a history of the American It is instead a clever piece of special pleading de? occupation. that the Philippine the author's contention signed to support 490

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NOTES AND REVIEWS peoples "what

491

are prepared to independence for and entitled and that announcement is a formal legislative that the is needed a no remote alien to of and is have permanent people governing life." If it is borne in mind place in the purposes of our national that the volume is largely concerned with opinion and with ma? terial to support the thesis and that it does not offer a compre? hensive view of the events of the past fourteen years, then the reader will doubtless derive no little suggestion and information that a volume with from its pages. It is to be regretted, however, so comprehensive a title, will probably at its face be accepted
value.

An analysis of the work will indicate more clearly the reason for 185 deal with the conditions Of the 655 pages, this criticism. 158 after the describe campaigns and during Spanish War; during the insurrection, principally those in which the author participated; of civil govern? 225 describe certain events since the establishment ment in 1901; and 84 are concerned with general considerations, including a bitter attack upon the late secretary of the interior, In the discussion the Honorable Dean C. Worcester. of the events of the past eleven years 50 pages are devoted to the brigand the entire volume rising in Samar, and yet not a page throughout is given to any account of those constructive works which have won in the Philippine Islands the admiration of for our administration all trained observers. After almost 500 pages of indiscriminate "We can point with criticism we come upon this first reference: we in the have done the public pride to many things Philippines, the better and a the school system, improvements, sanitation, (p. 495). long list of other benefits conferred" Surely an account of the American of the Philippines, 1898-1912, might occupation some 650 pages, more than well be expected to contain, within sentences in description three or four scattered of the schools, the the model prisons, the roads and bridges, the vigilant hospitals, the work of the struggle against preventable quarantine, diseases, to protect human and animal scientists life and to increase the of the soil, the pacification of the wild tribes, and the production other activities of trained Americans inspired with an unusual sense of devotion to to their work and of belief in their ability help a less favored people. If the subject matter fails to fulfill the promise of the title it also falls short of the authority implied by the frequent footnotes and citation to sources. A frequent offense is the use of italics, in quotations, which at times may alter the sense of the original

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492

NOTES AND REVIEWS

A more serious criticism arises from the following content. inci? that "the war demonstrated dent. On page 292 the statement are 'capable of self to the army, to a Q.E.D., that the Filipinos " the note: is supported by following "Says General government,' in his annual report for 1902: 'The intelligent element Chaffee as perfectly as ever a captain con? controlled the ignorant masses trolled the men of his company.'" But what General Chaffee men was: of the section controlled the said "The intelligent really same in and the of the nature ignorant masses, etc.," paragraph In and ignorant" is described. this "coercion of the uneducated other words, a statement describing in the section (Ba conditions It is this control tangas) is used to support a general contention. in the of the ignorant by the educated and the wealthy which, most the for of renders opinion observers, present, self-government in the sense of democratic out of the question. government In order to prove the great destruction of life during the insur? rection Mr. Blount twice makes the following statement, empha? to the United States Coast sizing the "awful fact that according and Geodetic of 1899, the popula? Survey Atlas of the Philippines tion of Batangas to the Province was 312,192, and according census of the Philippines of 1903 it was 257,715" (pp. American sec? 384; 597). Again we learn, from the report of the provincial that "the mortality, caused no longer by the retary of Batangas, and dysentery, has reduced war, but by disease, such as malaria to a little over 200,000 the more than 300,000 inhabitants which in former years the province had." From these statements the following conclusion is drawn: "While we will never know whether did or did not lose one hundred thousand as a result of Batangas the war and its consequences, still, if it did, the other forty-nine above mentioned must have lost as many more, that is provinces to say, must have lost another hundred thousand. So that while it is all a matter of surmise, with nothing more certain to go on than the foregoing, it would really seem by no means absurd to assume the Filipino caused loss of life, other than on the battlefield, and other disease conse? by the war, and the famine, pestilence, thereon, at not far from 200,000 people." for the reputation fellow country? of Mr. Blount's Fortunately men there was something "more certain to go on" than the figures he cites. The figures used in the Atlas of 1899 were not compiled the accurate and painstaking Coast and Geodetic by Survey, they were taken from the hasty compilation of the Schurman Commis? sion of 1899. The census of 1903 prints a comparison of its quent

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NOTES AND REVIEWS

493

figures with those of the Spanish censuses of 1887 and 1876, and from this we find Batangas, and certain other provinces, had shown a steady decrease in population: viz: Batangas, 1876, 331,874; 1887, 311,180; 1903, 257,715 (Census Philippine Islands, II, 20). a decrease In other words thirteen showed between provinces 1876 and 1887, and seven of them showed a further decrease in instead of the next period. Batangas, therefore, losing 100,000 continued her previous decline, people in two years, had merely with no appalling death rate due to the Insurrection. But Mr. further tells us: "a comparison Blount of the Atlas population tables above mentioned with the census tables of 1903 shows no in the population of any of the other prov? very startling difference inces of the archipelago before and after the war except Batangas" A comparison, (p. 598). however, does show such discrepancies as these: Samar, Atlas, 200,753; Census, 265,549; Pangasinan (the scene of severe fighting), Atlas, 304,000; Census, 394,516; With but few exceptions Cebu, Atlas, 504,076; Census, 653,727. and in almost every every province shows a marked "difference," one a favorable one. In other words, the evidence in support of the "awful fact" in Batangas might have been used, if other prov? of American inces had been cited, to prove the beneficence rule. in the Mr. Blount's treatment of many of his former colleagues is The most violent of his attacks islands is quite indefensible. a in Mr. Dean entitled directed C. Worcester chapter against is We are told that Mr. Worcester "Non-Christian Worcester." since the Amer "the direst calamity that has befallen the Filipinos can occupation, neither war, pestilence, famine, reconcentration, nor tariff-wrought poverty excepted," he is described as "an over? type," and he is said bearing bully of the beggar-on-horseback to be "very generally and very cordially detested by the Filipinos." efforts in of Mr. Worcester's Then follows a severe arraignment tribes under his juris? and caring for the non-Christian studying diction. The subject of this attack is the man who doubtless knows more than any other Islands and their peoples the Philippine the only American who had traveled at all exten? living authority; sively in the islands during the Spanish r?gime; and the only one to hold a portfolio in in the commission from its inauguration one understands 1900 to the present time. When the services of as secretary of the interior, charged with the Dean C. Worcester of such vital bureaus as health, quarantine service, supervision and lands, as well as of the non-Christ forestry, science, weather, about
THE JOURNALOF RACE DEVELOPMENT,VOL. 4, NO. 4, 1914

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494

NOTES AND REVIEWS

of the most ian tribes; when one realizes that much creditable is due to his knowledge work of the American of con? occupation his trained then the reviewer feels sure ditions and judgment; that the tribute which Mr. Blount ascribes to President Taft, is "the most valuable man we have on that Dean C. Worcester will be accepted as a more accurate Commission" the Philippine than Blount's remarkable Mr. appraisal chapter. With these statements and the manner the matter concerning of Mr. Blount's work, the reviewer would leave the opinions ad? comment. He agrees with Mr. vanced by the author without statement Blount that a congressional regarding our ultimate aims in the islands should be made. He looks forward to an independ? ent or a self-governing state there, but Mr. Blount's arguments have not convinced him of the preparedness of the Filipino peoples now or within eight years. for self-government
Payson J. Treat.

Facts

John R. Lynch. of Reconstruction. By Major The Neale Publishing Co. 1913.

New York

a book written by Major John R. Lynch, Facts of Reconstruction, has just been issued from the press of the Neale Publishing Com? to is fitted well pany of New York. Major Lynch peculiarly write authoritatively this of Southern reconstruction. During from Mississippi, pivotal period he served three terms in Congress a state in which the colored citizen attained his highest political eminence. he was fourth auditor of the treasury Subsequently at Washington, and is now a retired major of the regular United States Army, and for forty years has been recognized and accepted as Southern political leader of national fame and reputation. This book is perhaps has been the best contribution which made by any writer during recent years to the political literature era. Only in two states of the South does the of the reconstruction colored population exceed that of the white?South Carolina and As the colored citizen acquired the greatest political Mississippi. distinction in Mississippi, the actual facts of the colored citizen's in this state during reconstruction part in government times, ought to give the key to the understanding of the whole Southern polit? ic al situation. The book has a vital bearing upon the most urgent and pressing political problems Its of the South and the nation. chief merits lie in its intimate familiarity with the general and in? side history of the country, and especially Mississippi and the

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