The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1906-02-16
WON'T HE'LL FILIPINOS.
Philippine Free Trade Would Benefit
Foreign Capitalists
Only.

ne part OF those VINO champion thu
rec entry of Philippine products into
this country that all of the opposit:.-u
TO the proposal m from purely sell
Dish interests. There Is a fair GROUND
Oh opposition based in very much high.
Ell motives. In this section of the
United States, for example, the free
admission of Philippine products will
injure no local interests to any extent,
while the building up of a great sugar
industry in the Philippines, under the
plantation system, doubtless would
tend to stimulate trade with the
islands to the considerable commercial
advantage of the Puget Sound cities.
Nevertheless, the Seattle Post-Intel-
ligencer for one questions the policy
Of the proposed enactment, for the
reason that it does not believe 1t to be
TOR the larger interest of the United
States, nor at all for the interests of
the native population of the Philip.
pines, and their interests should be the
drst thought in every question of leg.
lslation in relation to the Philippines.
For one thing, II free-trade is grant
ed SO far as concerns philippine i'm
ports into this country there will be
an insistent demand which cannot be
ignored perpetually for free-trade in
American products entering the Philip
pines. To admit American goods into
the Philippines free or at a lower rate
OF duty than Is charged on goods from
other countries would be an absolute
and final abandonment on the part of
the United States of the open door,
policy. The trade of this country with
the entire continent of Asia, with all
Of its great possibilities, would be
I~eopardized in order that we might re-
;ain to ourselves the exclusive control
Of the trade of II group of tropical
stands off the coast of Asia.
The demand for the free entry of
Philippine sugar m from those who
hope to build up the cane sugar indus
try in the Philippines. The cane sugar
industry is operated altogether on the
plantation system, with great blocks of
land in individual or corporate owner
ship, with heavy investments Of capital
and with servile or semi-servile labor.
The proposal is to introduce this sys-
tenn Into the Philippines, and this on
the plea that it will be for the benefit
OF the Fflipinos. No Filipino will own
a sugar plantation, nor will he labor
thereon, save at a rate of wages which
will permit of a bare subsistence. In
deed, those who advocate the intro.
duction OF the great sugar plantation
system into the Philippines insist also
that is an essential to its prosperous
conduct there must be a free entry of
Chinese coolies into the islands to re-
place the Filipino laborers, who AN
produce as much for the same
wages as al the Chinaman. In short,
free entry of Philippine sugar into this
country is asked in order that men of
can secure possession Of the
best agricultural land in the Philip
pines and produce sugar thereon by
the use Of Chinese labor to their large
The kind of prosperity which this
would bring to the islands, particularly
to the natives of the islands, is not the
prosperity which should be assured the
Filipinos under the protecting care of
he United States. What share in this
prosperity would the natives have if
out Of the possession of
heir present land holdings, that great
plantations might be built up, on
which the natives would be given mere
an opportunity to compete for an
opportunity to work with imported
Chinese coolies?
Every product of the small farm or
holding, such as could be operated by
he natives or the families, might prop
srly be admitted into this country free,
wen tobacco. Cotton production might
De started in the islands, or cultivation
u spices or other tropical products IN
small farms. But the introduction of
cultivation on a large scale, un-
Ter the plantation system of great es-
.ates cultivated by servile labor, would
prove an absolute and unmitigated
curse to the natives of the islands.
Is there a native Hawaiian of UNI |
mixed blood who is the owner OF a
sugar plantation in the islands, and
mas the sugar industry advanced the
natives? These are ques-
ions which are worthy of serious con-
;ideration in connection with the at
.empts to make the Philippines a coun-
ny Of great sugar-producing estates.