Partisan Politics and the Filipino Press

Leading up to the 1912 U.S. presidential election, Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson campaigned on the promise of Philippine independence. His stance aligned with the Democratic Party’s goal of divesting U.S. responsibility over the islands, while Republicans sought to maintain U.S. control over the Philippines in order to increase economic development.[1] Following Wilson’s victory over Republican incumbent Taft, the question of Philippine independence regained attention in the media.

Throughout the years following the 1912 election, University of Michigan colonial official Dean Conant Worcester collected a large number of newspaper articles related to The First Philippine Question. Flipping through the scrapbooks that contain Worcester’s clippings, translated editorials from Filipino newspapers consistently showcase the deep connection between partisan politics and the Filipino press.

The Cablenews-American

Worcester’s collection is dominated by clippings from The Cablenews-American, a leading newspaper for English speakers in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century. Founded as the Cablenews in 1902 by the wealthy American Israel Putnam, the newspaper sought to promote economic development in the Philippines after the U.S. acquired the islands. Following his military service in the Spanish-American War, Putnam returned to the U.S. to recruit a large editorial staff and purchase cutting-edge printing machines that he would bring back to Manila. Although Putnam would later abandon the Cablenews due to expenses, its work continued under new American editors who leased the publication. As other American-run newspapers in the Philippines failed to remain in business, the Cablenews combined with another publication in 1908 to become one of the few lasting American press outlets in the islands: The Cablenews-American.[2] Although this publication maintained an inherently imperialistic tone regarding the Philippines and the question of independence, it also sought to present its American readership (which was concentrated in Manila) with perspectives circulating among Filipino press outlets. Under the recurring column, “The Filipino Press,” The Cablenews-American captured the sentiments of various Filipino newspapers, most consistently reprinting translated editorials from the Filipino press outlet El Ideal.

The Filipino Press: El Ideal within The Cablenews-American

Despite the initial blossoming of Filipino newspapers (thanks to the introduction of an American-style free press), many startup publications failed, and only a handful of Filipino papers gained traction on account of their political alliances. El Ideal was one such publication, officially aligned with the Nacionalista Party since the paper’s foundation in 1907. In fact, the Nacionalista Party leader and future president of the Philippines, Sergio Osmeña, founded the newspaper.[3]

Following the 1912 election in the Philippines, the Nacionalista Party continued to dominate the Philippine Assembly with a platform of increasing Philippine autonomy.[4] Furthermore, this election coincided with the 1912 U.S. presidential election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned on the promise of Philippine independence. In fact, another key Nacionalista official, Manuel Quezon, represented the Philippines at the 1912 Democratic National Convention, at which the goal of Philippine Independence became officially enshrined in the Democratic Party Platform.[5] Thus, while Republicans were frequently criticized for obstructing the road to Philippine independence, Wilson’s 1912 presidential victory offered Filipinos renewed hope for autonomy.

Quezon would remain in Washington following the 1912 Democratic victory, representing Nacionalista goals for independence while developing his relationships within the new Democratic administration. As Quezon worked with Democratic members of congress in D.C. to craft legislation for Philippine independence, El Ideal sought to promote public opinion of Wilson and the Democratic Party within the islands.[6]

Partisan Politics and the Filipino Press

To that effect, El Ideal targeted Republican officials as the administrative transition from President Taft to Democrat Wilson trickled down to affect American officeholders in the Philippines. In an aggressive media campaign targeting former Republican President Taft, El Ideal exclaimed that “there is something truly pathetic in Mr. Taft’s Comical role” as a previous one-term president.[7] El Ideal likewise appeared in The Cablenews-American with unrealistically optimistic characterizations of the new president and his party:

Thanks to the energy of President Wilson and the honesty of democratic legislators, the hands of the great octopus will be tied and the satraps and magnates who thrived because of the weakness of the old rulers (i.e., the former Republican administration) will be subdued.[8]

In another article published several weeks later by The Cablenews-American, El Ideal targeted the former Republican administration more explicitly: “The Filipinos have no dislike for the Americans: the misunderstanding which prevailed in the past was due to the shortsighted policies of the Republican party.”[9] El Ideal further iterated that Filipino public opinion of the U.S. continued to improve on account of the new Democratic administration, calling on the newly Democratic-controlled Congress to work with Wilson in pursuing legislation for Philippine independence. Thus, by consistently intertwining the Philippine Question with partisan rhetoric, El Ideal exemplifies the deep-rooted influence of party politics on the Filipino Press.

El Ideal likewise applied a partisan framework to its editorials on more localized issues occurring in the Philippines. Within these publications, El Ideal frequently singled out Dean Worcester as an emblem for the Republican party’s imperialistic agenda within the islands. More specifically, Republican goals for continued economic exploitation of the Philippines depended on American perceptions of the Filipinos as incapable of self-government. To that end, Worcester authored various ethnological reports on the islands’ inhabitants that sought to mischaracterize and dehumanize the Filipino people. Worcester’s specific attempt to mischaracterize the non-Christian inhabitants of the Moro Province serves as a prime example of his imperialistic agenda that, furthermore, provoked backlash from El Ideal.

Within its editorial on this subject, El Ideal states that “under the late [Republican] regime laws were passed which tended to open a chasm between non-Christian Filipinos and their brothers who enjoy the blessings of civilization” and that “the time has come to inquire into the truth of the story written by Worcester,” which characterized non-Christian Filipinos as irreconcilable with the Christian population. More specifically, El Ideal addresses ongoing hostilities between American administrators and non-Christian groups in the Moro region, explaining that native inhabitants were simply reacting to the “blunders of their rulers,” chiefly Worcester.[10]

Concluding this column with a characteristic reference to U.S. partisanship, El Ideal contends, “we are in the most important period of rectification and vindication introduced by the new [Wilson] administration.” Considering the audience of The Cablenews-American, El Ideal likely sought to reiterate their view that Filipino hostility was not directed at the American population within the islands but, rather, toward the former Republican administration.[11]

However, the voices of the Moro people at the center of both Worcester’s reports and El Ideal’s editorials are overlooked as Worcester and El Ideal seek to confine these non-Christian groups to a narrative that furthers their respective goals concerning Philippine independence. In this sense, even in the rare cases where Filipino voices emerge within the archive, the partisanship embroiling the Filipino press obscures the voices of indigenous and non-elite inhabitants of the islands.

Yet still, in spite of the calculated political considerations that drove the content presented by Filipino press outlets, El Ideal’s editorials served as a means of voicing Filipino dissatisfaction with America’s handling of the Philippine Question. Furthermore, as Filipino publications were translated and reprinted within The Cablenews-American, newspapers such as El Ideal were able to combat Worcester’s media campaign to brand the Filipino people as unfit for self-government. This is most perceptible in El Ideal’s targeted attack on Worcester for his handling of the Moro province and his characterization of the region’s non-Christian inhabitants. Thus, by appearing within The Cablenews-American, El Ideal could target imperialist actors bent on preventing Philippine independence while promoting its Democratic allies to American audiences in the islands. As for The Cablenews-American, by presenting translated editorials from El Ideal in the recurring column, “The Filipino Press,” this newspaper could maintain both its semblance of objectivity and its relationship with Filipino political parties, such as the Nacionalistas, as the prospect of Philippine autonomy became increasingly likely during Wilson’s presidency. More broadly, this intersection of The Cablenews-American and the Filipino press offers insight into the complex, symbiotic relationships involving Filipino newspapers, the politically-active Filipinos who owned them, and their respective partisan allies in Washington, D.C.[12]

Citations

[1] “The Philippines, 1898-1946,” U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian, last modified 2018, https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/APA/Historical-Essays/Exclusion-and-E mpire/The-Philippines/.

[2] Carson Taylor, History of Philippine Press (Manila: s.n., 1927), 41-42.

[3] Carson Taylor, History of Philippine Press (Manila: s.n., 1927), 44.

[4] Philippine Commission, Report of the Philippine Commission to the Secretary of War, 1912 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1912), 45-50.

[5] “The Philippines, 1898-1946,” U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian, last modified 2018, https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/APA/Historical-Essays/Exclusion-and-E mpire/The-Philippines/. Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, “Democratic Party Platforms, 1912 Democratic Party Platform Online, The American Presidency Project,” University of California, Santa Barbara, Accessed 10 Nov. 2022, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/273201.

[6] “The Philippines, 1898-1946,” U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian, last modified 2018, https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/APA/Historical-Essays/Exclusion-and-E mpire/The-Philippines/.

[7] “The Cablenews-American, Oct. 25, 1913,” vol. 13, Worcester’s Philippine Collection, Clippings, University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center).

[8] “The Cablenews-American, Nov. 27, 1913,” vol. 13, Worcester’s Philippine Collection, Clippings, University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center).

[9] “The Cablenews-American, Dec. 6, 1913,” vol. 13, Worcester’s Philippine Collection, Clippings, University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center).

[10] “The Cablenews-American, n.d.,” vol. 13, Worcester’s Philippine Collection, Clippings, University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center).

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ruby Paredes, Philippine Colonial Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 1988), 6.