Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-06-29
IA CENSUS OF FILIPINOS.
POPULATION OF THE ISLANDS HAS
BEEN VASTLY OVERESTIMATED.

Professor Knapp, the Governments Ek-
pert, Thinks That Instead of 100000
| People There Are About 100000 in
the Philippines-Native Peculiarities.
Professor Knapp of the agricultural
department, Washington, who has
just returned from Manila, says that
the population of those islands has
been very much overestimated.
"There are not half as many people
in the Philippines as supposed" he
said. 'Instead of 1000, 900 l think
there are about 100000 reach
my conclusion in this way: There are
140, 900 square miles of territory, in
Guiding the Sulu archipelago. About
half of the islands are not settled by
civilized people to any extent. Here
and there an outpost may be found
on the seashore. One of the largest
slands-Mindanao- thinly settled.
1 am assured by excellent authority,
the business manager of the Domlni-
can fathers, who is thoroughly fami-
liar with the subject and knows more
about the islands than any living man,
that only about one-third of the land
is tillable and that two-thirds belongs
to the government. At very liberal
estimate there are about 40, 600
square miles settled. In New York
there are 40, 900 square miles of terri
tory. If you take the state of New
York and omit the large cities you
will have left population of 2,000,-
900, and it would be very liberal es-
innate to say that the Philippine
islands were twice as thickly settled
as New York. So far as could
Judge they are net any more thickly
settled"
"What opportunities are offered
over there for our people to engage
In agricultural"
'The sugar lands are excellent. l
examined many sugar estates and find
that thse large profits are not due so
much to the quality of the soil as to the
exceedingly admirable climate There
is an evenness of temperature which
is very desirable for sugar, and a
large rainfall. Some years they get
ten feet of rain. That is a great thing
for the rice, which wants lots of wa
ter. Their cane can grow all winter,
so they give it from twelve to sixteen
months to mature. They commence
cutting when it is about twelve
months old. A man can take a small
farm, put it in sugar cane, get labor
ut SO a month, or work it on shares
to profit 1t is not customary to
hire labor by the month, but the wages
for farm laborers will average proba-
bly, So in gold or S. in silver The
! farming is mostly done on shares.
The proprietor gives his tenant gen
orally one-half of the crop and then
buys it from him. Tobacco and coffee
are mostly worked by hired labor.
The hemp is paid for by weight.
There is wide field for our CAPT
talists to go into the plantation bust
ness. There is lots of money to be
made in we'll managed estates, but
our people must learn the business
first. An Englishman in Iloilo has
authority from London to buy all the
plantations he can get, provided the
United States holds the islands. The
climate is all right. 1t is comfortable
at night and in the morning but hot
in the middle of the day and early
evening. But by adapting himself to
the conditions there an American can
get along very comfortably. l am
preparing a report for the secretary
of agriculture which will embody my
observations aud the result of my in
guiry into agricultural affairs of the
Islands"
"What ought the Americans to do
there?"
81 will say that any government to
be successful in the Orient must re-
cognize the peculiarities of the peo-
pie. They are quite submissive to
any authority, provided the peculiari-
ties which have become part of their
life and religion are not interfered
with. / find upon Investigation that
all nations governing Asiatic races
have had to respect native peculiari-
ties. England tried about fifty years
ago to introduce English methods in
detail into her Pacific colonies, but
failed. She does not now attempt to
interfere with the common people,
but allows them to be governed by
their own judges and their own peo-
pie, and retains for her own protec-
ton an appeal to British courts, and
is satisfied with collecting taxes and
exercising the more important admin
istrative functions. The Chinese, for
instance, as people are more or less
Indifferent to the division of their en-
pire, but whenever an attempt is
made to interfere with their religion
OF customs or traditions, trouble is
sure to follow. Americans here at
home may think that American ideas
should be introduced into the Philip
pines, and that our habits and GUS