Evening star., 1926-05-02
BY RALPH STOUT.
Managing Editor. Kansas City Star.

Managlng Edltors Kansas City Star.
M AN1LA: There is agreement
hu aphdng Americans in the
V Philippines that the low
4 po'nt in our control of the
isk<nds was the administra-
ften of FraAcis Burton Harrison. This
former NeH York Congress member
was appointed by President Wilson.
He was governor general from 1913
TO 1920. His avOwed policy was "the
Fflipinatinn of the islands," He left
the islands in 1920, went to England
and has not been on American soil
since.
At a Aanquet on his arrival in Ma
Mia in 1913 he placed his arm around
the Filipino leader, Manuel Quezon,
and told his hearers his appointment
was due to this man. He said it
would be his policy and the policy of
President Wilson to give to the Fill
pinos, as rapidly as he could. control
of the island government. Harrison,
either BY request for resignation or
by mSking life so uncomfortable for
Ameriran civil employees that they
were glad to get out of the service.
proceeded to tear down the organiza-
tIon o: public school system. of road
building and of health services built
up In the course of years by former
administrations, everywhere ousting
Americans and supplanting them with
nativeh
Encouragement Under Taft.
Priot to this, even back in the days
of Gov Taft, much had been done to
encourage the native hope for inde-
pendente. AT one time when a pc
tition fer annexation was presented to
Gov. TAFT by Filipinos, his reply was
that an 1eXation was impossible, but
that independence was not. The gov
ernor in his earlier experience was
confident the Filipinos speedily would
be fiji for independence. When the
native assembly was installed he said
in public that hereafter the speaker of
the assembly would be the mo. 9"
man ia the islands. This figure of
speech came with particular force to
the native understanding, for through
the ORIENT the NO. 1" boy is the head
of every household organization. The
orientals rejoiced.
Later the lapse Of time and the
course of the natives under the meas
ure of authority granted them by the
American Government caused Gov.
Taft to recant his hopeful view of
Filipino capability. Whereat Taft
stoch took u violent plunge in the Fill
pino mind. Proposals were made in
the Legislature to change the name OF
out all evidence of regard for the
American which the FilfpinoS had
shown in the heyday of his popularity.
The Views of DIR. Scllurmar.
The views of DR.. Jacob Gould Schur-
man, president of Cornell University,
member of the first Philippine Com
mission appointed by President Nc
Kinley, and now Ambassador to Ger
many, underwent similar change,
though DIR. Schurman had never gone
quite as far as Mr.. Taft in encourag-
ing Filipino aspirations. Twenty
three years after his coming to the
islands, and after years of constant
observation of the course Of the Fill
pinos, DIR. Schurman save this meas
ured utterance:
For. myself, visualizing the troll-
bled conditions Of the world since
Spain ceded her sovereignty over the
Philippine Islands to the United
States; recalling the ambitions and
lust of certain nations for the acquisi-
ton of the Pacific possessions: remem
bering the dominance Of militarism in
the world and the callous indifference
of military powers to moral and inter-
national law and to the rights of
smaller nations recollecting and con
sidering all this, [ say / do not hesi-
tate to give it deliberately as my opin-
ion that an independent Philippine re-
public would have been engulfed in
the Irresistible tides of rival imperial
lsms and competing economic inter
ests, and submerged as completely and
hopelessly as other independent ma
tions have been submerged in the
tumultuous and devastating upheavals
of the last 20 years"
Then Came the Jones Act.
tration Of Francis Burton Harrison,
that the Jones law, a new organic act
for the islands. was passed by Con
gress. It's author was the late VIII
liam A. Jones, representative from
Virginia. who had never been in the
Philippines. He had advice in the
preparation of the bill from Quezon.
Osmena and other Filipino leaders and
the aid Of Newton d. Baker. Secretary
of War, in which department is the
Bureau of Insular Affairs.
1t was put through as an admins
tration measure. 1t marked an epoch
in the American course. 1t gave to
the FiliplnoS suffrage with few limita-
tions. 1t created q Senate and O House
of Representatives modelled on the
American plan. 1t contained a bill of
rights patterned after Thomas Jeffer
sons contribution to the structure of
American Government, but emitting
trial by jury. With certain restric-
tions, 1t placed in the native Legisla-
ture control of the raising and eX-
penditure Of the insular taxes and be-
slowed on it the disposition of $4,000,
600 acres Of the public lands, not in
Guiding the friars' lands. for which the
United States Government had paid
millions to the Catholic Church.
Helps Islands to Wealth.
4
gress on Mr.. Taft's initiative in 1909
which admitted Philippine products to
the markets of the United States with
out duty, step which on sugar alone.
not to speak of tobacco, copra and
other products. has put millions Of dol
lars into island pockets. 1t provided
laws Of the United States enacted
after its passage should not apply to
the islands unless specifically pro-
vided-three lines which are respon
sble for the free flow here of all the
old forms of beer, native and German.
cocktails and all the varied brands Of
vine and liquors which once, but now
no longer, had an unmolested place in
American life.
Lts recognition Of the sovereignty of
Nhe United States in the governor gen.
eral appointed by the President was
dirct and specific. He was given the
right Of veto Of all legislation. If the
legislature did not agree with his
views the measure was referred to the
President of the United States, with
absolute and final power.
While the Jones bill was before the
American Congress a revealing thing
happened. The late Senator Clarke of
Arkansas shared with Vice President
Marshall the feeling the latter is said
to have expressed when he declared
the United States already had IS mil