THE NATION'S RESPONSIBILITIES CONCERNING DEPENDENT PEOPLES OPENING ADDRESS BY DR DRAPER AS PRESIDENT OF THE LAKE MOHONK CONFERENCE OF FRIENDS OF THE INDIANS AND OTHER DEPENDENT PEOPLES, OCTOBER 17, 1906 The business of this conference is to get at the truth and declare the attitudes which ought to be taken by the people and the government of the United States towards those peoples who have become subject to the sovereignty of the Republic without being able to understand the spirit of it or bear a share of the burden of it. We have not come up here to discuss whether what is written in the histories ought to have happened. We have come to meet serious present day questions with the latest information and the best thinking we can bring to them. We are to divest ourselves of all prejudices or conceits, even of all social, political, or sectarian partizanship, to the end that we may give to our country a service which shall be distinctly patriotic. Our generous host has invited us here because he believes that a few of us have special knowledge of the Indians, the Porto Ricans, the Hawaiians, and the Philippine peoples, and because he is assured that all of us would extend more than legal justiceeven fraternal and generous help-to all peoples under our flag who must have assistance before they can have any share in the heritage, the philosophy, the burdens, and the joys of the nation. It is safe to say that none has been called or omitted because he lives or is unable to live in a set, because he worships or neglects to worship under the forms of any particular denomination, or because he votes or refuses to vote within the lines of a political party. It is quite as safe to say that no one is here who hates other men only because of their riches, their poverty, their politics, or their religion, and that none is not here because he has alliances and cherishes them, or holds opinions and believes in them very deeply. In such a conference speech must be free. There need be no fear of conflicting opinions. If one has information he had better tell it. If he has convictions he may well express them. It mat ters not what others may know or think. He will set them right, or they will bring him back to the middle of the road. If he "knows things that are not so" he ought to find it out — and probably will. If the discussion is sincere it will not be too forceful. The truth of most worth is hammered out upon the anvil of red hot discussion. We can not We must have fundamental principles in mind. We must aim at the general policies which ought to be enforced, or the flagrant omissions and abuses which ought to be remedied. We can not have much to do with the details of administration. get snarled up in technical matters which experts ought to be allowed to monopolize; and we can not deal with mere incidents which actual and honest workers are settling in the best way they can. That every man is entitled to equality of security and of opportunity with every other man is a fundamental principle of the moral law. Our national political philosophy of course declares that. But it goes further. It declares that sound American policy must not only decree equality under the law and assure every one who comes under our flag his chance, but that the strength and security of the nation are promoted by encouraging and aiding, and sometimes by even forcing, people to make the most of their chance. This is a democracy and we have learned that its worth and its strength depend upon the units which have share in it. The Lake Mohonk conferences have been doing this in the interests of the Indians for twenty-four successive years. They have declared principles which many denied, and stood for policies which appeared impossible, but soon those principles and policies appealed to the sense and the justice of the people and in a little time they grew into the law of the nation. From this mountain the demands for justice and opportunity for the Indian have gone forth. It was not such justice as strong men or a great people claim as their inherent right, but the nobler justice which unfortunate men and a little and unlettered people must have before they can see the light or have any part in our civilization. When it has seemed like crying against the wind, these conferences have declared for filling the Indian offices of the government with men who have more than activity in politics to commend them, for Indian administration upon the merit basis, for protecting our red children against rapacity and greed, for giving them every penny of public moneys that by any moral law belongs to them, for using tribal and trust funds to the exclusive advantage of the cestui que trust, for the training of the head and heart and hand harmoniously, for schools and compulsory attendance, for unprejudiced standing in real courts, for a real marriage relation, for the division of lands held jointly, for work and the development of industries, for unrestricted trade with others, for rewards for thrift, and punishment for crimes, and for all civic rights and responsibilities. The Indian question of 1906 is a wholly different question from the one of 1880 or 1890 or even 1900. The commonly accepted thought of the nation steadily becomes nobler, the government support steadily becomes more generous but also more discriminating, and the system of management or administration steadily becomes more exact, capable and responsible. While it is likely that there will be enough to do in the interests of the Indians for an indefinite time, still the assurance is not lacking that the sentiment of the country has been clarified, that the trends are in the right direction, that substantial results are rapidly developing, and that the time which is vital to all large movements in behalf of many people will bring very satisfactory results and give added proof of the competency of a democracy to deal with very troublesome situations. But the rather promising outlook upon Indian matters is now accompanied by what are undoubtedly more difficult problems in the vast territory and among the millions of undeveloped people for whom we almost unwittingly assumed responsibility when we deliberately took Cuba from the further domination of Spain. The difficulties seem greater because the numbers are greater. The Indian population is something like 300,000 and the population of the Philippine Islands, Hawaii, and Porto Rico is something like 10,000,000. The difficulties are greater because of remoteness of situation, because of the lack of environment and the infrequency of contact; greater because of more sharply defined physiological differences, of even more thoroughly intrenched superstitions and pagan customs, of yet more completely segregated racial individuality and autonomy; and greater because of their many languages, because so far as any tongue dominates it is one to which the words democracy and liberty are essentially foreign, and because of the extreme difficulty of imposing upon such a heterogeneous mass the English speech, without which the American spirit and our free and secure civilization can hardly be conveyed in a thousand years. Great as this burden is, it has been appointed for us. Our national situation and character made it necessary. It has come without our seeking, and in what must be deemed to be the logical progress of the life of the world and the natural unfolding of the plan of the Almighty. We will articulate with any such advance and accept our part in any such plan. Under such conditions nothing is impossible. Conquest for the sake of empire is repugnant to the thought of the men and women of this country who settle things. It is repugnant because it is idle and because it is wicked. So, too, is any refusal to bear the nation's proper part in the progress of the world. The indefinite continuance under our sovereignty of millions of people who can not share in our sovereignty, without our trying to develop them so that they may have a share in it, would be abhorrent to us, also. We are not accustomed to mere dependencies. Inferior or subordinate peoples are anomalous under our political system. But there are some things we will not do. We will not cast them away because we can not see the end. We will not, for a mess of pottage, trade them with some other nation which has no such outlook or mission as we have come to have in the world. Neither will we enter upon another experiment of enfranchising millions before they can, without danger to themselves and us, carry some part of the burden of governing the world. We will not give them independence until they can be independent. When that time comes it is doubtful if they will want it, but if they do, and their independence will not menace us, they should have it. The question is not the one which confronted us in 1865. But we have nothing to do with that now. The business of the hour is to develop the industrial habits and the moral sense and the political wisdom of these people so that they may be safely admitted into our sovereignty, or may be able to exercise sovereignty and independence of their own. That we must do, or prove that it is impossible, or dishonor ourselves. We may well believe that our island dependencies are not temporary responsibilities; not passing episodes in our history. We shall have them for a long time after the novelty of the matter has worn off. There seems no reason for confidence that many of the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands will be ready for the rights of American citizenship or for independence in the present generation. Therefore, the courses we pursue must anticipate a long run. Millions of the people we are thinking about live in houses that are not worth five dollars each even if you are in the market for shacks. The clothes they wear have not taxed their energy or ingenuity overmuch. The food they eat grows without their help, in untilled fields or in the waters. Neither their sports nor their missionary activities are costly. Every Moro carries a murderous knife — and often they have more wives than knives. Without any knowledge of balanced rights and obligations, they pass their time in loafing and smoking and fishing and cock-fighting, and these occupations are not conducive to such knowledge. In many ways they are without the physical, intellectual and moral qualities found in the American Indian before contaminated by the worthless camp followers of white civilization. It is not said, of course, that this is true of all, or of nearly all, but it is true of millions of the new peoples who have come under our care. We may well know the worst as well as the best of it. We must be cautious about the reports of officials and workers who are enthusiastic over good works done at single points on the edge of things, as well as about the reports of travelers who get only superficial views and are skeptical about all humanitarian undertakings. The conference may well emphasize the fact that the United States can not hope to gain any strength or any wealth from such possessions as these. They can bring us nothing but care, expense and responsibility. If, in all good conscience, we do not know that we have a heavy task upon our hands, it would be better if we were out of it. If our generosity, our interest in extending civilization, and our confidence in the power of democratic government to bear its part in the conduct of the world, are not equal to the task, we may better turn back before we come to the point where we will incur greater humiliation. If we do understand that, and if there is fiber in our character and substance in our professions, we can not turn back. But the real situation and the theories which must determine what we are to do can not be too often impressed upon the common sentiment of the country. The point of equipoise between administration from Washington and administration at Manila and Honolulu and Havana and San Juan is an interesting point which it is very desirable for us to locate. The moral sense of our wards will be developed or blunted by what happens at the official points of contact between us. The sense of justice, the outlook and purposes, the patience and forbearance, the evenness and steadiness and firmness of the civil and military representatives of the United States will have much |