Philippine folklore rich

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: Philippine folklore rich
Creator: W. R.
Language: English
Year: 1934
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Fulltext: 12 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL June, 1934 Placer Gold . . . the gold came. You know the standard value of gold, S20.67 an ounce. Comparing the value of the gold with the gross measurement of all the material whence it came, you can readily determine, from the combined data from all the holes sunk over a hectare of the placer, what that section of the placer will run per cubic yard. It is plain enough that honest exploration of placers entails much hard work. However, from the very outset you are recovering gold. If you make wages, or the men doing the work for you turn in gold enough to cover tneir wages, keep on until you definitely know what your placer can produce. Working thus diligently and keeping careful data, supplemented perhaps by a map with the borings numbered on it, you will have a report in the end that will deserve the attention of men with money to finance genuine placer work. Add something about the lay of the country, whether the placer has been consistently panned by the local inhabitants in the past, etc., and you are in a position to speak for your interests. Who knows but that in exploring placer ground in this way, you will come upon lodes? It is this kind of placer prospecting that this magazine believes will reveal numerous valuable placers throughout the islands where large dredges may be put into operation. Initial success with one would make financing of others comparatively easy. It is deemed a grave injustice to our mining industry, our placers especially, that in some instances the financing of projects has been precipitate. For it has given our placers a setback, condemned the possibly good ones along with the proved bad or impracticable ones. However, we hear of high values (placers yielding 35 cents to 50 cents per cubic yard are big money makers for big modern dredges) in placers in Abra and some in Mindanao. There, then, let exploration be thorough. In Mindanao, once 3 separate islands, (E. H. Taylor’s observations on the reptilia of Mindanao), valuable accessible placers would, it would seem, be a logical dis covery. The one at Liangan, where the dredge is at work, may be the forerunner of many. Philippine Sugar’s Position A conjunction of circumstances is adversely affecting the Philippine sugar industry, which has the United States for its sole export market. Of primary importance is the Jones-Costigan Bill Quota Act, under which the Philippines are prohibited from shipping more than 900,000 long tons a year, into the American market, dating back to January 1934. The industry besides producing 100,000 tons for local con sumption reckons to have available for export this year 1,200,000 tons; to apply the above quota as of January 1, will leave a possible carry-over of 300,000 long tons. Practically all of the 900,000 tons applicable to the 1934 quota has been shipped and there are close to 200,000 tons of sugar stored in the Philippines which have an uncertain status under the JonesCostigan bill. Some six mills still have to grind a large per centage of their crop and the sugar to be pro duced by them as well as the sugar on hand in the Philippines maintains a very indefinite status. The local market price at which some of this sugar is being offered already reflects this con dition and it may be correctly assumed that when the local price of sugar is reduced, local consumption will increase. Only the most optimistic observer could expect an increase of 50% in local consumption, which would still leave 250,000 tons of the 1933-34 crop to find an export market. This might be a good time for the islands to test the export field for both centri fugal and refined sugar. Nothing definite of this character could he accomplished without cooperation on the part of centrals and planters on a large scale, because it is not to be expected that an individual will accept the low prices offered in the China market, for example, for sugar when his neighbor still has hopes of being able to sell his sugar next year in the highly protected American market. Whether to hold the entire surplus of 250,000 tons until the 1935 American quota becomes available or whether to market a part of this sugar elsewhere, is a vital issue which can be determined only by cooperative action either from within the entire industry or under Govern ment control. If the entire surplus is carried over to 1935, there will be available from next year’s crop only 650,000 tons for the American market. If all the cane now in the fields is milled, the produc tion this year will be as great as this past crop, or greater, therefore at the end of next years crop, provided all cane is milled, the surplus will be double of what it is this year and would undoubtedly reach a half million tons. If the cane is to be milled, it might be well to bring about cooperative action to develop foreign markets even on a small scale without delay. The only other alternative is not to mill the cane. A most interesting feature arises in the Tydings-McDuffie bill which will supercede the Jones-Costigan bill as far as sugar matters are concerned as soon as the commonwealth govern ment becomes operative. Under this bill, sugars in excess of the Philippine quota may be shipped to the United States provided they pay the full duty. There are a few countries such as Santo Domingo which have no marketing pre ference anywhere. If prices are high enough in the United States, Santo Domingo can always sell some sugar in America, paying the full duty, she can also sell sugar in Canada. Philippine surplus sugars could follow this example. This is not an argument in favor of continuing the production in the Philippines on its present basis. Technical differences between the JonesCostigan bill and the Tydings-McDuffie bill as they apply to the American market may have no practical value. Sugar production including the next crop should be reduced “until it hurts”. It will be easier to build up production if markets which at present have only an uncertain outlook should develop promisingly. Any legislation to control sugar production should bear in mind that the welfare of the Philippine people would be increased if such a vital food product as sugar becomes available to them at more reasonable prices than have prevailed in the past. Therefore, there should be ample allowance made for Philippine home consumption on an increasing scale. Moreover, the possibility of developing markets outside of the United States should not be entirely overlooked and governmental action should be flexible enough to provide for the development of such markets. In other fields of agricultural endeavor, the Filipino people have shown remarkable ability to “take punish ment” and otherwise adapt themselves to chang ed conditions. The sugar people are the most highly trained agriculturalists in many respects and that they shall use their knowledge of scientific agriculture in other directions than sugar to good advantage may be fully expected. The situation is anything but hopeless. It is time that the Philippines should join in the world endeavor to curtail sugar production and bring about higher price levels. The situation demands self-sacrifice and unselfishness and a willingness to abide by government rulings. In other words the situation offers a splendid test for a demonstration of civic obedience and willingness on the part of all to cooperate for the common good. Philippine Folklore Rich There has been' a good deal of inquiry of late, at the chamber of commerce, for Philippine folklore; and some of these inquiries betray an assumption on the part of the inquirers that there is a dearth of folklore here. The opposite, of course, is true. Traditions of all Philippine peoples abound with richly imaginative legends and folklore; quite a good collection is in a volume sold by the Philippine Education com pany, on the Escolta. But a great deal has not been formally published, there is still the oppor tunity for some diligent research in Philippine folklore and the publication of a new volume of it. Among all Philippine peoples, for example, persist stories of the creation, of the fall, and of the flood—all these antedating the intro duction of Christianity into the islands. It is suggested that the right place to go for folklore material of the Philippines is to the University of the Philippines, where, in conve nient nooks of the new library, the references may be gleaned. The study should include, of course, interviews with Dr. H. Otley Beyer, of the department of ethnology and anthro pology. Considerable folklore has been published in our own pages, from time to time, but, com paratively, only a few of the more striking pieces. To what we have the earnest researcher is most welcome. We don’t much of that sort of thing nowadays. —W. R. Britain Coming Out of It Extracts from a cultured Welshman’s letter: “We seem quite definitely to be getting out of the wood here. One really feels that the depression is lifting. The government’s financial policy has been a success, as you have heard, and the year closed with a handsome, though so-called,, surplus. Anyway, there is 6d in tne pound off the income tax, which should be a fine leg-up to industry; and half the salary cuts in the civil service are restored, with half a promise of full restoration next year. But we are still without any real policy for fiscal reorganization, and the attempts made to work out some sort of a plan with the dominions don’t appear to have nad much success. “Situated as we are, perhaps, planning is difficult; but some reorganization has been attempted at home, notably in agriculture, but with questionable success. The iron and steel industry has been welded into a whole, and there are hints that if the mineowners and the cotton magnates don’t get busy and reorganize their industries soon, it will be done for them. “There are many who feel that though Ja panese competition and the circumstances of the war are important contributory causes of the decline of our cotton trade, the rock-bottom cause is lack of rational organization in Lan cashire itself. It is an old industry, of course, and conservative to the last gutter. Perhaps a conservative government will change all that. “It is a curious government we have. Of course it is no longer National; indeed it never has been. It is run by the old crowd. Its back benchers are numerous and with nothing to do, they go chasing after our wholly admirable B. B. C. and all kinds of footling things. A section headed by Churchill and Lord Lloyd (formerly of Bombay and Egypt, governor of both) have long opposed the government’s India policy, which is mainly MacDonald’s and Baldwin’s, but to no purpose; the scheme will go through in the end, though no one is in a hurry while the depression lasts. Burma, too, will get separa tion. That, I think, is very sound; its connec tion with India is an accident of history. “Actually, in the government MacDonald is a mere figurehead. I suppose genial old Baldwin is the power, though Beaverbrook in the Daily Express has never dropped his campaign to turf Baldwin out of leadership of the Tory party. Who would succeed Baldwin as its leader I couldn’t say. Neville Chamberlain is not a man of attractive personality. It looks now as though the government will run its five-year course. Labor seems utterly down and out now, again without real leadership. But no doubt there will be a great reaction to this government when the general election comes. Unless we are right out of the wood by then and the National government will be safe on the strength of the kudos won. “But I seem to recall that Keynes once said ‘the last depression lasted 500 years—the middle ages!’ so we shan’t live to see it out!