| Fiscal Year | Metric Tons (2205 Pounds) |
| 1899 | 30,812 |
| 1900 | 87,238 |
| 1901 | 126,732 |
| 1902 | 236,332 |
| 1903 | 268,650 |
| 1904 | 295,716 |
| 1905 | 269,666 |
| 1906 | 268,577 |
| 1907 | 295,684 |
| 1908 | 322,928 |
| 1909 | 294,902 |
| 1910 | 375,518 |
| 1911 | 413,735 |
| 1912 | 436,687 |
| 1913 (at the rate of) | 408,118[11] |
If possible, let us have more of this same kind of tariff-wrought poverty and commercial distress! The country needs it.
This extraordinary story of rapid increase in commercial prosperity, as well as in the volume of commerce between the Philippines and the United States, is but a faint indication of what would come about under a fixed policy which assured future adequate protection to life and property in these islands.
A Typical Cocoanut Grove.
Dried cocoanut meat is one of the principal exports of the Philippines.
Specific assurance that the United States would not surrender sovereignty over the archipelago until its inhabitants had demonstrated both ability and inclination to maintain a stable, just and effective government would be followed by a steady, healthful commercial development which would bring in its wake a degree of prosperity hitherto unknown and undreamed of. The Philippines have the best tropical climate in the world; soil of unsurpassed richness; great forest wealth; promising mines; and a constantly growing population willing to work for a reasonable wage. Give assurance of a stable government, and prosperity will increase by leaps and bounds. Turn the country over now, or ten years from now, to the Filipinos to govern, and the reputable business men, mindful of Aguinaldo’s demand for his share of the war booty when Manila was taken; of the attempted confiscation of the lands of the religious orders and of Spanish citizens generally,[12] of the proposal to tax foreigners[13] as such, and of the torturing of friars, other Spaniards and Filipinos as well, in order to extort money from them; of the widespread brigandage, the raping, the officially authorized and directed murdering and burying alive which prevailed during the period of undisturbed Filipino rule, will fold their tents like the Arabs and quietly steal away. There will remain that peculiar class of business men who, as the Filipinos put it, love to fish in troubled waters. They will not lack good fishing grounds.
Should we not stimulate the commercial development of the islands by adopting liberal provisions as to the sale of public lands, safeguarding the public interest by imposing at the same time severe conditions as to cultivation? And should not our anti-imperialist friends cease to rail at those of their countrymen who are willing to spend the money without which commercial development is impossible? Can they not grasp the fact that the influx of Americans and American capital sounds the death knell of slavery and peonage? It was Americans whose testimony enabled me to prove to the world the existence in the Philippines of these twin evils, and to bring pressure to bear which resulted in prohibitive legislation. It is Americans who are helping the poor Filipinos to become owners of land. It is Americans who are encouraging them to take contracts for cultivating cane, so that they have a direct interest in the crop.
Increasing prosperity means more money for the maintenance of order, for schools, for hospitals, for sanitary work and for public improvements. The diminution of exports which would promptly follow any serious disturbance of the peace of the country would result in the loss of much of the ground already gained.
The average business man is not a sentimentalist. So long as he can safely carry on his work, and can be sure of just treatment, he does not worry much over the nationality of the government officials who maintain such conditions, but he will not invest his money in a country where it is not reasonably certain that such conditions will continue to prevail.