COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROSPECTS.
Philippines not a poor man's country--Oscar F. Williams' letter--No
occupation for white mechanics--American merchants unsuccessful
in the East--Difficulties of living amongst Malays--Inevitable
quarrels--Unsuitable climate--The Mali-mali or Sakit-latah--The
Traspaso de hambre--Chiflados--Wreck of the nervous system--Effects
of abuse of alcohol--Capital the necessity--Banks--Advances to
cultivators--To timber cutters--To gold miners--Central sugar
factories--Paper-mills--Rice-mills--Cotton-mills--Saw-mills--Coasting
steamers--Railway from Manila to Batangas--From Siniloan to the
Pacific--Survey for ship canal--Bishop Gainzas' project--Tramways
for Luzon and Panay--Small steamers for Mindanao--Chief prospect
is agriculture.
The commercial prospects of the Islands are great, even if we do not
instantly take for gospel the fairy tales we are told about Manila
becoming the centre of the trade of the Pacific. There can be no
doubt that if peace and an honest administration can be secured,
capital will be attracted and considerable increase in the export of
hemp, tobacco, and sugar will gradually take place as fresh land can
be cleared and planted. As I have elsewhere said, the Philippines
in energetic and skilful hands will soon yield up the store of gold
which the poor Spaniards have been so mercilessly abused for leaving
behind them. But the Philippines are not and never will be a country
for the poor white man.
A white man cannot labour there without great danger to his health. He
cannot compete with the native or Chinese mechanic, in fact he is not
wanted there at all. For my part, I would never employ a white man
there as a labourer or mechanic, if I could help it, more especially
an Englishman or an American, for I know from experience what the
result would be. As foreman or overseer a white man may be better,
according to his skill and character.
Now let me, as soon as possible, expose the absurdity of a mischievous
letter, which I fear may already have done much harm, but I hope my
warning may do something to counteract its effects. I quote from the
Blue Book so often mentioned: pp. 330-1.
Mr. Williams to Mr. Day.
U. S. S. Baltimore, Manila Bay,
July 2nd, 1898.
Sir,
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If long occupation or possession on the part of our government
be considered, I believe early and strenuous efforts should be
made to bring here from the United States men and women of many
occupations--mechanics, teachers, ministers, ship-builders, merchants,
electricians, plumbers, druggists, doctors, dentists, carriage and
harness makers, stenographers, type-writers, photographers, tailors,
blacksmiths, and agents for exporting, and to introduce American
products natural and artificial of many classes. To all such I pledge
every aid, and now is the time to start. Good government will be
easier the greater the influx of Americans.
My despatches have referred to our present percentage of export
trade. If now our exports come here as intestate, duty free, we have
practical control of Philippine trade, which now amounts to many
millions, and because of ingrafting of American energy and methods
upon the fabulous natural and productive wealth of these islands,
can and probably will be multiplied by twenty during the coming
twenty years. All this increment should come to our nation and not
go to any other.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I hope for an influx this year of 10,000 ambitious Americans, and
all can live well, become enriched....
(Signed) O. F. Williams,
Consul.
I venture to say that the man who wrote this astonishing letter,
taking upon himself the responsibility of advising "early and strenuous
efforts" to send from the United States thousands of men and women
of many occupations to Manila, and of assuring them that "all could
live well and become enriched," knew nothing at all about the state
of the Philippine Islands, and is a most unsafe guide.
What on earth would all these tradespeople find to do in the
Islands? Where could they be housed? How could they be supported? If
they came in numbers, the doctors and druggists might indeed find
full employment prescribing and making up medicine for the many
sufferers from tropical ailments, especially the typhoid fevers,
that would attack the unacclimatised immigrants and the ministers
could earn their daily bread by reading the Burial Service, whilst
the type-writers would be busy typing letters to friends at home
announcing the deaths that occurred; and warning them against
coming to starve in Manila. But I defy any one to explain how the
ship-builders, electricians, plumbers, tailors and blacksmiths are
to make a living. As regards merchants or agents for exporting,
I may say that Americans have not been very successful in Manila in
this capacity. The great and influential firm of Russell & Sturgis
came to grief through over-trading, and another noteworthy firm,
Messrs. Peele, Hubbell & Co. failed from rash speculations in sugar,
and not from any persecutions by the Spanish authorities, as has been
falsely stated in a magazine article. I speak with knowledge on the
matter, as I was well acquainted with this firm, having been their
Consulting Engineer for the construction of the Slipway at Canacao for
which they were agents. I think it only right to say that the gentlemen
who were heads of these American firms were worthy upholders of the
high reputation of their country. They failed, but no imputations
rested on the characters of the partners, and I have always heard
them spoken of with great respect, especially amongst the natives.
Those of them who were personally known to me were men who invariably
showed every courtesy and consideration to all who came in contact with
them, whether Europeans or natives. Notwithstanding their misfortunes
they were a credit to their country, and they did a good deal towards
the development of the trade of the Philippines.
I believe that the estates of Russell & Sturgis when realised,
paid all their liabilities in full, and besides left considerable
pickings in the hands of the liquidators and their friends. Two or
three firms were built up out of their ruins. Some Chinese half-castes
and natives had received heavy advances from this firm, especially
about Molo and Yloilo. One well-known individual had received $60,000,
and when summoned before the court he claimed the benefit of the 'Laws
of the Indies,' by which his liability was limited to $5. The judge,
however, ordered him to repay the principal at the rate of a dollar
a month! I had this information from the judge himself.
Curiously enough, American merchants have been equally unsuccessful
in other parts of the Far East. Many will remember the failure of
Messrs. Oliphant & Co., the great China merchants, agents for the
American Board of Missions, [16] notwithstanding their desperate effort
to retrieve their position by reviving the coolie trade with Peru, and
in later days Messrs. Russell & Co. of Hong Kong also came to grief.
I can give no explanation of the reasons for these four great failures,
but I conjecture that all these firms were in too much of a hurry,
and tried to "hustle the East." Yet in face of this calamitous
experience, Oscar F. Williams advises more to come, "pledges every
aid," and predicts that "trade can, and probably will, be multiplied
by twenty during the coming twenty years."
For my part, I should think it great progress if the exports and
imports of the Philippines could be doubled in twenty years. The
idea of sending plumbers to Manila where lead pipes are not used,
is a comicality only matched by the suggestion that tailors are
wanted amongst a population dressed in cotton shirts and trousers,
and where the white people wear veranda-made white duck suits.
Both notions are more suitable for a comic opera than for an official
document.
There is only one more paragraph in this letter that I need comment on.
Mr. Williams says: "Good government will be easier, the greater the
influx of Americans."
To those who know the East there is no necessity to argue on this
point. I therefore state dogmatically that the presence of white
settlers or working people in the Islands would add enormously to
the difficulties of government. This is my experience, and during
the Spanish Administration it was generally admitted to be the case.
In British India the Government does not in the least degree favour the
immigration of British workmen. The only people who are recognised as
useful to that country are capitalists and directors of Agricultural
or Industrial enterprises.
A large number of American mechanics turned loose amongst the
population would infallibly, by their contempt for native customs,
and their disregard of native feeling, become an everlasting source
of strife and vexation. Impartial justice between the parties would
be unattainable; the whites would not submit to be judged by a native
magistrate, and the result would be a war of races.
It may be taken as probable that there is no crime, however heinous,
that could be committed by an American upon a native, that would
involve the execution of the death penalty on the criminal. [17] On
the other hand, I can quite believe that natives laying their hands
upon Americans, whatever the provocation, would be promptly hanged,
if they were not shot down upon the spot. The natives, it should
be remembered, are revengeful, and will bide their time; either to
use the bolo upon one who has offended them, to burn down his house,
set fire to his crop, or put a crow-bar in amongst his machinery. I
fear that American brusqueness and impatience would often lead to
these savage reprisals.
I think, therefore, that the American Administration of the Philippines
should be empowered to prevent or regulate the immigration of
impecunious Americans or Europeans whose presence in the Islands
must be extremely prejudicial to the much-desired pacification. No,
the poor white is not wanted in the Islands, he would be a curse, and
a residence there would be a curse to him. He would decay morally,
mentally, and physically. The gorgeous East not only deteriorates
the liver, but where a white man lives long amongst natives, he
suffers a gradual but complete break-up of the nervous system. This
peculiarity manifests itself amongst the natives of the Far East
in the curious nervous disorder which is called mali-mali in the
Philippines and sakit-latah amongst the Malays of the Peninsula and
Java. It seems to be a weakening of the will, and on being startled,
the sufferer entirely loses self-control and imitates the movements
of any person who attracts his attention. It is more prevalent amongst
women than men. I remember being at a performance of Chiarini's Circus
in Manila, when General Weyler and his wife were present. The clown
walked into the ring on his hands, and a skinny old woman amongst the
spectators who suffered from the mali-mali at once began to imitate
him with unpleasing results, and had to be forcibly restrained by
the scandalised bystanders.
Running amok marks a climax of nerve disturbance, when the sufferer,
instead of committing suicide, prefers to die killing others.
He usually obtains his wish, and is killed without compunction,
like a mad dog.
Both natives and white residents are at times in rather a low
condition of health, and if after exercise or labour they fail to get
their meal at the proper time, when it comes they cannot eat. In its
lighter form this is called desgana or loss of appetite, but I have
seen natives collapse under such circumstances with severe headache
and chills. This more serious form is known as traspaso de hambre,
and is sometimes the precursor of fever and nervous prostration.
The Roman Catholic Church has had the wisdom to recognise and make
allowance for the liability of residents and natives of the Philippines
to this serious disorder, and has relaxed the usual rules of fasting,
as being dangerous to health.
Amongst the Europeans who have been long in the Islands, many are
said to be "chiflado," a term I can only render into English by the
slang word cracked. This occurs more particularly amongst those who
have been isolated amongst the natives.
It is not easy to account for, but the fact is undeniable. I have
heard it ascribed to "telluric influence," but that is a wide and
vague expression. Perhaps the explanation may be found in the extreme
violence of the phenomena of nature.
The frequent earthquakes, the almost continuous vibration of the soil,
the awe-inspiring volcanic eruptions, with their sooty black palls of
ash darkening the sky for days together, over hundreds of miles, the
frightful detonations, [18] the ear-splitting thunder, the devastating
rage of the typhoons, the saturated atmosphere of the rainy season,
and the hot dry winds of Lent, with the inevitable conflagrations,
combine with depressing surroundings and anxieties to wreck the nerves
of all but the strongest and most determined natures. If to all this
the white resident or sojourner in the Philippines adds the detestable
vice of intemperance, or even indulges in a liberal consumption of
spirits, then instead of merely shattering his nerves, he is likely
to become a raving maniac, for it takes much less whisky to bring on
delirium tremens there, than it does in a temperate climate.
Long sojourn in some other lands appears to act in a different
manner. In tropical Africa it seems to be the moral balance that
is lost. The conscience is blunted if not destroyed, the veneer of
civilisation is stripped off, the white man reverts to savagery. The
senseless cruelties of Peters, Lothaire, Voulet, Chanoine, and of
some of the outlying officials of the Congo Free State are not mere
coincidences. They must be ascribed to one common cause, and that is
debasement by environment. The moral nature of a white man seems to
become contaminated by long isolation amongst savages as surely as
the physical health by living amongst lepers.
If a poor white man wishes to sink to the level of a native, he has
only to marry a native woman, and his object will be fully attained in
a few years. But he will find it very much to his pecuniary interest,
for she will buy cheaper and sell dearer than he can, and will
manage his house and his business too, most economically. Some of her
relations will come and live with him, so that he will not feel lonely,
and a half-caste family will grow up round about him, talking the
dialect of their mother, which he, perhaps, does not understand. But if
the poor white man takes out a white wife, he will probably have the
pain and distress of seeing her fade away under the severity of the
climate, which his means do not permit him to alleviate. White women
suffer from the heat far more than men. Children cannot be properly
brought up there after the age of twelve. They must either be sent
home to be educated, or allowed to deteriorate and grow up inferior
to their parents in health, strength, and moral fibre. When I think
of these things, I feel amazed at Oscar F. Williams' presumption
in writing that letter. I hope that not many have taken his advice,
and that any who have will call on him to fulfil his imprudent pledges.
However, now I have done with the poor white man. Capital is the
great necessity of the Philippines. The labour is there if Generals
Otis and McArthur have left any natives alive.
More banks are wanted. At present there are three important banks in
Manila, and two of them have branches in Yloilo. The Hong Kong and
Shanghai Banking Corporation has the largest resources; next comes the
Chartered Bank of India, Australasia, and China, and lastly the Banco
Espanol Filipino. The first two give the most perfect facilities for
business. I was only interested in importing, but certainly nothing
more could be desired by an importer than their system of opening
credits against shipping documents; for practically he only had to
pay for the goods when they arrived in Manila. All their business
was done in the most expeditious manner, and I could suggest no
improvement on their methods.
The Banco Espanol Filipino was in a measure under government control,
its procedure was consequently very slow, and its ways those of
bygone days.
These banks, however, did not advance money to cultivators to clear
lands, plant crops, or erect machinery, as the returns are too slow,
not to say doubtful. Yet this is what is wanted; banks in Manila
and the chief towns that will advance money for such purposes, under
the advice of experts personally acquainted with the cultivators and
their lands. Such a business certainly requires great intelligence
and discernment.
Still there is a future for such banks, for agriculturists have to
pay enormous rates of interest and commissions for money to carry
on their plantations. Such banks could also finance timber-cutters,
gold miners, and other bona fide workers.
Amongst the enterprises I have recommended when writing about
the Pampangos, and others engaged in planting sugar-cane, is the
establishment of central sugar factories in suitable localities. Such
undertakings, judiciously administered, would have every prospect
of success.
There is also room for paper-mills, rice-mills, cotton-mills,
and saw-mills, but all these, especially the last, need careful
consideration for the selection of the locality where they are to be
placed. The manufacture of various kinds of leather could be greatly
extended and improved. There is employment for more coasting steamers
and schooners. The latter and hulls of small steamers can be built
in the country from the native timber.
Although the development of means of communication is all-important,
it is evident from the configuration of the Archipelago that no great
length of railway is required, nor would it pay to construct them
in so mountainous a country. Water-carriage is all-important. In
Luzon a line of railway might be made from Manila to Batangas with
a branch into the Laguna province. It would traverse a fertile and
thickly-populated country.
A short line of railway or electric tramway from near Siniloan on
the Lake to the Pacific would be most useful in giving access to and
developing the eastern coast, or contra costa, as it is called. This
coast is very backward in every way, indeed from Baler to Punta
Escarpada on its extreme north, it is quite unknown, and remains in the
possession of the Dumagas, an aboriginal tribe of heathen savages of
low type, just as at the time of the Spanish conquest; and it would be
worth while to study the question of cutting a ship-canal through this
narrow strip of land if the mouth could be protected from the Pacific
surf. There is also Bishop Gainza's project that might be revived, that
of cutting a canal for country craft from Pasacao in Camarines Sur to
the River Vicol. In Negros and Panay some short lines from the ports
through the sugar lands might pay if constructed very economically.
Tramways between populous towns not far apart in Luzon and Panay
would probably pay very well, as the people are fond of visiting
their friends.
It will probably be many years before Mindanao will be in a position
to warrant the construction of railways. The island has relapsed into
barbarism as a consequence of the withdrawal of the Spanish garrisons
and detachments, and of nearly all the Jesuit missionaries.
It could, however, give employment to a flotilla of small steamers
and sailing vessels on its northern and southern coasts.
Such is my opinion in brief upon the possibilities of the development
of industries and commerce.
That the commerce of the islands, now mainly British, will ultimately
pass into American hands, can scarcely be doubted. They are not yet
firmly seated in power, but their attitude to British and foreign firms
is already sufficiently pronounced to allow an observant onlooker to
make a forecast of what it will be later on.
Dominating Cuba, holding the Philippines, the Sandwich Islands and
Porto Rico, the Americans will control the cane sugar trade, the
tobacco trade, and the hemp trade, in addition to the vast branches
of production they now hold in their hands.