Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1907-11-07
A FIIIPngo's SPEECH
Sr. Antonio Regidor Counse1s Fill
pinos to Show Appreciation for
What Has Been Done and to
Have Faith in Americans

fought in the Spanish War.
He has since resided in that far-off
country.
If there be delegate to the Philip
pine Assembly who has in mind the
introduction of a measure calculated
to secure independence for the people
of the Philippine islands, If there be a
demagogue who has mind to petition
thd United States for greater freedom
than is now enjoyed throughout the is
lands; if there be those among the Fill
pino people who, thru ignorance, have
harked to the cry of the demagogue
and the insincere politician,-i there
be any of these who still hold to their
views, let them list to the man who,
thirty-five years ago, was banished to
Guam for advocating self-government
under the former regime and who,
thru these long years, enforced and
voluntary exile has remained true to
the high purpose with which he came
home from Madrid while still a young
man-the elevation of the Filipino race.
Let them bark to the man who has
watched with sympathetic heart the
struggle of the Filipino against his as
yet undiscovered friend, the American,
the incredulous day of evolution of the
benefactor from soldier to schoolmaster,
the succession of commander by law
maker, and finally the preparations for
the convention of the Philippine AS
sembly and now says to the Filipino
people, to his fellow countrymen, to
his compatriots: "Be true to the Amer
lean nation; be true to the President of
the United States; be true according to
your highest ideals to the American
Representatives of the United States in
the Philippines and the American peo-
pie will be true to you. In the nine
years of transition from martial rule to
the convention of the Philippine As
sembly no nation could ask for more.
For no people, for no country, at any
time in the history of the world, has
there been done so much as has been
done for the Filipino people by the
Americans. / do not think that any
delegate to the Assembly will be so far
mistaken as to introduce into the AS
sembly petition for the immediate
independence for the Islands; do not
believe that any Filipino will be SO un-
mindful of the best interest of his fell
low countrymen as to ask such a thing.
/ shall be very much disappointed II
shall be very sorry and very much
pnined if history records this as an act
of the first Congress of Filipino law
makers"
ST.. ID. Antonio Regidor was seen last
night at the home of Teodoro r.. Yang
CO. 6S Gale Marques de Comillas. Phys
ically broken but of intensely virile and
active mind the illustrious Filipino
met the reporter with a greeting which
reflected the urbanity of old CASTLE un-
tarnished by long residence in London.
1t was with a sense of esteem for a
great man and love for a good one,
mixed with due respect for the strength
of the mind that shone through the lus-
trous black eyes whose heavy brows
contracted in thought and lowered inn
red into words,-it was in such spirit
that the interviewer approached his
subject.
1t was with the detail of the racon-
teur that the aged Filipino told how he
had returned to fair Filipipas from
Madrid in the '60's, determined to labor
for the attainment of self-government
by his people under the existing regi-
me, how he was progressing towards
his end, was even receiving encourage
ment when, January |, 1872, he, with
several others, was summoned to q
council of war and was banished to
Ladrones Islands-to Guam. From the
first his idea, his one thought, was to
escape and the ultimate accomplish
ment of the life task he had set for HIM
self, the reclamation of his people from
their political bondage. He told how
he had remained there for two years
until one day in "a there drifted into
Agana where the eNiles We're inlprison-
ed, a rudderless American whaler; how
he had established communication with
the American master and had arrang-
ed an escape, but how typhoon had
come to carry away with it the ship
and his fondly nursed hopes; how the
ship, as he learned later, had reached
Hongkong and there had informed the
Free Masons that some of their fellows
We're prisoners on Guam and sought es-
cape; how the American master of an
other American ship had set about the
task of efiecting the rescue and had
come to the Island to sell produce
among those of the garrison until he
became acquainted with the lay of the
ground, had one night given the patrol
and the officers of the guard at the
prison rum enough to make them in
sensible and under the cover of dark
ness and in the guise of priests they
had escaped, soon toboard the ship and
away to the Yap islands to which the
master of the ship bore them; how they
had been borne from one island to an
other until finally Hongkong was
reached and how he had gone from
there to Marseilles and London, there
to remain.
"From that time ON, rs you can inn
agine, felt the greatest respect for the
Americans and the deepest gratitude
to those who were instrumental in my
deliverance from the enforced political
exile
ST.. Regidor told of being ill in Lon
don, how he had planned to come here
last December but had found it neces-
sary to undergo an operation and was
further delayed owing to subsequent
illness.
,,1'But when read in the newspapers
th the Assembly was to be convened
in tober, and later | read in the same