The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-05-17

washington ID. q. May I~3.Eropa-
bly, the average American citizen Is
ignorant of the fact that Uncle Sans
insular possessions number some 1000
tropical and semi-tropical islands.
These great colonial possessions are
not, as the occidental mind is inclined
to believe, mere stretches of sand and
palms and jungles sparsely Inhabited
by savage tribes. Some OF the islands,
1t is true, are simply coral reefs, too
small to be habitable, set in the midst
of the south Pacific. But some, on the
other hand, are giant tracts Of land.
Luzon in the Philippines, the largest,
has an area equal to the state Of Ohio.
The total area OF the islands is about
10000 square miles. equal TO New
England, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Delaware. The pop
ulation is about 10,000.000. Indeed the
islands are anything but sparsely set
tied. In Porto Rico, for instance, the
population per square mile is thirteen
times that in continental United States,
in the Philippines nearly triple.
Most of the islands, including of
course, the dominating Philippine
group. were acquired in 1899 after the
Spanish war, but some Of the little
guano islands scattered through the
Pacific have hoated the American flag
since the sos, Bakers Island, a little
patch of land in longitude 176, Just
north of the equator, was the first Of
these to be acknowledged by the Unit
ed States, in 1856. The Hawaiian is
lands came voluntarily under the SOW
~ereignty of Uncle Sam in 1898.
The Philippines are large enough to
be a country in themselves, or rather
several countries, for nowhere in the
world is there a greater tumble Of LAM
guages and races. The natives who
live in Manila, a city of 100000 inhab-
itants, surrounded by all the comforts
and luxuries Of civilization, bear little
resemblance to the savage tribes of
the Sulu seas, naked as the cayemen
and scarcely less primitive, many of
whom still indulge in human sacrifices
and some of whom are ead-hunting
eannibals. Indeed these startling Diff
ferences among the Fiiipinos have
caused Uncle Sam to establish two
different forms Of government. The
more civilized portions of the archi-
pelago have a large measure of self
government with a native assembly.
But a strong arm is still needed to
curb the tribes of Mindano and the
southern islands.
Most OF these southern people are
certainly strange colonial citizens,
The tribes are apparently innumerable
and their customs diverse. Indeed the
whole archipelago is a battle Of strange
dialects. Two tribes living fifteen
miles apart have been observed to
speak languages unintelligible to each
other. But in one thing all the more
primitive tribes appear to be practic-
ally agreed. This is the style of
dress. For the fashions in those trop-
ic lands are not exacting. A lofn-
cloth for the men and a girdle or knee
skirt for the women r the proper
wear. For children the sartorial prob
lem is even more simple. They wear
nothing at all. OF course there are
variations from these simple styles.
For instance, among the Mangyans, a
eannibal tribe, the ladies wear coils of
ropes made from braided rattan about
their bodies. Girl babies are provided
with two or three coils as soon as they
can toddle and the quantity is added
to year by year, So an elderly Mang-
van woman often resembles, in the dis
lance, a large coil of rope.
The Negritos, q race Of dwarfish
blacks, living in the mountain ranges
Of Luzon and Negros. are said to be
the aborigines of the islands. There
are supposed to be $4,000 Of these, but
they are a dying race, weak and puny,