The working forces of certain bureaus of the government have been utilized for purposes of special instruction in surveying, printing and binding, and forestry, and even the inmates of penal institutions are not forgotten, but have good schools provided for them.
Quite as important as the development of the minds of the young is the development of their bodies through the introduction of athletic games and sports, which have incidentally promoted intercommunication and mutual understanding between the several Filipino peoples. In many regions baseball is emptying the cockpits, and thus aiding the cause of good order and morality.
Educational work has not been limited to the Filipinos, but has been carried on among the children of the wilder tribes, many of whom are proving to be apt pupils and are making extraordinary progress in industrial work.
By educating the masses we are giving to the Filipinos proper, as distinguished from the mestizo politicians, the first opportunity they have ever had to show what is in them.
The means of the government are at present insufficient to educate all of the eight hundred thousand children who, it is believed, would attend school voluntarily if given the opportunity. The insular revenues are derived chiefly from import duties and internal revenue taxes, so that there is a very direct relationship between the amount of government receipts and the volume of business of the country. Careful attention has long been given to stimulating the development of the vast natural resources of the archipelago in order to increase the prosperity of the people and that of the government, which are inseparably united.
Owing to the breaking up of the land area of the country into a very large number of small units, water transportation plays an unusually important part in commercial development. More than two-thirds of the very long coast line has been surveyed, as have the waters adjacent thereto.
The former scarcity of lighthouses has been remedied. An admirable weather service gives due warning of the approach of dangerous storms, and travel and the transportation of freight by sea have thus been rendered safe.
The previous almost complete lack of good roads has been remedied by the construction of four thousand four hundred miles of well-built, admirably maintained highways in the lowlands, supplemented in the highlands of Luzón and Mindanao and in the lowlands of Mindoro and Palawan, by some thirteen hundred miles of cart roads and horse trails. Hundreds of thousands of small farmers, who previously had no inducement to raise more than their families or their immediate neighbours could consume, because they were unable to sell their surplus products, have thus been brought within reach of the market.
The hundred and twenty-two miles of railway which we found in 1898 have been increased to six hundred eleven.
The government has utilized its coast-guard vessels to build up new trade routes until they became commercially profitable, so that private companies were willing to take them over.