The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-10-27
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

l confess that until began to look into
the matter that the Philippine Islands
had but hazy place in my mind as to
history, size, population and possibili-
| ties.
/ But recently I have become interested
in getting something definitely fixed in my
| thoughts about our great island possess
sion in the Pacific, I have no thought
whatever of here entering into the dis
cussion which has divided political opin-
ion about holding OF restoring it to the
Filipinos
l am content for the present merely to
take stock of this our insular prize
which came out of the Spanish
war in order to get line on it physical
ly, for / daresay that most who will
| read this knew about as little about it
as I did until mys interest was stirred by
copy of the Manila Daily Bulletin.
l have been fond of geography from
earliest childhood. 1t was one of the
studies I delighted in when quite boy,
and even to this good hour every time L
see my boys studying their geography
lessons I look over their shoulders, and
when one of them lays down his book l
pick it up and run through the pictures
and scan the maps and dip here and
there in the text.
Just the other night I was lingering
modern geography, thing of beauty
from the standpoint of the printers art,
lastly bound, and filled with a series
of splendid maps A text hook which
would have filled my boyish soul with,
delight and made the ones 1 used to
pore over look mighty poor and uninter-
esting.
| I have always dotted on maps. The
first prize I ever won at school was
for drawing a map of the United States
from memory, running the state lines,
placing the capitals and putting in the
principal rivers and mountain ranges
To this day map fascinates me, and
so when / began to look up data about
the Philippines, the first thing I did
was to get down big atlas showing
the islands.
I knew in hazy way that there were
several islands grouped to make up the
| Philippines, but it came as shock to
me to learn that the archipelago is COM
400 are inhabited, but only 1858 are
named 1t seems to me that here is an
opportunity for any one to pick UP a
stray isiet and give it name, for It
seems shame that 1853 should be al
lowed to forever remain nameless.
Now I have never hoped to own an
island, but all my life I have hankered
after a lake. I happened to mention it
to my brother-in-law, who at the time
owned or controlled hundreds of thou
sands of acres of pine timber down near
st. Andrews Bay, and he said If you
will come down and live near me I will
give you choice Of some lovely fresh
water lakes. But with me it was the
case of the farm boy moving to town
who dreams some day when he has made
a place with branch running through
the meadow.
The Philippine Islands lie off the south
ern coast of Asia, between Formosa and
Borneo, SO the next time any one tells
me to go to 'Borneo and you make up
your mind to take their advice, you
will be on your way to the neighborhood
of the Philippines. 1 would set down
here the latitude and longitude, but un-
less you know more about them than
do it wouldn't convey the slightest in
formation I know most writer's make
allowance for the knowledge of their
readers, but it is my rule to make a lib
efal allowance for their ignorance, and
that is the reason 1 set down so many
simple things in this column.
Now the only two islands in the Philip
pine archipelago with areas exceeding
10000 square miles are Luzon Gas large
as Denmark, Belgium and Holland COM
bineO and Minidanao lis about equal in
area to Portugal, but there are nine with
an area exceeding 5000 square miles. The
total land area is only 127,S25 miles Qarger
than the British Isles and nearly as
great as Japan, but the total land and
water area is nearly as great as was the
area of the 10 original American colonies
From the Batanes ISLANDS, in the north
to the Tawitawi group at the southern
end of the Sulu Islands, is distance oil
1852 miles,
Ir round figures there are 100000 acres
in rice, 1.250.Oo0 in hemp 900 in corn
iT00, 900 in cocoanuts, 100000 in sugar cane
$50. 900 in tobacco. these being the prin-
cipal crops. The Manila Bulletin car
ries a most interesting illustrated article
on the hemp INDUSTRY. showing that
abaca is not only the most important
fiber, but also the most important ex
port product of the Philippines. but space
forbids my even outlining the illuminate
ing story.
The population of the Philippines is
around $4,000. Racially the people are
principally of the Malay stock. The civ.
i,ized tribes are practically all adherents
of the<Catholic church, the religion being
introduced into the. country by the Span
iards when they took possession IF the
islands in 1865 The Moros are rMoham
medans, and the wild tribes forming