210 Presidential Addresses 



which came under our flag as a result of the war 

 with Spain. 



Hence I say that General Wright, like Governor 

 Taft and his associates, has rendered a peculiar ser 

 vice to every man jealous of the honor of the Amer 

 ican name in what he has done in administering the 

 Philippine Islands. For fourteen months it has 

 been part of my business to see how the work there 

 was done. I am not speaking exaggeratedly, I am 

 speaking literally, telling the naked truth, when I 

 say that never during that time has a question of 

 party politics entered into even the smallest action 

 of those in control of the Philippine Islands. 



My fellow-Americans, we can not afford to have 

 the honor of the Nation in any way smirched in con 

 nection with our dependencies. We can not afford 

 to have it smirched anywhere; but if we wrong our 

 selves here at home we are to blame and we pay the 

 penalty, while if we allow wrong in connection with 

 the islands not only the islands suffer, but an in 

 delible stigma of shame comes to the American name. 

 I am earnestly desirous that the administration of 

 the Philippine Islands shall be put and kept upon 

 such a plane of patriotic efficiency that no change 

 will be made in it owing to any change of party 

 here at home. Party feeling should of course stop 

 at the water-line. The inestimable service rendered 

 by Governor Wright in the Philippine Islands has 

 been because he has so conducted the government of 

 those islands as,to make it not only of signal benefit 

 to them, but of signal honor to every citizen of 



