All of the foregoing reforms are in the direction of economy and efficiency.  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 only substantial new appropriations required are those which, as I have pointed out, are necessary to complete the fortifications and barracks at our naval bases and outposts beyond the sea.

PORTO RICO

Porto Rico continues to show notable progress, both commercially and in the spread of education.  Its external commerce has increased 17 per cent over the preceding year, bringing the total value up to $92,631,886, or more than five times the value of the commerce of the island in 1901.  During the year 160,657 Pupils were enrolled in the public schools, as against 145,525 for the preceding year, and as compared with 26,000 for the first year of American administration.  Special efforts are under way for the promotion of vocational and industrial training, the need of which is particularly pressing in the island.  When the bubonic plague broke out last June, the quick and efficient response of the people of Porto Rico to the demands of modern sanitation was strikingly shown by the thorough campaign which was instituted against the plague and the hearty public opinion which supported the Government’s efforts to check its progress and to prevent its recurrence.

The failure thus far to grant American citizenship continues to be the only ground of dissatisfaction.  The bill conferring such citizenship has passed the House of Representatives and is now awaiting the action of the Senate.  I am heartily in favor of the passage of this bill.  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 no substantial approved public opinion in the United States or in Porto Rico contemplates statehood for the island as the ultimate form of relations between us.  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 Britain and such self-governing colonies as Canada and Australia.  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.

PHILIPPINES