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.

LAST PLENARY SESSION

317

America, and some other nation, President Roosevelt and some
other military men believed that the Philippines would be the
weak and vulnerable point of America.
If in all respects whether independent or subjected we would
be running some risk, it would be more preferable to run that
risk when we are masters of our own destiny.
We should not, however, confide the preservation of our
independence in the power of force which we can dispose of:
but on our conduct, in the spirit of justice which would guide
us in the dealings which we would have with the citizens of
other countries, and in the sense of justice and humanity of
those same countries.
As to the feared economic ruin which would come when
independence comes, I may say, that our expert financiers would
know how to face it. Plans to face a similar contingency
have been outlived in the sectional reunions of this Congress;
it has been demonstrated by means of figures that the Government of the Philippine Republic would be able to maintain
the most peremptory necessities of the nation if done within
reasonable economy. It is possible and probable that the
country in the first years of its independence would feel an
economic depression; but such a phenomenon is registered in gill
countries that begin to live free from foreign tutelage. Even
America after its separation from England had several years of
economic depression. But such an abnormal state is transitory.
Sooner or later would come the normal situation.
Referring now to the organization of the Congress, I believe
that it responds to a keenly-felt necessity.
Even when I was at the point of leaving, about 1923, I
proposed to the National Assembly a resolution which was
adopted, in the sense of promoting the union, in a national
body, deprived of party tinge, of all the elements and alive
classes of the country, to guide in a very effective way the
campaign for our national cause.
In our experience as members of a political group we have
stumbled with the prejudice of the other grouping when we