And State Papers 569 



ly, sometimes unconsciously, toward this end. What 

 has taken us thirty generations to achieve, we can 

 not expect to see another race accomplish out of 

 hand, especially when large portions of that race 

 start very far behind the point which our ancestors 

 had reached even thirty generations ago. In deal- 

 ing 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, hav- 

 ing been forced by the exigencies of war to take pos- 

 session of an alien land, has behaved to its inhabi- 

 tants 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 es- 

 tablished not an appointment has been made in the 

 8 VOL. XIV 



