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 271

point. Whatever social progress has been achieved there so
far, has been due mostly to his example. Oftentimes, he has
his deeply ingrained prejudices, but he is almost always conquerable through persuasion rather than through compulsion,
and once a concession is wrung from him, all its logical consequences follow.
The friendship and goodwill of the Datus are indispensable
in the hastening of the improvement of conditions in Mindanao and Sulu. Cultivate that friendship, and you always
have a faithful, kind and accommodating helper. Assure him
of his position and dignity, and there is hardly any progressive
innovation that he will not carry out. Once the Datus of
Mindanao are fully reconciled to the new order, to the schools
and to the system of government and the institutions that we
have implanted there, we shall have struck at the roots of
whatever backwardness and apathy still remain-it merely
becomes a matter of time when they and their followers will
be writing a different history on the hills of Sulu and the
valleys of Lanao and Cotabato.
And this is essential. Because geographical unity with them
is not enough. There must be social, political and moral unity
with them besides.
Mindanao ought also to be made physically nearer to us
here by every means possible. Efforts should be exerted to
reduce the shipping rates between Manila and the ports of the
region, and there should be more frequent steamship service.
At present the passenger rates to Mindanao are, considering the
accommodations, almost as high as the rates to Hongkong,
while the freight rates from Manila to other overseas ports,
San Francisco for example, are in many cases proportionately
lower than from here to Mindanao. The building of a national
highway from Aparri to that) region deserves a most serious
consideration. It is an ambitious project, but is within the
bounds of possibility. A ferry across San Bernardino Strait
and another one across the Strait of Surigao would solve the
problem. In other lands, engineering skill and government
determination have made similar projects possible. In the