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.
The Old Way of Crossing a River.
The New Way of Crossing a River.
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.