Iwahig: where men are men by self-reformation

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: Iwahig: where men are men by self-reformation
Language: English
Year: 1928
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Fulltext: THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL February, 1928 largest, and the steadiest of them all, and her machinery the best and most modern.” She’s 476 feet, keel 445 feet, beam 52.25 feet, draft 27 feet. We carry the technical descrip tion no farther. The Thomas should be made a national memorial, when she goes out of service, and here is something for the Philippine societies in America to do—those Americans who have Iwahig: Where Men are Men By Self-Reformation Early in January Dr. John Lewis Gillin made a trip to Iwahig Penal Colony on Palawan island with Director Ram6n Victorio of the prisons bureau. They were not quite alone. Dr. Gillin’s son, John Lewis, Jr., was with him, and two inspectors, not guards, and 111 prisoners were with Victorio. This at the start, on the cableship Bustamante, turned for the occasion into a convict ship below and a pleasure yacht above. But presently, beyond the lights of Corregidor and on the outside passage, seasick ness joined Victorio and the two inspectors, who lay helpless in their berths. Dr. Gillin, however, was not much perturbed. He hadn’t seen any arms in evidence, and he knew there were 111 prisoners aboard, but to be among prisoners, without any means of defense, was an old story with him. He is a somewhat celebrated criminologist. A professor of sociol ogy at the University of Wisconsin, he holds the chair of criminal pathology there; and he is the chairman of the committee on crime of the Social Science Research Council, for which organ ization he made the trip to the Philippines to visit Iwahig. (He studied Bilibid too, the insular penitentiary in Manila, but that doesn’t count so much: Iwahig was, quite rightly, his real objective.) Next August Dr. Gillin will present his report to the annual conference always held in August at Darmouth college. Seven different national organizations are united in the Social Science Research Council: The American Sociological Society, the American Economic Association, the American Political Science Association, the American Statistical Society, the American Historical Association, the American Anthropological Association, and the American Psychological Association. Many reports will be read at their meeting, but none can have more interest than Dr. Gillin’s on Iwahig. “It stands without a rival in the world,” is Dr. Gillin’s verdict on the colony. He wasn’t uneasy when Victorio and the in spectors got seasick, since he supposed, as he told his son, that the prisoners on board, who might easily have mutinied and taken possession of the ship, were men sentenced for crimes against property. He afterwards confessed that he should have been uneasy, when he learned that among the 111 men no less than 11 were parri cides, 40 were homicides, and 15, murderers; and the rest were bandits, highwaymen and cutthroats generally. “Why wouldn’t they mutiny?” he asked Victorio. “Because they wished to go to Iwahig, a priv ilege they had earned by good conduct in Bilibid, and because they would eventually be caught.” The men, in fact, though they had committed the most heinous and desperate of crimes, were, as prisoners of the state, the highest class of prisoners: in Bilit>id they had become trusties, and at Iwahig they were to be colonists, for such is the milder designation applied to the men making up the colony. In due course the voyage ended, at Puerto Princesa, where officials and colonists alike had gathered to welcome Victorio and his guests. An old Moro datu, with many notches on his kris, had been at the most distant station, in charge of some 40 colonists there. It was about 25 miles off, the farm comprises about 100,000 acres, and he had walked all day and part of the night in order to be at Puerto Princesa on time. Dr. Gillin was now to be still further astonish ed, learning that Captain R. P. Mitra, the colony superintendent, and only 25 others, half of whom are ex-colonists, comprise the entire official staff, and that they are all habitually without arms, save the conventional cane, their badge been in the islands and returned to the homeland, where thousands are influential who surely can’t forget a sturdy ship that has rendered them all unmeasured service. If peace hath her victories no less renowned than war, then let her have her monuments as well. The Thomas, too, has a double claim, her honors are equally of war and peace.■ — W. R. of authority. Iwahig is really a place regainful of men’s souls. It is under discipline, but wholly free from the vengeance society still commonly seeks in the condemnation of men who have infringed its laws. Colonists there number more than 1800; there are 26 officers and employes, 82 members of their families, and about 250 members of colonists’ families, there being 85 Ye Editor (left) interviews Dr. John Lewis Gillin (right) on Iwahig. See text. such families domiciled on the farm and governed by its mild discipline. There is, of course, a hospital; and there is also a public school, attended by the children of officers, employes and colonists, without discrimination. Justice seems to be the motto of administration, daily justice, and men’s, pasts are put behind them. There is a band, a recreation hall; and all the wholesome activ ities of a free community are carried on, by and for the colonists. Snaking Timbers Out of the Iwahig Forest “During my whole visit I saw but two fire arms, pistols, which probably couldn’t be fired,” said Dr. Gillin. “And as we rode over the farm I quizzed Director Victorio about this, he admit ting that all depended upon the men’s good behavior. And he said this good behavior resulted from several causes, chief among them being the proof, from early instances, that the escaped man is always caught, the second being the certain loss of rating, return to stripes and Bilibid, solitary confinement and leg irons, and further sentence and punishment for new crimes committed.” Victorio also told the Journal, “No excuses are ever accepted, and the men know it.” Bilibid is a dreary place for the lifer and longtermer. There is work, well enough organized, but no gain from it; the dormitories are over crowded, the whole atmosphere rigid, cramped, depressing. When they have earned the priv ilege of leaving Bilibid, men have put themselves through a voluntary course of discipline that has furnished them with a new character; and when they doff its stripes for the clothes of the colonist, they have put their old lives behind them. Iwahig has 22 separate activities, given a general classification. Many branches of farm ing and horticulture are carried on, at many stations, where groups of 40 men or so work under the surveillance of one of their number. The colonists in charge of these stations call up headquarters daily at stipulated hours, report ing what was done the day before and what will be done that day. The inspectors can come along at any time, and see that all has been done as reported. Coconuts, rice and sugar cane are all important crops, grown on the shares, and upon com pleting their sentences colonists have already had as much as 1’6,000 to their credit, something upon which to begin life anew. Merchants, Filipinos, of Puerto Princesa, assured Dr. Gillin that the best settlers in Palawan are, as a class, the ex-colonists, who have all acquired habits of thrift, industry and sobriety. There is a herd of 2,000 Indian cattle, one of the pictures shows the ox-teams at work. Fine Berkshire hogs are raised by the hundred, and chickens and other fowls abundantly. An irrigation and water supply system is a part of improvements valued at more than P95.000 made last year, estimates all appearing very reasonable. The colony is not as yet self-supporting, though it will soon be more than that. Let us mention 2,342 coffee trees planted last year, 53 cacao, 44 orange, 1,247 jackfruit, and 37 mango trees. “The parfi rubber trees in Abukayan rubber station are growing luxuriantly.” Fishing is important. Many thousands of coconuts are in bearing. To subsist the colonists costs the public '1 * 0.144 per day per colonist, and out of this must be taken the value of the products accruing to the government’s account, before there is a charge against taxes. Captain Mitra wants a revolving fund for the colony, and with fre quent auditing, for his own protection, it might well be given him. His report shows work inter rupted, abandoned sometimes, or indefinitely postponed, because his requisitions, such as for spare machinery parts, have been cancelled. Iwahig was established February 16, 1904, by R. J. Shields, when Forbes was the commis sioner- of commerce and police, and so it is a monument of Forbes’ administration. The ex penditures last year were 1’282,160 and the income 1’215,270, the net expenditure being the immaterial sum of 1’66,890.