RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS
straggled in one by one, very grumpy, and we decided right away that they had not been taught, as we had been, to make the best of everything and to cultivate sociability on the trail. They had had a much more difficult day's riding than we because the trail up is much harder than the trail down, but we were pretty certain, on the whole, that we were much the better managed party.
With more Igorrote blankets we arranged another parti- tion in the hut to make room for them, then we gave them a good hot dinner — cooked in the tent which had been put up for kitchen purposes — and immediately a social thaw set in. We got all the news from Manila that we were so anxious for, and all the latest gossip. The news was disquieting. A cablegram had come announcing that the Supreme Court had decided there should be no duties in Porto Rico against United States imports, and instructing the Commission to suspend all legislation in the Philippine Islands until fur- ther notice. This might mean anything, but whatever else it meant it certainly meant renewed uncertainty and the pos- sibility that no change in the government would be made until after Congress met.
The politics of the situation were extremely complicated and seemed to revolve around a question which, because of a rather pugnacious manner of expressing it, had become a popular clamour. The question was: "Does the Consti- tution follow the Flag?" In other words, really, could duties be collected on imports from one American port to another? In any case, the question in respect to us was one for Congress to answer and it seemed to me we were fac- ing another long period of uneasiness and delay.
We knew the entire Commission had expected to make a trip in June for the purpose of organising the Christian prov- inces in the far north beyond the Mountain Province, but they were halted by the order to suspend definite activities,
and Commissioners Worcester and Moses had taken advan-
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