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, it 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 lest 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  But it may well be that in certain cases it will have to be withdrawn because the inhabitants show themselves unfit to exercise it; such instances have already occurred.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.

There are still troubles ahead in the islands.  The insurrection has become an affair of local banditti and marauders, who deserve no higher regard than the brigands of portions of the Old World.  Encouragement, direct or indirect, to these insurrectors stands on the same footing as encouragement to hostile Indians in the days when we still had Indian wars.  Exactly as our aim is to give to the Indian who remains peaceful the fullest and amplest consideration, but to have it understood that we will show no weakness if he goes on the warpath, so we must make it evident, unless we are false to our own traditions and to the demands of civilization and humanity, that while we will do everything in our power for the Filipino who is peaceful, we will take the sternest measures with the Filipino who follows the path of the insurrecto and the ladrone.