Show GAVEL WIELDED BY TAFT The Philippine Assembly Formally Opened and Ready for Business Manila Secretary Taft formally opened the Ililllpplno asbombly In tho National theatre at 1115 Wednesday morning In the presence ot a large crowd of people In his opening address ad-dress Mr Tuft declared that his views announced two year ago regarding the Independence of the Philippine people were unchanged He did not believe that they would be fitted to govern themselves for nt least a genet gen-et but he added that the matter was entirely 1m tho hands of congress The secretary denied emphatically that the Malted States had any intention inten-tion of disposing of tho Islands said he hall absolute confidence In the Filipinos Fili-pinos denied that he was disappointed disappoint-ed at their inability to legislate conservatively con-servatively and asserted his belief that they felt their responsibility and acknowledged the necessity of supporting sup-porting the American government Mr Taft refrained from suggestions regarding specific legislation by the assembly but recommended that attention at-tention bo paid to the civil service |