Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/209

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 169 Taft while secretary of war. This was a yoyage around the world, having for its primary object a visit to the Philippines. He had assured the Filipinos, before leaving them, that he would come back to take part in the opening of their first national assembly. The serious condition of his mother s health would have amply excused his failure to keep this engagement; but, though both knew how improbable it was that she would live to see him again, she protested so urgently against his disappointing his dependent people that he re pressed his first inclination and went. Their fore bodings proved true. Mrs. Taft died while her son was on the high seas, homeward bound. His journey had been fruitful, however, for it had fortified the loyalty of the * little brown brothers" to whom he had been teaching self-control and true patriotism; and it had enabled him to warn them once more, face to face, that, in spite of what some agitators were telling them, they would undoubt edly have to remain in a state of tutelage longer than another generation. In Japan, where he broke his journey, he took occasion to remind the people who were resentful of certain recent occur rences in America, that "war between Japan and the United States would be a crime against modern civilization," and to set forth the reasons why; as well as to put an end to the persistent rumor that the United States wished to sell the Philippines,