Note 1 — Chapter XVII · Governor Taft, 1903 (Continued)

Just before Governor Taft left the Islands in 1903, he made a speech which made him immensely popular with the Filipinos and immensely unpopular with the Americans. The key-note of the speech was “The Philippines for the Filipinos.” The Filipinos interpreted it to mean for them that ultimate independence was not so far in the dim distance of what is to happen after all the living are dead as to be a purely academic matter. And there was absolutely nothing in the speech to negative that idea, although he must have known how the great majority of the Filipinos would interpret the speech. On the other hand, the Americans in the Islands, popularity with whom was then and there a negligible factor, interpreted the speech, not inaccurately, to mean for them: “If you white men out here, not connected with the Government, you Americans, British, Germans and Spaniards, and the rest of you, do not like the way I am running this country, why, the boats have not quit running between here and your respective homes.”1 Then he came back to the United States and has ever since been urging American capital to go to the Philippines, all the time opposing any declaration by the law-making power of the Government which will let the American who goes out there know “where he is at,” i.e., whether we are or are not going to keep the Islands permanently, and how to formulate his earthly plans accordingly, though the educated Filipinos are concurrently permitted to clamor against American “exploitation,” American rule, and Americans generally, and to keep alive among the masses of their people what they call “the spirit of liberty,” and what the insular government calls the spirit of “irreconcilableness.” Clearly, a policy which makes for race friction and race hatred is essentially soft-headed, not soft-hearted, and ought not to be permitted to continue. Yet it has been true for twelve years, as one of President Taft’s admiring friends proudly boasted concerning him some time since: