Wrightly speaking

Media

Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: Wrightly speaking
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 9 (No. 8) August 1929
Year: 1929
Rights
Fulltext: PntL AMt'KICAN UrVU/h ^X^OZS JUUJXLXAL, FREE TRADE—CONDITIONALLY The program for the Philippines under the leadership of State Secre tary Stimson, who was governor here for a while last year and still keeps a hand upon insular affairs, seems to be this: Sugar until it rouses the cupidity of homeland sugar interests, then no more sugar; copra until it runs counter to homeland cotton interests, then no more copra; Manila hemp until frowned upon by sisal growers and their New York bankers, then no more hemp; tobacco and cigars only on the most modest scale, not to antagonize Havana, Tampa and Key West; but camphor, rubber and coffee as makeshifts, since we can grow them and no competing homeland interests are to take into account. But there are surely powerful American financial interests behind Brazilian coffee, now bursting bodegas in San Paulo, by the way; maybe we could not go far in coffee either without giving offense. The primary purpose of having a little rubber here is to stabilize the market with it;’ and the islands might well grow a good deal of rubber, but even to grow a large portion of all the world requires would not effect the islands’ economic salvation. Similarly, we surmise that camphor in redemption of the caingins in Mindanao—those burnt-over areas now devoured by cogon and scrub timber—would not furnish homesteads to the millions of young peas ants who need them, nor provide the augmented revenues the government wants for schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and ports. Ours is the problem of tilling ten acres where we now till one, which means we must grow everything for which there is demand, and as much of everything as we can grow. Stimson led in defeating for the time being the move to levy duties upon Philippine products entering the United States. His work to this end is appreciated widely in the islands. But we cannot permanently prosper upon palliations and postponements. For instance, there could be no surer way of getting ourselves deprived of free trade with the homeland than to restrict opportunities in any field the privilege opens; to create, as this would do, a monopoly, as in the sugar industry were restriction practiced, or monopolies in which a few people in the islands, and by no means all, should benefit directly from the priv ilege. There could be no surer way of forfeiting the privilege, that is to say, than to abuse it on the one hand and to act as if we really are not entitled to it on the other. A principle underlies free trade within all the territory over which the flag is sovereign. Folly alone would compromise that prin ciple in the homeland by making deals, agreements and concessions effect ing its limited application—in lieu of its natural and unrestricted encourage ment to all alike. Free trade with America portends that we shall have in the Philippines that share of the national commerce and industry invited by natural advantages, if such exist—no more, no less. The alternative is not restriction of production, a blushing way of saying we profit from a privilege to which we are not entitled, that really we are filching from Amer ica’s pocket; the alternative to frée trade is one, one only—political separa tion of the islands from America. We have heretofore remarked the fact that advantage in free trade with the Philippines lies with America, that it is vital to her merchant marine on the Pacific, that it enables her to exchange goods fully man ufactured for raw and semi-raw products affording her additional profits and employment of labor in their elaboration. It is for us to remain frank and unmoved in our position, and for America to decide. The conse quences of deceiving her would be disastrous. RESOCIALIZATION OF CURED LEPERS For the laudable purpose of ascertaining where some two thousand cured lepers discharged during the past three or four years from Culion are living and how they are faring, the anti-leprosy society is trying to raise P20,000 in contributions from the public. This preliminary step toward resocialization of cured lepers -may well be undertaken by the so ciety, and aided by the public; it has received commendation in our pages. But actual resocialization of the cured leper is a problem obviously to be undertaken by the government. Two paramount obstacles exclude from this work all other entities; no other entity has the resources, no other entity could find its way safely through the mazes of the law. Inducing a changed viewpoint on the part of the public respecting cured lepers is an educational process dependent to a vital degree upon additional scientific information concerning the persons affected. Many doors are rightly closed to anyone who has ever had leprosy even in the mildest form, since it is not known with scientific accuracy that the malady will not reappear in any individual once its victim. Until more reliable data on this point are available, reluctance to associate with cured lepers or to employ them either as domestics or in industries and the professions is not prejudice only, it is rather due precaution. But whatever it is, it is and will not be readily overcome. The debility from which cured lepers suffer is still another bar to their direct resocialization immediately upon discharge from observation, and the desirability of maintaining immunity from relapse by periodical re course to the specific is another. The place to begin the resocialization of cured lepers is upon govern ment reservations which ought to be established at advantageous points. No stigma would attach to them; they would, on the contrary, attract the world’s favorable attention. Leaving Culion, the cured leper should bear credentials to the Constabulary, who should thenceforth keep in touch with him. If he makes out well, then well and good. But if—as will be the general experience—he finds no welcome nor anything to do, his estab lishment upon a reservation should be facilitated. There he might wish to live out his days, and there could be no objection. This phase of leper work should be diligently taken up by the government, in the hope, if not the fully justified expectation, that leprosy may be eradicated from the Philippines within two or three generations; or that it may at least be greatly minimized and controlled, and the cured may be resocialized and made reasonably happy without any material drain upon the treasury. Toward defraying the staff expense of the reservations, the charitable could contribute. But soon, with the products of field and industry, the reserva tions would perhaps all be self-sustaining communities. As communities, indeed, they should be organized and encouraged to carry on in their own behalf. WRIGHTLY SPEAKING Ben F. Wright, insular auditor, is vacating the office November 1 and turning it over to Creed Hammond of Oregon, whom Hoover appointed (the Senate not having to confirm the nomination) soon after Wright, on July 6, submitted his resignation for the purpose of having it accepted or obtaining a direct expression of presidential support. A bizarre pro cedure? Perhaps, but there had been departure from the policy to which Wright adhered—the Wood policy—and it had been a perpetual open season for getting the auditor’s goat ever since this fact penetrated the con sciousness of officials who either have cause to wish for more lenient scru tiny of their accounts or who have other reasons for wanting a new man with whom to deal. Hammond has been heading a bureau of the war department from which the rule of quadrennial rotation retired him. He has enjoyed bank ing experience in Oregon. Governor Davis recalls him as one who did his Washington work well. Manila generally regrets Wright’s resignation, without much blaming him for submitting it. Editorial comment indicates the appreciation of his qualities that is felt even among men who seldom stood with him in the controversies to which many of his actions led. El Debate, among others, came out with a commendable expression along this line. All seem ready to admit that, whatever fancied or real faults they found in the man, he has been a capital auditor of the accounts of the Philippine government and an unceasing influence for rectitude in office. It is he of course who drove the government to undertake the probes that may result in good; during six years rascals have had cause to dread his inquiries. The public has enjoyed the spectacular in his administration, and the reflection which this notoriety has provoked in the minds of thousands of readers may have had sound moral influence. Is the public works bureau right, or Wright? Is the posts director right, or Wright? People ponder these questions seriously, and seem to hold with Wright. It was his effort to compel the public works bureau to obtain certificates from the auditor as to the availability of funds in the treasury before essaying to enter into contracts (the code so providing in plain language), that told most on his energies and culminated in his resignation at a time he seeks a hearing in the Federal supreme court at Washington. He doesn’t abandon positions readily; he almost never does abandon them. Holding this particular one, he opposed the governor general, the secretary of war (now the governor general), the commerce department, the public works bureau and the deci sion of the Philippine supreme court. The decision got confused in one quarter with the court itself, and Wright endured a fine of F500, summary arrest and threat of imprisonment. Corking news, all of this, making the people talk and some of them think. It followed closely, too, that dramatic midnight at the piers, when August, 1929 THE AMERICA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 11 Wright personally aided the Manila police to take into custody the posts director, who was departing for London as a postal envoy of the islands to a world postal conference—not having complied with what Wright thinks is the law and obtained the auditor’s clearance the law purports to require. The bar to the clearance is an alleged shortage of about P350,000, quite a sum of taxes. Is the posts director right, or Wright? Not Americans alone, but Filipinos, ponder the situation seriously. That many of the latter hold with Wright is clear enough from their proffers of assistance, the officials even, of one province, reporting their willingness to cover his fine. But the better part of Wright’s work as insular auditor is more sub stantial than the incidents related, more explanatory of the esteem in which the man is held as an insular official. The better part is the constructive part, the financial counsel to LeoUnderstanding Our Age By President Rafael Palma University of the Philippines The thousands of diplomas issued by our colleges each year are a positive proof of the eagerness of our young people to attain higher education, and thus satisfy their longing for individual advancement. The pertinent ques tion now is: Have our colleges measured up to their responsibilities? Have they imbued Philip pine youth with the spirit of the age, and the principles which animate it? For without such knowledge our young men and women would not be in a position to understand the questions of the day nor to help in the solution of our national problem, which, in the last analysis, are but the offshoots of the problems of all mankind. It has often been said that one of the manysided functions of college education is to train the reasoning power so hs to enable it to analyze and investigate the whys and the wherefores of things, to develop a mind open to all kinds of truths and doctrines, ready to consider all ques tions from a universal vantage point, regardless of local prejudices, racial, sectarian or otherwise, and rationally tolerant^of the opinion, advice and counsel of others. The college man should be imbued with a clear notion of the trend of world thought and of the stage of development of ideas and human institutions in other lands. Education would fall short of its mission if it did not impart other information than that ne cessary to the exercise of a calling or profession, if it did not open the vision of the student to what lies beyond the horizons of his country, and if it did not stimulate him to think of what he himself can do toward enrichment of the stock of human knowledge and the promotion of human welfare on earth. The world, as it is found today, is an aggre gate of interdependent and related units. The centuries of seclusion and isolation are gone. Day by day, there is a growing feeling that peoples are bound to each other as a result ofjhe multiplication of means of communication and trade. For such reason there is a closer obser vation and assertive intimacy among the races, in an attempt to evolve a common mentality and bring about those spiritual connections essential to the elimination of conflicts and mis understandings. It goes without saying that only through edu cation can this ideal be attained. Education, of all the social forces at work in the world, is the least self-complacent. It never ceases to in vent, to throw aside what it has invented with the view of building a new structure on the ruins of its own creation. Education partakes of the unconquerable restlessness, of the eternal dissatisfaction that inspires the production of a masterpiece. It is never contented with what it has produced. It is because of this that edu cation is a source of lif 1 ’ Education has always sobraced new theories, and illuminate the human co awaken in it a longing for fortable life. It seems to me that one our present mental scope thresh out our problems in conditions without taking a glance at the world with< good fortune to go around once and having observec evidences of progress, as a result of changing in stitutions, I feel I can say with some authority that the advancement and prosperity of most peoples have been made possible in proportion as they have felt less regard for tradition and have accepted the new; less adherence to the prejudices and habits of the past, and more desire to forge ahead through repeated ventures and trials in the darkness to discover new light. Consequently, in considering our pedagogical problems, we should bear in mind that we are dealing with an age entirely different from that which we knew in our infancy. I wonder if what has been the greatest achievement of our age is generally understood? To me, it has been the declaration of_the rights of man. Individual freedom, as against individual absorption, is the distinguishing characteristic of our age. It marks the boun daries of the old and the new world. The rights of man have been known since the twilight of antiquity, but the institutions which regulate human conduct were long dom inated by a spirit antagonistic to the recognition of these rights. The family, the church and the state were dominated by a spirit of absolutism. The individual was subjected to the tyranny of eaéhr one of these institutions. Man was not free to think, to speak, to feel or to act in accordance with his own nature, but only according to a pattern of life previously laid out. mwt co- ■ nrrr ahr •' ; of trGubk O'. r:v.- ; k v<Hd moo . -i 'A t’x arte In the family, this absolutism manifested itself in the absorption of the individuality of the members by the father and husband. The father was the center of gravity of the whole system. The wife, as well as the children, were mere accessories and owed him blind obedience. What he said was law. This authority even extended to the right of repudiating his wife and of bartering away his sons. In the church, the communicant was a mere numeral. He had to accept certain established dogmas of the faith without the slightest dis cussion, and to consider as damned those who did not believe and worship as he did. He was forbidden to deal with them, and could even deny them bread and water, because mere contact with them was contaminating. Every new idea or doctrine which departed from what was commonly accepted was tabooed, and those professing such ideas were subjected to merciless torture or martyrdom. ^Xn the state, the head was s <- .1 !jwill was supreme. He had to ■ citizens under his jurisdiction w- .v u - and vassals. He appointed or -c.-jo veo ’ nard Wood, who effected amendments to the islands’ finance and banking laws, reorganization of the Philippine National Bank, restoration of the currency to par and resumption of the free sale of exchange at the treasury at nominal rates. Wright was relied upon in all of this. No doubt the temperate view which time will make possible of his period as auditor will confirm the impression that it is one preeminently of constructive tone, as it will show his unflagging inclination to economize taxes and give the people the most possible for their money. This latter evokes their present gratitude, but the former is perhaps destined to win their truer apprecia tion. In the large and in meticulous detail, Wright always stood for the people and their welfare. They know it—-they the Filipinos. And they appreciate it. _ _______________________________________ officials for no other consideration than that they had pleased or displeased him. He apportioned territories for them to govern in utter disregard of the will of the inhabitants and even in the face of their protest. He could, with impunity, kill and plunder, and even abuse the honor of maidens and wives. The law was whatever pleased the prince. Naturally, under these conditions, education prepared the individual to obey and not to discuss; to bear with resignation the abuses and crimes of the authorities, because it was then the belief that they exercised their powers in the name of God. But human conscience revolted against this state of affairs and replaced it with a new system of ideas and truths which profoundly altered the conditions of human relationships and com pletely transformed an old world, based on sub jection, into a new world based on freedom. The individual has recovered his rights and privileges, and within the family as well as within the church or the state, he is no longer considered as an insignificant atom of a unit but as a distinct unit by himself. He has become autonomous and free to exercise all his faculties with no other restraints within than his con science, and the law without. He has become ^fone responsible for his welfare and misfortune. No man is superior to,, another because of birth or social position, ^Institutions exist for the benefit of the individual and not the individual for the benefit of institutions. His cooperation, while necessary for the existence of a group, is premised on a voluntary basis. That is why the family system has changed. It was believed in the old world that the parents, being the creators of their children, had all the right to determine their fate, without regard to their opinion and happiness. They could sac rifice their children as offerings to Divinity or for the satisfaction of their own whims and caprices. If the parents incurred indebtedness, they pledged the * persons of their children, like chat tels, to wipe out their obligations. If the chil dren had attained marriageable age, the parents chose the persons whom they should marry. The parents likewise dictated the professions their children should embrace, collected the income they earned, drove them away from the parental roof once they incurred their parents’ slightest displeasure, and in themajority of cases, children were treated without pity or considera tion. Nowadays, the center of gravity has shifted from parents to children. uThe theory of the family is that it exists not for the benefit of the parents but for the benefit of the children. The parents are responsible for the life of their chil dren, consequently they owe them the care and assistance necessary for their physical as well as mental development. The children were brought into the world not out of their own choice but out of the desire of their parents to have children. For this reason, the father and the mother jointly have duties to perform to ward them, and are entitled to rights in so far as they are founded on these duties. In the old days likewise, woman was regarded in the family almost as a thing. Her sex doomed' her to an inferior lot. Many parents showed dissatisfaction upon a daughter’s birth. As a daughter she was not only subjected to the .. hority of the parents but also to the tyranny . ler brother. The latter, to the exclusion of •? • sister, could inherit the titles and distinction cheir father. The young woman could hot > out alone on the streets. In many countries