Speech #690012706

It is partly for this latter* reason that I think we should get together on a policy with reference t6. certain. features of government on which the success or failure of this act in no small degree depends. The power of the government of the Philippine Islands Is materially. increased. in fact. to the Philippine Government is given power. in certaln cases with the approval of the President. to enact every beneficial piece of legislation which thePhillppine Commission recommended to Congress in the years from 1902 to 1913. inclusive. most of which. recommendations received absolutely no attention from Con-. gress and could not. in the natural order of things. receive attention. � The failure of Congress to. act on the recommendations of the Philippine Commission was in no way due to a lack of confidence In the commission or in its personnel. but simply to the difficulty of enacting. at such great distance and with the manifold problems. pressingon it acts which were applicable to the Philippine Islands alone. In subjects like. immigration. which were of the greate~t political Interest in the United States.. it. was impossible. for Congress. to deal with the Philippine Islands as an entity requiring special treatment entirely distinct from that of the United States. Congress in enacting this organic act has recognized the generally accepted theory of those who have made a study of the government of dependenciesthat where such dependencies are treated as an integral part of the country on which they depend their government has almost invariably beeu a failure. and that successful government of remote dependencies requires a governmental treatment distinct and separate from that of the home country. Congress has recognized the truth of a generally understood principle which has been well set forth in the following quoted from P.