In 1902 the Civil Governor of the Philippines, Mr. W. H. Taft, visited the United States, and on May 9 in that year he was commissioned by his Government to visit Rome on his way back to the Islands in order to negotiate the question of the friars' lands with the Holy See. The instructions issued to him by the Secretary of War contain the following paragraphs, namely [275]:—

One of the controlling principles of our Government is the complete separation of Church and State, with the entire freedom of each from any control or interference by the other. This principle is imperative wherever American jurisdiction extends, and no modification or shading thereof can be a subject of discussion. . . . By reason of the separation, the Religious Orders can no longer perform, in behalf of the State, the duties in relation to public instruction and public charities formerly resting upon them. . . . They find themselves the object of such hostility on the part of their tenantry against them as landlords, and on the part of the people of the parishes against them as representatives of the former Government, that they are no longer capable of serving any useful purpose for the Church. No rents can be collected from the populous communities occupying their lands, unless it be by the intervention of the civil government with armed force. Speaking generally, for several years past the friars, formerly installed over the parishes, have been unable to remain at their posts, and are collected in Manila with the vain hope of returning. They will not be voluntarily accepted again by the people, and cannot be restored to their positions except by forcible intervention on the part of the civil government, which the principles of our Government forbid....It is for the interest of the Church, as well as for the State, that the landed proprietorship of the Religious Orders in the Philippine Islands should cease, and that if the Church wishes...to continue its ministration among the people of the Islands...it should seek other agents therefor. It is the wish of our Government, in case Congress shall grant authority, that the titles of the Religious Orders to the large tracts of agricultural lands which they now hold shall be extinguished, but that full and fair compensation shall be made therefor. It is not, however, deemed to be for the interests of the people of the Philippine Islands that...a fund should thereby be created to be used for the attempted restoration of the friars to the parishes from which they are now separated, with the consequent disturbance of law and order. Your errand will not be, in any sense or degree, diplomatic in its nature; but will be purely a business matter of negotiation by you, as Governor of the Philippines, for the purchase of property from the owners thereof, and the settlement of land titles."

Governor Taft arrived in Rome in June, 1902, in the pontificate of His Holiness Leo XIII., whose Secretary of State was Cardinal M. Rampolla. In Governor Taft's address to His Holiness, the following interesting passage occurs: "On behalf of the Philippine Government, it is proposed to buy the lands of the Religious Orders with the hope that the funds thus furnished may lead to their withdrawal from the Islands, and, if necessary, a substitution therefor, as parish priests, of other priests whose presence would not be dangerous to public order."

In the document dated June 22, in reply to Governor Taft's address to His Holiness, Cardinal Rampolla says: "As to the Spanish religious in particular belonging to the Orders mentioned in the instructions, not even they should be denied to return to those parishes where the people are disposed to receive them without disturbance of public order . . . The Holy See will not neglect to promote, at the same time, the better ecclesiastical education and training of the native clergy, in order to put them in the way, according to their fitness, of taking gradually the place of the Religious Orders in the discharge of the pastoral functions. The Holy See likewise recognizes that in order to reconcile more fully the feelings of the Filipinos to the religious possessing landed estates, the sale of the same is conducive thereto. The Holy See declares it is disposed to furnish the new Apostolic Delegate, who is to be sent to the Philippine Islands, with necessary and opportune instructions in order to treat amicably this affair in understanding with the American Government and the parties interested."

In the same document the Holy See asked for indemnity for "the acts of vandalism perpetrated by the insurgents in the destruction of churches and the appropriation of sacred vestments," and also for the damage caused by the occupation by the American Government of "episcopal palaces, seminaries, convents, rectories, and other buildings intended for worship." The Holy See further claimed "the right and the liberty of administering the pious trusts of ecclesiastical origin, or of Catholic foundation, which do not owe their existence to the civil power exclusively"; also "suitable provisions for religious teaching in the public schools, especially the primary."

Governor Taft, in his reply to the Holy See, dated July 3, expressed regret at the suggested appointment of a new Apostolic Delegate, and sought to bring the Holy See to a definite contract. For the settlement of the friars' land question he proposed "a tribunal of arbitration to be composed of five members—two to be appointed by His Holiness, two to be appointed by the Philippine Government, and one, the fifth, to be selected by an indifferent person, like the Governor-General of India"; the expenses to be defrayed wholly by the Philippine Government, and the tribunal to meet in the City of Manila not later than January 1, 1903. He further proposed that the lands should be valued in Mexican dollars, and be paid for in three cash instalments of three, six, and nine months after the report of the award and the delivery of the deeds. Furthermore, that "the payments ought to be made to the person designated by the Holy See to receive the same," on the condition that "no money shall be paid for the lands to be purchased until proper conveyances for the land shall have been made to the Philippine Government." Another condition was "that all the members of the four Religious Orders of Dominicans, Agustinians, Recoletos, and Franciscans now in the Islands shall withdraw therefrom after two years from the date of the first payment. An exception is made in favour of any member of those Orders who has been able to avoid hostility of the people and to carry on his duties as parish priest, in his parish outside Manila, from August, 1898, to date of this agreement," because "it is certain that such a priest is popular with the people." Governor Taft adds: "Nothing will calm the fears of the people.... except the definite knowledge ... that the Spanish friars of the four Orders are to leave the Islands at a definite time, and are not to return to the parishes."

Cardinal Rampolla replied on July 9 to Governor Taft's communication of July 3, which covered his proposed contract and enclosed a counter project of convention, explaining as follows:—"The Holy See cannot accept the proposition of the Philippine Government to recall from the Archipelago in a fixed time all the religious of Spanish nationality ... and to prevent their return in the future. In effect, such a measure ... would be contrary to the positive rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Paris, and would put, consequently, the Holy See in conflict with Spain ... Such a measure would be, in the eyes of the Filipinos and of the entire Catholic world, the explicit confirmation of all the accusations brought against the said religious by their enemies, accusations of which ... the evident exaggeration cannot be disputed. If the American Government, respecting, as it does, individual rights, does not dare to interdict the Philippine soil to the Spanish religious ... how could the Pope do it? The Holy See, in accord with the diocesan authorities, will not permit the return of the Spanish religious ... in the parishes where their presence would provoke troubles."

The Holy See's counter-proposal was cabled to the Secretary of War, who, in his reply dated July 14, which was tantamount to a rejection of it, remarked: "The lay Catholic population and the parish priests of native and non-Spanish blood are practically a unit in desiring both to expel the friars and to confiscate their lands ... This proposed confiscation, without compensation for the Church lands, was one of the fundamental policies of the Insurgent Government under Aguinaldo." As an alternative, the Secretary of War accepted the proposal of the Holy See to send a new Apostolic Delegate, with necessary instructions to negotiate the affair amicably. Therefore, in transmitting this reply to Cardinal Rampolla on July 15, Gov. Taft closed the negotiations by stating: "I have the honour to request ... that the negotiations concerning the various subjects touched upon in the proposals and counter-proposals be continued in Manila between the Apostolic Delegate and myself, on the broad lines indicated in this correspondence.... I much regret that we cannot now reach a more precise agreement...."

The receipt of this last communication was courteously acknowledged by Cardinal M. Rampolla on July 18, 1902, and Gov. Taft then continued his journey to the Philippines. [276]

Monsignor Chapelle's mission had entirely failed to achieve its purpose, and he retired from the Islands on the appointment of the new Apostolic Delegate, Monsignor Giovanni Battista Guidi. Bora on April 27, 1852, this prelate was a man of great culture and a distinguished linguist, who had travelled considerably. From Rome he proceeded to Washington, and, with the United States exequatur, he entered Manila on November 18, 1902, and died there on June 26, 1904. During his mission the conditions of the friars' land settlement were embodied in a contract dated December 28, 1903, whereby the United States undertook to pay, within six months from date, the sum of $7,227,000 gold in exchange for the title-deeds and conveyances of all the rural lands belonging to the three corporations possessing such—namely, the Dominicans, Agustinians, and Recoletos. [277] To cover this purchase, bonds were issued in America for $7,000,000 bearing 4 per cent, interest per annum; but, as the bonds obtained a premium on the money market, the total amount realized on the issue was $7,530,370. It remained, therefore, with the corporations themselves to deliver the title-deeds, but on personal inquiry of the Gov.-General in the month of July following I learnt that up to that date they had only partially fulfilled this condition. This, however, concerns them more than it does the American Government, which is ready to pay for value received. The approximate extent of the friars' lands is as follows [278]:—

Province. Acres.

Cavite. 121,747 Some held for centuries. None less than one generation. La Laguna 62,172 Rizal 50,145 Bulacan 39,441 Rizal (Morong) 4,940 Bataan 1,000 Cebu 16,413 Cagayan 49,400 Gov't. grant to Austin friars, Sept. 25, 1880. Mindoro 58,455 Gov't. grant to Recoleto friars in 1894. ———- Total 403,713

The purchase negotiations became all the more complicated because, from 1893 onwards, the Religious Orders had sold some of their lands to speculators who undertook to form companies to work them; however, the friars were the largest stockholders in these concerns.

As the lands become State property they will be offered to the tenants at the time being at cost price, payable in long terms with moderate interest. The annual compounded sum will be only a trifle more than the rent hitherto paid. [279]

As Governor Taft stated before the United States Senate, it would be impolitic to allow the tenants to possess the lands without payment, because such a plan would be promotive of socialistic ideas. The friars' land referred to does not include their urban property in and around Manila, which, with the buildings thereon, they are allowed to retain for the maintenance of those members of their Orders who still hope to remain in the Islands. In July, 1904, there were about 350 friars in the Islands, including the Recoletos in Cavite and the few who were amicably received by the people in provincial parishes, exclusively in their sacerdotal capacity. At this period, at least, the Filipinos were not unanimous in rejecting friars as parish priests. Bishop Hendrichs, of Cebu, told me that he had received a deputation of natives from Bojol Island, begging him to appoint friars to their parishes. In May, 1903, the Centro Catolico, a body of lay Filipinos, well enough educated to understand the new position of the clergy, addressed a memorial to the Papal delegate, Monsignor Guidi, expressing their earnest desire for the retention of the friars. In the localities where their presence is desired their influence over the people is great. Their return to such parishes is well worth considering. Their ability to restrain the natives extravagances is superior to that of any lay authority, and it is obvious that, under the new conditions of government, they could never again produce a conflict like that of the past.

The administrator of the archbishopric of Manila, Father Martin Garcia Alcocer, retired to Spain (October 25, 1903) on the appointment of the present American Archbishop, Monsignor Jeremiah J. Harty, who arrived in the capital in January, 1904. He is a man of pleasing countenance, commanding presence, and an impressive orator. Since 1898 churches and chapels of many denominations and creeds have been opened in the Islands. Natives join them from various motives, for it would be venturesome to assert that they are all moved by religious conviction. In Zamboanga I had the pleasure of meeting an enthusiastic propagandist, who assured me with pride that he had drawn quite a number of christian natives from their old belief. His sincerity of purpose enlisted my admiration, but his explanation of the advantages accruing to his neophytes was too recondite for my understanding.

The limpid purity of purpose in the lofty ideal of uplifting all humanity, so characteristic of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, was unfortunately obscured in the latter days of Spanish dominion in these Islands by the multifarious devices to convert the Church into a money-making channel. If the true religious spirit ever pervaded the provincial Filipino's mind, it was quickly impaired in his struggle to resist the pastor's greed, unless he yielded to it and developed into a fanatic or a monomaniac. [280]

Astute Filipinos, of quicker discernment than their fellows, did not fail to perceive the material advantages to be reaped from a religious system, quite apart from the religion itself, in the power of union and its pecuniary potentiality. As a result thereof there came into existence, at the close of Spanish rule, the Philippine Independent Church, more popularly known as the Aglipayan Church. Some eight or nine years before the Philippine Rebellion a young Filipino went to Spain, where he imbibed the socialistic, almost anarchical, views of such political extremists as Lerroux and Blasco-Ybanez. By nature of a revolutionary spirit, the doctrines of these politicians fascinated him so far as to convert him into an intransigent opponent of Spanish rule in his native country. In 1891 he went to London, where the circumstance of the visit of the two priests alluded to at p. 383 was related to him. He saw in their suggestion a powerful factor for undermining the supremacy of the friars. The young Filipino pondered seriously over it, and when the events of 1898 created the opportunity, he returned to the Islands impressed with the belief that independence could only be gained by union, and that a pseudo-religious organization was a good medium for that union.

The antecedents and the subsequent career of the initiator of the Philippine Independent Church would not lead one to suppose that there was more religion in him than there was in the scheme itself. The principle involved was purely that of independence; the incidence of its development being in this case pseudo-religious, with the view of substituting the Filipino for the alien in his possession of sway over the Filipinos' minds, for a purpose. The initiator of the scheme, not being himself a gownsman, was naturally constrained to delegate its execution to a priest, whilst he organized another union, under a different title, which finally brought incarceration to himself and disaster to his successor.

Gregorio Aglipay, the head of the Philippine Independent, or Aglipayan, Church, was born at Batac, in the province of Ilocos Norte, on May 7, 1860, of poor parents, who owned a patch of tobacco land on which young Gregorio worked. Together with his father, he was led to prison at the age of sixteen for not having planted the obligatory minimum of 4,000 plants (vide p. 294). On his release he left field-work and went to Manila, where he took his first lessons at the house of a Philippine lawyer, Julian Carpio. Two years afterwards, whilst working in a menial capacity, he attended the school of San Juan de Letran. Through a poor relation he was recommended to the notice of the Dominican friars, under whose patronage he entered Saint Thomas's University, where he graduated in philosophy and arts. Then he returned to his province, entered the seminary, and became a sub-deacon of the diocese of Nueva Segovia. In 1889 he was ordained a priest in Manila, Canon Sanchez Luna being his sponsor, and he said his first mass in the church of Santa Cruz. Although the friars had frequently admonished him for his liberal tendencies, he was appointed coadjutor curate of several provincial parishes, and was acting in that capacity at Victoria (Tarlac) when the rebellion of 1896 broke out. About that time he received a warning from a native priest in another parish that the Spaniards would certainly arrest him on suspicion of being in sympathy with the rebels. In fear of his life he escaped to Manila, where he found a staunch friend in Canon Sanchez Luna, who allowed him to stay at his house on the pretext of illness. Canon Luna, who was a Spaniard, obtained from Gov.-General Blanco papers in favour of Aglipay to ensure his safety back to Victoria. Aglipay then left the capital, making use of the safe-conduct pass to go straight to the rebel camp, where, with the title of chaplain to General Tinio's forces, he was present at several engagements and enjoyed the friendship of General Emilio Aguinaldo. The Malolos Government appointed him Vicar-General, and after the War of Independence broke out he assumed command of a large body of insurgents in the mountain region of his native province. In 1899 he proclaimed himself chief of the Philippine Independent Church, whereupon the Archbishop publicly excommunicated him. Later on he voluntarily presented himself to the military authorities, and obtained pardon under the amnesty proclamation.

Dr. Mariano Sevilla and several other most enlightened Philippine priests were in friendly relation with Aglipay for some time, but eventually various circumstances contributed to alienate them from his cause. In his overtures towards those whose co-operation he sought there was a notable want of frankness and a disposition to treat them with that diplomatic reserve compatible only with negotiations between two adverse parties. His association with the lay initiator of the scheme, unrevealed at the outset, incidentally came to their knowledge with surprise and disapproval. Judging, too, from the well-known tenets of the initiator's associates, there was a suspicion lest the proposed Philippine Independent Church were really only a detail in a more comprehensive plan involving absolute separation from foreign control in any shape. Again, he hesitated openly to declare his views with respect to the relations with Rome. Conscience here seemed to play a lesser part than expediency. The millions in the world who conscientiously disclaim the supremacy of the Pope, at least openly avow it. In the present case the question of submission to, or rebellion against, the Apostolic successor was quite subordinate to the material success of the plans for independence. It is difficult to see in all this the evidence of religious conviction.

Dr. Sevilla had been requested to proceed to Rome to submit to the Holy Father the aspirations of the Philippine people with respect to Church matters, and he consented to do so, provided the movement did not in any way affect their absolute submission to the Holy See, and that the Philippine Church should remain a Catholic Apostolic Church, with the sole difference that its administration should be confided to the Filipinos instead of to foreigners, if that reform met with the approval of his Holiness. [281]

Only at this stage did Aglipay admit that he sought independence of Rome; thereupon the Philippine clergy of distinction abandoned all thought of participation in the new movement, or of any action which implied dictation to the Holy See. Nevertheless, two native priests were commissioned to go to Rome to seek the Pope's sanction for the establishment of an exclusively Philippine hierarchy under the supreme authority of the Pope. But His Holiness immediately dismissed the delegates with a non possumus. The petition to His Holiness was apparently only the prelude to the ultimate design to repudiate the white man's control in matters ecclesiastical, and possibly more beyond.

Gregorio Aglipay then openly threw off allegiance to the Pope, went to Manila, and in the suburb of Tondo proclaimed himself Obispo Maximo (Pontifex Maximus) of his new Church.

His sect at once found many followers in the provinces of Rizal, Bulacan and Ilocos, and eventually spread more or less over the other christian provinces. The movement is strongest in Ilocos, where several parishes, indeed, have no other priest than an Aglipayan. This district is part of the bishopric of Nueva Segovia, now administered by the American Bishop Dougherty. As to the number of Aglipayan adherents, no reliable figures are procurable from any source, but it is certain they amount to thousands. I found Aglipayans as far south as Zamboanga. Just a few priests ordained in the Roman Catholic Church have joined the schismatic cause. One of these repented and offered his submission to the administrator of the archbishopric (Father Martin Alcocer), who pardoned his frailty and received him again into the Church. No period of preparation was necessary, at least in the beginning, for the ordination of an Aglipayan priest. He might have been a domestic servant, an artisan, or a loafer shortly before; hence many would-be converts refused to join when they saw their own or their friends' retainers suddenly elevated to the priesthood. At Yligan (Mindanao Is.) an American official arrested a man, tonsured and robed as a priest in an Aglipayan procession, on a charge of homicide. In 1904 they had not half a dozen well-built churches of their own, but mat-sheds for their meetings were to be seen in many towns. In the year 1903 these sectarians made repeated raids on Roman Catholic property, and attempted to gain possession of the churches by force. Riots ensued, religion seemed to be forgotten by both parties in the melee, and several were given time for reflection in prison. In April, 1904, at Talisay and Minglanilla (Cebu Is.), they succeeded in occupying the churches and property claimed by the friars, and refused to vacate them. In the following month an Aglipayan priest, Bonifacio Purganan, was fined $25 for having taken forcible possession of the Chapel of Penafrancia (Paco suburb of Manila). In the province of Yloilo the Aglipayans were forcibly ejected from the church of La Paz. In 1904 they entered a claim on the novel plea that, as many churches had been subscribed to or partially erected at their expense before they seceded from the Catholic Church, they were entitled to a restitution of their donations. The Catholics were anxious to have the contention decided in a formal and definite manner, and the case was heard at the Court of Guagua (Pampanga). The decision was against the sectarians, on the ground that what had been once given for a specific purpose could not be restored to the donor, or its application diverted from the original channel, notwithstanding any subsequent change in the views of the donor. It was probably in consequence of these disputes that in January, 1905, the Secretary of War approved of a proposed Act of the Insular Government conferring authority upon the Supreme Court of these Islands to hear cases relating to Church property claims and pronounce a final decision thereon.

Up to the middle of 1904 the particular doctrines of the Philippine Independent Church were not yet defined, and the Aglipayans professed to follow the Roman ritual. It was intended, however, to introduce reforms of fundamental importance. For two days and a half I travelled in company with the titular Aglipayan ecclesiastical governor of the Visayas, from whom I learnt much concerning the opinions of his sect. It appears that many are opposed to celibacy of the clergy and auricular confession. My companion himself rejected the biblical account of the Creation, the doctrine of original sin, hereditary responsibility, the deity of Christ, and the need for the Atonement. His conception of the relations between God and mankind was a curious admixture of Darwinism and Rationalism; everything beyond the scope of human reasoning had but a slender hold on his mind.

It is most probable that the majority of Aglipayans have given no thought as to the possible application of the power of union in this particular form, and that their adhesion to the movement is merely a natural reaction following the suppression of sacerdotal tyranny—an extravagant sense of untrammelled thought which time may modify by sober reflection when it is generally seen that the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church henceforth strictly limit themselves to the exercise of their proper functions. With the hope of re-establishing peace and conformity in the Church, His Holiness Pope Pius X. sent to the Islands his new Apostolic Delegate, Monsignor Ambrose Agius, who reached Manila on February 6, 1905. [282]

It is doubtful whether the native parish priest, bereft of the white man's control, would have sufficient firmness of character to overcome his own frailties and lead his flock in the true path. Under a Philippine hierarchy there would be a danger of the natives reverting to paganism and fetichism. There have been many indications of that tendency from years back up to the present. Only a minority of native Christians seem to have grasped the true spirit of Christianity. All that appeals to the eye in the rites and ceremonies impresses them—the glamour and pomp of the procession attract them; they are very fervent in outward observances, but ever prone to stray towards the idolatrous. A pretended apparition of the Blessed Virgin is an old profitable trick of the natives, practised as recently as December, 1904, in the village of Namacpacan (Ilocos), where a woman, who declared the Virgin had appeared to her in the form of the Immaculate Conception and cured her bad leg, made a small fortune in conjunction with a native priest. In May, 1904, a small party of fanatics was seen on the Manila seashore going through some pseudo-religious antics, the chief feature of which was a sea-bath. Profiting by the liberty of cult now existing, it is alleged that the spirits of the departed have made known their presence to certain Filipinos. A native medium has been found, and the pranks which the spirits are said to play on those who believe in them have been practised, with all their orthodox frolic, on certain converts to the system. Tables dance jigs, mysterious messages are received, and the conjuring celestials manifest their power by displacing household articles. The Coloram sect of the southern Luzon provinces has, it is estimated, over 50,000 adherents whose worship is a jumble of perverted Christian mysticism and idolatry. The Baibailanes of Negros are not entirely pagans; there is just a glimmer of Christian precept mingled in their belief, whilst the scores of religious monomaniacs and saint-hawkers who appear from time to time present only a burlesque imitation of christian doctrine.



Great progress has been made in the direction of Education. [283] Schools of different grades have been established throughout the Archipelago, and the well-intentioned efforts of the Government have been responded to by the natives with an astonishing alacrity. Since September 3, 1900, night-schools have also been opened for students to attend after their day's work. The natives exhibit great readiness to learn, many of them having already attained a very high standard—a fact which I had the opportunity of verifying through the courtesy of Dr. David P. Barrows, the able General Superintendent of Education, and his efficient staff. Both the higher schools and the night-schools are well attended. A special eagerness to learn English is very apparent, and they acquire the language quickly up to a certain point. In September, 1903, [284] out of the 934 towns in the Islands, 338 were supplied with American teachers, the total number of teachers in the Archipelago being 691 Americans and 2,496 Filipinos. The night-schools were attended by 8,595 scholars. The percentage of school-children who frequented the day-schools was as follows: In Manila, 10 per cent.; in Nueva Vizcaya Province, 77 per cent. (the highest); and in Paragua Island, 5 per cent. (the lowest). The average attendance throughout the provinces was 13 per cent. of the total population of school-children.

Education has received the greatest solicitude of the Insular Government; and Dr. Barrows informed me that at the end of June, 1904, there were 865 American teachers in the Islands (including about 200 female teachers), 4,000 Philippine teachers of both sexes, and a school attendance throughout the Colony of 227,600 children. For the youngest children there are now seven kindergarten schools in Manila, and more applications for admission than can be satisfied.

The Normal School, situated in the Manila suburb of Ermita, is a splendidly-equipped establishment, organized in the year 1901 with a branch for training Filipinos to become teachers in the public schools. The buildings are four of those (including the main structure) which served for the Philippine Exhibition some years ago. They contain an assembly hall, fourteen class-rooms, two laboratories, store-rooms, and the principal's office. In the same suburb, close to the school, there is a dormitory for the accommodation of forty girl boarders coming from the provinces. The school is open to both sexes on equal terms, subject to the presentation of a certificate of character and a preliminary examination to ascertain if they can understand written and spoken English and intelligibly express their thoughts in that language. The training covers four years, with the following syllabus, viz.:—



Algebra. Arithmetic. Botany. Drawing. English. General History. Geography. Music. Nature-study. Philippine History. Physics. Physiology and Hygiene. Professional Training. United States History. Zoology.



The training-class for children ranging from five to eleven years serves a double purpose by enabling student-teachers to put into practice the theory of professional training under supervision. For the training of youths who intend to follow a trade, there is a branch School of Arts and Trades equipped with class-rooms, workshops, mechanical and architectural drawing-rooms, and the allied branches of industry. The subjects taught are:—



Architectural Drawing. Blacksmithing. Cabinet-making. Carpentry. Cooking. Machine-shop Practice. Mathematics. Mechanical Drawing. Plumbing. Steam Engineering. Stenography. Telegraphy. Tinsmithing. Typewriting. Wood-carving.



There is also a night-class for those working in the daytime who desire to extend their theoretical knowledge.

The Nautical School (vide p. 195), established in Spanish times, is continued with certain reforms, additions having been made to the equipment. American naval officers have undertaken its superintendence from time to time, and it is now under the direction of a civilian graduate of the United States Naval Academy. The instruction ranges from history and geography to practical seamanship, with all the intermediate scientific subjects. Graduates of this school obtain third-mate's certificates, and many of them are actually navigating in the waters of the Archipelago.

A course of study in Vocal Music is also offered to Normal School students, and this may possibly lead to the first discovery of a fine Philippine musical voice.

There is also a Public School for Chinese situated in the Calle de la Asuncion, in the business quarter of Binondo (Manila).

In the Saint Thomas's University (vide p. 194) there are few changes. The diplomas now issued to students in Law and Medicine are only honorific. With or without this diploma a student must pass an examination at the centres established by the Americans for the faculties of Law and Medicine before he can practise, and the same obligation applies to Americans who may arrive, otherwise qualified, in the Islands. Practical instruction in the healing art, or "walking the hospitals," as it is called in England, is given at the San Juan de Dios Hospital as heretofore. The theoretical tuition in these faculties is furnished at the College of San Jose. Besides the Government schools, there are many others continuing the Spanish system, such as the Colegio de San Juan de Dios, where, besides the usual subjects taught, the syllabus is as follows:—



Commerce. Drawing. Japanese Language. Modelling in Plaster. Piano, Violin. Sketching from Nature. Stenography. Typewriting. Watercolouring. And preparation for the B.A. examination.



The Seminario Central de San Javier, under Jesuit superintendence, is really intended for students proposing to enter the Church. Many, however, follow the course of study and enter civil life. In the large provincial towns there are Spanish schools, and at Dagupan the Colegio Instituto follows the same curriculum as that established in the Manila College of San Juan de Letran. In Spanish times Jaro was the educational centre of the Visayas Islands. Since the American advent Yloilo has superseded Jaro in that respect, and a large school is about to be erected on 75 acres of land given by several generous donors for the purpose. The system of education is uniform throughout the Islands, where schools of all grades are established, and others are in course of foundation in every municipality. Including about P1,000,000 disbursed annually for the schools by the municipalities, the cost of Education is about 20 per cent, of the total revenue—a sum out of all proportion to the taxpayers' ability to contribute.

According to the Philippine Commission Act No. 1123, of April, 1904, the official language will be English from January 1, 1906. It will be used in court proceedings, and no person will be eligible for Government service who does not know that language.

In general the popular desire for education is very pronounced. American opinion as to the capability of the Filipinos to attain a high degree of learning and maintain it seems much divided, for many return to America and publicly express pessimistic views on this point. In daily conversation with young middle-class Filipinos one can readily see that the ambition of the majority is limited to the acquisition of sufficient English to qualify them for Government employment or commercial occupations. The industries of the Islands are relatively insignificant. The true source of their wealth is agriculture. In most, not to say all, tropical countries, the educated native shuns manual labour, and with this tendency dominant in the Filipino, it is difficult to foresee what may happen as education advances. The history of the world shows that national prosperity has first come from industrial development, with the desire and the need for education following as a natural sequence. To have free intercourse with the outside world it is necessary to know a European language. This is recognized even in Japan, where, notwithstanding its independent nationality, half the best-educated classes speak some European tongue. If the majority of the Filipinos had understood Spanish at the period of the American advent, it might be a matter of regret that this language was not officially preserved on account of the superior beauty of all Latin languages; but such was not the case. Millions still only speak the many dialects; and to carry out the present system of education a common speech-medium becomes a necessity. However, generations will pass away before native idiom will cease to be the vulgar tongue, and the engrafted speech anything more than the official and polite language of the better classes. The old belief of colonizing nations that European language and European dress alone impart civilization to the Oriental is an exploded theory. The Asiatic can be more easily moulded and subjected to the ways and the will of the white man by treating with him in his native language. It is difficult to gain his entire confidence through the medium of a foreign tongue. The Spanish friars understood this thoroughly. It is a deplorable fact that the common people of Asia generally acquire only the bad qualities of the European concurrently with his language, lose many of their own natural characteristics, which are often charmingly simple, and become morally perverted.

The best native servants are those who can only speak their mother-tongue. In times past the rustic who came to speak Spanish was loth to follow the plough. If an English farm labourer should learn Spanish, perhaps he would be equally loth. One may therefore assume that if the common people should come to acquire the English language, agricultural coolie labour would become a necessity. In 1903 one hundred Philippine youths were sent, at Government expense, to various schools in America for a four-years' course of tuition. It is to be hoped that they will return to their homes impressed with the dignity of labour and be more anxious to develop the natural resources of the country than to live at the expense of the taxpayers.

Since the Rebellion, and especially since the American advent, a great number of Filipinos have migrated to the adjacent British colonies, China, Japan, America, and Europe. There is a small colony of rich Filipinos in Paris, and about 50 or 60 (principally students) in England. They have no nationality, and are officially described as "Filipinos under the protection of the United States." When the Treaty of Paris was being negotiated, the Spanish Commissioners wished to have the option of nationality conceded to all persons hitherto under the dominion of Spain in the ceded colonies; but the American Commissioners rejected the proposal, which might have placed their country in the peculiar position of administering a colony of foreigners.

In 1904 the Government sent selected groups of the different Philippine wild and semi-civilized races to the St. Louis Exhibition, where they were on view for several months; also a Philippine Commission, composed of educated Filipinos, was sent, at public expense, to St. Louis and several cities in America, including Washington, where the President received and entertained its members. Many of the members of this Commission were chosen from what is called the Federal Party. In the old days politics played no part in Philippine life. The people were either anti-friar or conformists to the status quo. The Revolution, however, brought into existence several distinct parties, and developed the natural disintegrating tendency of the Filipinos to split up into factions on any matter of common concern. The Spanish reform party, led by Pedro A. Paterno, collapsed when all hope was irretrievably lost, and its leader passed over to Aguinaldo's party of sovereign independence. To-day there is practically only one organized party—the Federal—because there is no legislative assembly or authorized channel for the legitimate expression of opposite views. The Federal Party, which is almost entirely anti-clerical, comprises all those who unreservedly endorse and accept American dominion and legislation. They are colloquially alluded to as "Americanistas." Through the tempting offers of civil service positions with emoluments large as compared with times gone by, many leading men have been attracted to this party, the smarter half-caste predominating over the pure Oriental in the higher employments. There are other groups, however, which may be called parties in embryo, awaiting the opportunity for free discussion in the coining Philippine Assembly. [285] Present indications point to the Nationalists as the largest of these coming opposition parties, its present programme being autonomy under American protection. The majority of those who clamour for "independence" [I am not referring to the masses, but to those who have thought the matter out in their own fashion] do not really understand what they are asking for, for it generally results from a close discussion of the subject that they are, in fact, seeking autonomy dependent on American protection, with little idea of what the Powers understand by Protection. In a conversation which I had with the leader of the Nationalists, I inquired, "What do you understand by independence?" His reply was, "Just a thread of connexion with the United States to keep us from being the prey of other nations!" Other parties will, no doubt, be formed; and there will probably be, for some time yet, a small group of Irreconcilables affiliated with those abroad who cannot return home whilst they refuse to take the oath of allegiance prescribed in the United States President's peace and amnesty proclamation, dated July 4, 1902. The Irreconcilables claim real sovereign independence for the Filipinos; they would wish the Americans to abandon the Islands as completely as if they had never occupied them at all. It is doubtful whether entire severance from American or European control would last a year, because some other Power, Asiatic or European, would seize the Colony. Sovereign independence would be but a fleeting vision without a navy superior in all respects to that of any second-rate naval Power, for if all the fighting-men of the Islands were armed to the teeth they could not effectively resist a simultaneous bombardment of their ports; nor could they, as inhabitants of an archipelago, become united in action or opinion, because their inter-communication would be cut off. When this is explained to them, there are those who admit the insuperable difficulty, and suggest, as a compromise, that America's position towards them should be merely that of the policeman, standing by ready to interfere if danger threatens them! This is the naive definition of the relation which they (the Irreconcilables) term "Protection."

However, the cry for "independence" has considerably abated since the Secretary of War, Mr. W. H. Taft, visited Manila in August, 1905, and publicly announced that America intended to retain the Islands for an indefinitely long period. Before America relinquishes her hold on the Colony (if ever) generations may pass away, and naturally the Irreconcilable, will disappear with the present one.

That the Filipinos would, if ever they obtain their independence, even though it were a century hence, manage their country on the pattern set them by their tutors of to-day, is beyond all imagination. "We want them to learn to think as we do," an American minister is reported to have said at a public meeting held in Washington in May, 1905. The laudable aim of America to convert the Filipino into an American in action and sentiment will probably never be realized.

Why the Philippines should continue to be governed by a Commission is not clear to the foreign investigator. Collective government is inconsonant with the traditions and instincts of these Asiatic people, who would intuitively fear and obey the arbitrary mandate of a paramount chief, whether he be called Nawab, Sultan, or Governor. Even as it is, the people have, in fact, looked more to the one man, the Mr. Taft or the Mr. Wright as the case may be, than they have to the Commission for the attainment of their hopes, and were there an uncontrolled native government, it would undoubtedly end in becoming a one-man rule, whatever its title might be. The difficulty in making the change does not lie in the choice of the man, because one most eminently fitted for personal rule in the name of the United States of America (assisted by a Council) is in the Islands just now.

The Philippine Assembly, which is, conditionally, to be conceded to the Islanders in 1907, will be a Congress of deputies elected by popular vote; the Philippine Commission, more or less as at present constituted, will be practically the Senate or controlling Upper House. The Filipinos will have no power to make laws, but simply to propose them, because any bill emanating from the popular assembly can be rejected by the Upper House with an American majority. The Philippine Assembly will be, in reality, a School of Legislature to train politicians for the possible future concession of complete self-government. In connexion with the public schools a course of instruction in political economy prepares youths for the proper exercise of the right of suffrage on their attaining twenty-three years of age. The studies include the Congress Law of July 1, 1902; President McKinley's Instruction to the Civil Commission of April 7, 1900; Government of the United States, Colonial Government in European States, and Parliamentary Law.

The question of the Filipinos' capacity for self-government has been frequently debated since the Rebellion of 1896. A quarter of a century ago the necessary 500 or 600 Filipinos, half-caste in the majority, could have been found with all the requisite qualifications for the formation of an intelligent oligarchy. The Constitution drawn up by Apolinario Mabini, and proclaimed by the Malolos Insurgent Government (January 22, 1899), was a fair proof of intellectual achievement. But that is not sufficient; the working of it would probably have been as successful as the Government of Hayti, because the Philippine character is deficient in disinterested thought for the common good. There is no lack of able Filipinos quite competent to enact laws and dictate to the people what they are to do; but if things are to be reversed and the elected assembly is to be composed of deputies holding the people's mandates, there will be plenty to do between now and March, 1907, in educating the electors to the point of intelligently using the franchise, uninfluenced by the caciques, who have hitherto dominated all public acts. According to the census of 1903, there were 1,137,776 illiterate males of the voting age. In any case, independently of its legislative function, the Philippine Assembly will be a useful channel for free speech. It will lead to the open discussion of the general policy, the rural police, the trade regulations, the taxes, the desirability of maintaining superfluous expensive bureaux, the lavish (Manila) municipal non-productive outlay, and ruinous projects of no public utility, such as the construction of the Benguet road, [286] etc.

The Act providing for a Philippine Assembly stipulates that the elected deputies shall not be less than 50 and not more than 100 to represent the civilized portion of the following population, viz. [287]:—Civilized, 6,987,686; wild, 647,740; total, 7,635,426. The most numerous civilized races are the Visayos (about 2,602,000) and the Tagalogs (about 1,664,000).

Population of Manila (Approximate Sub-divisions) [288]

Race. Pop. Race. Pop. Race. Pop.

Filipinos 189,915 Americans 3,700 Other Europeans 1,000 Chinese 21,500 Spaniards 2,500 Other Nationalities 1,313

Total in the Census of 1903 ... 219,928

(Exclusive of the Army and Navy.)

The divisions of the Municipality of Manila stand in the following order of proportion of population, viz.:—

1. Tondo (most). 2. Santa Cruz. 3. San Nicolas. 4. Sampaloc. 5. Binondo. 6. Ermita. 7. Intramuros (i.e., Walled City). 8. Quiapo. 9. Malate. 10. San Miguel. 11. Paco. 12. Santa Ana. 13. Pandacan (least).

The total number of towns in the Archipelago is 934.

Populations of 40 Provincial Towns of the 934 Existing in the Islands

(Exclusive of Their Dependent Suburbs, Districts, and Wards) [289]

Town. Civilized Pop.

Bacolod 5,678 Dagupan 3,327 San Jose de Buenavista 3,636 Batangas 1,610 Ilagan 1,904 Balanga 4,403 Iligan (or Yligan) 2,872 San Fernando (La Union) 1,142 Balinag 1,278 Imus 1,930 Baguio 270 Jaro 7,169 San Fernando (Pampanga) 1,950 Binan (or Vinan) 1,173 Jolo (Walled City) 541 Cabanatuan 1,894 S. Isidro 3,814 Capiz 7,186 Lipa 4,078 Tabaco 4,456 Calamba 2,597 Lingayen 2,838 Taal 2,658 Calbayoc 4,430 Olongapo 1,121 Tacloban 4,899 Cebu 18,330 Majayjay 1,680 Tarlac 3,491 Cottabato 931 Molo 8,551 Tuguegarao 3,421 Daet 2,569 Puerta Princesa 382 Vigan 5,749 Davao 1,010 Santa Cruz (Laguna) 4,009 Yloilo 19,054 Dapitan 1,768 Zamboanga 3,281



Civilized Population, Classified by Birth

According to the Census of 1903

Born in the Philippine Islands 6,931,548 Born in China 41,035 Born in United States 8,135 Born in Spain 3,888 Born in Japan 921 Born in Great Britain 667 Born in Germany 368 Born in East Indies 241 Born in France 121 Born in Other countries of Europe 487 Born in All other countries 275

6,987,686

The regulations affecting Chinese immigration are explained at p. 633. Other foreigners are permitted to enter the Philippines (conditionally), but all are required to pay an entrance fee (I had to pay $5.30 Mex.) before embarking (abroad) for a Philippine port, and make a declaration of 19 items, [290] of which the following are the most interesting to the traveller:—(1) Sex; (2) whether married or single; (3) who paid the passage-money; (4) whether in possession of $30 upward or less; (5) whether ever in prison; (6) whether a polygamist. The master or an officer of the vessel carrying the passenger is required to make oath before the United States Consul at the port of embarkation that he has made a "personal examination" of his passenger, and does not believe him (or her) to be either an idiot, or insane person, or a pauper, or suffering from a loathsome disease, or an ex-convict, or guilty of infamous crime involving moral turpitude, or a polygamist, etc. The ship's doctor has to state on oath that he has also made a "personal examination" of the passenger. If the vessel safely arrives in port, say Manila, she will be boarded by a numerous staff of Customs' officials. In the meantime the passenger will have been supplied with declaration-forms and a printed notice, stating that an "Act provides a fine of not exceeding $2,000 or imprisonment at hard labour, for not more than five years, or both, for offering a gratuity to an officer of the Customs in consideration of any illegal act in connexion with the examination of baggage." The baggage-declaration must be ready for the officers, and, at intervals during an hour and a half, he (or she) has to sign six different declarations as to whether he (or she) brings fire-arms. The baggage is then taken to the Custom-house in a steam-launch for examination, which is not unduly rigid. Under a Philippine Commission Act, dated October 15, 1901, the Collector of Customs, or his deputy, may, at his will, also require the passenger to take an oath of allegiance in such terms that, in the event of war between the passenger's country and America, he who takes the oath would necessarily have to forfeit his claim for protection from his own country, unless he violated that oath. No foreigner is permitted to land if he comes "under a contract expressed, or implied, to perform labour in the Philippine Islands." In 1903 this prohibition to foreigners was disputed by a British bank-clerk who arrived in Manila for a foreign bank. The case was carried to court, with the result that the prohibition was maintained in principle, although the foreigner in question was permitted to remain in the Islands as an act of grace. But in February, 1905, a singular case occurred, exactly the reverse of the one just mentioned. A young Englishman who had been brought out to Manila on a four years' agreement, after four or five months of irregular conduct towards the firm employing him, presented himself to the Collector of Customs (as Immigration Agent), informed against himself, and begged to be deported from the Colony. The incentive for this strange proceeding was to secure the informer's reward of $1,000. It was probably the first case in Philippine history of a person voluntarily seeking compulsory expulsion from the Islands. The Government, acting on the information, shipped him off to Hong-Kong, the nearest British port, in the following month, with a through passage to Europe.

Since the American advent the Administration of Justice has been greatly accelerated, and Municipal Court cases, which in Spanish times would have caused more worry to the parties than they were worth, or, for the same reason, would have been settled out of court violently, are now despatched at the same speed as in the London Police Courts. On the other hand, quick despatch rather feeds the native's innate love for litigation, so that an agglomeration of lawsuits is still one of the Government's undesirable but inevitable burdens. There is a complaint that the fines imposed in petty cases are excessive, and attention was drawn to this by the Municipality of Manila. [291] After stating that the fines imposed on 2,185 persons averaged $5 per capita, and that they had to go to prison for non-payment, the Municipality adds: "It shows an excessive rigour on the part of the judges in the imposition of fines, a rigour which ought to be modified, inasmuch as the majority of the persons accused before the Court are extremely poor and ignorant of the ordinances and the laws for the violation of which they are so severely punished." Sentences of imprisonment and fines for high crimes are justly severe. During the governorship of Mr. W. H. Taft, 17 American provincial treasurers were each condemned to 25 years' imprisonment for embezzlement of public funds. In February, 1905, an army major, found guilty of misappropriation of public moneys, had his sentence computed at 60 years, which term the court reduced to 40 years' hard labour. The penalties imposed on some rioters at Vigan in April, 1904, were death for two, 40 years' imprisonment and $10,000 fine each for twelve, 30 years' imprisonment for thirty-one, and 10 years' imprisonment for twenty-five.

The American law commonly spoken of in the Philippines as the "Law of Divorce" is nothing more than judicial separation in its local application, as it does not annul the marriage and the parties cannot marry again as a consequence of the action. The same could be obtained under the Spanish law called the Siete Partidas, with the only difference that before the decree nisi was made absolute the parties might have had to wait for years, and even appeal to Home.

On May 26,1900, the Military Governor authorized the solemnization of marriages by any judge of a court inferior to the Supreme Court, a justice of the peace, or a minister of any denomination. For the first time in the history of the Islands, habeas corpus proceedings were heard before the Supreme Court on May 19, 1900. Besides the lower courts established in many provincial centres, sessions are held in circuit, each usually comprising two or three provinces. The provinces are grouped into 16 judicial districts, in each of which there is a Court of First Instance; and there is, moreover, one additional "Court of First Instance at large." The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, some of his assistant judges, several provincial judges, the Attorney-General, and many other high legal functionaries, are Filipinos. The provincial justices of the peace are also natives, and necessarily so because their office requires an intimate knowledge of native character and dialect. Their reward is the local prestige which they enjoy and the litigants' fees, and happily their services are not in daily request. At times the findings of these local luminaries are somewhat quaint, and have to be overruled by the more enlightened judicial authorities in the superior courts. Manila and all the judicial centres are amply supplied with American lawyers who have come to establish themselves in the Islands, where the custom obtains for professional men to advertise in the daily newspapers. So far there has been only one American lady lawyer, who, in 1904, held the position of Assistant-Attorney in the Attorney-General's office.



CHAPTER XXXI

Trade and Agriculture Since the American Advent

During the year 1898 there were those who enriched themselves enormously as a consequence of the American advent, but the staple trade of the Colony was generally disrupted by the abnormal circumstances of the period; therefore it would serve no practical purpose to present the figures for that year for comparison with the results obtained in the years following that of the Treaty of Paris.

The tables at the end of this chapter show the increase or decrease in the various branches of export and import trade. Regarded as a whole, the volume of business has increased since the American occupation—to what extent will be apparent on reference to the table of "Total Import and Export Values" at p. 639. When the American army of occupation entered the Islands, and was subsequently increased to about 70,000 troops, occupying some 600 posts about the Archipelago, there came in their wake a number of enterprising business men, who established what were termed trading companies. Their transactions hardly affected the prosperity of the Colony one way or the other. For this class of trader times were brisk; their dealings almost exclusively related to the supply of commodities to the temporary floating population of Americans, with such profitable results that, although many of them withdrew little by little when, at the close of the War of Independence, the troops were gradually reduced to some 16,000 men, occupying about 100 posts, others had accumulated sufficient capital to continue business in the more normal time which followed. Those were halcyon days for the old-established retailers as well as the new-comers; but, as Governor W. H. Taft pointed out in his report to the Civil Commission dated December 23, 1903, [292] "The natural hostility of the American business men, growing out of the war, was not neutralized by a desire and an effort to win the patronage and goodwill of the Filipinos. The American business men controlled much of the advertising in the American papers, and the newspapers naturally reflected the opinion of their advertisers and subscribers in the advocacy of most unconciliatory measures for the native Filipino, and in decrying all efforts of the Government to teach Filipinos how to govern by associating the more intelligent of them in the Government.... The American business man in the Islands has really, up to this time, done very little to make or influence trade. He has kept close to the American patronage, and has not extended his efforts to an expansion of trade among the Filipinos.... There are a few Americans who have pursued a different policy with respect to the Filipinos to their profit."

Governor Taft's comments were only intended to impress upon the permanent American traders, for their own good, the necessity of creating a new clientele which they had neglected. The war finished, the wave of temporarily abnormal prosperity gradually receded with the withdrawal of the troops in excess of requirements; the palmy days of the retailer had vanished, and all Manila began to complain of "depression" in trade. The true condition of the Colony became more apparent to them in their own slack time, and for want of reflection some began to attribute it to a want of foresight in the Insular Government. Industry is in its infancy in the Philippines, which is essentially an agricultural colony. The product of the soil is the backbone of its wealth. The true causes of the depression were not within the control of the Insular Government or of any ruling factor. Five years of warfare and its sequence—the bandit community—had devastated the provinces. The peaceful pursuits of the husbandman had been nearly everywhere interrupted thereby; his herds of buffaloes had been decimated in some places, in others annihilated; his apparatus or machinery and farm buildings were destroyed, now by the common exigencies of war, now by the wantonness of the armed factions. The remnant of the buffaloes was attacked by rinderpest, or epizootia, as the Filipino calls this disease, and in some provinces up to 90 per cent. were lost. Some of my old friends assured me that, due to these two causes, they had lost every head of cattle they once possessed. Laudable effort was immediately made by the Insular Government to remedy the evil, for so great was the mortality that many agricultural districts were poverty-stricken, thousands of acres lying fallow for want of beasts for tillage and transport. Washington responded to the appeal for help, and a measure was passed establishing the Congressional Relief Fund, under which the sum of $3,000,000 was authorized to be expended to ameliorate the situation. By Philippine Commission Act No. 738, $100,000 of this fund were appropriated for preliminary expenses in the purchase of buffaloes. Under the supervision of the Insular Purchasing-Agent a contract was entered into with a Shanghai firm for the supply of 10,000 head of inoculated buffaloes to be delivered in Manila, at the rate of 500 per month, at the price of P85 per head. An agent was sent to Shanghai with powers to reject unsuitable beasts before inoculation, and the Government undertook to remunerate the contractors at the rate of P40 for every animal which succumbed to the operation. The loss on this process was so great that a new contract was entered into with the same firm to deliver in Manila temporarily immunized buffaloes at the rate of P79 per head. On their arrival the animals were inspected, and those apparently fit were herded on the Island of Masbate for further observation before disposing of them to the planters. The attempt was a failure. Rinderpest, or some other incomprehensible disease, affected and decimated the imported herds. From beginning to end the inevitable wastage was so considerable that up to November 20, 1903, only 1,805 buffaloes (costing P118,805) were purchased, out of which 1,370 were delivered alive, and of this number 429 died whilst under observation; therefore, whereas the price of the 1,805 averaged P65 per head, the cost exceeded P126 per head when distributed over the surviving 941, which were sold at less than cost price, although in private dealings buffaloes were fetching P125 to P250 per head (vide Buffaloes p. 337, et seq.). Veterinary surgeons and inoculators were commissioned to visit the buffaloes privately owned in the planting-districts, the Government undertaking to indemnify the owners for loss arising from the compulsory inoculation; but this has not sufficed to stamp out the disease, which is still prevalent.

Another calamity, common in British India, but unknown in these Islands before the American advent, is Surra, a glandular disease affecting horses and ponies, which has made fatal ravages in the pony stock—to the extent, it is estimated, of 60 per cent. The pony which fully recovers from this disease is an exceptional animal. Again, the mortality among the field hands, as a consequence of the war, was supplemented by an outbreak of Cholera morbus (vide p. 197), a disease which recurs periodically in these Islands, and which was, on the occasion following the war, of unusually long duration. Together with these misfortunes, a visitation of myriads of locusts (vide p. 341) and drought completed the devastation.

Consequent on the total loss of capital invested in live-stock, and the fear of rinderpest felt by the minority who have the wherewithal to replace their lost herds, there is an inclination among the agriculturists to raise those crops which need little or no animal labour. Hence sugar-cane and rice-paddy are being partially abandoned, whilst all who possess hemp or cocoanut plantations are directing their special attention to these branches of land-produce. Due to these circumstances, the increased cost of labour and living in the Islands since the American advent, the want of a duty-free entry for Philippine sugar into the United States, the prospective loss of the Japanese market, [293] the ever-accumulating capital indebtedness, and the need of costly machinery, it is possible to believe that sugar will, in time, cease to be one of the leading staple products of the Islands.

With regard to the duty levied in the United States on Philippine sugar imports, shippers in these Islands point out how little it would affect either the United States' revenue or the sugar trade if the duty were remitted in view of the extremely small proportion of Philippine sugar to the total consumption in America. For instance, taking the average of the five years 1899-1903, the proportion was .313 per cent., so that if in consequence of the remission of duty this Philippine industry were stimulated to the extent of being able to ship to America threefold, it would not amount to 1 per cent, of the total consumption in that country.

At the close of the 1903 sugar season the planters were more deeply in debt than at any previous period in their history. In 1904 the manager of an Yloilo firm (whom I have known from his boyhood) showed me statistics proving the deplorable financial position of the sugar-growers, and informed me that his firm had stopped further advances and closed down on twelve of the largest estates working on borrowed capital, because of the hopelessness of eventual liquidation in full. For the same reasons other financiers have closed their coffers to the sugar-planters.

Another object of the grant called the Congressional Relief Fund was to alleviate the distress prevailing in several Luzon provinces, particularly Batangas, on account of the scarcity of rice, due, in a great measure, to the causes already explained. Prices of the imported article had already reached double the normal value in former times, and the Government most opportunely intervened to check the operations of a syndicate which sought to take undue advantage of the prevailing misery. Under Philippine Commission Acts Nos. 495, 786 and 797, appropriations were made for the purchase of rice for distribution in those provinces where the speculator's ambition had run up the selling-price to an excessive rate. Hitherto the chief supplying-market had been the French East Indies, but the syndicate referred to contrived to close that source to the Government, which, however, succeeded in procuring deliveries from other places. The total amount distributed was 11,164 tons, costing P1,081,722. About 22 tons of this amount was given to the indigent class, the rest being delivered at cost price, either in cash or in payment for the extermination of locusts, or for labour in road-making and other public works. The merchant class contended that this act of the Government, which deprived them of anticipated large profits, was an interference in private enterprise—a point on which the impartial reader must form his own conclusions. To obviate a recurrence of the necessity for State aid, the Insular Government passed an Act urging the people to hasten the paddy-planting. The proclamation embodying this Act permitted the temporary use of municipal lands, the seed supplied to be repaid after the crop. It is said that some of the local native councils, misunderstanding the spirit of the proclamation, made its non-observance a criminal offence, and incarcerated many of the supposed offenders; but they were promptly released by the American authorities.

Under the circumstances set forth, the cultivation of rice in the Islands has fallen off considerably, to what extent may be partially gathered from a glance at the enormous imports of this cereal, which in the year 1901~ were 167,951 tons; in 1902, 285,473 tons; in 1903, 329,055 tons (one-third of the value of the total imports in that year); and in 1904, 261,553 tons. The large increase of wages and taxes and the high cost of living since the American advent (rice in 1904 cost about double the old price) have reduced the former margins of profit on sugar and rice almost to the vanishing-point.

If all the land in use now, or until recently, for paddy-raising were suitable for the cultivation of such crops as hemp, tobacco, cocoanuts, etc., for which there is a steady demand abroad, the abandonment of rice for another produce which would yield enough to enable one to purchase rice, and even leave a margin of profit, would be rather an advantage than otherwise. But this is not the case, and naturally a native holds on to the land he possesses in the neighbourhood, where he was perhaps born, rather than go on a peregrination in search of new lands, with the risk of semi-starvation during the dilatory process of procuring title-deeds for them when found.

Fortunately for the Filipinos, "Manila hemp" being a speciality of this region as a fibre of unrivalled quality and utility, there cannot be foreseen any difficulty in obtaining a price for it which will compensate the producer to-day as well as it did in former times. Seeing that buffaloes can be dispensed with in the cultivation of hemp and coprah, which, moreover, are products requiring no expensive and complicated machinery and are free of duty into the United States, they are becoming the favourite crops of the future.

In 1905 there was considerable agitation in favour of establishing a Government Agricultural Bank, which would lend money to the planters, taking a first mortgage on the borrower's lands as guarantee. In connexion with this scheme, the question was raised whether the Government could, in justice, collect revenue from the people who had no voice at all in the Government, and then lend it out to support private enterprise. Moreover, without a law against usury (so common in the Islands) there would be little to prevent a man borrowing from the bank at, say, 6 per cent.—up to the mortgage value of his estate—to lend it out to others at 60 per cent. A few millions of dollars, subscribed by private capitalists and loaned out to the planters, would enormously benefit the agricultural development of the Colony; and if native wealthy men would demonstrate their confidence in the result by subscribing one-tenth of the necessary amount, perhaps Americans would be induced to complete the scheme. The foreign banks established in the Islands are not agricultural, but exchange banks, and any American-Philippine Agricultural Bank which may be established need have little reason to fear competition with foreign firms who remember the house of Russell & Sturgis (vide p. 255) and also have their own more recent experiences. Philippine rural land is a doubtful security for loans, there being no free market in it.

Between the years 1902 and 1904 the Insular Government confiscated the arable lands of many planters throughout the Islands for delinquency in taxes. The properties were put up to auction; some of them found purchasers, but the bulk of them remained in the ownership of the Government, which could neither sell them nor make any use of them. Therefore an Act was passed in February, 1905, restoring to their original owners those lands not already sold, on condition of the overdue taxes being paid within the year. In one province of Luzon the confiscated lots amounted to about one-half of all the cultivated land and one-third of the rural land-assessment in that province. The $2,400,000 gold spent on the Benguet road (vide p. 615) would have been better employed in promoting agriculture.

Up to 1898 Spain was the most important market for Philippine tobacco, but since that country lost her colonies she has no longer any patriotic interest in dealing with any particular tobacco-producing country. The entry of Philippine tobacco into the United States is checked by a Customs duty, respecting which there is, at present, a very lively contest between the tobacco-shippers in the Islands and the Tobacco Trust in America, the former clamouring for, and the latter against, the reduction or abolition of the tariff. It is simply a clash of trade interests; but, with regard to the broad principles involved, it would appear that, so long as America holds these Islands without the consent of its inhabitants, it is only just that she should do all in her power to create a free outlet for the Islands' produce. If this Archipelago should eventually acquire sovereign independence, America's moral obligations towards it would cease, and the mutual relations would then be only those ordinarily subsisting between two nations.

By Philippine Commission Act dated April 30, 1902, a Bureau of Agriculture was organized. The chief of this department is assisted by experts in soil, farm-management, plant-culture, breeding, animal industry, seed and fibres, an assistant agrostologist, and a tropical agriculturist. Shortly after its organization, 18,250 packages of field and garden seeds were sent to 730 individuals for experiment in different parts of the Colony, with very encouraging results. The work of this department is experimental and investigative, with a view to the improvement of agriculture in all its branches.

In Spanish times agricultural land was free of taxation. Now it pays a tax not exceeding .87 per cent. of the assessed value. The rate varies in different districts, according to local circumstances. For instance, in 1904 it was .87 per cent. in Baliuag (Bulacan) and in Vinan (La Laguna), and .68 per cent. in San Miguel de Mayumo (Bulacan). This tax is subdivided in its application to provincial and municipal general expenses and educational disbursements. The people make no demur at paying a tax on land-produce; but they complain of the system of taxation of capital generally, and particularly of its application to lands lying fallow for the causes already explained. The approximate yield of the land-tax in the fiscal year of 1905 was P2,000,000; it was then proposed to suspend the levy of this tax for three years in view of the agricultural depression.

The Manila Port Works (vide p. 344), commenced in Spanish times, are now being carried on more vigorously under contract with the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Company. Within the breakwater a thirty-foot deep harbour, measuring about 400 acres, is being dredged, the mud raised therefrom being thrown on to 168 acres of reclaimed land which is to form the new frontage. Also a new channel entrance to the Pasig River is to be maintained at a depth of 18 feet. The Americans maintain that there will be no finer harbour in the Far East when the work is completed. The reclaimed acreage will be covered with warehouses and wharves, enabling vessels to load and discharge at all seasons instead of lying idle for weeks in the typhoon season and bad weather, as they often do now. With these enlarged shipping facilities, freights to and from Manila must become lower, to the advantage of all concerned in import and export trade. The cost of these improvements up to completion is estimated at about one million sterling.

The port of Siassi (Tapul group), which was opened in recent years by the Spaniards, was discontinued (June 1, 1902) by the Americans, who opened the new coastwise ports of Cape Melville, Puerta Princesa, and Bongao (October 15, 1903) in order to assist the scheme for preventing smuggling between these extreme southern islands and Borneo. Hitherto there had been some excuse for this surreptitious trade, because inter-island vessels, trading from the other entry-ports, seldom, if ever, visited these out-of-the-way regions. In February, 1903, appropriations of $350,000 and $150,000 were made for harbour works in Cebu and Yloilo respectively, although in the latter port no increased facility for the entry of vessels into the harbour was apparent up to June, 1904. Zamboanga, the trade of which was almost nominal up to the year 1898, is now an active shipping centre of growing importance, where efforts are being made to foster direct trade with foreign eastern ports. An imposing Custom-house is to be erected on the new spacious jetty already built under American auspices. Arrangements have also been made for the Hong-Kong-Australia Steamship Company to make Zamboanga a port of call. Here, as in all the chief ports of the Archipelago, greater advantages for trade have been afforded by the administration, and one is struck with the appearance of activity and briskness as compared with former times. These changes are largely owing to the national character of the new rulers, for one can enter any official department, in any branch of public service, from that of the Gov.-General downwards, to procure information or clear up a little question "while you wait," and, if necessary, interview the chief of the department. The tedious, dilatory time and money-wasting "come later on" procedure of times gone by no longer obtains.

What is still most needed to give a stimulus to agriculture and the general material development of the Islands is the conversion of hundreds of miles of existing highways and mud-tracks into good hard roads, so as to facilitate communication between the planting-districts and the ports. The corallaceous stone abounding in the Islands is worthless for road-making, because it pulverizes in the course of one wet season, and, unfortunately, what little hard stone exists lies chiefly in inaccessible places—hence its extraction and transport would be more costly than the supply of an equal quantity of broken granite brought over in sailing-ships from the Chinese coast, where it is procurable at little over the quarryman's labour. From the days of the Romans the most successful colonizing nations have regarded road-making as a work of primary importance and a civilizing factor.

Among the many existing projects, there is one for the construction of railroads (1) from Manila (or some point on the existing railway) northward through the rich tobacco-growing valleys of Isabela and Cagayan, as far as the port of Aparri, at the mouth of the Cagayan River—distance, 260 miles; (2) from Dagupan (Pangasinan) to Laoag (Ilocos Norte), through 168 miles of comparatively well-populated country; (3) from San Fabian (Pangasinan) to Baguio (Benguet), 55 miles; and three other lines in Luzon Island and one in each of the islands of Negros, Panay, Cebu, Leyte, and Samar. A railway line from Manila to Batangas, via Calamba (a distance of about 70 miles), and thence on to Albay Province, was under consideration for many years prior to the American advent; but the poor financial result of the only (120 miles) line in the Colony has not served to stimulate further enterprise in this direction, except an endeavour of that same company to recuperate by feeder branches, two of which are built, and another (narrow gauge) is in course of construction from Manila to Antipolo, via Pasig and Mariquina (vide Railways, p. 265).

Since February, 1905, a Congress Act, known as the "Cooper Bill," offers certain inducements to railway companies. It authorizes the Insular Government to guarantee 4 per cent, annual interest on railway undertakings, provided that the total of such contingent liability shall not exceed $1,200,000—that is to say, 4 per cent, could be guaranteed on a maximum capital of $30,000,000. The Insular Government is further empowered under this Act to admit, at its discretion, the entry of railway material free of duty. As yet, no railway construction has been started by American capitalists. Projects ad infinitum might be suggested for the development of trade and traffic—for instance, a ship-canal connecting the Laguna de Bay with the Pacific Ocean; another from Laguimanoc to Atimonan (Tayabas); an artificial entry-port in Negros Island, connected by railway with two-thirds of the coast, etc.

Up to the present the bulk of the export and import trade is handled by Europeans, who, together with native capitalists, own the most considerable commercial and industrial productive "going concerns" in the Islands. In 1904 there were one important and several smaller American trading-firms (exclusive of shopkeepers) in the capital, and a few American planters and successful prospectors in the provinces. There are hundreds of Americans about the Islands, searching for minerals and other natural products with more hopeful prospects than tangible results. It is perhaps due to the disturbed condition of the Islands and the "Philippines for the Filipinos" policy that the anticipated flow of private American capital has not yet been seen, although there is evidently a desire in this direction. There is, at least, no lack of the American enterprising spirit, and, since the close of the War of Independence, several joint-stock companies have started with considerable cash capital, principally for the exploitation of the agricultural, forestal, and mineral wealth of the Islands. Whatever the return on capital may be, concerns of this kind, which operate at the natural productive sources, are obviously as beneficial to the Colony as trading can be in Manila—the emporium of wealth produced elsewhere.

There are, besides, many minor concerns with American capital, established only for the purpose of selling to the inhabitants goods which are not an essential need, and therefore not contributing to the development of the Colony.

The tonnage entered in Philippine ports shows a rapid annual increase in five years. Many new lines of steamers make Manila a port of call, exclusive of the army transports, carrying Government supplies, and in 1905 there was a regular goods and passenger traffic between Hong-Kong and Zamboanga. Still, the greater part of the freight between the Philippines and the Atlantic ports is carried in foreign bottoms. The shipping-returns for the year 1903 would appear to show that over 85 per cent, of the exports from the Islands to America, and about the same proportion of the imports from that country (exclusive of Government stores brought in army transports) were borne in foreign vessels. The carrying-trade figures for 1904 were 78.41 per cent, in British bottoms; 6.69 per cent, in Spanish, and 6.65 per cent, in American vessels. The desire to dispossess the foreigners of the carrying monopoly is not surprising, but it is thought that immediately-operative legislation to that end would be impracticable. The latest legislation on the subject confines the carrying-trade between the Islands and the United States to American bottoms from July 1, 1906. It is alleged that the success of the new regulations which may (or may not, for want of American vessels) come into force on that date will depend on the freights charged; it is believed that exorbitant outward rates would divert the hemp cargoes into other channels, and a large rise in inward freights would facilitate European competition in manufactured goods. Any considerable rise in freights to America would tend to counterbalance the benefits which the Filipinos hope to derive from the free entry of sugar and tobacco into American ports. The text of the Shipping Law, dated April 15, 1904, reads thus; "On and after July 1, 1906, no merchandise shall be transported by sea, under penalty of forfeiture thereof, between ports of the United States and ports or places of the Philippine Archipelago, directly, or via a foreign port, or for any part of the voyage in any other than a vessel of the United States. No foreign vessel shall transport passengers between ports of the United States and ports or places in the Philippine Archipelago, either directly, or via a foreign port, under a penalty of $200 for each passenger so transported and landed."

The expenses of the Civil Government are met through the insular revenues (the Congressional Relief Fund being an extraordinary exception). The largest income is derived from the Customs' receipts, which in 1904 amounted to about $8,750,000, equal to about two-thirds of the insular treasury revenue (as distinguished from the municipal). The total Revenue and Expenditure in the fiscal year 1903 (from all sources, including municipal taxes expended in the respective localities, but exclusive of the Congressional Relief Fund) stood thus:—