RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS
tendered in that fashion and besides there was no vacancy. Mr. Taft lost no time in responding to the President's summons as I awaited his return with as much patience as I could muster. In three days he came home with an expression so grave that I thought he must be facing impeachment. But when he broke his news to me it gave me nothing but pleasure.
"The President wants me to go to the Philippine Islands," he said, in a tone he might have used in saying: "The President wants me to go out and jump off the court house dome." "Want to go?" he added.
"Yes, of course," I answered without a moment's hesitation. I wasn't sure what it meant, but I knew instantly that I didn't want to miss a big and novel experience. I have never shrunk before any obstacles when I had an opportunity to see a new country and I must say I have never regretted any adventure.
"The President and Mr. Root want to establish a civil government in the Philippines," said Mr. Taft, "and they want me to go out at the head of a commission to do it." It was only after I had accepted the invitation to go ten thousand miles away that I asked for an explanation.
In answer to the President's proposal, Mr. Taft said that he didn't approve of the acquisition of the Philippines in the first place, and that in the second place he knew nothing about colonial government and had had really no experience in executive work of any kind. But Mr. McKinley did not accept these objections as final. He called in Mr. Root, who was then Secretary of War, and who would be Mr. Taft's chief in the proposed mission to the Philippines, and together they presented the case so strongly that my husband could not help but waver in his decision. Neither Mr. McKinley nor Mr. Root had rejoiced in the taking over of the Philippines for that matter, but that was beside the question; the Philippines were taken, and it behoved the
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