All demanded that abuses in connection with our rule should be punished and the repetition of such made impossible, and that whatever power we exercised should be lodged, without regard to party, in the hands of men of approved fitness and high and humane character. American tutelage, if it were to exist, must present to our wards the best and not the worst side of our civilization, and do so with tact and sympathy. [Illustration] The Inauguration of Governor Taft, Manila, July 4. 1901. On April 17, 1900, 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, were commissioned to organize civil government in the archipelago. Three native members were subsequently added to the commission. Municipal governments were to receive attention first, then governments over larger units. Local self-government was to prevail as far as possible. Pending the erection of a central legislature, the commission was invested with extensive legislative powers. Civil government was actually inaugurated July 4, 1901. Judge Taft was the first civil governor, General Adna R. Chaffee military governor under him. Educational work in the Philippines was pressed from the very beginning of American control. Our military authorities reopened the Manila schools, making attendance compulsory. In a short time the number of schools in the archipelago doubled. By September, 1901, the commission had passed a general school law, and had placed the schools throughout the archipelago under systematic organization and able headship. About 1,000 earnest and capable men and women went out from the States to teach Filipino youth. Five hundred towns received one or more American teachers each. Associated with them there were in the islands some 2,500 Filipino teachers, mostly doing primary work. [Illustration] Group of American Teachers on the steps of the Escuela Municipal, Manila. American teachers advanced into the interior to the neediest tribes. Nine teachers early settled among the Igorrotes, scattered in towns along the Agno River, and an industrial and agricultural school was soon planned for Igorrote boys. Normal schools and manual training schools were organized. Colonial history, whether ancient or modern, had never witnessed an educational mission like this. CHAPTER XVI. POLITICS AT THE TURNING OF THE CENTURY McKinley and Bryan were presidential candidates again in 1900. It was certain long beforehand that they would be, even when Admiral Dewey announced that he was available. The admiral seemed to offer himself reluctantly, and to be relieved when assured that all were sorry he had done so. McKinley was unanimously renominated. Unanimously also, yet against his will, Governor Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, was named with him on the ticket. The Democratic convention chose Bryan by acclamation; his mate, ex-Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson, by ballot.