More unintended consequences caused by Congress

Last night's Glenn Beck program was a rerun of some features he's done on American history and the treatment of minorities and aliens, primarily by Democrats. Woodrow Wilson and the reinstatement of segregation in government employment and the military, aka, Jim Crow; Andrew Jackson and the forceable relocation of American Indians; FDR and the internment of Japanese, German and Italian Americans in camps.

And I just came across a little known problem dealing with minorities and Democrats during the FDR years that I'd never heard of: The Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934, named for two Democrats in Congress, Maryland Senator Millard E. Tydings and Alabama Representative John McDuffie. It provided for the drafting and guidelines of a Constitution for a 10-year "transitional period" which became the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines before the granting of Philippine independence, during which the US would maintain military forces in the Philippines.

Furthermore, during this period the American President was granted the power to call into military service all military forces of the Philippine government. The act permitted the maintenance of US naval bases, within this region, for two years after independence.

The act reclassified all Filipinos that were living in the United States as aliens for the purposes of immigration to America. Filipinos were no longer allowed to work legally in the US, and a quota of 50 immigrants per year was established."

Sounds to me like the Filipinos lost much more than they gained on this one, particularly if they were already living and working in the U.S. or the Territory of Hawaii, and needed to send money home to their families.