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.

296 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

fought every move to encourage Chinese immigration.
Fears have been expressed that, with the unbridled flow of
Chinese into the Philippines as a result of the lifting of the
Chinese Exclusion laws, the native laborer, in his inability to
compete with the low-standard Chinese coolies, will be despoiled of his inheritance and his right to earn a living. 4
The fears of these groups seem to have no foundation under the conditions at present prevailing in Oriental countries,
because the social conditions and legal restrictions imposed by
the respective mother countries exercise a restraining influence
upon the probable flow of their population to the Philippines.
The threat of a Japanese menace and the fears that have
been entertained by the Filipinos themselves against a possible
Japanese invasion in the Philippines are the products of a systematic propaganda, both in Congress and in the press, which
the imperialists have been pounding into us, and have become
a part of our thoughts and ideas. Japanese invasion, if such
there be, is a political rather than a population menace. Admitting, for the sake of argument, that with the declaration
of independence in the Philippines Japan would extend her
imperialistic designs to the Islands, it still can be maintained
that the population menace cannot become a reality. Conquest
in the history of all colonization has brought into the conquered country not mass migration, but administrators 'and
colonizers. Economically, conquest also brings with it capital
and not mass migration, because capital will always find labor
among the conquered people not only cheaper but also easier
to exploit, because of the privileges which the capital of the
conqueror may acquire in a newly conquered territory. Like
colonization, economic exploitation by the mother country will
not bring mass migration, but will bring intelligence and direction which in all colonial countries has been found to be a very
insignificant and minor element in the population. Nor does
history seem to furnish evidence to show that Japanese population is a menace to the integrity of a Philippine nationality.
There has never been restriction against Japanese immigration
into the Philippines; yet at no time in the history of our
country before 1900 have more than 200,000 Japanese come