LETTERS FROM EXILE

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 203, 27 August 1910, Page 15

LETTERS FROM EXILE

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. THROUGH TROPIC SEAS. No. lIL By RANDOLPH BEDFORD. MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. MANILA. They wilt learn to read in American schools. On American cars they'll ride. But they're used to be owned are these Philippine fools. And they will not be denied. To be an American — for a day — Their mind's half set upon. But a_ heart they're ready to obey— (Three hundred yeais has a deal to say)— And they'd cringe to the ancient Don. One of the finest buildings in Manila is the Monte de Bedad, once a pawnshop. The Americans have converted it to a savings bank. Electric cars run everywhere, even through the band-box Of the walled town; the Plaza de Cervantes is wood paved, although not smoothly, but replacing the time wheu senoritas and pretty half-castes lost their clogs in the mud: a fine fort has been built at Corregidor, and other forts are constructing at Oavite. These are of the modern improvements offered to the Filipino: the fact that Jap. spies know a good deal about Cavite and that Corregidor was built on contract, and that German and French engineers know the plans are not improvements, and are, therefore, not emphasised. Departing are the times when, on All Saints' Day, a Manila church collected £170 worth of wax candles ; gone, it would seem, the ill-government of Spain. But it was not Spain, a_d it was not the friar which oppressed tho Filipino, and thus _tve him a dull animal endurance, cheering him in season with the pageantry of the church and the blood of the 'bull-fight and the colour of Spain. It was both church and Spain that made him tribute, but his own slavishness and want of independence was the greatest factor of all He has no originality, but is ALMOST AS IMITATIVE AS THE JAP, and he must be caught by glitter. And the Spaniards caught him that way and held him for 300 years, and are therefore a tradition and a sentiment. Bace-quility was never heard of until the American. occup__ion. The Filipino .believed in the superiority of the Spaniards, and paid in education from the church, which held universities, high schools and colleges right up to the end. The Spaniards taxed the natives and governed them up to 189S as at any •time for the l_st 200 years. They had to work hard at times to pay taxes nnd earn enough to enjoy the fetes proTided by the Spaniard, but they respected the Spaniard because they feared him. And the lines of the American occupation are on lines of equality, and there is no respect but for the superior. It makes it no better _r_t the great Republic has been forced into an imperialism it did not desire —it is there, and must stay; and if, as appears probable, English •becomes- the language of the country _ithin 20 years, then —.well, meantime, '•_£___ .s .hs Spanish tradition* the Spanish sentiment —the galled mouth of the Filipino trying to feel again the Spanish bit. ONE OF THE "MODEEN IMPROVEMENTS. intended to reconcile the Filipino to the new rule is the presence of Protestant missionaries—in a country Mohammedan Et one end and Catholic at the other, and in the middle dissenting missionaries to proselytise aliens who must have glitter and pomp or creed that is more a philosophy than a religion. That is a "modern improvement" which will almost certainly undo the good work of the more materialistic progress; and if Japan . reaches out for the Phillipines, as the repeated arrest of Jap. spies at Manila would indicate, America will be forced to give white men's blood to protect yellow •men from brown men. And that would be a pity. And although the pacification of the country proceeds fairly quickly, THERE ARE ______ SAVAGES. Jolo was quieted in 1903, but it is estimated that one million, or 1-8 th of the population are still absolute savages. America is a big rail-road builder, and the railroad is the finest civiliser, and therefore there is no people more fitted for the job. But will the job pay—iD comfort or trade prestige? Imperialism is as often a grave of reputation as it is a cradle. America is spending 100 millions sterling, and private ventures have made gftat investments. Gardens, roads, harbours, docks, cold-storage; IS,OOO American troops, 5000 native constabulary, and 10.000 native troops; technical schools sanitation, hygiene, 1000 American anc 8000 native teacher?', anti-opium laws and free trade with the United States—a_ these following war. rinderpest and typhoon. Yet of the S millions of population only 500,000 perhaps are well disposed. Of the others, half a million de Eire independence, with, of course, _ME_ICA AS WATCH DOG AND , PROTECTOR at nothing a week, and 7 millions woul. go to the native domination, althouga ai present cold to anything, and all lean tc the Spaniard rather than to the natior that has preached equality. A modem improvement which will noi appeal to the Filipino is any imitation o: the big department stores, and the Ame lican habit of letting any one man oj group of men control any staple product The Filipino buys food only sufficient foi his daily wants, like the Spaniard, wh< so taught him, and his six "markets fee. him. Other business is slowly and gravel \ conducted in hundreds of little tienda: selling rice, salt, tobacco, sugar and clot! and muslin; and department stores woult he out of drawing. Shoeblacks and newspaper kiosks ant a laundry with 75 electric irons and "so cial improvement" arrived together -here is a Methodist churen, with a Mr HorneT C. Stuntz for "pastor" (when do they find these names?), and wondrou •lodges' called the Improved Order of Red man Apaches, No. 1. with Mr. Luthe: Potts for secretary; and Aztecs an: Comanebes, Knights" of Pythias, Knight of the Golden Eagle, the Fra-ternal Crde of Eagles and the BENEVOLENT PEOT OF ELKS —whatever '" prot" may moan. The; haven't the Honourable Guild of Joyfu Whales, but they do have the 1.0.0.F *_os_ Canadian offshoot of wild-cat lif insurance was blown out in Australia b _ special law some years ago. I wonde what the Filipino thinks of these thing -—altvavs providing that he thinks at al Only one-tenth of tbe island is cult) Tated. though tobacco will grow most! Cjywhere, and the tobacco plant, tha

hemp, which is the other staple of the Philippines, is as accommodating. Sugar, i coffee, indigo, cotton, corn, coeoanuts, fruits of the tropics, rubber (both para and castilloa grow well, and land can be bought at two dollars (8/4) an acre. But in the British New Guinea you can get as good land for merely cultivating it, and "the Papuan is at least as good a worker as the Filipino. Gold was C worked in small quantities by the early o; Spaniards; there are good forests of ti ebony, sandal, camphor, and teak. Total o: imports for 1909 were 306,400,804 dollars, fi and exports 307,475,410 dollars. Rice " grows well, but there is still an annual L importation of 6,000,000 dollars' worth " (£1.320,000 sterling). There is plenty P of wild cotton, and the bamboo provides the peasant with all but meat and water. "■ There is even a church organ made of s bamboo in the parish of Las Pinas, near J Manila. There is a great sugar opening. The annual production is about 200,000 a tons, but supply can never catch the . United States market, which in 1908 J] imported 1,646,456 long tons. Textile works are of hemp and pina fibre. There , are good laeemaking and embroideries; hat weaving is done in great quantity, but by women and children, because the lazy husband and father despises it as s being woman's work, and yet does the \ domestic service and MINDS THE BABY WHILE THE <_ WOMEN FOLK EARN THE LIVING, j The Americans are already getting t ahead with manufactures, exporting t Manila-made boots to China, and ready i to hurt Hong Kong shipping once they £ get a dock. For light woTk the women £ are excellent—tobacco handlers quick c and exact as the almost human cigarette- c making machine. Cne factory makes E a quarter of a million cigars and ' seven million cigarettes a day. It's J a rich country, with bad and unwilling : labour in it—admitting, of course, that this is a wide generalisation. For cen- ! turies there has been no constant and reliable labour but Chinese. Th& Filipino, like that thief the Japanese pearl diver of Torres Straits, asks for an advance without guarantee before starting work. Only immediate necessity w-ill make him work for a wage not to be paid till due. Being given voluntarily more wages than ever he did before, his demands increase after each success. The other day there was a wharf labourers' strike in Manila, which looked like collapsing because the ■Sheriff had seized the strike office for rent. To his laziness he has added THE HABIT OF BEER, that 13, in .Manila. He is a cunning schemer like the Jap, as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation trouble in the Jurado case will show, and the sons of the well-to-do, with that , vanity that springs from a sense of in- , feriority, decide to be things for which they are least fitted. They never be- . come reliable medical men or able advocates —or at least have so far not done [ so —tmt there are plenty of half-naked r doctors and abogatillos (which is to say, I "little advocates"), and they go on mii creasing without encouragement.