Editor's Note: The following is an extract from the scholarly speech of Frank Valdovino, a student at the John Marshall Law School, during the inauguration of the Philippine Commonwealth at the Filipino Community Center, 837 North LaSalle last Friday night.

Mr. Toastmaster, respectable American people, and fellow countrymen: We know that a portion of the past political upheavals in the American Congress has affected the vast Pacific, and, through the Tyding-McDuffie law, the Filipino nation adopts the Philippine Commonwealth. Today, November 15, 1935, the life history of our Commonwealth begins. Filipinos, wherever they are, and will ever be, patriotically gather to celebrate this most significant and memorable day sincerely hoping that this present Commonwealth will eventually become a complete National responsibility, a future Philippine Republic. It is on this date that the Filipino people inaugurate their George Washington, Manuel 2L. Quezon. Simultaneously, in our Junior Philippine Commonwealth in Chicago, we are inaugurating our Jr. George Washington, our Jr. Manuel L. Quezon, the Honorable Tony Gonzales.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are confronted with grave national problems. The United States is a great example, we know, in the development of economic wealth. Here, we see the destitute and the millionaire. The only solution of the economic justice is more equitable distribution of wealth. In the light of democracy and liberty, personal rights should not be abused. No man should aspire to become a financial magnate at the expense of the masses. Equal opportunity to earn a decent living and to educate his children should be within the reach of everyone. We must not forget that the law is intended to protect the weak and innocent.

It must be understood that a free country needs National defense. Every male person must be in uniform. He must be in the army, or in the navy, or in the aviation. Rich and poor must sacrifice all their property, their lives and blood for a common cause.

Philippine democracy is still an ideal--a dream. It will remain in the air until it will be translated into a more equitable distribution of economic wealth. We hope that in a state of a Philippine Republic, democracy and liberty shall not become a target of ridicule and mockery but a blessing to elevate all our people materially and intellectually.