manded the cession of the islands. So our remaining there as long as we had was justified and it became apparent that Mr. McKinley had proceeded safely, mercifully and wisely when he decided to stay until he knew whether or not the Filipino could govern himself.

Now, what could we do in the face of that report? That was the exact question confronting Mr. McKinley. He had to meet it squarely and do something with it. He couldn't dodge it. He couldn't postpone it. He had to decide, now, finally. All the facts were now before him. There was no longer ignorance to justify inaction.

Let us dissect this report and see what the President's problem's were:

I. The commission said the Filipinos were unable to undertake the task of governing the archipelago at the present time.

2. The commission said that if the United States were to withdraw, the islands would lapse into anarchy and that would mean that the great powers would step in to protect their citizens and property there and would divide the islands among themselves.

3. The commission said, by implication, which

was, of course, true, that if the European powers did divide or take the islands there was no hope that the Philippines could ever be independent. Europe isn't in the business of setting up republics. Europe would only take these islands to squeeze, to milk, to bleed them just as Spain had done for the 300 years just passed.

It came up sharply to Mr. McKinley,-" If we desert them, they will lapse into anarchy and then go to the Great Powers to be forever, practically, slaves. If we take them, they will be free as soon as they can walk alone." In the former case they had no chance of ever being free. In the latter they had-and I believe this is the exact reason that

made Mr. McKinley advocate the cession of the islands to us by the Treaty of Peace. Such a reason would be entirely in accord with his character, almost any other reason is inconsistent therewith, and if we ever had a President who would take such a stand William McKinley was that man!

MR. MCKINLEY DECIDES ON THEIR REPORT AS A BASIS

Mr. McKinley had, I say, to decide; and I doubt if it took him very long. No person needing help ever appealed to William McKinley in vain. Mr.

McKinley decided that it was our duty not to desert the Filipinos-that, as he said, “There must be no scuttle policy "-and that the American people would back him up; and, as always, his mind once made up, he could not be swerved; and he poured our troops over there to establish order and to maintain it. Then Aguinaldo found out that his dream of revenge on the Spaniards and of making his tribe the ruler of the rest of the races was going to vanish in smoke. Then the great mass of the Filipino people, who were peaceful, found that the United States Army would protect them against the terrible cruelties that Aguinaldo's bands inflicted with great frequency upon those who would not join him.

A fair, and the most reasonable statement of what Aguinaldo was doing seems to be to say that his efforts probably were directed at securing the control of all the tribes in the Philippines for his own race. No other explanation of his frightful butchery of the peaceful, great mass of the people appears to be consistent with any other motive. If freedom for the Filipinos was his object, then for the first time in the world's history, if I read it aright, has a deliverer deemed it necessary to kill those for whom he was laboring.

CHAPTER V

THE BLOW FROM BEHIND STRIKES

THE BLOW FROM BEHIND FALLS ON OUR SOLDIERS

JUST as we were in the hottest of our campaign against Aguinaldo which we were waging to protect the great mass of the Filipinos and to meet our obligations which we had assumed toward other nations, there struck our army over there, what the Hon. John Barrett, late our Minister to Siam, called The blow from behind."

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As if out of the ground, there arose in this country a set of people calling themselves anti-imperialists. They were first seen in Boston. These people said that if it were not for them, this republic would become an empire; and they had come to prevent that. They said that if we kept on trying to save the Filipinos from Aguinaldo and anarchy, this republic would pass from the earth and an empire would rise in its stead. They took to print, and they flooded the mails with pamphlets called "The

Anti-Imperialist." The cover states that these pamphlets are "published at intervals." I fail to recognize the place, but, after studying what lies between the covers, I am glad that I am unable to find the place on the map; if I could, I should be forever avoiding it.

These publications attracted great attention. They were quoted by all the papers and people who are usually "anti" everything that the most of the world believes in, as if the statistics and statements in them were the law and the prophets. These pamphlets present a truly terrific array of figures that would sicken the stoutest heart of our work in the Philippines. The high priest of this "Anti-Imperialist" is Edward Atkinson of Boston, a gentleman, who, I believe, has secured the printing of more statistics with respect to matters that had nothing to do with his own vocation, which is, I am informed, that of fire insurance, than probably anybody else in the universe.

These figures presented by Mr. Atkinson in these. books have, I believe, not heretofore been examined with a microscope, but it is purposed to turn one right on to them here, for it is desired to place the anti-imperialists, so far as I may be able to do it,