The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-13
LIFE IN PHILIPPINES
PATERNALTSM TsE SOLUTION OF
PROBLEMS THAT HAVE
~ ARISEN
cosr OF LIVING IS HIGH
People Are MiserabIy Poor and
Wholly Unable to Cope With
the New COndi-
lions.


Problems of government ownership in
lines commonly reserved for private en-
terprise and of paternalism more or less
sweeping. which have heretofore engaged
conspicuously South Pacific lands, have
crossed the equator and are knocking at
the door of the Philippines, says Freder-
lex w Eddy in the Philadelphia Press.
They do not yet go TO the root of power,
and in comparison with the breadth and
depth of reforms undertaken elsewheSe,
they seem simple. Yet some of the under
lying essentials that they display sug
g6st kinship with neighbOring conditions.
If congress is competent in the exercise
OF its constitutional prerogative to de-
Use for the islands ways and means dis
tinct and apart from those that apply to
hCme territory, it may find itself con-
fronted with a course in paternahsm lead
ing beyond the range Of present foresight.
Appeals for government help have 4
foundation in want The people are mis-
erably poor That condition ordinarily
would not greatly disturb them, for they
need little, and their lives have been
spent under stress. But if the new era
upon which they are entering is to uplift
them. it will also impose eXactions. New
government, designed although it may be
TO correct Inequalities of taxation, and
10 make those pay most whose gain ana
material enjoyment are greatest, has
also in view the conversion into neces-
sites of many things that do not now
enter at all into the life of the masses.
An agricultural bureau will not go be-
yond bounds everywhere recognized as
properly governmental in the distribu-
ton of seeds and of Information intend
ed to help cultivatOrs of land, nor Will
it perhaps step outside of the usual field
If it maintains experimental farms IN
various islands. at which illustration Will
be furnished of the advantages of mod
ern methods and treatment of crops.
1t will send out the African fungus
which infects localities with a deadly dis
ease. in the hope that this scourge and
pest may thereby be destroyed. But
display of fine farms, of pest-ridden
lands ready to yield abundantly from the
seed and tract contributions of bu-
reau, will not be of general use if the
people cannot prepare the land.
They could get on with the crude
implements which they own, if hand
work only would be sufficient. With
their caribaos. or farm animals, killed off
by disease, they cannot plow. They
are asking the government to supply
them with new animals, being unable
themselves to afford to buy them. Gov
eminent hesitancy to approve this propo-
that help to plough the land is needed
than to opinions which doubt the wis
dom of encouraging further dependence
upon the caribao as the animal for farm
labor.
Much may be said in the caribao's
favor, in spite of its proclivities for rest
and water 1t has the tropics as its nat
ural habitat, and it costs less money
than any other draught animal. Long
a 10 n n
inal cost has usually represented the only
native outlay upon it, for browsing is
plentiful and free. AS in many other
things, the natives might learn if they
would, from the Chinese, who can make
a caribao haul without apparent dis
comfort, and keeping at it nearly full
day. a load of 5000 pounds, while a native
lead of 600 pounds is heavy and there
must be long and frequent rests to ena-
Bile the caribao to wallow in water. The
Chinese driver brings the strain of pull
ing upon the animals broad, muscular
shoulders, while the native rig bears
wholly upon a fabby neck
" Zen the animal shows signs of tir-
ing the DAinese unhitches it, lets it lie
down and from receptacle under the
cartsproduces a bamboo tube and buck
ct of water Cruel. He jams the tube
into the caribao's throat and pours down
through it two or three quarts of Cruel.
Then the driver dashes water over the
animal. BY ,ne time this process has
ended, the caribao is ready to get to Sts
feet and go to work again. A Chinese
will do with his bull and cart ten times
the work of a native. Similar results
are obtained in the fields.
The substitute suggested for the ami
nal is the steam plough, which will
doubtless do field service well enough, at
a daily rental, but which manifestly
could not be employed for hauling or in
many other ways in which use is found
for the caribao outside of the fields.
There has been a suggestion that mules
might be brought in from the United
States. 1t has been calculated that. the
mules for army use cost, when landed
here, $1,000 gold each. Regardless Of
what might be the success of a stock
farm for mules, clearly it could not pro-
duce for the market for several years
A caribao, which may be bought on the
spot is not cheap at $40 gold. Natives
would not pay fifty times as much for
mules if they could
No complaints are so loud or so general
in the islands as those concerning do
nestle expenses. Rents have multiplied
several times since American occupation.
Ordinary two-stOry frame houses. of
which only one story is regarded as hab-
liable by an American family. costs in
passable neighborhoods from $500 TO
$l,2OO gold per year. A house that rented
Tor $50 gold in Spanish times is eagerly
snapped at $500 per month Small shop
Keepers who paid under old leases $500
gold per year, find owners demanding
renewals at $50 jer month. Hotel and
lodgings have advanced on a correspond
ing scale. There is nothing first-class
about any of them except the price
Room furniture is exceedingly simple.
There are no carpets, hangings are sell
dom seen, beds consist of framework
with straw braid laced between the posts
and an OVERLAPPING straw mat over which
a sheet and pillows are placed, and the
furniture is usually cheap wicker.
common washstand and wardrobe COM
plete the outfit. A single room of fair
size located is not thought dear bv the
month at $50 gold
Food cannot be bought in great yarie.
ty or extra quality in the stores Hero
are some sample prices in Mexican
money, the ratio being 81 Mexican to ST
gold: Beef, 20 to so cents per pound: