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.

ECONOMIC SECTION

55

There are two dangers involved in the solution of the Philippine problem: the first consists in our closing our eyes to
the economic difficulties which are a necessary consequence of
independence, attempting to ignore their existence. The second
is to insist upon seeing things as we would like them to be or
think they ought to be, but are not in reality, because they
have bad sides as well as good. The danger last mentioned
is to be feared on account of the insistence of the general run
of our people. to consider independence as an exclusive Philippine
problem. Independence is a Philippine-American problem,
whether it suits us or not, and only that solution of the problem has a chance to prosper which is satisfactory to both Filipinos and Americans.
I say this because there is a tendency on the part of our
compatriots to completely disregard the American viewpoint
on the Philippine question. We are so convinced of the legitimacy of our desire to rule our own destinies that we absolutely refuse to consider any interest involved other than ours.
And yet it is thirty years that we have been living under the
Stars and Stripes, thirty years that the American occupation
of the Philippines is a consummated fact, with all its pleasant
and unpleasant consequences, and consummated facts have a
weight that cannot be ignored.
The other danger consists in our ignoring or attempting to
ignore the existence or importance of the economic problems
incidental to independence. We are bound to the United States
by two ties: the political and the economic. The political tie
is defined in the Jones Law and the economic tie is established
by the Customs Tariff Act through which we have free trade
with the United States. If the American Government should
declare the Philippine Islands independent to-morrow but maintain the present economic relations between the Islands and the
United States, the consequences of the change would, I believe,
not be very noticeable. We should then have a constitution
of our own and a new government somewhat different from
the present one. A Filipino chief executive would sit at Malacafian who would, perhaps, be more exacting than the American Governor-General. The expenses of the Philippine nation