The New Philippine Government

When the American government decided for the first time to try the experiment of colonial government in the Philippine Islands, they had no light to guide them save the experience of other European nations which had colonies in Far Eastern Asia. Ignorant of Philippine conditions, the American statesmen at first thought that the problem of governing the Islands was similar to the task of the European powers in governing our neighbors, Java, the Malay States, and India. Their first idea was, therefore, to study the colonial systems of these countries. One of the first public documents printed by the American Congress, in 1899, accompanying the Treaty of Paris, was devoted to the study of the colonial systems of the Orient with a view to their application in the Philippines. But upon a closer observation of Philippine conditions they found that the principles of European colonization would not work in the Islands, not only because American aims were more altruistic but because political conditions were entirely different. Roughly, colonial government in the neighboring countries is based on the existence of native rulers, rajahs or princes, whose authority has been for centuries recognized by the natives themselves. Apparently and ceremoniously the native princes still rule, but in reality it is their respective European “advisers” or “resident-generals” who are the actual rulers. Instead of establishing a new form of government, abolishing the rajahs and native rulers, the Dutch and the English simply improved the native institutions, using these same rulers as instrumentalities through which to impose their own governments.