The Philippine Islands and Their People 107 



around which are scattered their plots 

 of cultivated ground. Such a scattered 

 distribution of the farming population 

 as is seen in the United States is almost 

 unknown in these islands. 



GOVERNMENT 



The islands are organized into forty 

 civil provinces, the city of Manila, and 

 the semi-military, semi-civil province of 

 Mindanao — forty-two in all. The civil 

 provinces are divided into nearly one 

 thousand pueblos, which resemble in 

 certain ways our New England towns. 

 These are in turn subdivided into nearly 

 fourteen thousand barrios or villages. 



The chief executive officer is the civil 

 governor, who is aided by four Ameri- 

 cans, who serve as executive heads of 

 departments, with the title of secretary. 

 These five, with three Filipinos, form 

 the civil commission, which is the legis- 

 lative body. Within these four depart- 

 ments are numerous bureaus, which, 

 with two exceptions, have Americans 

 at their heads. The judiciary is mainly 

 composed of Americans, but contains 

 several able Filipino judges. 



The officers of the provinces are gov- 

 ernors, most of whom are Filipinos, and 

 treasurers and supervisors, all of whom 

 are Americans, and secretaries, all of 

 whom are Filipinos. The governor, 

 treasurer, and supervisor of each prov- 

 ince form the governing board, which 

 decides all matters of importance con- 

 cerning the province. The chief offi- 

 cers of the pueblos are the presidentes, 

 all of whom are Filipinos. The presi- 

 dentes of the pueblos and the govern- 

 ors of provinces are elected by the quali- 

 fied voters. The civil governor has the 

 right to suspend or remove any officer, 

 whether elected or appointed, and to fill 

 the vacancy thus created. 



Throughout, in the general govern- 

 ment, provincial government, and pueblo 

 government, the minor offices and the 

 clerical positions are in the main filled 

 by Filipinos, who make excellent clerks. 



The city of Manila is governed by a 

 commission appointed by the civil gov- 

 ernor, much as the District of Columbia 

 is governed. 



INDUSTRIES 



Farming is carried on extensively, but 

 by primitive methods and with primitive 

 tools. The plows and harrows are of 

 wood and are drawn by carabao . 



The agricultural products are very 

 numerous, but most of them are of little 

 importance. The chief products are 

 tobacco, which is grown mainly in north- 

 ern Luzon, and especially in the valley of 

 Cagayan River, in the northeastern part 

 of that island ; abaca, or Philippine hemp , 

 a species of banana palm, grown in 

 southern Luzon, the Visayan Islands, 

 and northern Mindanao, orwherever the 

 rain is well distributed throughout the 

 year; sugar, produced in various parts of 

 the islands, but principally on Negros and 

 Panay; rice, raised everywhere, but not 

 in sufficient quantity to supply the peo- 

 ple ; cocoanuts, which are found every- 

 where near the coast ; cacao and coffee. 

 Besides these, bananas and mangoes are 

 produced in abundance and are excel- 

 lent; oranges and lemons are very few, 

 and these few are wretched travesties 

 of the California fruit. Indeed, it seems 

 strange that, with a soil and climate that 

 will produce almost everything, vegeta- 

 bles and fruits are so few and so poor. 

 Fortunes await American market gar- 

 deners in the suburbs of Manila. 



In most parts of the islands the lands 

 are subdivided to an enormous extent, 

 and the cultivated tracts are very small. 

 A few thousand square feet, the area of 

 an ordinary city house lot, are sufficient 

 to provide the Tao and his family with 

 all that the} T require — a few bananas, a 

 little rice, and camotes or sweet pota- 

 toes. Their wants are limited and 

 easily supplied. Furthermore, nearly 

 everybody owns his place, or at least 

 claims to own it. There are, however, 

 many people holding land as squatters. 



