The American government has had no difficulty in finding men competent to fill the offices which have been assigned to the natives, three of the seven members of the commission and three of the seven supreme court judges being Filipinos. The governors and mayors are nearly all Filipinos, as are most of the judges of the lower courts. As there is no satisfactory service by private boats, the commission furnished us a coastguard steamer for a tour of the islands, the passengers paying the cost of subsistence, and we were thus enabled to visit the principal cities. At all of these places we found a group of intellectual and public spirited men. At Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu and Santa Barbara there were addresses of welcome and public receptions, and the views of the residents were presented in clear and well chosen language. At Malolos, the first capital of the Aguinaldo government, which we visited as the guest of a committee of prominent Filipinos, similar speeches were delivered, which met with the approval of the assembled crowd. At Manila a public dinner was given by a number of representative Filipinos, headed by Mayor Roxas, at which speeches were made by Filipinos distinguished in official and professional life. The addresses delivered on these several occasions would compare favorably with speeches delivered under similar circumstances in the United States. While some of the persons who took part in these meetings showed traces of Spanish blood, others were unmistakably Filipino; but the racial differences could not be distinguished by the manner in which they performed their parts.
While at Manila I met General Aguinaldo, first at the reception tendered us by the Elks, and later at his own home in Cavite. Since his capture he has been living in retirement and has conducted himself in such a manner as to win the approbation of the American officials. He is small of stature, modest in deportment and manifests a deep interest in the welfare of his people. He has twice appealed to the government to establish an agricultural bank for the relief of the farmers, calling attention to the scarcity of money and to the high rate of interest (sometimes 40 or 50 per cent) charged the farmers on short loans. The agricultural bank was referred to by several speakers during our stay in the islands, and it is certain that, from an industrial standpoint, the government could do nothing which would be more beneficial or acceptable to the people.