Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/174

among the natives is the large death rate among young children, and this can hardly be charged to the climate. As is well known, a large proportion of Filipino women are unable to nurse their children. As a result, the children begin to eat solid food long before they can digest it, and cholera infantum or convulsions end their lives. It is not difficult to predict the result when babies three or four months of age are given rice, and even bananas and mangoes, as a regular diet. A propaganda among the women, having for its object their instruction in the care of infants, is necessary, and it is understood has been attempted, but as yet has not become general.

As to the other data, the conspicuous facts are the entire absence of hospitals except in a few large cities, the existence of but twelve public libraries with 4,019 volumes; the great preponderance of churches, the small number of newspapers, and the comparatively small number of paupers and criminals.

Labor and wages are burning questions, and a great deal has been said and written to demonstrate the lazy habits of the Filipinos and the worthless character of their manual labor. These strictures usually begin and end with unfavorable comparisons between Filipinos and Chinese, Americans, or other foreign populations. There are two sides to this very interesting and important question, and through the efforts of Governor Taft, the Philippine Commission, and the army it has been made perfectly plain to unprejudiced persons that the Filipino has greater intelligence and capacity than he has been given credit for.

What the Filipinos need in order to demonstrate their capacity as laborers is a fair opportunity under reasonable conditions, not as rivals of the Chinese or other people, but of each other, as is the rule in the United States, where, if Chinamen were permitted to enter unrestrictedly into competition with American labor, the value of wages would soon reduce the average American laborer to a state of poverty. If American labor cannot compete successfully with Chinese labor, it should not be expected of Filipino labor, and the Filipino should not be judged by such a standard. The so-called aversion of the Filipino to labor is not believed to be so entirely natural and instinctive as it is the result of causes to which very little reference is usually made. The habits of centuries, although artificially acquired, may well be mistaken in any people for natural traits. Thus, the abuse of the Filipinos throughout the first two hundred years of their experience with the early colonists, the assiduous and ceaseless efforts of their teachers to humble their pride, stifle their ambition, and impress upon them the dominant race, and the utter hopelessness of any kind of equality with them have no doubt had their effect in causing indifference, shiftlessness, and recklessness.

It may be said that the Filipinos are generally subordinate to lawful authority; that, under competent officers, they make excellent soldiers, and will in the course of time, it is believed, make good citizens. In fact, it is not too much to expect that, under the guidance of a free, just, and generous government, the establishment of more rapid and frequent means of communication, whereby they can be brought into more frequent contact with each other and with the general spread of education, the tribal distinctions which now exist will gradually disappear and the Filipinos will become a numerous and homogeneous English-speaking race, exceeding in intelligence and capacity all other people of the tropics.

The necessity for railroads connecting the rich agricultural regions with