Arizona republican., 1901-12-04

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 The island is thriving as never before,
 and it is being administered efficiently
 and honestly. Its people are now en- toying liberty and order under the pro-
 lection of the United States, and upon
 this fact we congratulate them and
 ourselves. Their material welfare
 must be as carefully and jealously, con
 sidered as the welfare of any other DOT
 tion of our country. We have given | them the great gift of free access for
 their products to the markets of the | United States. I ask the attention of | the congress to the need of legislat ton | concerning the public lands of orPto | Rico.
 | In Cuba such progress has been made | toward putting the independent gov
 ernment of the island upon a firm foot | ing that before the present session of | the congress closes this will be an ac- | complished fact. Cuba will then start | as her own mistress; and to the beauti- | full Queen of the Antilles, as she unfolds 1 this new page of her destiny, eX- | tend our heartiest greetings and good | wishes Elsewhere I have discussed | the question of reciprocity. In the case | of Cuba. however, there are weighty
 reasons of morality and of national in | terest why the policy should be held | to have Il peculiar application, and I
 most earnestly ask sour attention to | the wisdom, indeed to the vital need. | of providing for a substantial reduc- | tion in the tariff duties on Cuban i'm ports into the United States. Cuba | has in her constitution affirmed what
 we desired. that she should stand. in | international matters, in closer and
 more friendly relations with us than
 with any other power; and we are | bound by every consideration of honor | a nN m rci
 measures in the interest of her material | we'll being.
 In the Philippines our problem is | larger. They are very rich tropical | islands, inhabited by many varying | tribes, representing widely different | stages of progress toward civilization.
 Our earnest effort is to help these peo-
 pie upward along the stony and difficult | path that leads to self-government. We hope to make our administration Of the islands honorable to our nation by
 making it of the highest benefit to the | Filipinos themselves; and as an earnest of what we intend to do, we point to what we have done. Already | a greater measure of material prosper
 ity and of governmental honesty and | efficiency has been attained in the | Philippines than ever before in their
 history.
 It is no light task for a nation to achieve the temperamentai qualities without which the institutions of free government are but an empty mockery. ] Our people are now successfully gov erning themselves, because for more
 than a thousand years they have been slowly fitting themselves, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously.
 toward this end. What has taken us thirty generations to achieve. we can
 not expect to see another race accom- plish out of hand, especially when large portions of that race start very far behind the point which our ancestors had reached even thirty generations
 ago. In dealing with the Philippine
 people We must show both patience and strength. forbearance and steadfast resolution. Our aim is high. We do ! not desire to do for the islanders mere | ly what has elsewhere been done for l tropic peoples by even the best foreign governments. We hope to do for them what has never before been done for any people of the tropics-to make
 them fit for self-government after the
 fashion of really free nations.
 History may safely be challenged to show a single instance in which a
 masterful race such as ours, having | been forced by the exigencies of war to l take possession of an alien land. has | behaved to it's inhabitants with the ] disinterested zeal for their progress | that our people have shown in the Philippines. To leave the islands at | this time would mean that they would | fall into a welter of murderous an- | archy. Such desertion of duty on our part would be crime against humani- | ty The character of Governor Taft and of his associates and subordinates | IS a proof. if such be needed, of the | sincerity of our effort to give the | islanders a constantly increasing meas | ure of self f-government, exactly as fast | as they show themselves fit to exercise | it. Since the civil government was | established not an appointment has been made in the islands with any ref erence to considerations of political in- | fluence. or to aught else save the fit
 ness of the man and the needs of the
 service.
 In our anxiety for the welfare and
 progress of the Philippines, it may be
 that here and there we have gone too
 rapidly in giving them local self | government. It is this side that
 our error, if any. has been committed.
 No competent observer, sincerely de-
 sirous of finding out the facts and in | fiuenced only by a desire for the wei
 fare of the natives. can assert that we l have not gone far enough. We have | gone to the very verge of safety in | hastening the process. To have taken
 a single step farther or faster in ad- vance would have been folly and weak ness. and might well nave been crime. | We are extremely anxious that the na-
 tives shall show the power of covering 1 themselves. We are anxious, first for | their sakes, and next, because it re- lieves us of a great burden. There need
 not be the slightest fear of our not con- | tinuing to give them all the liberty for | which they are fit.
 The only fear is lest in our over | anxiety we give them a degree of in- | dependence for which they are unfit,
 thereby inviting reaction and disaster.
 As fast as there is any reasonable hope
 that in given district the people can
 govern themselves, self government | has been given in that district There | is not locality fitted for self-goYern-