Evening star., 1925-01-16
ARTICLE III.

1t would be a serious mistake for
Congress or the President, or any
group of individuals to try to say, at
this time, the precise date or year
when the Filipinos should be given
complete independe They will not
be ready for it In 20 years and may
not be in so.
There should be further and en-
phatic official announcement to the
effect not only that this country has
no present intention of granting in
dependence to- the Filipinos, but that
the question will not be considered
for 25 or so years. A stop should
be put to perpetual agitation. The
Filipinos who are responsible for 1T
should be made to understand that
they owe allegiance to the United
States and that we are not longer
going to permit reasonable, seditious
conduct and utterances on their part.
We should, as we have done in the
past, deal fairly, Justly and gener-
ously with the Filipinos, but they
must never be allowed to forget what
they owe to the United States. We
should not permit them to run a
comic opera form of government for
the benefit and profit of few polft-
ical cliQues and at the expense of the
helpless people Of the islands, under
our protecting guidance, nor can we
for a moment, consent to allow them
in their present state of unf1tness for
self government, to obtain independ-
ent sovereignty and to guarantee
them protection by the United States
without authority on our part to
prevent them from giving onense to
foreign governments and nationals.
Want a Free Hand.
ticians want, In an international
sense, is an absolutely free hand In
the Philippines under our protection
but 1t Is not beIievable that the Amer
lean people are willing to become a
party to any such arrangement. More
over, 1T is an open question whether
Congress, under the Constitution OF
the United States, has a right to
ALLEVIATE territory of the United
States.
There appears to be authority fer
the assertion that the status of the
Philippines Is that of a territory
This same legal point was raised dur
ing the acrimonious debates which
followed the purchase of Alaska.
Some of our Democratic friends
who were opposed to that purchase
on political grounds wanted to
ALLEVIATE the territory of Alaska and
have it withdrawn entirely from the
United States Government. 1t was
then pointed out in the course of the
debates In the Senate that II was not
possible, on constitutional grounds
for Congress to pass a law providing G
for the transfer of Alaska to another
sovereignty. After this point had
been raised, the discussion looking
to the sale of Alaska was dropped
There was in the Philippines, while
I was there, a great deal of earnest
discussion concerning the power OF
Congress, under the Constitution, to
grant independence to the Philippine
Islands, or, in other words, to allen
ate territory which. has become part
of the United States by purchase OIL
conquest.
We have a right to acquire the
territory by conquest, but does Con-
gress have the right to ALLEVIATE such
territory except by direct Sanction OF
the people Of the United States as
provided in their Constitution?
Spain ceded the Philippine Islands
to the United States by the treaty OF
Paris, thereby relinquishing her SOW.
ereignty over the archipelago. The
Islands then became the absolute ter.