Miscellaneous, 



260 



[September, 1910. 



pino, and both are now permanently 

 assured. It would be good general 

 policy for us to offer every reasonable 

 inducement to capital to come, and with 

 that end in view, to liberalise our land 

 and mining laws aud lessen the restric- 

 tions which have hitherto tended to 

 discourage investors. My policy will be 

 to hold oat the hand of welcome to all 

 people desiring to engage in legitimate 

 enterprise. 



The passage of the Payne Bill should 

 give a new lease of life to the Philippine 

 Islands. It assures of the best market 

 in the world for our products, a market 

 that is not open to our neighbours, and 

 therefore gives the Philippine Islands a 

 preference which should enable us to 

 increase very greatly the production of 

 certain of our staples. This will have a 

 vivifying effect which will be felt 

 throughout the length and breadth of 

 these Islands and awaken new hope in 

 the hearts of the people who have been 

 struggling against almost overwhelming 

 difficulties. 



Means of Transportation. 

 Railroads.— It is part of our pro- 

 gramme to push to early completion a 

 general and systematic improvement of 

 the means of transportation. The exist- 

 ing contracts for railroads aggregate 

 nearly a thousand miles, of which half 

 are now built. This in itself is earnest of 

 the beginning of the new era aud will 

 provide adequate transportation for a 

 arge proportion of the people. 



Rivers and Harbours. — The Govern- 

 ment should bend its efforts toward 

 the development of the rivers and 

 harbours — a potential means of trans- 

 portation which should equal in im- 

 portance the facilities supplied by the 

 railroads. We have more than a hun- 

 dred rivers navigable within but closed 

 at the mouth to the entrance of seagoing 

 vessels by reason of the bars formed by 

 the action of the waves at the shore. 

 Especial attention should be given to 

 the dredging of these bars and the build- 

 ing of bulkheads and scourways to render 

 these natural highways available for 

 the use and development of the Islands, 

 and the Government should not rest 

 until both sides of everyone of these 

 navigable rivers are lined from end to 

 end with farms occupied and worked by 

 prosperous and happy people. 



Hightvays,— More important still, and 

 supplementary to all of these, are the 

 roads, and in the present progress of 

 the work in connection with roads, I 

 find the most happy augury for the 

 future success of the Philippine people. 



In December, 1907, the Commission, until 

 then the sole legislative body of the 

 Islands, adjourned without passing any 

 law making adequate provision for the 

 necessary construction and annual main- 

 tenance of roads. I am glad to credit 

 the members of the Assembly for 

 having taken the most advanced and 

 enlightened interest in the work, and 

 having made the most liberal provision 

 for roads by voting funds for that pur- 

 pose to the limit of the capacity of 

 the treasury. Before the Legislature 

 had convened the Commission had passed 

 a law making a majority of the Pro- 

 vincial boards elective, a measure which 

 provided for the extension of autonomy 

 to the provinces in line with the in- 

 struction of Presidents McKinley and 

 Roosevelt and the policy of the American 

 Government here. The success of the 

 road movement depended upon getting 

 the provincial board to pass a law 

 each year increasing the amount of 

 the cedula or poll tax from Pi to P2. 

 To do this it is necessary to convince 

 the provincial officials each year of the 

 necessity of road construction aud main- 

 tenance for their own present develop- 

 ment and future welfare. How nobly 

 these officers have responded is demon- 

 strated by the fact that the first year 

 27 of the 31, the second year 30, and 

 the third year 31, or all of the provinces 

 affected, have adopted the double cedula 

 tax aud put themselves in the line of 

 advancement. 



Public Health. 

 The Filipinos are not strong enough 

 to do the work which is required of 

 able-bodied people. Examinations made 

 by the sanitary authorities reveal the 

 fact that in the regions inspected, which 

 may be taken as fairly representative, by 

 far the greater majority of the people are 

 afflicted are with more than one form of 

 intestinal parasite, which sap the vitality 

 aud lessen the power to do work and 

 the power of resisting disease. The most 

 fruitful sources of these parasites are 

 the polluted surface waters which the 

 people have been accustomed to drink. 

 A supply of pure potable water is the 

 first requisite for the purpose of sani- 

 tation. To this end the most important 

 agency is that of the artesian wells, 

 which should be bored in every muni- 

 cipality aud barrio in the Islands. 

 Fortunately, the people themselves are 

 most keenly alive to this necessity, and 

 there has been no difficulty in getting 

 a vote of the Philippine representatives 

 of the different entities of government^— 

 Insular, provincial, and municipal— in 

 favour of this most vital and im- 

 portant work. 



