GEORGE H. BLAKESLEE, Ph.D. EDITORS President G. Stanley Hall, LL.D. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Dean DAVID P. BARROWS, Ph.D...... Ass't-Professor Ellsworth HUNTINGTON, .University of California ....Columbia University .Rutgers College New York ....Chicago .University of Pennsylvania ....Oahu College, Honolulu .....Clark College Ph.D..........Yale University ....New York University GEORGE HEBER JONES, D.D.... JOHN P. JONES, D.D.... ...Seoul, Korea ..Madura, India Professor George Trumbull Ladd, LL.D... Professor EDWARD C. MOORE, Ph.D.............. K. NATERAJAN. Professor Howard W. Odum, Ph.D.... JAMES A. ROBERTSON, L.H.D..... Associate Professor A. L. KROEBER, Ph.D........University of California Yale University Harvard University .Bombay, India University of Georgia Manila Articles intended for publication, and all correspondence relating to the editorial department of the JOURNAL, should be addressed to Dr. George H. Blakeslee, Clark University, Worcester, Mass. Books for review, exchanges, subscriptions, and all correspondence relating thereto should be addressed to Dr. Louis N. Wilson, Clark University Library, Worcester, Mass. Copyright, 1914, Clark University. The printing of this number was completed May 1, 1915. By Lieutenant-Colonel John P. Finley, U. S. Army: for ten years Governor of the District of Zamboanga, Moro Province, Philippine Islands One of the greatest of all the problems, in the Philippines which the American government has to face, and solve, if it wishes to retain the corner stone of freedom, is that of the Moro. To most people the name "Moro" means nothing but the picture of the non-Christian tribes, and to so picture him is to place the Indian and the Jew in the same category, for both are non-Christian. The Moro is non-Christian in the sense of being a Mohammedan, but he is not a pagan. He prays to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but considers Mohammed and not Christ, the interpreter of God's word; therefore he does not believe in the Trinity and abhors images as symbols of worship. He is not Filipino by any ties of race, government, or religion, but it does not necessarily follow that he is a "dirty savage,' even for the sake of excusing the attitude of Spain and America toward him. There are very clear evidences of a Hindu invasion from India through the East Indies, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, and Borneo, as far as the southern islands of the Philippine group, In some of these, especially Java, they left vast ruins. In Palawan, Jolo, and Mindanao they left very little, except marks on the language, that show unquestionably a Sanscrit origin. Who these Hindus found in the Islands has not, at the present time, been ascertained, but probably the aborigines were related to the THE JOURNAL OF RACE DEVELOPMENT, VOL. 5, NO. 4, 1915 Negrito peoples. Ethnologists place this invasion at fifteen hundred years, or more, ago. When the Moslem religion began its wonderful advance from Arabia, it spread in every direction. One route taken by the Arab followers of Mohammed being through India, the Malay Peninsula, and the East Indies, over the same ground the Hindus had previously gone. When these Arabs reached the southern islands of the Philippine group, they converted and intermarried with this Hindu aboriginal mixture and formed the progenitors of the present Moro. Their legends say, and history bears them out, that the original Moros were large people. This would seem quite in keeping with facts as both Hindus and Arabs are of large frame and stature. The aborigines with whom the Hindus intermarried, if belonging to the Negrito family, were small people. However, the hardships to which the Moros have been subjected in the last three hundred and fifty years would account for their deterioration mentally, morally and physically. When the Spaniards first came to the Philippines in the 16th century the people of the Islands of Mindanao and Jolo were strong, brave sea-rovers, the "Norsemen" of the East. They pushed their "praos" into all the waters of the archipelago and made incursions on the settlements. They also converted many of the pagan Filipinos, and Mohammedan settlements were found as far north as Laguna de Bay, and Manila. If the Spanish invasion had been postponed for another hundred years the coasts of the whole archipelago would probably have been firmly Islam, as they are today Christian, for the Spaniard in his more than three hundred years of occupation, only converted the coast people. The mountain people are still pagan. It is told of the Moro, that he was a pirate and ravaged the coasts of the other islands; probably he did. If so his name and "praos" should go down in history beside those of Drake, Raleigh, Cortez and the navies of Napoleon and George the Fourth. The Koran teaches thrift and a reverence for the soil. The grace, which every Moslem says before meals is, "Oh God, we beseech thee to bless this food and give us strength to reproduce it." Before the coming of the Spaniards, the Moros are said to have lived in some degree of luxury; they tilled the soil, and had many servants. They were men of strong physique and a degree of intelligence, gained from their intercourse with the Arabs of the other East Indian islands, and from the fact that the Koran had been brought with them. They kept written records (tarsila) of families, not communities. Today the Sultans and Datus have their family histories as well recorded as any royal family of Europe or the D. A. R's. The Spaniards conquered the pagan Filipinos of the Visayan and Luzon groups. They were Malays and a very different people from the Moros. The Filipino has never been a man of much courage or ability when left to his own devices. He is happy with enough rice to keep soul and body together, two cotton garments, a fighting cock, and enough of the medium of exchange to bet on the chicken. For these reasons his conquest was easy. The present Filipino, like his progenitor is perfectly satisfied with himself and his surroundings. His Roman Catholic religion takes care of the future. The people who are agitating for independence are no more Filipinos than a Spaniard from Granada is a Moor. Among the politicos, there is probably not one man who is able to prove himself wholly Filipino. They are from one-fourth to nine-tenths Spanish or Chinese. There is no sympathy between the Cacique (Filipino boss) and the common people. To him the "tao" is simply an object for exploitation, with immature and easy rights before the law. This statement cannot be repeated too often because it underlies this whole problem of what to do with the Philippines. The Filipino people are not now, and never have been heard from; the man who is talking most and loudest is not a Filipino. He is a Mestizo Cacique or politico, but this is the element that would control the destiny of the Islands. The Moro is not a politico now and never has been. Another phase |