Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1908-06-24

l tOrrC Tor The curhiug aUd punishment of monopoly. When this ease reached the supreme Court. Mir. Taft received the distinguished and unusual honor of ] having his decision quoted in full and | handed down as part of the opinions i of inc higd court which sustained him at every point.
 Pioneering the Roosevelt Policy. | This Nddystonc Pipe decision mark cd the beginning of the struggle for federal control of interstate corpora lions which in the later years has come tn be known as the Roosevelt pol ! icy.' Mr. Taft in an address to inc | American liar Association at Detroit, | in the summer of 1895. had enunciatcd l the principle on which President Roosc- | welt has made hi. great hgdt for the suppression of monopoly and the aholi' ton of special privilege. Thus Mir | Tnft pioneered the way for inc c Roosevelt policy
 Blazing the Philippine Trail ] Since the settlement of the recon. strurtiun questions no more delicate or fntcful problem hus confronted Ameri. | can statcsmanship than that of the | Philippines. The sudden pitching uf over. sea territory into our possession aS result of the war with Spain. created situation not only unexpected but entirely without precedent. There was no guide for our -tnteSnpn. Th" path had to hc hcwed out new from the beginning. There was no crystal. zation of opinion among the American people as to what should bc done with the Philippines X considerable clc. men, was vigorously opposed to re taining them. but the vast ma ioritv dc mandcd the maintenance of American sovereignty there. Among tacSc, at first. the desire was undoubtedly due to inc glamour of aggrandzcment. The possibility of wealth somewhere be. vond the skyline always catches the imagination. and there can bc no qucs. ton that the great mass of the people moved. without serious thought of the consequences. toward American cN ploitation of the islands
 lut even at that early day tncrc were . few Q very few among the leaders of American thought and ne tion. who saw clearly the responsibility thrust upon inc country hy the adven. ttious possession of the Philippines. and determined Co meet it fully. no matter wha, clamor of opposition nigh, arise. Among these President Mckinley was one. Mir. Taft was an other. Mir Taft had been opposed to taking the islands. He was opposed to retaining them. More than all nc opposed their exploitation for Ameri. can benefit. He believed that the Philippines belonged to the filipinos. and should bc developed in the interest of their own people.
 shouldcring the White Mans Burden.''
 He saw the possibility of lifting a feeble, ignorant people into the light of liberty and setting tncm upon the path to intelligent. efficient self.gov- crnmcnt. That possibility rcconciled him to the continuance of American authority over the islands. for none saw more clearly than he the chaos certain to result from immediate in dependence for the Filipinos, with its inevitable and speedy end in complete and hopeless subjcction to some other power. Therefore when President Me. Kinley asked him to go to Manila and undertake the difficult and tnanklcss task of starting the Filipinos upon their true course, he sacrificed the judi. cial career which was his life's am. hition and AiouLdsrcd the "White Mans Burdcn.' rt was in March. 1900, that he received his appointment as chairman of the Philippine Commis. sion.
 Not many Americans nave ever com. prehcnded thoroughly the size of Mir. Taft's undertaking, or the full mean. ing of his achievement. Through n | hun,,l. In, anr hrs In.Iiu..u ,.ttI. aldo and the Filipinos the entire ma tive population of the islands had come to believe, with some reason, that the Americans were their enemies and had betrayed tncm Mir. Taft arrived in Manila to find n people subducd by force of arms. hut unanimously hos. tile, sullcn and suspicious. They were still struggling, with inc bitterness of despair, against the power in which they all saw only the hand of the ops prcssor
 Overcoming the Barrier Between Y East and West
 Moreover, their leaders had been inoculated with the belief that bei ween west and east there is an impossible barrier which will always prevent the Occidental from understanding and syhlpathlHlhg Nitn th" Oriental. The experience of generations had confirm. cd them in that belief. The only gov ernment in their knowledge was tyran. ny. The only education in their his. tory was deceit. The only tradition they possessed was hatred of oppres sion, made concrete for them by their experience with western domination. That was wnat Mir. Taft had to face, and m three years he had overcome and changed it all. He did it by the persuasive power of the most winning 5 personality the Filipinos had ever known. He met them on their own level. He lived with them, ate with , them, drank with them. danced with them. and ne showed them that here was an Occidental who could read and sympathize with the Oriental heart iie gave them n new conception of jus. . | tirp, and thcy saw with ama.oma,, {,