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7. The American Colonial State: Pampering Sugar into an Agricultural Revolution
- University of Hawai'i Press
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7 The American Colonial State: Pampering Sugar into an Agricultural Revolution The American Colonial Corporatist State The advent of American colonialism at the turn of the century made possible the forging of a totally different kind of relationship between the sugar planters of Negros and the colonial state. Eager to pacify their new colonial subjects and subdue various sources of resistance, the neophyte American imperialists pursued this goal by relying upon indigenous elites who were provided with ample room to participate in colonial governance. Unlike the Javanese priyayi and the Malayan sultans, the Philippine elites were incorporated by the colonial hegemon primarily as politicians—publicly elected officials and national legislators— rather than as bureaucracts. Their power and privileges were rather peculiar in early-twentieth-century Southeast Asia, allowing them to bypass bureaucratic rationalization for a more direct plunge into the politics of state. Discarding the Spanish legal distinction between mestizo and indio and substituting the homogenizing category of “Filipino,” these elites included as one of their most formidable segments the ascendant sugar capitalist class of Negros, whose members, at a very early stage of the U.S. engagement, acquired the belief that they played a strategic role in national affairs. With the assistance of Colonel James Smith, a lawyer from San Francisco who commanded the U.S. forces in the island, a constitution written exclusively for Negros was drafted by a committee of planters. In transmitting the proposed charter to the U.S. president in May 1899, Aniceto Lacson, titular head of Negros’ Cantonal Government, promised on behalf of his fellow hacenderos to “endeavor to be worthy citizens of [the great American] Republic which is the model of morality and justice.”1 The military governor of the Philippine Islands, Major General Elwell Otis, was not convinced, however, that the people of Negros would be able “to maintain the character” of a republican government.2 Addressing this concern, the American civilian governing council known as the Philippine Commission, in its desire to co-opt local elites, asserted that a civilian government for Negros Island would be “promotive of peace and quietness”3 as long as an American was placed “in full control ” (Schurman et al. 1900, 180). The commission’s view prevailed, and Otis forwarded the proposed scheme to Washington, D.C., with the explanation that the “people of Negros deserve great consideration,” for in freely welcoming the United States they served as “the wedge by which the American Government has been enabled to split open” the resistance of the Filipino insurgents.4 The Philippine Commission underscored the necessity “to give to the people of Negros as great a show of self-government as was possible” because it was “desirable to conciliate them.”5 The show went on in November 1899, when the planters of Negros elected a civil governor. However, contrary to the elite’s naive expectations that this elected local official would have genuine authority, the civil governor played, at best, an advisory role to Smith, who was promoted to the rank of general and appointed as the island’s military governor.6 With the pacification of the new colony, local civilian governments were established throughout the archipelago. Organized in May 1901, the provincial governments of Negros Oriental and Occidental, as in other provinces, featured an elected governor, a Filipino, and an appointed treasurer and supervisor, both of whom were Americans. The latter two formed the majority of the governing board to ensure that “ultimate control,” especially in the matter of funds, contracts, and public properties, was in “American hands” (Schurman 1902, 59). The scope of native participation in electoral politics was expanded in January 1907 with the holding of the contest for seats in the first national Philippine Assembly. Totally unprecedented in Southeast Asia, the holding of national elections at the dawn of the twentieth century paved the way for the institutionalization of the congressional system in the Philippines. The devolution of political power fulfilled the recommendations formulated by the first Philippine Commission chaired by Jacob Gould Schurman, the original architect of the policy of “the Philippines for the Filipinos.” To the objection that even educated natives did not possess the American concepts of civil liberty and official responsibility, Schur190 chapter 7 [54.196.105.235] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:32 GMT) man (1902, 99) countered that “the way men are trained in government” was to “get them in harness quickly and let them tug and sweat under the burden of...