The “National strategy”

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: The “National strategy”
Creator: Stevens, Frederic H.
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume XXIV (Issue No. 8) August 1948
Year: 1948
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Fulltext: The “National Strategy” By Frederic H. Stevens President, American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines AT times, I like to reread the statement of the ob jectives of Rotary, — "to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy en terprise ... to encourage and foster high ethical standards in business . . . the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world-fellowship of business.” Whenever I read this, I can not help but feel proud not only that I had some part in starting the Manila Ro tary Club, but that I still am a member, even if only an honorary member. And I take fire when it occurs to me that this tremen dous thing of the advancement of international under standing and goodwill might become a very marked thing right here in Manila. We think of the One World ideal. What could stop us from devoting ourselves to making this city, this country, a little One World? The movement toward One World will have to begin in many places. This should be one such place. Manila, the Philippines, should be pre-eminently such a place. That takes me out of the past and into the present and the future. It takes me into the realm of national strategy, which should be a strategy developed along lines of principle with which all good Rotarians are in agreement. By national strategy is meant not merely military, but the over-all aims and actuations of a people and their government. Such a strategy, it is true, is rarely formu lated very clearly, and it may be almost totally lacking. In the Philippines, the one concept which seems to inform the present national strategy, if so it may be called, is probably best expressed in the phrase, "The Philippines for the Filipinos”. This sounds almost like an axiom, like something the validity of which is self-evident and incontestible. But old and doddering as I may be, I challenge it and say that the phrase embodies an insidious and invidious wrong. I say that this slogan, if carried out in action, will damage and harm no one more than the Filipino himself and the Philippines as a nation. We would come nearer to the right, I believe, if we adopted a slogan like this: "Philippines and people, for the world”. That would be a dedication to greatness,— not a narrow circumscription. It would be in line with the ideal of Rotary,—"the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace”. National and world concepts are everywhere changing. We are all beginning to realize that barriers of race, bar riers of nationality, barriers of religion, barriers to trade, to travel, to communication must be torn down. We are everywhere beginning to realize that t * his is indeed one world, of which we are all the citizens; that we are indeed our brothers’ keepers; and that to survive, we must obey that divine commandment, "Love ye one another”. It is as simple as that,—and, perhaps," as hard. In America we have come to understand this to some appreciable degree. Americans, today, are pouring out bil lions of their treasure to help other nations because they realize that the despair of those others in the end will mean their own; the defeat of those others, their own downfall. Fnm an aJJ.'cs-. before the Manila Rotary Club. Manila Hotel, July 22. 1948. In the Philippines many of us do not sufficiently realize this truth, even in so far as it applies within the country itself. Many here do not understand the full meaning of membership in the body politic. They think that the wounding of one member will not affect the whole body. They do not see that the proper functioning of every part, must be the concern of each part. Hence, the successful among us too often inspire only envy, which is wholly negative, rather than emulation, which is positive. We see a certain group, for instance, successful as merchants, and we propose laws deliberately planned to pauperize them. Would we all be any the better off for that? A country’s greatness depends largely upon the people in it and their unity and public spirit. A great government is one which carries out the will, and carries forward the hopes, of all the people. A great government is not a government which acts merely in the interests, or supposed interests, of the majority, and deals ruthlessly with minor ities. A great government is representative of all the people. It does not rule for one group, against others. Racial, sectional, religious, and other fractional interests are subordinated to the commonweal, the common welfare. Lincoln did not say, "... government of Americans, by Americans, for Americans”. The wise and far-seeing President Quirino acted in accordance with ideals upheld by Rotary when he righted certain wrongs done to a minority. Let us trust that he will continue his program of bringing justice and peace to the farm workers of the country. A wise government utilizes all the resources, energies, and interests of the country for the purposes of the nation. A wise government will in every way promote unity,— association, cooperation, assimilation; not deeper separa tion. A wise government builds up, all through the nation, a sense of security, satisfaction, contentment, hope. That is what makes for civic morale, public spirit, loyalty. A wise government never fosters, directly or indirectly, en vies, prejudices, hostilities. That way lies national destruction. We are all members of one another; what happens to one, happens to all. We pay for each other’s errors and crimes, even for many generations. We can not dis enfranchise, or dispossess, or oppress, or abuse one part of the population without all of us being the sufferers. Tt is true that from natural and historical causes, foreignA ers hold an important share in industry and business here. It is equally natural that the Filipinos should now show a determination to increase their participation in this, which, in the end, no doubt, will become paramount. That ambition we all applaud. But what advantage to the country as a whole would it be meanwhile to bankrupt established business enterprise? There is much talk in the Philippines,—as there is also in Burma, China, and some other countries, of "na tionalizing” this and "nationalising” that,—meaning thereby, in many cases, the dispossession of actual holders. What could be more unfair, unwise, and unstrategic? The result of all that could be nothing but damage to all, damage to the country. 282 When immigrants come to America and make good and become prosperous and raise their children to become good American citizens, we are all happy about it. We have all gained and nobody has lost, except the vicious little demons of narrowness and intolerance which may continue to plague us. Bdt one slogan that has never gained currency in America is, “America for the Amer icans.” We who come from everywhere, are all Americans in America. It is our proudest boast. And the same thing could be true here, respectively. A great deal can be done through the enactment of laws,—much good, and much harm. It is fairly easy to enact a law, or what may pass for a law, but there are some objectives which can not be attained through legislation. And if we forced errors through by means of legislation, we would find in the end that we had succeeded only, for instance, in exchanging for capital, the total lack of it; •for aptitude, inaptitude; for experience, inexperience; for profits, losses; for prosperity, poverty; for progress, decline. Behind much of this so-called “nationalizing” lies the false belief that there is only so much business for all, and that the business done by one, is done only by taking it away from the others. Business is creative and is contin uously augmented as our civilization develops and the division of labor and the production of goods and services is enlarged and improved. The objective of new-comers in the business field should be to make a place for them selves, not merely to displace others. A growing national production and trade, total income, and total gain is what is important to the nation; not so much what particular individuals or groups show the largest private income. Genuine prosperity saturates the entire body politic,—as does a state of good health, a man. With respect to some aspects of the present Philip pine scene, the simple business phrase, “Bad management”, comes to mind, but I feel that it is more than that,—some thing more sinister and deadly. The Philippines, ten or twelve years ago, was set on so bright a course,—liberal, democratic, progressive. Now a hyper-nationalism holds far too great a sway. I can think only that some of our leaders have drunk too deeply of a poison brought here by those rabid nationalists, the Japanese,—a poison that Japan itself all but died from. As an old friend of this country and its people, I beg them to thrust that venomous cup away. Let the Manila Rotary Club set an example in exor cizing this spirit and in heeding what such able men and such good and wise counsellors as Governor McNutt and Commissioner Waring and Mr. Brawner of the San Fran cisco Chamber of Commerce have advised us to do in order to build a prosperous country. Let us all work to gether to bring capital into the country and to develop the country’s industry and trade. If we work together, the prospects are magnificent. Everything comes down to the simple injunction of that lowly man in Judea, two thousand years ago: “Love ye one another”. That would bring to realization the ideal of Rotary,—“peace through a world-fellowship of busi ness”. The friendly, cooperative, all-benefiting exchange of our goods and good services. The Marsman Interests By George L. MaGee Marsman &• Co., Inc. rl common with other enterprises, the Marsman com panies emerged from the war and the Japanese occupation of the Philippines with mines and lumber camps devas tated, buildings wrecked, warehouses empty, records lost, and other assets wiped out. As the, third year after liberation ends, Marsman management reports rapid progress toward recovery in many of its fields of endeavor, especially engineering work, merchandising, and lumbering. It hopes for a resumption at a not far distant date of its mining operations, first in the Paracale district and later in other areas. Indicative of confidence in Philippine business pros pects, as of. August 1st all Marsman entities have been concentrated in one headquarters in a new building con structed on the former site of the Ateneo in Intramuros. Here a commodious two-story structure, with 6400 square meters of ground space, houses the general offices ofc Mars man and Company, Inc., the trading division, the con struction company, and the warehouses. This will result in greater efficiency and economy of operation and make possible better service to patrons. A marker of the Philippine Historical Committee, at the corner of Anda and Arzobispo, on the building, tersely reveals the historic background of this location. It reads: “This was the site of ‘Escuela Pia’ taken over by the Jesuits in 1859 and renamed ‘Ateneo Municipal de Manila’ in 1865. Jose Rizal received from this school the degree of Bachelor of Arts on March 23, 1877. In 1901 the name was changed to ‘Ateneo de Manila’. On August 13, 1932, the building together with the school, museum, library, and equipment, was destroyed by fire and the classes had to be trans ferred to the ‘ Colegio de San Jose’ on Calle Padre Faura. The present building, to which the Ateneo grade school returned in June, 1940, was blessed on December 15, 1940. The later record of the building’s destruction in 1945 during the siege of the Walled City, remains to be added. Soon after hostilities ceased the Marsman executives had plans for reviving the business. In San Francisco, where he had laid valuable groundwork, J. H. Marsman was ready to make the first commercial shipments of foodstuffs to Manila in the later part of 1945. Pledging personal assets for preliminary financing, Mr. and Mrs. Marsman prepared for the vast work of rehabili tation. A large number of American firms lined up to assist. Their support was a great contribution to the effort to provide for the material needs of a war-weary people. Since Marsman businesses were originally founded on gold-mining, engineers concerned themselves as soon as possible with a survey of the conditions. Marsman mines, pre-war, had contributed P95,000,000 to world gold and silver production. In 1941 their output was at the rate of P2,000,000 per month. All were on a dividend-paying basis, and had already returned to stockholders some Pl 7,000,000. Each gave prospects of further substantial re turns to the country’s economy. Technicians found a dismal picture. Itogon, the first major mine of the Marsman group, was a shambles. Tunnels collapsed, mills destroyed, buildings gone, chances for a comeback seemed dim. At Suyoc, where Suyoc Consolidated 283
pages: 282-283