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The Problem of Labor in the Philippines
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 October 2013
Extract
While the retention of the Philippines as a dependency is still a debatable issue, the principles upon which our government there is based are generally endorsed by the American people. These principles assume our responsibility for the welfare, present and future, of a backward race which has come under our control through the most extraordinary accident in modern history; they promise that the race thus appropriated shall be preserved from enemies without and discord within until such time as it may be prepared to maintain its autonomy; they deny the ancient theory that dependencies may be legitimately exploited for the benefit of a controlling state. However sincerely one may deplore the action of President McKinley's administration which brought this burden upon the nation, criticism of an accomplished fact has no bearing upon the problems involved in carrying out a policy necessitated by these principles. They involve a task which is onerous, but they imply an altruism the exercise of which appeals to American idealism. We are called a practical people. We are so in the material development of our territory and in the ordering of our communities built up during a century of rapid exploitation; but no one who understands the national psychology can fail to recognize the tenacity with which Americans cling to certain commonly accepted ideals. Our national history begins with a revolt against overwhelming odds in behalf of an ideal. Every one of our wars has been undertaken in defence of a professed ideal, and whatever opposition their declaration incurred has been avouched in the name of sentiment and morality.
- Type
- Papers and Discussions
- Information
- Proceedings of the American Political Science Association , Volume 10 , Issue 1: Tenth Annual Meeting , December 1914 , pp. 125 - 147
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1914
References
1 “A more highminded course for a great and powerful nation to pursue toward a weak and dependent people whom the fortunes of war had cast into her hands can hardly be imagined. I believe that it is wholly unique in history, and I venture the prediction that it will remain so for a long time to come. Charity and altruism among nations are not nearly so contagious as with individuals.”— Shuster, W. Morgan, Journal of Race Development, I, p. 60 Google Scholar.
2 Ceylon employs nearly half a million Tamil coolies and the Straits Settlements about 50,000, but all except 5000 of these are independent workers emigrating in search of employment. In these near-by colonies supply and demand are met without the necessity of resorting to the system of indenture.
3 The act of Congress “To prohibit the coming into and regulate the residence within the United States, its territories and all territories under its jurisdiction and the District of Columbia of Chinese and persons of Chinese descent” was passed April 29, 1902. The act to regulate the registration of Chinese in the Philippines in conformity with this act was enacted by the Commission March 27, 1903.
4 Governor Taft reports in 1901 the complaint of merchants in the Islands that the labor situation was acute and their determination to send representatives to the United States to ask an amendment to the extension of the exclusion law to the Islands on the ground that the Chinese were necessary for the business development of the country, a proceeding strongly resented by the Filipinos.— Phil. Com. Report, 1902, I, p. 21 Google Scholar.
5 As a combination of ignorance and vanity characteristic of certain educated Filipinos the following statement of Dr. Dominador Gomez before the Congressional party visiting the Philippines in 1905 is worth quoting. “I should like to state here clearly and plainly, in a manner that will not lend itself to future misinterpretation, that the laboring man, or rather that the Philippine Labor Union which represents thousands of laborers in the country, is not wholly opposed to Chinese immigration; they perfectly understand that a restricted Chinese immigration properly regulated by legislative enactment may benefit the country. The Filipino people are not ignorant of the fact that there is an immense wealth lying in our fields and forests which will remain there until, through labor, it is extracted and utilized. If the Filipino people desire to correspond to the grandeur and splendor which is represented by the American flag and American sovereignty in these Islands, it is their duty not only to develop and exploit the vast natural resources that lie in the soil of these fertile Islands but also to dig deep and search out its hidden treasures. However, we understand that morally and intellectually Chinese immigration cannot produce good morals and good customs in these Islands. The Chinaman even in his physical ailments is worse than the man of any other race; his diseases are extrapathological; that is to say, there is not found in any pathological work the diseases with which the Chinaman suffers, nor do we find the same diseases having as great severity among other peoples as they have among the Chinamen. We here in the Philippines do not desire the Chinaman as a mechanic or as a teacher; we desire him, and this I will say, though it may be an offensive phrase to them—we desire the Chinese here merely and purely as work animals for the cultivation of our fields.”— Hearings before the Secretary of War and the Congressional Party Accompanying Him. Manila, 1905, p. 50 Google Scholar.
6 Mr. Foreman declares that “apart from the labor question, if the Chinese were allowed a free entry they would perpetuate the smartest pure Oriental mixed class in the Islands.”—The Philippine Islands, 3d ed., p. 635.
7 “If no restriction were placed upon their coining, Chinese blood might eventually take the place of the Malayan, and we might then have a Chinese dependency on our hands from which condition we might well seek deliverance …. The Chinese infusion, on the whole, turns out a sharp, intelligent, ambitious but untrustworthy individual..… Natives unable to get along industrially with these people formed a dislike for them at the outset and seized every opportunity to show it. The rigid exclusion of the Chinese has been one of the articles in every revolutionary propaganda, and had it not been for the large revenues which the Spanish Government received from the Chinese, this hated class would have been at the least deported..… The Chinese shows commendable adaptation in his promptness in procuring American tools and food products—just that sort of adaptation which the Filipino lacks.”— Atkinson, Fred. W., The Philippine Islands. Boston, 1905, p. 259 Google Scholar.
8 Phil. Com. Report, 1901, II Google Scholar.
9 Robinson, Albert G., The Philippines, the War and the People. New York, 1901, p. 389 Google Scholar.
10 Mr. C. R. Welch, of New York, in a letter of November 28, 1913.
11 The British tropical colonies have been exploited by imported labor wherever the metropole has asserted complete control; those of France, Germany and Japan are too recent to offer satisfactory results for comparison. Other nations have done practically nothing.
12 Some Notes on Java. Allahabad, 1892 Google Scholar.
13 Phil. Com. Report, 1901, iv, p. 6 Google Scholar.
14 Phil. Com. Report, 1902, i, p. 145 Google Scholar, Report of N. M. Holmes.
15 Phil. Com. Report, 1905, iii, pp. 390 ff.Google Scholar
16 Blumentritt, F., The Philippines, a Summary Account, translated by D. J. Doherty. Chicago, 1900, pp. 27 ff.Google Scholar
17 Phil. Com. Report, 1902, i, p. 24 Google Scholar.
18 Phil. Com. Report, 1902, i, p. 171 Google Scholar.
19 Condon, A. R., Commandant, in Phil. Com. Report, 1903, i, p. 393 Google Scholar. But the chief civil engineer, J. T. Norton, in a report on the plan for Luzon railroads, insists at the same time that “there is no possibility of building the proposed lines of railway or any of them within a reasonable length of time except by the importation of Chinese or other foreign labor.” Ib., p. 404.
20 Taft Commission Special Report to the President, 1908, p. 66 Google Scholar.
21 Fee, Mary H., A Woman's Impressions of the Philippines. Chicago, 1910, p. 134 Google Scholar.
22 Phil. Com. Report, 1909, p. 43 Google Scholar.
23 Mr. C. R. Welch, in letter of November 28, 1913.
24 Mr. C. H. Farnham, in letter of December 1, 1913.
25 Phil. Com. Report, 1910, p. 130 Google Scholar.
26 Phil. Com. Report, 1911, p. 128 Google Scholar. The wage now given is $20 per month.
27 The following extracts from the Report of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association for November, 1913, are of interest. “During this year the Association brought in a total of 4178 Filipinos. Departures from the Territory for the same period were 480. An examination of the returns of the plantations shows that Filipinos are as a whole performing fairly satisfactory labor. The reports for the month of August, 1913, show that on 17 plantations the Filipinos worked on an average less than 18 days; on 8 plantations they worked between 18 and 19 days; and on 20 plantations they worked 20 days and over. They work as many days per month, or a trifle better, in this respect, than the Koreans. They do not do as well as the Japanese or Portuguese, but it must be borne in mind that many of them are new arrivals and unaccustomed to performing hard work steadily. An encouraging feature is the disposition shown on their part to take up contracts. The number of Filipino contractors is increasing steadily.
“Thus far there has been no widespread movement on the part of Filipinos to leave the plantations and go to California. Their love of home draws them that way when they have saved sufficient money to make the trip, but 150 men, 4 women and 7 children went to the Coast during the year. This should be very carefully watched and every effort made to discourage the people going that way. A few went to the Coast and wrote back glowing reports to their friends on the plantations, with the result that, within a comparatively short time, there was a wholesale migration when the Japanese exodus to California started in about the same manner.
“Filipino emigration is in a very satisfactory condition. We are able to meet all requirements and as a matter of fact have had to crowd some of the plantations.”
The fact that the Hawaiian Islands are an integral part of the United States renders the movement of Filipino laborers and residents to that Territory especially interesting. When they learn the profits to be earned by even the simplest out-door work they are certain to develop a larger ambition in the sale of their skilled labor and assist us as they assist themselves in the development of all the regions under our common flag where they are readily acclimated.
28 Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 26, 1913.
29 Letter of December 1, 1913.
30 Phil. Com. Report, 1912, p. 20 Google Scholar.