of that race start very far behind the point which our ancestors had reached even thirty generations ago.  In dealing with the Philippine people we must show both patience and strength, forbearance and steadfast resolution.  Our aim is high.  We do not desire to do for the islanders merely what has elsewhere been done for tropic peoples by even the best foreign governments.  We hope to do for them what has never before been done for any people of the tropics—­to make them fit for self-government after the fashion of the really free nations.

History may safely be challenged to show a single instance in which a masterful race such as ours, having been forced by the exigencies of war to take possession of an alien land, has behaved to its inhabitants with the disinterested zeal for their progress that our people have shown in the Philippines.  To leave the islands at this time would mean that they would fall into a welter of murderous anarchy.  Such desertion of duty on our part would be a crime against humanity.  The character of Governor Taft and of his associates and subordinates is a proof, if such be needed, of the sincerity of our effort to give the islanders a constantly increasing measure of self-government, exactly as fast as they show themselves fit to exercise it.  Since the civil government was established not an appointment has been made in the islands with any reference to considerations of political influence, or to aught else Save the fitness of the man and the needs of the service.

In our anxiety for the welfare and progress of the Philippines, may be that here and there we have gone too rapidly in giving them local self-government.  It is on this side that our error, if any, has been committed.  No competent observer, sincerely desirous of finding out the facts and influenced only by a desire for the welfare of the natives, can assert that we have not gone far enough.  We have gone to the very verge of safety in hastening the process.  To have taken a single step farther or faster in advance would have been folly and weakness, and might well have been crime.  We are extremely anxious that the natives shall show the power of governing themselves.  We are anxious, first for their sakes, and next, because it relieves us of a great burden.  There need not be the slightest fear of our not continuing to give them all the liberty for which they are fit.

The only fear is test in our overanxiety we give them a degree of independence for which they are unfit, thereby inviting reaction and disaster.  As fast as there is any reasonable hope that in a given district the people can govern themselves, self-government has been given in that district.  There is not a locality fitted for self-government which has not received it.  But it may well be that in certain cases it will have to be withdrawn because the inhabitants show themselves unfit to exercise it; such instances have already occurred.  In other words, there is not the slightest chance of our failing to show a sufficiently humanitarian spirit.  The danger comes in the opposite direction.