George Ade’s Critique of

Benevolent Assimilation”

PERRY E. GIANAKOS

Although literary figures like Mark Twain and William Dean Howells
played leading roles in the anti-imperialist movement of the 1890s, many
writers of popular fiction supported overseas expansion. ’ These authors wrote
for commercial audiences and produced what the public wanted. Apparently
believing that Americans supported the acquisition of overseas territory, they
showered the public with poems, short stories, novels (including ones for
children), and nickel and dime novels all singing the praises of the new
American heroes and hailing their expansionist policy. While a student at
Columbia University at the beginning of the Spanish-American War, for
example, Upton Sinclair wrote two nickel and dime novels a week. During
1898 he published at least sixty-three novels, all of which celebrated the war.’

*An earlier version of this paper was presented at the California American Studies Associ-
ation meeting in Berkeley, September 1980.
’Fred Harvey Hanington, “Literary Aspects of Anti-Imperialism, 1898-1902,” New Eng-
land Quarterly 10 (1937): 650-67, surveys the antiexpansionist writings of leading literary
figures. For a much-needed updating of Harrington, see Roger J. Bresnahan, In Time ofHesitation:
American Anti-Zmperialists and the Philippine-American War (Quezon City, 1981). This is an
edited anthology of anti-imperialist writings, including selections from all major literary figures.
Bresnahan provides a comprehensive introduction to the major anti-imperialist writers of the
period. The excerpt from George Ade’s “The Sultan of Sulu” provides an excellent example of
Ade’s approach in this first attempt at a Gilbert and Sullivan type operetta.
*On the connection between fiction and popular tastes, see Henry Bamford Parkes, “The
Metamorphoses of Leatherstocking,” in Philip Rahv, ed., Literature in America (New York,
1957), pp. 4 3 1 4 5 ; and Mary Noel, Villains Galore: The Heyday of the Popular Story Weekly
(New York, 1954), pp. 1-2.
Under the pseudonym “Ensign Clark Fitch,” Sinclair produced at least twenty-nine nickel
novels for Street & Smith’s “True Blue” series; as Douglas Wells he produced at least eighteen
nickel novels for Street & Smith’s “Stany Flag” series; and using both pseudonyms he produced
at least seventeen dime novels for the same publisher’s “Columbia Library.” Most of these are
to be found in the Dime Novel Collection, Library of Congress.
The author examined approximately three hundred separate literary productions: short
stones, hardcover adult novels, juvenile novels, nickel and dime novels, and poetry. Most of
this material is concerned with the Cuban campaign, but of the material dealing with the Philippine-
American War (then called the F’ilipino Insurrection) all, with the exception of several novels

223
224 DIPLOMATIC HISTORY

Not all popular writers, however, endorsed expansion. Among the oppo-
nents were two midwestern humorist-journalists: Finley Peter Dunne, whose
fabulous “Mr. Dooley” kept up a running commentary on the foibles of the
politicians and military leaders’;’ and the less well-known George Ade, whose
“Stories of ‘Benevolent Assimilation”’-until now uncollected and buried in
the files of the defunct Chicago R e c o r d 4 e l d up to ridicule the pious claims
of the expansionist^:^ Ade’s “The Sultan of Sulu,” which enjoyed a successful
eleven-week Broadway run in 1903, and his “The Sho-Gun of Kachoo” (1904)
remain the only readily available Ade critiques of American expansionist
policy. But neither of these works is as comprehensive and as pointed in its
criticism of American policy as his “Stories of ‘Benevolent Assimilation.’ ”

As antiexpansionist documents, they merit attention because of their double-

barreled attack on the political and cultural implications of the policy. Neither
Fred C. Kelly nor Lee Coyle, Ade’s biographers, have dealt with these stories,
though Kelly acknowledges them as the basis for “The Sultan of Sulu.’*
President William McKinley’s pious moralizing that it was the duty of
America to “uplift, civilize and Christianize” the Filipinos presented an irresist-
ible invitation to the satirist. And while Twain attacked the policy with passion
and barely suppressed rage, Ade opted for the humorous approach, ridiculing
the claims of the expansionists and exposing them as absurdities. Unlike his
fellow humorist, Dunne, whose stories were single episodes complete in
themselves with established characters, Ade serialized his story after the
fashion of serious magazine novelists. Ade was also unique in that he was
the only popular writer successfully to employ the comic musical drama to
poke fun at American policy.
As Kelly aptly describes him, however, Ade was a “warmhearted
satirist.” While his favorite target was American pretentiousness, he never
aimed to hurt or inflict pain. First and foremost a realist, he viewed the human
comedy with genial eyes. As Kelly notes, Ade wished to be known as a
“realist with a compact style and a clean Anglo-Saxon vocabulary and the
courage to observe human virtues and frailties as they showed on the lens.”6

and stories--those of Finley Peter Dunne and George Ade-depict the American effort favorably.
See my “The Yanko-Spank0 War:Our War with Spain in American Fiction” (Ph.D. diss., New
York University. 1961).
’Dunne’s war pieces have been collected in M r . Dooley in Peace and War (Boston,
1899); and Mr. Dooley in the Hearts of His Counnymen (Boston, 1899).
‘Ade’s “Stories of ‘Benevolent Assimilation”’ appeared weekly in the Chicago Record
from 8 July to 18 October 1899, each bearing a different subtitle.
Stuart Creighton Miller, “BenevolentAssimilation”: The American Conquest of the Philip-
pines. 1899-1903 (Yale, 1982). p. 117, includes Ade in a list of writers opposing the American
Philippine policy. Miller’s spotcheck of the Chicago Record unfortunately failed to disclose the
Ade stories.
’Fred C. Kelly. George A&: Warmhearted Satirist (Indianapolis, 1947), p. 163: Lee
Coyle, George A& (New York, 1964). p. 55. Coyle reports that Ade’s “The Sultan of Sulu”
played 192 performances during New York’s 1902-3 season. Only 2 of the 204 plays produced
during the season outran Ade’s first Broadway success.
‘Kelly, George Ade, p. 110.
BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION 225

His characters could be cynical or absurd, but they were always human,
recognizable, and invariably funny. Behind the comedian, though, as H. L.
Mencken observed, “there always stood the moralist.’” Mencken probably
never saw these antiexpansionist stories, but his tribute to Ade’s “fables” is
eminently appropriate: “Here the veritable American stands forth, lacking not
a waggery, a superstition, a snuffle or a wen.’’8
The famous Ade style, most fully developed in the fables, was as
important to Ade’s success as was the subject matter of his humor. His unique
style captured the public’s fancy not only because it so clearly meshed with
his humorous intent, but also because it successfully mimicked the public
vernacular. This distinctive blending of target and style made for instant
popularity. Coyle succinctly sums up the stylistic elements which made for
success: “Ade’s sentences are lean and supple; his images are impudent exag-
gerations of the commonplace; his precision in word-choice, excellent; his
timing, superb; his caricatures, sharp and vital; his communication, clear; and
his message, ~nmistakable.”~ Ade’s style clearly marks him as a midwestern
humorist, revealing at the same time his early love affair with the writings
of Twain and securing for him a place among that venerable tribe of midwestern-
frontier humorists that preceded him. Ade not only successfully transplanted
the rural-frontier humorous style to the new industrial milieu, but also in his
antiexpansionist stories, he successfully transplanted it to the Philippine
Islands.”
Since 1893, Ade had been writing “Stories of the Streets and of the
Town,” a column for the Chicago Record. This was a miscellany, generally
featuring Chicago local color and other stories on topical issues. In one of
these stories, published in March 1899 after McKinley’s program of benevolent
assimilation for the Philippines had been announced, Ade took his first stab
at the expansionist sentiment.” It is written in the form of a dialogue between
a father and his son. The young student has been given a school assignment
to learn something about “benevolent assimilation” and the Filipinos. Through
this innocent boy, Ade posed a series of embarrassing questions which the
father manfully attempts to answer. Ade’s critique of the administration’s
action was implicit in the flimsy answers which the somewhat flustered father
gives his son. In later stories, Ade used the same Socratic technique, employing
a series of Filipino questioners to expand his critique.
When Ade published this first attack on the expansionists in March
1899, he knew little or nothing about Filipino life and culture. But by 9 July,
when his weekly series of “Stories of ‘Benevolent Assimilation”’ began, he
had gained sufficient knowledge about the Philippines from the dispatches of

’H. L. Mencken, Prejudices, I (New York, 1919), p. 120.

‘lbid.
9Coyle, George Ade, p. 41.
“Ade stands apart from his contemporary Dunne in this respect. Dunne’s humor derives
from Chicago’s ethnic Irish urban neighborhood.
”‘Stories of the Streets and of the Town,” Chicago Record, 2 March 1899.
226 DIPLOMATIC HISTORY

his friend John T. McCutcheon, then a Record reporter on the islands, to

make the stories believable. Consequently, while the Filipino background of
the stories is credible enough to serve his purpose, today it would not pass
anthropological muster, nor should we expect it. Ade’s stories were for an
American audience. Actually, what Ade appears to have done in his stories
is to transfer the familiar midwestern milieu to a Filipino setting, for his
Filipino characters think and act like the agrarian democrats Ade knew back
home in Indiana. It is not surprising, therefore, to hear from the Filipino
characters all of the political arguments of the anti-imperialists, albeit now
passed through the alembic of the plain-talking Indiana democrat. Though
reflecting the anthropological naivete of his day, Ade-and hence his readers-
had no difficulty in recognizing that the Filipinos possessed sufficient common
“hoss sense” and patriotism to see through the duplicity of the Americans and
to resent the hypocrisy of the expansionist argument.
While each story can be. read as a separate sketch, collectively they
detail the activities of Washington Conner, “a traveling representative of the
civilization of the United States of America and advocate of benevolent assimi-
lation.” The familiar eastern or big city “con-man’’ who looms large in mid-
western humor, Conner is from Ohio, President McKinley’s home state, and
the implications of his name are unmistakable. He has been sent to the Philip-
pines to civilize the Kakyak family: father Bulalo Kakyak and his wife Luneta;
sons Francisco, age twenty, and Patricio, age eight; and a daughter Eulalie,
age eighteen. They are described as Filipino agriculturists and live on the
main island of Luzon.” Of the Tagal linguistic group, they are often referred
to in the stories as Tagalos instead of Filipinos. This insistence on the Tagalo
identity was an administration ploy to deny the reality of a national Filipino
identity.”
Ade’s attack on the expansionist philosophy is broad and all-encompassing.
In addition to satirizing the obvious contradictions in the political arguments,
he held up to ridicule the cultural implications of a program of benevolent
assimilation. Ade brilliantly anticipated the now generally accepted idea that
alien cultures cannot be successfully imposed on subject peoples. The Amer-
ican way of life cannot be exported, and, as the late Professor J. H. McKee
of Purdue University has pointed out, “the Filipinos cannot be turned into
Asian carbon copies of American democrats.”’4
Conner, however, arrives at the Kakyak rural home with totally different
assumptions. Like Paphnutius in Anatole France’s Thais, Conner has all the

”“The Missionary Arrives,” Chicago Record. 8 July 1899.

”See Richard E. Welch, Jr., Response to Imperialism: The United States and the
Philippine-American War, 1855-1902 (Chapel Hill, 1979), p. 59.
“In a conversation with the author. During his emeritus years, Professor McKee organized
the Ade material at Purdue University-Ade’s alma mater-and published a number of journalistic
accounts of his discoveries. Surprisingly, he found few of Ade’s “Stories of ‘Benevolent Assimi-
lation”’ in the collection. For confirmation of McKee’s observation, see Glenn Anthony May,
Social Engineering in the Philippines: The A i m , Execution. and Impact of American Colonial
Policy, 1900-1913 (Westport, CT,1980). p. xvii.
BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION 221

zeal of the true believer and is totally committed to the administration’s

program.” Quickly introducing himself to the Kakyak family, he explains his
mission:
My name is Washington Conner and I am an agent, or a missionary you
might say, representing the United States of America. No doubt you and
the members of your family are aware of the fact that you are now citizens
of the biggest and grandest republic on earth. As a matter of fact, you’re
not exactly citizens, but you are under our protecting care, and if you’re
not happy, it’s because you don’t know a good thing when you see it.I6
When Mr. Kakyak interrupts him and in passing makes reference to
Filipino “insurgents,” Conner quickly corrects him. They are not “insurgents,”
but “rebels.” Later Conner is forced to clarify what for him is a subtle but
important distinction. Those Filipinos who aided the Americans against the
Spaniards were “insurgent patriots,” but those who now resist the Americans
are “rebels”:
If your countrymen are fighting the United States it is because they do
not appreciate the blessings and advantages with which our government
would endow this island. . . . As soon as this war is over we are going
to start in and civilize all those who haven’t been killed. . . . An abiding
peace seems to be near at hand. Therefore, the government which I have
the honor to represent thinks it is time to begin the great work of benevolent
assimilation. I am here to explain to you the merits of the philanthropic
plan for making all of you just as civilized as I am.”
Americans are a benevolent people, explains Conner, who have, as he
puts it, “a disposition to do good to others and make them happy.” This is
to be done through a process of assimilation, which he describes as “the act
of bringing to a resemblance, likeness or identity.” Therefore the Kakyaks
are to be instructed in all the details of American civilization. As Conner
quaintly phrases it: “We love you; therefore we are going to put before you
certain examples and precepts to enable you to become similar to us.” To the
continued protestations of the Kakyaks, Conner offers up the expansionist
rationale, employing the phrase recently provided by Rudyard Kipling. Along
with most Americans of his day, Conner missed the real importance of the
Kipling poem. l 8
These islands have fallen into our hands, or at any rate they will fall into
our hands as soon as we get enough troops here to conquer all of them,
and it occurs to us that we have been designated by a wise Providence

I5I am indebted to Filipinophile Morton J. Netzorg of The Cellar Book Shop, Detroit,
for pointing out this similarity.
“The Missionary Amves,” Chicago Record.
”bid.
‘*See Albert K . Weinberg, Manifest Destiny: A Study of Nationalist Expansionism in
American Hisrory (Baltimore, 1935), pp. 301-3. “Kipling did not warn against taking up the
burden, but merely against the hope that it would do the heathen much good.”
228 DIPLOMATIC HISTORY

to take charge of you simple-minded islanders and educate you. You are
the white man’s burden.’’
To those who object, Conner suggests that they “take to the jungle,”
warning that this is not the first time Americans have tried assimilation:
“We’ve assimilated Indians, Mexicans, and Chinamen, to say nothing of
several millions of negroes, and when anyone of them hung back, I’ll tell
you, it went hard with him.”” Because Kakyak is a peaceful man, he agrees
to allow Conner to have his way, but Eulalie’s questions persist: “Why should
not the Tagalos be permitted to seek happiness in their own way, without
guidance or intervention of peoples living thousands of miles away?”*’
Without attempting to disguise the facts of the case, Conner bluntly
tells her that the Filipinos have become American subjects as the result of
what he calls “a very adroit business deal with the Spanish government,” and
the U.S. government desires-as the myth of the White Man’s Burden
enjoins-that “the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands should become gentle
and temperate and humane and well-behaved, the same as all people in the
United States.” The Tagalos, who admittedly can read and write, have schools
and churches, love good music, print their own books, and have a capacity
of self-government, should be the last to resist American authority. Yet, even
though they have the rudiments of “culture” and should therefore understand,
they have “resisted the philanthropic efforts of the United States, while the
Sultan of Sulu, who was a polygamous bushwhacker, had shown much better
judgment, for he had embraced the new civilization and had become a shining
advocate at a salary of $12,000 a year.”22
The most damning critique of the expansionists’ political arguments
comes in the ninth story of the series.23Conner has unfortunately given Mr.
Kakyak an American history book to read, and the old man immediately sees
parallels between the Filipino fight for freedom and the American R e v o l ~ t i o n . ~ ~
It is only with great difficulty that Conner is able to answer Kakyak, for, as
Ade so succinctly put it, “Mr. Kakyak could not grasp the fundamental truth
that a white man is necessarily superior in all particulars to a man with a
brown covering.”
Kakyak first asks whether Americans still believe in the natural rights
doctrine as set forth in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.

““The Family Decides to Assimilate.” Chicago Record, 5 July 1899.

‘qbid.
’‘“Eulalie and the Stranger,” Chicago Record. 12 August 1899.
”Ibid. Unable and unwilling to win the Moro Sultan’s allegiance by military action, the
pragmatic Americans solved the problem by putting the Sultan on the army’s payroll. notwithstand-
ing the fact that the Moros practiced polygamy and slavery. See Lt. Horace M. Reeve, U . S . A . ,
“The Sulu Islands,” The Independenr 51 (21 December 1899): 3413-16.
”“Two Rebellions.” Chicago Record, 2 September 1899.
’This argument. among others, appeared in the Philippine memorial justifying indepen-
dence, which Felipe Agoncillo presented to Secretary of State John Hay in January 1899 before
hostilities began. See Welch, Response 10 Imperiafism, p. 23, n. 37.
BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION 229

“Nothing,” replies Conner, “contained in that declaration of indepen-

dence applies to the Malay division of the human race. That declaration was
prepared by white men.”
“Then it should read,” says Kakyak, “‘All men [except Malay] are
created equal,’ or perhaps ‘all white men are created equal.”’
Conner reluctantly concedes that for a great many years that is what it
did mean, but, he says, “Abraham Lincoln claimed that the word ‘men’ had
a more general application and included negroes as well. But we have never
admitted that the Tagalo has these rights, if that’s what you’re driving at?’
When Kakyak draws a parallel between the present situation of the
Filipinos and that of the American colonists, Conner rejects the analogy,
pointing to the long train of abuses justifying revolution set forth in the
American declaration. The Tagalos, on the other hand, he observes, “are
resisting a government which is to be wise, humane and just, with charity
for all.”
“And how do we know this?’ asks Kakyak.
“Because we tell you so,” replies the smug American.
Good student that he is, Kakyak is not so easily put off. He notes that
France helped the colonists just as the Americans had helped the Filipinos in
their revolt against Spain. “Now, suppose,” he continues, “that before the
British had been driven from the colonies Great Britain and France had made
a treaty in which Great Britain, in consideration of a large sum of money,
had transferred the colonies to France. Do you think the colonists would have
accepted French rule simply because the French had been their friends during
the war?’
Flustered by this homely but impeccable logic, Conner parries the ques-
tion by casting doubt upon the legitimacy of the Filipino cause: “You seem
to forget that the colonial fathers were an intelligent, high-minded body of
patriots, while the Tagalos are simple islanders who have a vague longing to
govern themselves and mistake this longing for genuine patriotism.”
When Kakyak counters that a great many Filipinos have been willing
to die for the idea, Conner loses his patience, suggesting that Kakyak’s
arguments “border very closely on treason.”
“Perhaps so,” says Kakyak, resignedly, “I have become rather inflamed
from reading the declaration of independence.”
Desperate now, Conner resorts to another of the expansionists’ argu-
ments, namely, that the Tagalos are only one of the tribes on the islands, and
that other tribes have willingly embraced American rule. Kakyak remains
unmoved, reminding Conner that the Tagalos number one and one-half million,
and the American colonists were only three million. Almost gleefully he
agrees with Conner that the American colonists were “different,” because, as
he says, “they held slaves. We are too civilized to do that.” As for those who
have embraced American rule, they are the “bow men who live in the remote
jungles ,” and they are behaving the way the American Indians behaved during
the American Revolution. “If I am not mistaken,” says Kakyak, “they helped
230 DIPLOMATIC HISTORY

the British on more than one occasion, and massacred whole villages of the
rebels-I mean the colonists.”
Conner dismisses all these parallels to the American Revolution, falling
back on the original American argument-the right of conquest-and asks
Kakyak to consider seriously whether he believes that the Americans who
destroyed the Spanish fleet and then paid $20,000,000 are going to let the
Filipinos govern themselves.
“That’s what the Filipinos thought,” Kakyak says, “but they were
deceived.”
“Mistaken, you mean,” says Conner.
Undaunted by this bit of American sophistry, Kakyak reminds him that
the Filipinos had the impression that the Americans had come to help drive
out the Spanish so that the Filipinos could set up their own government. Some
Filipinos were skeptical, to be sure, but Emilio Aguinaldo and others who
had talked with the Americans assured them that the war against Spain was
a war of “humanity,”*’ and that the Americans had entered into it because
they believed in the rights of men and could no longer endure the spectacle
of Spanish cruelties in Cuba:
They believed that the Americans were willing to spend any amount of
money to enforce justice and convey the blessings of liberty on a struggling
people. We knew that your countrymen were pledged to drive the Spanish
out of Cuba and help the Cubans to establish a stable government of their
own. We thought you would treat us the same as you have treated the
Cubans. . . . We thought that your conscience might help you to a
conclusion.
Conner counters this appeal to American altruism by repeating the now
shopworn argument that the Americans paid $20,000,000 for the islands. He
adds for good measure: “Do you expect a business nation to go to work and
throw away any such sum of money? You may rest assured that we will keep
these islands. . . .”
After the war is over, Kakyak asks, will not the Americans relent and
allow the Filipinos to govern themselves? Conner’s answer exposes the expan-
sionists’ unwillingness to promise even eventual independence. Saying he
does not wish to hold out any false hopes, Conner reads to Kakyak an extract
from President McKinley’s speech at a recent Ocean Grove camp meeting,
an obvious but aborted paraphrase of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural: “Peace
first, then, with charity for all, an established government of law and order,

=Accounts of the negotiations between Aguinaldo and the American consuls in Singapore
and Hong Kong are cloudy, but the Washington authorities were aware that Aguinaldo believed
he had an understanding that the Americans were going to help the Filipinos win their independence
from Spain. See Margaret Leech. In the Days of McKinley (New York, 1959). pp. 283-84. See
also Leon Wolff, Little Brown Brother (Garden City, NY, 1961). pp. 46-54. Wolff‘s account
is mote detailed and makes it unmistakably clear that Aguinaldo was given to understand that
the Americans were to treat the Philippines the same as Cuba-abjuring annexation. See also
Welch, Response to Imperialism, p. 13.
BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION 23 1

protecting life, and property and occupation, for the well-being of the people,
in which they will participate under the stars and stripes.”
“And what does it mean?” asks Kakyak.
“Well,” says Conner, “a true statesman is always indefinite, but as
nearly as I can figure it out it means, ‘You don’t get it.’ Note the word
‘occupation.’ That means that we are going to remain.”
“And the meaning of that word ‘participation’?” wonders Kakyak.
“‘Participation’ is a beautifully copious word. That’s why Mr. McKinley
used it. But it satisfied the people at the camp meeting, so you ought not to
kick.”
When Ade turned from the political to the cultural implications of
benevolent assimilation, few aspects of American life escaped ridicule. Here
the American way of life to be imposed on the Filipinos stood in all its
speckled glory. American snobbery, conspicuous consumption, status seeking,
commercialism, sports, fashion, interior decoration, high culture, society,
and manners were all held up for analysis and ridicule.
Benevolent assimilation means, for example, that the dress of Filipino
women-the product of years of climatic adaptation-is to be abandoned in
favor of the American model. Instead of the cool, loose-fitting garments of
Filipino women, trailing dresses, corsets, and wedding-cake hats are to be
substituted. When Mrs. Kakyak puts on the monstrous hat that Conner has
provided, with its trailing ribbons and feathers, both Eulalie and her mother
explode in unrestrained laughter. Conner hastily admonishes them:
Ladies, it ill becomes you to laugh at a work of art which has been
indorsed by the discriminating taste of our great republic. . . . After
2,000 years of progress and evolution our branch of the Caucasian race
has decided that this hat is the ultimate of propriety and elegance as an
article of adornment for women. . . . Whether you like it or not, Mrs.
Kakyak, you will be expected to wear it. . . . You might as well yield
gracefully. We are determined to carry out our philanthropic plan of
assimilation, and that involves, first of all, the adoption of American
wearing apparel. We want to establish a demand for millinery and tailor-
made dresses over here so that trade may follow the flag.z6
Doubtless this little episode was Ade’s answer to those expansionists who
were emphasizing the commercial component of benevolent assimilation. In
the expansionists’ view, Manila was to replace Hong Kong as the great Asian
trade center.
Both Eulalie and her mother’s smoking habits also must change under
assimilation, for, as Conner tells them, “it is a very disgusting habit for
women.”*’ In fact, he tells Eulalie, “one of our principal objects in taking
possession of these islands was to cure the Tagalo ladies of the tobacco habit.”
When Eulalie asks if women in America smoke, Conner allows that very few

26“TheMissionary Relents,” Chicago Record, 29 July 1899,

27“TheSummer Trip,” Chicago Record, 5 August 1899.
232 DIPLOMATIC HISTORY

of them do. Eulalie wonders if they are held in contempt and loathing. Conner
replies, “well, perhaps they should be, but many of them are very prominent
society ladies, and it doesn’t behoove anyone to hold rhem in contempt and
loathing.” Then why does he scold poor Eulalie and her mother? Addressing
her as a “simple maid of Luzon,” he patiently explains that there is a “subtle
distinction between smoking as a refined luxury and smoking as an elemental
vice, or dissipation.”
To break Eulalie of the offensive habit of chewing betelnut, Conner
offers an American commercial substitute: “If you must chew something,
chew gum.”
“What is gum?’ asks Eulalie.
“Is it possible that you never heard of chewing gum?” he replies, passing
her a stick.
“What do you do with it?’ she wants to know.
“Put it in your mouth and chew it,” he tells her.
“Then do you swallow it?’ asks a puzzled Eulalie.
“Certainly not,” he snaps.
“Just keep on chewing it?’ she asks.
“That’s all,” he says.
Eulalie chews away industriously and then asks: “Do a great many
people in your country chew gum?’
“Do they?’ says Conner. “Why the manufacturers of chewing gum have
made their millions. ”

“But my jaws ache,” complains Eulalie, “and I don’t seem to be

accomplishing anything.”
“Keep at it,” says Conner. “All this comes under the head of
assimilation .”
Several days after Conner has introduced Eulalie to chewing gum, he
overhears her singing an air from “Carmen.”**Complimenting her on her
voice, he then tells the family that he had read that the Tagalos were good
musicians and enjoyed high-class music. That speaks well for them, but
philistine that he is, he argues that “any nation that is too much given to
music doesn’t do very well in a business way.” He continues: “We think it’s
all right as a diversion for women, but an able-bodied man ought to be out
doing something practical. Now if the Spaniards had spent less time playing
the mandolin and more time at target practice we wouldn’t have whipped
them so easily.” Horrified at the implication of his remarks, Eulalie asks if
under assimilation the Americans are going to deprive the Filipinos of their
music. Conner gently reassures her, expressing at the same time the hope
that they will take up American songs.
Francisco, the older brother, speaks up at this point, for he has heard
American soldiers singing and haltingly attempts to repeat the lyrics. Conner
instantly recognizes the song and begins to sing for them “There’ll Be a Hot

’””TheSongs of a Country,” Chicago Record, 19 August 1899.

BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION 233

Time in the Old Town Tonight.” Because the Kakyaks appear to be delighted,
Conner explains the song’s origin:
It is one of the many coon songs which are so immensely popular in my
country. I suppose about three percent of the population in the United
States go in for Wagner, Brahms, Tschaikowsky, Gounod, Verdi and
Mascagni; but the other ninety-seven percent like the coon songs. You
don’t see anything else in the music-store windows.
Conner sings several more such songs, after which Mrs. Kakyak asks
why they are called coon songs. He explains that “‘coon’ is a familiar slang
synonym for plantation negroes, of whom we have several millions in our
country. We get most of our songs in America from the illiterate type of
country negro.”
A puzzled Mrs. Kakyak wonders: “But I should think that in the process
of assimilation the negro would be compelled to take his songs from the white
man. ”
Somewhat taken aback, Conner explains: “The negro is not yet fully
assimilated. . . . It will take time.”
Mrs. Kakyak presses the point:
But you say you are imitating him [the negro]. . . . I thought that the
darker race always took a secondary place and was dependent on the
Caucasian, receiving instruction from him. That’s what you have told
us. Yet now you confess that you get your songs from the negro. Who
was it said, ‘Let me write the songs of a country and I care not who
makes the laws’?
“You do not understand,” replies Conner, determined to set her straight,
“we may borrow our popular songs from the negro, but in the important
manner of handling the dollars we are still on top, and will continue to remain
there .”
“Even when the negro has become assimilated?’ asks Mrs. Kakyak.
“Well, we are not going to assimilate him to that extent.”
Some days later Conner is scandalized at the Filipino spectacle of
cockfighting, a degrading and inhumane sport, which under benevolent assimi-
lation, he tells the family, must In response to the charge that American
soldiers go to such fights in droves, patriot Conner rises to their defense.
Those soldiers who go to such fights in Manila, he tells them, “doubtless go
there to study the sport of a half-civilized people to better prepare themselves
for reformatory work.”
Americans are a humane people and, as Conner explains, “a people
much given to the reformation of others.” American sports are rational and
humane such as baseball, tennis, golf, croquet, and horseracing. Under ques-
tioning, however, Conner does admit that Americans have some rough sports,
football, for example. Seemingly convinced by Conner’s passionate assertion

‘9‘‘Sports and Pastimes,” Chicago Record, 9 September 1899

234 DIPLOMATIC HISTORY

of American humaneness, Francisco concludes that most Americans disap-

prove of such rough sports, and consequently they are not as popular as, say,
croquet. Conner manages a weak laugh, but since he is a missionary, he
makes no attempt to deceive:
In New York city I have seen 40,OOO spectators at a football game. I
doubt if more than eight spectators ever sat through a game of croquet.
You must remember that we men of the north have more endurance than
you little people of the warm climes. We are fond of sports which to
you would seem rough and bearish. In fact, I am afraid that we have a
decided preference for smashing and bruising games such as football and
pugilism.
When Conner admits that pugilism is very popular in America and that
often fighters are killed, Francisco is incensed that Conner calls the Filipinos
savage and half-civilized simply because they permit chickens to fight. Conner
is then forced to make another subtle explanation: “We are a rugged people
and enjoy rugged sports.” He points out that man is a reasoning creature and
goes into a fight of his own volition. “Therefore, it is better that a man should
be bruised and pounded than that a dumb animal such as a bull or a gamecock
should be killed to gratify a lust for pain and slaughter.”
Francisco disagrees, and Conner replies, “then we differ in our opin-
ions.’’ Without attempting to defend prizefighting, he does agree that it is
brutal and degrading. It is even forbidden by law, and yet somehow, he says,
“we continue to have prizefights and the people continue to be feverishly
interested in them, notwithstanding that we are the most humane and cultured
people on earth. Now, that seems contradictory, doesn’t it? The fact is, we
do a great many things that people living far away in another climate and a
different environment, and having peculiar hereditary traits, cannot rightly
understand.”
“That’s what we think,” replies Francisco, adding, “we think the Amer-
icans cannot rightly understand the Tagalos.”
“We understand everything,” replies Conner. “Wait until I read you a
few speeches from the Congressional record.”
Comer’s first progress report, addressed to the “Bureau of Benevolent
Assimilation, War Department, Washington, D.C. ,” is a dismal affair.” List-
ing his many failures with the Kakyaks, he reports in detail his latest appeals
to their religious sentiments:
You know the Tagalos are a very pious people and have a profound
reverence for the scriptures. Therefore, when they have shown resentment
at our military operations here in the island or have spoken with some
show of bitterness over the death of a few male relatives I have quoted
to them passages on the order of the following: ‘Love your enemies.’
‘Servants be obedient to them that are your masters.’ ‘Pray for them
which despitefully use you.’ ‘Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek

’&‘Mr. Conner Makes a Report,” Chicogo Record, 30 September 1899.

BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION 235

offer also the other, and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid him not
to take thy coat also.’ Instead of being pacified by these injunctions they
have retaliated by quoting to me ‘and as ye would that men should do
unto you, do ye also to them likewise.’ I have explained to them that
the golden rule cannot possibly be applied to the present situation in the
Philippines, but what are you going to do with a stubborn people who
have become inflamed by false hopes.
Acknowledging that the leaders of the “Tagalo rebellion” are educated
men, and that 70 percent of the members of the Filipino Congress are university
graduates, Conner finds it inexplicable that these intelligent men should not,
as he reports, “perceive the folly of wishing for an independent government.”
He does not hold hi& hopes for the progress of benevolent assimilation, since
95 percent of the Tagalos want a government of their own. And the mayors
whom the Americans had installed with such hopeful ceremony have gone
over to the enemy. The process of assimilation, he concludes, may even
require one or two centuries. It might be accelerated if Americans could be
encouraged to immigrate, but he doubts that that will happen, owing to the
enervating climate. He suggests that it may not be practicable to educate the
Tagalos by contact. He concludes that “perhaps it would be better to continue
the policy of benevolent assimilation by cable. In this way we can avoid the
climate.”

The next time we see Conner he no longer resembles his old self. Gone
is the garb of the college professor, which the administration expected him
to wear. Bearing now a striking resemblance to a Tagalo, even to his coloring,
he is dressed in white trousers and a soft shirt, which Ade wrote, “were more
sensible than woolen garments and a starched front.” Could it be, observed
Ade, that the great missionary who had come to assimilate the Tagalos was
being assimilated by them?31
Aware of the change in himself, Conner concludes that it is very easy
for those living in a cool climate to outline the duties af their fellow creatures
who happen to live nearer the equator. For at least a century, he muses, the
people of the northern states have been asking the people of the southern
states: “Why don’t you get up early and stay out late and develop your
resources?” And the southern people have replied: “Why don’t you trade
climates with us?’ If he were back in Ohio nothing would seem more plausible
and feasible to Conner than the scheme of benevolent assimilation. But since
he was in Luzon and not in Ohio, since the hot weather had taken all the
Ohio starch out of him, and since his month of labor had so far been fruitless,
he began to doubt.
Americans did not seem happy in the Philippines, and he doubted if
the Filipinos would be happy in the United States. He began to wonder if the
same kind of government was suited to both of them. Reflecting on benevolent
assimilation, he now confessed to puzzlement about its exact meaning. He

““Mr. Conner Begins to Doubt,” Chicago Record, 4 October 1899.

236 DIPLOMATIC HISTORY

was uncertain that the Filipinos could ever be induced to take up with the
Ohio way of doing things. In fact, wrote Ade, “Conner hadn’t been doing
things in the Ohio way since arriving in Luzon. So he had to wonder who
was being assimilated anyway.”3z
Shortly after sending off his report, Conner receives mail from home,
including several newspapers. He reads stories of tumultuous gatherings in
many large American cities, all applauding the sentiment that the “Flag was
a Symbol of Freedom.” From this, as Ade put it, “Conner gathered that the
United States was still determined to confer the blessings of liberty on the
Tagalos, no matter how many [soldiers] had to be piled in the t r e n c h e ~ . ” ~ ~
Conner also read that Admiral George Dewey had arrived in New York,
declaring in no uncertain terms for and against the Tagalos. One interview
quoted Dewey as saying that the Tagalos were more capable of self-government
than the Cubans.u Conner did not want Mr. Kakyak to see this, for he had
been telling the old Filipino that the Cubans had been given their independence
because, as he put it, “they were of a superior race, who by their close
proximity to the United States and their free intercourse with Americans, had
become partly assimilated.” Conner knew what Kakyak would say if he saw
the Dewey statement; he now knew the Tagalos rather well. “A Tagalo,”
Conner had perceived, “is a very suspicious and exacting person. He prefers
a definite assurance to a flight of oratory in regard to a starspangledbanner.”
Conner’s doubts about benevolent assimilation are resolved when he
discovers that the Kakyaks have been secretly in league with the insurgents
all along. The final blow came when Francisco left with Eulalie and her rebel
sweetheart, Josepho, to join Aguinaldo’s forces.35
On board the ship returning to San Francisco, Conner encounters an
old college chum. Curious about Conner’s experiences, he asks why he had
given up his mission. Conner tells him that it was because he did not want
to be assimilated: “I was wearing fewer clothes each week-gradually retrograd-
ing to the breech-clout. The indolence of the tropics got into my bones, and
I didn’t so much as attempt to get it out. I found the climate very enervating.”
“And are the Filipinos capable of self-government?” asks his friend.
Conner’s response is a valedictory not only to the Philippines but also
to a host of American assumptions, delivered not without some irony:
Well, you know there isn’t any country on earth that is ready to admit
that any other country is capable of self-government. . . . Now, I have
known for years that the Mexicans are not capable of self-government,
md yet Mexico manages to get along. All the students agree that our
American cities have not shown a capacity for self-government, and yet
they do govern themselves after a fashion, assisted by the superior morals

32Unlikethe “missionary” in France’s Thais, who is damned for his “fall from grace,”
Conner’s “fall from grace” is ironically the means of his redemption.
3“‘Eulalie,” Chicago Record, 1 1 October 1899.
’%ech, Days of McKinley, p. 384.
”“Treachery,” Chicago Record, 18 October 1899.
BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION 237

and intelligence of our state legislatures. I don’t suppose that the best
wisdom of Europe has ever come to an agreement that the people of the
United States are fit to govern themselves, and yet we are pretty well
satisfied with our condition. Inasmuch as it is customary to fix a high
standard of intelligence and morals when judging of the capacity of some
other country to administer its own government I suppose I am justified
in saying that the Tagalos are not capable of self-government. Still, I
would prefer not to give an explicit opinion until I land at ‘Frisco and
learn what are the present views of the administration.
“And the glorious work of benevolent assimilation?” his friend asks.
“That will be continued by the army,” says Conner. “The army seems
to have more influence with the native population.”
Although Ade returned to the subject of benevolent assimilation in “The
Sultan of Sulu,” its treatment there is merely a light spoof when contrasted
with the “Stories of ‘Benevolent Assimilation. ”’ The original sixteen stories,
however, are unique in the imaginative, popular literature for the comprehen-
siveneh of their critique of American policy, both political and cultural.