BISHOP BRENT'S ADDRESS

The Rt. Rev. Charles H. Brent, D.D., Bishop of the Phillippine Islands, spoke last evening in the Fogg Lecture Room on "Phillippine Affairs."

No one has yet any right to speak with authority, said Bishop Brent, as to what our policy in regard to the Phillippine Islands should be. We must weigh carefully what people conversant with Phillippine conditions tell us, but should await further developments before coming to a final conclusion. There are two reasons why we should become united with the islanders,--first, because as Americans we are in a great measure responsible for them, and second, because by becoming more closely allied with them we can more easily stretch out a Christian hand to aid them.

Time alone will decide whether the American nation is entangled in something it should get out of, or whether it has been caught by that great river of progress which overwhelms those who try to oppose it. Dr. Brent considers that the latter view is the more likely to benefit the race at large. No one can look at the Eastern question at the present time without seeing what an excellent opportunity America has to unite Eastern and Western civilization.

The population of the Phillippines consists mostly of strangely diversified Malay races. The Phillippine language has twelve main dialects, with only one hundred words in common. There is absolutely no literature, and ninety per cent of the people neither read nor write. The people have no national consciousness, although racial consciousness is strong. Americans are desirous of giving justice and liberty to the Phillippines, but they must not think that a tropical people, inclined to be indolent, and whose only conception of rule is oriental tyranny, can immediately appreciate modern democracy.