The old world and its ways

by William Jennings Bryan

In the government printing office nearly nine-tenths of the employés are natives (and the proportion is increasing), and Mr. Leach, the public printer, informed me that they readily learned the work and were able to run the typesetting machines and presses, do the bookbinding and stereotyping and other skilled work connected with the office. The newspaper offices of the city also employ native labor, and I need not remind my readers that the members of the various typographical unions of the United States are among the most intelligent of our skilled laborers. We visited the largest tobacco factory in Manila, the Germinal, and found between twelve and fifteen hundred men and women making cigars and cigarettes by hand and by machine. There are several smaller factories, and all are operated by native labor.

One of the leading furniture manufacturers of Manila is authority for the statement that in wood carving the Filipino soon becomes the equal of the Japanese artisan. The Philippine Islands are so near the Equator that the heat of the sun in the middle of the day and during the almost twelve months of summer must be taken into consideration. When due allowance is made for climatic conditions and for the fact that the inhabitant of the tropics lacks the spur of necessity which ever urges on the dweller in higher latitudes, one is inclined to excuse any seeming lack of industry. Sure it is that those who come here from America and Europe do not as a rule do enough manual labor to enable a comparison between them and the natives.

Besides those who work in the fields, on the streets and in the factories, there is an army of fishermen and boatmen. Fish forms a considerable part of the food supply of the island, and these are brought from the ocean, from the rivers and from the lakes by a hardy and active people. Much of the commerce is carried by water, and the boats are manned by natives. Except where the Chinese have monopolized the mercantile business, the stores are kept by Filipinos, men and women sharing the labor as they do in France.

And speaking of the women, it must be remembered that woman occupies a much higher place in the Philippines than in any other part of the Orient. The Filipinos contend that even before Spanish influence made itself felt in the islands, woman was accorded an equal place with man and divided with him both the honors and the responsibilities of the home. However this may be, it cannot be doubted that at present the rights of woman and her position in the family and in society are respected fully as much as in continental Europe. Her influence is felt in industrial and political life as well as in the church. At one reception a lady law student delivered an excellent address.

THE ACCOMPLISHED WIFE OF A FILIPINO OFFICIAL.

Under Spanish rule education was confined to a few. In fact, one of the indictments brought against the Friars by the natives was that educational facilities were denied to the masses. This, too, brought the Jesuits, the friends of education, into conflict with the Friars. But comparatively few of the people enjoyed the advantages of higher education, and these were a controlling influence in their respective communities. As in Mexico and in Cuba, the cultured men and women of the Philippines are thoroughly refined and polished in manner.

The American government has had no difficulty in finding men competent to fill the offices which have been assigned to the natives, three of the seven members of the commission and three of the seven supreme court judges being Filipinos. The governors and mayors are nearly all Filipinos, as are most of the judges of the lower courts. As there is no satisfactory service by private boats, the commission furnished us a coastguard steamer for a tour of the islands, the passengers paying the cost of subsistence, and we were thus enabled to visit the principal cities. At all of these places we found a group of intellectual and public spirited men. At Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu and Santa Barbara there were addresses of welcome and public receptions, and the views of the residents were presented in clear and well chosen language. At Malolos, the first capital of the Aguinaldo government, which we visited as the guest of a committee of prominent Filipinos, similar speeches were delivered, which met with the approval of the assembled crowd. At Manila a public dinner was given by a number of representative Filipinos, headed by Mayor Roxas, at which speeches were made by Filipinos distinguished in official and professional life. The addresses delivered on these several occasions would compare favorably with speeches delivered under similar circumstances in the United States. While some of the persons who took part in these meetings showed traces of Spanish blood, others were unmistakably Filipino; but the racial differences could not be distinguished by the manner in which they performed their parts.

While at Manila I met General Aguinaldo, first at the reception tendered us by the Elks, and later at his own home in Cavite. Since his capture he has been living in retirement and has conducted himself in such a manner as to win the approbation of the American officials. He is small of stature, modest in deportment and manifests a deep interest in the welfare of his people. He has twice appealed to the government to establish an agricultural bank for the relief of the farmers, calling attention to the scarcity of money and to the high rate of interest (sometimes 40 or 50 per cent) charged the farmers on short loans. The agricultural bank was referred to by several speakers during our stay in the islands, and it is certain that, from an industrial standpoint, the government could do nothing which would be more beneficial or acceptable to the people.