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.

162 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS,languages to such an extent that our rulers have forced us to
recognize how indispensable, first for the Castilian and then
for the English to be our own common language; when in
reality, both the one and the other have seemed more for the
comfort of the ruler in his relation to the subject than for the
integral preservation and the rapid development of our culture
and national solidarity.
I said several ways, because each power had its own characteristic method. Under the Spanish, sovereignty here governed
in the form of languages-a policy similar to that implanted
in Java by the Dutch government and in India by the English;
that is, the subject people were allowed in complete liberty to
conserve the great possible variety of their dialects and they
were even helped to create a sort of literature of their own in
every region, reserving the teaching and the use of the language
of the ruler to maintain an intellectual aristocracy and a caste
of privileged subjects addicted to foreign established power.
Under the American sovereignty there was adopted a policy
somewhat* like the one imposed by Germany upon the conquered French colonies, and that which Russia implanted in the
old Poland, about which Rizal said something. It is, however, to the favor of the American policy which is very capable
and benevolent, for what has been accomplished in such a
short time-a result without precedent in the colonial history
of the Orient. With the spontaneous acquiescence of a country
scattered into hundreds of isles, but thirsty of union and instruction, the American government has succeeded in monopolizing
for the English language all the educational budget of the Philippines, completely ignoring the fate which might fall on the
vernaculars, but not without proscribing them totally from our
schools and by degrees from the administrative affairs. The
result tends to the same end; or rather, to give the ruler the
best commodity and possible attachment in the administration
of conquered territories.
Between the one and the other proceedings, by what is shown
by results, we cannot help but deduce that an exclusiveness
more or less watched and intentional has been inspiring the
prevailing policy so that during the long period of submission,
there prevailed among the Filipinos the lack of intelligence and