The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-28

Copyright, 1912, by Frank c. Carpenter)
 Washington, D. C. T WANT to tell you of Uncle Sam's
 work in the Philippine Islands. We \ have had possession of them for over 12 years, and it is high time we were taking account of stock and know ing what has been done. They are as you know, under the war department and the bureau of insular affairs Is in constant communication with them by travelling officials and by letters and cablegrams, so that the exact situation can be at any time known. l have spent this week talking with Gen Clarence Edwards, the head of that bureau, and in looking over the reports which have recently come have also seen many of the officers who are just back from there and as a result can give you up fa ws.
 Ise Philippines in 1912
 4a us know mighty little of the T-fl'rpfai. We think that they are a trf ol )cal islands on the other side O. tH fife We have heard that the
 LTo bumps it's head against the 'anud Formosa, which now belongs tf tfa panese, and that 1t kicks It's feet about 1200 miles farther south against the Island of Borneo, possess sion of the Dutch and the British. We have heard that China Is on the west and Hawaii somewhere out in the Pa cihc on the east, but just how big the islands are and what they contain is q problem That shall leave for geogra- phy. I will only say that the archipelago, including the water within 1t. would cover about one-fourth of the United. States proper if it could be dropped down upon it; that it comprises something like 5000 volcanic mountainous islands, and that IA l. .Y.,- han tl,.a distance from Boston to Pittsburg and from north to south about as long as from Philadelphia to Omaha.
 The islands together have as much land as New England. Luzon Is bigger than Ohio: Mindoro and Negros are each as large as Delaware; Mindanao would more than cover Pennsylvania, and Samar is the size of Connecticut.
 The islands contain. according to our own last census. something like 5000 900 people Of these 1.0000o0 are savage or semi-civilized, believing in spirits and witches or in the prophet Mohommed. and the other 100000 are Christians with the same God as our own. That was what we got for the s2o. coo we paid for the archipelago at the close of our war with Spain.
 Establishing Government
 Yes. we got that and morel We got one of the biggest civilizing jobs of all times. The people have been misgoverned for centuries, justice was bought and sold and bribery and graft regned supreme. Eighty per cent of the people were igno- rant and all lacked faith in their rulers. Taxation was heavy. extortion was com mon, and none had any rights which the rulers were bound to respect. There were practically no public improvements. The roads were impossible for a greater part of the year, schools were almost unknown and very locality had its brigands and bandits. In addition was the chaos caused by the war. and out of the whole Uncle Sam had not only to create a gov ernment of the people and for the people but to start the wheels of our modern civilization.
 It is this work he is doing I travelled about the islands in 1899, when we were about taking charge. The army was then re-establishing the governments of