ANNIVERSARY NUMBER 1919 



127 



ing raises its head high above the surrounding 

 district and is imposing in Philippine archi- 

 tecture and hard-wood workmanship. 



The company has agents scattered to the 

 four winds wherever there are cocoanut 

 trees and these buy and ship to Manila all 

 the copra that can be handled. The heart 

 of the cocoanut district is in San Pablo, 

 Laguna, which is about 90 kilometers distant 

 from the city and a beautiful sight from the 

 road which winds up and up from the mesa. 

 So vast and unbroken a field of the trees is 

 hard to find anywhere in the tropics, and as 

 the breeze bends the heavy fronds of the 

 plants all in one direction, it might be the 

 waving tresses of some dark maiden of the 

 tropics streaming over the crest of the moun- 

 tains and reaching to the valley. 



When the copra reaches thelfactory in 

 sacks and is sent to the grinders by a system 

 of endless chains, it has been "touched by 

 human hands" for the last time. When, 

 after passing through the cookers, then to 

 the expellers, then into the filters for its last 

 refining, it is pumped into the oil river barges, 

 pumped into the tanks of the company's 

 steamers, and pumped either to the company's 

 storage tanks in its United States properties 

 or into the company's tank cars for shipment 

 to manufacturers of the States. 



This new system saves a tremendous 

 amount of labor which was performed in 

 .the days when the oil was barreled. The 

 company still maintains its own barrel factory 

 on a small scale for the storage of the oil for 

 Philippine consumption. The daily capacity 

 is 168 tons' an 1 it is -seldom that the 

 capacity had not been reached during the 

 last four years. 



Another small adjunct of the plant is a 

 soap factory which does not pretend to go 

 outside of the islands for its trade. This 

 soap is handled by an English house in Ma- 

 nila. Foundries, machine shops, power plant 

 and even the eating house for the employees 



STORAGE TANKS 



WAREHOUSE 



are located on the premises in order that 

 it will not be necessary' to depend on out- 

 side plants for anything. 



At different times of the year the company 

 employs more than 1,000 men in its Manila 



plant alone, and these, for purposes of con- 

 venience and facility as well as economy, 

 are fed in the company's huge dining pavilion. 

 An abundance of wholesome food is furnished 

 to the employees without cost, which, to the 

 workers, is one of the attractive features 

 about being employed there. 



The visitor who makes a tour of inspection 

 over the plant is not surprised at the huge 

 total of the yearly exports of the company. 

 When he sees an array of 24 great steel tanks 

 with a capacity of 10,000 tons of oil, sees 

 engines steaming up and down the yards 

 handling the company's own cars and placing 

 them in positions for unloading, glimpses 

 long rows of warehouses and a dozen great 

 buildings he can readily believe that he is 

 viewing one of the greatest establishments 

 of the kind in the world. The power plant 

 generates 3,800 amperes of electricity and 

 this current operates all the machinery and 

 lights of the whole establishment. 



A chemical laboratory was established 

 several years ago in connection with the 

 plant with the intention of making a re- 

 search of the possible by-products of copra. 

 Some progress was made in this line, but the 

 urgent demand for the vegetable oil precluded 

 for the time being all other considerations. 



FILTER ROOM 



