Evening star., 1926-05-16
INDEPENDENCE ISSUE LONG
DOMINANT in PHILIPPINES
Desire for Free Rule Existed Before War
With Spain and Is Cry of
Native Politicians.

Filipino people or their country.
g" here have. indeed. been different
opinions among our own people as TO
the precisely proper relationship with
the Filipinos. There are some among
us, as there are some among your
people, who believe that immediate IN
dependence of the Philippines would
be best for both. I should be less than
candid with you, however, if did not
say that, in my judgment. the strong
est argument which has been used IN
the United States in support of I'M
mediate independence of the Philip
pines is not the argument that it would
benefit the Filipinos, but that ii
would advantage the United States.
Feeling as | do. and as | am con
vinced the great majority of Amerl-
cans do regarding our obligations 10
the Filipino, l have to say that | re-
gard such arguments as unworthy.
The American people will not evade or
repudiate the responsibility they have
assumed in this matter. The Ameri-
can Government is convinced that II
has the overwhelming support OF the
American Nation in its conviction that
at present independence would be
misfortune and might easily become
disaster to the Filipino people. Upon
that conviction the policy Of this Gov
ernment is based
Valuable as Political Issue.
What has served more than any
thing else to keep alive the lndepend-
ence agitation is its value to the Fill
pinu politicoS as an issue before The
people an issue on which they may
keep in office. There is no other issue
in the politics of the islands. 1t would
be a blessing if there were, for the
attention of the Filipino would then
be drawn from the one question which.
until it is settled definitely. will keep
capital in any considerable amount
from coming.
Above all other things, the islands
need big capital to develop the re-
sources with which nature has, with
lavish hand, endowed them. These
resources in tropical products Of inn
mite variety, which the United State@
needs in large quantities, and in min
eral and lumber. now lie practically
dormant. The Fflipinos do not develop
hem themselves: they do not even
grow enough rice for their own use
fhey will not permit American or
thar capital to come in under condi.
lions under which capital would have
a fair chance OF protection.
An Opportunity in Rubber.
Rubber Is a case in point. Firestone.
the American tire manufacturer. sent
experts here in August. 1923. to report
on rubber growing in the islands on a
vast scale. The report was favorable
He had seen long aSO the approaching
crisis in the worlds rubber market
and his aim was to have the American
supply American owned and American
grown instead of depending on the
British and the Dutch. Mindanao and
and other southern islands are ideal
for rubber production. Only about
l.500. 900 pounds a. year is grown.now
The proposal was to plant several hun
dred thousand acres to rubber. 1t
takes five to seven years to bring
tree to production and capital is re-
gulrod 70 finance Il Rubber plantation
until it begins to Weld FireStone has
- wish to engage in rubber growing
himself. His desire was to get the
product, to get the industry started.
The only practical way seemed to be
for big capital to back plantations
during the long period between plant
ing and the flow of sap. There was
talk of leasing the land for 75 years,
but no direct proposal was made by
the F'ireStone interests.
Under what many believed to be a
too generous policy, the United States
had placed control of the public lands
there are in all about So, ,000, 900 acres
in the islands) in the hands of the Fill.
plno Legislature. The American Con
cresS had fixed a limit of $500 acres
If ownership bv any one CORPORATION.
but had given the Filipino LEGISLATURE
power to alter this provision. A sug
"eStiOn that this be done and rubber
growing on Il fitting scale ENCOURAGED
was opposed by the Filipino politi.
clans.
So FirestOne Went to Liberia.
Firestone could have circumvented
this law by organizing a MULTIPLICITY
of corporations. but devious ways did
not appeal to him. He left the
islands in disgust. got million acres
in Liberia. along the west coast of
Africa. and began a rubber planta-
tion there.
The Filipino politicos had drawn
picture of their lands swallowed up
by the capitalista classes, as they
expressed it. They succeeded in
evading this peril. The land still
lies untouched, for it is all wild
land. and none of the money that
the capitalista class would have been
required to invest flows into Fill
pino hands. A year of missing this
opportunity for a great DEVELOPMENT
and it began to sink in that a mis-
take had been made. Firestone. ir..
has come back to the islands and
there is still a possibility that a
start on rubber production NAV be
made.
The Filipino attitude has changed
but he must save face" He talks
now Of his desire to help the Amer
ican owners of motor cars in the
peril they face from the British and
Dutch rubber barons. One of the
proposals made at a recent agricul-
tural congress in Manila was that
the government plant rubber trees
along the roads.
New Life for Agitation.
New life was given to the iude-
pendent agitation by fear their pres
ent autonomy was to be reduced by
the American Government and bv
the contention advanced by the
American Chamber of Commerce in
Manila, that only the people of the
United States, not Congress alone.
could ALLEVIATE American sovereignty
in the islands.
President Coolidge. in his message
in December advised a strengthen
ing of the powers of the governor
general. This inspired fear in the
natives, but Congress with custom.
airy neglect of the Philippines has
not moved.
The point fathered by the Amer
lean Chamber of Commerce is that
the status of the Philippines is that
of a territory Of the United States.
American sovereignty in the islands.
was acquired from Spain, both by
conquest and by purchase and, hav-
ing been thus acquired power to
transfer it, as would be involved in
the granting of independence to the
F'ilipinos, resides only in the people
of the United States; that no terri
tOrv once brought under the Amer