Personal Proxy

Last week the President appointed Carmi Alderman* Thompson, veteran politician and big iron and coal man of Ohio, to go to the Philippines as his personal representative on a mission of investigation. In the White House announcement nothing was said about prospective Philippine independence. The realist attitude was reflected:

"The decision of the President to take this step follows the increased interest in Congress recently in regard to the Philippine Islands.

"Moreover, the President feels that an intensive study of the possibilities of these insular possessions may lead to increased development of their natural resources and that such a study will be of great benefit and importance not only to the United States but to the Filipinos as well.

"Colonel Thompson, who is a close friend of General Leonard Wood, the Governor General of the Philippines, has served as assistant Secretary of the Interior, Treasurer of the United States, Secretary to President Taft, and is now President of the Tod-Stambaugh Iron Ore Co. of Cleveland."

Promptly Pat Harrison of Mississippi rose in the Senate to criticize. The President's move was so unexpected that Democrat Harrison was forced to extemporize a trifle uncertainly. First he heavily satirized the appointment as being cheap politics; it was designed, said he, solely to remove Mr. Thompson from Ohio politics where there are several Republican candidates for Governor. Satire having failed to produce heat, the Senator intimated that Mr. Thompson might be inclined to interest himself in the exploitation of the island (rubber, etc.) rather than in the welfare of the islanders. Here Senator Moses of New Hampshire quietly remarked that, if Senator Harrison was so interested in "the little brown man of the Philippines," he might also propose an investigation into the conditions of "the little black man in Mississippi." It was a very palpable hit which Pat Harrison took with his usual good humor, and then proceeded to urge a resolution that Congress send to the Philippines its own investigation committee. The Senator who champions the dignity of Congress will always be heard willingly in the Senate. But the Ohio Senators refused unanimous consent to give the resolution immediate consideration.

Undisturbed, Mr. Thompson prepared to sail for the East in June.

*No title; his Christian name. Cf. Patrick Cardinal Hayes, Vera Countess Cathcart.