AMERICA IN THE PHILIPPINES

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 88

AMERICA IN THE PHILIPPINES

THE MANAGEMENT OF TROPICAL POSSESSIONS. By Professor J. Macmillan Brown. } (Specially Written for the Otago Daily Times.) - NAGASAKI, August 16. There has been extraordinary variety in the ideals of European nations in their | management of tropical possessions. There ' i was the old Spanish and Portuguese system which set itself to draw as muc revenue as was possible from them. The result was the slow or quick demoralisation and extermination of the natives, or their rise with the half-castes against | the tyranny. ,In either case there was I exhaustion through too grasping a policy, j I The method has "been continued with all its" cruelty and tyranny in the Congo I, Free State. There was the British 6ystem, which traded off the whole management -of the possessions to a chartered .company. But the Indian Mutiny showed that no such shifting of responsibility was possible, and Britain -had to resume the "sovereignty of India and ; make it defend and develop itself; and for the first time in thousands of years the Pax Britannica has made the problem of population and its support or emigration pressing and difficult. The Dutch system has been to play the .paternal Government to the natives, making roads and markets for them and using them like tenants on the Metayer system, a system that has by no means been unsuccessful. Last of all there is the German system, which, without doing much for the natives except disciplining them, encourages settlers on the plantation system. THE AMERICAN SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES. We have- quite the newest and most-up-to-date metKod in the American policy in the Philippines. It is philanthropic with the clear-eyed philanthropy oi science. It began with democratic illusions. America resolved that she should as quickly as possible train the natives to take care j of themselveß, and then launch them as an i independent republic. These illusions are i fading' as rapidly as they were formed. ! But they have left their mark not "only on the treatment of the natives, but on their institutions. And in all its features it is the boldest and most 'striking scheme that has ever been put into effect by a temperate-zone people in its management of a tropical possession. It has taken the most modern methods of "science into its .service, and applied them" without thought of the expense and without distrust of the utimate result. It has worked with the boldness and the faith of "missionary effort, and if it succeeds in abridging the long efforts of centuries in the development of a primitive people, it will be the closest approach to a miracle that science has made. ' THE EDUCATION SYSTEM. One of the first things the Americans did, after they had pacified the archipelago and made the most turbulent of its races feel what a strong arm they had, was to introduce the school teacher j and school education as they existed over the Pacific in their own home. Two hundred and foTty schoolmasters and schoolmistresses were imported in one transport, and began their task at once ' without requiring any knowledge of either Spanish or the native languages. I have compared the method of the Americans to that of missionaries in its boldness and faith. These men and women went out into this semi-Christianised, semi-pagan, and wholly uncultured : "country with no other weapons but those ( with which in America they were turning the children of ~ the emigrants from Hungary, Bulgaria,, and Southern Rue6ia into good, and true American citizens. They never flinched, though the friars and the whole power of the Catholic Church were j put into motion against them. They gave their lessons in English, though the ohil- ' dren knew not a word of it. They taught it by object-lessons. And they have conquered. There are far more in the Philippines now who speak^English than those I who speak Spanish. English is, in fact, j on the fair way of becoming the means j of communication between the three dozen or more races in the group with their five dozen mutually unintelligible languages. The Government bought the friars out of their estates, and a large proportion of them have vanished. And the Church has been unable to make its crusade effective against a free system conducted with such transparent benevolence and i faith. On June 30; 1907, there were 826 American teachers in the islands on an average salary of £245, and 6141 Filipino teachers with an average salary of £53 for posts in Manila and £21 for posts in the provinces. The total enrolment for theyeai (exclusive of the Moto province) was 479,978, and the average daily attendance was 269,006. There is a complaint of shortage of teachers, both American and native, and at the same time a complaint of shortage of funds on the part of the municipalities throughout the group for the building of schools and the employment of more teachers. The municipalities received only 75 per cent, of the amount intended for them by law ; but they made up the deficiency b^ voting the sum fTom the general municipal funds. As in the United States and in New Zealand, more, will have to be given if the 6taff of efficient teachers is to be kept up. . In the Philippines the Filipino teachers in the municipalities got little mote than ordinary messengers did, and not nearly so much as many of the subordinate provincial and municipal ememployees. THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNICAL A>Tl> rtfJDTTSTSIAI. EDUCATION. The shortage exi/sts mabfc in the new arte and trade schools that are -the

reply to the criticisms of the too academic nattrre of the training ~in the primary schools and the High schools. The Americans made the mistake that all the colonies made in moulding the school system as if only merchants, olerks, and teachers were needed by the country. And this was the more grievotws blunder in a tropical colony of primitive peoples than in our Anglo-Saxon community." For after all the available posts were filled, there would be an ever-increas-ing class of educated loafers ready to become demagogues and agitators, such as now exist in India. And it would have been worse in the Philippines than in India ; for famines and epidemics and the goad of ever-threatening starvation have made industry the very life of the Hindoo ; whereas in this archipelago, partly from the primitive character of the inhabitants and the tropical fertility, of the soil, and partly from the grasping character of the rule of the Spanish authorities and the friare, the life is hand-to-mouth and work is by no means synonymous with vitality or energy. What these Filipinos needed to be taught was industry and providence. And before the Americans had gone on many years they realised this. And by 1907 there were, besides the 3435 primary schools, 162 intermediate schools, and the 36 provincial high schools, 35 arts "and trade schools, '5 agricultural schools, and 17 schools of domestic- science, and therp were building 25 new primary schools, 3 new intermediate schools, 7 new high schools, and 5 new arts and trades schools. In the Manila School of Arts and Trades there were taught last year to 350 pupils .drawing, carving, turning, eabinetinaking, bench work, filing, blacksmithing, iron machine work, painting and varnishing, and boat-building and wheel-wrighting were to bo added. And in pursuance of the new policy of the Education Department of making every member of the community self-supporting, the primary industrial work was to be extended through all the grades of the primary schools, including weaving, hatmaking, drawing, elementary agriculture, woodwork (ship and carpentry), elementary pottery and masonry, rope-making, broom-making, and brush-making for the boys, and wea-ving, sewing, cooking, dyeing, bleaching, hat-making, and pottery for the girls. The teachers are instructed ' to imbue the young Filipinos with the idea of the dignity of manual labour and ' of the lasting benefits of patient, con- J sistent, honest toil. And the director of instruction speaks with pride of seeing *h^ pupils -of a school or arts or trades moulding cement blocks, and building a substantial industrial, school with them, under the direction of their teacher. The young Filipinos have shown themselves "very deft in the manipulation of modern tools and appliances. And the result of the training is beginning to appear in the growth of the hat-making industry ; hats were exported in 1906-7 to the value of j £41,000 ; hats generally of a high grade, ' comparing favourably with the best ' Panama. And that these are the outcome ' of the education is shown by the fact that they are nearly all made in the homes of the people. EDUCATION IN HYGIENE. But what is of even more importance, and might teach our own colony a lesson, is the work that the Bureau of Health does for the Education Department. Its district and municipal officers report on the sanitary «tate of each school, its ventilation, its use of light, its sitting accommodation, its drainage and water , supply. And in Manila a medical graduate has been imported to examine the health of the children and report on the means for improving it. And the ideal held before the department is to have medical examination of every new arrival in the j , schools. Simple bulletins on the laws of j- \ health, the principles of hygiene, and the methods of preventing the common diseases of the islands are sent down by the Health Department to all the schools, and the* teachers have to ccc that their pupils read and understand them.' j PROFESSIONAL AND UNIVERSITY j . EDUCATION. Not content with this elaborate school system for natives-, the Government has paid the expenses of 186 Filipino students < I during" the last year to the United States j for the purpose of following professional i studies ; they are studying law-, agricul- . • ture, medicine, business, architecture, j music, sciences, art, and especially engi^ neering. And the beginning of a Filipino University has already been made in | Manila ; its most important practical deI partment, a medical school, is already in , working order ; and a free scholarship is I given in each of the 36 provinces on competitive examination, to cover the ex- ' pen&es of attending it. Already 55 students are at work in it, and those who pass successfully through the five years' course and the examinations are expected to practice in the Philippines for a certain period. THE BUREAU OF SCIENCE. The basis of this departure is the Bureau of Science, which has at the head of j many of its departments men with a ' medical degree. The director of it, Dr ! Paul C. Freer, is himself a medical man, { and has been appointed dean of the ' Medical School. As I went through the extensive building I sa,w many Filipinos - at work, especially in the chemical and biological laboratories, and they seemed | to be taking a deep, practical interest in { their researches. The biological laboratories were busy investigating beriberi. Dr I Strong, the chief of this department, has made plague and immunising against plague bis own specialty, and several of the bulletins published " by the bureau \ t describe his inyestigat'rns into this and | other Filipino diseases. He has just 6pent a large part oi his furlough in Eui'Opean laboratories pursuing this line of research. ' One especially interesting section was the pf&tfcologiQal mu.=eum containing a- very complete collection of specimens of the ■ affected tissues of patients who had died

of one or the other of the -prevailing diseases. All this research goes on with more vigour when the regular routine work of the laboratories is reduced by" the lessening or disappearance of the regular epidemics. THE CHEMICAL LABORATORIES. "" The various chemical laboratories werealso much engaged on analyses that bore on the human" environment 'of the islands. But an important part of their work bears on the products and industies of the archipelago. They analyse the concrete needed for public works. They investigate the useful products of the trees and waters and strata. They are busy with the oils and varnishes that can be extracted from j woods. They are investigating the fibres and fibrous substances, and the use of their waste for paper-making. They are working on the medicinal plants and the mineral waters of the various islands. One of the most important of their investigations is into the qualities and utilities of the coals that are found. | These have been shown to be excessively ! gaseous and unsuited for cooking, and vhave been condemned by local manufacturers- and steamers -for their rapid destruction of the firebars. But the chemists insist that they will be of great value for producer-gas. They are . procuring a trial plant, so as 'to test their commercial* value ; for the result, if good, will "be j of enormous importance to the Philippines. Imported coal is' almost -prohibi- I tively dear Producer-gas engines will become universal in the group and 6ave it an enormous annual sum. ~ THE GEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL AND OTHER SECTIONS. The other sections of the bureau do not show such- immediate practical, results. But their work is as thorough and farreaching. The botanical section is- a necessa-ry ally of the Bureau "of Forestry. The entomological section, with its experiments in the culture of the silkwoTm may ultimately proye a vigorous helper of the Bureau of Agriculture, and in its •investigation of the life history of mosquitoes and flies .may give valuable aid to the Bureau of Health. As necessary for the scientific knowledge of the group is the zoological section, whilst its, magnificent collection of the birds strongly appeals to the aesthetic se>n6e. The newly1 established section of fish and fisheries will soon justify its existence. And so will the Department of Geology, and Mines, which has a considerable staff engaged in field work all over the islands. The. murder of one of the surveyors was reported from Mindanao when -I was in Manila. They are mapping the 6tTata scientifically, as well as investigating the minerals and metals. In various islands there are found iron, copper, marble, sulphur, arsenic, hematite, and petro- . leum ; and payable gold is found in • Luzon, both in alluvial beds and quartz 1 veins. And I was told of five young New ' Zea landers who are working a dredge l>n ' one of the rivens to the south of Manila/ My informant expressed admiration for their character, physique, and pluck, and surprise at their being total abstainers, whilst deploring the bad luck that had yet attended their enterprise. But the department that was evidently most popular and most appealed to me was the Ethnological Museum. Dr Miller, its able chief, showed me his treasures, and at the same time indicated what a vast field there was to cover. The photographer has taken large numbers of pictures of the natives of various parts, and the Hon. Dean C. Worcester, the able Minister of the Interior, who is greatly interested in this department, promised to have his own collection of photographs in order when I returned from China, so j tha #. might see all that they have done. r The native loomwork and metalwork were especially interesting. They revealed how saturated the archipelago was • with culture from the Malay Archipelago subsequent to ■■ the departure of the last , immigrants into Polynesia. There was manifest a Polynesian element in the more primitive instruments, especially in the ages, just as it is manifest in' the earlier culture of Japan. There seems to be" little doubt that before these Asiatic archipelagoes were steeped in Malayism and Mongoi&m they were occupied by a primitive Caucasian people, who also form the primitive basis of the Polynesians. But the isolation of Polynesia by the sinking of the way-marks and steppingstones from the coast of Asia in Palseqlithic times has preserved its culture from the influence of the later developments of the Asiatic continent. The efficiency of the Bureau of Science is completed by a library that contains 25,000 volumes specially bearing on its work, and by the monthly publication of the Philippine Journal of Science. THE BUREAU OF AGRICULTURE. There is also an Agricultural Revie'-v issued monthly in English and Spanish by the Bureau of Agriculture, giving the lesults of its experiments and investigations. And at the same time it issues bulletins in Spanish and English to the farmers jDn methods of cultivation, on new plants and their uses and culture, and on the improvement of the old crops. It introduced Maguey culture from Central American into the Philippines, and most of its 1906 bulletins were connected with this new departure. The Filipinos are convinced of its utility, and are entering with spirit into its cultivation. It has experimental farms in various parts, and raises on them its seeds andi plants for distribution, and tests the new introductions. It lends out its steam, plough for breaking up old land, and its animals for breeding purposes — its bulls, stallions, pigs, and goats from America, Australia, England, and Malta-. It has a machinery expert, who adapts old machinery to new uses, and tries new inventions for expediting the agriculture and treating the products of the country. He . lias macte a, special study oi maeliiiaeG foi* cleaning hemp, kapok, and maguey, for milling rice, and for making brooms.

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The bureau has experimented with" several fibre plants that are indigenous to the group, and finds some of them promising. It has taken the native velvet bean and found it more efficient in nitrifying and enriching the soil than the Florida velvet bean." The native white cassava it has developed for the - manufacture of starcH and tapioca. There are native tubers and fruits it has found to ' be equal to the exotic. And it has experimented with a native rubber plant (the Parameria vine), the bark of which has' a considerable percentage of caoutchouc The temperate-zone fruits and tubers of the mountainous regions it has got in hand. " It has a special division for animal industry, and this includes veterinary control work. It" inspects the abattoirs and all the animals introduced into the arohi-" pel ago. It divides the group into - eight districts and stations, "at least one veterinarian and one agricultural inspector in each. -During 1906 the officials were kept busy by^ an' outbreak of rinderpest. It raised the serum " on a special farm, and inoculated about _17,000 ' buffaloes and cattle, with the result that there was only 1.6 per cent, of deaths.- It investir gated hog cholera and glanders ' in horses and surra and foot-and-mouth disease. >I dioubt if there is an Agricultural- Depart- = ment~in any of our colonies that can be compared with .this in thoroughness and;, 'efficiency. • " * ."""•■',- THE BUREAU OF HEALTH. But the bureau whose work makes quickest appeal to average human nature is that ,of health. . It seems' to hSve achieved wonders in this nest of tropical epidemics. It has fought" smallpox by inoculation till in provinces that used to have 6000 deaths in the year from the scourge there has not been a single death _ reported in 1906-7. Plague, which took - root in* Manila, as in most other towns of. the East, has, for the time at least, vanished from this tropical city of a quarter of a million inhabitants. The bureau combated an outbreak of cbolera. in 1906, and reports that ".cholera in Tecognisable form has disappeared x from the archipelago." It ha 6 taught the people sanitary habits by means of sanitary inspectors and health officers, and even more by having its bulletins read and explained hi the schools. It has got artesian wells sunk in many of the municipalities, with a resulting drop of 20 per 1000 in. their death rate. It has cleansed and reconstructed the market places in a sanitary way, and it has made the prisons whole- ' '•some,' instead of dens of- disease. It has got acts passed against the adulteration of foods and drugs, and the use of possible sources of typhoid fever and cholera by Chinese market gardeners as fertilisers. It >had the watershed that .is j.' the - source of the existing water supply for Manila' guarded by soldiersduring an outbreak of cholera. " Andwhen the new water supply, from a watershed far from human habitations, and the new sewerage system have been in-~ augurated, as they will be at the end of this year, Manila will probably be the healthiest of tropical cities. THE PROBLEMS 'BEFORE THE AMERICANS. There has -never been such a campaign of scientific enlightenment in any tropical country, and it deserves to succeed. Whether it will succeed according to the original American ideal is a question. That the natives will not rise completely to the occasion, or bless the Americans for all that they have expended on them, is already doubtful. The Bureau of Health speaks out boldly, and refuses to believe in local boards of health instead of health inspectors. There ie more than scepticism in the official mind about the benefit of even the limited share of local government already granted. Many of the. i Filipinos have taken the bit in their teeth, as if what has been accorded them was a sign of weakness. And the antiAmerican j nationalist movement grows by no means less. The Aglipayans, a secession from the Roman Catholic Church, has gained in strength as the years have gone on. They are over a million and a"-half strong out of a population of seven millions, a fourth of which are" Moslems or pagans. And there have, been gathering to this dissenting body the nationalist and anti-American elements. It is da-wn-ing on the iuinds of many that the same problems of government lie before the . Americans in this possession of theirs as exist in India. They are honestly doing their best for the native, and there is no trouble or expense spared to make him an efficient human being. But will he ever be fit for democracy? Will he ever be capable of defending himself against internal war, or external attack 1 The candid answer of most who know is in the negative. It is even becoming a question Vhether it will be a profitable possession for the Americans. They have spent huge sums upon it. They have introduced the best of American methods and American legislation. There has been a steady increase of trade. Imports increased in 1906-7 by about £774,000 and exports by about £36,000, and this while 'the importation of rice, distilled spirits, and malt liquors decreased. The enormous increase of imports was largely dye to the increase of cotton textures 'by 25 per cent., and of this increase the United States had the lion's share. Yet it contributes less than an eighth of the cotton textile imports, and its increase was due to a change in the tariff enacted by Congress in February, 1906; it reduced the duty upon goods produced in the narrow Amerir-; looms to a low rate, whilst leaving tttt double width goods at the old rate.. England and the United States furnish more than a third of the imports taken together ; but England stands first, and both increased their quota by 15 per cent. Th~ French East Indies used to hold the first place, but it "has fallen to the third because of the marWd decrease in the , importation of rice. The chief imporHuq; ' countries follow in this order:— China,

S, Australia, Germany, British East' s,- Japan. Australia has Tisen .to the place chiefly owing to. its inroads" te flour trade. Its percentage in has "-gone up from 1 per cent, in to 58 per cent, in 1906-7. The reasons - are the shorter haul and lower its, the less' fin© -milling of the alian floor making it cheaper and comparable to rice, and the unlliness of "the Chinese, the principal retailers, an. echo of the American tt. .It is the Filipinos that are it more, and this indicates a rise in standard of living. Australia has a practical monopoly of the fresh : trade, and furnishes a great quanif -vegetables and fruits. In exports nited States stands easily first,, hay- , tore than a third of the trade, chiefly ; ?h its use of 'hemp.' England stands I I, and France third. . j X But when Tre turn to the shipping that j 4 carried these imports and exports Britain i £ takes the lead by a long way. "Ninety per i £cent of theioregn steamers in the har"fjour when our ship lay in it were British, -Of th/» import trade they carried 56 per i Tcenfc. in 190"?> and 'b£ the* export .trade-!-'7O .per cent., 'both' showingan. increase on 1 k 1906. _- The trade carried" in, American J p bottoms decreased by nearly 100 per cent.) ( k largely .owing to the; loss -of two of the ■ ■ largest American vessels on Pacific waters. I Oermany and Japan have greatly increased > f their trade, the former chiefly in imports. American ships carried only 16.6 per cent. ' of the importations 'from the United '(, States ; 'and when her' coastal navigation > laws are applied to the Philippines in i April, ,1909, things will be worse^ instead j | of -better. Either American shipping in- ; terests will have to make arrangements for~handling the trade between, the -Uniled. ' States an 3 the Philippines, or the "trade'! will be diverted to foreign countries. Aid i [ it is .significant that the chief American j r steamship . company on the Pacific made a loss laet year instead of being able to » pay" a dividend. It is clear which the " authorities in Manila would prefer, for j. they have abolished tonnage dues and • - made it a free port, whilst they are doing p everything_ in .. their power to make it an efficient harbour. If American shippers ►- ptit on steamers for the trade .they, will - claim some of the profits' in increased freight rates. And it is not unlikely that - in lessening the profits of both importer , and exporter this will drive the' trade \ elsewhere. An effort was evidently made • to get Congress to reconsider the position. j : For'"in April- of this year the. House Jbl • Representatives tried "to cancel ,this N ex- J ' fcensron of the coastal navigation , laws, to v 'the Philippines. ■ • - ■ ',' And American immigration is steadily ,> [/decreasing instead of increasing. .Fewer fewer are coming,' and still fewer re- ' • -maining! Since 1902 , Americans have \ shown less and less tendency to favour ■ -the' possession. There was only one small rise in immigration from the United States in 1904. But- last year there was a gr*at , decrease. In 1906 there were 7647 came \ in, but only 3058 in 1907. Whilst the i departures increased from»lß33 to 2028. t Whether America manages to make the useful tb her industry and oomf merce or not, she can never get rid' of Fit. Nor will she ever be willing to do «o/ as long as she remains facing the ■world-arena of the future, the Pacific Ocean. And as population, industry, and finance continue .>their .westward move-ment-as much within her borders as before they reached them, her destiny is manifest and inevitable. She must face as -much to the Pacific as to the Atlantic. And this will become still more apparent - -jrhen the. Panama Canal is opened. On r the shoulders of America and of the East- ' warcl facing British Empire must lie the '' trarden of the future. Whether the Orient will' fight with the West or make peace and ultimate friendship and amalga- j . mation with it; it is these two countries j : that will head the battle or lead the , £ jpaovement. But it will be centuries, if I pnofc thousands of years, before the issue j clear. • - >