PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



537 



additional capital in since the American occupa- 

 tion, but very little American capital has flowed 

 in, although sugar, cacao, and coconut planta- 

 tions return over cent, per cent., machinery is 

 needed for cleaning rice, hemp and cacao grow 

 wild and go to waste, the vast mineral wealth 

 of the islands remains untouched, steam com- 

 munication between the islands is a crying need, 

 the forests contain woods capable of a high 

 polish and are as fine in color and markings as 

 any cabinet-woods in the world, there are forests 

 of gutta-percha trees awaiting exploitation, and 

 pearl fishing is an enterprise of great promise 

 into which Japanese and Russians have already 

 ventured. Existing businesses have such need 

 of capital that 25 per cent, is paid for well-se- 

 cured loans. The new fall in the gold value of 

 silver in 1902 disturbed the external commerce 

 and the internal business situation. The Philip- 

 pine Government advocates a gold basis. In 

 November, 1902, the Government was compelled 

 to raise the rate of exchange to 250, making 

 the value of the Mexican dollar 40 cents in Uni- 

 ted States money. A silver currency for the 

 Philippines with a dollar exchangeable at an offi- 

 cial fixed rate for half a dollar in gold, like the 

 Japanese yen, is recommended by Lieut.-Gov. 

 Luke E. Wright, the Secretary of Commerce. 



Railroads and Telegraphs. There -is a rail- 

 road running northward from Manila through 

 the center of Luzon, the length of which is 120 

 miles. The telegraphs have a length of 720 miles. 



End of the Insurrection. At the beginning 

 of 1902 the insurrection was extinguished in all 

 parts of the peninsula except in the provinces 

 of Batangas and Laguna and the islands of Sa- 

 mar, Mindoro, Cebu, and Bohol. In Mindanao 

 the Government entered into arrangements 

 with the Mohammedan chiefs, but did not at- 

 tempt to impose direct American rule over the 

 Moros. Except among these people and in the 

 disturbed districts it was safe to travel unarmed 

 in all the provinces. To prevent a recrudescence 

 of the insurrection a sweeping law was enacted 

 by the Philippine Commission declaring it to be 

 treason to levy war against the Government or 

 give aid or comfort to the enemy, misprision of 

 treason to conceal knowledge of treason, crim- 

 inal insurrection to incite or abet any movement 

 for the overthrow of the Government, conspiracy 

 to plot to destroy the Government or hinder the 

 execution of its laws, and sedition to rise tu- 

 multuously to prevent the promulgation of laws, 

 the free holding of elections, or the execution of 

 judicial or administrative orders by provincial, 

 municipal, or other public officials, or to inflict 

 any -act of hate or revenge upon insular, provin- 

 cial, or municipal officials, or with political or 

 social objects upon any other individuals or class. 

 The punishment for these various crimes was im- 

 prisonment for terms of which the maximum 

 varied from five to ten years. Any person litter- 

 ing seditious words, or circulating libels or in- 

 stigating cabals against the Government, or in- 

 citing conspiracies or riots to obstruct the execu- 

 tion of the laws or stir up the people against 

 lawful authority or disturb the peace, was made 

 punishable with two years' imprisonment; and a 

 term of one year was decreed for persons belong- 

 ing to secret societies or forming new ones for 

 promoting treason, rebellion, or sedition, or the 

 promulgation of any political opinion or policy, 

 while every person administering or attending a 

 meeting where oaths were administered binding 

 a person to commit crimes against the Govern- 

 ment could be imprisoned for ten years, and every 

 one administering or consenting to oaths or en- 



gagements to take part in any seditious practise 

 or disturbance of the peace or to refuse to inform 

 against confederates or reveal any unlawful con- 

 spiracy or secret society was made punishable 

 with imprisonment for five years. Until the state 

 of war or insurrection should be officially pro- 

 claimed to be at an end it was declared to be un- 

 lawful and punishable with one year's imprison- 

 ment to advocate orally or in writing or print the 

 independence of the Philippine Islands or their 

 separation from the United States, whether by 

 forcible or peaceable means. Any person having 

 taken an oath of allegiance to the United States 

 who afterward violated the oath was made liable 

 to ten years' imprisonment. The provisions of 

 the law did not extend to the provinces still in 

 insurrection. This law, copied from the United 

 States statute of treason in its main provisions, 

 was a brutwn fulmen as far as any possibility 

 of checking the insurrection by fear of the civil 

 power was concerned. The civil power was not 

 there to inspire fear, but to encourage self-reli- 

 ance and ideas of liberty, to win the confidence 

 of the natives, and to train them in self-govern- 

 ment, a task that seemed hopeless owing to their 

 abject and blind submission to those of their fel- 

 lows who were sufficiently intelligent, rich, pow- 

 erful, ruthless, cunning, and masterful to compel 

 a superstitious obedience and devotion springing . 

 from awe of the superior and dread of the tyrant. 

 It was the army's work to suppress the insurrec- 

 tion, and now when the insurgents were reduced 

 to the guerrilla bands of half a dozen of the most 

 disreputable of the leaders operating still in only 

 four provinces it seemed as interminable as when 

 the Philippine republic was alive with an army 

 in the field. The civil officials and many of the 

 military garrisons were getting on admirably 

 with the Filipinos, whose ready intelligence, 

 friendly and hospitable disposition, and eagerness 

 to become Americanized persuaded the Americans 

 stationed among them that if all Americans 

 treated the Filipinos with confidence and respect 

 and made them their friends all the troubles 

 would disappear. That was not the opinion of 

 the soldiers sent to crush out the rebellion in 

 the disturbed provinces. They knew that if they 

 treated the natives with friendly confidence they 

 were liable to be massacred as at Balangiga; that 

 every native who proved his friendship by help- 

 ing them to capture insurrectos or concealed arms 

 was marked out for murder; that the leading men 

 in the community, who received them with hos- 

 pitality and professions of loyalty and praised 

 the American system of government of which 

 they themselves were sworn officials were at the 

 same time in constant communication with the 

 insurgent leaders; that the rebel bands subsisted 

 on the willing or unwilling contributions of these 

 peaceful Americanized municipalities They 

 learned from Macabebe scouts and native volun- 

 teers ways of extracting information as to the 

 whereabouts of insurgents and hidden arms that 

 were sanctioned by native custom, though not by 

 the rules of civilized warfare. Fighting in the 

 Philippines is fraught with difficulties and tenors. 

 The long and usually bootless marches in mud 

 or dust with insufficient food, the stifling heat, 

 the fever and other tropical ailments unnerve 

 and incapacitate men for dealing with an alert 

 and treacherous foe. The American soldiers have 

 frequently met a sudden surprise or ambush 

 when every one in the detachment was faint with 

 sickness, and never have they run or given up 

 their arms. Yet they had reason to dread an 

 enemy so agile that a boloman could creep up 

 unseen like a snake, spring at a sentry, and 



