The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

CHAPTER V

THE MOROS MEET AMERICA
The struggle between Spaniards and Moros was still going
on in 1898 when America came into possession of the Philippines. The Americans never made the mistake of underestimating the Moros. The War Department, realizing that here
was the most delicate and difficult region within the boundaries
of American sovereignty sent able men to deal with the situation,-aind several of these were made greater by the experience. Pershing, Leonard Wood, Tasker Bliss, Bullard, Davis,
Baldwin, Summer, Harbord, these and others only less well
known, were not only soldiers but statesmen.
They had no desire to destroy the Moros; they did not even
try to convert them. They were never the aggressors, but when
attacked their recoil was quick and terrible. The Moros
fought with the same amazing carelessness of life they had
always shown, but it began to dawn upon them that they always
lost, that nothing happened unless they began the trouble, and
that they did the Americans little harm, while they themselves
took all the punishment. They were brave, but that kind of
folly was not bravery. A Moro is perfectly willing to die
killing Christians-if he kills any-but he sees little glory in
trying to kill them and failing.
GENERAL WOOD IN MOROLAND
General Wood made a scientific study of the psychology of
the Moros. He bought all the books on Mohammedanism, the
Moros, and the Orient that he thought had any value. He
had a room full of them. When a friend asked him when he
ever expected to read them all, he replied, "I have read them."
That did not satisfy Wood. Instead of going directly to
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