160 



CONGRESS. (THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.) 



tering into elaborate and interesting discussion 

 of the provisions of the measure, the policy of 

 holding the islands as a colony, the conduct of 

 the war there, and kindred matters. Mr. Kaw- 

 lins, of Utah, speaking in opposition to the bill, 

 denounced it as the establishment of a despotism. 

 He said: 



" Across the water there are more than 10,000,- 

 00 suffering people silent and unheard, but 

 whose souls doubtless cry out against wrongs, 

 cruel, unspeakable, beyond the ken of mortal lan- 

 guage to describe. There are more than 70,000,- 

 000 people on this side of the water wanting to 

 know the truth hitherto stifled and suppressed: 



" Mr. President, it seems to me that it is a 

 time when it is a patriotic duty to give utterance 

 to the truth, that the American people may be 

 advised, and that we may intelligently deal with 

 the important questions which confront us. 



" Friends of justice, champions of liberty, have 

 ver been jealous of the encroachment of executive 

 or kingly power, and those who, irrespective of 

 consequences to themselves, have resisted its ag- 

 gression and refused to be seduced by its bland- 

 ishments have gone into history with enduring and 

 honorable fame, while those who have catered to 

 it and sought to profit by the favors which it 

 had to bestow have sunk into oblivion, or if re- 

 membered, are only remembered to be despised. 



" What is this bill? The Senator who in- 

 troduced it has not explained it; but upon its 

 examination we find that it continues if it does 

 not establish in perpetuity a presidential despot- 

 ism not a benevolent despotism, but a cruel, a 

 remorseless, and a predatory despotism. 



" For this they have no warrant in our history 

 or our traditions. To do this they must trample 

 under foot the precepts of our Constitution and 

 the axioms of our liberty. This bill reaches 

 backward as well as forward. It strikes its roots 

 into and receives its support from that excres- 

 cence upon the army appropriation bill of 1901 

 known as the ' Spooner amendment.' The quali- 

 fication of the absolute power therein conferred, 

 adopted at the instance of the Senator from 

 Massachusetts, by this bill is eliminated. After 

 the bill shall have passed, this absolute power 

 will stand forth stripped of every qualification 

 and limitation. In order to comprehend this bill, 

 therefore, it is necessary to read into it as a part 

 of it that grant of absolute authority." 



Discussing more in detail the scope of the 

 measure, he said: 



" You will see an outline here of wonderfully 

 -complicated machinery. These various depart- 

 ments and bureaus, covering every conceivable 

 subject of administration, are to be supported by 

 the taxes derived from the people of the Philip- 

 pine Islands. The heads of these bureaus and 

 all the subordinates and employees connected 

 with them are dependent for the tenure of their 

 office and the amount and payment of their sal- 

 aries upon the United States Philippine Commis- 

 sion. They are subservient in all respects to the 

 edicts and behests of that commission. The per- 

 sons now in office, so far as we are enabled to 

 determine from an inspection of the law and 

 from anything in the bill which we now have 

 under consideration, are to continue to hold 

 those offices during life; and that is true of the 

 membership of the United States Philippine Com- 

 mission. They are selected by the President, 

 and now constitute the sole depository of power 

 in the islands. They are to hold their positions 

 during life, nothing being said about good be- 

 havior. The concurrence of the Senate is only 

 required as to future appointments, and the bill 



is very careful to prevent the possibility of the 

 Senate passing upon the fitness of the persons 

 who are, during their lives it may be, to exer- 

 cise these unusual and arbitrary powers to which 

 I have already made reference. 



" When we come to consider the judiciary, 

 which is provided for in the next section, we 

 shall find that that, too, is absolutely dependent 

 upon the will of the United States Philippine Com- 

 mission and will be subservient to its purposes. 

 When we proceed further to ascertain if there be 

 any limitations circumscribing the authority 

 mentioned in the Spooner amendment which I 

 have read, we look in vain. They have control 

 of the courts. They have control of the salaries 

 and the tenure of judges. The extent of the 

 jurisdiction which any one of them may exercise, 

 if any, is dependent wholly upon the action of 

 the commission. All property and rights rights 

 in the generic sense, without qualification, as dis- 

 tinguished from property, embracing thereby, as 

 it does, according to every reasonable implica- 

 tion, the sovereignty, if any, that we acquired 

 from Spain by the peace treaty are by one sec- 

 tion of the bill turned over absolutely and un- 

 qualifiedly to this oligarch, the United States 

 Philippine Commission. To what end? To be 

 administered, distributed, disposed of. 



" Mr. President, the feet of the archipelago rest 

 near the equator. Twelve hundred miles to the 

 north its head is bathed by the waters of the 

 Chinese Sea. It is said there are more than 

 600 islands; more than 76,000,000 acres of land, 

 embracing mountains, volcanoes, valleys, lakes, 

 rivers, and swamps, timber resources, whatever 

 they may be and all these things are turned 

 over absolutely to the control and the disposi- 

 tion of the United States Philippine Commission. 

 Of the 76,000,000 acres of land to-day, according 

 to the reports, there are but 5,000,000 acres sub- 

 ject to private ownership, and this bill is not con- 

 tent to leave that inviolable in the hands of the 

 people who have acquired it, because there is a 

 provision in the bill authorizing the same United 

 States Philippine Commission to appropriate it 

 in the exercise of the power of eminent- domain 

 and to dispose of it, to sell it, or give it away, 

 as they may deem proper. In order to acquire it 

 they are given authority to issue bonds in pay- 

 ment therefor, mortgaging the future of the is- 

 lands and their people. 



" All these lands, every acre and every foot of 

 land within the archipelago, including all appur- 

 tenances, all rights of every description, under 

 the provisions of this bill are to be disposed of 

 absolutely without limitation, according to the 

 rules and regulations which may be enacted or 

 prescribed by the United States Philippine Com- 

 mission. I said ' without limitation.' Practi- 

 cally so. This limitation is provided in one oi' 

 the sections of the bill. W 7 hen the rules of tin 

 United States Philippine Commission are passed, 

 they are to be submitted to the President, am 

 are not to take effect until approved by him. 

 They are to be submitted to Congress, and if noi; 

 disapproved by Congress before the expiration 

 of the next session of Congress, then they become 

 effective and go into operation. 



"The despotic power conferred upon the Presi- 

 dent of the United States and the United States 

 Philippine 'Commission is therefore in no degreu 

 limited with respect to the rules and regulations 

 providing for the disposition of the public land} 

 in the islands, except to the extent that Congres J 

 may be able, after the rules are submitted for it* 

 consideration, to disapprove of those rules within 

 the time limited. Either House may prevent such 



