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.

MINDANAO AND MOUNTAIN PROVINCE 269

fingers the number of our countrymen who are there engaged
in agriculture on a big scale.
There is plenty of Filipino capital hidden in stockings, bamboo poles, and elsewhere. Its principal characteristic, however,
is timidity. It is not the adventurous kind of capital. It
seldom takes chances.
American and foreign capital, on the other hand, hesitates
to make large investments in Mindanao because of the uncertain
political status of our country. With the coming of independence, we shall have to rely on Filipino capital and initiative for
the development of Mindanao. But the government would have
to extend the necessary encouragement in order to achieve something tangible. It will have to provide roads, shipping and
docking facilities, and various means of communication from
one place to another. Once these things are provided for, the
rest will take care of itself. The Filipino who desires to leave
his hometown and settle elsewhere, prefers to migrate to those
places where transportation and communication facilities already
exist. And he cannot be blamed. The province of Nueva
Ecija is the outstanding example of this rule. Ten or twelve
years ago, fully one-half of this province was covered with
forest, and it was very sparsely populated. As soon as the
present highways, however, were completed, all those virgin
lands were applied for by immigrants from far and near, until
today that province has become the premier producer of palay.
Its population has doubled, besides, and the value of farms
throughout the province has gone upwards a thousandfold.
Mindanao will have to go through exactly the same process
if its settlement and economic development are to be expedited
and if it is to become a factor in our financial destiny. Economics is the key to the transformation of that region, the only
thing that could there light for all time the lamp of culture
and of modernity. All the other ramifications of the so-called
Moro Problem hinges on this central point. Social and intellectual development will follow the economic, just as sure as
night follows day.