“Admiral Dewey. Of Aguinaldo and the Filipinos. They were bothering me. I was very busy getting my squadron ready for battle, and these little men were coming on board my ship at Hongkong and taking a good deal of my time, and I did not attach the slightest importance to anything they could do, and they did nothing; that is, none of them went with me when I went to Mirs Bay. There had been a good deal of talk, but when the time came they did not go. One of them didn’t go because he didn’t have any toothbrush.
“Senator Burrows. Did he give that as a reason?
“Admiral Dewey. Yes; he said, ‘I have no toothbrush.’”[29]
However, Dewey ultimately yielded to the pressure exercised on him by Pratt and Wildman, and allowed Aguinaldo and some of his associates to be brought to Manila. Having them there he proposed to get assistance from them, not as allies, but as a friendly force attacking a common enemy, in its own way.
The Return of Mr. Taft
This photograph, taken on the occasion of the return of Mr. Taft to the Philippines after his appointment as secretary of war, shows him in a stand on the Luneta reviewing the procession organized in his honor, in which thousands of Filipinos participated.
Let us continue with his testimony as to cooperation between Aguinaldo and the naval forces of the United States:—
“Senator Patterson. Then, Admiral, until you knew that they were going to send land forces to your assistance you thought there was a necessity to organize the Filipinos into land forces, did you?
“Admiral Dewey. No; not a necessity.