Four best Manila newspapers October editorials

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: Four best Manila newspapers October editorials
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 8 (No. 11) November 1928
Year: 1928
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Fulltext: November, 1928 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 11 Four Best Manila Newspapers October Editorials FRIENDSHIP IS THE THING After all, the proposed amendments to the corporation law are not and will not be the deciding factors in the economic development of the Philippines. Although it is true that a liberal piece of legislation, one that affords greater facilities and opportunities to corporations and moneyed interests, is an inducement to a more rapid and extensive development of the country’s economic resources, yet in the final analysis there cannot be a more lasting and more at tractive condition for such development than mutual friendly sentiments between the United States and the Philippines. Capital, American or foreign, is not so ag gressive as it might seem. For the very reason that it seeks favorable conditions and reasonable guaranties, capital depends more upon the friendly atmosphere of the country where invest ment is to be made than upon the provisions of its laws. Whoever builds a business amid hostile surroundings? In the first place, the people here cannot get over the lurking suspicion that capital, irrespect ive of its color, is rapacious. They KNEW the story of other colonies and even independent countries which have become, either by law or by the right of force, dominated by capital. And this would indeed be SUCH a stupid nation were it not to take stock of the lessons offered by human experience. But even granting that the Legislature should liberalize existing laws, which hold the key to the country’s enormous natural wealth, will capital rush into the country to occupy every inch of our public domain to dig from the soil the wealth that is hidden there? Will the moneyed interests take the risk of investing their millions here with no other guaranty than the proposed amendments to the corporation law? Previous to the inauguration of the present economic policy, the uncertainty of the political status of the Philippines was used as the reason for the shyness of capital. No one ever gave a thought then either to the land law or the corporation law as an excuse for capital’s hes itancy in coining into the country. Moneyed interests would first have a clear definition of the Islands’ status so that they may act ac cordingly. But, as if by magic, this fundamental question was shoved away and instead a mere detail in the whole scheme of Philippine affairs was pushed into the middle of the stage, perhaps as an interlude. And now there is gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair over the question of corporations, public domains and capital. Friendship between nations is above the law. Governor Stimson is praised here and in the United States for the able manner in which he handles the situation in this country, for his ability to cement better understanding between the Americans and Filipinos, thus strengthening American-Filipino relationship. Greater stress should be laid on this matter. The law is easy to enact. Friendship is the thing. For where there is cordiality among nations, there can be no obstacle to a mutual understanding that will benefit both peoples.—Herald, October 27. ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP If the Philippines is behind in many activities of the world’s progress today, it is due principally to the lack of organization and leadership. No where is this more true that in industries, a fact which Governor General Stimson forcefully brought out in a recent speech. Capital may be a great need in this country but more important than capital is leadership. The great minds of this country have been drawn mostly by politics. It is no wonder therefore, that while great strides have been made in the field of politics, little or practically nothing has been accomplished in the field of industries. It is no wonder then, that whatever flourishing industries exist in the Philippines today are in the hands of nationals other than Filipinos. The Filipinos ought to face this problem square ly. The responsibility is theirs and there is no way of shirking it. Those of the higher strata, who have the brains and money, especially brains, should show more aggressiveness in industries. They should organize themselves, band their efforts together and with a wise leadership start on the road that leads to fame and fortune. In no industry is leadership of this kind s° greatly needed today as in the rice industry. This principal food staple of the Filipinos is known to be controlled by Chinese. In other words, if the Chinese want to starve the Filipino people they can do it more effectively by their control of rice than by laying siege to Manila, the towns and the provinces. Filipino rice farmers must organize, erect mills of their own and wrest the control of this important foodstuff from the hands of another people. This is the psychological moment to effect a national rice organization when the prices of rice have shot skyward for no known or reasonable MOTIVE. The rice farmers themselves should take the leadership instead of looking to the Legislature for aid and relief. The same brand of leadership is also needed to stimulate the tobacco industry, revive the coffee industry and reestablish the tradename that Manila hemp once enjoyed in the foreign markets. It is about time the Filipino people should wake up and depend upon their own efforts, initiative and leadership for the building up of their industries. Unless they rise up now, COMMITTEE AWARDS Best of the Month (and best in the Herald)— Friendship Is the Thing—{Herald, October 27)— Selected by the Com mittee. Best in the Other Three Papers— Organization and Leadership.— (Times, October 2)—Selected by Professor Hilario. The Language Question.—(Tribune, October 4)—Selected by Professor Dyson. The Strangers at Our Gates.—(Bul letin, October 8)—Selected by Mr. Valenzuela. the time will soon come when they will be con verted into mere wage-earners, when title to their land will be a mere shadow as the substance goes into the hands of foreigners. The Philippines already has plenty of political leaders. She lacks captains of industry and must have them if she is to be a free nation.—Times, October 2. THE LANGUAGE QUESTION It is a vital, if vexed, question which the proposed plebiscite on the choice of a national language for the Filipinos would permanently settle. We are, in the question of language, lost in an affluence of languages. Two learned languages are with us, each the vehicle of a great literature. The one, believed to be singing its swan song, is precious, on the ground of sentiment and sentimentalism, to the cultured Filipinos. The other, the language of the sovereign, is said to have been corrupted into a new Philippine dialect by the generation to whom it has been taught from the days of the “Thomasites” to the present. Then, there are the native tongues, several of them, with Tagalog seemingly at the vanguard. To this situation the principle of the plebiscite would be applied to bring to a definite end the national language question. The means, to our mind, will not bring forth the result intended. In a plebiscite, especially as regards the national language to be chosen for the people, the ruling is that the choice is overwhelming choice. In the plebiscite proposed, there will be a choice, but that choice will not be overwhelming. This for two reasons. Those who will vote will represent a minority of the people of these Islands, that is, a minority as against the whole population of the country. And the principle of representation is voided in this regard, because the issue is so simple that even a boy in the elementary school can understand it and can cast and should cast a vote that counts and weighs on the merits of the question. That minority that will make known its stand will, furthermore, be divided into smaller minor ities. The peculiar conditions here make this inevitable. Our people are still dialect-conscious. When, recently, Tagalog was advanced as preeminently the language for the people to make national, only one Visayan representative, to our knowledge, spoke in favor of the bill, and the Ilocanos, though they make protestations that they would not balk the proposal, organized their own academy to express their love of their own dialect and of the idiom of their own region. The plebiscite, if attempted, will only discover a people divided and a situation among the people in which there are minorities within minorities. The national language question is of moment, and daily presses for a definite solution. That solution will come, but it will come as the offering of a generation of experience or of generations, perhaps, of crossing opinions and crossing loyal ties to sectionalism. For it is not a matter oi passionate judgment, of search that can be brought to a sudden end. It involves the slow process of evolution, the choice to be that lan guage that comes nearest to the people living a life under modern conditions.—Tribune, October 4. THE STRANGERS AT OUR GATES Immigration is a Philippine problem in which the United States has a most direct concern. It is a problem in which the United States will continue to have a most direct concern as long as the American flag flies over Philippine soil. The responsibility connected therewith cannot be escaped. In recognition of this fact the United States government has reserved to itself a special direct voice in matters touching upon immigration, a more direct voice than is reserved in connection with the rank and file of purely internal Philippine matters. These remarks are prompted by an appraisal of the views and sentiments of Governor General Stimson by Manuel L. Quezon, president of the Philippine senate, as set out in an interview pub lished in a Manila Sunday paper. As to the correctness of the interpretation and presentation of the views and sentiments of the governor gen eral as published we make no effort to pass judg ment here, but the statement that immigration “is strictly a national problem for Filipinos to solve” affords worthy material for consideration, no matter from what source it emanates. On the basis of purely Philippine considerations the United States cannot escape the respon sibility of citizenship in these islands, not so long as the flag flies here. That responsibility was assumed when the flag was unfurled in manifest tation of sovereignty. The responsibility was widened as the area over which the flag stood for sovereignty was extended to the farthermost reaches of the archipelago. Immigration is intimately linked with that responsibility. On the basis of American considerations the United States cannot afford to forget or disregard immigration into the Philippines. Filipinos, Philippine citizens, enter the United States freely which means exemption from strict regulations applied to restrict the inflow from other parts of the world. Unqualified control of the immigration gates in the Philippines easily may mean authority over America’s outer wall, which would be equivalent to making the Philippines a halfway on an America-bound journey. Who has or hereafter may acquire the rights to enter the United States as Filipinos is a matter of concern to the United States, the degree of concern being in direct ratio to the number here desiring access. One of the biggest factors in the American responsibility arises from the fact this archipelago is in the Orient. Because of the importance of Philippine-Oriental relationships the United States is directly and vitally concerned with the citizenry of the Islands, an American concern which cannot be ignored or forgotten. Individual Americans have rights and priv ileges in the Philippines, and consideration of those rights and privileges are directly linked with THAT of other individuals here. Filipinos are and of a right should be interested in immigration. Filipinos as individual citizens and Filipinos as holders of public office should be vitally interested in immigration, in the problem of the infiltration of other bloods to mingle with theirs, other commercial interests to compete with theirs. They should be interested with sufficient seriousness to cause them to take the initiative in moving for a permanent decision in this important matter. They should reach decisions on it, but they cannot forget what American and Americans are interested also by force of circumstances.—Bulletin, October 8. •