In respect to the Philippines, I urgently join in the recommendation of the Secretary of War that the act of February 6, 1905, limiting the indebtedness that may be incurred by the Philippine Government for the construction of public works, be increased from $5,000,000 to $15,000,000.  The finances of that Government are in excellent condition.  The maximum sum mentioned is quite low as compared with the amount of indebtedness of other governments with similar resources, and the success which has attended the expenditure of the $5,000,000 in the useful improvements of the harbors and other places in the Islands justifies and requires additional expenditures for like purposes.  Naturalization.

I also join in the recommendation that the legislature of the Philippine Islands be authorized to provide for the naturalization of Filipinos and others who by the present law are treated as aliens, so as to enable them to become citizens of the Philippine Islands.

Friars’ lands.

Pending an investigation by Congress at its last session, through one of its committees, into the disposition of the friars’ lands, Secretary Dickinson directed that the friars’ lands should not be sold in excess of the limits fixed for the public lands until Congress should pass upon the subject or should have concluded its investigation.  This order has been an obstruction to the disposition of the lands, and I expect to direct the Secretary of War to return to the practice under the opinion of the Attorney General which will enable us to dispose of the lands much more promptly, and to prepare a sinking fund with which to meet the $7,000,000 of bonds issued for the purchase of the lands.  I have no doubt whatever that the Attorney General’s construction was a proper one, and that it is in the interest of everyone that the land shall be promptly disposed of.  The danger of creating a monopoly of ownership in lands under the statutes as construed is nothing.  There are only two tracts of 60,000 acres each unimproved and in remote Provinces that are likely to be disposed of in bulk, and the rest of the lands are subject to the limitation that they shall be first offered to the present tenants and lessors who hold them in small tracts.

Rivers and harbors.

The estimates for the river and harbor improvements reach $32,000,000 for the coming year.  I wish to urge that whenever a project has been adopted by Congress as one to be completed, the more money which can be economically expended in its construction in each year, the greater the ultimate economy.  This has especial application to the improvement of the Mississippi River and its large branches.  It seems to me that an increase in the amount of money now being annually expended in the improvement of the Ohio River which has been formally adopted by Congress would be in the interest of the public.  A similar change ought to be made during the present Congress,