RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS
"Then, I shall have to go," said Monsignor Guidi.
"I am very sorry," said Mr. Taft. "I understand your position perfectly and I trust you understand mine as well."
So the highest of insular Church dignitaries got his hat and hastened away while the "renegade and impious impostor" remained—in serene unconsciousness of the disturbance he had created? Perhaps not. At least he was serene.
But our relations with Monsignor Guidi continued most agreeable during our entire stay in the Islands. Mr. Taft thought very highly of him as a man and an ecclesiastical statesman and diplomat and greatly regretted his death which occurred after we left the Islands. Through him, the question of the Friars' lands was settled as Pope Leo had told Mr. Taft it would be, satisfactorily to the United States. To bring that story, which was distractingly long drawn out in reality, to a close, I will merely add that the government succeeded in purchasing the Friars' lands for the sum of $7,000,000; they were turned into a public domain to be sold under most encouraging conditions, to their tenants and others who wished to acquire homesteads. The Friars were not sent back to the parishes and many left the Islands.
However this was not brought about without the protracted exercise of patience and diplomacy in the very midst of which the long arm of Washington reached out and touched my busy husband on the shoulder. He came home one day with a puzzled air and a cablegram from President Roosevelt. This cablegram read, in part:
Taft, Manila. On January first there will be a vacancy on the Supreme Court to which I earnestly desire to appoint you.…I feel that your duty is on the Court unless you have decided not to adopt a judicial career. I greatly hope you will accept. Would appreciate early answer.
Roosevelt.
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