Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1913 — LAW and ORDER PHILIPPINESI [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LAW and ORDER PHILIPPINESI

SINE years’ residence in the Philippines in the civil service and as an officer in the Philippine constabulary excellently qualifies Capt. William E. Moore of that service to speak with authority as to administrative conditions on those islands. Captain Moore is the son of Levi W. Moore > of Milford, Mass., manager of the Grafton & Upton railroad. He graduated from Milford schools and learned practical railroading under his father’s Instruction. His attention was drawn to the Philippines, and he entered service in Manila in the department having to do with transportation problems. He arrived in that city in October, 1903, but such was his efficiency that he was induced to accept appointment in the Philippine constabulary, beginning January 1, 1905. His varied duties and' service may be inferred from his work having been in the island of Mindaro in 1905, In Cebu in 1906-7, in Samar in 1908, in the mountain province of Ifugao in 1909, at headquarters in Manila until August, 1910, then at San Fernando, La Union, Northern Luzon until July, 1911, and then again to headquarters in Manila last summer, when he was given a six months’ furlough. Much of what he says as to the routine of the officers and the constabulary is a synopsis of his own experience. He will return to duty this month. Less than thirty years old, his position well illustrates the avenues of advancement for young men of energy disposed to steadiness and industry and ambitious. In his Judgment the operation of the Panama canal will lend much impetus to the interest felt in the Atlantic coast commercial centers in our far Eastern possessions. “I have no doubt,” said Captain Moore, “that newspaper readers are fully familiar with general conditions, political and military, in the islands, their location and physical characteristics. instance, it may be remembered that the imports of these islands in the past fiscal year were $54,500,000 and the exports were $50,300,000; that these represented more than 12 per cent, increase in each over the preceding year; that 40 per cent, of the imports are from the United States, while four years before the percentage was but 20 per cent. The increase in hemp, sugar and tobacco exports is remarkable and is increasing. “There is an increasing proportion of the native residents becoming selfsupporting and thrifty, more rice and cane lands are under cultivation, more attention paid by the natives to better home comforts and less to petty quarrels and indolence. "Remarkable application is made in acquiring knowledge of the speech, manners and customs of the Americans. Gradually the sensitive suspicions of the various tribes are allayed by the strict justice meted to all, and the readiness of the American civil or military official to aid and trust the native in many spheres of activity. "At present the Filipino is not ready for self-government, not having the long experience in self-discipline in obedience to legal authority obtaining in this and other highly civilized countries. "Without expressing any individual

opinion as to the probable effect in the island of the great political change of the recent United States election, an editorial from the Manila Times of recent date may help to allay unnecessary apprehension of radical trouble. “It says: Tn all ordinary circumstances the prospect of a change of administration at Washington would be expected to influence, if it did not adversely affect, business conditions. But nothing of the kind has happened. Manila buys and builds and rents and sells in full confidence that no result of the American election can adversely affect its future. . . . No result at Washington can break the era of stability and order in the Philippines.’ “But it is of the constabulary and its work that I am most desirous to talk, for it is a subject with which I am most familiar. It is an organization of which but little is known outside of the islands, for a tacit rule of the command is ‘silence and circumspection.’ The chief or director is Brig. Gen. Harry H. Bandholtz of the United States army and four of the ten assistant directors are regular army colonels. “The constabulary is in no way a part of the regular army. The executive head is the governor general of the Philippines and the immediate chief is the secretary of the insular department of commerce and police, to whom the director reports. "The constabulary is a semi-military body for police service. Last July it included 333 commissioned officers from brigadier general to second lieutenant, and 4,489 enlisted men, divided among Manila headquarters, five district headquarters, an information department, medical division, a constabulary band and officers’ school. “There are 96 companies, each having three officers and 45 men. Except 50 Filipinos, now commissioners, all the officers are Americans. Several of the latter came to Manila with the volunteers in the 1893 campaign, some are of the regular army and still others come from civil life, transferred from the classified civil service. Some of the officers have had service or training at West Point, or Annapolis. Of late appointments have been confined to pupils of leading military schools of the States. “The enlisted men are entirely Filipinos. Seven companies are from the Moros (Mahometans of Mindanao), three are of Bontoc (Igorrotes)), two are of Ifugaos, or wild men of Northern Luzon, and the rest are of Chris-

tian Filipinos from different parts of the islands. T

“The constabulary do all sorts of public service, from entertaining men from the States to establishing quarantines, fighting disease, relieving the poor, settling village disputes, giving official village functions, creating penal and medical stations, etc. “The constabulario is well trained. Besides his drill in soldiery duties he is taught outlines of the penal code of the islands, the municipal code, patrol and secret service work, different ways of getting information from - natives, clear observation and equally clear reports thereon, the settlement of village disputes. "The annual duty of a mamber of the constabulary staff forces him to learn many things not in any book of tactics. He may be one week a deep-sea navigator and then jump to mountain service. "When on duty in coast towns in the lowlands he is used to travel on all sorts of native craft or modern, motor boats; must know something of tides and shore currents; must know all small coves or harbors of refuge; must know how to avoid upset in surf by backing to shore in his rowboat and prevent a smashed craft. “The officers receive extra compensation for qualifying in a native dialect and this is a very important factor in his efficiency, for to be able to greet some old native in his native tongue adds much to the respect in which he is held by the natives. “In such cases the native knows the officer better, trusts him quicker and sooner gives that confidence that is so greatly an element of peaceful control of the islands. The officer thus learns things and men he never could, through an interpreter, and the native as quickly learns the former is his friend and protector so long as he is law-abiding and honest. He learns also to fear him if an evildoer. “Hospitality is sacred among the Filipinos. An officer of the constabulary or an American who has occasion to travel anywhere may safely seek shelter and food at any Filipino home, whether at the home of the wealthy or humbler native, at the home of the country tao or an Ifugao chief. He will be given a place to sleep and as good food as your host has. In the home of the wealthy yon literally command the owner and his servants if his guest. "The poor man will literally kill his last chicken unless you stbp him first for your meal, and when an Ifugao chief sees you coming down a trail to his hut he will run to meet you with a bottle of ‘bubud,’ a native drink. What matter if it is covered with years of dust or half a dozen files be floating on the top? It is the best he has. If you hesitate he will hurriedly drink first to assure you it is not poisoned. “The Philippines are by no means a wild frontier flung across the Oriental edge of the Pacific ocean. “There is, to be sure, a mixture of high and crude civilization, of varied vary fully as much as do the islands in topography, yet the firm, just rule of the American is accepted with an alacrity and confidence by the natives and resident foreigners alike that promises much for the splendid future of the islands and their people.”

PHILIPPINE SCHOOL BOY'S BASEBALL NINE

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