The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-03
CABLES IN THE PHILIPPINES.
More Than Twenty-Five Hundred Miles
 of Wire Laid by Military and CIVIL


 of Wire Laid by Military and CIVIL Agencies
 When Manila fell there were practl- cally no telegraph or cable cohnectlols anywhere in the Philippines. The sys- tenn of land wires connecting the prln- cipal towns and the cables between Iloilo and Manila and lloilo and Cepu, had been sealed and abandoned by thelr owners the Eastern Extension Austfal- asia and China Cable company, Whlch announced that it would not open them until the United States could insure protection to it's employees and property. The question of wires soon assmed serious phase. Indeed, the trouble be- gan with the capture of the place, and the first hostile act of the insurgents was the destruction of the wires our forces had hurriedly strung between the different attachments about the city. Upon Aguinaldo's taking the War path, it became useless to stretch land | wires unless the army surrounded them 1 or they were guarded by line of troops ] close enough to shout the message | along. The system abandoned by the | Eastern Extension company fell into 1 his hands and he developed and extend- ed it with considerable ability, utilizing barbed fence wire at times. The Fili- pinos knew the value of wires and when l they were driven back from theirs would destroy them and quite often q l few would slip through our lines and carry off as much as possible or the wires we had strung. Cable was soon l discovered to be much easier to main- | tain, for the Filipinos had no picking up gear or grappling and cutting uten- sils. The war department decided to establish complete cable system be- tween the islands. with alternates, as soon as possible Contracts were placed, the work rushed and the Hook CT, the first Philippine cable ship, dis patched post haste, taking on part or her equipment, which was procured in England, at Gibraltar.
 The problem of securing d satisfacto- ry force had been by no means an easy one, for the business of cable laying Is | CIV to the United States. The services of MT. Otto Strubel, an engineer of the French Cable company, and those Of | MT Henry Winter, an officer of the An | glo- American cable ship. Minia, were secured. Only three men of the Hook CTS crew had had experience in cable work An expert jointer of rubber ca- ble was enlisted in New York, but he deserted the expedition few days be- fore it left Care had been taken | though, to have two sefseants or the Signal Corps instructed by him in case of such an emergency.
 After arriving at Manila, the Hooker was sent to Hongkong to coal, struck an outlying reef of Corregidor Island and down went ship, cable and all equipment. The ship was total loss but most of the cable and the equip ment were recovered and taken back tc Manila. The Romulus was chartered and equipped with the recovered para phernalia. For work in the rivers ahc lagoons, barges were equipped ano lowed by shallow-d draft gunboats. Ihe gunboats could repel disturbers, and the same exposure was not required 1T reeling out cable as was necessary IT stretching land wires Every five miles stops would be made to test the cable. The small military force which accompanied these expeditions when il hostile country would be deployed while the electricians landed to make the tests. For the actual work Of es' tablishing the lines natives were em- ploved. It takes three natives to do tht work of one American, but the native only asks d salary of five dollars pei month and his accustomed fare of rice dried fish, etc.
 The first work was done by the army but subsequently, contracts for the en
 tire work were let for laying the caol
 as well as furnishing 1t. The govern
 ment furnishes the cable ship. the ne
 cessary military protection, and an Of
 ficer as inspector More than twenty
 five hundred miles have been laid, al
 most enough to reach from San Fran
 cisco to Honolulu All the principa
 cities and all the large islands nav
 been joined To be more explicit, ca
 bles connect Manila and Cavite, Ia
 e,lig and Calamba, Taguig and Blhane
 Calamba and Los Banos and Sant'
 Cruz, Liloan and Ormoc, Cebu and LII
 oan. Leyte and Tacoban and Samal
 Naic and Corregidor, Guinayangan am Pasaco, and other points from the IS , lands of Cebu to Bahol, Negros to Cebu
 Cebu to Mindanao, Jolo to MlndanaC