The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1902-07-18

~ Win NoOusln'n, anu lduc SS'ii'
90 be returning to its normal
channels.
Thus did A. L. Young of the firm of
Ienshaw, Buckley a Company of san
Francisco, engineers and machinery
merchants summarize the situation I'm
Manila. MIR. Young, who has been In
the Philippines for the past six months
has had one of the best opportunities 10
study conditions and his opinions have
the weight which are to be given the
views Of an observer. Continuing, MI
Young said:
There has been little change, how
ever. in the personnel OF the business
community. The German firms are
stilI the strong ones and the English
merchants are doing a great deal OF
business. There are large exports to
the United States, and the men who
grow and handle the crops are not pri-
MARTY Americans. This may come and
there Is ample room in the business
community there for any American
with even small capital. There are
many lines in which the Americans can
work and work well; some of them
have made phenomenal fortunes in a
few years. and there perhaps will be
steady growth in the community ana
it's personnel.
THE first impression, however, is not
pleasing. This, however, cannot be at
tr'ibuted to the people or the officials.
1t is the matter of the laws and the
regulations. An American business
man going to Manila, what he consid-
ers an American country, at once feels
that there is something wrong when he
has to pay a heavy duty upon his
nff.Nn
against American goods as they are
against those produced in England.
Germany or Spain. The rate is the
same, and coupled with the high rates
Of transcontinental freight, initiates
greatly against the securing of a heavy
portion of the trade of the Islands for
San Francisco.
THE freight rates per ton are not
more than S. higher from New York
to Manila than they are from San
Francisco. For instance, on machinery
it is possible to land goods from one OF
the middle west manufacturing cities
in Manila by way of New York for
something like $40 a ton less than the
same goods can be forwarded through
the house in San Francisco. The New
York agents, of whom there are five
in Manila, keep long line of samples,
do great deal of the business. and
they have the best of 1t. But with the
tariff against Americans there is the
same handicap that is met by the pro-
ducers of every other country, and
there will be some hard work in over
coming this. Until that is changed
there will be only a small portion of the
business that should be done by Ameri-
can firms come their way.
"The Philippines are very rich. Their
capacity for the production of hemp is
known and the only thing now Is to
have the plantations rehabilitated, and
this will be the work of only short
time. The land is rich and there might
be possible many other products. The
scarcity of labor will operate against
any large increase in the amount of
sugar produced for the present.
In Its forests the archipelago Is ex-
tremely rich. There are 700 kinds of
native woods, suitable for lumber and
most of them capable of the highest
polish. The malava, next 60 the hard
est of them, is a very fine wood and
Will be extremely valuable in the fu-
ture. The handling of the lumber was
done by the Chinese, who were the
sawyers, and they had to get out the
lumber by hand saws. i have been in
strumental in putting in three large
mills which, using the band saws, will
revolutionize the timber business. One
of the largest merchants and lumber
men who could not see that had any
chance to get about with my mills, aft
er seeing the working of them, said to
me that he believed that the day of the
Chinese was passed and that the saw
mills would change the entire course
of the lumber business. The logs are
squared in the forest by hand and then
brought to Manila by ship where the
milling Ia done. We have now got the
business on a fair basis and there will
be greater Improvement in the methods
in the future.
There is the greatest difference be-
tween the high class educated Filipino
and the low class man that is imagin-
able. The high class man knows all
about the politics of the world, has a
hne business education and has accept
ed the status and is working for the de-
yeiopment of the country. One family
with within 1 did business is composed
OF four brothers, owns property worth
S2l,OOO,O 0O. and each Of the men has a
speciality in which he is unapproach-
able. Each was educated in a different
country, ana they are men OF the world
in every sense. They are progressive
and the business community Is made uD
on the part Of the Flipncs of such
men as a rule. OF course the uneducat-
ed men are not SO capable of reason
ing out the causes and effects and 50
are not able to see the results which
may come from American rule and they
continue irreconcilable. They are the
bolomen and IL is not safe to travel in
many parts of the islands alone even
now, nor will 1t be for some time.
Many and great changes are going
on IN the East. The opening of the
Trans-Siberian railroad has had mucl,
to do with the business methods Then
too the new tariff of Russia, made on
account OF the recent sugar convention.
mas shut out practically some OF the
very largest firms Of the United States
from doing business there. For in
stance the shops Of the railroad are
tnilinned nriucinaIly u.ith A.,a.ia.. :.