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Speech of Philippine Resident Commissioner to the United States Carlos P. Romulo before the House of Representatives of the United States Congress* |
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Mr. Speaker, twenty-eight years, ago today, upon this floor, America gave its first pledge of freedom to the people of the Philippines. |
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On that day the Congress of the United States approved the Jones Act, promising independence to the subject Philippines in a covenant that is without parallel in the world’s history. |
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It is not my purpose to review the Filipinos’ fight against America during the early days of American occupation, nor stress the fact that it took the United States three and a half years of actual fighting to subdue the Philippines. We were not conquered, in the final analysis, by guns, but by the practical demonstration in the Philippines of America’s concept of democracy. American teachers brought us new methods of education. Public health, road building, government training—such things were given us. Gradually our feeling toward America changed from resentment and suspicion to confidence and loyalty. |
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That loyalty was sealed by the passage of the Jones Act. |
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The long struggle for Philippine independence that was to culminate in the passage of the Jones Act was waged upon this floor. It was a strange struggle, carried on in amity and understanding, for only Americans could comprehend the democratic dreams of our Filipino leaders. There were two of these fiery young nationalists who began the light for independence. Manuel Luis Quezon, as Resident Commissioner, on this floor set here the demands for the outposts of democracy in the Philippines, laid here the foundation of Bataan. But it was in the Philippines where the strategy of the whole fight was planned under Sergio Osmeña, Speaker of the Philippine Assembly, who, as the then leader of the Filipino people, gave purpose and direction to the peaceful campaign for freedom. |
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The First Philippine Assembly that convened on October 16, 1907, was the supreme test of our ability to govern ourselves. If it succeeded, more self-governing powers would be awarded the Filipinos. If it failed, it would mean a setback in our slow march to independence. Those who made the Philippine Assembly a success were men of courage and vision, and our Philippine democracy became the monument to their struggle and their sacrifice. I would like to call their roll today; yet however long and glorious the list, we must come to one name at last, that of the new President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Sergio Osmeña. As speaker of that historic assembly, he united its various elements and steered its course, establishing for the first time the policy of Filipino collaboration with America. He led us then through a crucial period in our history, to emerge triumphant in the test that resulted in the recognition, through the Jones Act, of our capacity for self-government and freedom. He is leading us today, as President in exile, through darker days of travail, and the crowning service of this patient and self-effacing statesman will be to establish, after victory has been achieved, the Philippine Republic. |
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The Jones Act, approved on August 29, 1916, placed the legislative power in Filipino hands. It provided for the creation of the Philippine Senate, to be elected by the people and to be composed entirely of Filipinos. It gave the first-glimpse of democracy to the benighted Far East at our back, to millions of enslaved Asiatics. The American name of Jones carried to the Far East America’s words that had hammered the year 1776 into history—independence and equality. It was a vested interest in the future that must assure economic and spiritual decency for all men. |
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I would like to call attention to the fact that on exactly that same date six years before, on August 29, 1910, Japan, against the will of the Koreans, formally annexed the ancient Kingdom of Korea and ended its independent existence of 4,200 years. |
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What curious coincidence could better show the contrast in ideology between the United States and Japan. These two historical incidents reveal why Japan and America are now at war. With the annexation of Korea, Japan started on its bloodstained march of conquest that was to culminate in the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, while-America, with the Jones Act, set a course of freedom and democracy for all peoples. |
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The Jones Act was our victory. You let us win it upon this floor. It was a pledge made, and America has kept that pledge. In 1934 the Tydings-McDuffie Act set the independence date—for July 4, 1946. Recently, Congress passed Senate Joint Resolution 93, advancing the date of independence as soon as the Japanese invader is d from Philippine soil and constitutional processes are restored in the Philippines. |
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We Filipinos, too, kept the pledge. You gave us the Jones Act. We gave you Bataan. For Bataan and Corregidor were dividends paid back out of our loyalty and our faith in America. On this day, twenty-eight years ago, we of the Philippines were promised a place beside our fellow Americans as men equal and free. We earned that position in 1941, when we offered our lives beside Americans, in the blackest hour America has known. |
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Bataan, where Filipinos fought under the American flag to preserve democracy, was the ultimate outpost of freedom in the Far East. |
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Half the world lies between the fox-holes of Bataan and the floor of Congress, and yet I cannot feel myself a stranger among the representatives of a people for whose flag and ideals my countrymen did not hesitate to fight and die. I speak for them, a nation of prisoners, their tongues stopped with fear or with death, because they cast their lot with Americans, against their “fellow Orientals” the Japanese. |
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I speak for them proudly, 17,000,000 of them, with new hope, for at least we see the way clear back to the Philippines, and we dare speak of victory. |
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We know now there will be victory, and palms such as are laid on the graves of Arlington will be placed on the nameless dust of Bataan. On that bloodstained Philippine peninsula Americans and Filipinos must meet over a common grave where lie the bodies of their sons. We will remember then, after victory, how we valued them, those American and Filipino boys who died together for democracy. In our eyes they were beautiful, they were the hope of our-lives, and our hearts will break again over their shared dust. |
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We will meet, my fellow Americans, over that common grave. |
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Out of that grave, a dream. |
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Others have died for that dream of world recognition of the ordinary civilities and the divine rights of man. |
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A Jew named Jesus carried that dream, via Golgotha, to a hill that is known as Calvary. |
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An American, Abraham Lincoln, carried that dream from a log cabin to the White House. He was assassinated, here in Washington. |
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The Filipino Manuel L. Quezon died for that dream, after taking his last stand for democracy in the tunnel on Corregidor. |
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And a boy named Jose, from Manila, and another boy named Joe, from Missouri, died for the same dream on Bataan, and their commingled dust is holy earth. |
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How can we sift that dust by race for separate honor! Both were young. Both loved life. But they hated autocracy more than they loved living, and they share one grave on Bataan. |
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Out of that grave, a dream. As Edgar Lee Masters said: “Bloom forever, O Republic, from the dust of thy bosom.” |