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.

176 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

these two plans do you think is more feasible and efficient
for the object indicated?
The other questions are almost all direct or indirect corollaries of this first, which, in order not to be tiresome, I do
not mention here.
Only one-half of the distinguished persons whom I invited
responded to my "enquete" the others having not been able to
do so perhaps because of the lack of time allowed. Among
those who participated were Justice Ignacio Villamor from
Abra, Justice Norberto Romualdez from Leyte, ex-Senator
Juan Villamor from Abra, ex-Senator Isabelo de los Reyes
from Ilocos, ex-Representative Gregorio Perfecto from Camarines Sur, Representative Isidro Vamenta of Misamis, ex-Commissioner Jaime C. de Veyra from Leyte, Bishop Mon. Gregorio Aglipay from Ilocos, Mr. Emilio Tolentino from Nueva
Viscaya, Mr. Pablo Mejia from Pangasinan, Mr. Flavio Zaragoza from Iloilo and others. With the exception of two, Justice Romualdez and the journalist Mr. Mejia not counting Mr.
Zaragoza who has limited his opinion about the points of the
questionnaire, all were unanimous in favor of the adoption of
Tagalog as the basis of the proposed common language.
The decision of Justice Romualdez is circumscribed to the
form of selection of the basis-language: in the rest of the questionnaire he coincides virtually with the general opinion. For
this Visayan authority there should precede to the election of
what would in time be the national idiom, a period of preparation for all the Philippine dialects in which period every
one should be cultivated in its respective academies and linguistic
societies until by a logical and natural process the superiority
of one reveals itself so that by general opinion it would be
given the honor of being our common language.
On the other hand, the erudite linguist of Pangasinan, Mr.
Mejia, chooses a semi-esperantist plan, consisting not of the
creation of a new artificial language by means of the combination of the grammatical structures of the dialects but of fusion
of vernacular dictionaries taking from each regional tongue
an equal number of terms and forms and with the gathered
amount there be constructed the common language. This dis