Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1914-04-02
TAFT LECTURES
ON PHILIPPINES
Continued from First page.)

President Mckinley. 1t requested
! the speaker to meet the President in
| Washington the following Thursday.
He could not imagine, he said, what
might be wanted. He could not think
Of any vacancies on the Supreme
! Court bench
when I got to Washington / met
your fellow citizen whom I see here
tonight, Governor Griggs. He was
the United States attorney general
I asked him what it was all about
He said, TN tell you if you promise
not to tell the President / told you,
OF course / promised. Any woman
can understand how easily that was
done And then he told me I was
slated to go to the Philippines.
MIR. Root Came In.
But I scarcely know where they
are" / protested. Then Mr., Root
came in and he said
You've held a number of offices,
Mr.. Taft, and have filled them sue
cessfully. You always have had your
plate up for more, now here's a
chance I asked Mrs. Taft. She's a
Venturesome woman. She said go
We ment."
Mr. Taft told of conditions as he
found them upon reaching the Philip
pines and of the manner in which
the United States government set
about to improve conditions all
around. He told of the plaques that
were prevalent and how these we're
wiped out; of the ignorant people in
the islands and how they We're edu-
CO. ed and with what expense.
Il grew to love the Filipinos and
still love them. l kno wthey have
rot the same feeling toward me. But
there is another people (meaning the
Republican party) with whom / am
iE a similar position"
Question of Rights.
1.-THE great body of the adult Fill
pinos today, stepped in ignorance, do
not know their own rights under the
government under which they are
now living. The supreme difficulty of
maintaining a government of free
civil institutions there is in giving
the uneducated and the poor an un-
derstanding of what their rights are.
They do not know enough to Vlndl-
cate those rights by the methods Sc
cured to them now, OF appeal to the
courts and to the constituted police
authorities.
I'VE have given the Fiipinos in so
far as they are able and intelligent
enough to avail themselves of it,
system of courts and administration
of justice that will compare favorably
with that of any country. The Judges
are half Filipino and half American.
The civil code derived from the Ro-
man law. transferred from Spain to
the Philip nes, which defines the
rights of persons is a good code, and
we did not disturb it. The code of
civil procedure was one which kept
litigants with its technicalit es paw
ing in the yestibule Of justice forever,
and we gave them a new one to rem
der justice speedy and cheap. The
criminal procedure was not in accord
ance with our Constitut on or our
ideas of the preservation of the rights
of those accused and IL was changed.
A law of evidence was introduced, but
we did not think. and l do not think
now that the Filipino people are ready
for a jury system. Their cases of fact
are tried by n court w tn assessors
called IN to assist the judge, and then
the whole record goes TO the Supreme
Court of seven judges where the is
sues of fact are retired.
Mr. Taft then explained the great
benefits that the putting into effect OF
free trade between the islands and the
main lands havs brought about, and
the changes of coinage system from
time to time. He spoke of the bad
effect the changing from trained
Americans to Fihp.nos put in office.
He concluded by expressing the hope
that this country should remain in
control of the islands until at least
this generation and the next had been
given an opportunity to learn the
English language and the privileges
Of freedom