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.

36 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

"How is it strange then," continued Rizal, "that discouragement may have been infused into the spirit of the inhabitants
of the Philippines, when in the midst of so many calamities
they did not know whether they would see sprout the seed they
were planting, whether their field was going to be their grave.
or their crop would go to feed their executioner? What is
there strange in it, when we see the pious but impotent friars
of that time trying to free their poor parishioners from the
tyranny of the encomenderos by advising them to stop work
in the mines, to abandon their commerce, to break up their
looms, pointing out to them heaven for their whole hope,
preparing them for death as their only consolation?"
"Man works for an object. Remove the object and you
reduce him to inaction. The most active man in the world
will fold his arms from the instant he understands that it is
madness to bestir himself, that his work will be the cause of
his trouble, that for him it will be the cause of vexations at
home and of the pirate's greed abroad. It seems that these
thoughts have never entered the minds of those who cry out
against the indolence of the Filipinos."
"Even down to later years, wealth brought troubles to individuals accumulating it. Unintentionally, a wealthy man
became classed among the 'filibusteros.' Wealth brought leisure
and education; wealth was power. And a man possessing
both was more likely to protest against the abuses to which
he may be subjected."
"The rich man on earth," wrote Rizal, "is liable to all kinds
of trouble, to be appointed a cabeza de barangay, to be deported
if an uprising occurs, to be forced banker of the military chief
of the town, who to reward him with favors received, seizes
his laborer and his stock, in order to force him to beg for mercy,
and thus easily pays up. Why be rich? So that all the officers of justice may have a lynx eye on your actions, so that
at the least slip enemies may be raised up against you, yourself
indicted, and a whole complicated and labyrinthine story concocted against you? The native, whom they pretend to regard
as an imbecile, is not so much so that he does not understand
that it is ridiculous to work himself to death to become worse