Deseret Evening News

THE FILIPINOS.

The Filipinos have voted for delegates to a native legislature. This is to consist of two houses—the Philippine commission, whose members are appointed by the President of the United States, and the Philippine Assembly, to which eighty-one delegates have been chosen.

Five years ago Congress provided for the election of a Philippine Assembly. The first step was the taking of a census of the civilized Filipinos who were to receive the right of representation. The number of male adults who could both read and write in any language was 539,749, only about one-third of the males of voting age. But the registration for the legislative elections reached only about 61,500 in the islands, revealing a surprising indifference or distrust of the new system.

"However that may be," the New York World says, "the United States is now committed to the experiment of allowing the Filipinos to share in making their own laws and of developing their capacity for self-government 'after the manner of the really free peoples.' Only by patience and tact can the pledges so often repeated since the conquest of the islands be redeemed. Whatever the Assembly may attempt to do, legislation may be controlled from Washington. The Governor-General and the majority of the Philippine Commission will remain Americans. Our Imperialists, who so long proclaimed the unfitness of the Filipinos for self-rule, may restrain their fears that the islands will pass under native control while flattering themselves for their benevolence in admitting the Filipinos to partial political privileges."