e. That is natural, but
there is a deep love for America buried in their hearts because America
has been square with them; has fulfilled her promises; has not
exploited them, but has served them. That is why I call the colonization
policy of America here in the Philippines a dream worth dreaming." My
friend was right.

"We love America, because America is our friend!" said a humble
fisherman to me one day on the banks of the Pasig.

"Yes, the United States; it is our own! You are our brothers!" said a
Filipino boy who had been educated in a Mission school.

"We are no longer our own. We belong to America. You have bought us with
a price! It cost the blood of American soldiers to buy us!" said an old
Filipino, gray with years, but high in the councils of the Government.

* * * * *

One night on the Lunetta the Filipino Band was playing. It was a
beautiful evening with a sunset that lifted one into the very skies with
its bewildering glory and ecstasy. I had been sitting there, drinking in
the beautiful music made by the world-famous Constabulary Band, and
watching the quicksilver-like changing colors of the sunset. Then the
band started to play "The Star Spangled Banner." I was so lost in the
sunset and the music that I did not notice.

I heard a sudden stirring. Brown bodies, half-naked Filipinos all about
me, had leapt to their feet at the playing of our national hymn.
Beautiful Filipino women in their dainty and delicately winged gowns,
bare brown shoulders heaving with pride and friendship, stood
reverently. Filipino soldiers all over the Lunetta stood at attention
facing the flag, the Stars and Stripes waving in the winds from the old
walled city. Side by side with American soldiers who had just returned
from Siberia stood Filipino Constabulary soldiers. Side by side with
well-dressed American children stood half-naked Filipino children at
reverent attention, paying a wholesome respect to the Stars and Stripes
as the old hymn swept across the Lunetta.

"That is a thrilling thing to see!" I said to a friend.

"It could not have happened ten years ago! M he replied.

"Why?"

"They did not trust us, and they did not love us. They had seen too much
of the selfish colonization policies of Spain. They expected the same
things from America. It did not come. They have been won to us!"

This warm-hearted friendship is not true either of England's colonies
anywhere in the Orient or