Miscellaneous. 



262 



[September, 1910. 



facilities. I liken the work of the 

 Government on irrigation and im- 

 provement of transportation to cutting 

 the strings which close the mouth of a 

 purse of gold. The gold will pom forth 

 and yield enough for all. 



It is my hope that the Philippine 

 University will soon establish, among 

 other technical schools, a school of 

 engineering, so that the important work 

 of building up the public works of these 

 Islands may be placed gradually in the 

 hands of Filipinos. 



The Filipinos are as quick as any person 

 to indulge in desirable and health-giving 

 forms of amusement. Nothing could be 

 better for the Filipino than stimulating 

 his interest in wholesome outdoor sports, 

 to develop the body and divert the 

 mind. In the large cities of the United 

 States it is a well-known fact that crime 

 decreases in the neighborhood of play- 

 grounds for children, and I hope the 

 time is not far distant when every city 

 in the Philippine Islands will maintain a 

 plaza where children and young men 

 and women can indulge themselves in 

 healthy out-door recreation. A strong 

 body is earnest of a mind ready to work 

 and to endure, and the young men and 

 women of the Philippine Islands should 

 make it a matter of pride to have broad 

 and deep chests, finely developed mus- 

 cles, and hands inured to toil. 



Financial Prosperity. 



Financially the condition of the In- 

 sular Treasury has been most satisfac- 

 tory. We have had a reasonable surplus 

 and rate of expenditure for current ex- 

 pense which has left a comfortable mar- 

 gin, some of which has been available 

 each year for the construction of public 

 works out of the current revenues. Al- 

 though many people have got into the 

 habit of complaining that rate of taxation 

 is high, and there has been a good deal of 

 political agitation in favour of lower 

 taxes, a study of comparative figures 

 reveals the fact that the rate of taxation 

 in the Philippine Islands compared with 

 that of other countries similarly situated 

 is extremely low, and the Filipino who 

 questions the ability of his people to 

 pay the low rate of taxation now impos- 

 ed shows a great lack of confidence in 

 their capacity. 



The rinderpest is now the greatest 

 menace to material development. The 

 draft animals must be saved to the 

 farmer, otherwise he can neither culti- 

 vate the land nor haul his products to 

 market. The method of immunization is 

 now known. The control of this disease 

 is now a question of money and organi- 

 z ation, and I have already taken mea- 



sures to remedy the deficiencies that 

 have existed, and shall allow no stone to 

 remain unturned until this effort is 

 crowned with success. 



The destruction caused by locusts can 

 be greatly lessened in my judgment by a 

 system of rewards to be given for inform- 

 ation brought of the places where the 

 eggs are laid and, under provision of 

 existing law, turning out the populace 

 to destroy these or the young locusts 

 before they have reached the age when 

 thy can fly. 



The arm of the Government will be 

 strongly used to reach out and find and 

 punish those captains of steamers who 

 refuse to carry a consignment of goods 

 so that they may buy it at less than its 

 value. The hand of the Government will 

 be heavily on those officials— insular, 

 provincial, or municipal — who use their 

 position to compel anyone to sell his 

 products at a price that he knows to be 

 so low as to be unfair. 



Conclusion. 



To the Filipinos I say, turn your un- 

 divided attention to the material deve- 

 lopment of your country, and rest con- 

 fident in the good faith of the United 

 States. If it were the desire of the United 

 States to prevent the Filipinos from be- 

 coming a progressive, happy, and united 

 people, strong in the accumulations of 

 wealth and knowledge and capable of 

 nationality, we should not be devoting 

 our entire energies towards the accom- 

 plishment of those measures which make 

 such a nationality possible ; we should 

 not be providing all of the people of the 

 Islands with a common language ; we 

 should not be maintaining different 

 organizations of armed Filipinos drilled 

 in art of war, aggregating 10,000 men, of 

 whom 5,000 are paid from the Treasury 

 of the United States as United States 

 troops ; we should not be extending the 

 privileges of occupying the more import- 

 ant posts in the Government services 

 to Filipinos ; we should not be devoting 

 our first efforts towards binding the 

 Filipinos together into a closer union by 

 those ties which come from improved 

 means of communication, as post-offices, 

 telegraphs and telephones, railroads, 

 roads, subsidized steamboats, and so 

 forth. 



I regret to have to say that in my 

 judgment in some instances the Filipinos 

 themselves have hindered the fruition 

 of these efforts, as for example by dis- 

 couraging the universal adoption of a 

 common language, by endeavouring to 

 avert the opening of the markets of the 

 United States to Filipinos products, and 



