The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1901-12-04

sible had talks with prominent FIJI
j., pinOs who talked freely as iuie, an
from them in this way go the opiu
ions of the men upon whom we must
in great measure, rely for lhe work
ing out Of the great problem OF win
5 ming the friendship # the people
: From what these men-civl officials
military officers and leading Filipino
told me and from what L saw will
| my own eyes, have secured infOrma
/ ton in a general way which i trus
! may be OF some IL sistance in the cifDr
of Congress to deal with the Philippine
problem.
"In my opinion, the Philippine
question must, to very great cxtcn
at least, cease to be political in il,
chara, ter, but IL is boun'i to be for q
long time to come vciy serious bust
ness and public qu stion with which
Congress must daal do not bcii We
that the United States government, OF
the people of the United Stat, c in their
private capacities, will ever get back
one-tenth of the money that has been
spent and will have to be spent in
working ,t the problem, and l find
this the general opinion of army
officers he il llnds who arc most
familiar wi, the conditions there and
with the material resourcccs Of the
country"
"Did you see Aguinaldo 2"
" No, | did pot. Although the house
in which he is held prisoner is in the
same block with Governor TafL's resi-
dence, where L stayed, and although L
had plenty of opportunities TO sec him,
did not think from my interview with
the leading Fllipinos whom l had met
that Agui' ''do now cuts much figure.
came I conclusion that, to q
large exte. at least, his influence is
gone and did n"t think anything that
he could say TO me would be of any
real consequence. Then, in addition
to this, L saw no good purpose in H..
terviewing HIM, for did not 60 to the
Philippine islands with an idea of bark
ing back to the past or of listening 10
the grievances of Filipino military
claim to have been badly treated by our
people. went to the islands for the
purpose of getting in touch with the
present conditions with view To an
undersia ding of what is best TO do
for the present and the future. In
other words, l could see no good IN
Wasting time in dealing with those
questions of tho past when there are
80 much larger questions of ths present
and future.
j made IL a rule to avoid newspaper
interviews and speeches as much as pos
sihls. Tho only speech / made was
upon an occasion when 1 thought il
well to impress upon the Filipino lead
ers that 1t will be impossible to do any
thing for the people so long as there is
armed opposition to the American
forces. felt that it was necessary for
these men who were leaders among
the people TO understand that their
friends in America, those who wish
best for them, could do nothing so long
as this armed opposition exists.
With regard to what is called the
civil government, L would like to say
that do not knnw of better man in
the United States of either political
party for its head than Governor Taft.
He is man of frst-class ability, fine
address, of unquestioned integrity, is
very industrious and painstaking, and
thoroughly devoted to the work he has
undertaken. He realizes the difficulties
of the task he has OH hand, and no
man looking INTO the situation could
help realizing it, When said goodby
to him, wished him good luck and
remarked incidentally that he would
need every bit of that commodity IN
solving the difficulties OF his task"
Senator Bacon said that while his
trip through China and Japan had, of
course, been very pleasant and lnier-
csting, he regarded it OF value to him.
self i'm the information he had gained
by n personal visit TO these countries,
by seeing the people themselves, and
in talking with men who were on the
ground and who are most fam liar with
the conditions of those countries and
the problems which they present in
their international dealings. Being
member of the foreign relations COM
mittee of the Senate, he made il n point
20 investigate as fully as he possibly
could. He believes that familiarity
with The people and with the countries
will be of value to him IN dealing not
only with international problems
in which they may bo involved, but
those bearing upon the business an
trade of the United States with those
countries as WE'LL"