Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-09-02
TAXES IN TIE PHILIPPINES
spain Had Worked Out Il System
of Absolute Robbery.

vi t'HoiutS
The revolt of the natives oi the
Philippines is the result OF SPANS
more than prehistoric methods oi
colonial government. Mi>rulc on Il
gigantic and uncomfortable scale -four
i.hcd in this Island empire" The
Pearl of the Orient"
! The actual number OF these islands
is As yet unknown, for the Spanlard
makes an unprogressive pioneer, but
there are estimated to be about | 400
OF them, great and small, nesting
away just north OF the equator. The
total area is in the neighborhOod oil
10000 square miles. The pOpula-
ton can only be guessed at; perhaps
100000 OF souls is fair figure at
which to place it.
The native population is OF the
Malay family, and from all accounts
q simple, asy-going people when left
to themselves, but capable of both
perseverance and courage of n high
and commendable order when keyed
up to the fighting pitch. There is Of
ten large admixture of foreign blood
in the veins of these islanders. 1t
may be either Spanish or Chinese, and
this mixed race, "Metizas," rs they
are called, forms one of the most in
fiuential classes in the Philippines.
The Philippine islander has been
probably the most persistcntly taxed
creature the sun shines on i'll the
world to-day, for the Spaniards whole
theory of taxation is nothing more or
less than an ingenious system OF
spoiliatiOn. He wants the natives
last copper, and generally speaking he
gets it. One must take into account
in considering this question of taxa
ton that the laborer or small farmer
in the Philippines earns on an average
OF from five to perhaps 10 cents day,
and work is no more steady there
than elsewhere, yet he yielded up by
way OF poll tax the neat little sum OF
SIS Il year, while his wife paid tax of
$l4. This tax was collected, too.
Any attempt at invasion was promptly
and sternly dealt with; if the culprit
was a man the thumb.screws were
used, and if woman she was stripped
and publicly beaten.
But the poll tax was merely the
start. If the native was small
farmer, lie must secure license before
he could pick and market the cocoa
nuts from his own trees. II he wished
to butcher COW or bullock or shear
his sheep, or cut down tree, he must
first pay the inevitable license fee
Should lie fail in this he was sold Out
of house and home, sent to prison, OF
what not, according to the pleasure
and within OF his Spanish master.
lie had to pay n tax if he owned 9
beast of burden of any sort-for this
was SPANS helpful method of encour
aging him to thrift. Every article O.
furniture he used was taxed. If III
was townsman or villager and wanted
to keep shop he was taxed for the
privilege; not content with this, the
very scales and measures he used in
the carrying on of his business were
subject to an additional tax. He pait
a tax when he married, and taxation
kept its crippling grip upon him up t.
the hour of his death, and then thu
very grave he filled was made to render
tribute to his oppressors. 1t coule
not be dug until tax of $3.50 hat
been paid either by his family o.
friends. AS sample of this rapacity
the Spaniard's rule is probably with
out a parallel. The revenue thul
collected found its way to the north
ern country, where it formed an i'm
portant item in the budget required
for the maintenance of the army and
| navy