Real progress toward self-government is being made in the Philippine
Islands. The gathering of a Philippine legislative body and Philippine
assembly marks a process absolutely new in Asia, not only as regards
Asiatic colonies of European powers but as regards Asiatic possessions
of other Asiatic powers; and, indeed, always excepting the striking and
wonderful example afforded by the great Empire of Japan, it opens an
entirely new departure when compared with anything which has happened
among Asiatic powers which are their own masters. Hitherto this
Philippine legislature has acted with moderation and self-restraint,
and has seemed in practical fashion to realize the eternal truth that
there must always be government, and that the only way in which any
body of individuals can escape the necessity of being governed by
outsiders is to show that they are able to restrain themselves, to keep
down wrongdoing and disorder. The Filipino people, through their
officials, are therefore making real steps in the direction of
self-government. I hope and believe that these steps mark the beginning
of a course which will continue till the Filipinos become fit to decide
for themselves whether they desire to be an independent nation. But it
is well for them (and well also for those Americans who during the past
decade have done so much damage to the Filipinos by agitation for an
immediate independence for which they were totally unfit) to remember
that self-government depends, and must depend, upon the Filipinos
themselves. All we can do is to give them the opportunity to develop
the capacity for self-government. If we had followed the advice of the
foolish doctrinaires who wished us at any time during the last ten
years to turn the Filipino people adrift, we should have shirked the
plainest possible duty and have inflicted a lasting wrong upon the
Filipino people. We have acted in exactly the opposite spirit. We have
given the Filipinos constitutional government--a government based upon
justice--and we have shown that we have governed them for their good
and not for our aggrandizement. At the present time, as during the past
ten years, the inexorable logic of facts shows that this government
must be supplied by us and not by them. We must be wise and generous;
we must help the Filipinos to master the difficult art of self-control,
which is simply another name for self-government. But we can not give
them self-government save in the sense of governing them so that
gradually they may, if they are able, learn to govern themselves. Under
the present system of just laws and sympathetic administration, we have
every reason to believe that they are gradually acquiring the character
which lies at the basis of self-government, and for which, if it be
lacking, no system of laws, no paper constitution, will in any wise
serve as a substitute. Our people in the Philippines have achieved what
may legitimately be called a marvelous success in giving to them a
government which marks on the part of those in authority both the
necessary understanding of the people and the necessary purpose to
serve them disinterestedly and in good faith. I trust that within a
generation the time will arrive when the Philippines can decide for
themselves whether it is well for them to become independent, or to
continue under the protection of a strong and disinterested power, able
to guarantee to the islands order at home and protection from foreign
invasion. But no one can prophesy the exact date when it will be wise
to consider independence as a fixed and definite policy. It would be
worse than folly to try to set down such a date in advance, for it must
depend upon the way in which the Philippine people themselves develop
the power of self-mastery.