On Talks of Philippine Independence: 1920s-1930s – The American Sentiments – Part 2

This is the continuation of the article: On Talks of Philippine Independence: 1920s-1930s (see Part 1 in my previous posts).

The 72nd US Congress favored more the independence of the Islands.  The members of the Philippine independence bloc advanced to the Congress some proposals when the Philippines was granted its independence: (1) sugar imports from the Islands should be limited; (2) Filipino immigrants should be sharply restricted; and (3) the Islands should be put under the coastwise shipping law which would have prohibited all but U. S. vessels from plying between the Philippines and the U. S.  In response, President Hoover resisted these ideas and told Congress to stop plaguing the Philippines (TIME article, “The Cabinet: Eyes &  Ears” dated 14-Sept 1931).

On the occasion of then Secretary of War‘s visit to Manila in 1931, Patrick Jay Hurley believed that the Philippine Legislature wished to retain its beneficent economic ties with the U. S., and wanted become only governmentally autonomous (TIME article,”National Affairs: Hurley-burley” dated 05-Oct 1931).  The article also expressed that Filipinos were not blinded to the true motive why the U.S. was supporting the immediate independence: “… that U. S. support of their independence agitation is born not of altruism but of economics. Philippine products, notably sugar, are admitted duty-free into the U. S., competing with Rocky Mountain beet sugar and Louisiana cane. Lock the Philippines out of the Union and they will have to jump over a tariff wall.”

Patrick Jay Hurley was the U.S. Secretary of War during President Hoover's term. (photo from http://www.wikipedia.org)

Back in the U.S., Secretary of War Hurley reported to President Hoover his impressions:

(1) Native sentiment for independence is politically organized and vocal, but not conclusively a majority.

(2) Opposition to independence is large, timid, unorganized. Politics is a big local industry which has outstripped economics.

(3) The Islands are not yet ripe for freedom. They need economic development. It would be bad enough to turn them loose in good times but immediate independence during Depression would be their ruin.

The President was satisfied and agreed to these points and asked Secretary Hurley to submit into writing and report it to Congress.  In return, President Hoover made his first important statement on the Philippines: “…The economic independence of the Philippines must be attained before political independence can be successful.* Independence tomorrow would result in the collapse of Philippine government revenues and the collapse of all economic life in the islands. We propose to give further consideration to the whole subject.”  The entire Cabinet agreed but some members of independence bloc in Congress were undaunted by the President’s statement (TIME article, “Territories: No Independence Tomorrow” dated 09-Nov 1931).

Read on this transcript during the 1st day of the Senate Territories & Insular Affairs Committee hearing in which Secretary Hurley testified on a bill prepared by Senators Hawes & Cutting which would progressively free the Philippines over a five-year period (TIME article, “The Cabinet: Dialog” dated 22-Feb 1932).

Secretary Hurley: You can’t give the Philippine people their independence at 2 o’clock on a specific day. This Hawes-Cutting bill attempts to tear down in five years all the United States has built up in 20. It is a cowardly bill.

Senator Hawes (quietly) : What do you mean by cowardly?

Secretary Hurley: I mean it hasn’t one element of courage. It’s neither fish nor fowl.

Senator Hawes (angrily) : Do you mean to assert that Senator Cutting and I are cowards?

Secretary Hurley: I’m not making any personal implications. The bill is based on fear.

Senator Hawes (rising) : Then you don’t withdraw the word “cowardly”?

Secretary Hurley (shouting): No, I don’t— Senator Hawes (also shouting): You— you—there’s not a line in the bill that justifies that statement!

Secretary Hurley (making fists): I’m making this speech. You wait until I finish. If you must grant independence, be courageous enough to grant it at once and let the revolution that will follow occur under their flag, not ours.

Senator King: I’d be very sorry if you remained as Secretary of War for an indefinite period with the Philippines under you.

Secretary Hurley: I’m the best friend the Philippines have got. . . . Every sentiment in my soul supports the idea that there should be no domination of man over man.

The feelings of the Americans in the 1920’s – 30’s regarding the independence of their brown-skinned Asiatic dependents were mixed.  It boiled down to economic reasons.  The U.S. Executive branch did not agree to an immediate independence of the Philippines.   It wanted Philippines to be economically independent first with the help of the U.S.  The economic sustainability of the Islands was their main concern before granting full independence.  At the Capitol, the members of the Philippine independence bloc fully supported the immediate freedom because of economic reasons.  They believed that Philippine products (i.e. sugar) were given preferential treatment (i.e. duty-free) and competed with their products.

It is interesting to note that in the Philippines, not all Filipinos wanted independence from U.S. There were large opposition to independence.  However, it seemed that only some politicos (e.g. Quezon, Osmena, Roxas) were very vocal and campaigned very hard to immediate independence from the U.S.

Well, the rest is history…

As a footnote, let’s go back to history…

Manuel L. Quezon was a staunch supporter of an immediate Philippine independence from the U.S. and became the 1st President of the Philippine Commonwealth (photo from http://www.wikipilipinas.org)

The Americans occupied the Philippine Islands after the defeat of the Spaniards in 1898. U.S. had formally claimed sovereignty over the entire archipelago after the signing of the Treaty of Paris in which it paid Spain the amount of U.S.$20 million. From 1899 to 1935, U.S established military government, civil government and later insular government in the Islands. A governor general was the representative of the President of the U.S. After the establishment of the insular government, an election in 1907 was held to form the Philippine Assembly (lower house) and the Philippine Commission (upper house). Both houses were composed mostly of Filipino nationalists. In 1916, Jones Law (the Philippine Autonomy Act) was passed by the U.S. Congress that became the official understanding between the U.S and the Philippines for the latter’s ultimate independence provided a stable government is established. The law established a bicameral Philippine Legislature and the Senate. Various independence missions were sent to the U.S. from 1922 to 1933. In 1934, The Tydings-McDuffie Act was ratified by the Philippine Senate. The law provided the independence of the Islands in 1946. The Act required the drafting of the Constitution and the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. In 1935, the Commonwealth was inaugurated and Manuel L. Quezon was elected as the President. This ’10-year transition period’ self-autonomy was interrupted by the Japanese occupation of the Islands during World War II. In 1946, Philippines, still slowly recuperating from the atrocities brought by the war, was granted independence by U.S. Now, that’s benevolence, the aspiration longed by Filipino nationalists was given to them in an unfavorable time.