At Tokio we had an audience with the Emperor and were received by the Empress as well.  In the high official who had charge of the palace where these events took place, I discovered an old University of Michigan graduate who made the occasion especially pleasant for me.

We finally reached Manila on the morning of June 3.  Although the thermometer was in the nineties, a certain frigidity pervaded the atmosphere on our arrival, which General MacArthur, the military governor, seemed to regard in the light of an intrusion.

He had been directed to provide suitable office quarters for us.  To our amazement and amusement we found desks for five commissioners and five private secretaries placed in one little room in the Ayuntamiento. [459] While it was possible to get through the room without scrambling over them, it would have been equally possible to circle it, walking on them, without stepping on the floor.  In the course of our first long official interview with the General, he informed us that we were “an injection into an otherwise normal situation.”

He added that we had already mediatized the volume of work that flowed over his desk.  At the moment none of us were quite sure what he meant, but we found the word in the dictionary.  How often in the weary years that were to follow I wished that some one would materially mediatize the task which fell to my lot!  It was General MacArthur’s honestly held and frankly expressed opinion that what the Filipinos needed was “military government pinned to their backs for ten years with bayonets.”  He later changed that view very radically, and when civil provincial governments were finally established it was with his approval, and, in many instances, upon his specific recommendation.

At the outset some effort was made to keep the public away from us.  Word was passed that we had no authority, which was true enough, as our legislative activities were not to begin until September 1.  The ninety days which intervened were very advantageously spent in gaining familiarity with the situation, which we had no difficulty in doing.  Plenty of people were already weary of military rule and flocked to us.  None of my companions had ever before set foot in the Philippines, and although I had spent more than four years there, I still had plenty to learn.

In this connection I am reminded of an event which occurred somewhat later.  While the commission was en route from Iloilo to Catbalogan when we were establishing civil provincial governments, General Hughes and Mr. Taft became involved in a somewhat animated discussion.  The General displayed an accurate knowledge of facts which were of such a nature that one would hardly have expected an army officer to be familiar with them.  Mr. Taft said:  “General, how do you do it?  You have always been a busy man, devoted to your profession.  How have you managed to accumulate such a remarkable fund of information?” The General smiled his rare smile and replied:  “Governor, I will tell you.  I always try to go to bed at night knowing a little more than I did when I got up in the morning.”  It is a wise plan to follow.