men whose hair has been streaked with gray through the strenuous labors of these days in the staff of the army, will be written high in the list of those entitled to their country's gratitude.

This army of ours is concentrated or concentrating largely in the wonderful islands of the East, toward which all American eyes are turned today. May I say a word to you of what it has been doing there and how the American soldier has been performing his duty? Will you go back with me to that May morning when all American hearts were made bright and joyous by the news of the Nelsonic victory of Dewey ?

Upon that day the title of Spain to the Philippine Islands stood unchallenged and unquestioned. But a few months before, the Philippine insurrection had ceased, ceased by an agreement under which Spain had promised to give to the Philippine Islands certain reforms, moderate in their character, reasonable in their nature, and to pay a sum of money to the leaders of the Philippine forces. Aguinaldo and his companions, as one of the terms of the treaty, had been exiled from Luzon; and, although disorganized riot and bloodshed had followed Spain's failure to keep her promise of reform, when, as a result of the destruction of the Spanish fleet, Dewey held Manila at his mercy, he was the potential master of an empire, to which the title of the Spanish foe was as unquestioned and indisputable as the title of the Queen of England to the island over which she reigns.

Admiral Dewey brought Aguinaldo in an American ship from exile. He set him upon the soil of Luzon and put in his hands the arms and ammunition by which he might gather the forces of the Philippines to aid the American army; and then for three long months, from May until the twelfth of August, he waited for reënforcements to come from America to make him strong enough to capture Manila not to capture Manila, but to hold Manila when it was captured

and during that time the Filipino leaders were gathering their forces, practically without opposition, with the guns of Dewey's fleet protecting them, and with the paralyzed Spaniards within the walls of Manila.

On the twelfth of August the protocol between Spain and the United States was signed, and by that we assumed the solemn obligation of holding the bay and harbor of Manila until the final treaty of peace was executed and ratified. We took possession of the city, and for six long weary months, while the slow processes of negotiation wore on, while the slower processes of discussion and ratification dragged their weary way, we stood on the ramparts of Manila waiting; and the American soldier, in those six months of inaction under the tropical sun, not knowing why he waited, not knowing that he was waiting under peremptory orders from Washington based upon the necessity of maintaining national faith, waited still waited while the army of the Filipinos which had been gathered about the walls and promised the loot of Manila, exasperated by being kept from their plunder, grew more and more defiant, grew at last contemptuous, showered upon him abuse and ridicule and defiance and insult.

And the stern resolve, the self-control, the power in obedience to orders and to duty to restrain themselves from even the resentment of insult, entitled the soldiers of America to the admiration of civilized and law-obeying men, while it won for them only the contempt of their half-civilized opponents.

It was this contempt and the certainty it bred that the Americans would not fight and were cowards, and could be swept into the sea, that led to the attack of February fifth, when the hordes of the Filipinos precipitated themselves upon our ranks. They speedily learned their mistake. What was it that the American soldier had before him then? You all understand that the Congress of the United States, not

expecting that these Filipinos, to whom we were ready to give a hundred times what they accepted from Spain a few months before, would reject the offer, had passed a law disbanding the army in effect, so that twenty-five days after the attack upon the American soldiers in Manila General Otis had left but 4,498 soldiers, officers, and men whom he was entitled to command, and the remaining 17,000 of his 22,000 soldiers were entitled to be discharged and returned to the United States.

The problem before him, then, was to hold back the uncounted hordes who surrounded Manila, to keep in subjection the two hundred thousand Filipinos in the city who had received orders to rise and massacre every European and American within its limits; to wait, with the rainy season coming upon him, until a new army could be raised and sent a third of the way around the world to take the place of the old army which must be sent back to their homes.

And then, again, the American soldier, the volunteer soldier and the thousands of regulars who were entitled to their discharge, showed what stuff they were made of. Homesick, longing for a sight of their old homes in temperate climes, enfeebled and sick from their long stay under a tropical sun and in tropical rains, nevertheless in this desperate strait of their country they abandoned the bright visions of home and stayed, without obligation, except that of patriotism, until a new army could be raised and sent to stand behind the flag.

Impatience is exhibited here and there. In many places we hear it; in many newspapers we see it. Impatience, like the old "On to Richmond" cry of 1861, like the "On to Havana " cry of 1898. But let me tell you that the events

of 1899 on the island of Luzon were events that followed a fixed, settled, and wise purpose.

In face of the fact that the country was about to become a morass impossible for military operations; that the rains were coming on, which gave, in fact, during the first twenty days of July in this year forty-two inches of rainfall - three feet and a half in twenty days which have given more than half a foot of rain in a single day; in the face of the approach of that climatic condition, with an army that must be succored from a third of the way round the world, the problem was to establish the American position against foes within and foes without, so that it could be held and maintain the flag until the men came to fight and there was land for them to fight on.

The temporary forays to punish too impertinent guerrillas have been magnified into great military movements, and when the party of foray has returned as a part of the plan of their operations, the return has been magnified into a retreat; but in fact, the steady, consistent, and unswerving purpose has run through every movement of every month and of every day in Luzon.

Well, the army, 17,000 of them, have been brought back from the other side of the world. Twenty-seven thousand — another army - have been sent, and are there today. Seventeen thousand more are on the road, and 17,000 more are in camp today, ready. By the fifteenth of next month, 49,000 American troops will answer to the commands of Otis and Lawton and MacArthur. By the end of the following month 65,000 will be there.

They are the best youth of America. Let me tell you that in the month of July we enlisted 2,900 men for the regular army, and they were enlisted out of 14,000 applications, of which 11,000 were rejected on examination. They are well officered by the best intelligence of America. Let me speak of what I know that of the 700 officers of the fifteen regiments which have been officered since the first of August, not

one has been appointed who has not seen actual service in the regular army, or in war, and not one has been appointed who was not appointed on his efficiency record as a soldier. Well, against whom are we fighting? Are we fighting the Philippine nation? No. There is none. There are hundreds of islands, inhabited by more than sixty tribes, speaking more than sixty different languages, and all but one are ready to accept American sovereignty — and many of them have already accepted it and welcomed the Stars and Stripes to float over them. Many of them are already engaged in learning the rudiments of government under the tuition of the American soldier. We are opposed by only the single tribe of the Tagalos, who inhabit less than one-half of the single island of Luzon.

Are we fighting a people who are capable of self-government? No. The practically unanimous declaration of the men who have been there and studied the subject and studied the people, is that they are not now capable of self-government. Senator Beveridge, of Indiana, who has been there qualifying himself in noble fashion for the performance of his duties in the Senate, says that they are not fit for it. General Merritt says they are not fit for it; General Greene says they are not fit for it; President Schurman says they are not fit for it; Admiral Dewey says they are not fit for it.

Are we fighting a people who themselves consider that they are capable of their own protection? No. For never has the most advanced and violent of them gone further than to say that they want to be allowed to govern themselves under the protection of the United States. Their proposition is that they should be at liberty to make the wars and that we should fight them.

Are we fighting the whole of the single tribe with which alone we are engaged? No; for the vast majority of that tribe want peace, law, order, and are ready and anxious for