The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-09-05
FAILURE OF OUR VENTURE.
FACTS WHICH COMPEL 4 CLEAR ER VIEW OF THE PHILIPPINE
Assus-seiectiou of Governor Taft for the Office of Secretary of Yar.

characterization of Governor Taft for
 the Office of Secretary of Wnr.
 As has been widely recognized, the selection of Governor Taft for the office of secretary os war was made possible only by the necessity for a climatic change with which he felt himself con- fronted. The fact that we cannot keep a good governor there, when we have one, casts a sinister light on the whole Philippine problem. One of the mo- tives which led to our taking the isl- ands was the conception that money colud be made out of them. There were more respectable motives, it is true, which were discovered mainly after the seizure, but if the element of greed had ben wholly wanting we should not have taken them at all. The opposition to the seizure, eontending for the princi- pies of self-government and national Independence, would have triumphed had it not run against the sordid max i'm: Keep what you have got and get what you can.'' -s.
 Four years have passed since the isl- ands became ours, and the expected profits have not come. Although care fully cooked reports are sent out from Washington from time to time showing great increase in our trade with the Philippines, the impression is gaining ground that ths all due to the expend- ing of our own money there. We send thither men and ships, and cash to pay their wages and expenses, and millions of dollars besides to save the natives from the miseries attendant upon war, and when these things are translated into the form of exports and imports the bureau of statistics supplies us with glowing accounts of our increasing traf- flc. Tn spite of this mirage, however, the prospect of individual profits other than those which flow from government disbursements is fading away. As a correspondent shows, our only importa- ton from the Philippines of any inn portance Is hemp, and our only exports are good for the Americans living there. The experience of persons who have gone thither to exploit the country by investing their own capital and putting in their own time. is far from encour- aging. They have met two difficulties to which they had not given much thought. The first of these is the labor question The eyploiters have found, to their cost, that labor cannot be obtained by mere show of cash. | There is no { such thing as labor market in the sense in which we understand the term. The native Filipino is not ambitious. He would be called an idler in any country peopled by Europeans. He does not answer the purpose of the ex- ploiter at all. Hence the demand for a contract labor law" the iniquity of which we have already exposed. {,
 The other difficulty, even more insur- rnotintable, is that the would-be ex- ploiter canont stay in the islands long s-aggh +a .tiffakt his pile without los health. Any white man who re- mains there longer than three years is in danger of complete breakdown. Phy- sical debility begins as soon as. he ar rives. It progresses more or less rap idly. according to the nature of his en- ployment and the care he takes of hini- self but 1t is cumulative, and it never halts. The climatic influences which hold most enmity to the blood of the white man in the Philippines are heat and humidity. The: bulletin of the American geographical society for June presents statistics showing that the temperature at Manila is above 90 de- grees at some hour almost every day of the year-usually about 2 p. m. The maximum in the month of May is fre- quertly above 100 degrees The mini mum, which is just before sunrise, ranges from 66 degrees in December to 75 degrees in May. The mean tempera- ture for the year is 83 degrees. The mean annual humidity is 79 per cent, and the annual rainfall at Manila 75 1-2 inches. In the year 1867 it was IF inches. The average number of rainy days in the year is 136. This conjunc- ton of high temperature, high humid ity and excessive rainfall makes the cli- mate almost uncomfortable to the Euro- pean races. fs..
 The question whether the whites can acclimatize themselves to te conditions prevailing in the Philippines has re- ceived attention from the medical staff of our army. Surgeon Charles F. Ma son says n an official report that there Is no such thing as standardization in the sense of adjusting the constitution of the white man to the atmospheric conditions existing there. 'Men do gradually learn, he says, "to take bet ter care of themselves. and to that ex- tent are less liable to disease, but in my opinion the great majority of white men in the tropics suffer gradually deterior- ation of health, and year by year be- come less and less fit for active ser- vice. The London Lancet, speaking from English experience in the East and West Indies, considers the effects of tropical climates on Europeans derti- mental in a marked degree during childhood and youth. In other words, no prudent white father would attempt to rear family in the Philippines All the recognized authorities concur in the opinion that colonization of the islands by Americans is impossible, and that the profitable investment of money there by Americans depends, as Pro- lessor w. 2. Ripley puts it, upon hay ing "a permanent servile nature popu- se. I'd,