(f) To keep in touch with the offices in other sections of the country in order to coordinate labor supply and compare methods for instruction and improvement of the local office. (g) To create an advisory committee to be composed of experienced and the more responsible leaders of the Filipino community, whose main duty shall be to suggest methods of handling purely local questions upon the basis of their experience, particularly the raising of funds to support the local office and its activities. (h To inaugurate a self-supporting system for relief of distress caused by unemployment, sickness, etc., with the aid of a financial institution in the city doing that type of business. (i) To assist the trade and labor boards of their particular States in studies of the labor markets by having ready in the office list (b) above and other pertinent data. (j) To provide and arrange methods of repayment of fares advanced to workers proceeding to employment procured for them at a distance by the Commissioners Office or the other local labor offices. (k) To make a detailed periodical report to the Resident Commissioner through his representative of labor conditions of the district including the general fluctuations of unemployment and make recommendations on which the Government may base labor measures. 2. To look for Filipino work opportunities in all parts of the United States, that is, to facilitate communication between employers seeking work people and work people seeking employers in order to avoid the waste of time lost in "blind" attempts to get work and basically to effect a wider and more even distribution of Filipino labor throughout the country. In this connection, the Commissioner's representative or assistant should endeavor to acquaint American employers with the qualities which have made the Filipino laborer highly desirable in certain types of unskilled labor as their ability to work on wet ground and wet weather, agility, smallness of hands and stature which is in great demand in highly specialized agricultural products, his well-earned reputation for neatness, courtesy, and prompt obedience in institutional and domestic work, his willingness to work in occupations in which there is felt a great need for any willing labor as in the entertainment field, in specialized agriculture and growing, fish canning, and in land and marine transportation. 3. To confer with subsidiaries of American labor organizations to allocate definite work areas for Filipino labor and compose wage discrepancies specially in areas where there is direct competition between the two groups but where there is enough work or employment for both, with a view to reconstructing and improving Filipino-American labor relations and achieving a common front or the support of American labor organizations in the locality in their bid for employment. 4. To seek and exhaust in general all other ways to raise the status of the Filipino laborer in the United States. 5. To furnish the Resident Commissioner from time to time with a report of the basic situation of Filipino labor in America and to recommend measures for their improvement. The above suggested instrumentality will, in our opinion, secure the following benefits: (a) It will organize Filipino labor in the United States and render it more wieldy for control and guidance. (b) It will gradually eliminate the irksome discrepancy in wage rates and improve American-Filipino labor relations by opening a way for understanding of the legitimate rights and interests of the two groups. (c) It will provide American employers with permanent market places of Filipino labor. (a) It will increase the mobility of labor and effect its wider distribution throughout the country. (e) It will provide the Government with a labor chart on which to base labor measures to prevent abnormal unemployment, distress, wasteful shifting, subnormal wages, low working conditions and in general to promote their interest. (f) It will check that moral deterioration which is likely to result from long periods of idleness and disorganization. (g) Government backing will restore to Filipinos that lost confidence and faith in his countryman which is essential to cooperative action. 2. Social. The social problems take their root partly in the economic difficulties above mentioned and in the frustration of exaggerated expectation of opportunities for social advancement. From the standpoint of American reaction on the other hand these problems are accentuated by social discriminations arising out of uncritical thinking and in many cases out of plain prejudice. The Filipino immigrant's association with American women for instance is looked upon with either serious or gross apprehensions by the people of the locality in which they reside dependent upon the shade of prejudice entertained by that locality. Their sex relations with them is objected to especially in regions where the objective of racial purity is more intensely diffused. Normal social contacts is further discouraged for reasons of alleged low morality, propensity to crime, and unreliability. Another drawback to social recognition is their excessive mobility which naturally renders difficult their group stabilizaton. These and a number of other minor factors makes the Filipino's social life in America largely a disappointment. 3. Educational.-A large number of Filipinos come to the United States filled with the desire to study. Among the obstacles in the way of realizing this desire are his inadequate academic preparation in the Philippines, language difficulty, an unorganized outlook, lack of vocational appreciation, discrimination in the schools and localities where they may be studying, and, most serious of all, their inability to find the sufficient strength within themselves to withstand the discouragements consequent to the above difficulties. Hence, the great number of Filipinos who are out of school hoping somehow to complete their studies in the future, among whom the Government could very well find material with which to vitalize its program of training and utilizing young men for service. EMIGRATION Under act of Congress of July 10, 1935 (49 Stat. 478), any native Filipino residing in any State or the District of Columbia may apply to the Secretary of Labor through any officer of the Immigration Service for transportation and maintenance from his residence to a port on the west coast and from such port to passage and maintenance to Manila, Philippine Commonwealth. With a view to picturing a type-fact situation, the reporter in the course of a brief inquiry into the records of the Ellis Island immigration office in the city of New York found that, out of 50 approved applications made by Filipinos qualified under the law, only 25 effected their return to the Philippines, the rest having changed their minds before the day of departure for one reason or another, the most salient in the opinion of the officer in charge being the fear of poor economic conditions in the Philippines, the military draft laws, and, most serious of all, the exclusive nature of the repatriation law itself which does not include the families of married Filipinos, many of whom have children. In this connection the office of the American High Commissioner protested vigorously in a letter addressed to the Bureau of Insular Affairs against the sending of Filipinos back to the Philippines with their American wives as, that in the light of the present conditions in the islands, was condemning them to a life of abject poverty. The situation in New York would in our opinion be typical of other cities in the United States. As a matter of fact, up to the present only 750 out of a Filipino population of 30,000 in the United States has taken advantage of the Repatriation Act, a discrepancy indicative of a serious lack of interest on the part of the beneficiaries of the law. In order for the main purpose of the act to be effective there appears to be a need to make repatriation more attractive by measures offering them a certain degree of economic security in the home country, through employment in activities or work classified according to their ability, training, and experience in this country. PHILIPPINE POLICIES Except for the fact that restriction of immigration into the United States is objected to on grounds of principle (the Philippines being as yet under the American flag), there is, especially among quarters of responsible opinion in the Philippines today, a favorable reaction toward its enforcement, an attitude largely based on the need of manpower to develop the resources of the home country. This is not, however, shared by the lower levels of the population, from which the greater number of immigrants flow out of the country. The attractions, real or deceptive, which induced earlier immigrants to come to the United States still command a momentum in the imagination of the more adven turous among them, apart from the fact that traffic and labor recruiting, the press and moving pictures, lack of economic opportunities in the home province, general poverty in the rural districts, and the predisposition to things American brought about by our schools and over 3 decades of contact with American institutions also contribute to a considerable degree in the creation of stimulus to leave and seek improvement abroad. In the United States, on the other hand, there is a decided feeling to restrict or stop further immigration altogether, particularly on the Pacific coast where Filipinos are concentrated in greater numbers and where, as we have seen, their contacts with the native population cover a wider and more varied area of experience. With the last agitation for independence resulting in the passage of the act of Congress of March 24, 1935 (Public, No. 127, 73d Cong.), the demand to restrict Filipino immigration has been complicated by motives to protect special interests and local industries allegedly handicapped by the free trade between the two countries. There is, however, an older vintage of opinion reminiscent of the earlier America of President McKinley, which proposed alternatives against the total exclusion of Filipinos on moral grounds. But its voice is fast dwindling into fainter sounds as the final political separation of the two countries becomes more and more a reality. Taking the bigger sections of public opinion in the United States altogether, as labor and the more nationalistic sections of political thought, America's attitude toward Filipino immfgration may be safely considered as one for eventual application of the strictest limitations, Section 8 of the act of Congress of March 24, 1934, clearly indicates the trend of this attitude. Although desired for different purposes, there would seem to be a mutuality of interest between the political objectives of the two governments in the matter of immigration control and for purposes of projecting policy to vitalize the new situation, nothing could be more propitious than the protecting atmosphere of that mutuality to: 1. Discourage further immigration of Filipino citizens into the United States. 2. Direct the efforts of the Commonwealth, and as far as possible jointly with the American Government, toward the protection of Filipinos now in the United States whose unfortunate situation came, after all, largely as a result of past political relations. 3. Make emigration from the United States more attractive with measures offering a degree of economic security in the homeland. Hon. SAMUEL DICKSTEIN, THE RESIDENT COMMISSIONER OF THE PHILIPPINES TO THE UNITED STATES, Chairman, Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR CONGRESSMAN DICKSTEIN: I have the honor to submit herewith for inclusion in the record of the hearings of the committee on bills to naturalize Filipinos, the telegram from Mr. S. G. Dulay, president of the Philippine Welfare Club of Porterville, Calif., endorsing favorable consideration of legislation to naturalize Filipinos. The Filipino Welfare Club of Porterville endorses 100 percent all bills pertaining the naturalization of Filipinos to become citizens of United States. Be it on record that we have always been a supporter of such nature. S. G. DULAY, President of Philippine Welfare Club. Hon. SAMUEL DICKSTEIN, THE RESIDENT COMMISSIONER OF THE Chairman, House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR CONGRESSMAN DICKSTEIN: I have the honor to submit herewith for inclusion in the records of the hearings on bills to naturalize Filipinos a telegram from Mr. Noel J. Breed, chairman, the Stockton Interracial Council; a telegram from Mr. Gil Mascardo, president of the Filipino Community of Mountain View, Calif.; and a statement by Mr. J. B. Sarmiento, president of the Filipino Community of Solano County. Very truly yours, MANUEL A. ADEVA, MANUEL A. ADEVA, Chief of Nationals Division, Commonwealth of Philippines, Washington, D. C.: The Stockton Interracial Council, composed of elected representatives of the white majority and of all minority groups in this city unanimously favors legislation providing for the naturalization of resident Filipinos. As an individual I strongly endorse this action, particularly in view of the heroic and patriotic support given by Filipinos to our war effort. NOEL J. BREED, Chairman. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF., November 24, 1944. The RESIDENT COMMISSIONER, PHILIPPINES, TO THE UNITED STATES. (Attention Manuel A. Adeva, Chief, Nationals Division, Washington, D. C.) DEAR SIR: Received telegram and in behalf of the members we fully agree to the idea of naturalization. Thank you for informing. G. D. MASCARADO, President. FILIPINOS ENTITLED TO AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP (By Juan B. Sarmiento, president, Filipino Community of Solano County; commander, Manuel L. Quezon Post No. 603, the American Legion; director of publicity, Filipino Inter-Community Organization of the Western States; editor, Sampaguita, a quarterly magazine.) Under the present naturalization laws, Filipinos in the armed forces of the United States and those of them who have been honorably discharged therefrom after December 7, 1941, are eligible to American citizenship. Under these laws, many Filipinos have already become naturalized American citizens. Filipinos in the United States, Alaska, and Hawaii, without either of these two qualifications, simply cannot become American citizens. Thousands of these Filipinos will reside permanently in these places. If they are to become more useful members of their respective communities, they should be given the right to become naturalized American citizens. The services of these Filipinos in the home front have been creditable. We honestly believe that they have won the right to become Americans. The Congress should pass a law which would enable these Filipinos to obtain citizenship papers. RESOLUTION Whereas there are about 40,000 Filipinos in the Territory of Hawaii, 20 percent having resided here since 1910 and 80 percent having arrived in the islands about 15 years ago, and the greater portion having been born subsequent to occupation of the Philippine Islands by the United States of America; and Whereas, owing allegiance to the Government of the United States, many of us served the Army and Navy during World War I, and thousands of our people fell in the heroic defense of Bataan and Corregidor, and we have shown ourselves worthy of trust as loyal subjects; and Whereas, under American tutelage for more than four decades, we Filipino people have become imbued with democratic ideals and have adapted ourselves to the American way of life and believe that we are capable of fulfilling the duties and responsibilities which American citizenship would require; and Whereas, as noncombatants in the present war, we have taken an active part in the national defense effort both as laborers and businessmen and are a valuable potentiality in the production of food and other essentials of life for the duration of the war: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, by the Board of Directors and members of Oriental Benevolent Association of Hawaii, a mutual benefit society organized and existing under the laws of the Territory of Hawaii, That the Congress of the United States of America be and it is hereby respectfully requested to favorably consider the passage of the Randolph naturalization bill which would grant American citizenship to Filipinos; and that Copies of this resolution be forwarded to the President of the United States, the President of the Senate of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, the Committee on Immigration of the Senate of the United States, the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization of the House of Representatives of the United States, the Delegate to Congress from the Territory of Hawaii, and to Congressman Jennings Randolph. Adopted this 17th day of February 1944 at Wailuku, Maui, T. H. [SEAL] PHILIP P. GAMPONIA, President. Hon. SAMUEL DICKSTEIN, THE FILIPINO NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHICAGO, Chairman, Immigration and Naturalization Committee, House Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Filipino National Council of Chicago, which is the coordinating body of Filipinos and their local organizations in the city, extends to you the heartfelt greetings of its constituents. It is desirous in acknowledging the indebtedness it owes you as the leader in the repeal of the late Chinese Exclusion Act, and now as the champion in the repeal of a similar act designed to give Filipinos such immigration and naturalization rights as have lately been accorded, through your untiring efforts, to their Chinese colleagues. We fully appreciate the ponderous task which your committee must be trying to tackle these pre-victory days, when post-war conditions must be anticipated and peace plans laid out to meet those conditions. But from force of sheer necessity, we would refrain from directing your interest otherwise, if only to be cooperative. However, we feel that, to us at least, favorable action in regard to Filipino naturalization legislation is of paramount importance. The war must eventually be won; eventually, the Philippines must be redeemed and given her independence. When these happy events come to pass, we meet with unhappy expectations. We are haunted by the reasonable fear that we will automatically bcome American aliens. Those of us who work in some Government field agencies will then lose our positions because they require citizenship. Those of us who have married here and have become heads of families fear that we will be forced to leave this, our chosen country, and thus disrupt, if not break up altogether, our families, with all their tender ties and loving attachments. All of us, to the man, will, at best, be resigned to the life and the existence of the recluse and the outcast which we have been-dead corpses politically and socially, with not the slightest right to take part in the life of our community, a denial so disastrous with some of us as to lead to mixed forms of criminality, mental distortions, and susceptibility to all sorts of subversive, un-American propaganda. For a sensitive people, whose loyalty to the United States in peace as in war has remained whole and intact, to be denied, after much sacrifice, its fair and its just recognition, much deep-seated bitterness might ensue. They feel that, if they had fought equally together with our American forces, if they have died equally together with them, and will equally win the war together, we in America must at least give them recognition by scrapping |