Arizona republican., 1902-03-09
FILIPINOS IN THE SOUTH
A Growing Colony of Philippine Emi-
 grants in Louisiana.

There has been remarkable increase in the Filipino population of Louisiana in the last two or three years. When Speaker Henderson said. a few months ago. that we need have no fear or an influx of Filipinos. as there was not
 Filipino resident in this country. he apparently overlooked Louisiana. There
 have been Filipinos in this state for
 half a century or more; and single colony. that of St. Malo in the parish Of St. Bernard, was 800 strong long before Dewey's victory. What, however. has not been noticed heretofore, is the r-- cent large increase of these Filipinos.
 Their number two or three years ago was estimated at from 500 to 800.
 They lived mainly in two settlements,
 one at St. Maio, on the east coast of Louisiana. where they were fishermen operating on their own hook and catch ing a large part of the fish supply or New Orleans. and the other on Bayou Barataria. west of the Mississippi, where they worked for Chinese mer- chants. catching and drying shrimp for the Chinese market
 There is no explanation of the origin of these Filipino colonies, but it is surmised that they were established by deserters hid in the swamps, far away
 from human habitation. and were very secretive and held themselves aloof from their neighbors. Little is known of their history. They are never called F'ilipinos in Louisiana. but Manila men.
 Most of them know little Spanish, but among themselves they speak
 mainly in Tagal. and live just as tho To 1c- 1n in I nf
 facts have been published before. It is in regard to recent developments that some surprise has been aroused.
 Apparently there has been no recent immigration of Filipinos to Louisiana the federal statistics give no account of any. Yet the number of Manila men seem to have doubled. It Is now esti- mated that there are at least 1000 in Plaquemines parish alone; some 600 at Barataria in Jefferson parish and near
 ly as many more in St. Bernard, where | originally they were most numerous. merly. many of them are doing farm i or plantation work In Plaquemines par | ish, one of the richest sugar districts of Louisiana. Theodore s. Wilkinson. for
 merly member of congress from New l | New Orleans under Cleveland, has 50
 Manila men at work on his plantation | Magnolia grove. or about one-fifth O. all the labor employed: and several other planters are using Filipino labor and find it more intelligent and better 1 than negro labor.
 | No enc has been able to suggest any 1 satisfa ctory explanation Of this extra
 ordinary increase of Filipinos in LOuisi
 ana in the last few years. and they
 themselves will give TO explanation. Ii has been suggested that the former
 estimates of the number of Manila men | in Louisiana were far below the truth ! and that the apparent increase is due to the fact that a great many Filipinos
 who were fishermen ir tke swamps, and
 were practically hidden away from l view there, have come out to the Mis-
 sissippi river and have gone to work
 and fisheries were destroyed by the | recent great gulf storms.
 This may partly explain the matter
 but it will not wholly do so. It is evi- dent that there have been a number oi new arrivals of Filipinos. and this can | be explained either by assertions from
 Spanish and British tramp ships, which
 always have q number of Filipinos
 among their sailors. or by the arriva
 of refugees from the Philippine island:
 who knew of the colony of their people
 in Louisiana. for notwithstanding theil
 great separation. intercourse has ali