The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1908-09-22

If William Howard Taft has earned
the right to be president of the Unlted
States il is solely due to his admins
tration in the Philippines. The Widest
flight of the imagination would never
suggest the thought that Taft's services
to the American people at nome hau
earned him that distinction.
We first hear of him as a federal
indigo when he spread a blanket injunc-
ton over the state of Ohio, restraining
railroad employees from abandoning
their positions during the great A. r.
u strike But in the light of subse-
quent superior court rulings, opinions
of leading lawyers and pubic con-
demnation generally of Judge Tafts
decision, it is, perhaps, useless TO
dwell upon this chapter of his public
record. further than to call attention
to an article recently appearing in the
Chicago Record Herald so characters
tic of his methods as to deserve men
ton. 1t will be recalled that for having
disobeyed the blanket injunction above
referred to, Judge Taft sent Frank W..
Phelan. A r. T., organizer at Cincln-
natl, to Jail for six months. Taft, the
candidate for president now that Pie
Ian is dead, declares that the latter, al
ter having served his sentence, called
upon him (Taft) and thanked him for
putting him (Phelan) in jail, and de-
clared him (Taft to be the best friend
organized labor ever had Brushing
aside the charge made by Phelan's
most intimate associates that Taft's
statement is lying SANDER upon the
dead, l submit to any candid mind
that, even if true, it is so unreasonable
as to brand Taft a fool for attempting
to make political capital out of it years
after death had sealed Phelan's lips.
We next hear of Taft through vi
cious attack upon President Mckinley
and his PHILIPPINE policy. Taft being a
federal judge, and therefore, immune
from effective presidential rebuke, Nc
Kinley had recourse to his authority
as commandment -chief of the army and
navy to offer Taft the gOvernOrShlp OF
the Philippines at salary OF forty
thousand dollars, local currency, per
annum. an increase Of 400 per cent
OVER his salary, as federal judge. Flesh
being weak, Taft was, presumably, UNI
able, to resist this tempting offer, how
ever repugnant to his soul the thought
of imposing his government upon the
unwilling F'ilipinos.
The next we hear of Taft is in the
performance of political service for
the Mckinley administration in send
ing back false, and misleading state
ments back to the United States, dur
ing the campaign of 1900, to the effect
that the instruction was at an end and
the Filipinos were happy and contented
in their new allegiance. With the
presidential campaign ended, and no
necessity remaining for further misrep-
resentatiOn, we find no mention OF
peaceful conditions in Taft's reports
for some years. In this connection 1t
might be opportune to here remark
that congress authorized Taft to inau-
gurate a native legislative assembly at
the conclusion of a two years reign of
peace Taft did not avail himself of
this authority until seven years after
the close of the campaign Of 1900.
Government Instituted by Taft.
Preliminary to any discussion of the
kind of government which Taft insti-
tuted in the Philippine Islands, a state
ment is essential as showing the earn
ing capacity of the people and their
ability to bear the burden of it's ad-
ministration: Nine tenths of the F'ilipi-
no people live in grass houses, not to
exceed one of these inhabitations in a
thousand being worth more than ten
dollars. Those who have no personal
knowledge of conditions there can In
no sense realize the poverty and
squalor and want of the people, How
could it be otherwise with a monetary
circulation not exceeding three dollars
| per capita and the yearly earnings OF
! labor not exceeding SIS pen capita?
Yet these people whose income does
not exceed SIS each per year, are
called upon to pay their American gov
ernor a salary of forty thousand dol
lars, local currency, per annum
| double the amount paid the governor OF
of the great state of New York with its
commerce amounting to more every day
than the commerce of the Philippines
amounts to in the course of a year
| They are also called upon to pay theil
American commissioners thirty-one
thousand dollars. local currency, each
! per year. In addition to this the pow
erty stricken natives are called upOr
| to support twenty-seven bureaus en-
| plOying some ten thousand officials an(
| SIbOrdinateS, heads of which are
Americans drawing average salaries OF