Manuel Roxas

“ We are to be a free nation largely because we were aided in that direction by the love of liberty and the goodwill of the American people. If we succeed as a nation, if we are able to survive as a nation-and of course we will-we will have America to thank. I bear witness to the fact that America stands ready to help without selfishness, without motive except to reward us for our loyalty and to advance in our land the great cause democracy and freedom for which Americans and Filipinos died together, in many corners of the earth in the past four years. ”

“ We are not without sympathy for the centuries old burdens of injustice visited upon some of our people. We must understand that anger will lurk in the hearts of men when the gains won by violence in war seem about to be taken away. But the rough gains achieved in the absence of law are transitory and insecure. Be assured that the welfare of those who suffered injustice in past years will be heeded. Their war-won gains will be replaced by more substantial benefits of justice, of peace and tranquillity within a framework of national prosperity and economic well-being. ”

“ I find no dream of empire in America. While cognizant of power, America, as a nation, is troubled in the use of that power by an earnest and heartfelt desire to advance not the cause of greed but the cause of freedom. We are and shall be a living monument of this fact.
Yet we have today in our own land a few among us who would have us believe that we are in danger of an imperialistic invasion from the very nation which is granting us our sovereignty. ”

“ The deeds of the Filipino people have been celebrated wherever men have gathered to pay tribute to heroism, courage and fidelity. Their gallantry has become an epic, a by-word, a standard by which all heroism may be measured. Many have tried to explain that heroism and that loyalty. But like all heroism it rises above the logic of reason. I judge it a proof and product of the passion for democracy and freedom which America has taught us during forty-eight years. ”

“ Traitors will not escape their just desserts. But among the people, there must be no recriminations or malignancies. Errors of mind rather than of heart must be forgiven. The weat test of war and sacrifice through which we have passed with such hardship will have failed in one of its few benefits if it has not taught us that only in unity can there be power, that only in singleness of national purpose can there be achieved national salvation. I do not mean to suggest that there is no room in this democracy for division of views or of parties. ”

“ I am firmly convinced that when the scales point unmistakably to injustice being rendered us, the United States Congress will grant us redress in full and generous measure.
I have no fears from a nation which idolizes humanity and crowns with laurels those who fight for freedom and brotherhood. There is no greater regard in America today than the national regard for our people. ”

“ Many of us live today in the chambered nautilus of our own mental construction. There are those who close their eyes to the problems that confront us, and prefer to direct the national attention and the national energy at objects outside ourselves, at fancied enemies, at fancied fears of imperialistic aggression. The coincidence of easy money and high prices gives to some of our people the false illusion of national prosperity and the mad notion that we have time to dally and debate. ”

“ That nation which spent 300 billion dollars to arm the hosts of freedom, the nation which has spent and is spending so much of its substance not only to free but also to feed the hungry peoples of the earth will not do that. Small minds see small deeds. I will not place my Government in the position of accusing the United States Congress of willingly conspiring to cheat us of our birthright. ”

“ We will be as wholehearted as any nation in our devotion to the ideals of an indivisible peace and an indivisible world. We will maintain with all our strength and all our power our obligations to the United Nations, and to the causes set forth in the United Nations Charter to which we are a signatory. ”

“ But until that happy day dawns upon us, we can much more selurely repose our fate in the understanding and comradeship which exist between the Philippines and the United States than in the hope of an international morality which, however desirable is still today in the process of development. We are fortunate to have as the guarantor of our security the United States of America, which is today the bulwark and support of small nations everywhere in the world. ”

“ The brutal hand of war spread its breadth across our land and blotted out not only our progress toward a fuller life for all, but our entire economy, all the economic goods and toils we had amassed by a century of labor. ”

“ I see such forces reflected in the policies of the United States.
Let us strengthen as much as we can the hand of the nation which stands clearly in the world's confusion today for democracy and for justice under the law. Let us bide our time for the rectification for alleged impositions. When the time comes, let us present facts rather than fears.
The gratitude of the Filipino people to America is great and enduring. Our feeling toward America is not represented by the loud complaints of an articulate few in our midst. ”

“ I admit the possibility of error in the United States Congress as in any other constitutional body. But I have faith that justice will be done us by a country which has been our mother, our protector, our liberator, and now our benefactor. In this world, the balances of justice move only on great momentums. ”

“ Certainly no people in recent history have been called upon to surmount the obstacles which confront us today. But I have supreme faith in the ability of our people to reach the goals we seek. I ask from the nation the full and undivided support of heart, mind, and energy for the necessary tasks which await us. ”

“ The national structure must be sufficient to house the energies of the whole people. For the Philippines to fit into the pattern of the 20th century, to take its place as an equal among the nations of the earth, we must industrialize; we must make as well as grow. Only in this way can we raise to substantial and permanently high levels the living standards of our people. To support this kind of economy, the producers must become consumers and purchasers. They must have the income with which to buy the products of their toil. ”

“ There are many small industrial and business enterprises which must attract the skills and talents of our citizens. Every encouragement must be given the Filipino to participate in all the operations our new economy at all its levels. But this participation cannot be a grant of government. Participation in business and industry cannot be magically induced. Opportunity can be afforded but it is the responsibility of the individual and groups of individuals to strive for and capture that opportunity and, by so doing, become integral parts of the expanded economy of the nation. ”

“ He recognized as do all right-minded men that if government has one function, it is to insure the reign of law for the protection of the weak in their inalienable rights — the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This Government is pledged to maintain the rights of the underprivileged with all its strength and all its power. ”

“ We must concentrate on production, on ever-increasing production. This nation must produce to live. We must have income from abroad — income from exports. We must have that income so that we may buy the machines, hire the technical skills, and for a time, buy the food which we need to sustain our strength and import vigor and health of our young. That task must begin now, today. ”

“ We will find that more money, bloated by inflation and circulating in narrow charnels, does not bring about prosperity and national well being. Everyday, that money is being siphoned from our land by more and more imports-not productive imports, but imports of consumption. ”

“ The prosperity of money and prices is a hallucination, a nightmarish dream resulting from the scarcity of commodities and the influx of half a billion dollars of troop money. Soon, very soon, we must awake from that dream. ”

“ They would have us believe that the American Republic, resplendent in her power and prestige as the leader of democracy and the spokesman for freedom, would lend herself to a theft of our national heritage for the sake of a thimble-full of profits. ”

“ The national energy, in all its parts, must be focused on a single purpose, on the rehabilitation of our destroyed and ravaged economic enterprises — on rice, on sugar, on coconuts, on abaca, on coconut oil, on cigars, and tobacco — on gold and chrome, and manganese and lumber. ”

“ The tragic evidence of recent history stares at us from the broken ruins of our cities and the wasting acres of soil. Beneath the surface of our daily strivings lie deep the wounds of war and economic prostration. ”

“ But as we go forward in our full faith to work out the destiny of our land and of our people, we must cling fast to one another, and into our friends across the seas; we must maintain in both our hearts and minds a gentleness of purpose. ”

“ Our noble aspirations for nationhood, long cherished and arduously contended for by our people will be realized. We will enter upon a new existence in which our individual lives will form together a single current, recognized and identified in the ebb and flow of world events as distinctly Filipino. ”

“ Unemployment is increasing as the United States Armed Forces decrease the tempo of activities here. Our soldiers are being discharged in growing numbers to swell the ranks of those who must find work and livelihood. Many of those who work are employed in trades dependent on the rapidly shrinking expenditures of the Army and Navy.
There is hunger among us. In the mountain provinces and in other far-flung areas of our land, children starve. Prices race with wages in the destructive elevators of inflation. ”

“ Recent events have demonstrated to us, as to the rest of the world, that the skeleton of the United Nations Organization must grow flesh and develop muscles of its own before it can be depended upon as a repository of our immediate hopes. ”

“ Shall we give comfort to the enemies of liberty in the crisis which grips the earth? The forces of evil may be defeated, but they are not dead. And there are new forces of evil growing even in nations which were our allies. ”

“ The black market with all its attendant evils of disrespect for law and public morality thrives in the channels of commerce.
Plagues of rats and locusts gnaw at our food supplies. Public health and sanitation have been set back a quarter of a century. ”

“ The Government was rich in revenue from taxes, from customs, and from the refunded collections on Philippine products processed and taxed in the United States. We were in the midst of a program aimed at the eventual achievement of social justice for the underprivileged elements of our population. Yes, we had those elements then, as we have them now. We must not imagine that economic maladjustments, land hunger, and farm tenancy are problems born of recent years. They are as old as present civilization in the Philippines. ”

“ I recognize that government, in order to maintain respect for law, must in itself bear the unassailable stamp of integrity. Honesty in government is the first essential for the maintenance by the people of faith in its actions. It is corollary of this that government must be efficient and must watch with a vigilant eye the expenditures of public funds. Public officials must render public service. That is their duty. That is their responsibility. Every centavo of the people's money must be spent IlIt' the people's benefit. ”

“ We understand the habit of violence which developed in time of war when violence was the creed of freedom. Many of those who now hold arms illegally served well our common cause. We will not forget their services. ”

“ Our people are well-known for their handicraft and for their ingenuity. There are available in the world today tools and machines of which we must become the masters. There are many natural resources in our land which can be produced by the methods of modern technology into finished items for our consumption and for sale abroad. ”

“ Higher wages accompanied by efficient and increased production are true roads to full employment. Increased wages and income in pesos must represent increased purchasing power. Prices must be kept under control until productions and importation reach saturation levels. We must avoid a price structure based on inflated prices. Meanwhile, we must encourage the production of more and more of our primary requirements, production of things we ourselves will consume. ”

“ Arms must be surrendered, except by those licensed to bear arms. The Government will undertake to protect man, woman, and child in the security of his person, of his liberty, and of his property. That protection is an absolute requisite of progress. ”

“ We have great tasks before us, tasks which challenge the very best and the most that is within us. There is no seed of effort which lan be spared from the national planting. Charity and understanding must replace bitterness and anger. ”