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.
A Typical Old-style Bridge.
A Typical Reënforced Concrete Bridge.
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.[15] 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.