Monday, May. 18, 1925

Treasure

West of the White House, in the city of Washington, rises the great pile that is the State, War and Navy Building. Therein sit two gentlemen who are in charge of the U. S. policy in the Far East. One of them is the Secretary of State, whose subordinates at Tokyo, at Peking, post to do his bidding. The other is the Secretary of War, whose subordinate at Manila functions as the Governor General of the Philippines.

But there are also other Americans who, unofficially, represent the U. S. in the East. One of them is Thomas F. Millard, a hard-headed imperialist thinking in terms of weltpolitik for a "parochially-minded" Republic. In China, where nearly every great power, except the U. S., subsidizes at least one newspaper, Mr. Millard founded and edited The China Press (Shanghai), Millard's Review (Shanghai), made himself the most eloquent American voice in the Far East.

Recently, he revisited the Philippines after an absence of years. From there he wrote a series of articles, concluded last week in The New York Herald-Tribune. Therein he set forth his solution of the Philippine problem: Let the U. S. keep the islands forever.

His reasons in brief:

1) Filipinos are not capable of using wisely the self-government they now have. This was indicated by the corruption (laughable if not so serious) which occurred during 1916-21 under the Jones Act before General Wood arrived to check the gay career of the politicians.

2) But even if they should acquire self-governing capacity, "it is fallacious to presume that the right of self-government and the right of independence are identical."

3) If independence were granted, now or in the future, Filipinos, as most of them admit, could not maintain it against foreign aggression.

4) The independence-talk is manufactured by the big caciques (political and industrial bosses) who want to dispose of the public domain at a fat profit to themselves. Their insincerity is indicated by their naive assumption that independence will be accompanied by some sort of "mandate" or "guarantee" under which the U. S. will protect them. What is there in this for the U. S.?

5) The U. S. has in the Philippines an immense national treasure which it is in no way obligated to surrender for sentimental reasons. Of the total area --larger than Illinois and Ohio--80% belongs to the Government.*

Assuming these vast lands are worth only one billion dollars, that is approximately ten dollars for every American --man, woman, child. /-

It was in this latter argument that Mr. Millard struck a note which politicians believing in the sentimentality of the U. S. public have generally regarded as too dangerous to sound. And he carried it into the future, visualizing the end of this century, when the U. S., with a population of nearly 200,000,000, must import food and raw material. In those days, civilization must look to the tropics to feed it. It is then the Philippines will pay dividends.

"Great uncultivated and unused regions in the Philippines which are ideal for the production of rubber, hemp, jute, coffee, vegetable oils and fats, camphor and quinine, now are a part of the public domain of the United States and are owned by the American people."

His mention of rubber affects all who ride on tires, for today Great Britain controls an enormous percentage--perhaps 95%--of the raw rubber used in the U.S.

Besides all this, water power equal to the Muscle Shoals possibilities could be developed. And the iron ore deposits are among the largest in Asia.

Capital, concluded Mr. Millard, is shy of the Philippines because of the uncertainty of its political future. Pending certainty, a certainty which must come, he pleads that this treasure be safely guarded.

To illustrate the "futility of trying to solve aggravating issues between the U. S. and Asia by equivocation and evasion," Mr. Millard wrote:

"To the mass of Asiatics, it was inconceivable that the American Government, which obviously wished to exclude Asiatic immigration and which did exclude most of them by law, granted exclusive treatment to Japanese for any reason except a fear of Japan's military power. The mass of Asiatics firmly believed that, if it came to a showdown, Japan would fight America on that issue. Therefore, when Japan accepted exclusion, her prestige dropped in Asia and the prestige of America went up."

The living example of firm colonial administration is the present Governor General, Leonard Wood. U. S. prestige has risen with him.

Last week, he proceeded to Lanao to settle an internecine dispute. He bade one Sultan Saraya to surrender. Peace followed.

He returned to Manila, issued a humanitarian appeal for $1,000,000:

"England already has organized the British Empire Anti-Leprosy Society and is arranging for a widespread and effective campaign against the dread disease in India and elsewhere. The Philippines have about 12,000 lepers, of which more than 5,000 are segregated and under treatment on Vulion Island. We need your help."

He has won supporters to his side. The old rebel Aguinaldo has come out for him. Even the professional politicians such as Quezon, Osmena, Roxas have virtually abandoned their attempts to force General Wood's recall and have accepted most of his legislative program.

Development of the islands waits only for the U. S. to determine a lasting policy.

*The natives have no more title to the unoccupied lands than the native Alaskans have to the public domain of Alaska. The Philippines were ruled from A.D. 200 to 1325 by various Hindu-Malayan empires whose seats were in Indo-China, Sumatra, Borneo; 1325-1405 by Java; 1405-1440 by China; 1440-1565 partly ruled by Japan; 1565-1898 by Spain. The public domain naturally belonged to the ruler in each case.

t These terms were not used by Mr. Millard, but fairly represent his point.