One thing to be remembered with all our fortifications is that it is almost useless to make them impregnable from the sea if they are left open to land attack.  This is true even of our own coast, but it is doubly true of our insular possessions.  In Hawaii, for instance, it is worse than useless to establish a naval station unless we establish it behind fortifications so strong that no landing force can take them save by regular and long-continued siege operations.

The Philippines.

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