Note 32 — Chapter XIV · The Taft Commission

It took over 120,000 American troops, first and last, to put down the struggle of the Filipinos for independence.32 The war began February 4, 1899, and the last public official announcement that it was ended was on July 4, 1902.33 Of course this does not imply that every province was at all times during that period a theatre of actual war. Putting down the insurrection was something like putting out a fire in a field of dry grass. At first the trouble was general. Gradually it diminished toward the end. But for a while, no sooner was it quenched in one province than it would break out in another. How the Filipinos were able to prolong the struggle as long as they did against such apparently overwhelming odds is most interestingly explained by General MacArthur in his report for 1900. After describing the method he followed of establishing native municipal governments in territory as conquered, he says, with a patient stateliness that is almost humorous: