Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1910 — PHILIPPINES PROGRESSING UNDER UNITED STATES RULE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PHILIPPINES PROGRESSING UNDER UNITED STATES RULE

The Filipino war left desolation in its path, as war always does, though since this war was fought largely in the jungle it left as little desolation and as few bitter feelings behind' it as war ever does. Even Aguinaldo, who had as much reason as any one, perhaps, to resent Uncle Sam’s forcible entrance, has become a good and peaceable American citizen, living in qalet and contentment near Manila and speaklhg in the highest terms of the government he so recently was fighting. After the war came the rinderpest, that swept off nine out of ten, if not ninety-nine out of a hundred, of the carabaos, or water buffaloes, animals which are almost indispensable to the life of the Filipino. Then disastrous typhoon succeeded disastrous typhoon, uprooting homes and whole villages, until it looked as though the very elements were leagued against the American occupation. But worst of all was the long delay of our Congress in recognizing the Philippines as part of the United States in a commercial sense. The old markets of Spain were closed to the poor people, and no new markets were opened to them in America until the last Congress gave them practically free trade with the United States, allowing their sugar, hemp, tobacco and copra to come in duty free. tlde Of P ros P erlt y« 60 lons damned up or diverted from the Philippines, seems to be flowing toward them in a steady stream, and the days of murmuring of the Filipino, let us hope, are ended. Already capital is beginning to flow in. New enterprises are being started; the forests and the gold mines and the coal fields are being exploited and the virgin wealth of the islands, which cannot be estimated, is being explored and developed. One might speak With enthusiasm of the railroads that are pushing up into the country, opening up new fields of wealth with every mile constructed; of the great carriage roads like the one to the new summer capital, which cost $1,000,000. Three new docks recently have been completed to which the largest ships afloat can tie up. New streets are being opened throughout Manila, and the splendid street railway system is being extended in every direction. The church and the schoolhouse came with the pilgrims to Plymouth, and they came to the Philippines with the militant pilgrims of 1898 To say nothing here of the splendid work of the mission churches and schools nearly 1,000 American teachers and 8,000 native pedagogues are teaching the young Filipino Idea how to shoot, at the expense of Uncle Sam