The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-20

 of our interests it would have been af-
 forded this very year by General Wright, the ex-Confederate, in his admmistration as Acting Governor of the Philippine
 Islands. Upon him during the months of Summer rested a heavier burden of re- sponsibllity than upon any other puohc servant at that particular time :ano not the least of his titles to our regard IS the way in which he was able to work on terms of cordial good will with the head of the army, himself a man who had hon. ored the blue uniform as Wright had General Wright's work has been as difficult as 1t was important. The events of the last four years have dennltely we must hereafter play great part In the world. We can not escape facing the duties. We may shirk them if we are built of poor stuff. or we may take nolo sires-but face them we must, whether we will or not. Our duty in the Philippine Islands has simply been one of the duties that thus have come upon us. We are
 our flag and abandon the islands than we could now abandon Alaska. Whether we are glad or sorry that events forced us to go there is aside from the question; the point Is that, as the inevitable re- suit of the war with Spain. we found ourselves in the Philippines and that we could not leave the islands without dis credit The islanders were wholly unfit to govern themselves, and if we had left there would have been c brief period or bloody chaos, and then some other nation would have stepped in to do the work which we had shirked. It cannot be too l often repeated that there was nc question | that the work had be done. All the | question was, whether we would do It | well or i'll; and, thanks to the choice of men like Governor Wright, it has been l done well. The first and absolutely indis- l pensable requisite was order-peace. The ! reign of lawless violence, of resistance to | Nf4z ovrfalRN ! could no more be tolerated abroad than | 1t could be tolerated here In our own land.
 | "The American nag stands for orderly | liberty. and 1t stands for 1t abroad as 1t
 stands for 1t at home. The task of our | soldiers was to restore and maintain order | in the islands. The army had the task
 to do. and 1t did it well and thoroughly. | The fullest and heartiest praise belongs
 to our soldiers who in the Philippines | brought to a triumphant conclusion | war, small indeed compared to the gigan- | tic struggle in which the older men whom | I am addressing took part in the early | sixties, but inconceivably harrassang and l difficult, because it was waged amid the l pathiess jungles of great tropic islands
 and against foe very elusive, very treacherous, and often inconceivably l cruel both tl ward our men and towIrd
 the great numbers of peace-ioving Fili- pinos who gladly welcomed our advent; | The soldiers included both Regulars and | Volunteers, men from the North, the | South, the East, and the West mon from 1 Pennsylvania and from Tenn ,ssee, no less | than man from the Rocky Mountains and l the Pacific Slcpe-and to all alike we give l honor. for they acted as American soi- | diers should. Cruslties were committed
 hsre and there. The fact that they were committed under well-ntgh tntolerable provocation affords no excuse for such l cruelttes, nor can we admit as justification | that they were retdliatofy in kino Every | effort has been made to detect and punish I %HxA xnnrAn md nFA has been completely stopped. But these | misdeeds were exceptional, and their oc- | currence in no wise alters the fact that
 the American Army in the Philippines dierly qualities, but high order or hu-
 nanity in dealing with their foes A hundred thousand of our troops went to
 the Philippines. Among them were some
 who offended against the right. We'll are
 we altogether Immaculate at horne? l l think not. 1 ask for no special consid-
 eration to be shown our friends and kins-
 men, our sons and brothers, who during
 three years so we'll upheld the national
 honor in the Philippines. l ask merely
 that we do the same equal justice to the | soldier who went abroad and faced death
 and lived hard as we show to his fellow | who stayed at home and lived easily and | in comfort; and If we show that equal | justice we will doff our hats to the man | who has put the whole country under ob- | legations by the victory he helped to win | in the Philippines.
 | But the soldiers work as a soldier was | not the larger part of what he did. When | once the outbreak was over in any place then began the work of establishing civil l administration. Here, too, the soldier did
 his part, for the work of preparing for the | civil authority was often done by the of | ficers and men of the Regular Army, and
 well done, too. Then the real work of | building up a system of self-government l for the people who had become our wards
 was begun, under the auspices of the
 Philippine Commission. Judge Taft being | made Governor, and having had the
 honor myself to appoint General Wright l as Vice-Governor. During the critical pe-
 riod when the insurrection was ending | and the time was one of transition be- | tween a state of war and state of peace,
 at the time that l. issued a proclamation
 declaring that the state of war was over | and that the civil government was now in
 complete command, General Wright | served as Governor of the Archipelago. The progress of the islands both in ma
 teriai well-beihg and as regards order | and justice undA Ac the administration of | Governor Wright and his colleagues has
 been astounding.
 There Is no question as to our not
 having gone far enough and fast enough | in granting eelf-goVernment to the Fill
 pinos; the only possible danger has been
 lest we should go faster and farther
 than was in the interest of the Fflipinos | themselves. Each Filipino at the present
 day is guaranteed his life, his liberty and
 the chance to pu-'sue happiness as he l WlSneS, so long AS ne QOeS HoL HlS fellows, in a way which the islands have | never known before during all their re-
 corded history. There are bands of la | drones, of br1gands, still in existence l Now and then they may show sporadic in- | crease This will be due occasionally to | disaffection with some of the things that our Government does which are best-for | example the effort to quarantine against | the plague and to enforce necessary sani- | taFv precautions, gently and tactfully | though 1t was made, produced violent hos | tility among some of the more ignorant | natives Again, a disease like the cattle | plague may cause in some given province | such want that a part of the inhabitants | revert to their ancient habit of brigand- | age But the islands have never been as l orderly. as peaceful. or as prosperous IS | now: and in no other Oriental country,
 whether ruled by Asiatics or Europeans, | is there anything approaching to the l amount of individual liberty and of self | royernment which our rule has brought | fo the Ftlfpinos The Nation owes great l dsnot to the people through whom this | sniendtd work for civilization has been | aoht eyed. and therefore on behalf of the | Nation I have come here tonight to thank in your presence your fellow-townsman. | because he has helped us materially to l add a new page to the honor roll of | American history. General Wright, l l greet you, I thank you, and l wish you l well.
 At midnight the Presidential party left
 for Washington over the Southern road. Colonel L. s. Brown, general agent of
 the Southern was in charge of the train. l NO