Evening star., 1935-12-12
Glorious Past More
to General Than
Present.
Famed dLeader Asks
Quick Freedom,
No Export Tax.
NOTE: This is the third OF
series OF articles By Mr.. McKelWdy
on the Philippine situation.
BY BEN McKELWAY,

STAN correspondent OF The star.
MANILA, P. lone asks in Manila
where the opposition to President
Quezon's commonwealth government
is apt to come from and sometimes the
name of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and
his devoted old comrades of the days
of '98 are mentioned. But if Presi-
dent Quezon had only to deal with
Gen. Aguinaldo and his faithful fol-
lowers in maintaining order in the
commonwealth he should lose no sleep
over that problem. Gen. Aguinaldo
is nearing 70 and while his figure is
still erect and active the fire has gone
out of his eyes and the glorious old
days that are gone forever mean more
to him than the perplexing realities of
the present.
Most of the members Of Congress
attending the inaugural ceremonies
made it point to visit him, some of
them with sound advice as to the duty
of patriotic Filipino in supporting
the new government. He visited some
of them at the Manila Hotel and
made his little speech for immediate
independence, or independence within
three or five years. Some of the
members of Congress, newly arrived
and uninformed, accidentally furnished
the general with something like sup
port for his issue by telling him that
| Congress would grant immediate in
| dependence if the Filipinos asked for
| it. But he was robbed of the same
support few days later when Senate
Leader Robinson made a speech in
which he said the 10-year transition
period was fixed by Congress as a
compromise between those who wanted
more and those who wanted less and
only Congress could change it, no
matter what individual members
might think. Senator Robinson had
been talking with President Quezon
and High Commissioner Murphy
Home Not Far From Manila.
The general receives visitors in his
old mansion where he was born in the
village of Cawit, on the road to Cavite,
not far from Manila. His home domi-
| mates a community of humble nipa
houses, where many of his old soldier
comrades live. The general is the
hero to them and always will be and
he does his best to live up to the role
In his mansion he points out to
visitors the things most dear to him.
There is the hole in the roof. now
covered with glass, made by a ball
from Spanish gunboat in 1896, when
the general, then a fiery young
patriot, was leading the revolt against
the Spanish regime. There is another
carefully preserved hole through the
finely carved headboard of his bed
another relic of the revolution. The
walls of his home are covered with
photographs of the various American
governors general who have served
in the islands and special niche in
the wall is reserved for an auto
graphed photograph of President
Roosevelt. He explained that Mr..
Harding's picture used to be there.
Painted glass windows, done by
some Jealous, if unskilled, admirer,
depict the various high lights in his
past: His victorious return from exile
in Hongkong aboard a battleship to
become the President of the first
Philippine Republic; himself sur
rounded by his generals in a railroad
coach, the coach windows serving as
frames for the portraits; the reading
of the proclamation establishing the