DECREASE

Expenses of Indian commissioners:

Personal services in District of Columbia..

Bureau of Indian Affairs:

General support and administration, discharging treaty obligations

Howard University:

Heat and power plant. -

Library building.....

Total, Howard University.

Total decrease...

Net increase__

Amount of bill as reported to Senate_

$2,300.00

88, 520. 00

300, 000, 00

100, 000. 00

400, 000. 00

490, 820.00

4, 424, 322. 02

54, 870, 754. 35

MOTOR VEHICLES

This proviso was stricken from the bill by your committee. Many amendments were proposed. In order to give the heads of departments opportunity to further study the matter this was deemed advisable. The provision is as follows:

Provided, That no part of any money appropriated by this act shall be used for purchasing any motor-propelled passenger-carrying vehicle (except busses, station wagons, and ambulances) at a cost, delivered and completely equipped for operation, in excess of $750, including the value of a vehicle exchanged where exchange is involved; nor shall any money appropriated herein be used for maintaining, driving, or operating any Government-owned motor-propelled passenger-carrying vehicle not used exclusively for official purposes, and "official purposes "shall not include the transportation of officers and employees between their domiciles and places of employment except in cases of officers and employees engaged in field work the character of whose duties makes such transportation necessary and then only when the same is approved by the head of the department. This section shall not apply to any motor vehicle for official use of the Secretary of the Interior.

SECTIONS 3 AND 4

These sections relating to compensation, filling of vacancies, promotions, and so forth, were eliminated, without prejudice, from the bill where in conference more information would be at hand which would be necessary to perfecting the same.

SEC. 3. No appropriation under the Department of the Interior available during the fiscal years 1932 and/or 1933 shall be used after the date of the approval of this act (1) to increase the compensation of any position within the grade to which such position has been allocated under the classification act of 1923, as amended, (2) to increase the compensation of any position in the field service the pay of which is adjustable to correspond so far as may be practicable to the rates established by such act as amended for the departmental service in the District of Columbia, (3) to increase the compensation of any position under such act through reallocation, (4) to increase the compensation of any person in any grade under such act through advancement to another position in the same grade or to a position in a higher grade at a rate in excess of the minimum rate of such higher grade unless such minimum rate would require an actuai SR-72-1-VOL 1-39

reduction in compensation, or (5) to increase the compensation of any other position of the Federal Government under such department. The appropriations or portions of appropriations unexpended by the operation of this section shall not be used for any other purposes, but shall be impounded and returned to the Treasury, and a report of the amounts so impounded for the period between the date of the approval of this act and October 31, 1932, shall be submitted to Congress on the first day of the next regular session.

SEC. 4. No appropriation under the Department of the Interior available during the fiscal years 1932 and/or 1933 shall be used after the date of the approval of this act to pay the compensation of an incumbent appointed to any position under the Federal Government which is vacant on the date of the approval of this act or to any such position which may become vacant after such date: Provided, That this inhibition shall not apply to absolutely essential positions the filling of which may be approved in writing by the President of the United States. The appropriations or portions of appropriations unexpended by the operation of this section shall not be used for any other purposes but shall be impounded and returned to the Treasury, and a report of all such vacancies, the number thereof filled, and the amounts unexpended, for the period between the date of the approval of this act and October 31, 1932, shall be submitted to Congress on the first day of the next regular session.

O

FEBRUARY 24 (calendar day, MARCH 1), 1932.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. HAWES and Mr. CUTTING, from the Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 3377]

Your Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs, to whom were referred a number of bills providing for Philippine independence, having considered all such bills, favorably report S. 3377, with an amendment, and recommend that the bill, as amended, do pass.

UNCERTAINTY

For a generation the Philippine problem has confronted the American people. It involves American-Philippine political and economic relations, and the fulfillment of our promise of independence. This bill provides sound, feasible, and fair methods of substituting a definite policy for one of evasion and indecision.

Virtually every witness who testified at the extended hearings conducted by the committee has expressed the view that the present uncertainty characterizing our relations with the Philippine Islands should be removed. Further delay threatens to be prejudicial to the best interests of both the United States and the Philippine Islands.

FAR EASTERN SITUATION

The present situation in the Orient should not prevent Congress from taking definite action at this time. Unsettled conditions in the Far East may continue indefinitely; they may be settled at any time. But the varying fortunes of conflicting forces on the other side of the Pacific can not justly be set up by us as an excuse for delaying the solution of our own problems.

The fulfillment of our duty toward the Philippines must be determined upon the basis of the welfare of the people of the United States and the 13,000,000 people of the Philippine Islands. To change

at this time a long established national policy because of conditions for which we are not responsible and over which we have no immediate control will be interpreted as timidity or weakness.

FACTORS RECONCILED

The recommended bill harmonizes previous divergent views of different groups likely to be affected by Philippine independence. The American farmer, speaking through the three national farm federations, and the dairy organizations, is seeking protection from Philippine competition in our markets. The American workingman through the American Federation of Labor, and organizations on the Pacific coast, and the American Legion, are demanding the exclusion of Filipino immigrants as well as protection from duty-free Philippine articles produced at lower labor costs.

Nor can the rights and interests of the Filipino justly be ignored. He, too, is under the American flag, and that not by his own choice but by our own will and purpose. While he remains under our sovereignty he should not be discriminated against. It would be politically immoral to retain indefinitely the Filipino people in their present status as wards and at the same time impose upon them discriminating and unfair restrictions and inhibitions.

We have also to consider our promise to grant independence to the Filipino people. By the declaration of our political parties, by the utterances of our Presidents, by an enactment of Congress, we have pledged our word as a nation that they should at some time be free and independent. This we can not evade.

INDEPENDENCE-"WHEN" AND "HOW"

Only two questions require decision-first, "When shall the Philippines be granted independence?" and, second, "How should it be granted, so as to protect both Philippine and American welfare?" To achieve these purposes the bill in the main provides that

PHILIPPINE AUTONOMY

1. The Philippine people shall adopt a constitution for the government of the "Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands," pending complete independence. Under that government they will enjoy complete autonomy as to domestic affairs, subject only to the restrictions and limitations specified in the bill that safeguard both the sovereignty and responsibilities of the United States.

TRADE LIMITATION

2. Pending final withdrawal of American sovereignty, free importations of certain Philippine products into the United States shall not exceed specified limits, based upon the status quo as represented by estimated importations from existing investments.

IMMIGRATION RESTRICTIONS

3. Pending independence Philippine immigration to the United States is limited to a maximum annual quota of 100.

COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE

4. At the end of a 15-year period from the date of inauguration of the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands, the people of the islands shall, at a plebiscite, vote on the question of independence, and if a majority favor independence the President is directed to recognize and declare the independence of the Philippine Islands, whereupon, for all purposes, they will become to the United States a foreign nation.

These provisions establish a process for the independence of the Philippine people and the adjustment in an orderly manner of our economic and other relations with them. They provide the erection of the new Philippine national structure and at the same time a safe and satisfactory transition from the present dependent to the future independent status.

GRADUAL TRADE ADJUSTMENT

Twenty-five years ago free-trade relations were established between the United States and the Philippine Islands. This was done by the American Congress against the expressed desire and despite the opposition of the people of the islands. As a consequence of free trade, Philippine industries and trade with the United States have developed on that basis.

This arrangement resulted in an artificial stimulation in the production of certain articles and manufactures in the Philippines, and an extraordinary increase in the volume of American-Philippine trade with a corresponding decrease in the trade of the islands with foreign countries.

Obviously, the existing free trade relations between the United States and the Philippines can not be terminated abruptly without serious injury to Philippine economic interests and American trade with the islands. Both require a definite time to prepare for the change. Investments made on the basis of free trade must be given sufficient time for adjustment or liquidation without loss. Philippine industries must be given time to establish themselves on a competitive basis before they are placed outside the tariff walls of the United States.

MORAL OBLIGATION

The United States owes a moral obligation to the Filipino people in this respect. The existence of this obligation can not be too strongly urged. We can not justify an act which might result in the destruction of the economic structure that we helped to build in the Philippines, with the consequent lowering of standards of living.

Orderly transfers of sovereignty have usually been accompanied by such provisions as those proposed in this bill. When the Philippines were ceded to the United States by Spain, we agreed by treaty to permit Spain for 10 years to send her merchandise and her ships to the Philippines on the same basis as ours. We did this because we realized that we would injure Philippine and Spanish interests if we abruptly forced on the Philippine Islands a different arrangement.