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Teodoro R. Yangco 1861–1939

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Teodoro R. Yangco 1861–1939 H former members 1900–1946 H Teodoro R. Yangco 1861–1939 RESIDENT COMMISSIONER 1917–1920 NACIONALISTA FROM THE PHILIPPINES nown as the “Rockefeller of the Philippines,” Ateneo de Manila University, one of the Philippines’ Teodoro Yangco, whose business acumen most prominent finishing schools. His father eventually and wealth made him the islands’ leading remarried to Victorina Obin, and from this union Teodoro Kphilanthropist, enjoyed a brief, symbolic term as a gained three step-siblings : Pacita, Luisa, and Luisito.2 Resident Commissioner in the U.S. Congress. Yangco Teodoro graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with followed in the tradition of Benito Legarda and Manuel a bachelor of arts degree in 1880. He enrolled in the law Earnshaw when he was selected as one of the islands’ two program at the University of Santo Tomas for one year, concurrent Resident Commissioners on a track reserved but his father encouraged him to pursue a commercial for leading industrialists and merchants. These men degree instead of law. Yangco studied business in Madrid tended to be gradualists on the independence question for a year but left disgusted. “Except for the fact that I was as opposed to their colleagues, who came from overtly entitled to a vacation,” he recalled, “my time was wasted. political backgrounds and tended to espouse the popular I learned little or nothing of value.” Yangco moved on to will of Filipinos who favored immediate autonomy. But Ealing College, a small school in West London, where he as a staunch ally of Manuel L. Quezon, who sometimes lived between 1882 and 1886.3 disagreed with his friend on tactics but not objectives, Upon returning to the Philippines in 1887, Yangco Yangco believed that, in the wake of the Jones Act, full worked for his father to learn the business from the ground freedom remained the central aspiration for Filipinos. “I up. As a self-made entrepreneur, Luis Yangco did not am a business man and have [been] much involved in this provide his son any special favors and, in fact, verged on question of Philippine independence,” Yangco noted in being overbearing. “Now Teodoro,” he said, “you’ll work as 1919. “I am supposed to be a conservative. I believe still a clerk in my office. Don’t think that simply because you the time has come for independence. We are grateful to have studied in Europe you can be a manager right away.” America for the great things she has done for us, and our A salaried employee, Yangco clerked and slowly worked desire now to separate from her side is only the natural his way up to manager after a 10-year apprenticeship. His desire of the child when he comes of age to leave the care father garnished his wages during that time, using that and control of a parent.”1 money to construct a private department store, Bazar Teodoro Rafael Yangco was born in San Antonio, Siglo XX (Twentieth Century Bazaar), in Teodoro’s name. Zambales Province, Philippines, on November 9, 1861, During the 1896 Philippine Revolution, when Luis was the only child of the troubled union of “Capitan” Luis arrested and imprisoned for six months, Teodoro managed Rafael Yangco, a wealthy entrepreneur and industrialist, the family business. As a reward for his successful work, and Ramona Arguelles. When Teodoro was four, his Yangco received a hefty raise and 13 ships to start his own father built a grocery store in Manila and moved away to business. He continued to manage his father’s firm while, manage it. For six years, Ramona raised Teodoro alone in his spare time, building his own shipping company.4 in San Antonio, where private tutors educated the boy. In 1907 Teodoro broke ties permanently with his In 1871, at the beckoning of Luis, 10-year-old Teodoro father when Luis accused his son of using “insulting traveled 120 miles to live with his father and attend language” and abruptly disinherited him. Undeterred, 172 H ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS IN CONGRESS Image courtesy of the Library of Congress 42940_05-APA-MP1.indd 172 2/13/2018 11:55:40 AM Teodoro R. Yangco 1861–1939 RESIDENT COMMISSIONER 1917–1920 NACIONALISTA FROM THE PHILIPPINES 42940_05-APA-MP1.indd 173 2/13/2018 11:55:43 AM H teodoro r. yangco H the younger Yangco formed a transportation firm that politicians’ “excessive” focus on achieving Philippine managed shipyards and shuttled commercial merchandise. independence at the expense of its economic development.10 Its reach was extensive, as it operated between eight cities This type of criticism reinforced the need for a Resident throughout the Philippines. Additionally, Yangco was Commissioner with sterling business credentials. the proprietor of the Twentieth Century Bazaar store, These factors weighed on Quezon and Philippine started a dry dock and slipway operation, and expanded assembly speaker Sergio Osmeña as they considered his real estate holdings. As a director of the Philippine candidates to succeed Manuel Earnshaw. Newly elected National Bank and president of the Philippines Chamber to the Philippine senate, Quezon exercised considerable of Commerce, Yangco worked with numerous government control over the selection process. In late 1916, he and business officials throughout the Philippines.5 approached Yangco and offered him the Resident Philanthropy became a central aspect of Yangco’s life— Commissioner post. Yangco initially refused Quezon’s which, by all accounts, was simple and unostentatious, offer, noting that it was a “fixed principle of his life” to given the magnitude of his wealth. He sponsored projects stay out of politics. But Quezon, with whom Yangco had such as the building of schools and playgrounds around an almost fraternal bond, eventually persuaded his friend ; the country. Yangco also sponsored a number of Filipino Yangco himself recognized “the vital necessity of sending students who studied in Europe and the United States.6 a recognized business leader to represent the aspirations of The pious, lifelong bachelor was particularly active in the Filipino people.” Quezon later described why Yangco charity work for children and even adopted several boys. was an ideal choice, noting, “We need a man in the United Two boys, Lucio and Simplicio Godino, were conjoined States who is deeply interested in our institutions as well as twins whom he adopted in 1919 after their mother’s death, in the development of our natural resources.”11 saving them from being relegated to life as a circus act.7 On January 10, 1917, the Philippine assembly elected Yangco toured the United States during the time of the Yangco by a nearly unanimous 68 votes (two other 1915 World’s Fair in San Francisco and visited a number opposition candidates garnered a single vote each). The of cities, including Washington, New York, and Chicago. legislature simultaneously elected Jaime de Veyra—a A tall man with wavy dark hair and deep-set eyes beneath newspaperman-turned-politician—to serve alongside large brows, he made favorable impressions on American Yangco in the other Resident Commissioner slot.12 News captains of industry, such as International Harvesters’ coverage in the United States pointed to the different roles Cyrus McCormick.8 In several news interviews, he stressed de Veyra and Yangco would play. The former “was named Filipinos’ desire for eventual independence and their to represent the political aspirations of the Filipino people, satisfaction with Governor General Francis Burton Harrison. while Yangco will represent the business interests—a Yangco, who believed that Filipinos were not ready to govern division of labor that has been followed in the appointment themselves immediately, endorsed a protectorate system as of Philippine resident commissioners since the office was the nation moved toward independence.9 first created.”13 The Cablenews-American approvingly With the passage of the Jones Act in the waning noted that Yangco’s “broad sympathy with all modern months of the 64th Congress (1915–1917), the Resident progress, whether social, political or industrial, especially Commissioners’ political emphases were in transition. The fits him to represent the Philippines in Washington, under new law provided a path to independence that, initially, this new phase of relations between the Islands and the did not seem to require the vocal advocacy that had long United States.” Before leaving the Philippines, Yangco been the approach of past Resident Commissioners, most conducted a fact-finding trip to assess the islands’ business notably Manuel Quezon. By the start of the 65th Congress needs. Shortly before his departure for Washington in (1917–1919), American critics pointed to Philippine early April 1917, the Cablenews-American described him 174 H ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS IN CONGRESS 42940_05-APA-MP1.indd 174 2/13/2018 11:55:43 AM H teodoro r. yangco H as “the right man for the place,” one who would follow in independence supporters in Washington and Manila “Earnshaw’s shoes.”14 who backed the Clarke Amendment, Quezon publicly In a legislative sense, Yangco’s service was remarkably supported it (Congress later stripped the fast-track provision threadbare. Part of this lack of production derived from from the final legislation). Yangco questioned Quezon’s the institutional roadblocks that greeted every Resident political expediency. In 1917, when Yangco first arrived in Commissioner. House Rules circumscribed their powers— Washington to assume his duties as Resident Commissioner, most notably preventing them from holding a committee Quezon invited him to stay at his home. Yangco reluctantly assignment or voting on the House Floor. During his three- accepted and, when he arrived, left his baggage at the curb year term, overlapping with parts of the 65th and 66th while knocking on Quezon’s door. “I did not bring it,” Congresses (1917–1921), the Congressional Record mostly Yangco explained, “because before I accept your hospitality just notes his attendance.
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