The record-union., 1899-01-17
Americans Arriving at Manila by
Every Steamer.
Business Men Should Be Very Cautious In
Making Investments.
A Correspondent Points Out Some
of the Disadvantages Which
Are to Be Met With in the New
Far Eastern Possessions.


MANILA, Dec. 13.-Americans are
arriving by every steamer from the
United States to look for investments.
Some represent syndicates in Chicago,
New York, Boston or other money CEN
ters, but many appear to be organizing
speculative companies for themselves
and associates. One concern of Ia
coma, Wash, is in the field with a Phil
ippine Island Industrial Company, cap
italized at 100000. It's purposes is to
buy and develop coffee lands, mines,l
rice plantations and do a general mer-
chandise business.
Business men in the United States
who contemplate making investments
in the Philippines will be very cautious
if they are rightly informed of condi-
tions here. The population of Luzon
Island, the largest and most important
in the group. is generally estimated at
:, 100000. Some good authorities put it
as high as 100000. A high, rugged
range of mountains forms the eastern
coast line. Another range extends along
the western coast. These mountain
ranges are thinly populated by half
savages, and the gravelly soil and
cloudy climate are not adapted to cane,
coffee, tobacco or rice, the staples of
the islands. The main part of the pop
ulation is, therefore, confined to river
valleys and the low lands. adjoining the
coast. The population is congested in
villages and settlements of 80 to 5000
huts or nipas, in each settlement
Outside of Manila there is no settle
~, f1.a 70 do.
serves to be called a town. The native
huts, punched together anywhere off
Manila Bay, are put there without or
der or system, with narrow trails wind
ing circuitously through mud as the
only streets Occasionally there is a
large cathedral and perhaps three or
four other buildings connected with it,
of Moorish architecture, some of them
more than 100 years old, and all more
or less dilapidated, which present
strange contrast to the squalor and
poverty of the hundreds or thousands
of surrounding nipas.
The rice fields are chiefly in the hands
of the Chinese. A rice patch of half
acre is a pretty good sized farm for
one man. Three crops are harvested
each year. The Chinese of the Philip
pine Islands are much like the coolies
in the United States, but are larger
and better physically. They descend
from the Tartar or northern tribes of
China The coolies in America are Can
tonese. The Philippines Chinese differ
from their relatives in America in an
other respect. They wear queues only
six inches or a foot long, and seem to
have little regard for the queues. Cen
turies ago these islands were overrun
by the Tartars, and the group belonged
to the Chinese Empire under the No
guls. The native Chinese now here are
for the most part the descendants of
these Tartar conquerers, but they are
largely intermixed with the Togalogs.
They have so far become separated
from the institutions of their race that
and Confusianism are all for
gotten among them. But in their habits
Of work and vice, and also in their IA
cial characteristics the Chinese of the
Philippines are like the Chinese every
where They form about one-third of
the population in Luzon.
The rice lands are not as a rule own
ed by the coolies who cultivate them,
DuL ny IICu SIllllCSC VI lloll CdSlcS WIZ
lease the tracts usually on shares.
There are some large plantations of
600 to 10000 acres managed by over
seers. These plantations are devoted
to the production of tobacco, sugar
cane and the tree from which the hemp
fiber is taken. The monks and Span
ish officials were the plantation owners
under the Spanish regime. Their
swarms of laborers were paid 20 to %
cents a day, Mexican, equal to 10 or II
cents gold. The laborers were Obliged
to board themselves. The plantation
system, however, is rapidly passing
a renovation since the Ameri-
can occupation. Thei monks are dispos-
ing of their lands as fast as they can,
and will probably succeed in selling all
their holdings to one or more English
syndicates. A Boston syndicate also is
here, negotiating for the
purchase of hemp plantations.
Employers of labor complain that the
American occupation has caused
doubling or trebling of wages on plan
tations and elsewhere.
Admiral Dewey began paying the ma
tives 80 a. day for Gov ernment work
lmm0Q1dt0ly dIIcT TIE ueStfucllOn OIL
Montejo's fleet, and has kept up that
scale. Chinese and Filipino laborers,
who formerly worked for So to So Mex
lean per month, will not turn a hand
for less than 81 Mexican al day. Planta-
ton laborers are being contracted for
at so cents per day. The consequence
will be rise in the price of raw hemp,
sugar and tobacco unless more intel'.
gent management and improved ma
ch:nery serve to equalize the increase1
cost Of labor.
Coal mines are being worked IN the
southern part of Luzon Island ami IN
the island of Cebu, but the coal is soft
and far inferior to the Australian and
Japanese variety. Prior to the b. .;:k
ing out of the war Cebu coal was do
livered at the coast in large quantities
at $50 Mexican per ton but was con
sumed mainly by the interislan
steamers. The price under new condi-
tions is problematical. Surveys indi-
cate that the coal beds are in scattered
localities between the Sth and 18th par
allels of latitude. An English synd1-
cate. with headquarters in Manila,
owns practically all the coal lands
known on the islands of Luzon and
Cebu. For that matter English capt