The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-15
PHILIPPINE WEALTH.

,
the treasury bureau of statistics the
agricultural, mineral and commercial
resources of the Philippines are so vast
that it ought to be possible to exchange
them with Great Britain for more de-
sirable and advantageous property
nearer home. Provided always, how
ever, that we have quite enough of ex-
terminating the natives to protect
them from Spanish butchery.
This official summary shows that al
though agriculture is the chief occupa-
ton of the inhabitants of the islands,
yet only one-ninth of the surface of
the islands is under cultivation. 1t
shows further that the chief products
are rice, corn, hemp, sugar, tobacco.
cocoanuts and cocoa. Coffee and cot
ton were formerly produced in large
quantities-coffee for export and cot
ton for home consumption-but the
coffee plant has been the prey of in
sects, and the homemade cotton cloths
have been driven out by the competi-
ton of those imported from England.
The rice and corn are principally pro-
duced in Luzon and Mindoro, and are
consumed in the islands. The rice crop
is about 765, 900 tons, not enough for the
local demand.
Cocoa is raised in the southern is
lands, the best quality <of it in Min
danao. The production amounts to
only $50 tons, and it is all made into
chocolate and consumed in the islands.
The sugar cane is raised in the Wis
ayas. The crop yielded in 1894 about
2S5, 900 tons of raw sugar, of which one
tenth was consumed in the islands and
the remainder of 100000 tons, valued
at $11, 000,0 was exported, the greater
part TO China, Great Britain and Aus
tralia- The hemp is produced in south
ern Luzon, Mindoro, the Visayas and
AIindanao. 1t is nearly all exported in
bales. In 1894 the amount was $4,000
tons, valued at $12OOO,O 600.
Tobacco, regarded there as one of the
prime necessities of life, is raised in
all the islands, but the best quality and
greatest amount in Luzon A large
amount is consumed there, smoking be-
ing universal among women as we'll as
men, but the best quality is exported.
The amount in 1894 was 1000 tons of
leaf tobacco, valued at $1,750,0O0 Co
coanuts are raised in Luzon.
Considerable space is devoted to the
mineral wealth of the Philippines, but
there are no statistics which indicate
that the archipelago will ever become
a mining country. Gold has been found
on most of the important islands, but
the ore is of low grade and not album
dant. There are placers in the province
of Abra, at the northern end of Lu-
zon, and the gravel in some Of the
rivers carry "a little gold. But the
United States is dotted over with dis
tricts richer by far in mineral wealth
than are the Philippines.
Unless We are prepared to maintain
a large garrison in the Philippines and
open her markets free to the produc-
ers and manufacturers of the states;
unless we are anxious to become in
volved in the oriental imbroglio and
prepared to hold our own in any dis
pute which may ensue, it We're better
to revoke our policy of conquest and
either trade the islands off to some
civilized nation or set them up in a
government of their own. Rich as they
are they are bound to be a source of
endless trouble and a, scene of count
less revolutions. Their wealth of prom
Use and resource may be turned
TO its best account in an eX-
change The more valuable they are
the more likely are we to get back the
500, 100000 paid old Spain for that quit
claim deed.
No nation can handle the Philippines
with any degree of satisfaction if it
have scruples about wars of conquest,
or plans of determination. To rule such
people requires an iron hand, which a
government necessarily deriving its
power from the governed, cannot well
put forth.