The Philippines 



373 



lars (gold) a month. He does that in 

 some way. I do not know how he does 

 it. He will live there a year, and at the 

 end of that year he will go out of the 

 laboring business and he will set up a 

 store next to a Filipino woman, who is 

 the man of the concern ordinarily and 

 who is the business person of the com- 

 munity among the Filipinos. He will 

 drive that woman out of business within 

 six months. That is the reason why 

 the Filipinos do not like the Chinese 

 there, and that is the reason why, in 

 the history of the islands, if you will 

 go back, there has been massacre after 

 massacre of Chinamen. It would seem, 

 therefore, an unwise political move. 

 But if the development of the country 

 without the admission of Chinamen is 

 impossible, possibly we ought to run the 

 risk of both. Well, now, is it ? Mr 

 Ireland says that it is. We have let this 

 very large public work, which will cost 

 from four to five millions of dollars — the 

 construction of the Manila harbor works. 

 We let it, after advertising, to the At- 

 lantic and Pacific Gulf Company of the 

 United States. Mr Mullen was at the 

 head of it, and he came out and looked 

 around. He said that he did not think 

 that the Filipinos were good for any- 

 thing, and that he would employ Amer- 

 icans and Chinamen and any one else he 

 could get. There are only 50,000 China- 

 men in the islands, and they know that 

 no more can come there and they know 

 that that increases their value, and that 

 that makes them more desirable, and 

 then they become less useful, so that 

 they do not make as good laborers in 

 the Philippines as they do at home, 

 where they have to scramble for a living. 



MR KRUSI'S METHOD OF GETTING 

 GOOD LABORERS 



A gentleman by the name of Mr Krusi 

 came out as vice-president of the com- 

 pany, and he concluded that he would 

 make a different experiment. The com- 

 pany had a big quarry from which they 



had to take the stone to construct the 

 breakwater. Mr Krusi built a house. 

 You know they can build a house 

 there — such a house as they live in 

 there — constructed of bamboo and nipa 

 palm. The floors are made of split 

 bamboo, and so the floor serves the pur- 

 pose of both the bed and the floor, and 

 you can see through to the ground 4 or 

 5 feet below it. Everything is airy and 

 comfortable. Now, that is the kind of 

 house he built for each family. He 

 had a theater, he had a church, he had 

 a school-house, he had actresses, he had 

 a priest, he had a teacher, he had a cock- 

 pit, he had a band. The band played 

 every evening, the cockpit was open on 

 fiesta days, the theater was open three 

 times a week, the church was open all the 

 time. Before three months had passed 

 he had 1,500 laborers there, and he had 

 to call the police to keep others away 

 who were trying to get work there. 

 He says that he has never had better 

 labor than he has had in his quarry. 

 He had to employ from 5 to 8 per cent 

 of American foremen — that is, men who 

 would go in — not gentlemen foremen, 

 but men he sent in to help to do the 

 work — to show the men how the work 

 was to be done. He said that he had 

 no trouble whatever, and that the work 

 was much better than it was before. 



Well, now, another example : The 

 street railway has just been con- 

 structed — 33 miles of it — and they have 

 had from 1,000 to 1,200 men at work, 

 and they have constructed the street 

 railway in Manila at a less cost per mile 

 than they could have built it in Wash- 

 ington or New York. That shows that 

 the cost per unit of product of labor is 

 less with the Filipino laborer. So it 

 has been the case with the government 

 works ; but it was supposed that be- 

 cause the government paid a little more 

 than the rest that it could get better 

 labor. Now, it is quite possible in this 

 instance, being in and about the city, 

 that they got the benefit of the best 



