"Therefore, so far as it is humanly possible to judge and say, we can see only one aim for the Commission of Independence--independence; and we can give only one instruction--to get it. * * *" The Mission proceeded to Washington to confer with President Wilson and to make known their desires. It happened, however, that the President was in Paris, at the Peace Conference, and could not receive the mission in person. He delegated Secretary of War Baker to represent him and to read for him to the Mission a letter in which he expressed sentiments of sympathy and good will. In that letter, the President said in part: "I am sorry that I cannot look into the faces of the gentlemen of this Mission from the Philippine Islands and tell them all that I have in mind and heart as I think of the patient labor, with the end almost in sight, undertaken by the American and Filipino people for their permanent benefit. I know, however, that your sentiments are mine in this regard and that you will translate truly to them my own feelings." And Secretary Baker, on his part, said: "I know that I express the feeling of the President--I certainly express my own feeling; I think I express the prevailing feeling in the United States--when I say that we believe the time has substantially come, if not quite come, when the Philippine Islands can be allowed to sever the mere formal political tie remaining and become an independent people." Hearing Before Congressional Committee.--Because of the absence of President Wilson, the mission had to return to the Islands with its object unattained. The members, however, had visited many cities of the United States and delivered speeches pleading for independence. They also succeeded in getting a hearing before a joint-committee of Congress, presided over by the then Senator Harding. But the committee was adverse to any action being taken at the time on the issue of Philippine independence and so stated. The Mission then presented a memorial "to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States," wherein it submitted the case of the Filipinos in substance thus: 1. That as defined and established in the Act of Congress of August 29, 1916, the purpose of the Government of the United States is to withdraw its sovereignty over the Philippine Islands as soon as a stable government can be established therein. 2. That in accordance with the terms and provisions of said law, the people of the Philippines have organized a government that has been in operation for nearly three years and which has offered complete evidence that conditions are ripe for the establishment of an independent government that will be fully capable of maintaining law and order, administer justice, promote the welfare of all the inhabitants of the islands, and discharge as well its international obligations.