FDR, 1938

CPR with FDR, 1935

Though it heralded our long-awaited freedom from America, the Philippine commonwealth era (1934–1944) was a tumultuous time. The Great Depression, which started in 1929, had plunged the world into a decade-long economic and financial crisis, leading to years of mass unemployment and misery. Many in the US Congress thus held the view that keeping the P.I. (Philippine Islands) as a territory was an unnecessary liability, giving some Filipinos the worrying impression that they might get rid of us in a “surgical rather than therapeutic manner.”

It was at this significant juncture, early in 1938, that Carlos Romulo, publisher of The Philippines Herald, sat down privately with Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House for an unplanned 40-minute conversation—remarkable not only because Romulo was a brown-skinned Filipino but also because the US president had only once before shared his views privately with a journalist.

The President greeted me, recalling how we met at Notre Dame in December 1935. He asked me to be seated.

He was dressed in a dark grey suit with faint white stripes. Dynamic and full of energy, his is the personality that radiates strength and vigor.

As I write this dispatch two hours after leaving the White House, there are certain definite impressions that are uppermost in my mind and which I would like to convey to the Filipino people.

My first impression is that President Roosevelt is a true friend of the Philippines. His interest in us is that of the American people—to see to it that America’s colonial adventure in the Far East should be a success. He knows it is a cooperative effort by Americans and Filipinos and that it can succeed only if that cooperation continues between the two peoples.

There is nothing selfish in his desire to see Filipinos succeed in the experiment. He is aware of the clamor of certain groups in America to “get rid” of the Philippines for obvious reasons. But it is my impression that he looks at the Philippine question from a moral standpoint—that America, having voluntarily assumed the obligation of helping the Filipinos, should do so wholeheartedly and finish the job properly.