Our Brothers’ Keeper.

A Mericans who ask what business Britain has in India are also liable to ask themselves, occasionally, what business the United States have in the Philippine Islands. Failing to discover in what way the new American title deeds in those islands are superior to the old British title deeds in the East, a good many Americans seek withdrawal, and a Philippine Independence Bill has passed the House of Representatives over President Hoover's veto. But what American anti-Imperialists may gain in consistency, the Filipinos, according to the retiring President, will lose in practical result. The Philippine Islands may be freed, but at the price of their “economic downfall.” This argument has a familiar ring, and it will be seen that the Pax Americana is not much different from the Pax Britannica or even the Pax imposed by the Romans. Mr. Hoover tries to get away from that precedent by suggesting an independence plebiscite in fifteen or twenty years.