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.

268 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

In the greater portion of Non-Christian Mindanao, however,
one could travel for days and weeks, and see nothing but
wilderness and unspeakable backwardness. The hinterland of
Mindanao is retarded progress personified. And yet it is known
that our country as a whole could not arrive at its ultimate
glories nor could it attain solidity without that region. The
individual has not had a real chance in Mindanao and Sulu.
His has been a single-handed combat against the relentless
forces of nature. He has had no credit facilities, and he has
had no incentive to greater production because of the difficulty
of transporting his products to the market.
Thirty-nine thousand square miles of territory that we have
there could boast of only two hundred kilometers of good roads.
mostly near the coast. Telephone and telegraph communications are also so inadequate that murders and disturbances of
public order may occur in the interior and yet not be known
at the capital until weeks afterwards.
This condition is a disgrace, when we consider the potentialities of that fascinating expanse of our territorial domain.
Envision to yourselves its promise and its future. Larger
than Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Denmark or Greece, it has a capacity for sixty million people. There
is room there for a whole empire. It could be the field for
Filipino energy, enterprise and initiative for countless generations. The riches slumbering beneath the surface of its plains
challenge description. It has river systems vying with each
one another in size and navigability; miles and miles of level
plains fit for crops of any kind. It has plenty of waterfalls
from which power could be generated for every industry imaginable and with which a whole network of railways could be
electrified. It could be converted into a perpetual source of
raw materials for every purpose.
The Japanese have long ago realized the fertility of the region.
So have the Americans and the Spaniards. They have formed
corporations actually in possession of lands there, and they
have been exporting products of Mindanao soil all these years.
On the other side of the curtain, you could count with your