while we can and ought with wisdom to look abroad for
examples, and to profit by the experience of other
nations, we are already producing, even in this brief
period, material of the proper character within our
own border, men of our own people, who are showing
us what to do with these islands. A New Englander,
a man who would be entitled to belong to this Society,
a man who is in sympathy with all that is best and
most characteristic of the New England spirit, both
because of his attitude in war and of his attitude
toward civic morality in time of peace, is at present
giving us a good object lesson in administering those
tropic provinces. I allude to my former commander,
the present Governor-General of Santiago, Major-General
Leonard Wood. General Wood has before him about
as difficult a task as man could well have. He
is now intrusted with the supreme government of a province
which has been torn by the most hideously cruel of
all possible civil wars for the last three years,
which has been brought down to a condition of savage
anarchy, and from which our armies, when they expelled
the armies of Spain, expelled the last authoritative
representatives of what order there still was in the
province. To him fell the task of keeping order,
of preventing the insurgent visiting upon the Spaniard
his own terrible wrongs, of preventing the taking of
that revenge which to his wild nature seemed eminently
justifiable, the preserving of the rights of property,
of keeping unharmed the people who had been pacific,
and yet of gradually giving over the administration
of the island to the people who had fought for its
freedom, just as fast as, and no faster than, they
proved that they could be trusted with it. He
has gone about that task, devoted himself to it, body
and soul, spending his strength, his courage, and
perseverance, and in the face of incredible obstacles
he has accomplished very, very much.
Now, if we are going to administer the government
of the West Indies Islands which we have acquired,
and the Philippines, in a way that will be a credit
to us and to our institutions, we must see that they
are administered by the General Woods. We have
got to make up our minds that we can only send our
best men there; that we must then leave them as largely
unhampered as may be. We must exact good results
from them, but give them a large liberty in the methods
of reaching these results. If we treat those
islands as the spoil of the politician, we shall tread
again the path which Spain has trod before, and we
shall show ourselves infinitely more blameworthy than
Spain, for we shall sin against the light, seeing
the light.