The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-08-04
MANILA Is new CITY.
Capital of the Philippines Is Trans
formed in Fifteen Years.


A new city is being built on the
shores of Manila bay. where Admiral
DeweyS guns shattered centuries OF
calm on that memorable May day in
1898. A city beautiful is steadily be-
ing shaped by the American exiles in
that far away land with the same
fervor that animates the civic worker
at home. They take no thought OF
the fact that what they are doing to-
day Will not even benefit their chill
dren when they have finished their
tropical task and returned to live
among their own kind. Today Ma
Mia is the most modern city in the
far east. A generation hence 1T viii
be one of the most beautiful in the
world.
What Americans Found There.
When the Americans first went to
Manila there were few evidences OF
that delightful Latin culture of which
the story books delight to pirate.
Thousands washed their clothes in
the streams and otherwise defiled the
sources of public drinking water.
Swamps dotted the city. Stink holes
and cesspools in the densely popu-
lated districts of Tondo and San
Nicholas offended the noses of the
very angels on high. A vile moat.
turgid, putrefying mass of slime
from five to twenty feet deep and
from twenty to hundred yards wide
surrounded old Intramuros (walled
of causing far more than its share of
the thousands of deaths annually from
plague, cholera, malaria and dysen-
terry. Horse cars ambled YEARLY up
and town the poor, old Escoita, the
towns one main street. A telephone
service attributed by legend to the
great Don Quixote wheezed and
groaned through the days allie
work. An electric light system which
Thomas A. Edison would have sued
he hn a nf
shortcomings and .outgoings. was per-
mitted to founder through a nightly
attempt to keep the citizens from to-
tai darkness. There were no docks,
no, sewers, no sanitation, no pretty
homes. The spirit of ''manana" had
the town drugged and the only active
force was death dealing disease.
Now All Is Changed.
Now all is changed. Five steel
docks offer ample berth to the biggest
verse the Suez canal. A reinforced
steel and concrete million dollar no
tel, five stories high, modern in ev-
cry respect, from the garage depot to
the roof garden. takes care of the fas-
tidiouS tourists who once Stunned the
place. The new Luneta lies alongside
the famous old Luneta on the filled
in land which has replaced the waste
water that used to wash against it and
the Malecon drive. On this same
half a mile wide, massive concrete
warehouses, garages, the aforemen-
toned new Manila hotel, the Elks'
club and the Army and Navy club
greet the eye. 4 The Bagum bayan
botanical gardens and other beauty
spots feature broad, winding drives.
Modern telephones, electric light
and street cars serve the city. The
old moat is a grass@grown playground.
new water and sewer system ca
a
serves the citizens. Plate glass win
dows in most of the shops make the
old store fronts blush. Modern Of
flee buildings here and there are ell
bowling the moldy old Spanish build
ings off the business streets. More
than q thousand automobile motor
trucks and motorcycles keep the peo
pie on the jump by day and a score
them by night. Substantial bunga-
lows and up-to-date churches testify
to the presence of home loving Amer
leans. A death rate lower than many
American cities tells the story of
health's successful fight. A thriving
trade, growing annually by leaps and
bounds. huns where manana once sat
and nodded.
City Has Population of 100000.
Manila is now a city of 100000 peo-
pie which handled an export and i'm
port trade of over $100,0O0,000 last
year. Its geographical location.
backed up by the new dock and ware
house area, will make it the CONNER
cial distributing point of the United
States in the far east, just as it is now
our political base in that part of the
world Fifty hours across the China
sea to the north of China and her
4O0,000.000 Of people, who soon are
going to demand shoes of modern
make, sewing machines, scales,
clothes. farming implements. more
and more of Philippine sugar, con-
struction supplies. machinery for pub
lie works, factories, etc. To the south
five days away lies the Federated
Malay states. At her back is India
with 3OO,00O.000 restless inhabitants.
A bay thirty miles wide will cradle
Americas immense oriental mercan-
tile marine some day. Where ten Ger
man, British, Japanese and other for
eign ships enter her gates now a hun
dred will pass Corregidor in the future.
Manila has the only harbor of the
name in the far east. Only Yoko-
hama offers dock space and that is
Limited to the French mail line and a
handful of other ships. At every other
port, even mighty Hong Kong, passen-
gers and freight are transported
ashore in launches and lighters.
Gateway for Growing Trade.
pure Philippine trade of immense
volume is already beginning to pour
through Manila, without the least re-
tarding the growth of Cebu, Iloi1o, AL
bay and Zamboanga- tropical prod
ucts equal in volume to the total pro-
duction of the Hawaiian Islands, Cuba
and Porto Rico will in the readers
lifetime be shipped out of Manila to
the United States and other countries.
Last year the United States took trop
ical products worth $3.50, 600, so
that Philippine goods are assured of
ready market, and the result viii be
the development of Manila into one of
the worlds great seaports.
Manila is governed on the commits
sion plan. the ruling body being the
board, under the direction
of the governor general of the islands.
There are six members, three appoint
cd hv the governor general. one eX-