Apt Words

It must have been with a great many grim thoughts that Governor General Wood, acting on behalf of the Secretary of War, opened the Insular Legislature of the Philippines. He had warred all through the previous session with the Legislature, which demanded his removal. The chief occupation of the island legislators has been to say "No" when the Governor said "Yes" and to say "Yes" when they anticipated that the Governor would say "No."

Seeing the faces of his tantalizers before him, who knows but that General Wood "inwardly gnashed his teeth"? What could he say to these people? If they liked him personally, it made no difference, because as a matter of politics they abused his every utterance publicly. So he told the legislators that public health had been very good during the past year, that the death rate had been the lowest on record, that he would cooperate with them in enacting "constructive legislation looking toward the upbuilding of Philippine economic independence," that they should modify the laws for leasing the public domain so as to encourage rubber planting. He summarized with a great flourish:

"A most creditable progress and a marked advance in political development have been made, but very little has been done to encourage economic development; but upon this and the further progress of education in the Government's activities political development very largely depends."

Unfortunately, as the Governor well knew, the Filipinos have a much greater flair for politics and political scheming than for commerce and civil engineering. Perhaps the Governor sighed. But he had really little to fear in the nature of an immediate rumpus from the Legislature, for the reason that all the real political leaders are in this country, junketing and ineffectually agitating for Insular independence.