A Revelation of the Filipinos 



187 



gaged in gainful occupations. A much 

 smaller proportion are engaged in manu- 

 facturing and mechanical pursuits, while 

 the number in professional service is 

 exceedingly small, forming less than 

 one per cent of the entire number gain- 

 fully employed. 



Among the Filipinos themselves there 

 are 1,326 physicians, 676 priests, and 

 727 lawyers. Nearly one-half of the 

 Chinese wage-earners are merchants or 

 salesmen. Of the foreign or white pop- 

 ulation a small proportion is engaged in 

 agriculture, but most of them are found 

 in the trades and professions. 



The following table shows the pro- 

 portion of the wage-earners in each age 

 group to the total population, and with 

 it, for comparison, corresponding fig- 

 ures from the census of 1899 for Cuba 

 and Porto Rico. 



Age period. 



Philip- 

 pine 

 Islands. 



Cuba. 



Porto 

 Rico. 



10 to 14 years 



16.8 



24.6 



22.4 





66.9 



52.5 



51.8 



25 to 34 years 



72.4 



58.5 



54-3 



35 to 44 years 



74-3 



60.4 



56.9 



45 to 54 years 



72.5 



60.3 



55-4 



55 to 64 years 



65.8 



59-5 



53 2 





42 7 



52.0 



44-5 



EXCESS OF BIRTHS OVER DEATHS IS 

 LARGE 



The average excess of births over 

 deaths in the Philippine Islands for the 

 last 25 years is 8.8 per thousand, but 

 excluding the cholera years (1879, 1889, 

 and 1890) , when the death rate exceeded 

 the birth rate, it was 17 per thousand 

 per year. This is higher than that of 

 the United Kingdom, Sweden, Nor- 

 way, Japan, Italy, and Germany, but 

 slightly less than that of the United 

 States. It is many times that of France 

 and Ireland and double that of Switzer- 

 land. Yet with this great excess of 

 births over deaths, the population has 



not increased rapidly. It has taken 

 nearly sixty years to double in number, 

 and is now only four times as great as 

 at the beginning of the century, while 

 in that time the population of the United 

 States has multiplied fifteen times. The 

 cause for this is the epidemics, such as 

 cholera, plague, and smallpox, especially 

 the first, which periodically sweep over 

 the islands and in a single year wipe out 

 the gains of the preceding two or three 

 years. So the population has grown by 

 a series of regular and rather rapid ac- 

 cretions, succeeded by sudden and great 

 losses. Thus the cholera epidemic of 

 1879 must have destroyed 400,000 lives, 

 equivalent, approximately, to the nor- 

 mal increase in three years. The chol- 

 era epidemic of 1889 and 1890 was not 

 so severe, its victims numbering in the 

 two years about 260,000, while that of 

 the year 1902 must have destroyed over 

 200,000 people. 



The death rate for the year 1902, 63.3 

 per thousand, was just about double the 

 normal, and was in large part due to 

 the prevalence of cholera. Other things, 

 such as the loss of crops through locusts, 

 the loss of carabao, and the aftereffects 

 of the insurrection, by which the consti- 

 tutions of those affected by it were un- 

 dermined, through hardship, exposure, 

 and want of food, probably contributed. 



THE CAUSE OF DEATH 



The smallest proportion of deaths oc- 

 curred in the cool season (November to 

 February) . In the warm season (March 

 to June) there occurred 28.4 per cent, 

 and in the wet season (July to October) 

 not less than 47.1 per cent. 



Of all the deaths that occurred in the 

 Philippine Islands in the year 1902, 311 

 out of every thousand, or nearly one- 

 third, were caused by Asiatic cholera. 

 The large death rate from this source 

 may be regarded as extraordinary. It 

 was not so, however, with the fatality 

 from malarial fevers, which are always 

 prevalent in the islands, and probably 



