The Oskaloosa herald., 1911-09-28
UPHOLCs COURSE
IN PHILIPPINES
President Taft Says Islanders
Must Be Long Our Wards.
PROGRESS IN THE ISLANDS
Addressing knights of Columbus In
Peoria, Chief Executive Tells How
FiIipInos Are Profitins by Amer
ica's Guardianship.

was the guest Of honor and chief
speaker last night at banquet given
by Peoria council. Knights of Column
bus, and took occasion to extol the re-
suits of American rule in the Philip
pines. He declared that the islands,
in justice to the inhabitants, must re-
main under the guardianship Of the
United States for many years to
come, but said the Filipinos were max
ing satisfactory progress toward a
condition in which they would be fit
for self-government. The presidents
address in part follows:
knights of Columbus, my Friends,
and Fellow Citizens: / am glad to
meet the members of this compare
lively young but very vigorous organ
ization. AS l understand it, you are
not more than twenty-five years old,
but in that quarter of a century you
have grown to membership of hun
dreds of thousands. The purpose of
your organization is 10 promote the
usefulness of, and give wider intiu-
ence to, the moral and religious force
of the Roman Catholic church. You
propose to make more evident in the
lives of the young members of that
church the effect of her teaching, and
the personal uplift that the following
of her guidance by individuals will in
volve. You wish TO be a force for
righteousness in the community, and
one of the primary principles that you
follow is the one which your church
upholds of respect for constituted au-
thority, and a love of country which,
instead of being inconsistent with your
love of God and your church, is &C
centuated and strengthened by it. You
have taken the name of the discov-
erer of America. You doubtless have
done so after a study of his charac-
ter and in recognition OF the great
ness and dignity of the man, the high
ideals that prompted his almost super
human efforts, the patience and tenac-
ity that attended every discourage
ment, the loyalty to his sovercigns
when put to grievous test, and the
final resignation to the will of God in
the sad ending of a tried, tempestu-
GUS, but most notable and useful life.
1T is true that there were other
brave in exposing themselves to dan
ger as he, in that heydey of Italian.
Spanish and Portuguese manhood; and
the risks they ran, the dangers they
encountered and survived, arouse in
the reader of the present day amaze
ment and profound admiration; but
the supreme merit was his, to do first
that which, until he did It, presented
unknown terrors to the adventurer.
Spain in the Philippines.
"A few years after Columbus came
Magellan, Balboa and yasco de Cana,
and later, Legaspi. The circumnaviga-
ton of the globe in vessels in which
it took months and years to make the
voyage, show a spirit of adventure, a
desire for knowledge, a Willingness to
sacrifice everything for it that make
a real, distinct period in the worlds
history.
MY attention was drawn to this pc
Rod more particularly by my Philip
pine experience, and a reading OF the
history of the Philippine Islands, to
which responsibility in their govern
ment naturally led NE. Magellan lost
his life in 1921, near the city OF Cebu,
by the arrow of a native chieftain
Later on he was followed by that old
warrior and sailor, Legaspi, who, with
Urdaneta, an Augustinian monk, came
to the Philippines at the express di-
rection of Philip the Second for the
purpose of spreading the Christian re-
ligion and intoxicating it in the inhab-
itants of those distant gems OF the
Pacific. One cannot but contrast the
success of Legaspi and Urdaneta with
the failure of Columbus and his broth
ers in the treatment Of the natives
The result in the case of Columbus
was doubtless due to a lack OF expert
ence and a failure to prepare for the
difficult problems which an assump-
ton of control over the natives in
volyed. He little understood the ma
luIS VI the luulhu. he IdQ UuL lew
resources, and he was beset by jeal-
ousies and treachery at home and in
the islands. His brother Bartholomew
seems to have been a wonderful ad-
minlstrator, but intrigues in Spain de-
feated their purpose. Their loyalty
to the soyereigns who sent them out,
brought them back In chains to their
adopted country.
Meantime, the natives were sub
jected to cruelties and suffering grow
ing out Of the cupidity OF those who
succeeded Columbus and they faded
away and disappeared. How different
was the result in the Philippine Is
lands only half a century later. There
Legaspi and Urdaneta and FIVE monks
landed at Manila, found traces OF Mo.
hammedan missionaries, and proceed
ed 10 convert seven-eighths OF the pop
ulation of the islands without force,
and by kindly treatment. by the teach
ing of agriculture and by the extern
sion over them of firm but equitable
and charitable government, they sue
ceeded. Through the regular orders
the Augustinians, the yesuits, the
the Dominicans and the