Filipino forum. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1928-196?, 1961-06-16
The Rial We
Do Not Know
Continued from Page y

mO0el CDllQHOOu, VI youth maui
ing into useful manhood. There is
not a phase of our life upon which
we cannot bring to bear the telling
and permanent influence of Rial.
He is with us, present with his
support, when we are in the right.
He is against us, convincing in his
opposition, when we are in the
wrong. If, dropping in spirit, we
give way to disappointment and
encouragement, the whole story
of his epic death declares us rene
gades to the cause of which he is
the martyr.
Our Last Resort
We thus feel that we know him,
that we have sounded the depth of
his being. that we hold him the
COMPANION of all the hours when
we give ourselves to the compan-
ionship of our country. Just as he
comes to US an unfailing priest
hood ordained us into beings
greater than what we might be,
because before US are tasks de
manding greatness in character
greatness in thought, and great
ness in deed, so we go to him in
the hope that we discover, for our
fortitude, the dimensions of his
mind and the deeper and larger
dimension of his sacrifices.
Learning to Know Him
And we have flattered ourselves
that we have ventured successfully
into this loving inquest into the
proportions of his glory. There is
no creed or dogma in his political
bible but we have reduced into
simple terms that even the I'M
lettered among our people shall
commune with him and joyously
and Loyalty pledge their support
of his leadership. There is no facet
of his many-sided genius but we
have long and painstakingly and
searchingly examined, and, to our
increasing wonder, found each de
veloped by him, disciplined by his
stern ethical principles into service
for the Motherland.
Supremacy a Patriot
Even his art as a writer is the
art of the political writer. He was
the refomer, the fighter for priv
ileges and the recognition of the
inherent rights of his people, be-
fore he was the poet, the novelist.
or The pamphleteer. His means and
methods We're those of the artist;
his aims and his objeetives were
those eff a patriot. He made beauty
the handmade of patriotism. I'm
DERIVING all his inspirations was
his undying devotion to a country
under alien domination. to a people
feeling, at the climax of his era.
supreme confidence in their power
to achieve self-rule and a supreme
contempt for imposed authority.
Built for All Time
We sense also that wherever he
addressed his energies, his leader
ship of a secret society, for ex-
ample, the one dominating urge
that unsphered his capacity to
command others, was his desire to
give permanence to his high
hearted dreams for his people. He
joined the Masons, not to adiure
the church, but to feel that at that
time he had in his power one more
force with which to free his people
from a double tyranny; the tyran-
ny of superstition over the hearts
of the Filipinos, and the tyranny
Of a defective system of govern
ment over the Philippines.
It comes to us, also, as an over
powering realization that he knew
the economies of preparedness for
a self-ereeted authority over our
nationals. And again, in this, as in
the other activities of which he
was the directing inspiration, if
not the actual chieftain, he flooded
the plan and the movement that
might have embodied it, with the
energy of his elf-sacrificing spirit.
Filipino, First and Foremost