The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-11-01


Gen. Joe Wheeler, in the Philippines:
Santa Reta, Isle of Luzon.
September 1S, 1899.
Van Lecr Kirkman.
My Dear Young Cousin: have now
seen much of the country and the pco-
pie i'll that part Of Luzon for about so
miles north OF Manila. LII every town
there is magnificent stone church and
convent or monastery. The insur-
gents have q great antipathy to the
priesthood OF Friars, and they have
dismantlcd many Of the churches. The
value of the church and monastery of
a town seems to be equal in many cases
to the value Of all the other buildings
in the town. The more talk to the
people, the more l am convinced that
the insurgents are actuated, i'll meas
urc, by a spirit OF communism, and in
their talks, their most serious objection
to the church seems to be the fact that
ecclesiastical organizations own so
much OF the property, and one Of Agui
naldO's most earnest demands is that
the church property be confiscated.
There is general impression that
the insurgent army is made up very
largely OF people without property,
and that people who have property de-
sire the Americans to control, so that
they can have protection and feel that
their property is secured to them; but
/ find that there is some fear or apprc-
hensiOn among some of the wealthy
that it Americans control and give uni
vcrsal suffrage the power of the wealthy
people would be taken away and their
hold on property very mich impaired.
think that if the wealthy people would
be assured that they would be protected
in their property rights by tie United
States it would have Il very gOOd effect.
The Friars and priests are charged
with all sorts OF expressions and mis-
demeanOrs; but it must be remembered
that Friars and priests are very nlmer-
GUS, and i'll so large q body, there will
be found every possible phase of char
acter and disposition. Some of them
| are, no doubt, Oppressors Of the people,
exacting in the collection of rentals
from the lands, indulging themselves
in many ways and leading lives very
different from what should character
| ize the life of a priest; but there are
very many good men among them.
The statement that have seen that 20
per cent. Of the people of Luz0n can
| read and write is q great mistake. 1t
may be true of many, but it is not true
of those in the rural districts and the
| percentage Of illiteracy in the other
islands is much greater than in LuzOn.
The appearance, mode of life and
method of performing work are to day
| the Bible at the time of and even be-
| fore the Christian era.
The people dress very much as they
did two thousand years ago. To-day
spent some time in watching natives
cleaning shucks from rice; the method
| of shelling and cleaning is primitive
and no better than used 1000 years
| ago. Everything can be grown, but
oranges and bananas are not SO good as
being that they seem to give them no
| cultivation whatever. Coffee is grown
which is said to be superior to Mocha.
Rice is the principal product and Il
failure of that crop would cause Il ter
rible famine, as the people depend al
| most entirely upon it for food. Sugar
is the principal crop for export. The
greatest amount exported in any one
year was 26l.t6t tons, which was i'll
1893. Corn grows very rapidly and the
cars reach their full growth about 60
days from the time Of planting. There
is Il great amount OF very valuable
timber in these islands and many va
rieties of beautiful hardwoods under
native names such as mahogany, black
walnut and ebony.
Gold, copper, coal, iron, sulphur, lead,
are found.
There are many different tribes liv-
ing in these islands, the only ones i'll
active rebellion being the Tagal0s.
This tribe occupies some eight prov
inces in the neighborhood of Manila,
and their association with Europeans
has made them more civilized than
other tribes.
We are now seven or eight miles
from Porac, where an insurgtnt force
has been stationed for some time, but
around here and through this vast val
ley the people are actively engaged i'll
planting rice. | have been riding
around the outskirts of this place and
the fields are dotted with men, women
and children planting rice.
am confident that q brigade of cav
airy could easily travel through great
part of the island.
The Suez canal brought the Philip
/ pines much nearer tn Europe AID has
| greatly increased their commerce. The
exports Of hemp have greatly increased.
In 1882 A, ,205 tons Of hemp were ex-
ported, which has increased until there
were exported in 1897 1875 tons and
The shipments of coffee gradually in
| creased until the year 1886 when the
amount exported amounted to 1887
tons, and from 1856 TO 1890 the ship
| ments averaged about 5000 tons year,
but from tn, me they have fallen Oft
l learn the Ollowing about cotton
from reliable sources:
The cotton tree is found growing in
an uncultiyated state i'll many islands
of the archipelago. Long staple cotton
! was formerly extensively cultivated in
the province of Illocos Norte, when
many years ago large quantities of
good cotton stuffs were exported. This
Industry still exists.
The cultivation Of this staple was,
however, discouraged by the local gov
ernors in order to urge the planting of
tobacco for the government supplies.
the cotton productions, although an
essay. in pamphlet form (for which
nriza xraS aWardnd iaa MadridN 1raa