General MacArthur assigned to the Commission for the southern trip the transport Sumner, which contained sufficient cabin space to accommodate in comfort a large party. Besides all the ladies in the civil government, the Commission had invited some newspaper men and a number of prominent Filipinos who were pledged to the restoration of peace under American control. Among them were representatives of all the peoples in the southern islands to be visited. Then, too, we all took our children. We had to; and it was fortunate for us that they were such experienced and adaptable little people else they might have proved a great nuisance in such a mixed party and on a trip where we were to stop at twenty-odd different towns and attend innumerable meetings, banquetes and bailes. But, as it was, they gave us little trouble. Mrs. Moses’ little daughter, who had just come out from San Francisco, my daughter Helen and my son Robert, Mr. Fergusson’s son Arthur and young Jack Branagan, were all about the same age, and they never tired of devising games that could be played around such parts of the decks as were not infested with grownups. Then, to while away the hours when their elders were attending ceremonies on shore, they explored bays and rivers in a sailboat which was rigged out for them by Captain Lyman, of the Sumner, a most fatherly man who seemed to enjoy this unusual opportunity to indulge his love for children. On the beaches they collected an infinite variety of shells, corals and malodorous marine curiosities, but these they kept on the lower decks where they could enjoy them in peace. Charlie was, of course, the ship’s baby. He was younger than either of the Worcester children and, I am afraid, somewhat less well behaved. He scorned their rather quiet amusements and led a strenuous and independent existence which gave me some uneasiness. He rushed around over the ship with the utmost carelessness, delivering orders in a strange jargon to his little Filipino nurse, who was always rushing after him just far enough behind to be utterly useless in case anything should happen to him. It was a certainty that should he fall overboard she would reach the rail just in time to see him sink. Some of the deck rails were low, but strange to say he came through without accident. I think Charlie must have acquired some of the surefootedness of a cat. He had been twice around the world before he was eight years old, and that he managed to grow up into an unscarred and quite decorous young man was certainly not due to natural caution on his part nor to over-restraint on ours.
It was an interesting party gathered on the Sumner. Among others were the Atkinsons. Mr. Atkinson was the Superintendent of Public Instruction who had recently come out from Springfield, Massachusetts, and who was making this trip for the purpose of seeing what steps should or could be taken to introduce a system of public instruction in a practically schoolless land. The Commission had appropriated just as much for the establishment of public schools as the treasury could spare, this being the natural American thing to do under the circumstances, and no time was to be lost in getting down to practical work. And, I should like to note, that in no enterprise which America has undertaken in the Philippines have we received such enthusiastic support and cooperation from the Filipinos as in this. That they were tremendously alive to the value of the educational privileges offered to them is proved by the phenomenal success attained by the public school system which was introduced. District schools, village and town schools, the high school and the normal school are today as much a cherished part of Philippine life as such institutions are a part of the great “American idea” in the United States. And in addition to these a University has been founded which promises to become one of the finest institutions of learning in the whole East. Whatever may be said about the American Constitution there can be no dispute about the fact that education follows the flag.
The Filipinos in our party, who were invited to go in order that they might give the Commission information and advice and also, in some measure, explain to their own compatriots the intentions of the American Government, included Chief Justice Arellano, the two Supreme Court Judges, Llorente and Arañeta, and the originators of the Federal Party, Don Benito Legarda, Doctor Pardo de Tavera and General Flores. The Federal Party expected to organise in the far provinces and it was hoped this would have a healthy effect on insular politics. There were about sixty of us in all and I think we must have seemed rather a formidable host to some of the nervous reception committees that were forced to encounter us.
It was all wonderfully interesting. Our first stop was at Lucena in the Province of Tayabas. We arrived there in the late afternoon so we had to lie at anchor until next morning, but while the daylight lasted we gazed eagerly at the shore through our field glasses and were astonished to see the crowds of Filipinos not only lining the beach but wading in throngs out into the Bay, as far as they safely could. It was as if they had decided to walk out to meet us. And the town was decorated, decorated
