Such conflicting reports have reached the United States regarding the Filipino people that I was anxious to study them for myself, and I feel that I am prepared to form an intelligent opinion upon the subject. I have seen representatives of all occupations in all parts of the islands, in the cities and in the country. I have conversed with students and professional men, visited the markets where the rank and file meet and exchange their products, watched the farmers at work in the fields and the laborers in the city, and I have made inquiries of both Americans and natives. The Filipinos are a branch of the Malay race, but there is such a strong resemblance between some of the individual Filipinos and the Japanese as to suggest the possibility of a mixing of bloods, if not a common origin. At Hong Kong I visited a Filipino of prominence, and the young lady who admitted me so resembled the Japanese that I was surprised to learn that she was the daughter of my host. A few hours later I noticed a young man attending to some business in a shipping office and supposed him to be a Japanese, but found that he also was a full blooded Filipino. The Filipinos are a little darker than the Japanese and may average a little taller, but I have constantly been reminded of the Land of the Rising Sun during my stay here.
GROUP OF FILIPINOS.
It is frequently said in disparagement of the Filipinos that they will not work, but this is answered conclusively by a patent and ever present fact, viz., that they produce their own food, make their own clothes, build their own homes and in other ways supply their needs. They have not the physical strength of the average American, nor have they the experience in machine labor or in the organization of work, but they will do more physical labor than a white man can perform in this climate and they have shown themselves capable of doing the finer kinds of work when instructed. They are also capable of successful co-operative effort when under efficient guidance. One of the commission informed me that the street car system lately inaugurated in Manila was put in at a labor cost of 40 per cent below the estimate, the work being done by Filipino laborers under an American contractor. This is certainly an excellent showing. The operating force is composed of Filipinos and the cars are run very successfully.
IN THE PHILIPPINES
The superintendent of the railroad from Manila to Dagupan, an Englishman, speaks very highly of the Filipinos employed on the road. He says that he uses natives entirely for the train service and that he has not had an accident on the road during the thirteen years of its operation.
A large company of men were unloading stone and gravel from barges near our hotel, and they were as industrious and as cheerful a lot of workmen as one could wish to see. They carried the material in baskets and accomplished more, so far as I could judge, than the coolies whom I saw at similar work in China. The Filipino demands better treatment than that accorded to the coolie, but when employed by those who understand him and show him proper consideration, he is both competent and faithful.