Durango semi-weekly herald., 1904-08-18

cry service has advanced immensely
since the war.
Everybody complains that the gov
ernment has demoralized the working
population and done serious injury to
private employers by paying unreason.
ably high rates of wages in the quar-
termasters, engineers and other de-
partments of the army and the pub
lie works service of the municipality
When the Americans took possession
of the Philippines. wages in this city
for ordinary labor we're from 20 to ~
cents day, Mexican gold. Our army
offered SO cents in order to get relIa-
Bile men. and has since advanced to rs
cents and 81 day, which is twice as
much as Is paid by private employers
Tor the same service, and everybody
agrees that 1t Is more than an ordinary
fillpino can earn. While 1t Is less
than white man receives, II must be
considered that the latter Will accom-
plish two or three times as much in
the same length of time as the Fill
strength and endurance and greater
Intelligence. No matter what sort OF
work you put him at the comparison
holds good, and measuring his wages
by what he accomplishes, the average
Filipino on the government pay roll
gets more than he earns, and every
one of his neighbors who receives less
pay wants a similar job. Therefore.
1t Is asserted. general decentralization
and discomfort prevail throughout the
working classes of Manila. Men in
private employment are scheming to
get on the government pay roll and
all who are able to read and write
are ambitious to secure clerkships.
The result has been to a general ad-
vance in wages. salaries and every
form of compensation and expense
since American occupation without le-
gitimate cause or reason People of
experience in every form of occupa.
tion, including household servants.
laundry hands, seamstresses, clerks |
statesmen, book-keepers, teamsters, or
binary iaborers and every OF, er class, |
are already receiving Two and three |
times the pay they were satisfied with |
during Spanish times. and are still de |
manding more. According to the pop
nlar opinion. their inc cased incomes
10 them more harm than coed They |
have not improved thei- way of living |
or dress, nor do they save their on
he better for it,
There is great deal of complaint |
also as to the effect of the educational |
system that has been introduced by |
the Americans. Everybody wants to
go to school, not for the sake of what
they may learn, but because a little |
education will enable them to secure
larger wages and a better position It
is claimed that the country schools
generation, young men and women,
boys and girls from 12 years old and
upward. who were formerly engaged
in various occupations which their age
and strength permltte |. and for which
their services cannot longer be OBJ
tained except out OF school nonrs SO
that older people have to be employed
for the work at higher wages.
II is quite as true he.'e as among the
negroes of the south that education
units man for farming or working
at any of the trades. No Filipino who
can read will do manual labor. The
constabulary. which now Is a force of
5000 strong, has tempted many boys
away from the farms. and It is DIN
cult for those who have been through
The exciting scenes OF insurrection 10
settle down to the humdrum routine
Of plantation life.
WILLIAM r. CURTIS