CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



147 



largest number of people, but to create for this 

 new industry the best possible social and indus- 

 trial conditions; and this requires that we not 

 only understand the existing situation, but avail 

 ourselves of the best experience of the time in 

 the solution of its problems. A careful study 

 should be made, both by the nation and the 

 States, of the irrigation laws and conditions here 

 and abroad. Ultimately it will probably Is nec- 

 essary for the nation to cooperate with the sev- 

 eral arid States in proportion as these States by 

 their legislation and administration show them- 

 selves fit to receive it. 



In Hawaii our aim must be to develop the ter- 

 ritory on the traditional American lines. We 

 do not wish a region of large estates tilled by 

 cheap labor; we wish a healthy American com- 

 munity of men who themselves till the farms 

 they own. All our legislation for the islands 

 should be shaped with this end in view; the well- 

 being of the average home-maker must afford the 

 true test of the healthy development of the is- 

 lands. The land policy should as nearly as pos- 

 sible be modeled on our homestead system. 



It is a pleasure to say that it is hardly more 

 necessary to report as to Porto Rico than as to 

 any State or Territory within our continental 

 limits. The island is thriving as never before, 

 and it is being administered efficiently and hon- 

 estly. Its people are now enjoying liberty and 

 order under the protection of the United States, 

 and upon this fact we congratulate them and 

 ourselves. Their material welfare must be as 

 carefully and jealously considered as the welfare 

 of any other portion of our country. We have 

 given them the great gift of free access for their 

 products to the markets of the United States. 

 I ask the attention of the Congress to the need 

 of legislation concerning the public lands of 

 Porto Rico. 



In Cuba such progress has been made toward 

 putting the independent government of the island 

 upon a firm footing that before the present" ses- 

 sion of the Congress closes this will be an ac- 

 complished fact. Cuba will then start as her 

 own mistress; and to the beautiful Queen of the 

 Antilles, as she unfolds this new page of her 

 destiny, we extend our heartiest greetings and 

 good wishes. Elsewhere I have discussed the 

 question of reciprocity. In the case of Cuba, 

 however, there are weighty reasons of morality 

 and of national interest why the policy should 

 be held to have a peculiar application, and I 

 most earnestly ask your attention to the wisdom, 

 indeed*. to the vital need, of providing for a sub- 

 stantial reduction in the tariff duties on Cuban 

 imports into the United States. Cuba has in 

 her Constitution affirmed what we desired, that 

 she should stand, in international matters, in 

 closer and more friendly relations with us than 

 with any other power; and we are bound by 

 every consideration of honor and expediency to 

 pass commercial measures in the interest of her 

 material well-being. 



In the Philippines our problem is larger. They 

 are very rich tropical islands, inhabited by many 

 varying tribes, representing widely different 

 slaves of progress toward civilization. Our ear- 

 nest effort is to help these people upward along 

 the stony and difficult path that leads to self- 

 government. We hope to make our administra- 

 tion of the islands honorable to our nation by 

 making it of the highest benefit to the Filipinos 

 themselves; and as an earnest of what we intend 

 to do, we point to what we have done. Already 

 a greater measure of material prosperity and of 

 governmental honesty and efficiency has been at- 



II 



tained in the Philippines than ever before in 

 their history. 



It is no light task for a nation 'to achieve the 

 temperamental qualities without which the in-ti- 

 tutions of free government are but an empty 

 mockery. Our people are now successfully gov- 

 erning themselves, because for more than a thou- 

 sand years they have been slowly fitting them- 

 selves, sometimes consciously, sometimes uncon- 

 sciously, toward this end. What has taken us 

 thirty generations to achieve, we can- not expect 

 to see another race accomplish out of hand, espe- 

 cially when large portions of that race start very 

 far behind the point which our ancestors had 

 reached even thirty generations ago. In dealing 

 with the Philippine people we must show both 

 patience and strength, forbearance and steadfast 

 resolution. Our aim is high. We do not desire 

 to do for the islanders merely what has elsewhere 

 been done for tropic peoples by even the best 

 foreign governments. We hope to do for them 

 what has never before been done for any people 

 of the tropics to make them fit for self-govern- 

 ment after the fashion of the really free na- 

 tions. 



History may safely be challenged to show a 

 single instance in which a masterful race such as 

 ours, having been forced by the exigencies of war 

 to take possession of an alien land, has behaved 

 to its inhabitants with the disinterested zeal for 

 their progress that our people have shown in the 

 Philippines. To leave the islands at this time 

 would mean that they would fall into a welter 

 of murderous anarchy. Such desertion of duty 

 on our part would be a crime against humanity. 

 The character of Gov. Taft and of his associates 

 and subordinates is a proof, if such be needed, 

 of the sincerity of our effort to give the islanders 

 a constantly increasing measure of self-govern- 

 ment exactly as fast as they show themselves fit 

 to exercise it. Since the civil government was 

 established not an appointment has been made 

 in the islands with any reference to considerations 

 of political influence, or aught else save the fit- 

 ness of the man and the needs of the service. 



In our anxiety for the welfare and progress 

 of the Philippines, it may be that here and there 

 we have gone too rapidly in giving them local 

 self-government. It is on this side that our error, 

 if any, has been committed. No competent ob- 

 server, sincerely desirous of finding out the facts 

 and influenced only by a desire for the welfare 

 of the natives, can assert that we have not gone 

 far enough. We have gone to the very verge 

 of safety in hastening the process. To have 

 taken a single step farther or faster in advance 

 would have been folly and weakness, and might 

 well have been crime. We are extremely anx- 

 ious that the natives shall show the power of 

 governing themselves. We are anxious first, for 

 their sakes, and next, because it relieves us of a 

 great burden. There need not be the slightest 

 fear of our not continuing to give them all the 

 liberty for which they are fit. 



The only fear is lest in our overanxiety we 

 give them a degree of independence for which 

 they are unfit, thereby inviting reaction and dis- 

 aster. As fast as there is any reasonable hope 

 that in a given district the people can i. r "\.in 

 themselves, self-government has been given in 

 that district. There is not a locality fitted for 

 self-government which has not received it. But 

 it may well be that in certain cases it will have 

 to be' withdrawn because the inhabitants show 

 themselves unfit to exercise it: such instances 

 have already occurred. In other words, there is 

 not the slightest chance of our failing to show a 



