The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-08-23
An American in Manila De-
scribes the Obstacles
To American Occupation of the
Philippines.
SICKNESS FREQUENT
And the Interior is Given Up tC
Savage Tribes.
Americans VIII Not Be Con-
tented in the Country.

tented in the Country.
The only book on the Philippines by an
American is Yesterdays in the Philip
pines" by Joseph Earl Stevens, just pub
hshed by Charles Scribner's Sons
Mr.. Stevens went to Manila from Boston
in 1893 for NGessrs. Henry w. Peabody &
Co., in the interest of their hemp busi-
ness, and remained two years. 70
His book is rather light and sketchy,
but he was evidently a shrewd OBJ
server and many of his facts and i'm
pressions have a present value In his
introduction he asks:
Do We Want Them?
Now that the Philippines are ours, do
we want them? Do we want a group of
1,4OO islands nearly 5000 miles from our
western shores, sWeltering in the tropics,
swept with typhOOns and shaken with
the Reconnaissance of protecting those isl
ands from the powers in Europe or the
900 900 native inhabitants that speak a
score of different tongues and live on any
Do we want the task of civilizing this
race, of opening up the jungle, of setting
towns who won't have been there a month
before they wish to return?
The Problem OF Governing.
''Can we run them? The Philippines
are hard material with which to make
our first colonial experiment and seem
from that which our national policy IA
vOrs or has had experience in giving Be
sides the peaceable natives occupying the
accessible towns, the interiors OF many
of the Islands are filled with aboriginal
savages who have never even recognized
the rule of Spain, who have never even
heard of Spain and who still think they
are the possessOrs of the soil. Even on the
coast itself are tribes of SaVageS VINO are
almost as ignorant as their brethren in
the interior, and only thirty miles from
Manila are races of dwarfS that go with
out clothes, wear knee bracelets of horse
hair and respect nothing save the JuU6lGS
in which they live.
ITO the north are the Igorrotes. to the
south the Moros and in between scores of
session And is the United States pre-
pared to maintain the forces and carry on
the military operations in the fever
stricken jungles necessary in the march
of progress to eXterminate or civilize
such races? Have we, like England, for
dertake that sort of work, and do we feel
called upon to do it, when the same ex-
penditure at home would go so much tur-
''The Philippines must be run under
despotic though kindly form of govern
ment, supported by arms and arnor-clads,
and TO deal with the perplexing questions
and perplexing difficulties that arise needs
dealt with other such problems before"
Smallpox and Fevers.
Commenting on health conditions. Mr..
q see by the papers that there are at
least two cases of smallpox in Boston,
that everybody is alarmed and hundreds
are getting vaccinated. Curious state of
affairs isn't it, when every day out here
you see small children running around in
the streets. covered with evidences of this
disease. Nobody thinks anything about
smallpox in Manila, and one ceases to
notice it if a Philippine mamma sits oppo-
site you in the tramcar. holding in her lap
a scantily clothed child whose hide is il
lUmfned with those unmistakable mark
ings- Some weeks ago there We're even
400 deaths a week in Manila from this
disease alone: and from the way in which
the afflicted mix with the hale and hearty
you can only wonder that there were not
''Besides smallpox, then, fever is about
the Tnalarial variety seem so common that
the sufferers from them often walk into
the fever again. Means another lay Off
If they can keep about the old stagers
never give up; but novices buy thermome-
tiers and cracked ice,and either go through
a terrific siege. like my friend whose eight
weeks struggle shrunk his head so that
in convaIescence his hat touched
his ears, or escape with a weeks
common, and there is generally one mem
Der of the colony, for whom the rest are
wishing he had never seen the Philip
pines.
Living and Wages.
Manila fare like Manila life is not I'M
wholesome, but it lacks variety, and one
rather tires now and then of soup. chicken,
beefsteak and toothpicks-tour staples
our mouse IS good one, with al the
comforts Of home, and is surrounded by
an acre or Two OF land. we nave stapleS
for our horses and outbuildings for the
families of our servants. At the end of
the month all the expenditures for house
posted together and divided by three, and
with everything included my monthly
share comes to 29 gold dollars-less than
one of our American cart-wheels per diem.
The Terrible TyphOOn.
VThe other morning began the first real
storm of the rainy season and we came
very near having a bad typhoon, but some
one turned the switch and It swirled up
the back coast on the Pacific side and
crossed through a notch in the mountains
some distance to the north of Manila,
Industrious winds and floods of rain The
streets were two feet deep with water in
the business section, and down at our
that it carried the tin from our roof off
TO visit the next suburb - 80,
article one of the most terrific blowings
I ever felt. Down came all the wires in
houses to one side of US, and kerplunk
broke off some venerable trees.
After the typhoon came the floods, and
the old Pasig covered the adjacent coun-
try. The water concealed the road to
the uptown club at Nagtajan under a
out difficulty row into the billiard room
or play water polo in the bowling alley;
Two of my friends were nearly drowned
by trying to drive when they should have
sWum or gone by boat. The pony walked
off with their carriage into a rice field in
the darkness and was drowned IN more
than eight feet of water.
The UncOnquerabIe Savages.
For years now Spain has sent men and
gunboats down to MindanaO to wipe out
the saVages and bring the island under
Complete Subsection. but without avail
Young boys from the north have been
drafted into native regiments to go south
on this fatal Grand The prisons OF Ma
armed with bolos, or meat-choppers, have
followed their more righteous brethren to
fa have fr9 o6 hef gpansh troops 6aPs
gone: officers have tried it; but to no end