The Indolence of the Filipino

A hot, climate requires of the individual quiet and rest, just as
cold incites to labor and action. For this reason the Spaniard is
more indolent than the Frenchman; the Frenchman more so than the
German. The Europeans themselves who reproach the residents of the
colonies so much (and I am not now speaking of the Spaniards but of
the Germans and English themselves), how do they live in tropical
countries? Surrounded by a numerous train of servants, never going
afoot but riding in a carriage, needing servants not only to take
off their shoes for them but even to fan them! And yet they live and
eat better, they work for themselves to get rich, with the hope of
a future, free and respected, while the poor colonist, the indolent
colonist, is badly nourished, has no hope, toils for others, and
works under force and compulsion! Perhaps the reply to this will be
that white men are not made to stand the severity of the climate. A
mistake! A man can live in any climate, if he will only adapt himself
to its requirements and conditions. What kills the European in hot
countries is the abuse of liquors, the attempt to live according to
the nature of his own country under another sky and another sun. We
inhabitants of hot countries live well in northern Europe whenever
we take the precautions the people there do. Europeans can also stand
the torrid zone, if only they would get rid of their prejudices. (2)
The fact is that in tropical countries violent work is not a good
thing as it is in cold countries, there it is death, destruction,
annihilation. Nature knows this and like a just mother has therefore
made the earth more fertile, more productive, as a compensation. An
hour’s work under that burning sun, in the midst of pernicious
influences springing from nature in activity, is equal to a day’s
work in a temperate climate; it is, then, just that the earth yield
a hundred fold! Moreover, do we not see the active European, who has
gained strength during the winter, who feels the fresh blood of spring
boil in his veins, do we not see him abandon his labors during the
few days of his variable summer, close his office–where the work
is not violent and amounts for many to talking and gesticulating in
the shade and beside a lunch-stand,–flee to watering places, sit
in the cafes or stroll about? What wonder then that the inhabitant
of tropical countries, worm out and with his blood thinned by the
continuous and excessive heat, is reduced to inaction? Who is the
indolent one in the Manila offices? Is it the poor clerk who comes
in at eight in the morning and leaves at, one in the afternoon with
only his parasol, who copies and writes and works for himself and
for his chief, or is it the chief, who comes in a carriage at ten
o’clock, leaves before twelve, reads his newspaper while smoking and
with is feet cocked up on a chair or a table, or gossiping about all
his friends? Which is indolent, the native coadjutor, poorly paid
and badly treated, who has to visit all the indigent sick living in
the country, or the friar curate who gets fabulously rich, goes about
in a carriage, eats and drinks well, and does not put himself to any
trouble without collecting excessive fees? [3]

Without speaking further of the Europeans, in what violent labor does
the Chinaman engage in tropical countries, the industrious Chinaman,
who flees from his own country driven by hunger and want, and whose
whole ambition is to amass a small fortune? With the exception of some
porters, an occupation that the natives also follow, he nearly always
engages in trade, in commerce; so rarely does he take up agriculture
that we do not know of a single case. The Chinaman who in other
colonies cultivates the soil does so only for a certain number of
years and then retires. [4]

We find, then, the tendency to indolence very natural, and have to
admit and bless it, for we cannot alter natural laws, and without
it the race would have disappeared. Man is not a brute, he is not
a, machine; his object is not merely to produce, in spite of the
pretensions of some Christian whites who would make of the colored
Christian a kind of motive power somewhat more intelligent and less
costly than steam. Man’s object is not to satisfy tile passions of
another man, his object is to seek happiness for himself and his kind
by traveling along the road of progress and perfection.

The evil is not that indolence exists more or less latently but that
it is fostered and magnified. Among men, as well as among nations,
there exist not only aptitudes but also tendencies toward good and
evil. To foster the good ones and aid them, as well as correct the
evil and repress them, would be the duty of society and governments,
if less noble thoughts did not occupy their attention. The evil is
that the indolence in the Philippines is a magnified indolence, an
indolence of the snowball type, if we may be permitted the expression,
an evil that increases in direct proportion to the square of the
periods of time, an effect of misgovernment and of backwardness,
as we said, and not a cause thereof. Others will hold the contrary
opinion, especially those who have a hand in the misgovernment, but
we do not care; we have made an assertion and are going to prove it.

II

When in consequence of a long chronic illness the condition of the
patient is examined, the question may arise whether the weakening
of the fibers and the debility of the organs are the cause of the
malady’s continuing or the effect of the bad treatment that prolongs
its action. The attending physician attributes the entire failure of
his skill to the poor constitution of the patient, to the climate, to
the surroundings, and so on. On the other hand, the patient attributes
the aggravation of the evil to the system of treatment followed. Only
the common crowd, the inquisitive populace, shakes its head and cannot
reach a decision.