The Philippines: Past and Present | Page 6

result followed the inauguration of an active campaign for the
suppression of surra, foot and mouth disease, and rinderpest, which
were rapidly destroying the horses and cattle.
From the outset I was held responsible for the enforcement of marine
and land quarantine regulations, which were at first very obnoxious to
the general public.
When the Pure Food and Drugs Act adopted by Congress for the
United States was made applicable to the Philippines without any
provision for its enforcement, this not altogether pleasant duty was
assigned to me.
I did not seek appointment to the Philippine service in the first instance.
The political influence at my command has never extended beyond my
own vote. During a period of twelve years my removal was loudly and
frequently demanded, yet I saw President Schurman, Colonel Denby,
General Otis, Admiral Dewey, Commissioner Moses, Governor Taft,
Governor Wright, Governor Ide, Governor Smith, Secretary Shuster,
Commissioner Tavera, Commissioner Legarda and Governor Forbes,
all my colleagues on one or the other of the Philippine commissions,
leave the service, before my own voluntary retirement on September 15,
1913.
I had long expected a request for my resignation at any time, and had
often wished that it might come. Indeed I once before tendered it
voluntarily, only to have President Taft say that he thought I should
withdraw it, which I did. I am absolutely without political ambition

save an earnest desire to earn the political epitaph, "He did what he
could."
During my brief and infrequent visits to the United States I have
discovered there widespread and radical misapprehension as to
conditions in the Philippines, but have failed to find that lack of interest
in them which is commonly said to exist. On the contrary, I have found
the American public keenly desirous of getting at the real facts
whenever there was an opportunity to do so.
The extraordinary extent to which untrue statements have been
accepted at their face value has surprised and deeply disturbed me. I
have conversed with three college presidents, each of whom believed
that the current expenses of the Philippine government were paid from
the United States Treasury.
The preponderance of false and misleading statements about the
Philippines is due, it seems to me, primarily to the fact that it is those
persons with whom the climate disagrees and who in consequence are
invalided home, and those who are separated from the service in the
interest of the public good, who return to the United States and get an
audience there; while those who successfully adapt themselves to local
conditions, display interest in their work and become proficient in it,
remain in the islands for long periods during which they are too busy,
and too far from home, to make themselves heard.
Incidentally it must be remembered that if such persons do attempt to
set forth facts which years of practical experience have taught them,
they are promptly accused of endeavouring to save their own bread and
butter by seeking to perpetuate conditions which insure them fat jobs.
When I think of the splendid men who have uncomplainingly laid
down their lives in the military and in the civil service of their country
in these islands, and of the larger number who have given freely of
their best years to unselfish, efficient work for others, this charge fills
me with indignation.
The only thing that kept me in the Philippine service for so long a time

was my interest in the work for the non-Christian tribes and my fear
that while my successor was gaining knowledge concerning it which
can be had only through experience, matters might temporarily go to
the bad. It has been my ambition to bring this work to such a point that
it would move on, for a time at least, by its own momentum.
I am now setting forth my views relative to the past and present
situation in the islands because I believe that their inhabitants are
confronted by a danger graver than any which they have before faced
since the time when their fate wavered in the balance, while the
question whether the United States should acquire sovereignty over
them or should allow Spain to continue to rule them was under
consideration.
It is my purpose to tell the plain, hard truth regardless of the effect of
such conduct upon my future career. It has been alleged that my views
on Philippine problems were coloured by a desire to retain my official
position. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, no man who
has not served for long and sometimes very weary years as a public
official, and has not been a target for numerous more or less
irresponsible individuals whose hands were filled with mud and who
were actuated by a fixed desire to throw