But our laws have provided no means by which this could be accomplished, or by which the losses of the regiments when once sent to the front could be repaired.

The legislation is imperfect, in my opinion, in certain particulars, but it is a most important step in the right direction, and I earnestly hope that it will be carefully studied and perfected by Congress.

Our citizen soldiers under present conditions have reached a stage of development beyond which they can not reasonably be asked to go without further direct assistance in the form of pay from the Federal Government.

They are the only force of trained men, other than the Regular Army, upon which we can rely.

I believe that its enactment into law would be a very long step toward providing this Nation with a first line of citizen soldiery, upon which its main reliance must depend in case of any national emergency.

In any serious war in the past it has always been necessary, and in such a war in the future it doubtless will be necessary, for the Nation to depend, in addition to the Regular Army and the National Guard, upon a large force of volunteers.

There is now pending in Congress, however, a bill which makes such provision, and which I believe is admirably adapted to meet the exigencies which would be presented in case of war.

The passage of the bill would not entail a dollar's expense upon the Government at this time or in the future until war comes.

Except for the slight increase necessary to garrison our outposts in Hawaii and Panama, they do not call for a larger Army, but they do tend to produce a much more efficient one.

The failure thus far to grant American citizenship continues to be the only ground of dissatisfaction.

I believe that the demand for citizenship is just, and that it is amply earned by sustained loyalty on the part of the inhabitants of the island.

But it should be remembered that the demand must be, and in the minds of most Porto Ricans is, entirely disassociated from any thought of statehood.

I believe that the aim to be striven for is the fullest possible allowance of legal and fiscal self-government, with American citizenship as to the bond between us; in other words, a relation analogous to the present relation between Great…

This would conduce to the fullest and most self-sustaining development of Porto Rico, while at the same time it would grant her the economic and political benefits of being under the American flag.

A thorough and unbiased knowledge of the facts clearly shows that these assumptions are absolutely without justification.

In the Philippine Islands we have embarked upon an experiment unprecedented in dealing with dependent people.

Through the unifying forces of a common education, of commercial and economic development, and of gradual participation in local self-government we are endeavoring to evolve a homogeneous people fit to determine, when the time arrives…

We are seeking to arouse a national spirit and not, as under the older colonial theory, to suppress such a spirit.

Our duty to the Filipinos is far from discharged.

Over half a million Filipino students are now in the Philippine schools helping to mold the men of the future into a homogeneous people, but there still remain more than a million Filipino children of school age yet to be reached.

Freed from American control the integrating forces of a common education and a common language will cease and the educational system now well started will slip back into inefficiency and disorder.

An enormous increase in the commercial development of the islands has been made since they were virtually granted full access to our markets three years ago, with every prospect of increasing development and diversified industries.

Freed from American control such development is bound to decline.

If freed from American control sanitary progress is bound to be arrested and all that has been achieved likely to be lost.

Concurrent with the economic, social, and industrial development of the islands has been the development of the political capacity of the people.