IMPROVED MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
The improvement in means of communication which has taken
place in the Philippines since the American occupation is almost
revolutionary. I well remember my tribulations in the Spanish days,
resulting from the inadequacy of the mail system. There were long
delays in receiving letters sent from Manila to the more important
towns in the archipelago, but if, as was usually the case with us,
one was living in a small and more or less isolated provincial town,
he was fortunate to get his letters at all. They would be forwarded
from place to place by irresponsible native carriers, and under the
most favourable circumstances were likely to be greatly delayed in
transmission. There was little respect for the privacy of letters. On
one occasion I arrived at Joló, confidently expecting a large mail,
only to be disappointed. A week later my companion, Dr. Bourns, was
calling upon a German resident of that place. Lying in a waste-basket
he saw a letter written in a hand which he recognized as that of
one of my friends. He thereupon called upon the German to deliver
any other letters he might have for me, and some were produced, but
others had been thrown away! We found that our mail had begun to come
prior to our arrival, and as the Spanish postmaster did not know any
persons named Bourns or Worcester he turned it over to this man to
see whether he could make out whom it was for. The latter opened the
letters, read them, and threw them away.
But this was not the worst of it. There was a time when for months I
received no letters, and my companion no newspapers or magazines. Then
the arrangement was reversed. I got my letters but no papers or
magazines, while he had papers but no letters.
Under the Spanish régime letter carriers in Manila received the
munificent salary of $46 per annum, but were authorized to collect a
charge of three-quarters of a cent on every article of mail delivered
by them, except letters from foreign countries and letters passing
between persons living in Manila.
The Spanish government did not admit general merchandise to the
mails, but accepted only samples and medicine. We admit all classes
of merchandise except certain objectionable things and certain
articles dangerous to the mails or to those handling them. We have
increased the maximum allowable weight of mail packages to eleven
pounds, and on January 1, 1913, established a "collect on delivery"
service under which merchants and others may send goods through the
mails and have the charges thereon collected from the addressee before
delivery. These are important and valuable extensions of the service,
and greatly benefit the Filipinos as well as the merchants by bringing
people throughout the islands into touch with shops from which they
can order the goods they need.
It is difficult to determine the difference in the amounts of business
done under the Spanish and American systems for the reason that the
Spanish figures are in many cases obviously unreliable. The latest
available statistics, for the fiscal year 1893, show an enormous
discrepancy between the amount of mail matter claimed to have been
transported and the revenue received, which should theoretically
have been about twice as large as seems to have been collected. It
is believed, however, that the following figures are fairly reliable.
The number of post-offices has increased from four hundred sixty-six
to five hundred ninety. It is anticipated that one hundred fifty
additional post-offices will be established in smaller municipalities
and out-of-the-way places within the present year, and as it is these
places are receiving postal service through the employment of competent
letter-carriers, who are collecting and delivering their mails.
Only sixty-five of the Spanish post-offices were in charge of officials
employed by the general government. The remaining four hundred one were
looked after in a way by local municipal officials. All postmasters
are now paid by the general government.
The mails are being carried with much greater frequency than ever
before. During the last year there were 273 contract routes on which
mails were carried a total of 873,957 miles at a cost of $40,440.75.
So far as can be judged from the figures available the mails despatched
from the islands during the fiscal year 1912 were about five times
those annually despatched during the late years of the Spanish régime.
In 1893 nine parcel post packages were sent to foreign countries. In
1912, 2640 such parcels went abroad. In 1893 the number of registered
articles transmitted between Philippine post-offices was 29,078. In
1912 it was 535,137. The increased use of newspapers is shown by the
fact that in 1893 the weight of the newspapers mailed for delivery
within the Philippines was 121,070 pounds, while in 1912 it was
687,568 pounds. This difference is no doubt largely due to the severe
restrictions imposed on the press under the Spanish régime as compared
with the freedom which it enjoys to-day.
The Spanish postal administration paid little attention to complaints
by Filipinos relative to losses of articles transmitted through the
mails. Now the most trivial complaint is painstakingly investigated,
and only in rare cases is there failure to recover the value of
lost or stolen articles from the postal employee responsible. The
sanctity of the mails which now prevails is an important factor in
the increased use which the people make of them. It is claimed that
under the Spanish régime few matters of importance were intrusted
to the mails by Filipinos because their letters were so frequently
opened and inspected by government officials.
The Spaniards had four subsidized mail routes after 1897. We have
nine subsidized routes, and six others which are maintained wholly
at government expense by the Bureau of Navigation.
The Spanish government provided no postal money-order service whatever,
and the transmission of money by mail with safety was impossible. We
have 265 money-order post-offices and during 1912 issued 160,524
money-orders payable in the islands, the total sum of which was
$5,592,205.85. We also issued 68,229 orders amounting to $1,764,608.02
payable in the United States, and 2607 orders amounting to $68,364.83
payable in other countries. These amounts were transmitted largely
by Filipinos, who now do a considerable mail order business with
merchants in the United States.
A further great convenience not furnished by the Spanish government
is the payment of money-orders transmitted by telegraph. During the
last fiscal year there were forwarded 8333 such orders, covering
payments amounting to $1,128,229.79.
The improvement in the telegraph service has been quite as marked as
that in the mail service. In 1897 there were only 65 telegraph offices
in the islands, 49 of which were on the island of Luzón, 9 on Panay,
4 on Negros and 3 on Cebú. The total length of all telegraph lines was
some 1750 miles. There were no cables or other means of telegraphic
communication between the islands.
Practically all of the old lines were destroyed during the revolution
which began in 1896, so that the lines now existing must be considered
as having been built since the American occupation. There are 282
telegraph offices with 4781 miles of land line and in addition 1362
miles of marine cable and 7 wireless stations in operation. Every
provincial capital, with the exception of Basco in the remote
Batanes Islands, and Butuan in Agusan Province, now has telegraphic
facilities as does almost every other place of commercial importance
in the Philippines. The advantage of prompt telegraphic communication
with such outlying points as Puerto Princesa, Joló, Zamboanga, Davao,
Surigao and the east coast of Samar is enormous, while the extension
of the cable service to Catanduanes has been a great boon to the
hemp growers of that island. The latest available figures relative to
the telegraphic business conducted by the Spaniards are for the year
1889, during the second six months of which there were handled 33,697
commercial telegrams. During the fiscal year 1912 our business of the
same class reached a total of 496,643 telegrams. This class of business
has been increasing from 25 to 30 per cent yearly for several years.
The expenditures of the Spanish government for all postal
and telegraphic service for the fiscal year 1895 amounted
to $484,960.50. Those of the Bureau of Posts for 1912 were
$1,072,684.48. No statement of the Spanish revenues can be found. Our
revenues for 1912 were $627,724.70. The personnel of the Spanish
service for 1895 shows only 31 positions paying salaries of more than
$500 per year, most of which were filled by Spaniards. There are
now 96 positions paying salaries of more than $500 per year filled
by Filipinos. Filipino post-office employees receive salaries 50 to
100 per cent larger than those of employees of similar rank during
the Spanish régime. Think how much these figures mean in increased
opportunity for employment of Filipinos, and in increased communication
not only between the people in the islands but between them and the
outside world.
In a number of instances the telegraph lines which are controlled by
the Bureau of Posts are supplemented by provincial telephone systems,
which are of great value in maintaining quick communication with
towns not reached by telegraph wires. Such lines are especially
useful in the Mountain Province, Mindoro, Palawan, Nueva Vizcaya,
and the sub-province of Bukidnon, where messengers who travel by land
have to go on horseback or on foot.
The following table shows the growth of the postal and telegraph
business of the Islands:--
Post-Office and Telegraph Statistics
-----------+-----------------------+----------+------------------------
| Money Orders Sold | | Telegraph Receipts
+------------+----------+ +-------------+----------
Fiscal | | Increase | Postage | | Increase
Year | | (+) or | Receipts | | (+) or
| Amount | decrease | | Amount | decrease
| | (-) | | | (-)
-----------+------------+----------+----------+-------------+----------
| | Per cent | | |
1900 | $1,526,310 | | $117,848 | |
1901 | 1,514,435 | - 1 | 122,833 | |
1902 | 1,854,927 | +22 | 126,375 | |
1903 | 2,842,587 | +53 | 132,445 | |
1904 | 3,102,606 | + 9 | 121,714 | |
1905 | 3,444,053 | +11 | 121,648 | |
1906 | 3,687,127 | + 7 | 198,583 |[163]$56,351 |
1907 | 3,229,446 | -12 | 198,546 | 118,360 | +110
1908 | 3,645,123 | +13 | 220,306 | 136,138 | + 15
1909 | 4,008,678 | +10 | 245,482 | 139,208 | + 2
1910 [164] | 4,890,835 | +22 | 282,317 | 168,402 | + 21
1911 | 6,132,582 | +25 | 313,549 | 184,555 | + 9
1912 | 7,425,173 | +21 | 349,407 | 236,679 | + 28
1913 [165] | 8,272,858 | + 6 | 380,942 | 283,305 | + 4
-----------+------------+----------+----------+-------------+----------
As I have elsewhere remarked, the Philippines have a coast line longer
than that of the continental United States. A very large percentage
of the municipalities are situated on, or close to, the sea and the
maintenance of adequate marine transportation is therefore a matter
of vital importance to the peace and commercial prosperity of the
archipelago. In the early days of American occupation conditions
were most unsatisfactory. Most of the boats in the coastwise trade
were antiquated, foul and had no decent facilities for transporting
passengers. As the number of vessels was too small to handle the
business of the country, ship-owners occupied a very independent
position. The freight rates on such things as lumber and currency
were practically prohibitive. It was a common thing for vessels to
refuse to receive hemp, sugar and perishable products that had been
brought to the beach for shipment, giving as an excuse the fact that
they were employed in the private business of Messrs. Smith, Bell &
Co., Warner, Barnes & Co., or whoever happened to own them, and could
not transport freight for the public as the volume of their private
business would not permit it. However, if the owners of the freight
were willing to sell it to the ships' officers for a fraction of its
value, they encountered no difficulty in transporting it!
Furthermore, there existed the danger of Moro raids, the necessity
for checking the operations of smugglers, and that of preventing
the ingress of firearms, which in the hands of irresponsible persons
might cause great damage and expense to the government and the public.
In view of these facts it was decided to establish a fleet of twenty
coast-guard vessels, which were not only to do police duty and to
assist in the transportation of troops, but were to carry freight and
passengers when opportunity offered. Fifteen such vessels were ordered
from Messrs. Farnham, Boyd & Co., of Shanghai, and five from the Uraga
Dock Company of Japan. The Japanese vessels proved unsatisfactory,
and only two were accepted, making the total fleet seventeen. As
the condition of public order improved the coast-guard boats became
available to a constantly increasing extent for commercial service.
Prior to July, 1906, there were practically no established
steamship routes over which commercial vessels operated on regular
schedules. With the exception of the service between Manila, Cebú and
Iloílo, vessels traded here and there without regular ports of call
or fixed dates of arrival or departure. The policy which guided their
owners was one of privilege and monopoly, and by agreement between
them competition was rigidly excluded. Trade was discouraged and the
commercial development of the islands seriously retarded.
In accordance with a plan formulated by Mr. Forbes, then secretary of
commerce and police, the coast-guard vessels were placed on regular
commercial routes and were operated on schedules which gave efficient
service to all important islands of the archipelago. Ten routes were
maintained and many isolated points, and small towns or villages which
offered so little business at the outset as to make them unprofitable,
and therefore unattractive as ports of call for commercial vessels,
were put in close communication with the larger towns and distributing
centres, so that the small planters could market their products with
little trouble. This promptly led to increased production and trade,
and greater prosperity through the islands.
Business increased to such an extent that in July, 1906, it proved
practicable to withdraw the government vessels and turn these routes
over to commercial firms which entered into a definite contract with
the government to maintain an adequate service. Their vessels were
allowed substantial subsidies, amounting in the aggregate to $100,000
per year, in order to assure the prompt despatch of mail, adherence
to schedule, and efficient service. The ten old coast-guard routes
were divided into fourteen new commercial routes which gave excellent
service to all parts of the islands.
Secondary routes were then arranged and coast-guard cutters were placed
on them. A number of these were in turn given over to commercial
vessels after they had developed enough trade to be commercially
profitable. Three such routes are now maintained by the Bureau of
Navigation, and it is planned to establish two more in the near future.
The importance of the change thus brought about by the government
in transportation facilities can be appreciated only by those who
have had actual experience with the intolerable state of affairs
which previously existed. Meanwhile conditions on the inter-island
steamers have been enormously improved by the enforcement of proper
sanitary regulations, and insistence that staterooms be decent and
food reasonably good.
Of the original cutters two were for a long time under charter by
the military authorities for use as despatch boats and transports;
two are employed as lighthouse tenders, and two have been assigned to
the Bureau of Coast Surveys for coast and geodetic work; one collects
lepers and takes them to the Leper Colony at Culion. The cable-ship
Rizal, operated by the Bureau of Navigation, has succeeded in repairing
and keeping in repair the marine cables throughout the islands. Such
cables are especially subject to injury in Philippine waters on account
of the strength of the currents between the islands, the frequency
with which stretches of sea bottom are overgrown with sharp coral,
and the common occurrence of earthquakes. When not otherwise engaged
the Rizal carries commercial cargoes if opportunity offers. She has
proved useful for bringing in rice when a shortage of this commodity,
which is the bread of the Filipino people, threatened, and for handling
cargoes of lumber of sizes such that regular inter-island steamers
could not load it.
In addition to the vessels above mentioned, the Bureau of Navigation
owns and operates a fleet of launches, some of which are seagoing,
and a number of dredges which are employed in improving the harbours
and rivers of the islands as funds permit. The bureau also owns and
operates its own machine shop and marine railway, and repairs its
own vessels.
A section of the machine shop is set aside for lighthouse work, and
in it lighthouse apparatus of every description is fabricated and
repaired. While lighthouses and buoys are not means of communication
they are aids to it.
The thousand and ninety-five inhabited islands and approximately two
hundred and fifty ports of varying importance, depending as they do
entirely upon water transportation for communication with each other
and with the outside world, had no wharfage whatever available for
large vessels, and no publicly owned wharfage within ten yards of which
even the larger inter-island steamers could be berthed. Manila had
no protected anchorage, and during the season of southwest monsoons
and typhoons vessels were sometimes compelled to lie in the harbour
for weeks before they could unload, a fact which gave the port a
deservedly bad name.
The Spaniards had commenced harbour work at Manila in 1892,
twenty-five years after preliminary study began and sixteen years
after prospective plans had been submitted. Their operations were
stopped by the insurrection in 1896, at which time the present west
breakwater had been about half completed, but as the completed portion
was at the shore end and in shallow water it afforded no protection to
ships. There had been constructed twenty-four hundred feet of masonry
wall partly enclosing one of the basins provided for in the Spanish
plans, and fourteen hundred eighty-five feet of wall lining canals
connecting the proposed new harbour with the Pasig River. These also
were temporarily useless, because there had been no dredging in front
of them, or backfilling in their rear.
Outside of Manila practically nothing had been done to facilitate the
loading and discharge of vessels, or to protect them from the elements.
We now have at Manila a deep-water harbour dredged to a uniform depth
of thirty feet and enclosed by two breakwaters having a total length
of nearly eleven thousand five hundred feet. Two hundred and sixty-one
acres of land have been reclaimed with the dredged material. Two steel
piers extend from the filled land into the deep-water harbour. One of
these is six hundred fifty feet long and one hundred ten feet wide,
the other six hundred feet long and seventy feet wide. Both are housed
in, the sheds covering them having a total area of ninety-two thousand
square feet. These piers and sheds are practically fireproof, and
the largest ocean-going steamers on the Pacific can lie alongside
them. Additional work planned, which should be undertaken when
funds permit, includes two more piers; and bulkheads to connect the
inner ends of the present piers, so as to give inter-island steamers
opportunity to unload.
At Cebú the sea-wall has been completed to a length of two thousand
sixty feet and the channel in front of it dredged in part to ten and a
half and in part to twenty-three feet at low water. Some ten and a half
acres of land have been reclaimed with the material removed. Streets
and roadways have been built on the reclaimed area, and a wharf eight
hundred twelve feet in length, designed as an extension to the wall,
is now fifty per cent completed. The harbour at Cebú should ultimately
be dredged so as to give thirty feet of water along the piers.
At Iloílo the dredging of a fifteen-foot channel up to the custom-house
was completed in March, 1907. Seven hundred and eighty-three feet
of river wall and twelve hundred ninety feet of reënforced concrete
wharf, both to accommodate vessels of eighteen feet draft at low
water, have been built along the south bank of the middle reach of
the river. The lower reach has been dredged to twenty-four feet at
low water, the middle reach to eighteen feet and the upper reach to
fifteen feet, while two hundred ten thousand square metres of land
have been reclaimed and two hundred six thousand improved with the
dredged material. Wharves for ocean-going steamers should ultimately
be constructed at this important port.
At Paracale, in Ambos Camarines, a reënforced concrete pier four
hundred ninety feet in length has been built. It extends out to a
depth of fifteen feet at low water.
At Bais, Negros, a timber pier for vessels of sixteen feet draft,
with a stone causeway approach a mile and a half in length, and a
warehouse for the temporary storage of sugar, have been constructed.
Channels have been blasted through the coral reefs surrounding the
islands Batan, Sabtang and Itbayat in the Batanes group, where the
annual loss of life had previously been great, owing to the occurrence
of sudden storms which often made it impossible for people to return
to their towns through the surf. The port of Pandan, in Ilocos Sur,
has been improved by means of a stone revetment twenty-nine hundred
seventy-five feet in length along the north bank of the Abra River,
thus maintaining the channel in one position and affording vastly
better means of loading and discharging cargo for the important town
of Vigan. A self-propelling combination snag boat, pile driver and
dredge for the improvement of the great Cagayan River has been built,
and is now in operation on that stream.
Very numerous other works of repair and construction have been carried
out. Some 80 surveys have been made in minor ports to determine
the feasibility of improvements, and in many cases plans have been
prepared for proposed work.
The Spaniards had devoted much time and study to a project for
coast illumination. At the outbreak of the insurrection in 1896
they had twenty-eight lights, fourteen of which were flashing and
fourteen fixed minor lights, while four additional stations were
under construction. Then all work was stopped, and when systematic
inspection was made by American lighthouse engineers five years later,
extensive repairs were found to be necessary. The repairs were made as
promptly as possible, and new construction then began. To-day there
are a hundred forty-five lights in operation, and the waters of the
Philippines are among the best lighted in the world. One hundred and
eleven buoys of various classes are being maintained.
The following table shows the progress made in the construction of
lighthouses:--
Fiscal Year Light-houses
in Operation
1902 57
1903 66
1904 76
1905 89
1906 105
1907 117
1908 129
1909 139
1910 143
1911 142
1912 145
1913 [166] 145
In all nearly $7,000,000 have been expended in the improvement of
ports and harbours, and about $750,000 in the construction of lights.
At the time of the American occupation, knowledge of the waters of
the archipelago was in a most unsatisfactory state. There was not
even an accurate chart of Manila Bay. Navigating officers followed
certain well-known trade routes which experience had shown to be
safe, but did not dare to leave them. Uncharted dangers were soon
discovered at Iloilo and in other important ports, and the necessity
for a systematic survey of the waters became immediately apparent.
On September 6, 1901, the Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Surveys was
organized. The work is conducted under a joint agreement such that
it is supervised by the superintendent of coast and geodetic surveys
at Washington, who is represented in the Philippines by an officer
called the director of coast surveys. The latter reports to the head
of the insular government so far as concerns the expenditure of funds
furnished by that government, which has the power of approval over
his assignment to duty. There is a division of expenses between the
two governments. The United States has paid approximately fifty-five
per cent of the total cost, and the insular government has paid
the balance.
The Bureau is engaged in a systematic survey of the coasts,
harbours and waters of the Philippine Islands and of the topography
of the shore-line. It determines positions astronomically and by
triangulation, investigates reported dangers to navigation, and
observes tides, currents and the magnetic elements. Five steamers
are now engaged in this very important work. It is estimated that
fifty-four per cent of the surveys of the coast and adjacent waters
have already been completed. When one remembers that the coast-line of
the Philippines is longer than that of the continental United States,
one realizes that this is a remarkable achievement.
The Bureau has published one hundred twenty-four charts covering the
entire boundaries of the islands, and six volumes of sailing directions
which are kept constantly up to date by additions whenever new facts
of importance to mariners are ascertained. The greater part of the
information thus made available represents results obtained by the
Bureau, but these are supplemented by the most reliable data that
can be obtained from other sources.
The following table shows the number of miles of coast surveyed at
the end of each year, beginning with 1901:--
Number of Miles of Coast Surveyed
Fiscal Year Miles
1901 89
1902 576
1903 1,208
1904 1,921
1905 2,415
1906 3,041
1907 4,536
1908 6,109
1909 7,126
1910 8,763
1911 9,992
1912 11,308
1913 [167] 11,748
Not only have all important waterways through the islands been surveyed
and lighted, but travel and the transportation of merchandise on land
have been enormously facilitated by the construction of additional
railways and of a system of first-, second- and third-class roads
and of trails.
Prior to 1907 the only railroad line in operation in the Philippines
was the so-called Manila-Dagupan Railway, which was 122 miles long.
The following table shows the steady increase in mileage since that
time and also the steady increase in railroad earnings:--
Railroad Statistics
---------+-----------+-------------+----------+----------+----------------------
| Total | Earnings of | | | Earnings of Manila
Fiscal | Mileage | Philippine | | Calendar | Railway Co.
Year | in | Railway | Increase | Year +-----------+----------
| Operation | Co., Amount | | | Amount | Increase
---------+-----------+-------------+----------+----------+-----------+----------
1907[168]| 122 | | | 1907 | $25,823 |
1908 | 221 | | | 1908 | 961,936 | 16
1909 | 290 | $74,815[169]| | 1909 | 1,023,812 | 6
1910 | 400 | 118,646 | 59 | 1910 | 1,233,794 | 21
1911 | 455 | 142,888 | 20 | 1911 | 1,919,244 | 56
1912 | 599 | 386,970 | 171 | 1912 | 2,304,436 | 20
1913 | 611[170] | ([171]) | | | |
--------+-----------+--------------+----------+----------+-----------+----------
The north line of the Manila Railroad Company, which is the successor
to the Manila and Dagupan Railway Company, now extends to Bauang in
the province of La Union. It has laterals terminating at Camp One,
on the Benguet Road; Rosales in Pangasinan; Mangaldang in Pangasinan;
Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija; Camp Stotensburg in Pampanga; Florida
Blanca in Pampanga; Montalban in Rizal, and Antipolo in Rizal.
The main south line of this road extends from Manila to Lucena in
Tayabas. It has branches to Cavite in the province of the same name;
to Naic in Cavite; to Pagsanján in La Laguna, and to Batangas in the
Province of Batangas.
The Philippine Railway Company has built and is now operating a
line on Panay which extends from Iloilo to Capiz, and a line on Cebú
which extends north from the city of the same name to Danao and south
to Argao.
The development of the road system is even more important than that
of railroads.
The following tables show the mileage of first-, second- and
third-class roads, and the total number of permanent bridges and
culverts, in existence at the end of each year, beginning with 1907:--
Public Works Statistics
-------------+-------------------------------------------------------
| Total Mileage of Roads in Existence
+-------------+------------+--------------+-------------
Fiscal Year | First-class | | Second-class | Third-class
| Roads | Increase | Roads | Roads
-------------+-------------+------------+--------------+-------------
| | Per Cent | |
1907 | 303[172] | -- | -- | --
1908 | 423 | 40 | -- | --
1909 | 609 | 44 | -- | --
1910 | 764 | 25 | 641[173] | 2,074[173]
1911 | 987 | 29 | 664 | 1,837
1912 | 1,143 | 16 | 1,342.1[173]| 1,999
1913[174] | 1,187[175] | -- | 1,305.3 | 1,967
-------------+-------------+------------+--------------+-------------
-------------+-----------------------
| Total of Permanent
| Bridges and Culverts
Fiscal Year | in Existence
+------------+----------
| Number | Per Cent
-------------+------------+----------
1907[176] | 3,280[176] | --
1908 | 3,631 | 11
1909 | 3,865 | 6
1910 | 4,372 | 13
1911 | 4,842 | 11
1912 | 5,181 | 7
1913 | 5,660 | 9
-------------+----------+------------
The old Spanish road system was quite extensive and very well planned,
but the amount of really good construction was very limited. The
system of maintenance was faulty, and the abandonment of maintenance
during the insurrection against Spain and the war with the United
States resulted in the almost complete destruction of many roads
which were in fairly good condition at the time public order became
seriously disturbed. The total value of Spanish work on existing
roads is estimated at $1,800,000. The total value of all American
work up to June 30, 1911, is estimated at $6,100,000.
The imperative need of better highways throughout the islands was
brought home by the difficulties encountered by the army during the
insurrection, and the first act of the Philippine Commission, passed
on the twelfth day after the commission became the legislative body
of the islands, appropriated $1,000,000 ($2,000,000 Mexican) for the
construction and repair of highways and bridges.
Much of this money was very advantageously expended by the
military, who contributed a large amount of transportation free of
cost. Unfortunately, while the necessity for roads was at this time
fully appreciated, there was failure to appreciate the extraordinary
rapidity with which tropical rains and vegetation destroy good roads
in the Philippines. We further failed to appreciate the absolute
indifference of the Filipinos themselves as to whether roads once
built are or are not maintained.
One of the first large pieces of work undertaken was a road from
Calamba on the Laguna de Bay to Lipa, an important town in the province
of Batangas, and thence to the town of Batangas itself. This road
ran for its entire extent through a rich agricultural district. I
passed over it when the dirt work had all been completed, and when
all but two short stretches were surfaced. I certainly had vigorously
impressed upon me the necessity of surfacing. Over that portion of the
road which had been so treated an automobile could have been driven
at sixty miles an hour. Over the remainder of it, built by the same
engineer, shaped up in the same way, and as good a dirt road as could
be constructed, four mules could not haul the ambulance in which we
were riding without our assistance. We had to get out and literally put
our shoulders to the wheel, or tug at the spokes, in order to enable
the faithful beasts to extricate the ambulance from the morasses into
which the two unsurfaced stretches had been converted.
Needless to say, the surfacing was completed as soon as possible, and
then came what the Filipinos call a great desengaño. [177] I venture to
say that from the time the road was finished until it was completely
destroyed there was never a shovelful of dirt nor a basketful of
gravel placed upon it. In 1908 I attempted to drive over it in one
of the two-wheeled rigs known as carromatas, which will go almost
anywhere. I was upset twice in as many miles and gave up the attempt.
For a considerable time the destruction of roads almost kept pace with
their construction, and until 1907 the small amount of provincial funds
available usually resulted in failure to attempt repairs until both
surfacing and foundation had been badly injured or destroyed. The
remnants of old Spanish roads still existing, and the new roads
constructed by Americans, were in danger of being wiped out. It was
then decided that further insular aid for road construction should
not be given until the indifference of provincial officials could be
overcome, and funds provided for proper maintenance. It was further
decided that roads and bridges should be considered as on a basis
similar to that of other government property, and that maintenance
must take precedence over new construction. Regulations providing
for it were outlined and incorporated in a proposed resolution which
was submitted to the several provincial boards with the information
that further insular funds would not be appropriated for any province
until its board passed this resolution, thereby agreeing to provide
road and bridge funds by means of the so-called double cedula tax, and
perpetually to maintain the heavily surfaced roads then in existence
within its limits.
The cedula tax is an annual personal or poll tax. The amount originally
fixed by the commission was one peso, but legislation was subsequently
enacted empowering provincial boards to increase it to two pesos,
the additional amount to go for road and bridge work.
Most of the provinces promptly took the suggested action, and the few
which at first stood out were soon compelled by popular opinion to
follow suit. It is not too much to say that real progress in permanent
road and bridge construction in the Philippines dates from 1907 when
the present regulation relative to maintenance was put into effect.
Provision was made for a yearly provincial maintenance appropriation
of not less than $282 per mile of duly designated road. Stone kilometer
posts were erected beside all improved roads.
During the rainy season one caminero, or roadman, is stationed on
each kilometer section. During the dry season one caminero cares for
a two-kilometer section. These men are constantly at work cutting the
encroaching vegetation from the lateral banks, keeping drains clear,
and immediately filling depressions in the road-bed as they appear,
using for the purpose material stored in specially constructed bins
placed at regular intervals and kept filled with broken stone and
gravel. Heavy repair work which may be necessary after great typhoons
or floods must be specially provided for.
The inspection of each kilometer of road is made as follows: daily,
by the sub-foreman; bi-weekly, by the foreman; monthly, by the district
engineer; and tri-monthly by the division engineer.
Under this system, in spite of unfavourable climatic conditions
the reconstructed or newly constructed Philippine roads are to-day
maintained far better than are most of the roads in the United States,
and one may drive automobiles over them at top speed. Numerous freight
and passenger automobile lines have already been established.
The average present cost of constructing heavily surfaced roads,
including bridges which are apt to be numerous and expensive, is
$8250 per mile.
Only first-class bridges, of concrete, masonry or steel, are permitted
on main roads in the lowlands. Arbitrary enforcement of this rule
is the one thing about the present road system which in my opinion
affords grounds for legitimate criticism.
While no one can dispute the wisdom of constructing bridges of hard
materials whenever this can be done, it is possible to carry too
far the policy of limiting construction to such materials, and in my
opinion it has been carried too far in a number of instances.
Years ago a good automobile road was constructed from Cagayan
de Misamis to and beyond the barrio of Agusan, which is the
point of departure for the main trail into the sub-province of
Bukidnon. Numerous small streams on this road were bridged with
reënforced concrete, but proper allowance was not made for their
terrific rise during heavy rains in the highlands and almost
without exception the bridges were destroyed during the first
severe typhoon. Funds are not yet available for their reconstruction
with strong materials. Meanwhile nothing has been done. The road is
therefore impassable during heavy rains, as the streams cannot then be
forded. Meanwhile, our "temporary" wooden bridges on the connecting
trail system, constructed before the bridges on the coast road were
built, remain intact, and render it possible always to cross streams
much larger than any of those which intersect the coast road.
Of course if the hard and fast rule governing bridge construction
in the lowlands is once departed from, its enforcement may become
difficult. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that existing regulations
should be so modified as to authorize and encourage the construction
of temporary bridges in such cases as that above cited.
The enormous change which road construction has produced in ease of
travel, and in reduced cost of transporting farm products, cannot be
appreciated by one unfamiliar with conditions in Spanish days. Then
the ordinary country road was a narrow ditch sloping in on both sides
toward the bottom, this condition being brought about by failure to
provide proper drainage so that there was tremendous erosion during the
rainy season, at which time these so-called roads became converted into
deep quagmires by the action of very narrow-tired solid wooden cart
wheels, most of which were fixed upon their axles. It was not unusual
to see carts in mud up to their bodies, seeming to float on it while
being pulled by floundering carabaos. Many of the roads were so bad
that wheeled vehicles could not be used even during the dry season,
and their place was taken by so-called cangas, or bamboo sledges, which
also caused rapid road destruction. When all else failed, the Filipino
mounted his faithful carabao, which could swim the unbridged streams
if the current was not too swift, and could successfully negotiate
deep quagmires, and thus he journeyed from place to place, leaving
the transportation of his products until the coming of the dry season.
The use on improved roads of cangas, and of carts with narrow-tired
wheels or with wheels fixed on their axles, is now forbidden by
law. The carts permitted to be used have broad tires that help to
smooth the roads instead of cutting them to pieces.
As already stated, this road system is supplemented in the wilder
parts of the archipelago, so far at least as the special government
provinces are concerned, by a trail system which is rapidly being
extended. The trails, which are at first built only wide enough to
permit the passage of horses, are on grades such that they can be
converted into roads by widening and surfacing, and are gradually
widened in connection with the maintenance work so as to permit the
passage, first of narrow-tired carts, and later of carts of ordinary
width. Indeed one such trail extending from Baguio, in Benguet, to
Naguilian, in the lowlands of the neighbouring province of Union,
has already been sufficiently widened to permit the passage of
automobiles, and the same thing can be done with any of the others
when occasion requires.
It has been most interesting to note to what an extent the construction
of good roads and trails and the cultivation of the land in their
vicinity have gone hand in hand. The prosperity of the country has
been enormously increased by the carrying out of the present sensible
road policy for which Governor-General W. Cameron Forbes is primarily
responsible.
The policy of the Forbes administration contemplated the steady
continuance of road and bridge construction and maintenance until a
complete system, which had been carefully worked out for the entire
archipelago, should have been finished.
What would result if road and bridge work were turned over to a
Filipino government? Judging from their absolute failure to maintain
any roads until the insular government assumed control in 1907, and
from the present neglect of municipalities to care for the sections of
road for which they are responsible, we are justified in saying that
new construction would promptly cease; maintenance would be neglected;
existing roads would be destroyed; bridges would be left up in the
air by the destruction of their approaches, and would ultimately go
to pieces, and the whole system would come to rack and ruin.
To be sure, the Filipino politicians loudly assert that they are
heartily in sympathy with the present road policy of the government,
but this is largely because the securing of government aid for roads
in their respective provinces increases their popularity with the
people, and the probability that they will be reëlected. If it were
left for them to determine whether money should be expended for this
purpose or for some other which would more immediately inure to their
private benefit, there can be no two opinions as to the result.
The continuance of American control for the present is absolutely
essential, if proper means of communication and aids to navigation
are to be established and maintained in the Philippine Islands.