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"No one need have any misgivings as to the attitude of the Government toward lawless individuals or subversive movements. They shall be dealt with firmly. Sufficient armed forces will be maintained at all times to quell and suppress any rebellion against authority of this Government or of the sovereignty of the United States. There can be no progress except under the auspices of peace. . . .
"I appeal, therefore, to every Filipino to give the Government loyal support so that tranquillity may reign supreme in our beloved land. Widespread public disorder and lawlessness may cause the downfall of constitutional government and lead to American intervention. . . .
"Even after independence, if we prove ourselves incapable of the protection of life, liberty and property of nationals and foreigners, we shall be exposed to the danger of intervention of foreign powers. . . .
"The Government draws its breath of life from its finances, and it must balance income and expenditures if it expects to survive. It is my duty to see that the Government of the Commonwealth lives within its means and stands foursquare on a well-balanced budget. . . . We are among the least-taxed people in the world, and therefore when necessity arises we should be willing to accept the burden of increased taxation. ... I shan't fail you."
Hard Game. The occasion might have excused considerably more forensic embroidery, but Manuel Quezon had no illusions about the tasks ahead of him. As he turned from the crowd, walked back through the Legislative Building, the Herald Tribune man thought he "looked like a football player after a hard game."
President Quezon knows well what most Filipinos have yet to discover: that the U. S., in granting independence, is far from purely benevolent. Long ago the Philippines outdealt the New Deal in the matter of socialized industry. The Islands' 72,000 sq. mi. of timber are 99% owned by the Government, forested by license. The rich iron mines of Mindanao (second biggest island, after Luzon) are a Government reservation. It owns and works the coal deposits of Batan Island. It has taken over the Philippine Railroad. But to private enterprise is left the all-important agricultural industry, which since 1909 has enjoyed practically free trade with the continental U. S. and whose exported produce in 1933 was worth $96,000,000.
A few Congressional sentimentalists have, for the past 37 years, supported the idea of independence for the Philippines. With the recent Hard Times, the issue became realistic. Cotton Congressmen were told by their constituents that Philippine coconut oil was a competitor with their cottonseed oil. Manila hemp seemed to be hurting U. S. cordage producers. But the big importation from the Philippines is sugar from sugar cane, and that brought anguished wails from Louisiana sugarmen, howls of positive pain from sugar-beet growers of Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Michigan. With independence goes a U. S. duty on Philippine sugar which, unless it is tempered by U. S. Tariff Commission experts now probing the situation in Manila, may prove the Islands' agricultural ruin.