The Cordova daily times., 1920-05-22
NO TIME TO ABANDON OUR PHIL.
 IPPINE POSSESSIONS

The agitation now being carried or in this country and in the Philippine Islands in favor of the separation O the islands from the United States is both unwise and unpatriotic .
 It is unwise from every viewpoin, because no sincere well-Wisher of tht Philippines could desire that at this troubled time in world history, the ten million people of these islands should be cast adrift to become Mexi eanized from within and finally Jap anized from without. s@ e
 The Philippine Islands are as much 8 part of the United States as the Northwest Territory or the Louisiana Purchase. They have had a larger measure of self-government and fa1 more governmental aid than either o1 these great stretches of acquired territory received from the American government in the days of President Jefferson and his immediate success sors, Despite all the talk of agitat ing politics in the Philippines and here in the United States, the ledger account of relationships between America and the Philippines stands all to the good of the archipelago. There has never been in history such example of enlightened altruism ill the treatment by a nation of the peo- pie of acquired possessions.
 The vast majority of the people of the Philippine Islands are voiceless in the native government that has been set up under the protection of the Emitted States. The talk of racial and national aspirations is rendered ridi sulous by the fact that the population ef the islands is a mosaic of warrant tribes, religions and even races. The government of the islands is today and would remain under an indepen- dent government, in the hands of one
 
 archipelago. There is no principle involved in this controversy; it arises out of the desire of ambitious politi- cos to put the Philippines in the sta tCs of Mexico or Korea, with personal advantage in the transposition to those who are the noisest in the de- mand that the United States, after all the expenditure in the islands, should divest itself of sovereignty in the Philippines.
 There is of course, just as good an argument for the Independence" of Hawaii, Porto Rico, and then of the states carved out of the Louisiana, Florida and Gadsden purchases, as for the abandonment of the Philippine Island by the United States. But there is no argument for the policy that can be sincerely advanced by those who keep wisely in mind the present status of world affairs, and the relationship of the interests of Americans and Filipinos to them.
 It is true that Japan looks with covetous eyes on the Philippine Islands, and that in so doing Japan is not alone among world powers The Philippine Islands are the one free source of tropical raw materials re- maining open or available to the United States. Such raw materials have become essential to the develop ment of any great industrial nation The Philippines are capable of pro ducing sufficient of such materials tC supply the needs of this nation, and it is the only source to which this country can look without fear of de structive discrimination. The reten tion of the Philippines is essential tc the maintenance of American indus trial independence. That would not be a sufficient argument if it were not true that the relationship between the United States and the Philippines is one which confers blessings an6 not injuries upon the people of the islands. Commercially as we'll as DO 1itically the relationship existing be tween the Philippines and the United Statees is immensely beneficial to the islands. The choice is between the existing status and that which pre- vails in Mexico or Korea.
 The present national administration has done all within it's power to wreck