The “Let your hair down” column

Title

Language

English

Year

1949

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Missing page: 413.

Fulltext

September, 1949 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 411 We do all these: * CUSTOMS BROKERAGE * WAREHOUSING * TRUCKING * PACKING AND CRATING * FREIGHT FORWARDING * SHIP HUSBANDING * CARGO SUPERINTEN DENCE * ARMORED CAR SERVICE * AIR CARGO HANDLING ...and well! PHONE NO. The= "LET YOUR HAIR DOWN” =------- ----■ Column WHAT I admired most about your exposure of the 'Confi dential Agreement,’ truly a historical scoop from a journalistic point of view, was the restraint with which you presented it...” “Seems to me you lost an opportu nity to show up those fellows who dur ing the Japanese regime swallowed whales without as much as a peep out of them and who now strain at a gnat and scream their ‘injury’ to high heaven. Of course, I refer to the Bell Act and ‘Parity,’ as against that euphoniously entitled ‘Confidentia1 Agreement’ with the Japs which just meant that the Filipino ‘leaders’ of that time ‘agreed’ that the Japs should have the whole country.” We feel that the first of the two writers from whose letters we have quoted in the foregoing, understood us rightly. The art icle was written and presented with “restraint” and for the re cord, rather than for argument, and any comparison was delibe rately avoided. To us it seemed deeply offen sive even to imply that there is any basis of comparison between that “Confidential Agreement,” — voracious and utterly cynical, and secret, covert, never avowed, and the long and openly discuss ed terms of the Bell Act, frankly advocated and’ opposed, popularly accepted in a national plebiscite; between the special position which the Japanese sought secretly to “legalize” for themselves as mas ters of the country and every thing in it, and the privilege ex tended to Americans to continue to participate, as before independ ence, on an equal basis in the dev elopment of the country’s natural resources and public utilities, 2-79-35 DOWNTOWN OFFICE AT: RCA, Ground Floor INSULAR LIFE BLDG. E. E. ELSER, INC. GENERAL AGENTS for ATLAS ASSURANCE CO. LTD.—THE EMPLOYERS’ LIABILITY ASSURANCE CORP. LTD. CONTINENTAL INSURANCE CO. OF NEW YORK—ORIENT INSURANCE CO. THE INSURANCE CO. OF NORTH AMERICA 404 Ayala Bldg., Manila Phone 2-77-58 Cable Address: “ELSINC” which the American Congress be lieved would be necessary for the encouragement of further Amer ican capital assistance, so badly needed, and which the American Congress furthermore knew would be of far greater importance and benefit to the Philippines itself than it could possibly be to Amer ica. Too much is made, in some hostile quarters, of this Parity. It extends no whit further than has been stated. There is no parity in the economic and busi ness position in general, for in stance, as is shown by the Phil ippine Flag Law and other leg islation. There is no parity in civic or political rights. Amer icans have no right to vote or to hold office or to take any part whatever in politics. Americans have to register and be finger printed like every other alien, and they must report and fill out forms and answer questions and pay various fees just like any man from China or India or any where else. Regardless of the fact that they helped to build and establish the Philippine Republic, in fact, established by the wholly American act of a withdrawal of sovereignty, the Philippine Re public being truly a DaughterRepublic of the United States of America, — regardless of that, a bitter thing to many Americans, they are now officially foreigners and aliens, just as much as the Japanese are, except for that lit tle parity clause which gives them a few privileges, no more, in fact, less than they had before, in such activities as mining and 412 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL September; 1949 NEW TOUCH! NEW FEATURES! Finger-Flow keys! New removable cylinder! “Clean Change” Ribbon! Magic* Margin! TRY ITS MAGIC IN YOUR OWN OFFICII CAUSEE YOUR LOCAL DEALER: Aurora Bazaar, Tacloban, Leyte Chas. M. Bishop Co., Manila H. E. Heacock Co., Manila Federal Office Equipment, Manila Philippine Education Co., Manila OR CALL US DIRECT: Philippine Representative Marsman & Co , Inc. Sta. Lucia at Anda Intramuros Manila Tel. 2-79-31 Branches: Cebu * Iloilo * Davao lumbering and running transport ation companies and electric light plants. Is that so out-of-the way? Is that for a moment to be com pared with the Japanese dicta tions and ferocious impositions? WHEN the following letter and the accompanying comment had been pre pared, a Chamber authority ex pressed the opinion that the sub ject was worthy of the more serious treatment it would re ceive in the editorial columns of this Journal than anything gene rally receives in these more ribald columns of the "Hair-Down” sec tion. So the editor wrote the editorial which readers may turn to, — if they are interested, on page 370. .However, on compar ing the two compositions, — on the sarnie subject and practically the same in content, but in dif ferent styles, the one (supposed ly) sarcastic, ironic, cutting, and the other (supposedly) sober, dig nified, earnest, some of us here thought that it might be interest ing to print both, each in its proper place, allowing the reader to judge for himself which is the more effective. As for us, it seems just as likely that, for the reader, this experiment may turn out to be a frightful bore. Read ing the editor once, — well, we suppose it has been done; but reading him (or virtually him) tivice, in any “style,” ye gods’. And, we ask, in all this atten tion being directed to the “style,” or rather, they mean the manner, isn’t the message likely to be lost? And wouldn’t that be just too bad? “You’re always sneering,” said the editor, heavily. “We sneer when there is some thing to sneer at,” said we. “Remember we are talking about human rights. Is nothing sacred to you?” “Oh, is that so? Didn’t you shift the talk to ‘style,’ so called?” “Did I shift the talk to style?” “Come on, come on! Didn’t you? Who (whom) do you think you’re kidding?” “Well,” said the editor plain tively, “is it so wrong for anyone to take a little pride in his work?” “Tschh!” said we. C. F. SHARP & COMPANY, INC. STEAMSHIP OPERATORS — AGENTS SHIP BROKERS GENERAL ORIENTAL AGENTS: WATERMAN STEAMSHIP CORPORATION Mobile, Alabama THE IVARAN LINES — FAR EAST SERVICE (Holter-Sorensen — Oslo, Norway) PACIFIC ORIENT EXPRESS LINE (DITLEV-S1M0NSEN LINES) (TRANSATLANTIC STEAMSHIP CO., LTD.) Swe den GENERAL STEAMSHIP CORPORATION San Francisco SIMPSON, SPENCE & YOUNG New York V. MUELLER Kobenharn, Denmark Head Office: STH FL., INSULAR LIFE BLDQ. MANILA, PHILIPPINES TEL. 2-87-29 2-96-17 SAN FRANCISCO—SHANGHAI SINGAPORE—PENANG TOKYO—YOKOHAMA—KOBE NAGOYA—OSAKA Cable Address: "SUGARCRAFT” all offices THE JOURNAL GOES STRAIGHT TO THE DESK OF LEADING BUSINESS EXECUTIVES 414 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL September, 1949 Automatic Calculators To all who need accurate figures in a hurry... PHONE OR WRITE US FOR DEMONSTRATION ON YOUR OWN WORK SMifHJELL^CdjfD. TRADE AND COMMERCE BLDG..MANILA •MOCK CIBV • iu>lio ■ UCOU» • LIOMM ■ MWO Tel. 2-69-71 claration and those who voted for it thought should be or ought to be. “If you will read the last of the ‘whereases’, you will see that the ‘Member States’ only ‘pledged’ themselves to ‘achieve.. .the pro motion of universal respect for and observance of’ these so-called rights. “According to the paragraph which follows this, the Declaration itself states that these so-called rights are proclaimed only as a ‘Common standard of achieve ment’, something to ‘keep in mind’, something to ‘strive... to secure the universal and effective re cognition’ of, — sometime. “So, you see, the Philippines is not committed to anything much. We’ll just keep these things in mind. Oh, we’ll strive all right. But give us time. We want to do a little discriminating first. Our Government may have joined the other nations in authoring and proclaiming' the Declaration, but that was mostly for show. You know how it is.” And so some of our judges and law-makers seem to think they can uphold the dignity and inter national good name of the Re public. AMERICAN PIONEER LINE on orders originating in Eastern United States UNSURPASSED SHIPPING SERVICE TO AND FROM ATLANTIC COAST PORTS “via PIONEER LINE” Agent: UNITED STATES LINE COMPANY Port Area, Manila Tel. 2-66-02, 2-70-47, 2-76-49 consider offset printing FOR MORE SPEED MORE VOLUME MORE VERSATILITY

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