We have now learned something of the different islands of the Philippine archipelago and of the possibilities that lie in them. Much has been done in the past to make this country a source of income to the Spanish crown; much, however, remains to be done, to make of the islands a country whose prosperity shall help the people themselves.

The wealth of a country is not to be estimated by the amount of its exports, or by the number of its great buildings, fine harbors, or splendid cities. A nation may have all of these while the people themselves are poor. The United States is a great and rich nation, not because of the value of its national possessions, but because the great mass of the people are fairly well off. There can be no real prosperity in a country unless the people themselves share it; there can be no just government if that government is considered as something apart from the people. The people must have a part in it before it can be a good government.

But before a people can take any real part in the government of a civilized land, they must understand something of the principles on which good government is based. They must know something of the world’s history and of the government of other countries. They must have a common language, and must be a united people, all ready to work for the common good. That country can never prosper which is divided by a feeling of race difference, or by jealousies that make hard feeling among its people.

It is because the United States has learned these things by experience that it has opened public schools in the Philippine Islands. It seeks to have all the people learn English, because only by means of a common language can the Americans and the Filipinos come to understand one another; only by means of such a language can the different peoples among the Philippines come into real harmony.

The time is coming, too, when English will be the language of the whole commercial world. Already the people of other great countries know that they must learn to speak it for business uses, and it is taught as a matter of course in most of the schools of Europe.

A people must have even more than a common language, common interests, and modern education, to become a prosperous people. Not only must men be wise enough to take part in their own government, but they must have control of the trades and industries and commercial ventures of their own land. So long as the commercial business of a country is almost wholly carried on by foreigners, that country will never become rich. It is not meant by this that foreigners should not be allowed to do business in the country; that is an idea which belongs to dark ages of the world’s history. But there should be no need for them in the country. The people should have such patriotic pride in the welfare of their own land as to conduct its business themselves.

Nevertheless, wherever there is a demand for anything in the commercial world, there will surely, in time, be a supply. There must be merchants in the Philippine Islands. There must be tradesmen, artisans, mechanics, workers in wood, iron, and leather, and followers of the arts and crafts known to civilization. If the Filipino people do not take up these lines of work, and carry them out well and wisely, outsiders will come in and monopolize them. They have already come to the archipelago. Moreover, they will continue to come, from China and Japan, from India and Ceylon, and from all the countries of Europe, if the people of the country do not themselves learn to take their places. So long as the foreigners are here, there will be nothing for the native people to do but to work as laborers, or as clerks and servants.

The great resource of the Philippine Islands must always be agriculture. When modern methods of farming are adopted here, and modern machinery has taken the place of the wooden implements and the out-of-date tools now in use; when we have large sugar mills and refineries in place of the small and primitive ones now here, we shall see great progress made.

With peace in the country, and good government making every man secure in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, farm work will be very different here. Nearly the entire population of the archipelago ought then to draw a good living from the land. When all the good land is brought under cultivation, the crops raised in the islands ought to increase tenfold over what are now grown.

Before much can be accomplished, however, a great deal of government work must be carried out. This the Americans have in view; already some millions of dollars have been set aside by the civil government to make roads, harbors, and bridges, and for public works of many sorts in the archipelago. A day of hope seems opening, not merely for the Americans to whom the task has fallen of carrying on the work, but for the whole Filipino people. They and the Americans must work together to bring the promises of this day into full fruitage.

No word about the islands can be complete unless it touches upon the wonderful beauty of this country. This is a great part of the good inheritance of the people. It ought to quicken the pleasure and pride of every Filipino in his beautiful land. Its lofty mountains, its lovely plains and noble rivers, the rich verdure that clothes the country, all go to make up beautiful pictures everywhere. There is much that can and must be done to make the cities and towns more fit and beautiful places for people to live in; but for the outside country nature has done great things.

The banana plants and the nipa and cocoanut palms are beautiful as well as useful. So are the great mango trees and the fields of growing rice. In all nature there is nothing more graceful than the giant bamboos that grow by every stream. Their beauty is of a very perfect sort. This plant does more than delight the eye; of all tropical growths it is the most useful to man. In a little composition which was written by a Chinese schoolboy in his own country, a fine account is given of the many uses to which the bamboo can be put. He says:

“We have a bamboo hedge in our grounds, and nothing could be better. I am writing with a bamboo-handled pencil; I have seen bamboo masts on vessels. On the whole, the bamboo is one of the most precious possessions of China. Its tapering stalks supply joists for houses, ribs for sails, shafts for spars, tubes and buckets for water, fishing-rods, and the handles and ribs of our fans. The great bamboo, split, makes an excellent roof. Rafts are made of the bamboo; baskets are woven of it. The Chinaman sits in a bamboo chair at a bamboo table; and he may rest himself, in the heat of the day, beneath the bamboo tree, with a bamboo hat upon his head. When I have been all about the edges of the world, and have seen all kinds of strange people, I ask nothing better than to come back home and sit under the shade of a bamboo veranda, and when my life is finished, to go to heaven from a bamboo bed.”

To how many other uses than even these do the Filipino people put bamboo! They make the sails of ships from it; they build bridges of it; boats, rafts, water-pipes, scaffolds for building houses, and all kinds of baskets and furniture. Indeed this plant, with the India rubber plant and the bijuca, would enable almost any Filipino to build and furnish a house that would answer all the needs of the climate.

We have now studied the main facts in the history of these islands. The Story of the Philippines has many sad chapters, but there need be no more such. The Filipino people have been patient under trial. They have been forbearing through much injustice and misrule. They have been brave and patriotic always. Now we may hope that a new day has dawned upon the land. What this day will bring forth depends, to a great extent, upon the Filipino boys and girls who are now growing up. They must learn to be good citizens. They must be able, when they are men and women, to take a wise part in governing the country.

The night before José Rizal was shot, he said to a friend: “What is death to me? I have sown; others are left to reap.”

Rizal would have been glad to see this new day. He would have been glad to see schoolhouses opening everywhere in the country, for he knew that knowledge is power. The seeds which he helped to sow are those of liberty, justice, and peace. The Filipino people must be wise enough to cherish these seeds into strong, healthy growth. If they do this the country will surely reap the harvest which he foresaw, of peaceful days, full of hope and happiness.