Evening star., 1938-06-19
Volcano of Socialistic Labor
Disrupts Peace of Philippines
President Quezon, Whose Social Justice PROGRAM
Fed Asrarian Flames, Breaks
Movement Again.
BY JAMES G. WINGO.

By JAMES G. WINGO.
MUCH worse current menace to the
~ Philippines than Mayon Volcano
~ (most beautiful in the world), the
eruption of which the last two
weeks has caused the evacuation Of several
villages, damaged crops to the extent of
100000, frightened to death one man and
driven another to madness, Is the socialistic
labor uprising which has been erupting at
short intervals since the beginning of the
year.
Sugar cane fields have been burned. rice
mills sabotaged. granaries plundered and
the people terrorized. Last January, when
violence became rampant in Pampanga
Province, north of Manila, Commonwealth
President Manuel Quezon placed the whole
province under the control of the Philippine
placed under martial law since the early
days Of the United States regime On April
80 President Quezon placed also the neigh
boring province Of Bulacan, only . few
miles from Manila. under the control of the
Philippine Army when 5000 tenants came
to grips with landowners.
Last week 500 armed men invaded a
hacienda in Pampanga and forced the man
ager to rehire dismissed tenant farmers.
President Quezon promptly ordered the ar
rest Of the men involved. stating that he
preferred to see . little bloodshed rather
than the Haunting Of law and order.
Congress Intervention Asked.
Then the Pampanga Socialists appealed
to President Roosevelt and High Commits
sioner Paul McNutt to halt President QUE
son's "dictatorial activities" during the cur
rent agricultural labor and tenant unrest.
Earlier, Narciso LApus. notorious duel
challenger. radioed q message to Represent
ative OMalley. author of an immediate
Philippine independence BILL urging con-
gressional Intervention to quiet the troubles
In Luzon.
Before President Quezon placed Pam
panga under military control, l6 sugar cane
haciendas had been burned in two months.
Workers. Influenced by Socialist agitators.
demanded q minimum wage of peso-50
cents. To justify their demands, they point
ed out that President Quezon himself soon
after his return from the United States
last year set the minimum daily wage In
the provinces at peso
A large majority of the agricultural
workers in Pampanga and Bulacan have
embraced socialism, which was introduced
in those localities in 1881 by able Pedro
Abad Santos, lawyer and brother of
Philippine Supreme Court justice. Just as
Sakdalism, In its heyday. took Laguna,
scene of the bloody uprising of 1885, by
storm, so socialism, which in the Philip
pines is actually euphemism for COM
munism. has won over the masses in PAM
panga and Bulacan.
Socialist candidates were defeated in the
elections last December for two reasons:
They did not have political organizations
and President Quezon had stolen their
thunder with his announcement of .
social justice program
Reaction Stirred by Defeat.
Smarting from this defeat. the Socialists
went to work for . near-future general
agrarian strike. A strike committee was
formed for each hacienda and every other
labor center. Leaders boasted in January
that they had $4,000 agricultural workers
ready to strike in Pampanga, Bulacan, Tar
lac and Nueve Ecija.
Most of the haciendas besetted by labor
trouble are owned by the Roman Catholic
Church or its agencies. Ancient is the
antagonism between landlords and tenants
in the church estates. Gov. Gen. William
H. Taft believed that the purchase Of these
estates and their reselling in subdivisions
to the tenants would end the serious and
oftentimes bloody agrarian controversies.
To raise the money to buy some Of
the church estates the Philippine gov
ernment issued bonds worth $4,000, 900
pesos in 1904. Eventually the so-called
Friar Lands did not 60 to worthy tenants
but to politicos, many of whom have not
paid yet for their purchases. The tillers
of the soil were not helped at all by the
change Of masters.
However, when Frank Murphy was Gov
ernor General, the Philippine Legislature
passed . resolution calling the Friar Land
Purchase Of l904<a complete success and
then authorized him to negotiate for the
purchase Of IS more church estates. Just
. few weeks before the Inauguration Of
the Philippine Commonwealth. Gov. Muir
ply made q report not too favorable to
the purchase, inasmuch as the church
authorities were asking approximately twice
the value placed on the estates by his Sec
retary Of agriculture.
Fears Problem Plus Cost.
Soon after PRESIDENT Queson became the
Islands Chief Executive, he told the Ma
tional Assembly that further negotiations
should be undertaken to arrive at . price
and the conditions of the purchase. But
as early rs June, 1895, President Queson
arrived at this decision: 1T Is now my
earnest conviction that the purchase Of
these haciendas by the government will
not solve the agrarian and social problems
existing therein, but will only transfer to
the government the difficulties which the
tenants now have with the present land
owners. I, for one, do
not wish to impose upon our people the
burden Of . national debt merely
to give few individuals 4e opportunity to
acquire these particular areas at the ex-