Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 233, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1916 — Retention of Philippines Under Present Conditions Dangerous to United States [ARTICLE]

Retention of Philippines Under Present Conditions Dangerous to United States

By GEORGE A. MALCOLM

•Dean of Law Department of the Philippine yniveritty

At the present time there are about twenty-five hundred students, practically all natives of the islands, in the university at Manila. If anything, the islands are interested in the professions for their own good, the country being agricultural. There are as capable men/fin the islands for the directing of their government and administration as are to be found in any country. Their one greatest problem when their independence is given them will be adequate Lack of finances will prove a handicap in maintaining as adequate a system of defense as the United States has constructed. It is, of course, guesswork what foreign country, if any, would undertake the conquest of the islands. The costly fortifications the United States has placed there would likely be ineffective in the face of a determined blow. In its present position it is costly and dangerous for the United States to continue the supervision of the islands for this reason. The sooner, therefore, that the islands are granted their independence, the better for this country. —— A blow at the islands would of course implicate the United States. While running the chance, the,country is really gaining nothing.