November, 1910.] 



425 Agricultural Finance & Co-operation. 



THE IMBECILE BORROWERS AND 

 THE " TEN-PERCENTERS. " 



(From the Manila Bulletin, 3rd 

 October, 1910.) 



While the wave of reform is sweeping 

 over the Federal and Civil Governments 

 in these islands and the ten-percenters 

 are being precipitately turned out, 

 would it not be well to consider just 

 how far these men have been encouraged 

 in this line of activity by the compla- 

 cent, if not negative, attitude of the 

 officials in charge previous to this sudden 

 moral convulsion. And have these ten- 

 percenters in anyway impaired or other- 

 wise affected the efficiency of the services 

 referred to. 



We believe that effective results will 

 not be obtained by radical action, if the 

 officials are interested in increasing the 

 efficiency of the service: We would 

 suggest, as opposed to the radical 

 methods now employed in chasing a 

 phantom, that the governments interest- 

 ed first prohibit employees in the two 

 services from borrowing money from any 

 source at usurious rates before they 

 proceed to a slaughter of the lenders, 

 and then make both parties to an 

 usurious contract equally liable to 

 discipline. 



The usury question is a large one. It 

 has worried some very wise heads in 

 many generations and even legislation 

 has failed to exterminate the members 

 of the usury family. And no legislation 

 has succeeded in putting real brains in 

 the head of the imbecile borrower who 

 sees no menace to happiness in a contract 

 to pay interest at the rate of 120% per 

 annum. It is possible to break up an 

 illegal combination of money lenders 

 who pool the money of a community for 

 the purpose of advancing rates, but that 

 is not charged in this instance. 



We are firmly of the belief and we 

 advance it without reserve, that the 

 employee who borrows under an agree- 

 ment to pay exorbitant interest is a 

 greater menace to any government ser- 

 vice than the employee who is in a 

 position to lend money at ten per cent, a 

 month. The record of the Philippines 

 Service does not provide an instance 

 where a ten-percenter has helped himself 

 to government funds or permitted 

 himself to become a boarder at the 

 Bilibid Hotel, but few young men have 

 found their way to the last named domi- 

 cile who have not been known among 

 the imbecile class who believed the 

 solution of their financial difficulties 

 might be found in borrowing money at 

 120 per cent, per annum, 



54 



We are not advocating the cause of the 

 ten-percenter nor are we urging the 

 organization of a "Society for the 

 Prevention of Cruelty to Imbecile 

 Borrowers," but were we directly inter- 

 ested in maintaining a high efficiency 

 of service, we would proceed to clean 

 out the present supply of borrowers 

 first and retain at least enough ten-per- 

 centers to develop future irresponsibles 

 who might inadvertently seek a career 

 in helping to create a national deficit. 



We might say, however, that we have 

 looked over the list of meu suspended 

 and discharged during the recent con- 

 vulsion and there is not one name among 

 them t hat does not represent intelligent, 

 faithful service with a record of sobriety 

 and thrift. They have invariably, by 

 their conduct, proven a credit to the 

 American government. 



On the other hand, with very few ex- 

 ceptions, the boi rowers in the service 

 have been inefficient, have left a trail 

 of joy rides and chits to mark their 

 sojourn in the island and have served 

 generally by their conduct to injure 

 American prestige and discredit their 

 countrymen in the Orient to a greater 

 extent than any other vicious influence 

 abroad. 



And so let our officials make a wise 

 choice of the lesser of two evils and in- 

 stead of going off half cock, get down 

 to the real meat in the coconut so that 

 the reform proposed will mean an 

 intelligent adjustment of conditions 

 designed, not to impair the efficiency of 

 public service, but to promote it. 



THE NEED OF FARMERS' ASSOCI- 

 ATIONS AND WHAT THEY SHOULD 

 DO FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE. 



By Hon. Rafael Palma. 



(From the Philippine Agricultural 

 Review, Vol. III., No. 4, April, 1910.) 



It is a singular privilege for me, and 

 one of which I am proud, to speak be- 

 fore a congregation of men engaged in 

 such an old and honourable profession— 

 before the farmers of this country, upon 

 whom rests its future welfare. Farmers 

 constitute everywhere the powerful 

 propelling force behind national wealth ; 

 and in our country, essentially agricul- 

 tural, they represent, as in the human 

 skeleton, the backbone which sustains 

 and binds the human structure. You, 

 as farmers, have the most honourable 

 occupation of any men in the world . 



