med in Mexico
as the long-expected "Fair Gods" because of their blond complexions
derived from a Gothic ancestry. Far back in history their forbears
had been neighbors of the Anglo-Saxons in the forests of Germany,
so that the customs of Anglo-Saxon England and of the Gothic
kingdom of Castile had much in common. The "Laws of the Indies,"
the disregard of which was the ground of most Filipino complaints
up to the very last days of the rule of Spain, was a compilation
of such of these Anglo-Saxon-Castilian laws and customs as it was
thought could be extended to the Americas, originally called the New
Kingdom of Castile, which included the Philippine Archipelago. Thus
the New England township and the Mexican, and consequently the early
Philippine pueblo, as units of local government are nearly related.

These American associations, English influences, and Anglo-Saxon ideals
also culminated in the life work of Jose Rizal, the heir of all the
past ages in Philippine history. But other causes operating in his
own day--the stories of his elders, the incidents of his childhood,
the books he read, the men he met, the travels he made--as later
pages will show--contributed further to make him the man he was.

It was fortunate for the Philippines that after the war of
misunderstanding with the United States there existed a character that
commanded the admiration of both sides. Rizal's writings revealed to
the Americans aspirations that appealed to them and conditions that
called forth their sympathy, while the Filipinos felt confidence,
for that reason, in the otherwise incomprehensible new government
which honored their hero.

Rizal was already, and had been for years, without rival as the idol
of his countrymen when there came, after deliberation and delay, his
official recognition in the Philippines. Necessarily there had to be
careful study of his life and scrutiny of his writings before the head
of our nation could indorse as the corner stone of the new government
which succeeded Spain's misrule, the very ideas which Spain had
considered a sufficient warrant for shooting their author as a traitor.

Finally the President of the United States in a public address at
Fargo, North Dakota, on April 7, 1903--five years after American
scholars had begun to study Philippine affairs as they had never
been studied before--declared: "In the Philippine Islands the
American government has tried, and is trying, to carry out exactly
wha