For 143 years the U. S. has gradually increased its domain by battle and bargain until today 137,008,435 persons live under its flag from Point Barrow on the North to Pago-Pago on the South, from St. Croix on the East to Balabac Island on the West.* Last week Congress sent to the White House the first bill in history proposing that the U. S. decrease its territorial empire.
The bill was H. R. 7233 providing for the independence of the Philippines. Fortnight ago the Senate, without a record vote, adopted the final conference report on the measure. Last week by a standing vote of 171 to 16 the House followed suit. Last session the House first passed (306 to 47) H. R. 7233 after only 40 minutes debate. Last week it disposed of the islands in 60 minutes.
A veto is widely expected when President Hoover returns from his Florida fishing. He will probably have a hard time mustering the Congressional one-third necessary to sustain his disapproval. Though he has never publicly committed himself on the issue, two potent members of his Cabinet, Secretary of State Stimson, onetime Governor General of the Philippines, and Secretary of War Hurley, who visited the islands as President Hoover's "eyes & ears" in 1931, have been loud in their opposition to turning 13,000,000 Filipinos loose. Common arguments against freeing the Philippines: 1) they are not economically or politically prepared to govern themselves; 2) their freedom would upset the delicate balance of international power in the Far East; 3) U. S. citizens who have invested $197,000,000 developing the islands would be wiped out by the economic chaos to follow; 4) the U. S. would breach its moral trust to prepare the Filipinos for self-government; 5) Congress has no constitutional power to alienate U. S. territory.
History-The House's hurried action climaxed 34 years of continuous agitation for Philippine freedom, following the islands' acquisition by the U. S. from Spain on payment of $20,000,000 under the Treaty of Paris (Dec. 10, 1898). William Jennings Bryan campaigned for the Presidency on that issue in 1900. William Howard Taft got his political start as the islands' first civil governor. Democrat Francis Burton Harrison proclaimed a "new era" when in 1913 he arrived to govern them. The Jones Act of 1916 declared: "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." Said Presidents Harding and Coolidge: "The time is not yet." In 1928 and 1932 the Democratic platform declared for "immediate independence."