"Michigan Men" in the Philippines and the Limits of Self-Determination in the Progressive Era

“Michigan Men” in the Philippines and the Limits of Self-Determination in the Progressive Era by Patrick M. Kirkwood George A. Malcolm, the founding Dean of the Law School of the University of the Philippines, stood before an overwhelmingly American audience in Manila on January 2, 1914. In his ceremonial role as President of the University of Michigan Alumni Association of the Philippine Islands, he set out a well-rehearsed case for the university’s extensive international influence, with a particular focus on those he termed “Michigan men” in the United States’ then largest colonial outpost: In the Philippine Islands we claim, and are able to substantiate the same by facts, that the University of Michigan Alumni Association is the largest in number in the Far East. Not only this, but it can be safely asserted that its members occupy as important positions in the affairs of the Philippines as do the alumni of any other university. This has been so from the beginning of the American occupation so that now there are not only Michigan men prominent in official and private circles, but Michigan men in the Army, the Navy, and among the Filipino, Japanese and Chinese communities.1 After listing many influential graduates of the University of Michigan, and their leading roles in various fields in the archipelago, Malcolm concluded: “The University need not be ashamed of their work; it need not fear that its traditions and future are forgotten. All Michigan men in the East of whatever locality or nationality join in the 1 George A. Malcolm, “Michigan in the Philippines,” January 2, 1914, Occasional Addresses and Articles By George A. Malcolm, Vol. 1 (Manila, P.I.: Printing & Bookbinding of Jose San Juan), 408, Box 10, George A. Malcolm Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan (hereafter Malcolm Papers). The Michigan Historical Review 40:2 (Fall 2014): 63-86©2014 Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved 64 The Michigan Historical Review assurance that their Alma Mater can count upon their cordiale support.”2 Malcolm, a 1906 Michigan graduate and holder of several governmental roles in the Philippines, held inclusive personal views regarding the mental, and therefore political, faculties of Filipinos. Yet the “Michigan men,” like the wider American population in the Philippines, were riven with ideological differences over the future of the archipelago. At the time he spoke such divisions were bubbling dangerously below the surface of colonial life. The inauguration of the former Democratic Congressman from New York, Francis Burton Harrison, as Governor-General in 1913 is often cited as a watershed moment in the shift between the earlier Philippine administration of the “Taft Era” (1900-13) and the burgeoning Democratic experiment of “Filipinization” foreshadowing Wilsonian self-determination. 3 Tensions between those Michigan colonial administrators advocating “good government” and slower-paced “Filipinization” and those who championed a swifter transition to self-government were already well established. As such, the 1913 shift following the election of Woodrow Wilson prompted a change of imperial policy in Washington which fundamentally altered power relations among an already established set of American players in the Philippines, including select Michigan men whose political beliefs on the limits of self-determination would influence the constitutional future of the archipelago. As Malcolm noted in his 1914 speech, Michigan men (and women) can indeed be traced back to the very beginnings of the American regime 2 Ibid., 410-411. 3 The term “Taft Era” regarding the Philippines refers to the years between 1900 and 1913. In that period William Howard Taft served successively as Head of the Second Philippine Commission (1900-1901), first civilian Governor-General of the Philippines (1901-1904), Secretary of War (1904-1908), and President of the United States (1909-1913). “Filipinization” refers to the slow process by which qualified Filipinos replaced Americans in various governmental, teaching, and administrative roles. This process intensified around 1913 under the leadership of Governor-General Harrison. While acknowledging that the term “self-determination” was appropriated by President Wilson from an existing Bolshevik discourse some years later, the underlying conceptions on which such rhetoric was based were a long-cherished part of American, and wider “Anglo,” political culture. For a detailed discussion of Wilsonianism...