Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

80 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

separation from the United States is completed, this same tariff
would be maintained at the levels of the last decade.
The products native to the territory in which we liveraw material of the Tropics-are produced now in abundance
and at a lower cost by other countries situated in the same
geographic belt as our country; in some parts, as in Java,
because the labor cost is much lower; in others, as in Cuba,
because the soil is more fertile, and almost everywhere, because,
besides those advantages, they employ more scientific and economical methods than ours. If up to the present time, we
have been able to subsist without sacrificing our standard of
living, higher than that of other Oriental countries, notwithstanding the general decline in world prices for the commodities we produce, it is because we have an immense market where
our principal exports enter favored by the armor of very high
protective duties. This outlet for our products once closed,
we would have to compete with other tropical countries under
conditions of tariff equality in markets whither we may send
our products.
The search for new markets will doubtless be one of our
main economic problems, if not the most important. Many
countries have among themselves agreements extending to each
other, treatment in accordance with the principle of "the most
favored nation," and have well-established trade routes and
systems of exchange that would be difficult to alter. In the
case of our sugar, for instance, but two doors would remain
open: England, where we would be competing with the
production of her colonies and the beet sugar of Europe, and
China, where our struggle would be with Cuban and Javanese
sugar, which is produced at a cost lower than ours.
But there is no doubt that we can survive and even progress,
if we know how to bear sacrifices and find the means of lowering the cost of production; contenting ourselves with smaller
salaries and profits; introducing more scientific and economical
methods in cultivation and harvesting, and uniting our efforts
and cooperating with each other in looking for a more remunerative outlet for our crops: in a word, working harder than
ever with our brains and brawn, so that we may successfully