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.

72 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

may be produced here, because the less dependent we are on
outside markets the more we approach the ideal of our economic
independence. The embrionic condition in which we find the
exploitation of our material resources makes necessary a policy
of protection to neutralize the disadvantages and deficiencies
of domestic production.
We should follow the plan outlined by the United States
and other nations in our own economic policy. Let us adopt,
as they do, protective measures for our incipient industries,
fostering thus the production and manufacture of industrial
products in the same way as was done and is being done by
the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, the Scandinavian countries, Russia,
Spain, and other nations that have progressed materially by
the help of protective legislations more or less intense or more
or less moderate.
If I have said that Philippine independence will temporarily bring an economic chaos without precedent till we
have made the necessary readjustment, it is because of the
effects of the immediate cessation of free trade between the
United States and the Philippines which the American sovereignty has imposed on us. After more than thirty years of
living together with the United States we find ourselves in a
desperate situation, as a result of the free trade in view of which
we have advanced economically, but an economic advancement
which is unstable and artificial.
With the free trade we have developed the markets of the
United States for our products. We have directed our extension trade towards this only market which thru the advantages of the free trade has, little by little, dominated all
other markets to such an extent that now it constitutes a monopoly. We have been so long under the influence of free
trade that when it suddenly breaks down the shock will cause
us to exert ourselves to the full in finding other markets.
Only in that way can we rest assured of a solid, sure, stable
and permanent economic basis which should be the structure
of our government. The economic development of the Philippines, if it becomes great, presupposes the exterior commerce,