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.

164 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

and such an enormous amount of progress already attained by
our young generation is not anything to be despised.
It is now the duty of every good Filipino, lover of the
progress and freedom of his country, to preach and affirm a
prudent nationalism, sensible, practical, integral and more in
accord with the present and future circumstances than those
which governed in the past.
Let us force ourselves, however, to confess that none of the
vernacular languages that we have, including the Tagalog,
which I acknowledge as the most advanced of all, is found
sufficiently developed and cultivated to assume right now the
responsibilities and requirements of an official language just
as much in the interior as in the exterior, to insure the triumphant march of the Philippine government, though it should
continue under the American flag or be under our own.
Those of us who cry for the adoption of a national language
and for its official recognition do not ignore this. We merely
wish that we be given facilities and be offered opportunity to
help that same government in its cultural and humanitarian
mission with the unfolding of a linguistic plan tending to reestablish the ethnic unity and the national solidarity of all the
Filipinos.
Unfortunately we have not obtained from our government
either facilities or opportunity for such an elevated proposal.
More than a dozen and a half law projects, varying in forms
but coinciding in background and unanimous in the end of
dignifying and utilizing as instruments of culture the native
dialects, were registered in one House or the other; however,
with the exception of one or two, the majority have been
drowned in the sea of momentous enthusiasms, followed by
fatal indifference on the part of our legislators.
Of the very few projects which have been saved from drowning we remember that of the Senator of the First District in the
former period of sessions, the Hon. Isabelo de los Reyes, whose
project appropriated P10,000 to print the collection or collections of works of primary instruction written in any dialect
through the election of a Committee of experts; said bill was
approved by both Houses; but submitted to the approval of the