4 THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT 



The growing fleet of merchant vessels tliat ph' between China and 

 Australia are finding that Manila is on their direct route and are 

 already stopping, both coming and going, 'i'he time must soon come 

 when the majority of the steamers that cross the Pacific from our own 

 shores will make INIanila their terminal point instead of Hongkong, 

 or provide themselves with the best of connections. Then there are un- 

 limited possibilities for the development of coasting trade, with Manila 

 as the base and Yokohama, Kobe, Port Arthur, Chifu, Shanghai, 

 Amo}'^, Hongkong, Saigon, Bangkok, Singapore, Batavia, Port Darwin, 

 and Sydney as objective points. 



VAST NEIGHBORING OPPOHTUMTIES 



Moreover, in all the attention that we have been giving in recent 

 years to Japan and China, we have overlooked the mighty opportu- 

 nities of southern Asia and of the rich East Indian Archipelago, which 

 in turn rests, as it were, upon growing Australia. Every one knows 

 what a great future awaits the latter country. Just north of it, and 

 near neighbors to the Philippines, are such countries, undeveloped, 

 but possessing splendid resources, as Papua or New Guinea, Borneo, 

 and Sumatra, any one of which is larger than Texas and California 

 combined, and yet containing a ver}^ small population. They may 

 be intended by a wise Providence for the overflow that must come 

 some day from the continent of Asia. Only fifteen hundred miles to 

 the southwest of INIanila, and just l)elow Borneo, is Java, commonly 

 called the Garden of the East, where the Dutch have worked wonders. 

 A more peaceful and prosperous land, taken as a whole, cannot be 

 found in the wide world. This island, of the same area as Luzon, and 

 yet not so resourceful, su{)ports a population of over twenty millions 

 and has a foreign trade that amounts to $260,000,000 per annum. 

 How fcAV people in America realize that Java is covered with a net- 

 work of railways and has large, prosperous cities, whose harbors are 

 frequented by the merchant vessels of all lands. Here we have a lesson 

 as to the i)ossibilities before us in the Philipi)ines. 



The occasional insurrections that occur in certain parts of Java and 

 Sumatra are tolerated or allowed by the Dutch largely for the purpose 

 of having a reason for maintaining an arm}' and navy. It is a well- 

 known fact in the Orient that JTolland could end all possibilities of 

 local wars there if the ofticers of her army and navy w'ere so inclined. 



Only 1,300 miles southwest from Manila is Singapore, Britain's 

 proud gateway to the Orient, which has an annual commerce of 



