The San Francisco call., 1899-10-22
FILIPINO INDUSTRY.


| I talks, is reported as saying: "a Filipino is
~ chroncaly tired He is born tired; he stays
tired and he dies tired Ii you hire him he will labor
lew days and then he goes OF the work business
ior about week while he attends fiesta or two. 1t
doesn't matter how much or how little you pay him.
Filipino will work just hard for so cents week
as he will for 50 cents day"
In that statement General Funston has found the
OF the whole question. In the characteristics he
finds in the Filipino he describes all the tropical
and all races that have tried migration to the tropics
Man everywhere. is subordinate to his physical en-
vironment He has energy and accumuates wealth
ONLY in such environment as presents natural
sistance which energy may overcome. Civilization
and its great institutions have followed the temperate
zone around the world. In that zone has always been
the wealth OF the world. No tropical country was
ever wealthy That part OF the globe that lies under
vertical has always been poor. As we approach
the equator the energy OF man declines, and the
bounty OF nature increases to extent that supplies
the physical wants with but little human exerton.
What General Funston observed marks the difference
between our continental and nsuar expansion. No
matter who opposed or who favored the Louisiana
and Florida purchase the admission OF Texas and the
acquisition OF what came to alter the Mexican war,
nor on what grounds All OF it was territory lying
in the temperate zone, fit for occupancy by homo
geneous people, and with a physography that re-
quired exerton to produce the necessares OF life and
sustain existence. As its physical character did not
widely vary the system OF government required for its
civic administration established equality before the
law for a people who are alike with another, in
the same environment Equality came to be the rule
OF government because OF these physical conditions
and the likeness OF the people to each other When
we go to the tropical islands all this is changed, The
races that people them not suited to racial in
stitutions. AS physical conditions are unequal, the
laws regulating the rights OF person and property,
and the statutes that relate to the hours and conditions
OF labor, and the wages fixed by the standards OF
lie. applicable here are inapplicable in the tropics.
General Funston has aided in inAaming the Ameri-
love OF gain by alluring picture OF the wealth
to be found III the natural resources OF the Philip
pines. which he says Will equal Java and Ceylon.
That may not be disputed But the Fpinos,
der the influence OF vertical SUM- are born tired and
white men cannot long retain their energies and labor
there that wealth. if extracted from the natural re-
sources OF the islands will have be by forcing
labor under natural conditions that make voluntary
toll unnecessary or irksome. II we are to get the
riches that waiting in the swamps and forests we
must do the British planters in Ceylon and the
Dutch in Java have done by instituting what Pro
lessor Kydd calls "a benevolent despotism," either
exercised over the tired natives or by the use OF
cooe contract labor from China.
1t is not wise to tell the American people as an
agent OF the Agricultural Department has in an off
cial report, that "the Philippines open up aurng
prospects ior the American home-seeker" Nor is il
wise to make it appear that the ndisposton OF
the natives to work is eradcable by any change IN
their form OF government religion or their method
o. education. In each these anticipations will not
be fulfilled, therefore it is unwse to encourage them
Just in proportion as they unjusthably encour-
aged will the reaction be severe.
There is no place for the American home seeker in
the islands only because OF their present dense
population but by reason OF poison climate in which
the white home-seeker cannot live and work
In this business, then it is we'll to start with no
illusions that when dispelled will cause an affecting
reaction No temperate zone nation has ever secured
any profitable out OF its tropical posses
sions except by forced servile labor From the
Philippines must look to China for the cooe labor
which will enrich the few Americans who can go with
capital to add to their wealth by employing form
OF labor repugnant TO all American ideas and Gus
toms. This viii be our method there and there will
be little thought about the elevation OF that labor
its education and training for advance in the
standards Of life there is in California on the same
lines in regard to the Chinese coolies here Neither
the labor laws customs wages in the Philippines
will be equality with those at home Vast
fortunes may be made there by few OF our country
men, as the Dutch have made them in Java and the
English in Ceylon, but the masses Of our people will
not participate in them. but will plod along in the
place and way fixed by nature
Mayor Phelan can find nothing OF good in Re-