The development of Philippine politics

PROGRESS TOWARDS RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 371

uration of the Assembly ten years before, its brilliant record as the spokesman of the people, and the conflicts it
had waged with the Commission, together with its supposedly more popular character because of a shorter tenure of office, impressed its members with its importance.
On the other hand, there was a new glamor in the name of
Senate, and hence the people had from the beginning an
instinctive feeling that somehow or other it was a more important body. President Quezon, in his inaugural address,
referred to the popular character of the Senate, intended
to represent, so he claimed, the maturer judgment of the
people. "Wherever the bicameral system exists," he said,
"the lower house is supposed to serve as a very sensitive
thermometer, registering the most momentary and temporary changes in public sentiment, while the senate must represent the serene, mature and prudent judgment of public
opinion. In other words, the senate must be a safe, immovable dam to contain any overflow of popular passion.
The voice of the people is the voice of God only when it expresses a judgment formed within the safe channels of
serene reflection... We must take a step forward only
when we are sure of ourselves, and such steps must necessarily be few. We must act when we are sure that we
know public opinion and that this opinion has been formed
conscientiously." (1)
Speaker Osmena had chosen to remain in the lower
house, although he could have gone to the Senate had he
wanted to. In fact, Mr. Quezon had wired him from Washington as soon as the Jones Law was sure of passage, urging him to run for the Senate, for Afr. Quezon believed
that in the long run the Senate would be a more influential
body, because of its power to confirm appointments, than
the lower house. Mr. Osmena, however, believed that the
place of leadership should continue to be the lower house
because in a certain sense it is nearer the people, for its
entire elective membership is changed every three years;

(1) Philippine Review!, October 1916, p. 76.