The Washington times., 1923-07-19
Philippine Bureau
Charges General Wood
Aims To Be AutOcrat
By ALFREDO SAMSON,

Aims 10 be AUCOCr0E
By ALFREDO SAMSON,
Secretary, Washington Philippine
Bureau.
The break between the Filipino
leaders and Governor General
Leonard Wood has come at last.
It was unavoidable. Our lead
ers faced the alternative Of
either permitting General Wood
to deprive them Of the self
governm emit granted them by
Congress in the Jones law, or else
call his hand. They decided to
stand for their rights, and to
carry their case to- the American
Congress and the American
people.
Calls It AutOcracy.
Governor General Woods acts
and policies have been more char.
acteristic OF a military autocracy
than of civil administration.
In the first place. before belng
made governor, he signed the now
famous Wood Forbes report in which
he recommended that the Filipino
measures of self.goVernment which
they had enjoyed since 1918. He
wanted to turn the wheels OF Fill
pino progress backward. r
Neither Congress nor the Presi.
dent made any attempt to carry
out Woods recommendation in this
regard, and to that extent 1t 10 40
! Curate to state that the two most
! important recommendations OF the
| Wood-Forbes mission stand repudl-
ated by the present administration
Undaunted by this refusal of both
Congress and the Administration to
heed his recommendations, Governor
Wood has attempted to put his pol.
icies Of restriction into effect with
out waiting for any action by Con.
gress.
VetOes Legislation.
He has vetoed much important
legislation Of the Philippine leglsla-
ture. One Of the sixteen bills ne
vetoed carried an appropriation for
la tsn-year university program.
This measure did not in any way
affect the sovereignty Of the United
States, but General Woods action
on 1t was a bitter disappointment
to Filipinos, for If the Filipino peo-
pie, through their duly elected legis-
lature. cannot spend their own
money, then they have no self-gov.
eminent at all.
Governor Wood next attempted
to force Filipino leaders to lease
the successfully government owned
and operated Manila Railroad Com
pany TO New York capitalists, de.
spite the almost unanimous opposi.
ton OF the Filipino people. The
native leaders absolutely refused TO
sign the lease and the governor had
TO accept defeat.
Governor Wood then set about to
force the government to close out
the sugar centrals, which were rem.
derlng most valuable service to
Filipino sugar growers. The latter
made such q vehement protest that
ne was once more forced to yield.
Fear Loss Of Bank.
Governor Wood is doing his best
now to force the government to
abandon its Philippine National
Bank. He has already closed a
number of the branches Of the
bank. If this bank is closed,
Philippine commerce and the Fill.
pino people will be almost entirely
at the mercy Of foreign capital.
They know only too we'll what that
means, for they were up against
such condition before they Gre
ated the government bank, and
they were exploited most out.
rageously.
Governor Wood Is attempting to
suppIant the Philippine legislature
as the policy making and law.
making power of the Philippines,
and IT he is allowed to continue ON
the road he has been travelling,
CONGRESS might as well abolish the
legislature and admit to the world
that there is no longer any self.
government in the Philippines.
The Filipino leaders did their
nest to cooperate with General
WOOD. They have shown the great
est patience and forbearance. II
they have made any mistakes, it Is
mat they did not call his hand long
ago.