The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-04-07
ALO0K BACKWARD.
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Continued from First Fage)
and as able a group of administrators
as ever any country has been blessed
with having With them and under
them we have associated the best men
among the Filipinos, SO that the great
majority of the Officials, inclHding
many Of the highest rank are them
selves natives OF the islands. The ad-
ministratioT is incorIuptibfy honest;
Justice is as jealously safeguarded as
here at home. The government is CON
Quoted purely in the interests of the
people Of the islands; they are pro-
tected IN their religious and civil rights.
| they have been given an excellent and
Well administered school system, and
each of them now en10ys rights to life
liberty and the pursuit of happiness
such as were never before known in
all the history OF tie islands.
THE congress which has just ad-
lourned has passed legislation of high
Importance and great wisdom in the
interests of the Filipino people. First
and foremost. they conferred upon
them by law the present admirable civil
government, in addition they gave
them an excellent currency; they pass
ed a measure allowing the organization
of native constabulary; and they pro-
Vided, in the interests of the islands
for reduction of twenty-five per cent
in the tariff on Filipino articles brought
to this country. ] asked that a still
a
was not granted by the last congress,
but I think that in some shape it will
be granted by the next And even
without it, the record of legislation in
the interests of the FilipinOs is one
with which we have a right to feel
great satisfaction.
Moreover congress appropriated
three million dollars. following the pre-
cedent it set when the people of Porto
Rico were afflicted by sudden disaster:
this money to be used by the Philippine
government in order to meet the dis
tresS occasioned primarily by the terri
bic cattle disease which almost ami
inflated the carabaO or water buffalo,
the chief and most important dOmes-
tic animal in the Islands. Coming as
this disaster did upon the heels of the
havoc wrought by the insurrectionary
war great suffering has been caused:
and this misery for which this govern
ment is in no way responsible will
doubtless in turn increase the difficult
ties of the Philippine government for
the next year or so. In consequence
there win doubtless here and there oc-
cur sporadic increases of the armed
brigandage to which the islands have
been habituated from time immemorial,
and here and there for their own pur-
poses the bandits may choose to style
themselves patriots or insurrectionists.
but these local difficulties will be of
little consequence save is they give oc
easiOn to q few men here at home
only has the military problem in the
Philippines been worked out quicker
and better than we had dared to expect.
but the progress socially and in civil
government has likewise exceeded our
fondest hopes
1.-The best thing that can be done in
handling such a problem as that in the
Philippines SO peculiar, so delicate, so
difficult and so remote. is to put the
best man possible in charge and then
give him the heaTtiest possible support.
and the freest possible hand This is
what has been done with Governor Taft.
There is not in this nation a higher or
finer type of public servant than Gov
ernOr Taft He has rendered literally
inestimabl service, not only to the peo-
pie of the Philippine islands, but also
to the people of the United States by
what he has done in those islands He
has been able to do it. because from the
beginning he has been given absolute
support by the war department under
Secretary Root. With the cessa ton of
organized resistance the civil govern
ment assumed its proper position of
headship. The army in the Philippines
IS now one of the Instruments through
which Governor Taft does his admira-
Bile work. The civil government of
which Governor Taft is the head, is
supreme and it viii do well in the fu-
ture as it has in the past because it viii
be backed up in the future as it has
been in the past
FOLLOWING JOSE RIVAL
Remember always that in the Philip
pines the American government mas tried
and is trying to carry out exactly what
the greatest genius and most revered pa
triot ever known in the Philippine islands
Jose Enthusiastically advocated. This
man shortly before his death. in mes
sage TO his countTXmen. under date of De
cember is. 1896. condemned unsparingly