Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-05-29
They Do in Java-They May in the
Philippines.
PROTECTION FOR The NATIVES
Contrast Of Spanish and American
Policies Concerning Chinese.
LIMIT LABOR COMPETITION

III.
The record of Java throws light on a syl-
logism which is supposed to have obvi-
Gus and practical bearing upon the labor
problem in the Philippines: "Malays will
not work; Filipinos are Malays; Flipinos
will not work.
The generalization that Malays will not
work is reached by calling Maiays who will
work by some other name and attaching
to the tide only the characteristics of the
worthless remnant. There is a Malay sian
archipelago well a Malaysian penin-
sula, and the bulk of the Filipinos may turn
out to be Malays after the order of those
who live and labor in Java and not in the
class Of the Malay loafers of the Straits
Settlements.
A like hasty genera lization ascribes to the
CEinaman. universally, in contrast with the
Malay, the attributes of industry. COM
mercial probity and capacity to labor ef
fectiveiy anywhere. unaffected by fatigue
tropical heat and disease germs. This gen
eraiization Jumps ind!scriminately the my
riads of Chinese water-rats and ex-pirates
and the millions in whom decades of official
robbery and oppression have ingrained I'M
truthfulness and deceit with the compara-
lively small commercial class, in whom
training has made business honesty in
StlllCt!Nt, anu Win tlle COOlle, WHO MAY De
either lying or truthful but who has de-
veloped in the school of hard necessity into
perhaps the most effective and least expen-
sive human laboring machine in the world.
The disposition among all men In the
languor- breeding tropics is to work only as
necessity requires, which in favored
tions Il ones wants are few, Is very little
nature supplying freely the means OF sup
porting life.
There are also differences in the aptitudes
and inclinations of the different tropical
peoples as to the kind of life-supporting
labor which they will have recourse
when forced by necessity to work One
will cultivate the soil, another will draw
his food from the sea with the hook or net
and another will hire the service of his
muscles in exchange for food or the money
with which to buy food.
But the record of Java shows that the
Malay under pressure can occupy satisfac-
torily every field of labor and can develop
a tropical garden which is the admiration
and delight of every visitor and which sup
ports well one OF the densest populations On
the face of the globe.
Should Work in Luz0n ns in Java
In the Philippines, which extend from the
northern edge of the tropics to point less
tIidI llNc ueSfeeS ItOul the equator ana
include vast variety of soils, of attitudes
and of temperatures which work out vary
ing results upon the men who live subject
to their environment, a diversity in the
human products well in the fruits of
the soil is naturally expected and realized.
Not all the F'i!ipinos will labor in the same
way, and some will not work at all. but If
We must generalize let say, and make it
good that the Filipinos in general will
work, like the JavaneSe; not binding our
selves by this generalization to force the
F'ilipnos to the total exclusion of other
peoples into occupations for which they are
conspcuousy unfitted,-without guarantee
irg, for instance, that a Mabini or an Asui-
naldo would make an efficient wharf coolie,
or that an eX-pirate follower of the Sultan
of Sulu would prove reliable comprador
or a model house servant.
Though the old methods of compulsory
labor may not now be applied, and are
not in fact employed by the Dutch them
selves. being long ago abandoned uuder
pressure of a worldwide public opinion, the
evidences taken together suggest that the
Filipinos can meet the labor requirements
of the islands in most fields of employment,
and that by judicous selection of workers
all kinds if necessary be Filipino-per-
the islands labor we'll as agriculturists, the
coast natives have an aptitude for seafaring
pursuits. The Manila-Dagupan road, the
only railway in the Philippines, was built
entirely by native labor, and natives filed
the subordinate positions in running it,
The Chinese have not been permitted to get
a fCothold as cultivators of the soil in the
interior of Luzon, any more than in Java,
though the Spanish for many years admit
ted them to the island solely for this pur-
pose. Almost universally both planters and
field hands are Malays. Farming is the
characteristic native occupation. The Fill
pinos take pleasure in the cultivation of
rice, the most exacting, painstaking and
fatiguing of agricultural labors
Many Filipincs Do Work.
The natives of the different islands find
ccngenial employment in varied forms of
labor. Some like those Of the island of Bonol
are noted for their superior industry and
efficiency field laborers, and go at harvest
time to other islands and provinces to gather
the crops. Old residents say that the Visay-
ans and the people of northern and extreme
southern Luzon (the tobacco and hemp dis
tricts of the island) are Industrious but
that the Tagalogs of central Luzon have
been demoralzed in the turmoil of the
of settled, peaceful conditions will be neces-
sary to convert the bolos into pruning
hooks and the bolo-men into reliable field
hands. Filipinos are credited with being s
strong as the Chinese but lazy. They
monopolize, however, such hard work as
lighterage for ships, and they labor in the
mines in Bulacan. The weight of opinion
is that if there were no Chinese here they
would perform satisfactorily all kinds of
work. though perhaps at slightly greater
wages, the Filipino having higher aspira-
tions in the direction of living well than
the average Chinaman. The expectation
that they would, If Chinese competition
were absent fill all the trades is based
with reason upon the evidence of old resi-
dents to the effect that they did work in
all these lines before the Chinese came
and drove them out. For instance, years
ago nearly all the carpenters, stonemasons
builders, bricklayers and similar workmea
of Manila were natives; now they are
nearly all Chinese. Then the retail trade of |
Manila was in the hands of the Filipinos;
Continued on Eighth Page.)