The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-12-02

!, Taft implies and having had no kind
kof experience, as he states, he wal
4 one who had been In the actual en-
ploy Of the Philippine government for
i period Of six years, during four oil
which he filled a position OF similar
rank to the one to which Governor
General Harrison appointed him.
! As to Other Cases.
4 "Mr. Taft then goes on to say.
I Similar cases of inefficiency &C.
CURED In the bureaus engaged in at
tempting to suppress the dangerous
rinderpost. in conducting the hospitals
lin collecting internal revenue. II
usually takes some time to show in
efficiency due to changes because OF
originai momentum. but these were
almost immediate
| With respect to the suppression
tof rinderpost, the facts are that II
had not been suppressed during the
| time that the previous administrations
were in charge: that it was flourish
| ing in very dangerous degree at
the time of the last report of the
previous administration. dated Sep
tcmber rs, 1918 freport of Acting
Governor General Gilbert page 23)
The present administration has pur-
sued as vigorous policy as any prev.
tious administration in dealing with
this menacing and dangerous disease
and the present conditions are not
materially different than they were al
the time We took over the admins
ttration.
with respect to conducting the
hospital. the facts are that In the
last report OF Secretary Worcester
dated September Is. 1913. pages t16
eft seq. he shows at great length the
daplorahle conditions at the hospital
at that time.
Conditions Better.
at is entirely fair to state that
conditions are better than they were,
and on the whole are fairly satisfac-
tory, but some of the same difficulties
that Secretary Worcester encountered
still exist. and the condition is not
as satisfactory we would hope to
have it, but ii is as satisfactory as
we have been able to make it. il
will be seen that the suggestion that
the conditions at the hospital were the
product of any conduct on the part OF
the present administration IL utterly
unfair and unfounded.
with respect TO collecting the In
ternal revenue. the facts are that the
implication in Mr.. Tafts statement that
the Filipinization Of this bureau had
been initiated by this administration
and had resulted in inefiiciency, is ut
terty unfounded. The head OF this
service under Governor
Forbes. Mr. Holting, in his annual re-
port of the year 1913, sets forth at
length the reorganization of this de-
partment. He says in this respect:
I'm making these changes Fiiipinos
@have been appointed TO number OF
positions heretofore occupied only by
Americans and with very few excep-
tons tho results have been even bet
ter than was hoped for"
The complete answer Ia found in
the fact that the collections are as
large or larger than they ever were,
and the cost of collection is relatively
smaller than II ever was.
Mr., Tafts next charge is: a reor-
ganization of the judiciary. entirely
unnecessary and most wastefuI. was
effected to give more places for Fill
pinos.'
The facts arc. as shown by the re.
port OF Acting Governor General GiI-
bert dated September 2, 1ala hat II
was we'll reorganized that n reorxani-
zation and strengthening of the courts
was necessary. 1t was begun under
the previous administration, but was
not completed until after Governor
General Harrison was in office He re-
appointed every Judge then IN Office
and filled the vacancies created by tho
new law by appointing Americans as
we'll as Fiiipinos. Every Secretary
tica1iy everything done by this adj