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.

FIRST PLENARY SESSION

17

This is the reason why many of our women appear indifferent, if not averse, to the interest of their own country; why
there strut so many Dofia Victorinas; and why there exists
the inconsistency, the instability of the patriotic sentiment in
the bosom of the children of such matrons.
All of which explains why there are so many patrioteers
who pose as patriots only when there are high positions or
remunerative jobs to be filled, and who cease to be patriots when
a privilege is denied to them or the benefits of a position are
refused to them. What a miserable patriotism it is that is thus
quoted at a premium, that imposes conditions and fails when
the need is greatest for the cooperation and union of the whole
country for the realization of its most sacred aspirations-our
national independence.
Thanks to the absence of the teaching of patriotism in the
education of our people we have a special brand of patriotism
which becomes manifest only in the face of great humiliations
and abuses such as those committed against the Filipinos in
California. And even in this case it was only a fleeting patriotism, and outburst of the moment, with but little consistency. Well, do the enemies of our cause know this! And
this is the reason why they are trying to distract us with a
Bingham Plan or a Vanderberg Resolution. And do you
know why we are this way? Because patriotism is lacking in
the education furnished us in the home as well as in the school;
because we believe that patriotism is something like mana from
heaven which needs no care or cultivation. And this is our
big mistake, gentlemen of the Congress.
If Japan enjoys a great influence and privilege it is because
her people know how to preserve her own personality, because
the Japanese since childhood are taught to love their own and
to practice that love, foster it and defend it; because patriotism
is a religion to all of the subjects of the land of the Rising Sun;
because protection to them is an inviolate law and their children
from the moment they are born are taught to show their love,
which borders on fanatism, to the country that gave them
birth; thus patriotic heroism is a daily bread in Japan. This
explains why when men were needed to scale a fort in the