THE PLEBISCITE

(8) Within the first six months of the fifth year after the adoption and approval of the constitution, and the election of officials under it, the intervening period being the "test" period under the new trade relationships, the Philippine people shall vote on the question of ratifying or rejecting the granting of Philippine independence by the United States, and if in this vote they do so ratify independence, this fact shall be certified to the President of the United States, who shall issue a proclamation withdrawing, at the end of the 5-year period, the sovereignty of the United States over the Philippine Islands, transferring to the duly elected officials the government of the islands.

(9) Before the withdrawal of sovereignty, the government of the islands shall make provision for the acquisition by purchase or lease by the United States in the islands of adequate naval bases, shall provide by treaty or otherwise for the protection of property rights of Americans and the United States in the Philippines, and shall, on terms acceptable to the United States, provide for the disposition of all fiscal matters and the settlement of all debts and liabilities.

Your committee desires to emphasize again the fact that the bill (S. 3822) grants independence to the Philippine Islands but not forthwith. The actual withdrawal of sovereignty will depend on the result of the plebiscite, which is to be held only after a test of the new relationship between the islands and the United States and after the Filipinos shall have experienced the effects of independence.

In the requirement for a system of public schools in which English shall be the language of instruction; in the provision for the adoption of what is practically the American Bill of Rights, and in the other provisions of this bill (S. 3822), such as the imposition of tariff barriers, and the stipulation of conditions under which the Philippine people will ultimately vote for freedom or a continuation under the American flag, there are imposed upon the inhabitants of the Philippines demands which involve severe hardships. But in the last analysis the Philippine people must determine their course and destiny.

UNCERTAINTY MUST BE REMOVED

It is significant that, without exception, every witness of the many who appeared before your committee admitted that the present situation of uncertainty as to the political future of the Philippines should be removed. The record contains many appeals for a removal of the unsatisfactory conditions which exist at the present time. Even those who oppose early independence for the Philippines admit that the present dubious status of the islands should not be permitted to continue.

The reasons are manifest. The Filipino is neither a citizen of the United States nor is he a citizen of a free country. A Malayan by race, an oriental geographically and by tradition, a foreigner under certain of our statutory provisions, the Filipino has had 30 years of existence as a pseudo American. Living 7,000 miles from our western coast, on 7,000 islands in the Far East Pacific, these 13,000,000 people, thrown by a great war into the protective arms of a western nation, find themselves, after a generation, to be in law and in fact neither Americans nor foreigners.

SR-71-2-VOL 2-47

Every witness who appeared at the hearings, whether he was an official of the federal or the insular government, or a private person with admitted economic interests at stake, agreed that a definite policy toward the Philippines would be both necessary and desirable as a means of curing the present uncertainty.

The

The initiative of the Filipino is hampered by his status. development of 114,000 square miles of island area is being handicapped, and certain manufacturing possibilities are being dwarfed because of the general uncertainty.

American capital, doubtful of the future, declines to enter the islands. Foreign capital, with no voice whatever in the settlement of the problem, will not invest there. Under such conditions satisfactory economic progress is impossible.

ALTERNATIVES BEFORE CONGRESS

It appears from our inquiry and study that the uncertainty can be removed only if and when Congress shall adopt one of the following

courses:

(1) Granting immediate independence.

(2) Setting a date in the distant future when independence shall be granted.

(3) Creating what might be termed a colonial form of government for the future retention of the Philippines.

(4) Incorporating the Philippines as one or more States of the American Union.

(5) Providing, as in this bill (S. 3822), for the organization of a free government and permitting the Philippine people to determine whether under the new conditions they desire to become independent, and grant them independence.

One of these solutions should be adopted by Congress.

Few Americans will advocate immediate independence. The Filipino representatives ask for immediate independence, although they realize the difficulties of reconstruction and readjustment. They would rather suffer the hardships of an immediate dissolution of ties which bind them to the United States than continue in the disastrous uncertainty. They prefer any hardship to the possibility of their remaining forever a subject people.

As to the second proposal, the mere setting of a date for future independence of the islands gives the Philippine people no opportunity to express their views. Furthermore, it is manifest from the hearings that the fixing of a deferred date for Philippine independence is regarded as a plan to make impossible the ultimate granting of such independence. The Secretary of State, in proposing a long period of time for Philippine independence, very frankly stated he cherished the hope that at the end of that period both the Philippines and the United States would decide to continue their relationship. Your committee is confident that if the date of independence were set for some time in the remote future the economic ties and commercial considerations that meanwhile will have grown up will militate against any possible future relinquishing of American sovereignty. We shall not discuss at length in this report the proposal to form a colonial government for the Philippines, as we consider this repugnant to the pledges we have made through our Executives and in statutory law dealing with the Philippines.

It is hardly conceivable that we could adopt the fourth proposal; that is, giving the Philippines the status of a State of the Union, m view of the racial, sociological, geographical, and other impediments to this course.

The majority of this committee, therefore, finds the only possible solution of the problem to be in a proposal to make possible the formation of a free government in the Philippines, to permit the Philippine people to weigh the experiences of their new status, and finally to allow them to express their views as to independence on the basis of their experience.

The "acid test" provided in this bill (S. 3822) is the hardest ever given a nation seeking independence. We submit for your serious consideration this salient fact, that in the election at which they shall decide whether or not they shall be independent the Philippine people will be called upon to say whether they shall sever their connection with the United States at the very hardest period of their reconstruction problems, after having been subjected to the weight of our trade barriers and to the full effect of the constitutional provisions which we impose upon them in the formation of their new government.

AN INSIDIOUS PROPAGANDA

Before passing to a further analysis of the merits of Philippine independence or the ability of the Philippine people to manage their own affairs, your committee desires to call attention to a propaganda intimating that the Philippine leaders are not sincere in their demands for independence. If there is any basis for this intimation, your comImittee has been unable to locate it.

It is insinuated that the Philippine people do not actually desire independence and that their leaders do not really favor it, and yet, in reply to this propaganda, there comes from the entire press of the Philippines, from all classes of its population, from its school children and its public officials, from the representatives of its political parties, majority and minority, a demand for independence.

Not a single witness before your committee could name 10 Filipinos who do not favor independence. The business organizations of the islands, their national conferences, their educators, their government officials, their economists have all declared for independence. The Philippine press, the Philippine public, the Philippine pulpit, the Philippine school, and Philippine industries seem, so far as we can ascertain, to be unanimous in the demand that the United States redeem its pledges to grant to these people the sovereignty to which they aspire.

Only a few months ago the first philippine independence congress was held in Manila. More than 3,000 delegates from all over the islands, representing the whole people, including the Mohammedan Filipinos, met to deliberate on the question of independence. They discussed the different phases of the Philippine problem with particular reference to the economic consequences and political responsibilities which independence entails. With full knowledge of such consequences and responsibilities the Congress approved resolutions strongly urging independence at an early date.

This unanimity of opinion in the Philippines contrasts strikingly with the differences among colonial Americans. We were not without

many prominent tories during the struggles of our patriots for independence.

In the Philippines, however, from the venerable Aguinaldo down to the child in the primary schoolroom, we have not been able to find a Filipino, living in his own country, who is not in favor of Philippine independence.

In the face of this attitude on the part of 13,000,000 Filipinos, it would seem that they are entitled to a statement from the Congress of the United States as to what their future status shall be.

OPPOSITION OF CERTAIN BUSINESS INTERESTS

As will be seen from the record, your committee has attempted to give to the commercial phases of our contact with the Philippines that consideration which is due those interests in relation to the whole subject, but we have endeavored to arrive at our conclusions on the basis of a broader view than merely trade relationship. It is idle to assume that the interests of manufacturers and others have no bearing upon this issue. It would be equally absurd to argue that the Philippine question should be determined solely from the viewpoint of consideration for the Philippines.

We must not forget American interests and American welfare. But your committee, having obtained all the facts in relation to our trade with the Philippines, finds in this information rather a powerful argument for some immediate disposition of the Philippine question than a reason to decide the matter of Philippine independence from the standpoint of either exporter or importer.

We have before us the data with respect to the importations of raw materials and manufactured products from the Philippines into the United States and we have investigated the exports of America to the Philippine Islands, but we shall not discuss individually these items of trade relationship.

It is pertinent, however, to state that the growing free exchange of products between the islands and the United States, if permitted to go on at the present rate of increase, will tend to develop a commercial relationship strong enough later to submerge every other consideration in the problem of Philippine independence.

When we took over the Philippines in 1898, the islands sent most of their exports (more than one-half) to Europe. In 1900, more than 55 per cent of the total exports of the Philippines went to European countries. From 1900 to 1908 the United States received 32 per cent of Philippine exports. But in 1909, when free trade relationship was established, the United States received more than 42 per cent of Philippine exports. In 1927 more than 74 per cent of Philippine exports came into the United States. The growing trade relationship is manifest in these figures. It is equally manifest in the fact that 62 per cent of all foreign products consumed in the Philippines are received from the United States. The tariff wall surrounding the Philippines protects American products and manufactures against all competition.

The total trade of the islands in 1928 was approximately $290,000,000. The imports to the islands were approximately $134,000,000; the exports $155,000,000.

In 1928 the island imports from the United States were $84,000,000, and exports to the United States $115,000,000. Thus about 69 per cent of the foreign trade of the islands was with the United States.

It is evident that if this trade relationship is permitted to continue, increasing the number and strength of commercial ties between the two nations, the time will rapidly come when a change in the status of the Philippines, however desirable it may be from a national, military, or humanitarian standpoint, will mean economic ruin to the Philippines themselves and an unquestionable detriment to Americans.

Your committee therefore believes that instead of resolving the Philippine question on the basis of commerce, the conclusion to be drawn is that the whole problem must be settled as quickly as its importance permits, and this growing relationship between Americans and Filipinos be given a permanent foundation.

As far as the Philippines are concerned, it is with reason they maintain that the disruption of present relationships now will subject them to hardships which they can more readily endure at present than at some future date when their economic dependency will be greater.

In passing, your committee desires to call attention to the fact that there is an organized medium of opposition to Philippine independence in the United States, namely, the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce of New York. It is composed of American business men having trade relations with the Philippine Islands. The membership list discloses that of its 80 members all but 22 are residents of New York and only two reside in Manila. A fund was raised by this organization to oppose Philippine independence. They circularized the press of the United States and business organizations and members of Congress. They reached almost the entire press of America by letters and pamphlets prior to the hearings before your committee, when these various bills came under discussion. It is perfectly natural that this propaganda on the part of those with commercial interests has had its effect upon the recipients of this literature.

The attitude of this organized hostility is unfortunate in that it may be misunderstood and may tend to encourage reprisals harmful to American trade. We have in our colonial history signal incidents that revealed the resentment of our own people under similar circumstances. The Filipinos will naturally not be friendly to the "yard of cloth" argument against their national aspirations.

THE AMERICAN FARMERS' INTEREST

In America there is one element of our national life which is now receiving attention from Congress, and which has appealed to Congress to change conditions with respect to the Philippines. The American farmer has an interest in the disposition of this important question.

Representatives of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Grange, and other farm organizations appeared before your committee to express their concern in this particular problem and though they did not demand any unduly rigorous action on the part of Congress against the Philippine people whom our Government committed itself to serve, they asked that we give consideration to