Ten Years in the Philippines 



J 47 



struction of plague-infected rats, so that 

 during the last year there were no cases 

 of bubonic plague whatever. 



LEPROSY ALSO BEING ERADICATED 



When the Americans first began gov- 

 ernment in the Philippines it was re- 

 ported that leprosy was so widely ex- 

 tended in the islands that there were 

 probably from 25,000 to 50,000 lepers to 

 be cared for. After many unsuccessful 

 efforts a leper colony has finally been 

 established at Culion, a healthful and at- 

 tractive island between Panay and Pala- 

 wan, to which all the lepers of the islands 

 are now being gradually removed. The 

 number probably does not exceed 3,000. 

 The course pursued is to take each prov- 

 ince separately and by thorough investi- 

 gation of the reported cases of lepers de- 

 termine those of true leprosy and to re- 

 move them thence to the colony of Cu- 

 lion. The experiment at first was a 

 doubtful one because of the objection of 

 the lepers to being taken so far away 

 from their homes, and some of the friends 

 of lepers made vigorous objections 

 to this course. After the removal of the 

 first 500, however, and when they found 

 how comfortable and agreeable life at 

 Culion was, the objections ceased. Lep- 

 rosy as a disease usually does not directly 

 kill its victims, but it so weakens the 

 powers of their resistance that the rate 

 of mortality from other causes among 

 lepers is very high. The system of iso- 

 lation and withdrawing lepers from the 

 thickly populated communities has been 

 at once justified by the reduction in the 

 number of new cases. The number of 

 known lepers in the archipelago on Sep- 

 tember 1, 1905, was 3,580; on June 30, 

 1907, it was 2,826, a decrease of 654, due 

 to the death of the known lepers without 

 any spread of the disease, as had been the 

 case in previous years and under different 

 conditions. The policy of removal of 

 lepers is one which can only be carried 

 out gradually and has been aoplied onlv 

 to a part of the provinces, but it will 

 probably be completed in three or four 

 years, when all the leoers will be removed 

 to Culion, and the effect of this isolation 



will certainly be to reduce the infection 

 of healthful persons with the awful dis- 

 ease to a minimum. 



RAILROADS IN THE PHILIPPINES 



In my last annual report I set forth in 

 detail the concessions granted for the 

 construction of railroads in Luzon, 

 Panay, Cebu, and Negros, and showed 

 that within five years we might expect 

 that, instead of a single line of railway 

 120 miles in length, which was all that we 

 found when we occupied the islands, we 

 would have a system with a mileage of 

 1,000 miles. Work has gone on in full 

 compliance with the terms of the conces- 

 sions of the two companies. 



Only one of these companies took ad- 

 vantage of the provision for the guaranty 

 of bonds, and they have built about 40 

 miles of road and have earned, under the 

 terms of the concession, the guaranty of 

 $973,000 of bonds, which has already 

 been signed and delivered by the Philip- 

 pine government. Of course, in this 

 financial panic these companies are likely 

 to have difficulty in securing investors in 

 their securities. 



The roads as constructed have been 

 well constructed, and are admirably 

 adapted to resist the climatic conditions 

 in the islands. There is no reason in my 

 judgment why these roads, when con- 

 structed, should not pay a reasonable 

 percentage upon the investment. It is of 

 the utmost difficulty to secure the coming 

 of capital to the islands, and it would 

 greatly aid us if the dividends earned by 

 these roads were very large. In the 

 Orient two-thirds of the income of rail- 

 ways comes from passenger earnings 

 and one-third from freight. Of course, 

 the railroads are very essential to the 

 agricultural interests of the country and 

 will directly affect the amount of exports 

 of agricultural products, so we may 

 count on a steady increase in the freight 

 receipts from the moment of their be- 

 ginning operation. As I say, however, 

 the chief hope for profit in the railways 

 is in the passenger traffic. 



In the three Visayas, in which the rail- 

 roads are to be constructed, the density of 



