Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1909 — MODEL TOWN OF DANSALAN. [ARTICLE]

MODEL TOWN OF DANSALAN.

New Filipino Village Organized and ’ , Run in Yankee Fashion. Within earshot of the bugles of Uncle Sam and on the opposite aide of the Ague River from the military post of Camp Kelthley, district of Lanao, Moro Province, P. 1., has sprung Up the town of Dansalan, which Gen. Tasker H. Bliss, U. S. A., in his annual report says 1b probably "the first and only Instance In the Philippine Islands of the establishment of an orderly and well regulated community after the manner followed by the Anglo-Saxon settlers of the United States.” His description of its beginning throws an instructive sidelight upon the strange land ‘‘laws’’ of the country, and shows how things often have, to he done there outside the pale of the law to obtain results that are demanded by the needs of the people. The new town grew out of the necessity of removing the settlement of squatters at Marahui on the military reservation of Camp Kelthley. After much deliberation they decided to transfer themselves from the northern to the eastern shore of Lake 'Lanao. They then raised by voluntary subscription the sum of 3,000 pesos, which they placed in the hands of a committee of three Americans of their number, who negotiated with the Moros for an eligible site near enough to the military reservation to be assured of some protection, and purchased it. The site was then carefully laid out, and in accordance with a previous agreement lots were sold at public auction to an amount sufficient to reimburse the subscribers of the original purchase price of the site. The remaining lots were then deeded to the town to be sold to new settlers.

"This well considered, orderly and sensible procedure is, strange to Bay, in its entirety without sanction of law,” the report admits. ‘‘Neither the datto, with whom' the settlers negotiated, nor any of his followers had proved nor could prove title under existing laws. Neither the individual settlers nor the town could acquire title through the datto. But the datto and all his followers believed that the land belonged to him under Moro law or customs and that he could dispose of It as he did. If the settlers had not recognized these believed rights of his, if they had camped upon the site as being waste, unoccupied, uncultivated public land and should have proceeded to acquire title under the provisions of the land law whenever the latter should be made to apply, without compensation to the Miros, they would have brought on a war. There can be no doubt that their recognition of the fact that the Moro was there with his gun and his spear and that his gun and spear (in the absence of a greater number of opposition guns) gave him a valid title for which they had to negotiate, was the only sensible, civilized and Just thing for them to do. No doubt the rights they have thus acquired will in due time be confirmed.” A narrow minded stickler for equity might in this instance, as probably in many others, have brought on hostilities which the tact of an army officer was able to avoid. A novel feature in this case is that the mass of the settlers are not Anglo-Saxon with a long inheritance of the principles of independent and self-govern-ing village life, but are Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and Moros who without hesitation submitted themselves to the domination afid guidance of a few Americans. “It is an illustration of what would happen could a sufficient number of American settlers of the old sturdy stock—Just such as those who are already here—be induced to settle in the province." . In the country occupied by the Tirurayes south of Cotabato, Gen. Bliss finds a territory especially inviting to the investor. The people are teachable and with kind and just treatment would become reliable laborers. No white man, however, should invest either his own labor or his capital without assurance of this native labor. The people are kindly disposed toward the white man, which cannot he said of the Moros, who, paradoxically, “like the white man’s government, which la just and firm but have no liking for the white man himself.”—Army and Navy Journal.