promising them in a distant, vague future, self-government. Americans would be the directing force in this formative period of Philippine nationhood; the Filipinos a mere advisory or negative element. Mr. Wilson, on the other hand, would give them at once the control of — quoting his own words "the essential instruments of their life, their local instrumentalities of government, their schools, all the common interests of their communities," so that they could "set up a government which all the world will see to be suitable to a people whose affairs are under their control." "By their counsel and experience rather than by our own, we shall learn how best to serve them and how soon it will be possible and wise to withdraw our supervision," says Mr. Wilson. He would give them, in a word, "the instruments of their redemption," and, as their Governor, Mr. Harrison, interpreted it, teach them self-government by the exercise of self-government.

Hardly had the new régime been set in working order in the Islands when reports of its disastrous effects began to flood the entire Union. American employees, it was reported, were dismissed by the hundred; their families were dying of hunger. Government efficiency had become a thing of the past. Governor Harrison was denounced and vilified in the eyes of his own people as the principal

source of all these evils, when his only crime was his great zeal and unswerving determination to help the Filipinos realize their dream of inde-. pendence. Business was said to be totally paralyzed. Indeed, at the very mention of Mr. Wilson's Philippine policy, the New York "Herald " correspondent declared that, "like a clock in a house shaken by an earthquake, that new-found business expansion stopped; like a pulse in the body struck by lightning, the current of its life ceased to throb."

Strange as it may seem, in spite of all these outrageous reports of conditions in the Islands, the American people went on as usual with their domestic duties, as if nothing had happened. In vain did Mr. Worcester and his followers depict in most glowing colors the terrible calamity that had befallen the Islands. In vain was the plaint of the "sufferers" echoed and reëchoed from east to west. Even the patriotism of the American people failed to respond to the cry purporting to have come from hundreds of gallant veterans who had been ignominiously "dismissed from the Philippine service." It may be said that the American people displayed on this occasion that splendid optimism and reliance in the principle of self-government that have always characterized them. They never in fact realized the nature of the government they

had set up in the Philippines. An imposed, bureaucratic government, irresponsible to the people, is foreign to their nature, to their method of thought. To them self-government is the natural government of man.

T

CHAPTER X

THE JONES PHILIPPINE BILL

NO ratify President Wilson's reforms in the Philippine Government and to embody into law the independence pledge contained in the Baltimore platform, a bill was introduced by Mr. Jones of Virginia in the House of Representatives in July, 1914. This measure contained three main features:

1. A preamble in the form of a solemn legislative declaration of intent on the part of the United States to recognize Philippine independence as soon as a stable government can be established in the Islands. This preamble read as follows:

Whereas it was never the intention of the people of the United States in the incipiency of the war with Spain to make it a war of conquest or for territorial aggrandizement; and

Whereas it is, as it has always been, the purpose of the people of the United States to withdraw their sovereignty over the Philippine Islands and to recognize their independence as soon as a stable government can be established therein; and

Whereas for the speedy accomplishment of such purpose it is desirable to place in the hands of the people of

the Philippines as large a control of their domestic affairs as can be given them without, in the meantime, impairing the exercise of the rights of sovereignty by the people of the United States, in order that, by the use and exercise of popular franchise and governmental powers, they may be the better prepared to fully assume the responsibilities and enjoy all the privileges of complete independence: Therefore . . ."1

2. Provision extending the power of internal selfgovernment in the Philippines, both by the granting of new powers to the Government and by the creation of an elective Senate.

3. Provisions specifying the nature of the relationship between the Philippine Government and that of the United States, and giving to the American governor-general a limited, and to the President of the United States an absolute, veto power. Such provisions do not relinquish any of the control or supervision which the United States is now able to exercise over the foreign political affairs 1 The words in the preamble were afterwards changed in the Senate Committee to read as follows:

"Whereas it is desirable to place in the hands of the people of the Philippines such an increasing control of their domestic affairs as can be given them without, in the meantime, impairing the sovereignty of the United States, in order that, by the use and exercise of popular franchise and governmental powers, they may be the better prepared to fully assume the responsibilities and enjoy all the privileges of complete independence, which it is the purpose of the United States to grant, when, in the judgment of the United States, the people of the Philippine Islands shall have shown themselves to be fitted therefor: Therefore . . ."