THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE 



ISLANDS 



One cannot go about over the Islands or study the statistics 

 of production of the Philippines in comparison with those of 

 other countries without being impressed with the fact that they 

 are very far from being developed. The Bureau of Lands es- 

 timates that less than half the agricultural lands of the Islands, 

 or approximately 7,000,000 acres, are in cultivation. When the 

 agricultural lands of the Philippines are as completely occupied 

 as are the farming lands of Japan, for example, the Philippines 

 will have a larger area under the plow than has Japan. 



Two courses are open for the development of the Philippine 

 Islands. A slow development which reserves the resources of 

 the country entirely for the use of the Filipino, and a rapid devel- 

 opment, similar to that which occurred in the United States, 

 through the opening of its doors without restriction to the 

 people of the world, and similar to that which is now taking 

 place in Canada through the same means. 



Within a quarter of a century the area under the plow in 

 the United States was doubled. Labor-saving machinery, im- 

 migration from northern Europe, capital from the mines and 

 from a large balance of the trade, all contributed to this re- 

 sult. In the Philippines the mines are not yet developed, and 

 labor-saving machinery cannot enter so largely into the system 

 of farming as it does in the States. Immigration to furnish the 

 labor and capital for developing fully and quickly the re- 

 sources of the Philippines would have to come from China, 

 Japan, and India, and capital for the present would have to 

 come from the outside. Capital would quickly follow labor 

 under conditions insuring the safety of the investment. 



Except in an industry which requires large capital and large 

 land areas under one management, as the sugar industry, the 

 Philippine Islands will naturally develop as family farms instead 

 of as haciendas. But both of these types of farming are neces- 

 sary to the proper development of the Philippines. The Gov- 

 ernment should quickly recognize the difference in the require- 

 ments of those phases of agriculture which require large areas, 

 much capital, and ample powers, and those which may be best 

 organized as household farms. 



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