By this time conditions had so far improved in the archipelago
that President McKinley was prepared to initiate a movement looking
toward the establishment of civil government there. With this end in
view he appointed the following commission of five civilians; William
H. Taft of Ohio, Dean C. Worcester of Michigan, Luke E. Wright of
Tennessee, Henry C. Ide of Vermont and Bernard Moses of California. Our
appointments were dated March 16, 1900. Our instructions which were
full, are given in the appendix. [457] I was the only member of the
first commission to be reappointed. Neither General Otis nor Admiral
Dewey cared to serve, and indeed the professional duties of each
of them rendered his appointment to the new commission difficult,
if not impossible. Mr. Schurman had at one time expressed himself
as vigorously opposed to the idea of a new commission, maintaining
that the best results could be obtained by the appointment of a civil
governor with wide powers. It was therefore taken for granted that he
would not desire reappointment. Colonel Denby was keenly interested
in the work and would have been glad to continue it, but he was past
seventy and with his good wife had then spent some fifteen years
in the Far East. He doubted whether his strength would be adequate
to bear the strain of the arduous task which obviously lay before
the new commission, and Mrs.
Pages:
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430