In the early days, when we were facing unforeseen difficulties and discouragements, I was for a time the one member of the Philippine Commission who was really enthusiastically in favour of carrying out the original plans for the summer capital.  It was then the fashion to charge me with responsibility for the policy of opening up communication with the place and for the mistakes made in the construction of the Benguet Road, although I had never had any control over the road work and had been one of five at first, and later one of nine, to vote for every appropriation found necessary in order to complete it.

It was the enthusiasm of Mr. Forbes which at a critical time finally saved the situation, and now that Baguio has arrived, and the wisdom of the policy so long pursued in the face of manifold discouragements has been demonstrated, my one fear is that he will get all the glory and that I shall be denied credit for the part which I actually did play in bringing about the determination to establish quick communication with one of the most wonderful mountain health resorts to be found in any tropical country, and in giving that determination effect.  But I have had a more than abundant reward of another sort.  My wife, my son and I myself, when seriously ill, have been restored to vigorous health by brief sojourns at this one of the world’s great health resorts.

It has been very much the fashion for Filipino politicians to rail at Baguio, and now that the dangerous experiment of giving them control of both houses of the legislature is being made, they may refuse to appropriate the sums necessary to make possible the annual transfer of the insular government to that place.  The result of such a bit of politics would be a marked increase in the present extraordinarily low death rate among government officers and employees, American and Filipino, [515] beginning in about two years, when the cumulative effect of long residence in the lowlands makes itself felt.

Meanwhile, Baguio can stand on its own feet, and if, as the politicians suggest, the government buildings there be sold at auction, purchasers for all dwelling houses should readily be found.  Too many Filipinos have learned by happy experience the delights of this wonderful region, to let such an opportunity pass.  Baguio has come to stay.

CHAPTER XVIII

The Cooerdination of Scientific Work

When Americans landed at Manila, they found no government institutions for the training of physicians and surgeons and no hospital in any sense modern or indeed worthy of the name.

There did exist the equipment of what had been called a municipal laboratory, outfitted for a limited amount of chemical work only.

When the Philippine Commission arrived on the scene, it fell to my lot to draft the necessary legislation for placing scientific work on a firm foundation, and, later, as secretary of the interior, to exercise ultimate executive control over practically all such work carried on under the insular government.