Manila changes mayors with advent of new council

Title

Language

English

Year

1934

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Mayor Tomas Earnshaw rounds out long term—Mayor Juan Posadas challenged by changing social conditions.

Fulltext

Subscription and United States: P4.00 per year Foreign Subscription: $3.00 U. S. Currency, per year Manila Changes Mayors With Advent of New Council Mayor Tomas Earnshaw rounds out long term—Mayor Juan Posadas challenged by changing social conditions Free Press Photo Hon. Juan Posadas Incoming Mayor of Manila Inauguration of the city council chosen in June’s election was made the occasion for retir ing Mayor Tomas Earnshaw from office and appointing in his place Juan Posadas, from the collectorship of internal revenue. Earnshaw is the second business man to have been mayor of Manila. He was appointed by Eugene A. Gilmore in 1927, when, with the portfolio of vice governor and secretary of public instruction, Gilmore was acting governor general of the Philippines. During his long term of office, Earnshaw looked at administrative problems in a business way and tried to the full extent of his powers to give Manila a business-like administration. Often enough he was hindered by contrary opinion in the city council, but he was good at keeping his temper and using his veto. He is to be credited with a number of worthwhile achievements. His practice of singling out the best new residence each year in Manila, and rewarding its owner with public recognition, was excellent. He had foresight when he got Dewey boulevard extended. His relighting of the municipal center is of permanent worth, giving the town much better appearance at night. Long as completion of Taft avenue beyond the city limits was delayed by other authorities, the city did its part in season. Mayor Earnshaw likewise showed keen per sonal and official interest in making travelers welcome in Manila and spreading the fame of the city and the islands as a place to be visited by tourists. Many things have lagged, but they were not altogether in his hands. His successor will find plenty to do. Mayor Juan Posadas differs in antecedents with former mayors, too. He is 50 years old, and since he was 22 years old he has had un interrupted service in the financial department of the government. In 1902 he became a clerk in the provincial treasurer’s office of his home province, Zambales. He has been a tax collector ever since. During the past- 14 years he has been in the internal revenue office; he went there as depute collector in 1920, and got the collectorship when his predecessor in that office, Wenceslao Trinidad, in 1924, resigned to take a lucrative manager’s job in the sugar-mill business. Prior to 1920, Posadas’s tax collect ing was in the treasury-division of the finance department. He worked up through the civil service grades, reached a provincial treasurer’s rank, and served as such in various provinces. Some of his important work was in Davao, where he was both treasurer and provincial secretary—a member of the board making the province’s laws. He was also a member of the government in the old department of Mindanao and Sulu, with Governor Frank Carpenter, and at times was the acting department governor. As collector of internal revenue, he has got for the government about % of its total re venue during the past 10 years: business has expanded, and, save during the depression, paid more taxes as it went along. The collecting has been done without provoking grudges among taxpayers. Courtesy, to the point of suave diplomacy, has marked the service. Posadas was always ready to meet taxpayers, singly or in groups, and talk differences out to amicable conclusions. A large taxpayer himself, on property that must earn its keeping, he knows how burdensome taxes are. (His bureau esti mates the average family income in the Phil ippines at P75 a year, the taxes paid at about 10%). All this has made Mayor Posadas fami liar with some of the business men’s problems; and not merely in one branch, but many. His avocation is farming, diversified farm ing. In Zambales he has rice lands; in Min danao, plantation interests; and out on Laguna he has a country place with truck fields around it, and tries to grow bermuda onions commer cially. From time to time he adds a new exper iment. All this is a very serious effort, with strict bookkeeping behind it. He is proud, for instance, of his Egyptian and American tobaccos; he cures them carefully and finds them in demand. His office as collector of internal revenue made him ex officio head of the tobacco MAYORS OF MANILA Aiisenio Ckuz Herrera, September 19, 1901, to September 18, 1905. Felix M. Roxas, September 19, 1905, to January 5, 1917; or 11-1/2 years, longest term to date. Justo Lukban, January 16, 1917, to March 3, 1920. Ramon J. Fernandez, March 4, 1920, to July 16, 1923. Miguel Romualdez, February 9, 1924, to August 26, 1927. Tomas Earnshaw, December 1, 1927, to October 16, 1934; or 6-3/4 years, second longest term to date. Free Press Photo Hon. Tomas Earnshaw Outgoing Mayor of Manila board, where he helped manage the fate of Philippine cigars abroad, in the American market particularly, and untangled many a difficult knot of contention: sometimes in the industry here, sometimes in the trade in the United States. He had around him in the internal revenue bureau able associates. Some reasons why he takes the mayorship of Manila are obvious. One is his popularity, he finds it pleasant. Another is, the city’s administration requires a tight financial hand. But of greater influence is the social change through which the community is passing. There is unusual unemployment and consequent unrest; there is widespread poor housing, and so much room for improvement. New problems are on the horizon, problems of a nascent indus trial city. They intrigue the ambitious public servant. They intrigue Mayor Juan Posadas, who believes he can solve some of them and is ready to try them all. He has the widest acquaint ance in the business community, naturally. It wishes him the best of luck in his new capa city as His Honor, the Mayor. It is also time to extend greetings to the city council, its old and its new members alike, and Council President Manuel de la Fuente, who announces a reform platform devoted to many obvious needs of the community—“the city government a public service organization.” Let us hope that combined effort of men of good will in the new city government will effect ade quate bridging of the river, and this among its earlier acts. Then decent regulation of traffic and relict of overburdened noble-spirited ponies whose sufferings in hauling rigs beyond their endurance never escape sensitive visitors and give the city and the country' bad repute with them.

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