AMERICA’S POLICY AND PROMISE TO THE FILIPINO PEOPLE.—The plea for freedom is based on two contentions. First, that it is the right of all nations to be free; second, that independence has been promised by the United States. Both of which premises are admitted. The only question is when independence will be granted.
The Filipino people are one in their appeal for independence. All political parties have this as a common objective. There is not one discordant note in the age-long desire. The people are willing to stake their all—take all the chances attendant upon an independent existence. They want their freedom now.
On the other hand, America’s policy toward the Islands has been consistent. The pronouncements of her executive officials as well as Congressional legislations all point to one conclusion: It has never been the intention to make of the Philippines a perpetual possession; independence is to be granted as soon as a stable government “can be established.”
PRONOUNCEMENTS OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTS.—In January 30, 1899, eight months after the battle of Manila Bay, President McKinley dispatched the First Philippine Commission to the Islands with the assurance that the Commission would bring “the richest blessings of a liberating rather than a conquering nation.” Later on he added: “The Philippines are ours, not to exploit but to develop, to civilize, to educate, to train in the science of self-government.”
In 1903 Mr. Taft, as Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands, eloquently expressed himself thus:
“From the beginning to the end, the state papers which were circulated in these Islands as authoritative expressions of the Executive had for their motto that ‘the Philippines are for the Filipinos,’ and that the government of the United States are here for the purpose of preserving the ‘Philippines for the Filipinos’ for their benefit, for their elevation, for their civilization, again and again appears.”
And again, in 1907, he said:
“The policy looks to the improvement of the people, both industrially and in self-governing capacity. As the policy of extending control continues, it must logically reduce and finally end the sovereignty of the United States in the Islands, unless it shall deem wise to the American and Filipino peoples, on account of mutually beneficial trade relations and possible advantages to the Islands in their foreign relations, that the bond shall not be completely severed.”
In his message in 1908 President Roosevelt said:
“I trust that within a generation the time will arrive when the Filipinos can decide for themselves whether it is well for them to become independent or to continue under protection of a strong and disinterested power, able to guarantee to the Islands order at home and protection from foreign invasion.”