Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-10-15
SPANS TWO FAIR ISLES.
Philippines Are Also in Revolt-Won-
der War Can Arouse Them.

Philippines Are Also in Revolt-Won-
der War Can Arouse Them.
Spain now has both hands full with
her two island possessions of fertile
lands. One hand is extended to crush
rebellion in Cuba, while the other
reaches oul TO stay revolution in the
Philippines. The Philippine Islands
have been bound to the civilized world
only by thread Of commercial and
missionary interest. The 1000 or more
Islands OF the archipelago know little
of the nineteenth century, it's ways and
civilization, for within their borders
have been preserved remains of the
middle ages, including bits of pagan
/ ism of prehistoric days.
Since the discovery of the islands by
Magellan, in 1921, they have, like the
/ West Indies, been known as garden
! spots, where vegetation fitted for hui
man food grows while man sleeps.
The archipelago is emphatically a land
of rest. Rest is the peoples principal
occupation. 1t is a wonder that war
can arouse them
Such is the character of the people
who now object to paying Spain an in
come tax, whether they have the in
come or not, and who object to giving
the public forty days labor annually.
Not one in thousand of the hetero-
| geneous 100000 of persons who in
habit the islands ever did forty days
of solid work in any year, and few
there are who have expended enough
energy in their entire lives to equal
forty days of western toll. How these
people can awake to war and how they
can gather energy enough to wage war
is wonder.
| The nominal rule of Spain over the
$4,000 of square miles of dry land that
constitute the Philippine Islands began
in 1860, but was not generally ac-
knowledged until 1929. In many por-
lions of the archipelago the rule of the
Spanish crown today hardly reaches
the dignity of being nominal, for thou
sands of the natives never heard of
Spain, and Spain knows little of them
and less of their country.
| Tens of thousands of square miles of
the Islands are unknown to geography,
excepting that they are embraced with
in an uncertainty defined coast line
Within some of these lines live
! thousands of natives, who have gov
ernments under tribal chiefs, entirely
Independent of Spanish rule. They
know nothing of Spain. They have
their kings and their wars in blissful
ignorance of the fact that they are all
subjects of a foreign crown. This is
particularly true in Mindanao, where
there are impenetrable jungles, rugged
mountains, beettling cliffs, and active
volcanoes. Here the natives are In
tribes under rival kings, and here they
fight regardless of Spain. Spain has
never molested these people of Minda-
mao, and many other tribes scattered
about the archipelago have had the
same immunity.
Cavite, the center of the present rev.
olution, is ten European miles from Ma
Mia, the capital of the Island of Luzon,
the main island of the group.
The islands are all subject to earth
quakes, and the districts of Manila, Ca
vite, Iloilo and Santa Anna have all
suffered severely at various times. All
the buildings of the natives are thatch-
ed, so as to lessen the danger in case
of earth trembles at night.
There are many wealthy Chinese in
the Philippines. They monopolize the
merchant service. They buy from the
planter and sugar-maker and sell to
Europeans and Americans.
The Spaniards compel them to pay an
enormous tax. All government offices
are filled by the Spaniards. There have
never been any public improvements
in any Of the islands.-New York Her
aid.