He was profoundly appreciative
of all the good that Spain had done, but saw in this no inconsistency
with the desire that this gratitude might be given cause to be ever
on the increase, thereby uniting the Philippines with the mother
country by the firm bonds of common ideas and interests, for his
earlier writings breathe nothing but admiration, respect, and loyalty
for Spain and her more advanced institutions. The issue was clear to
him and he tried to keep it so.
It was indeed administrative myopia, induced largely by blind greed,
which allowed the friar orders to confuse the objections to their
repressive system with an attack upon Spanish sovereignty, thereby
dragging matters from bad to worse, to engender ill feeling and finally
desperation. This narrow, selfish policy had about as much soundness
in it as the idea upon which it was based, so often brought forward
with what looks very suspiciously like a specious effort to cover
mental indolence with a glittering generality, "that the Filipino is
only a grown-up child and needs a strong paternal government," an idea
which entirely overlooks the natural fact that when an impressionable
subject comes within the influence of a stronger force from a higher
civilization he is very likely to remain a child--perhaps a stunted
one--as long as he is treated as such.
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