The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1900-01-19

IelCo anu blihs duu COCOduuJo,
hemp and tobacco and many products
Of the temperate, as well as tropic
zone, grow in various sections of the
archipelago. 1 have seen hundreds of
| bushels of Indian corn lying in a road
fringed with banana trees. The forests
of Negros, Mindanao. Mindora, Paluan
and parts Of Luzon are invaluable and
intact. The wood of the Philippines
can supply the furniture of the world
for century to come. At Cebu Rev.
Father Julio Segrera told me that 40
miles of Cebu's mountain chains are
practically mountains of coal. Pablo
Malta, one of the most reliable men on
the islands, confirmed the statement.
Some declare that the coal is only lig-
mite, but ship captains, who have used
It, told me that it is better
steamer fuel than the best coal of
Japan. have a nugget Of pure gold
picked up in it's present form on the
banks of a Philippine creek. have
gold dust washed out by crude processes
of careless natives from the sands of a
Philippine stream. Both indicate great
deposits at the source from which they
come. In one of the islands great de-
posits of copper exist untouched. The
mineral wealth Of this empire Of the
ocean will one day surprise the world.
base the statement partly on personal
observation. but chiefly On the testi-
mony of foreign merchants in the Phil
ippines who have practically investi-
gated the subject and upon the unani-
nous opinions of natives and priests.
And the mineral wealth is but small
fraction OF the agricultural wealth OF
these islands.
A,,A fha nd or av
products Of the Philippines supply what
we need and cannot ourselves produce.
And the markets they will themselves
afford will be immense. Spain's export
and import trade, with the islands un.
developed, was $l2,175,549 annually.
Our trade with the islands developed
will be $125, ZOO, 900 annually; for who
believes that we cannot do 10 times as
we'll as Spain. Consider their imperial
dimensions. Luzon is larger and richer
than New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois
or Ohio Mindanao is larger and richer
than all New England. Manila. as q
port Of call and exchange. will, in the
time Of men now living, far surpass
Liverpool. Behold the exhaustless
markets they command. It is as if a
half dozen OF our states were set down
between Oceana and the Orient. and
those states themselves undeveloped and
unspoiled of their primative wealth and
resources.
u y
Philippine Climate.
The climate is the best tropic climate
in the world. This is the belief of
those who have lived in many tropic
countries, with scores of whom 1 have
talked on this point. My own expert.
ence with tropical conditions has not
been exhaustive; yet, speaking from
that experience, testify that the cli-
mate of Iloilo, Sulu, Oebu and even of
Manila, greatly surpasses that of Hong
Kong And yet on the bare and burn
ing rock of Hong Kong our construct
ing has builded one of the noblest
cities of all the world and made the
harbor it commands the focus OF the
commerce of the east. And the glory
of that achieveme nt illumines with a
rarer splendor than that of Waterloo,
the flag that floats above it; for, from
Hong Kong's heights civilization is ir-
radiating all the Orient. If this be i'm
perialism, it's final end will be the en-
pire of the Son of Man.
Yet, 80 years ago, this English out
post OF empire was smooth and tree.
less mountain blazing like ball Of fire
beneath the tropic suns; the PHILIPPINES
are beautiful and rich with the healing
seas pouring round and through them
and famed by thousand winds Even
in the hottest season, under severest
conditions, l found the weather toler-
able and often delightful; and in Luzon,
Panay, Cebu, Negros and Sulu, l have
been in the sun and rain without pro-
lection from either for hours at time,
travelling from place to place on horse
back, on foot or in boat, rising at
dawn, retiring at midnight, week after
week, without injury to health. Gen.
eral Macarthur fighting continually
for three months and under fire prac-
tically every hour, was in excellent
health every time l saw him at San
Fernando. General Lawton, that per-
feet soldier. whom I have seen
ride, order, plan, and execute all day,
and then ride, order. plan and execute
all night, told me that his health
was perfect. General Otis, that devoted
servant Of the republic. who tolls cease
lessly, does not fall ill. nor grow weary,
nor complain. have seen correspond.
ents exert themselves in all kinds of
weather without food or sleep in way
that would PROSTATE them in the hottest
York. Major Hoyt, chief medical off,
Ger with Mac Arthur, told me that San
Fernando Is as healthy as the average
American town. The European bust
ness men of Cebu, Iloilo and Manila
work as hard and as many hours day
as those of New York, and q finer body
of physical manhood cannot be gath
cred at random in America. This
proves that this garden of the seas is
not the sweltering, steaming, miasmatic
swamp it has been described.
Character of the People.
It will be hard for Americans who
have not studied them, to understand
the people. They are barbarous race
modified by three centuries of contact
with q decadent race. The Filipino is
the South Sea Malay put through a
process of 300 years of superstition In
religion, dishonesty in dealing. disorder
in habits of industry. and cruelty, ca.
price and corruption in government. It
is barely possible that 1000 men in all
the archipelago are capable of selfgov-
eminent in the Anglo.Saxon sense.
My own belief is that there are not 100
men among them who comprehend
what Anglo-Saxo selfgovernment even
means. and there are over X O00 600 Det,-