The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal
Issue Date: Volume 6 (Issue No.10) October 1926
Year: 1926
Language: English
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extracted text: In This Issue The “Eyes and Ears” of President Coolidge Busy in the Philippines: Colonel Carmi Aiderman Thompson on Many Errands at Many Places 1. At the Pier, Zamboanga. 2. With Senator Sergio Osmena in Cebu. 3. Going Down! At the Malangas Coal Mines. 4. A Moro Vinta Party Greets Him. 5. He Talks to An Assemblage. 6. Moros Stage a Dance for Him. 7. He Sees Sheet Rubber Made on a Basilan Rubber Plantation. 8. Met by Datu Piang at Cotabato. 9. He Exam ines the Malangas Semianthracite Coal. 10. He Sees a Sulu Pearl Diver Take the Water. 11. He Looks Into the Machine Cleaning of Manila Hemp, at Davao. 12. He Taps a Basilan Rubber Tree. 13. Placards on Moro Craft Support the Bacon Bill. America’s Attitude on World Problems: Edward Price Bell Colonel Thompson Goes Home with His Report Editorials Current Business Reviews and Other Papers of Commercial and General Interest: Fully Illustrated SMOKE Sold Everywhere IRRIGATION UNITS Units Carried Manila Stock Novo Kerosene or Gasoline Engine with Cameron S. V. Pump. Earnshaws Docks & Honolulu Iron Works' P. o. BOX 282 MANILA PHONE 22392 RESPOXDINC TO AHVERT/SEMEXTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMIiER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL SOCONY Motor Oils and Greases MOTOROIL H STANDARD OIL CO.OF NEW YORK 26 BROADWAY NETCONTENTS ONE GALLON MOTOR OIL MEDIUM STANDARD OIL COMPANY of NEW YORK MANILA Cebu, Iloilo Zamboanga Baguio, Legazpi LV RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 192 The Buick Motor Company invites every lover of ’ fine motor cars to drive the GREATEST BUICK EVEB BUILT and know the thrill of the Century’s greatest contribution to motor car progress—an engine, VIBRATIONLESS beyond belief Cars are waiting at our showrooms—you incur no obligation. TEAL MOTOR COMPANY, Inc. 527 Muelle del Banco Nacional Manila IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL We ttXmerican Chamber of C.ommerce Journal PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS (Member, Chamber of Commerce of the United States.) ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER MAY 25, 1921, AT THE ROST OFFICE AT MANILA, F. I. LOCAL SUBSCRIPTION—P4.00 PER YEAR. FOREIGN SUBSCRIPTION $3.00, U. S. CURRENCY, PER YEAR. SINGLE COPIES—35 CENTAVOS WALTER ROBB, Editor Mrs. GEO. L. MAGEE, Advertising BOARD OF DIRECTORS H. L. Henth, President B. A. Green. Treasurer C. M. Cotterman, Vice President George H. Fairchild, J. W. Haussermann, Second Vice President P. A. Meyer E. E. Selph, General Counsel ALTERNATE DIRECTORS: Fred A. Leas John L. Headington W. L. Marshall John T. Pickett S. F. Caches (absent) Robert E. Murphy H. M. Cavender EXECUTIVE: H. L. Heath. Chairman C. M. Cotterman George H. Fairchild EELIEF: W. J. Odom, Chairman Carl Hess John Gordon MANUFACTURING: Fred A. Leas, Chairman John Pickett LEGISLATIVE: C. M. Cotterman, Chairman Frank B. Ingersoll William J. Rohde John R. Wilson, Secretary COMMITTEES FINANCE AND AUDIT: B. A. Green, Chairman C. M. Cotterman Paul A.- Meyer FOREIGN TRADE: S. F. Caches, Chairman R. E. Murphy M. M. Saleeby Paul A. Meyer PUBLICATIONS: R. E. Murphy, Chairman Carson Taylor BANKING AND CURRENCY: Stanley Williams, Chairman H. B. Pond RECEPTION AND ENTERTAINMENT: George H. Fairchild, Chairman John R. Wilson HOUSE: John L. Headington, Chairman Frank Butler LIBRARY: John Gordon, Chairman SHIPPING: H. M. Cavender, Chairman L. L. Spellman CHAMBER INVESTMENTS: C. M. Cotterman, Chairman B. A. Green MANILA P. I. CONTENTS FOR OCTOBER^_1526 VOLUME 6 NUMBER 10 Page How Edwards Got Manila Hemp to Panama................. 5 Colonel Thompson Goes Away with His Report............. 5 Progress in Homesteading of Public Lands................... 9 Editorials (By Walter Robb): Slaying the Bank Bill................................................ 10 Edward Price Bell Unbosoms to England....................... 11 Observations on Filipino Customary Laws (By Walter Robb) ................................................................................ 12 Public Works Share of Revenues Dwindling................... 17 Oddities of Some Philippine Jungle Birds..................... 18 The Alcohol Industry in the Philippines (By E. M. Gross) .............................................................................. 1) Hayden, With Thompson, For Development.................. 21 Americans in the Easy-Going Eastern Tropics (By Percy A. Hill) ................................................................. 21 More About Tarhata .............: ........................................ 20 Pag* Reviews of September Business: Copra and Its Products (By R. K- Zercher).......... 16 Shipping (By H. M. Cavender)................................. 24 Hemp (By L. L. Spellman)........................................ 26 Tobacco (By P. A. Meyer)........................................ 27 Rice (By Percy A. Hill)............................................ 27 Sugar (By George H. Fairchild).............................. 27 Lumber (By Florencio Tamesis)............................. 28 Exchange (By Stanley Williams)............................. 29 Statistical Review of Commerce: Imports and Exports from and to Atlantic and Pacific Ports by Nationality of Carrying Vessels. 30 Principal Exports ....................................................... 31 Principal Imports ....................................................... 31 Port Statistics ............................................................. 31 Carrying Trade ........................................................... 31 Foreign Trade by Countries .................................... 31 The American Chamber of Commerce is ready and willing at all times to furnish detailed Information to any American Manufacturer, Importer, Exporter or other Americans who are Interested in FhlllptHne matters. Address all communications and requests for such Information to the Secretary of the Chamber, No. 14 Calle Pinpin, Manila, F. I. The American Chamber of Commerce of the PhUlpplncs Is a member of the UNITED STATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, and is the largest and most adequately flna'nced American Chamber of Commerce outside the continental boundaries of the United States. The organization has Twelve Hundred mem bers, all Americans, scattered over the Philippine Archipelago from Tawl Tawl to the Batanes. The organization of branches In all the American communities of the Asiatic Coast is being stimulated. The AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS should not ba confused with other organizations bearing similar names such as the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce, the Phllipplne-Amerlcan Chamber of Commerce and the Manila Chamber of Commerce. THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 192 5 FOR SALE Second Hand Machinery One Alternator, 250 KW; 2200 volts; 60 cycle, 3 phase, direct con nected to cross compound Hamil ton-Corliss Engine 12-24 x 36; with generator panel and rheostat. Two 100 A'JV Alternators; 2200 volts; 60 cycle, 3 phase; belted, 18" pulley; direct connected exciters; with generator panels. Two Venn-Severin Crude Oil Eng ines, 60 HP each One Worthington surface conden ser, 400 HP. One Scotch Marine Boiler, 400 HP. 50-100 ko. Ice cans; new. (Knock ed down) 4 Galvanized steel brine tanks; 2500 ko. capacity each; ammonia fittings. Steam pipe and fittings up to 10”. Tube bender for sterling boiler tubes. Tube cleaner, Lagonda, water driven, for 4” tubes; with extra parts, new. Steam and Oil separator. Steam Traps. Marine Engines: (1 Union, 50 HP., distilate) (1 Quayle, 25-35 HP, crude oil) Meters, Electric, Transformers. For Prices etc. Apply BRYAN, LANDON CO. Cebu or Iloilo Outdoor Sporting Season Is Nearing. If you are a Tennis Player come and examine our supplies, the best in the World. America’s foremost Racket is the Bancroft, as sturdy, strong, power ful and speedy as the mighty Sea Warriors. Built on the battleship principle, this mighty “Dreadnaught” of the Tennis Courts prom inent in National, State, Collegiate and Local Tournaments, has help ed many champions to supremacy. SQUIRES, BINGHAM COMPANY Sole Agents Sportsmen’s Headquarters Where all the good fellows meet MANILA 15 Plaza Goiti Philippine Cigars For Christmas Back Home! Give us the names and addresses. Tell us the brands you prefer. We do all the rest—mailing, cer tificate of origin, internal revenue. We carry the best cigars of all standard Manila factories. tj Phone 300 t v Information For Investors Expert, confidential reports made op Philippine project* ENGINEERING, MINING, AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, LUMBER, ETC. Hydroelectric project* OTHER COMMERCIAL AND IHDUSTRAL ENTERPRISES You have just one month. Make up your list now! ♦ KIOSKO HABANERO i ji BRYAN, LANDON Co. Cebu, P. 1. Cable addret* “YPIL,” Cebu “Everything for the Smoker” 27 ESCOLTA PHONES 2658 & 1895 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNA.. OCTOBER, 1926 How Edwards Got Manila Hemp to Panama Successful Transplantation of Monopoly Fiber Plant Editor's note.—Manila hemp has ceased very recently to be a Philippine farm mono poly: Japanese have transplanted it to Su matra, where the plantations already yield ing high grade fiber will furnish seed for extension of the industry, and the following extract from The Official Record, U. S. De partment of Agriculture, tells of America’s success in starting hemp in the Panama Canal Zone. The Philippines will not soon take second place as a fiber region, but their planters must bestir themselves and modernize their methods to meet the new competition. In the Fiber Standardization Board, as now organized by laiv, grading is thoroughly attended to; the misgivings in markets abroad will no doubt soon give place to business confidence, as they should. For hemp planters to follow the example set them by sugar planters is the next es sential step. A collection of approximately 1 JOO select ed plants of six of the leading varieties of abaca, or “Manila hemp,” has been brought by H. T. Edwards, Bureau of Plant Indus try, from the Province of Davao, Philippine Islands, to the Canal Zone and planted there. This achievement is tho cnnrpccfnl culmination of twn years’ effort, nn thp narr of the department to establ ish these pl onio in trcpical regions other than the- Philip - Pine Islands Abaca, or “Manila hemp,” is the raw material from which Manila rope is manu factured. The entire world supply of abaca, with the exception of a few hundred bales, is obtained from the Philippine Is lands. The production of abaca is one of the leading industries of the Philippines, Produce antl the exports of this fiber in World were nearly 400,000,000 c ° i pounds. The annual consumpbupply tion of abaca in the United States is about 175,000,000 pounds. The present production of abaca is barely sufficient to meet the world demand for this fiber, and there is a tendency toward a de crease, rather than an increase. Many of the abaca growers are now planting coco nuts in fields that were formerly in abaca, as coconuts require less labor than abaca and there is shortage of agricultural labor in the abaca provinces. Two different plant diseases that have appeared during re cent years have either damaged or entirely destroyed the abaca crop on limited areas. It has been apparent, in view of these con ditions, that an effort should be made to establish the abaca industry in tropical regions other than the Philippine Islands. Frequent attempts have been made in a number of different countries to grow abaca from seed, but the seedlings ordinarily do not come true to type and the results ob tained from this work have been quite un iformly unsatisfactory In 1923 a small shipment of abaca plants was made from Manila to the Canal Zone, and in 1924 a second shipment was made Manila to Washington, D. C., but none of these plants survived the climatic changes and other hardships incident to the long journey. During the early part of 1925, through the efforts of the office of traffic manager, arrangements were made for the routing of a freight steamer from the abaca-pro ducing Province of Davao, in the southern part of the Philippines Islands, to the Canal Zone. It was believed that with this direct transportation it would be possible to suc cessfully ship growing abaca plants from the Philippine Islands to the American Tropics. Having made these arrangements for direct transportation during the months of July and August, 1925, this collection was loaded on the S. S. Ethan Allen at Malita, Davao, and brought by Mr. Edwards to the Canal Zone, arriving at Balboa on October 3. This collection of plants was obtained from five different plantations and includes the leading varieties of abaca in Davao Province. In order to determine the rela tive value of different kinds of propagat ing material, and also to acertain the best Collection Includes methods of packing, Leading Varietie. suckers, and rhizomes. The seed was ship ped both in cold storage and packed in charcoal. Approximately 500 buds, suck ers, and rhizomes were planted either in soil or sphagnum, about 100 suckers and rhizomes were packed in charcoal, and be tween 800 and 900 rhizomes were wrapped in paper and excelsior and shipped in crates Of the total shipment of 1,438 plants, in cluding buds, seekers, and rhizomes, 1,052 plants, or 73.2 per cent, were alive, and 769 plants, or 53.5 per cent, were in good con dition when the shipment arrived at its destination. Some of the plants in this shipment have been planted temporarily at a quarantine station situated about 9 miles from the town of Bocas del Toro on Columbus Island, near the eastern coast of the Republic of Pana ma. The remainder has been placed in the Plant Introduction Gardens at Summit, Canal Zone. With the possible exception of an occa sional plant in greenhouse collections, these plants are believed to be the only aba ca plants, other than seedlings, that are now growing in tropical America. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 19 Colonel Thompson Goes Away With His Report And What a Report It Is! Data, Data, and Data! Colonel Carmi Aiderman Thompson of Ohio has left the Philippines with a crypti cal but cordial farewell statement to the press and his luggage jammed with the elements of his report to President Cool idge. His head may have been jammed with the same material. But no, this could not have been the case; for the elements of the report, constituting what is believed the most thorough survey ever made of the Philippine government, are quite large ly the answers of various government bu reaus to the Thompson questionaires; and of course none of this mass of information in the rough could have been prepared for absorption by /the presidential emissary prior to his departure. He had therefore available for his fare well statement only his memory of a hundred banquets and receptions and a thousand banquet and platform speeches, together with hazy impressions of dozens of wee and rather unkempt tropical ports and narrow gauge railway and motorroad points; and recollections, still less clear, of countless interviews with formal and in formal committees. He is a jovial man, yet he would hardly be capable of the bold jest at the expense of the Philippines of making a serious report to the President, and even recommendations, from his mere hurried observations while being whisked officially about “an archipelago which is one of the richest lands in the world, if not the richest,” to use his own wordsIt is in the replies to the questionaires that he will find the verification for this assumption. They will be his report. He has the energy to go into them, and to assort and assemble their facts. Besides, he has no doubt been told to do so; or if not this, then he will have able assistance in Washington, so that all will be ready for the short session of Congress, for there remains hardly any doubt but that the questionaires wfere prepared in the commerce department at Washington, un NO DOUBT ABOUT SILLIMAN’S POSITION: THOMPSON AT DUMAGUETE, GREETED DY MISSION STUDENTS. der the surveilance of that master statis tician, who once rationed a nation by sche dule, the Hon. Herbert Hoover. Thompson can hardly have had anything to do with the questionaires: they bore the fingerprints of experts. They were ready upon his arrival here, and when passed out to the bureaus they immediately eng aged the whole attention of large sections of government technical personnel, until the final days of the Thompson sojourn in the islands. This was done while Thomp son himself saw the beauty of the . islands MANILA HEMP ON THE STORIED SLOPES OF MOUNT APO, DAVAO; THOMPSON SAW HERE THAT HEMP MAY BE MACHINE CLEANED AND CULTIVATED IN PLANTATIONS. and came to a realization of their virgin fertility; while he gradually came to ob serve that a militant cabal had the chief executive pocketed and was on an avowed political strike to enforce its well defined demands—always well expressed, often with plausible argument—for immediate, absolute and complete independence from the United States, and meantime for a Philippines undivided by the Bacon bill. Of what Coolidge will do upon receipt of the report, Thompson averred he had hard ly the least notion save his abiding confi dence that the presidential action would be premised upon the welfare of the Fili pino people. It is not necessary, however, to make one’s self deaf, dumb and partially blir when a man in such a position as Thom son’s is speaking; and more especial when he is speaking after a day of mellc good comradeship such as he enjoyed Sep. ember 29, at Kawit with General Emil: Aguinaldo and 5000 veteranos of the r volution of 1896 and 1898 against Spaic and the insurrection of 1899 and 190' against the United States. They were celebrating the 28th annive sary of the ratification of the Aguinah dictatorship which promised a republic. It is perhaps essential to describe tl the scene. Flags of the republic were everywhere. They were stuck up on fences and out of windows, from the boundary of the province clear into Kawit, and the official party proceeded from the bound ary into Kawit between the ranks of the veteranos lining the roadway on either side. Far out on the road, Thompson was met by an honorary committee of high of ficers of the Aguinaldo army, and with them he went into town and met Aguinal do at the gates of his residence, amid a con course of seven or eight thousand people. Upon arches over the road at frequent in tervals, the Aguinaldo platform was set forth in plainly worded placards: friend liness to Americans and faith in America; pleas for independence in accordance with assurances of Consul Pratt, Commodore Dewey and McKinley; opposition to the Bacon bill to accord Mindanao separate ministration. And true to all this Aguinaldo him; .. spoke from a balcony of his new mans ”> house, with the great reception rooms fi with Filipino, foreign and Ameri * guests, the Americans and Filipinos the most part veterans, Thompson him; 1’ among them. Aguinaldo’s remarks in his address > • the 5000 veteranos and other thousai. : patiently standing in a drizzling rain ; .J listening eagerly, contemplated a cha> . ■ of local leadership or some other effect . step toward a period of hearty cooperat a in exploitation of the natural resources ’•! the islands; and afterward... indepe - ence as a matter of course. His remarks did not exclude internatii •al complications, to be overcome before t -n final goal should be reached, nor did o: gather clearly from them that the less ta gible ties between the Philippines and t United States were ever to be severed The revolutionary leader stood precise where he stood when he returned to Mar la from Hongkong after the Battle of M October, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 7 NATIVE HEMP STRIPPING I EVICE: THOMP SON CLEANS SOME HEMP. POI ND FOR POUND STRONGER TJIAN OHIO STEEL nila Bay. He flayed severely noncoopera tion; he of course lamented General Wood’s absence on account of the operation confin ing him to a hospital bed; he frankly took up the challenge that he is an Americanista, and argued this attitude as the only possible one by which independence might be eventually gained, to the assurance of which he several times referred. The addresses by Americans commended and approved this attitude. One in parti cular, though not Thompson’s, rebuked all contrary propaganda and warned it that it would lose ground among Americans in the United States. “Hold fast, hold fast to General Aguinaldo,” said Admiral Sum ner Kittelle, now commanding the 16th naval district of the United States, em bracing the naval stations of Cavite and Olongapo. Carmi Thompson went to Kawit In a shower of rain; He had his day and said his say, And won’t go there again. With profound apologies, naturally, to the “eyes and ears” of a respected Pre sident: to an official emissary whom it were almost sacrilege to liken to the indiscreet doctor of. Mothergoose memory. From all that Thompson said at Kawit, the fol lowing may be paraphrased: He had found the people of the Philip pines to be kind, conscientious, and hospit able perhaps to a fault. Wherever he had gone in the Philippines, veteranos had grouped themselves near the speaker’s .platform. This had pleased him; the only orator whose sophistries he had rebuked publicly was a young man who thought of the veteranos as men of a past day, old fogies, and he had told this young man that America always felt safest when her public affairs were in the hands of men who had sacrificed for her in war. He said that without disparagement of other leaders, “Aguinaldo is the best known most respected and best liked Fili pino, in the United States.” He had re spected him even back in the days when he was soldiering against him. At Kawit he constantly addressed the veteranos and Aguinaldo as comrades. He had arrived in Manila July 9 believing he could render a just and unbiased report of Philippine conditions. This he still believed, “but the report will be tinged with the love and frienship I have come to feel for the Filipi no people.” Whatever might be done would be foi' their welfare. He had made, as he had peen expected to make, an economic survey of the islands, but he was not among those who would exploit the Philippines, their mineral, timber and soil resources; he was not taking heed of political differences, but if he should be the humble means of directing the Filipino’s own attention to exploitation of the islands’ resources, for themselves and for the whole world, then his visit would not have been in vain. He found the Filipinos sincere in their purpose (presumably their purpose of achieving independence), and he hoped the comrades would credit him too with sincer ity and honesty when his report came back to the islands from Washington. He would always cherish cordial memories of the islands, especially of the veteranos; and the photograph of Aguinaldo he was to receive, would be framed and hung in his office where it would ever recall to him his mission to the Philippines. Now it goes without saying, after all this, that together with his report Thomp son will submit his opinion; in other words, he will make definite recommendations, for he has said he believes the islands are en titled to know what America’s purpose as to the future is. It is also rather clear what his opinion will be, as it seems not at striking variance with Aguinaldo’s own. If the day at Kawit was, as is unques tionably true, the most significant in the estire itinerary, the day at Zamboanga was the most exciting. On the Apo, with Colonel Henry L. Stimson as his guest, Wood had called at Zamboanga and made arrangements for the Moro and Christian delegations to line up in two parades and await Thompson, only the reception com mittee going to the pier and boarding the Mindoro. But instead of arriving at Zam boanga on the morning of August 25, the Mindoro did not make port until after noon, when the Christian parade had broken up, and its disbanded elements swarmed down to the pier without leaders or commanders, some twitting the now tho roughly hungry and impatient Moros as they pased their ranks. This was dangerous business. Actual conflict was averted by Thomp son’s refusal to go ashore until the pier was cleared, and by the timely action of Major Fletcher and Moro and Christian officials and leaders following his example. The Apo, having intercepted some quite vivid press dispatches depicting the incident, hurriedly returned to Zamboanga from Jolo, and Wood read the riot act to those whom it seemed had been derelict in ad hering to the agreement. When he return ed to Manila he ignored the press insinua tions that he had dipped an oar into troubled waters and provoked greater tur bulence. > The Journal gathers the actual facts from the Mindanao Herald, and will quote the following disgressive paragraph be cause of its poignant interest: “Happy in the thought that all unpleas antness and cause for friction had been wiped out,. .. General and Mrs. Wood, with their guests, spent several pleasant hours in the old ‘General’s Quarters’, Quarters No. 7, Pettit Barracks, the Wood home of twenty years ago where, with their r OI.D GLORY AND THE ROYAL SULU COLORS OFF .TOLO young children, probably the happiest years of their lives were enjoyed. Many old friends called and renewed their alleg iance.” The data from the government bureaus that will constitute the informative and vital portion of Thompson’s report was all furnished through the office of Governor General Wood. The belief is entertained that the short congressional session may give attention to Philippine matters. Mem bers recently in Manila have said publicly that action should not be longer delayed. Congress meets December 6 and adjourns March 4. Apprised through press accounts of what Aguinaldo had said at Kawit, Quezon, d'facto dictator of the Philippines, took the floor in the senate meeting September 30 and in a two-hour addresses enunciated once more the policy of noncooperation for eco nomic development with the aid of capital from the United States until the question of independence be settled. The following day he continued this criticism of Aguinal do. He offered to submit the question to Aguinaldo’s district in the senatorial elec tions of 1928, and if defeated to retire from politics, with unchanged views. He reiteGALLERY SEATS. AT A PARADE—YOUNG AMERICA, LISTEN: IT TAKES AGILITY TO DO THIS. THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 rated steadfast opposition to Governor Gen eral Wood in matters where power gained from the preceding chief executive might be lost by acquiescence. His vehemence regarding an attitude well known, being so often stated, will not probably be an in fluence inducing Congress to put considera tion of the Philippines indefinitely aside. Thompson had, of course, the legislative in dependence memorial in his briefcase, but it was not alone. Colonel Stimson, secretary of war under Taft and still a stalwart of his party in New York, confined his survey to three weeks, while Thompson, charged with greater responsibility, gave three months to the job. Aguinaldo was very pleasing to Stimson too, and their views about the governor general were in accord. MRS. THOMPSON After dodging about the islands during the time he had, Stimson issued a statement chastis ing the legislative attitude; a state ment pointing to the Philippines’ frown ing neighbors, envi ous of the islands’ resources; a state ment therefore set ting independence a long, long way off, at a point where the population would be several times what it now is, and exploitation of resources comir.ensurate with this growth; and finally, a statement advocating the independence of the office of the chief executive, which he thought should be strengthened by statute and by liberal 'financial provision for a staff of assistants and inspectors. Quezon replied to Stimson, of course, as he later replied to Aguinaldo himself. These many polemics may be diverting, but when the amused reader gets down to solid bedrock he finds little but artificial differences between the principal protago nists; and these, he must suppose, are for the sake of appeal to the electorate in the frequent elections in and about Manila. Both men are independence advocates, Aguinaldo assuming, however, that assur ances already made are sufficient, and that a period of capital investment may be 'wel comed, and Quezon assuming that the as surances are insufficient, “and every Amer ican dollar invested in the Philippines (until every doubt as to the final grant of independence is removed) is a nail in the independence coffin.” Then Aguinaldo counters with a state ment of the American capital invested in Philippine bonds, P161,000,000 and more, principally by enactments of the legisla ture. He doubts that Queson’s professed misgivings about capital are sincere; or if they are, his administration fails, for it has not kept capital out. The depths of this political pool being by no means clear even to the most sophistic ated residents of the Philippines, they may fall quite below the Thompson plumb line and leave that itinerant and involuntary observer completely nonplussed—quite in the dark as to what to say in Washington, and more than a little embarrassed by the duty of saying something absolutely defi nite. So, perhaps, he left us. He is a very affable Ohioan, reticent of speech, and he handled with no little finesse a situation often surcharged with unpleasant possibil ities. If at any time there was the least straining of relations between Malacanang and himself, mutual good breeding prevent ed the least indication of it. At the Thomp son farewell dinner, returning courtesies, the departing host proposed a toast to Gen eral Wood and wished for his speedy re covery; and among his guests were the staff officials who had been the convenient liaison personnel between Thompson travel ing and about the islands for the President, and Wood, both traveling about for him and laboring in Manila. Bon voyage. For the present at least, the Coolidge administration seems to have tied its ship to Aguinaldo’s towline- Replying to the senate president, the veteran revolutionist quotes the Coolidge letter in answer to Speaker Roxas’ memorial of two years ago embracing criticism of General Wood: “The Government of the United States has full confidence in the ability, good inten tions, fairness and sincerity of the present Governor General. It is convinced that he has intended to act and has acted within the scope of his constitutional authority. Thus convinced, it is determined to sus tain him, and its-purpose will be to encour age and broadcast the most intelligent co TWO FRIENDS: THOMPSON AND AGUINALDO operation of the Filipino people in this po licy." This purpose is gaining headway, there seems no doubt; from new and sometimes unsuspected native quarters come frequent attestations of support; but the adminis tration is not Congress,—and indeed, in respect to territories, Congress is rather the administration,—and upon this gamble the senate president continues to toss the dice. He feels he is certain to win at home, and is not altogether certain to lose in America. Perfervid as the political at mosphere is, men seem to see beyond it to fairer days for the Philippines—as if it were the fleeting dark before the dawn of fixed policy toward the islands. However, they will await the Thompson report with ill concealed anxiety. One thing certain to be in the report is a favorable estimate of the present econo mic condition of the people of the Philip pines as contrasted with conditions else where in the far east, particularly in China and Japan; and the fact that the islands are the one country in the east cur rently balancing its budget will be exploit ed, where all Democrats may see! Well, if our budget is less stubborn than others that just seem never to come to balance, we have neverthless for the poli tical gambler something just as good. We have a perpetually flowing stream of in vestigations, official and unofficial, and the reports of these have the same effect upon our going ahead as if our peso had the modesty of the violet and the shrinking qualities of seersucker. Men pray less fervently for what may be the tenor of the Thompson spiel, than that it may be the last of all of themi—the epilogue before the curtain shall be finally lowered over the awful farce of a great republic carrying on as a colonial power. The means have been suggested to Thompson of giving this territory the status it deserves. He has an opportunity, but the fact that he may miss it by the full length of Pennsylvania avenue will continue to make the business baro meter in the Philippines as skittish as an outlaw mustang. Men will work up their projects, it is their habit, but even the in ebriate lucubrations of a second-rate news paper scribe, to say nothing of vocal °debauches in Congress, may scatter their stock purchasers and disperse their credit ors like mist before the wind. With such conditions prevailing, the islands require no unstable budget to give their economics the heebejeebies. WOOD CONVALESCENT Governor General Leonard Wood was 66 years old October 9. He received many well-wishes. Some two weeks ago he en tered Sternberg General Hospital and un derwent an operation from which he is still convalescing- As soon as he may be mov ed he plans going to Baguio for further recuperation and to visit with Minister and Mrs. John Van A. MacMurray, who came down from Peking the first of the month and are guests at Malacanang. Mrs. Wood has been living at the hospital in a room adjacent to Gervral Wood’s since he was taken there. Their daughter, Miss Louise Wood, left Manila for China October 4. It is presumed she will await her parents either in China or Japan and journey to America with them when Governor Wood decides to go on leave. STAPLE IMPORTS: QUANTITIES The Journal has compiled from the cus toms records a table showing relative quan tities of certain staples imported into the Philippines during the first seven months of this year and last year: Commod J a n.-July Jan.-July Increase ity 1925: Kilos 1926: Kilos Decrease Flour 28,200,445 26,719,519 1,480,926 Salmon 2,416,290 3,195,700 779,121 Sardines 4,163,829 4,955,700 791,871 Matches 819,067 661,571 157,496 Barbed 1,945,315 2,767,481 822,166 wire Cotton Prints 18,779,072 11,541,362 7,237,710 (This item in pesos) October, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL Progress in the Homesteading of Public Land Validity of Patents: Question Before Supreme Court Homesteading of the United States public domain in the various provinces of the Philippines goes on at a pace little realized Rapid Settlement Manila unless . »«. , the records are in Mindoro checked up. Mindo ro, with more than 10,000 applicants, has become a mecca for homesteaders from Batangas and the Ilocos provinces. The public lands of northern Mindanao, parti cularly of Misamis, are being occupied by Visayan immigrant families who plant coconuts and abaca. The movement has broadened since last year. In August this year the number of homestead applications received by the bureau of lands was 1755, and last year during the same month only 316, an increase of nearly 500 per cent for the month, and the areas claimed are 28,375-77 and 5057.20 hectares respectively, again an increase of more than 500 per 'cent In the same month 245 applications for free patents were received, and in August last year only 120. About these free pa tents there will be more to say farther on. The expanding impulse to acquire public land is visible in the record of applications of all classes, 2307 in. August this year as compared with 499 in August last year, a proportion of nearly six to one. This high figure doesn’t hold true for the period from January 1 to August 31 inclusive. Nevertheless, an increase is noted; for this year during the first eight months the ap plications of all classes for public domain were 9469 covering 204,453 hectares, and last year during the same period they num bered 8384 covering 107,210 hectares. In actual land entailed the increase was ap proximately. double. A forthcoming article in the Journal on customary laws of the llocanos will pos sibly throw considerable light on that people’s participation in this homesteading movement. The change in the homestead law permitting the taking up of many dif ferent parcels by a single applicant may be a stimulus to legitimate homesteading, The Dotted but may someihe uottea thing e]sfi Swiss Homestead something to season a large potential plantation area by pep pering it with petty homestead claims, and thus cook the proverbial goose of companies organized for plantation enterprises. No Federal officer looks after the Unitea States public domain in the Philippines: administration is wholly left to the devices of the local government, which may not be entirely wise, but certainly is most generous confidence for Washington to repose in a distant and wayward territory. The net increase in applications for public land dur ing the first eight months of this year com pared to the same period of last year was 1085, as 2286 applications seem for one reason or another to have been rejected or cancelled. These rejected and cancelled ap plications covered 4872 hectares, leaving 97,242 as the net increase in hectarage covered by applications accepted. A table courteously furnished by the . bureau of lands enables a check to be made upon the partial and complete alienation of public domain in the Philippines from the date of organization of the bureau, July 26, 1904, to August 31 this year. During this period, applications of all clas ses numbered 178,387 and covered 2,984,247.5 hectares. But no less than 40,427 ap plications, covering 976,867.5 hectares, were rejected, and 7265 covering 109,808 aphectares were cancelled. The norm seems to be rejection or cancellation of one ap plication in five. There are 77,446 ap plications pending action. These 77,446 applications, of which 49,453 are homestead applications, and 19,901 are applications for free patents, cover an area of 1,262,802 hectares; and 100,000 Anxiety of families, it may be presumed, remain in Homesteaders anxiety about their claims, leases and purchases. During the 23 years the bureau has functioned, it has approved 32,165 applications for parcels of the public domain covering 474,565 hec tares, about one hectare in six of the area actually applied for. Among rejected and cancelled applications were 33,928 for homesteads and 7618 for free patents upon homesteads proved up—for which, under ordinary circumstances of security, patents should have automatically issued from the government, which is seen to be frequently unable to keep faith with the pioneers. The bureau and its pioneer patrons con stantly face the problem of the uncomple ted cadastral survey. The borders remain turbulent with disputes over possession or ownership of lands; the only wonder is that they are not more turbulent and the quar rels more sanguinary. Reverting to the question of free patents, a case now pending in the supreme court is up from Nueva Ecija and involves three lots in Cadastral Record No. 270, Case No. 10. The land involved was adjudged to be public land. In 1916 patents were issued to three settlers; their interests have now passed to a.third party; their patents, is sued in 1916, presumably ripened into the equivalent of a Torrens title a year later, or in 1917, during which they appear to have remained in possession of the land, where they planted and harvested crops and made sundry improvements, without anyone’s contesting their possession or the patents granted by the government. But last year a neighbor did file contest, on the ground that she had an old Spanish pos sessory title. This was ten years after the patents had been issued and nine years af ter they had been accepted as unassailable. The contestant won, too; the court of first Patents instance in Nueva Ecija proA 11 nounced the patents void, so Annuli ecl case reaches the supreme court upon appeal. The director of lands, requesting the at torney general to appear in the case as amicus curiae, thinks this: “If within the period of one year after the patent is registered in the office of the register of deeds the adverse claimant does not seek to contest on the ground of fraud the right of the patentee, then he is forever barred from questioning the rights of the said patentee, as the title issued by virtue of the patent duly registered shall then have acquired all the characteristics that determine the finality and indefeasibility of a Torrens title.” He subscribes to a decision of the high court (De los Reyes vs. Razon, 39 Phil. Rep. 480) “that if the land to which the patent relates was not in fact public, but was the property of a third person, the rights of that person have not been divested or affected by the issuance of the title... provided that the one year period... has not yet elapsed,” but he dissents “if the said period has already expired,” and he thinks this rule applies even if the declara tion of the land to be public land has been by administrative decision of the executive branch of the government—upon which point he reasons thus: “It is granted that no government of ficial, no matter how high his political posi tion may be, has the authority to divest valid outstanding private title by holding in an administrative decision that the land embraced within the homestead application is public, but once title is issued after due consideration of the rights involved in the case, even if administrative, the title shall be- incontestable if the aggrieved party by his own laches allows to elapse the period of one year fixed in the statute tvithout asserting his rights in the proper courts of justice. This must be so, otherwise the primordial purpose of the Torrens system, namely to quiet title to land forever, would be set at naught and merely illusory." The director believes reasonable vigilance required from holders of private titles to land. This and the question as a whole are before the high court for decision. It The Title is evi(lent that the Assurance Fund may the court be, in construing the home stead and registration acts, without gravely . infringing upon the rights of private pro perty? The lamentable situation due to incompletion of the cadastral survey of the archipelago is at once apparent when one confronts this question. May the court sustain the director’s opinion, and leave the holder of private title (if it can be esta blished beyond doubt) the right to indem nity from the assurance fund in the insular treasury? The balance in this assurance fund Aug ust 31 was P237,721.99, and in all the his tory of the operation of the Land Registra tion Act, only one claim had been allowed by the court and paid by the treasurer. However, another claim has now been al lowed by the court, in a decision written by Associate Justice James A. Ostrand and not yet published in the Official Gar zette. Ostrand quotes Section 101 of the Land Registration Act in full, from which the following is taken: “Any person who is wrongfully deprived of any land or any interest therein, with out negligence on his part, through the bringing of the same under the provisions of this Act or by the registration of any other person as the owner of such land, ... who by the provisions of this Act is barred or in any way precluded from bringing an action for the recovery of such land or interest therein, or claim upon the same, may bring in any court of competent jurisdiction an action against the Treas urer of the Philippine Archipelago for the recovery of damages to be paid out of the assurance fund.” The assurance fund is created by Sec tion 99 of the Land Registration Act: "one tenth of one per centum of the assessed •value of the real estate on the basis of the last assessment for municipal taxation” payable at the time of registration of the land. In the case just decided by the high court, application had been made to have private land registered in the name of a woman and her minor daughter, and the certificate of title was erroneously issued in the name of the woman alone, who after ward alienated the land through mortgage and sale. After coming of age the girl sued the various parties liable, including the insular treasurer. The lower court ab solved the treasurer (and another party) from the complaint and allowed judgment against the mother and the girl’s step father. The high court reversed this deci sion in so far as it absolved the treasurer: whatever portioi? of the damages, P25,000 (Continued on page 11) 10 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 EDITORIAL OFFICERS American Chamber of Commerce 14 CALLE PINPIN P. O. Box 1638 Telephone 1156 SLAYING THE BANK BILL The Journal commends Senator Villanueva and his committee for reporting unfavorably the bill attacking banks not incorporated in the Philippines, but only licensed and doing business here as world banking institutions. The bill would have prohibited such banks from doing a deposit business, but the committee’s report showed this to be unfair: the international banks, it seems, have, among the five of them, a capital investment in the islands- of nearly P70,000,000; and they keep up their legal reserves; and they go in times of stress to the aid of local banks, for the selfish benefit of banking as a whole and the financial reputation of Ma nila. They are well managed, affiliated throughout the world, and are eminently secure repositories for money; so the committee is in favor of encouraging them, and getting more capital to work in the islands instead of less. This is commendable. The bill was, of course, a sterile pullet destined for the axe anyway, but it is gratifying for the coup de grace to be given in the Legislature and immediately, inste’ad of letting the forlorn creature batten upon oratory, to die finally at Malacanang. It is a notable instance of not passing the buck. AMERICA TO BLAME We are among those believing that most of the difficulties America encounters in the Philippines are of her own making. Among these must be reckoned the difficulties with the Legis lature. Critics often lose sight of the fact that this body is compelled, by law of Congress, to meet each year for 100 working days, which is more than one working day in three; and that the members’ salaries of $6,000 annually bear the approval of an American chief executive and the tacit approval of Congress it self. Now the Legislature has a most difficult struggle with this absurdity. There can be no possible excuse for daily meetings during more than a third of the working year, for there is n’t a thing to be done. If much were done, some of it would be odious and harmful. The leaders (as the record of comparatively few laws passed will show) try their best to do nothing—to loaf the time away harmlessly. They can’t quite succeed, so they divert the bubbling energies of the restless members into the stream of executive criticism and contention. Of course, *no little bitterness gets into all this, and we censure and deplore it; but the fact remains that while it goes on, new and perhaps obnoxious legislation is not going on the statute books. Yet it happens that'every now and then, when the Legislature has apparently settled into innocuous desuetude, one Manila editor or another begins checking up and comes out with -a glaring an nouncement that hardly any bills have reached the governor g?neral. Though nothing could be more desirable, the paucity of bills passed is cited as a legislative dereliction; and just the op posite is usually the actual case. The real fault is having the Legislature meet so often and for such prolonged sessions. Another fault is that of the ex orbitant salaries. Let us compare with the States. Take Okla homa fox* example, the Journal editor’s State. While it was a territory it had a small legislature meeting every second year for thirty days, the members receiving three dollars a day. Now that it is a wealthy State, the Legislature meets every second year1 for sixty days, the members receiving eight dollars a day. The maximum session they are allowed is one hundred days, but after sixty days they go on half pay, four dollars per. In other words, the public remains in power over them; and here in the Philippines, by America’s own contriving, the Legislature is noto riously in power over the public. But when it comes to placing the blame, whose fault is it? No one’s but our own. GREATER CONFIDENCE APPARENT There seems to be an increased feeling of confidence that better times are ahead for the Philippines, and that money will flow this way. This confidence we believe well founded, for this reason: the news incident to the Thompson investigation has made the resources of the United States public domain in these islands familiar knowledge at home, the opportunities are known. Add to this the fact that America is burdened with idle money, the dollar cheaper than a good gold dollar ever was before. This money, for the good of that employed at home, must be employed abroad. Foreign government bonds no longer attract, at least they do not attract sufficiently, and the alternative is overseas— industrials, either domestic, such as Philippine industrials, or foreign, or both. The domestic industrial security is preferable, of course; the Philippines are the only large domestic territory left; they are ample, so the means will be found of putting money to work here. So long as development, the employment of new capital in new or expanded ventures, merely concerned the Phil ippines, there was not much hope; but now that it concerns Amer ica herself more than the islands, confidence and hope are war ranted and worthwhile. WORK VERSUS SCHOOL Agripino Padilla, a tenant on Percy A. Hill’s plantation at Munoz, Nueva Ecija, harvested from his fields last yeai’ 571 cavans of palay. Seed palay was deducted and returned to Hill. The remainder of the crop was then equally divided between Hill and Padilla; and Padilla, selling his share, received P1285 for it. His rice fields brought him more than P100 a month for the whole year, but he had much time after threshing and when the next, crop had been stuck in the paddies, to earn money on the s’deOr if he preferred to loaf—hunt, fish, or what not—he could well afford the luxury of this personal freedom. Hunting is good in his vicinity. For good fishing he might have to go farther. One year with another he should have at least two carabaos to sell, unless he kept them so as to take on more land, in which case he would be risking the additional capital in expectation of more gain than the worth of the animals on the market. Either way, his income was not confined last year to the returns from the rice alone. A garden, some pigs and fowls minimized his living expense. He lives near the primary schcol. Padilla produced rice valued at P2570, a fact to be borne in mind and compared with the view of the schoolmen (just expres sed again in the yearly report of the director of education), that the schools fit youth for life—fit, that is, our peasant youth for solving their abiding problem, the getting of a livelihood. They . in no way fit boys and girls for this when they take them beyond reading, writing and ciphering in other than the specialized rural school or the industrial urban school. They in fact unfit them. Padilla’s crop, value P2570, was new wealth won from the soil by dignified and dignifying toil. But economically its measure is not P2570; this is what society gives for it as a matter of con- . venience, Its true worth is the labor for which it may be ex changed : production of it made employment of that much more labor possible. And unless this labor is forthcoming, Padilla’s rice is not forthcoming. Compare, then, to ascertain whether the islands are profiting from the intermediate and high schools, the yearly earnings of their graduates with the yearly earnings of Padilla. Houseboys, messengers, petty clerks, lowly dependents lowly paid—how many years of menial indignity must each ex change for Padilla’s one season’s rice crop? October, 192G THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 11 PROGRESS IN THE HOMESTEADING (Continued from page 9) with interest, cannot be collected from the stepfather and the mother’s estate, must, upon determination of this fact to the satisfaction of the court of first instance of the province, be paid by the treasurer from the assurance fund upon the court’s order. Edward Price Bell Unbosoms To England ******* Dean of London Correspondents Talks of Pacific Problems Editor’s Note.—Ordinarily, as all readers have observed, the Journal publishes no thing but original matter; and when it di gresses from this rule there is a paramount reason, for its main objective is to print in formatively and intelligently respecting the Philippines. In this instance, the reprint ing from the London Observer of that paper’s interview with Mr. Edward Price Bell, London man for more than twenty yeais of the Chicago Daily News, the paramount reason is obvious in the text: Mr. Bell has returned to London after his trip to Manila and other points in the Far East with ideas upon oriental and world problems bound to have the utmost weight tvhen he ex presses them, as he does fearlessly and fre quently. His oriental trip was in behalf of world peace; and in Manila his interviews were with Wood, Quezon and Osmcna, in Japan with Kato, Shidehara and Bancroft. The same problem still engrosses his atten tion. He writes “I’m enroute to France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany... world eco nomics’’. Through his pen and his public speaking, Mr. Bell is a national and interna tional power whose leadership guides many editors and widely influences American opinion. “I am very fond of the Japanese, and have every confidence that politically, so cially, economically, and ethically they are moving ■ in the right direction, I cannot escape the conclusion that if the Occident loses the friendship of those volcanically cradled islanders it will be the Occident’s fault. China, to my mind, is the most mov ing and appealing potentiality on this earth—a great country and a great people staggering towards the path of a great destiny. There, too, the Occident can build friendship or enmity as it likes. “The paramount interests of the Filipi nos, as well as those of the Americans:— those of the Orientals as well as those of the Occidentals—seem to me to require that the Stars and Stripes shall fly in the Phil ippines for a long time yet—how long, only the evolution of history can determine. The greatest word in the Pacific — indeed, in civilization—is the word equilibrium. In any form of listing there is danger. There is safety only in equilibrium; and America in the Philippines is a force for the equili brium of the Pacific and of the world”. Mr. Bell then went on to discuss domes tic concerns. He said:— “To say the least of prohibition, its suctl. cess is unproven. Our ‘Drys’ a j and ‘Wets’ are continually at And Drys each otheri and their «statis. tics’ are fearful and wonderful. When they come together with their alleged facts and figures, one is reminded of two heavy freight trains meeting head-on at top speed. There is debris all over the adjacent coun tryside. My opinion is that prohibition, if not eternally repugnant to normal, self-re liant, freedom-loving humanity, is hopeless ly premature. The point may not have direct bearing upon the Nueva Ecija case, and yet it may; for, the high court tampers in no way with the certificate of title issued, which, if the year of grace has elapsed, is the point the Director of Lands wishes fixed in respect to title by homestead patent. The case is R. G. No. 24597. The court sat in banc. “That some of the effects of alcohol are hideous no one will deny. But in America to-day it is not a question of alcohol or no alcohol; it is a question of abortive prohi bition or temperance. Although prohibi tion doubtless has done great good in some ways, it also has worked disastrously in the spheres of morals, health and politics. “As to war-debts, as I never have been able to believe that inter-allied war debts should be paid, so I never have been able to War believe they could be paid. They n kf strike me as a deplorable if not Debts dangerous world nuisance. I think they coHld be wiped out with nothing but advantage to all concerned, and it is an abiding faith with me that advancing economic intelligence finally will liquidate them. Who can imagine that in perhaps five or ten years from now anyone in a po sition of authority still will be so much in the dark as not to see that profitable international markets are to be preferred to the continuous passing of heavy credjts across frontiers? “As to Europe’s cry of Shylock at America, I think it were better hushed. “It has been said we got rich out of the Great War. We did not. Like most other countries, we had the wild night of inflation —despite the rigorous taxation policy of our Treasury—and the bad morning of defla tion. Our entire national machinery of production was thrown out of gear, and our industries passed through difficulties un precedented in their history. Our farm ers—50 per cent, of our people—are shaken to this day. “Referring to American prosperity, it is true, if we except the agriculturists, whose condition is only beginning to respond to the industrial boom, America is at the moment extraordinarily prosperous. But this is not war prosperity. It is not history-born. It is science-born. It is prosperity achieved by energy and intellect, advantaged by readily accessible raw materials and a wide, protected, high-consumption home market. “Up-to-date American business directors will not look at the idea of low wages, for low wages spell business decline and threaten social instability. Capitalism in America is justifying itself by the only way possible—by universalising itself. So cialism fails. Why? Because it will not produce wealth. Of what avail is it to preach wealth diffusion while producing no wealth to diffuse?” Discussing Senator Borah and British opinion, Mr. Bell said: “This favorite son of Idaho, a north-western State with a poSenator Potion about one-seventh that Borah’s t’le c’ty Chicago, appears p. to get more for his money when rlace he steps on a foreign weighing machine than when he steps on one at home. Whatever his merits in American politics—and he is supposed to have some— Senator Borah is not addicted to felicitous international manners. If I might do so, with full respect, I should call him-a rug ged, alert, ambitious patriotic, obstinate, parochial, who always goes down with his colours nailed to the mast, but who always goes down. “He may have in him the raw stuff of greatness. His compatriots are sympathe tically expectant, if not excessively op timistic. Borah is a considerable figure, but scarcely United States, and I should venture to counsel Britons and .other distant observers not to magnify him, even when he knows just what he is driving at, as he does not seem to have known in his recent initiative relative to certain supposed claims of America against Britain arising out of the war. “From old British friends I have had many letters revealing painful emotions due to Borah. These letters are not surpris ing, but really nothing has happened to show that Borah is unfriendly to Britain, and if he were he would have small promise of getting far with his animosity”. “He is Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate?”. “Yes, by seniority”. “He is much in the news.” “Decidedly. But neither power nor wis dom is invariably conspicuous in the news”. “He is out for the Presidency?” “I believe so. Most Americans are. But Borah as President, to entertain a more or less remote possibility, doubtless would be a very different man from Borah as vote hunting politician. “In one of my .recent letters from Eng land occurs this question: ‘What is wrong with England from the American point of view to-day?’ I would reply, having re Love Of eard to t*ie sense of the writer, ‘Nothing.’ Three years’ ex perience over the length and breadth of the land on and off the platform convinces me that the American people never before admired and loved England as they admire and love her to-day. To speak on any representative American platform since the General Strike of that magnifi cent fight of that magnificent people for sanity in Government has been to bring the audience cheering to its feet. “Some of us have grown grey fighting for British-American solidarity—and we have not fought in vain. Great Britain has her enemies in the United States, and she doubtless long will have them, for na tionalistic resentments die hard, but the great body of American citizens is for the British peoples and their institutions up to the hilt. We want British-American solidarity in the Atlantic and in the Pacific and we want this solidarity to mean friend ship and a square deal to every other people. “There is one thing in the world greater than British-American solidarity, and just one, what the late Viscount Kato, of Japan, described in a talk with myself as a single human sodality. We want no so-called Nordic bloc nor a Latin bloc, nor opposing and potentially warlike blocs of colour. We want justice for all humanity, and the set tled peace which can come only through such justice. “That the Americans are against en tanglements which entangle, there is no shadow of doubt. They are against any form of super-State. They are against all tut inevitable encroachment upon the rights of the American States by their own Fede ral Government. What does this mean? It means that the American people intend to preserve their Home Rule, to preserve it not only against international centrali sation, but just as far as practicable against domestic centralisation. “International co-operation, so far as America is to have a part in it, must hold Solidarity For 12 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 inviolate the principle of national so vereignty and voluntarism. Am I sug gesting, then, the irreconciliables of organ isation and no organisation? I am suggest ing free spiritual and intellectual co-opera tion. I am suggesting systematised cor porate study of world problems. I am sug gesting the specific disposition of specific matters by international agreement. Inter* Observations on Filipino Customary Laws First Paper: Laws the Tagalog Peasantry of Luzon By Walter Robb The extent to which customary law still prevails among the peasantry of the Phil ippines is interesting and valuable to note. Dr. H. Otley Beyer, the well known ethno logist, estimates that among Ilocanos nine disputes out of ten are settled out of court, by precedents established in customary law and decreed by the elders of the communi ties where the disputes arise. Many of the native customary laws, by which the people are really governing themselves, are su perior to the statutes enacted as the law of the islands. The Dutch, farther south in Malaysia, long ago saw fit to establish courts of customary law, never thinking of imposing upon the peasantry any other. They have recently been compiling these laws, with a view to their codification for more convenient administration. In this task they asked the Philippines to assist by compiling the customary laws of this archipelago. A committee was appointed, only to do nothing, as is the easy habit here; so the Dutch stepped into this field too and actually compiled two volumes of our ancient native laws, many of which are still in force among the people by simple and voluntary practice. Toward the printing of one of these vo lumes, the generosity of the senate pre sident caused him to allot a small sum from a fund then at his personal disposal. That seems to have been the extent of official interest in ascertaining anything at all respecting the laws by which the large majority of Philippine people live. If however the native culture were no longer to be despised, if the customary laws that are wholesome were embodied into a code of legal procedure—such laws, for instance, as preserve the respect of youth for age. and the community authori ty of venerable persons, and especially such laws as tend to sustain the native con cept of the family— nothing at least would be lost. The gain, one is tempted to be lieve, would be incalculable. For it is more and more apparent, as our mere statutes are working, that every substan tial tradition and custom of the people is set at naught—to the detriment of public welfare. Men of maturity, to say nothing of really venerable men, have practically retired from the field of public affairs. Callow youths, cultured in nothing less than in their racial history, have supplanted these elders to no public advantage what ever. The violence of the change amounts al most to a revolution. The auestion is, and it is serious: Is the native character of the people sturdy enough to survive this violence without precipitating social chaos; and would the native character of any peo ple be sufficiently sturdy to survive such violent and wholly exotic pressure? It may at least be doubted. The customary laws often shine beside the statutes in comparison. Divorce laws are an example. The statute is barbaric; the customary law benevolent, considerate and enlightened. Under the statute, a nationally, we must crawl before we walk, and walk before we run. “I say the American people are heart and soul for seeking permanent world peace through steady, methodical, co-operative, non-constricted moral and mental pressure. Any machinery destructive of freedom of decision and action will spoil everything.” spouse to obtain divorce must put their* mate in prison, by the public testimony of witnesses to the act of adultery, or by the accused’s own shameful confession; and on ly from this disgraced and imprisoned Deft hands of skilled workers — help to make your La Minerva cigar a smoke su premely satisfying. Choicest of selected tobacco,— carefully cured and inspected leaf by leaf—insures quality first of all. Then expert cigar makers, working under the most sanitary and healthful conditions of a modern, well ventilated factory, turn out the raw material as beautifully shaped, divinely blended, aro ma-filled La Minerva Cigars. Ask for your favorite La Minerva Monte Carlo Excelentes e>Monarcas Cigars that Delight the Taste and Fill Your Heart with Joyl LA MINERVA CIGAR FACTORY, INC. Makers of the Choicest Cigars since 1883 2219 Azcarraga Tel. 12-69 spouse may divorce be obtained. The mid dle ages presented nothing more revolting. But by customary law divorce may be quietly agreed upon between the families concerned. Incompatibility is recognized as a sufficient cause for legal separation. Property settlements are arranged, but im prisonment never thought of. vThe probability of divorce is also mini mized by native custom respecting marri age. Ninety years ago, Paul de la Gironiere, a French physician who lived twen ty years in the islands and developed Jalajala plantation (now degenerating to wild erness once more), described the Tagalog peasant marriage custom which _is still quite common: **When once a young man has informed his father and mother that he has a predi lection for a young Indian girl, his parents pay a visit to the young girl’s parents upon some fine evening, and after some very IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 13 ordinary chat the mamma of the young man offers a piaster to the mamma of the young lady. Should the future mother-inlaw accept, the young lover is admitted, and then his future mother-in-law is sure to go and spend the very same piaster in betel and cocoa wine. During the greater por tion of the night the whole company as sembled upon the occasion chews betel, drinks cocoa wine, and discusses upon all other subjects but marriage. The young men never make their appearance till the piaster has been accepted, because in that case they look upon it as being the first and most essential step toward their marriage. “On the next day the young man pays a visit to the mother, father and other re latives of his affianced bride. There he is received as one of the family; he sleeps there, he lodges there, takes part in all tne labors, and most particularly in those labors depending upon the young maid’s superintendence. He now undertakes a service or task that lasts, more or less, two, three, or four years, during which time he must look well to himself; for if anything be found out against him, he is discarded, and never more can pretend to the hand of her he would espouse... But it also frequently happens that if the two lovers grow impatient for the celebration of the marriage ceremony—for ‘hope deferred maketh the heart sick’—some day or other the girl takes the young man by the hair, and presenting him to the curate of the village, tells him she has just run away with her lover, therefore they must bi married. The wedding cerlmony then takes place without the consent of the parents. But were the young man to car ry off the young girl, he would be severely punished, and she restored to her family. “The Indian woman never brings a mar riage portion with her. When she takes a husband unto herself she possesses nothing; the young man alone brings the portion, and this is why (at the second ceremony, the tajin-bojol, which is made a family and neighborhood festival) the young girl's ad vocate speaks first... At the ceremony which I honored with my presence the ad vocate of the young Indian girl thus be gan: “ ‘A young man and a young girl were joined together in the holy bonds of wed lock; they possessed nothing—nay, they had not even a shelter. For several years the young woman was badly off. At last her misfortunes came to an end, and one day she found herself in a fine large cot tage that was her own. She became the mother of a pretty little babe, a girl, and on the day of her confinement there ap peared unto her an angel, who said to her:—Bear in mind thy marriage, and the time of penury thou didst go through. The child that has just been born unto thee will I take under my protection. When she will have grown up and be a fine lass, give her but to him who will build her up a temple, where there will be ten columns, each composed of ten stones. If thou dost not execute these my orders thy daughter will be as miserable as thou hast been thy self.’ “After this short speech the adverse ad vocate replied:— Once upon a time there lived a queen, whose kingdom lay on the seaside. ■Amongst the laws of the realm there was one which she followed with the greatest rigor. Every ship arriving at her states’s harbor could, according to that law, cast anchor but at 100 fathoms deep, and he who violated the said law was put to death without pity or remorse. Noiv it came to pass one day that a brave captain of a ship was surprised by a dreadful tempest, and after many fruitless endeavors to save his Ten Shaves FREE « THE PALMOLIVE CO. (Del. Corp.) 6 UARRACA—MANILA Please send me the Free 10 day trial tube of Palmolive Shaving Cream. Address......................................................................................................................................................... l||| JI!' ,,il Illi Uli "" '"I thepmholiveco. 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IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OE COMMERCE JOURNAL 14 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JCDRNAL October, 1923 vessel, he teas obliged to put into the queen’s harbor, and cast anchor there, although his cable ivas only SO fathoms long, for he pre ferred death on the scaffold to the loss of his ship and crew. The enraged queen com manded him to her audit chamber. He obeyed, and throwing himself at her feet, told her that necessity alone had compelled him to infringe upon the laws, and that, having but 80 fathoms long, he could not possibly cast out 100, so he besought her most graciously to pardon him. “And here ended his speech, but the other advocate took it up and thus went on:—The queen, moved to pity by the prayer of the suppliant captain, and his inability to cast his anchor 100 fathoms deep, instantly patdoned him, and well did she devise. “On hearing these last words, joy shown upon every countenance, and the musicians began playing on the guitar. The bride and bridegroom, who had been waiting in an adjoining chamber, now made their ap pearance. The young man took from off his neck his rosary, or string of beads, pui. it round the young girl's neck, and took back hers in lieu of the one he had given her. The night was spent in dancing and merriment, and the marriage ceremony— just as Christian-like as our own—was ar ranged to take place in a week.’’ It is necessary to abbreviate Gironiere. The girl’s mother had married poor and thereafter for some years endured unusual hardships. The temple asked for as a por tion of rhe dowry, bigay-caya, or marriage gift, was a house; the ten columns composed of ten stones each meant 100 piasters. Silent about the temple in his rejoinder, the ycung man’s advocate thus pledged that the house should be given, and in the al legory of the shipwreck—these speeches are always put in poetical fashion—he regret ted that 100 piasters could not be given but pledged that 80 would be, to which the girl’s mother and family agreed../ Such are among the admirable customs of Tagalog peasants of which the law takes no cognizance. The Philippine mar riage law is an early military order, honest, well intentioned, but meddling with char acter, and traditions. Ministers hang out their shingles like strippling lawyers, and bind young people into romantic unions far less lkely to be happy and enduring than those in which the native conventions arc observed. Father San Antonio describes the ancient organization of Tagalog society: The Filipinos had “their economic, mili tary and political government, those being the branches derived from the trunk of pru dence. Even the political government was not so simple among all of them that they did not have architectonic rule. It was not monarchical for they did not have an ab solute king; nor democratic, for those who governed a state or village were not many; but it was an aristocratic one, for there were many magnates among whom the entire government was divided.” There were, in the barangays, or villages, three classes, nobles, freemen and serfs; and no bility, it seems also, was a rank that might be attained by dint of native virtues or acquisition of wealth—as in our own times Datu Piang, lord of Moro Cotabato, is a halfcaste Chinese sprung from the people, who has made for himself the po sition he commands. The Spanish regime sacrificed much, and the American regime has sacrificed most of the assistance the true native aristocrat might render the state, the method in each case being the ignoring of customary law. Under America, indeed, the plebes are elbowing the pretorians quite out of things altogether, a veritable social revolution grips the country everywhere, while the logical process of evolution is made impos sible by the practical working out of un suitable laws. It is true that the plebes, as yet, are not numerous in office. Neither are the native aristocrats. Men are in of fice who command the plebes’ votes, and speaking generally of them as a group or class, they only have a partial heritage from the country and little sympathy or respect for its native institutions. The aristocrats to a degree, and the serfs or plebes quite completely, are at their mercy. This condition prevails in face of the fact that proof is incontrovertible that the old communities well knew how to manage their affairs, and that the art is not yet lost. Government could easily be recast here in a way to induce the most respect ed and virtuous families to serve the state, in a way to enlist the abilities and prestige of the descendants of the old noble families and those who ale ennobled by their own characters. “Trq and Stop ill" |t|HIS is the story of a typical FairbanksMorse experience. In 1919 a 150 horse power, direct-connected, Fairbanks-Morse engine was installed in the then new Del Carmen Sugar Central. For seven years this engine did off-season work, faithfully and without interruption. It became as much a part of the Del Carmen landscape as the towering chimneys. Seven years of operation—day in and day out, month after month - and the reliable FairbanksMorse was as trustworthy as ever! But the day came when it was necessary to have a larger power unit at Del Carmen. So they moved the Fairbanks-Morse to Calamba, and set it up there. And now it’s plug ging away at Calamba. The other day one of our engineers went there to look over this veteran war-horse. We asked him how it was operating in its new environment. “We’ll never be able to sell those people another Fairbanks-Morse,” he said, “for the simple rea son that the ones they have won’t wear cut. And as for that old 1919 engine—well, try and stop it!” That’s Fairbanks-Morse Performance! Pacific Commercial Company Iloilo TTlanila Cebu f wills is ni.m-yi.'iv . . Perhaps •. a • lull: ' aymer., are ■f .i-.v, ..g instrument uduvj u.au wualu piuve flawless in court. The law is of course quite beyond the use of the peasants, who have their ancient laws that are superior to it; and these laws everyone understands, since they are traditionally fixed. i“As to the children and their succession and inheritance,” says Father Colin, “if they are legitimate they inherited equally in the property of their parents. For lack of legitimate children the nearest relatives inherited. If there were illegitimate children, who had for example been had by free woman, they had their share in the inheritance, but not equally with the legi timate children, for the latter received twothirds and the illegitimate one-third. But if there were no legitimate children then the illegitimate received all the inheritance. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL i5 The children of a slave woman who belong ed to the man were given some part of the household effects, according- to the will of the legitimate children. In addition the mother became free for the very reason that the master had had a child by her.” - VToday the peasants make their wills much in accordance with this ancient law. The law permitted, custom still sanctions, some special gift to favorite children, particularly gifts oi personal belongings. "As for le gacies, it was sufficient to leave them open ly, in writing or entrusted by word of mouth, in the presence of known persons.” Here one sees the aristocracy had a civic duty to perform; they were the known per sons who witnessed wills. It is current custom in the villages for fathers on their deathbeds to bequeath their property by saying it shall be divided as tradition de crees, and where there are an inaasawa and natural children to be considered, to have these if possible at the bedside council, where, in the presence of known persons, their participation is agreed upon. To seek to abort such an agreement would disturb the soul of the dead parent or near relative. It is not permitted under custom ary law, but the statute does not punish for a moral lapse of this sort, as the custo mary law certainly would. Under the statute a case involving a large property worth P500.000 has been pending in the courts for two years and is only recently decided. The legitimate wife of the owner had died years ago, without issue. He had since that time enjoyed the companionship of an inaasawa, who bore him children. Upon his death his brothers and sisters laid claim to heirship, and resorted to the courts and highly paid lawyers to exclude the inaasawa and her children. At last, it seems, the courts ruled against them, bin, had the well established customary law been followed there would have been no li tigation, beyond possibly an informal hear ing before the chosen elders, for known per sons would have witnessed that there was an inaasawa, whom, together with her children, the man had recognized, v “For God’s sake, me and the people of that poor colony do not be so governmentish,” Penn once exclaimed to his agent in America. The injunction would apply in the Philippines. It seems almost a demon stration of failure for America to carry on a government so aloof from the people and their understanding, as well as so often contrary to time-proved practices among them. If in desperation they must go into her formal courts, they go there ignorantly and are often pillaged almost openly. In their customary laws, too, there is redress for such breaches of confidence; but they usually dare not invoke the custom when swindled, because it is harsh and the police would be upon them. Tagalog custom decrees implicit respect for parents and elders and for all superiors. Those to whom this deference is paid like wise have their obligations to those who pay it. No doubt exists that this custom is too rigid for modern times, in which the serf or slave of old time has become the peon, but modification need not take the form of incontinent uprooting and impa tient contempt, so that society all but trem bles at the violence of the change. The rational means of modification of harsh practices is to place them in com petition with what is better. In the Phil ippines it is surely evident that statutes and police are not the means: roads, indus tries, plantations managed with enlighten ment, where wages are paid and the whole labor of a man remunerated, are the certain means of displacing feudalism without throwing society as a whole into the orgies of swift revolution. The customary laws in respect to land tenantry are too severe; they are about the same as ttfey were when serfdom prevailed. Statutes do not change them; schools do not; but if a tenant may say, “Sir, I am going to town to sign up for Mindanao,” that surely will give the master pause, for perhaps that family has been on the land longer than the master himself and it is traditional that it remain there. •The variations in tenantry law's are too comprehensive to be reviewed in a paper of this scope. They are most severe in the rice regions, where, happily, due wholly to the stimulus of the greater demand for rice, the tendency is to mitigate their meaner aspects. From a rice crop the seed is returned to the landlord and the re mainder then divided equally between land lord and tenant. The tenant is indentured by a debt called bugnos, possibly 100 pesos, though perhaps no more than 25 or 50 pesos. This debt never enters into the settlements, save to be regularly recalled as the obligation holding the family upon THE NEWEST EQUIPMENT IS ON THE NORTH COAST LIMITED SEATTLE TO CHICAGO (DIRECT CONNECTION TO THE EAST AND SOUTH) “NEWEST” means an Observation-Lounge Car surpassing all others heretofore designed. Barber, Valet, Ladies Maid, Bath, Library, Smoking and Card Rooms, Writing Desk, inviting lounge and wide observation platform. “NEWEST” means Pullman sleeping cars different from any you have seen on any other train. Permanent head-boards divide the sec tions for greater privacy. Interior Decorations in soft, new colors. Here is luxury unlimited for sleeping car passengers. All Steel Construction Means Safety. In the Dining Car are those “famously good” Northern Pacific meals, served with deft courtesy and skill at low prices. Daily from Seattle to Chicago IN 70 HOURS. No change of cars. For rates and literature write R. J. TOZER GENERAL AGENT 609 Robert Dollar Bldg. Shanghai, China. Northern Pacific Railway “2000 MILES OF STARTLING BEAUTY” the land, to w'hich, if they leave without paying the debt, they may be brought back by aid of the insular constables or the local police. During the period a crop is being planted, the tenant is rationed with rice by the landlord, and this rice he returns at harvest without payment of interest. Other advances of rice, money or credit, which are many during the period the crop is growing, bear heavy interest: takalanan, repayment in rice at an agreed price, a fraction of the real market value; terkiaan, repayment at 50 per cent interest; or takipan, repayment at 100 per cent interest, though none of the debt has been running more than a few months at most. “The owner exercises a power pver the tenant that would be hard to define,” says Percy A. Hill, the best authority upon ten antry in Nueva Ecija. “He is consulted upon all affairs of ways and means and even marriage, absence from the land, use of animals, extra day or night work. In petty lawsuits the tenant must obtain per mission to participate; otherwise he pays IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 16 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 for loss of time at an enormous rate... He exasperatingly celebrates every fiesta in the calendar, and without careful watching will lose in a month by carelessness the crop it took him six months to produce. Yet he cheerfully submits to working out debts which are sometimes held only by verbal promises, often over a period of years; and once out of debt he usually manages to fall in again before he realizes it. It is to the owners’ advantage to secure and keep the tenants in a constant state of debt.” But it is no longer so easy to do so, at least in some sections. Fifteen years ago takalanan in southern Nueva Ecija was 75 centavos to one peso per cavan of palay, which had to be delivered to the owner’s warehouse or even hauled to the marketing point. I am assured that it is now 2.50 pesos a cavan, or more than 50 per cent of the actual market value. No statute whatever is responsible for this gain by the peons, and none could be. Customary laws, however severe, do not perforce inhibit economic progress in the Philippines, nor may statutes set them aside. Interming ling, as they do, moral authority with what ever else they pertain to, they might readily be made the very means of progress.'/It is the sharp laddies that dabble in statue making that throw all the monkey wrenches. These boys are American-made. How satisfactorily everyone gets along when dealing with the people in accordance with custom. One embroidery factory in Manila always has among its contractors, goods to the value of many thousands of pesos; and the contractors themselves dis tribute these goods, on which the factory has stamped the design for the embroidery work, to scores of embroiderers. The factory has no formal contracts, it merely makes a memorandum of the goods taken by each contractor; and in the same way the contractors deal with the women work ing for them, .or with subcontractors. The manager of the factory assures me that the losses do not exceed 25 pesos a year, and of course there are no suits at law. It is a matter of pride, rather a matter of pride of custom, upon the part of all concerned to observe these informal agreements in the most careful manner. No one with whom the factory deals is above the middle class, and the actual workers are of the peasantry. COPRA AND ITS PRODUCTS By R. K. Zercher Copra Milling Corporation Final figures for August show ar rivals in Manila to be 407,000 bags of copra. Arrivals for September are re ported as 420,000 bags or 34% in ex cess of the average for the past three years. The opening price for resecada copra in September was P1300 to P13.25. The price advanced slight ly up to the 10th of the month when a break in the oil market caused a gradual decline to P12.75 to P13.00 for resecada up to the 18th of the month. At this time a sharp break in the oil market caused a sud den drop in prices to as much as P1.00 per picul lower. The London market open ed up at £27/10/0 F.M.M. and registered a gradual decline during the month and closed £2/0/0 weaker. Stocks of copra in Manila are enormous and buying has been curtailed due to ware houses being full. The advance report on the U. S. Cotton Crop estimates a million more bales than formerly reported as a consequence of which lowei- prices for co pra may be expected. Closing quotations were:— London —£25/12/6 F.M.M. San Francisco—5-1/8 nominal c —P10.50 Buen Corrientc Manila < and ( —Pl 1.75 Resecada The flurry in the price of coconut oil which commenced near the end of August continued into September and 9 cent oil was quoted up to the 10th of the month. Buyers reduced their ideas to 8-3/4 cents and selers held out for 8-7/8 cents but sales were made at 8-3/4 cents. After the 10th of the month a gradual decline set in and sales were made at 8-1/2 cents and 8-3/8 cents F.O.B. West Coast. A sharp decline on the 19th was registered and buy ers ideas were reduced to 8 cents at which no sales were reported. Indications point to weaker market due to large stocks, also an increase in the estimate of the Cotton Crop. Closing quotations were:— . ’ - San Francisco—8 cents F. O. B. tank cars London —No quotation Manila —37 centavos per kilo Opening prices for September were £7/5/0 nominal with sellers holding off. Local sales were made at P48.00 to P50.00 per metric ton ex warehouse. The market has been very dull during the entire month. Stocks are large both in Hamburg and Manila. Closing quotations were:— Hamburg—£6/12/6 Manila —P45.00 Manila, October 5, 1926. INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL [paid in cash] - - - U. S. $5,000,000.00 SURPLUS and UNDIVIDED PROFITS - U. S. $9,000,000.00 Head Office - - 60 Wall St., New York BRANCHES Barcelona Cebu Kobe Peking Singapore Batavia Bombay Dairen Hankow London Madrid Rangoon Tientsin Calcutta Harbin Manila San Francisco Tokyo Canton Hongkong Osaka Shanghai Yokohama Commercial Banking and Foreign Exchange Current accounts opened, savings and fixed deposits received in pesos and other currencies at favorable rates. Manila Office Pacific Building 5. Manager IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURN October, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 17 Public Works Share of Revenues Dwindling Last Year Only 73.77 Per Cent of Sum Given Schools The whole expenditures of the insular government last year were, according to a- special table courteously furnished to the Journal by the Insular Auditor, P82.770,167.17. In the same year the insular ex penditure on public schools was Pl5,275,846.65, according to the report of the Direc tor of Education, while the auditor’s table ihows the expenditure for public works in cluding the operation of the bureau was •11^267,951, which is about 73.77 per cent >f the sum given the schools, the latter ieing about a fourth of the actual tax re•enue. The public is not always made aware, n the official statements of bureaus, or hose of the office of the governor general r the legislature, of the proportionate .llotment of revenues to the various arid ities of the insular government. Although arger sums than formerly are now appro•riated for public works or obtained by he sale of bonds, there is a proportionate .ecrease in money used for this purpose s compared with money used by the govirnmemt for all other purposes. Public rorks are getting a smaller share, in other 7<JTds, of the insular peso. ^ear Public Works All Outlay '/<■ for Pesos Pesos P. Wks. 901 2,198,566 12,200,907 16.8 902 3,736,339 15,314,005 24.5 903 3,582,338 21,218,372 21.5 904 7,262,822 25,119,846 29.0 )05 8,006,090 27,349,469 29.0 .906 4,985,114 23,817,111 21.0 1)07 2,494,067 21,184,118 11.8 1908 3,982,146 25,718,932 15.5 909 6,400,806 36,275,739 17.6 1910 6,613,306 31,799,101 20.7 1911 7,606,799 36,286,130 21.0 ;912 8,517,588 38,767,427 21.8 1913 7,737,183 39,284,653 19.1 1913 July to December— 3,222,784 20,838,519 15.5 .914 4,969,886 24,685,777 20.1 1915 6,591,802 36,723,534 18.0 1916 4,536,173 38,589,928 11.9 .917 7,452,210 43,197,230 17.2 .918 8,987,159 54,337,914 16.5 .‘.919 13,316,671 81,333,970 16.4 ' 1920 12,565,030 75,023,377 16.8 1921 15,076,052 117,761,590 12.8 1922 9,805,975 78,602,624 12.5 1923 10,041,286 95,589,800 10.5 1924 10,389,694 90,890,878 11.4 1925 11,267,951 82,770,967 13.6 During the last five years, when the per centage of money expended upon public works has been lower than in any similar period since the civil government was or ganized, the tax upon gasoline for road building funds has been quadrupled and is 7% cents gold per gallon. The merchants sales tax has been increased 50 per cent, though not to finance public works, but to finance public schools. Over a longer period the unit cost of public works has been in creasing; so that, with a reduced portion of the revenues, far less, in addition, is to be had peso for peso than when appropria tions were relatively higher and materials ' and wages much lower; but off-setting this •to some extent, during the last five years the practice has been established of finan cing public works with public bonds, which spreads the higher cost over a period of 30 years instead of confining it to one. The year 1913 ushered in the new era, as it was called. The American majority was removed from the Philippine Commis sion immediately, and in 1916 the commis sion was succeeded by the senate and a complete popular legislature established that has only an unimportant appointive element in it. This year then, 1913, may be reckoned from fore and aft. From 1901 to 1913 inclusive the whole expenditures of the insular government were P375,174,334 and the expenditures for public works alone were P76,235,987, or 20.32 per cent of the whole expenditures. From 1913 to 1925 inclusive the whole ex penditures of the government were P819,507,593 and the expenditures for public works alone were P114,747,183, or 14 per cent of the whole expenditures. The table also lends itself to other interesting com parisons. The commission and commis sion-assembly governments managed one yeai’ with another to put one peso out of every five into public works. The propor tion fell last year to one peso in eight, ap proximately, and in 1923 was barely above one peso in ten. Far more is now spent within Manila than the commission and commission-assembly governments ever thought of alloting, though now the re venues are controlled by the provincial legislative majority; but it will be found upon investigation that many and perhaps most of these young legislators spend practically all their time in the capital, where they have homes and practice law, and that only occasionally, for brief in tervals, do they burden themselves with visits to their districts. Some indeed maintain schools in Manila, or are faculty members in such schools; and one activity or another, if not several, readily explains their indifference to provincial demands for public improvements. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 18 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 Oddities of Some Philippine Jungle Birds MH «« «« ** ** One That Makes Soup Stock: The Feathered Tailor Among the birds of the Philippines are the most remarkable variations, the nests of some of them turning up regularly at ostentatious Chinese banquets in the soup. Bird-nest soup is a delicacy with the Chinese, and the Malays risk the:r lives to gather the nests, which are worth more than their weight in gold. To build the nests, the birds, a variety of swifts, exude a gelatinous substance from the salivary glands; and to protect the nests they attach them to steep cliffs. Peiton de Coron, be tween Culion, the leper island, and Busuanga, is a favorite repository; Guimaras and Siguijor are others. To rob the birds of their nests the natives let themselves down the sides of the cliffs with long rattans, which may be found in the forests of the Philippines to the length of 600 feet. When the birds are too persistently robbed, they eke out the secretion with bits of moss and fine grass, from which fact arises the erroneous conjecture that their nests are really built of sea moss. The mound builders have other plans for evading man’s incessant depredations. They build mounds on sandy shores or in the soft earth of forests and deposit their eggs in them at a depth of three or four feet, the base of the mounds sometimes having a diameter of fifteen feet. The eggs are larger than hen eggs and very rich in yolk. Complete incubation occurs in the mounds; the younglings scratch their way to the surface and shift for themselves from the beginning. The natives prize the eggs as food, and resort to a cruel means of get ting them. They dig the top of the mound away and cover the base with boards. The parent birds cannot dig through these boards; they finally deposit the eggs on the boards, where their despoilers easily gather them up. Even if left on the boards, they would not hatch. The success of this scheme depends wholly upon the habit of pairs of mound builders of returning to the same nesting spot year after year. Enormous hornbills are found in the Philippines. One grotesque variety is the kalatc, as the Filipinos name it. The male is very cantankerous with his spouse; he does not counteiiance modern ideas for a moment. He selects for her a hollow tree. Here, when she has laid her eggs, he walls her up, using a thick mortar of mud for the purpose and leaving only a small aper ture through which he deigns to feed her while she is bringing their brood into the jungle world. He stands watch close by, and squawks to her the news of the day. His calls are regular, a harsh and awful racket in the silent forests; so that the native saying is that the kalaw calls off the hours of the day and is as good as a town clock. On the sides of the cliffs of Balete pass, on the road penetrating the Cagayan valley. Ig'..rots have dug a kind of roosting place of their own. These are bird traps of an ingenious sort. They are just big enough for a man to crouch within, over a candle or oil taper kept burning through the night. The lights decoy the birds, which fly swiftly into them and are bruised sufficiently to be easily captured by the Igorot on watch. Bats are no doubt included in a night’s takings. The traps, apparently all aflame, give the cliffs a weird aspect at night. It is well known, of course, that bats of many varieties are so numerous in the Philippines as to constitute a nuisance only mitigated by the enormous guano de posits in the caves they haunt by day, which material furnishes an excellent phosphoric ingredient for chemical fertilizer. The limestone cliffs of Montalban gorge, the end of a beautiful drive from Manila, are, one might almost say, impregnated with bat caves. The noisome and pilfering inhabit ants of these caves fly out of them at sun set in myriads that fairly blacken the sky. Hawks await these twilight forays of mid night foragers, and swoop down and take a luscious supper. Of birds of prey in the Philippines there are no less than 45 species, 22 of which are peculiar to the islands. They vary in size from a tiny falcon the size of a sparrow to the huge harpy eagle that feeds upon mon keys and catches them in its sure talons as they leap from tree to tree. Specimens are very difficult to take. Many birds of the Philippines are brilliantly colored,, but few ate good songsters: to share the brood ing silence of the jungle seems a part of their protective coloring. Jungle life is prolific beyond ordinary description. The devices of the birds to perpetuate their kind among all their cunning enemies in cluding man, are often most resourceful. Tailor birds, of which there are nine species, stitch the living leaves of a tree branch together to form their nests. They pierce the leaf edges with their beaks and use a spider web for thread, which they pass back and forth through the holes. Their nests thus made are living green sacks still attached to the tree, and almost perfectly concealed. PLAZA LUNCH 56 PLAZA GOITI FRED M. HARDEN, Prop. Camel Cigarettes and Prince Albert Smoking Tobacco DISTRIBUTES CTOR sweetheart or wife let cJ your Christmas Gift be something which will be her’s distinctively and something which will last a lifetime Her initials, skillfully combined into an artistic monogram and engraved on steel for stamping her stationery, will be just the thing Our artists are specialists in the creation of modish and beautiful designs McCullough Printing Company 424 Rizal Ave. Phone 800 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTI ON THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 192G THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 19 The Alcohol Industry in the Philippines Native Beverages: Progress in the Licensed Trade By E. M. Gross, Chemist From the earliest times the people of the Philippines have been moderately ad dicted to the use of intoxicating: bever ages, and we find throughout the his tory of the Spanish occupation referen ces to its influences. A document dated 1571 from Mirandaola to the king of Spain reports, that the natives “have wines of many kinds: brandy, made from palm wine, obtained from the coconut palm, and from the wild nipa palm pitarillos, which are the wines made from rice, and borona, and other wines made from sugar cane.” In 1762, Governor Simon de Anda ordered the governor of Guagua, to forbid the sale of nipa-wines and destroy all found in the taverns. In 1S37, Blanco writes of the in jurious effects of the native wanes. Mono polies of the distilled spirits industries were common under the Spanish rule. The art of distillation seems to have been taught the natives by the Chinese, and the method that of potstills, a crude process followed to this day by illicit stills. “In 1862, the alcohol monopoly was done away with. Two years later, the trade and manufac ture of all kinds of alcohol was decaired free.” Several large modern distillery plants were established by Spaniards and alcohol was distilled* mainly from nipa and coconut palm sap. Rectification of the crude spirit was carried to a fairly efficient point. The American authorities found the fol lowing intoxicating beverages in general use throughout the islands upon their ar rival in 1898: Tuba: made from the sap of the various palm threes, coconut, nipa buri palm, and cabo negro. Basi: made from cane juice. Tapuy: made from rice. In the Visayas group, Tayabas and La guna provinces, tuba predominated; to this beverage the people add cascalote the bark, of camachili, to overcome the strongly ca thartic effects of the palm juice. Basi was being manufactured in the sugar producing regions, while tapuy was in vogue amongst the mountain tribes, where no other prime material was avail able but rice. Incidentally we might men tion that tapuy is the most economical in toxicant in the world, where lasting effect for little expenditure is sought for, as a glass of it drunk at night, followed by a glass of water in the morning, will keep the partaker of it drunk for a week, so for the thrifty it can’t be beaten. In and around Manila were located the modern stills. They produced rectified Al cohol from which were manufactured imi tations of European beverages, mostly: Tinto (claret wine) gitiebra (gin), anisado (Spanish /Inis Cordial; the sweetening, however, was mostly saccharine instead of sugar). Practically all of the alcohol was produced from nipa sap, and some from ccconut sap. The industry was flourish ing and increased year by year. In 1910 about 68 recognized distilleries were in ope ration the islands, along with many illicit stills. In 1920, the establishment of modern sugar mills and their production of large quantities of molasses called the attention of the various distillers to this more econo mical prime material for alcohol produc tion. The art was new and difficulties arose as to the rapid fermentation of the Travel Across America via Glacier National Park The Oriental Limited In an observation car where wider, higher windows permit an unobstructed view of the scenic grandeur visible from the car windows as the train passes along the southern boundary of the Park for over 60 miles. The Oriental Limited is Ths Finest Train Between Seattle and Chicago A de luxe train. No extra fare. Hauled by giant oil-burning locomotives, assuring freedom from soot and cinders. Across America to Chicago in 69 hours and 55 minutes. Convenient connection at Chicago for Eastern points. Get our folder "Through the U. S A. via Seattle Gateway,” with its wealth of maps and information. A. G. HENDERSON. AGENT. Chaco Building o R AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. Manila, P. 1. Great Northern A Dependable Railuiau molasses; about three to four days wei$ required to complete the change from invert-sugar into alcohol; the process often miscarried and acid fermentation resulted, or at best the alcohol yield was small. The services of the chemists from the bureau of science weie called upon. They, along with private chemists, finally perfected a formula whereby favorable results were obtained. The process at present consists in mixing molasses with water until the mixture resulting is seven degress Brix. To 20,000 liters of such a mixture, 18 to 20 titers of commercial sulphuric acid is ad ded, the whole thoroughly stirred, and then about 15 to 20 kilos of ammonium sulphate are scattered over the mixture, which is IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 20 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 then let stand. Fermentation commences in about 12 hours and is complete in about 24 to 36 hours. Maximum results have, so far, been obtained from this procedure. Some distilleries make such new mixtures with each batch; others practice inocula tion by adding ten per cent of a ferment in full action to a new mixture. The latter process has economy on its side. The general result is five gallons of spirit from an equal quantity of molasses; with efficient operation the cost of a gal lon of 94 per cen spirit is about P0.17. After all of the available alcohol is re covered by distillation, some of the distil leries continue the distilling process at a higher temperature and recover the fusel oil left in the lees. This material finds a very important use as a solvent for cel lulose and is in great demand in varnish and celluloid factories. The rest of the liquor is at present thrown away, locally; but in Europe the distillation process is continued and the nitrogen present is re covered in the form of an ammonia, later used as a base for the manufacture of am monium sulphate, in great demand as a fertilizer. Approximately 75 per cent of the alcohol produced is consumed locally as beverages; 25 per cent is exported, at present to China, or made into denatured alcohol and fuel alcohol. The latter is mixed according to the Foster process and consists of a mix ture composed of 20 parts sulphuric ether, 80 parts rectified alcohol (96%), 5 parts kerosene oil and % part aniline oil or pyri dine. The object of the aniline or pyridine is to neutralize the acetic acids and alde hydes formed on explosion of the fuel, to prevent pitting of the engine pistons and cylinders. As a tractor fuel and for sta tionary, internal combustion engines, this fuel has given fail' satisfaction. As a fuel for automobiles it still leaves a great deal to be desired. The gasoline alchemist’s dream is still to come,. as far as alcohol for a motive fuel is concerned. Internal revenue statistics may be of in terest, so we copy them: 1923 I 1924 Proof I Proof Liters ] Liters 8,932,246 f 1,667,102 91,793 912,260 2,323,606 2,224 Taxpaid .................... Sold to U. S. Army and Navy ............ Denatured Alcohol.. Motive Power Al cohol ..................... Fusel Oil Recovered. 1925f 12,202,372 2,770,333 171,934 1,164.412 10,303,984 1,797,048 111,968 1.387,654 3,097,456 23,529 Total 13,829,231 16,721,639 Increase .......................................................... 3,249,437 Percent of Increase .................................... 19.43 Distilled Spirits Removed for Domestic Consumtion as Beverages Domestic ManufacImported ........ ......... Total ............ Increase ................ Per cent ................ Per capita .......... 8,932,246 I 10,303.984 | 12,202,372 861,768 346,138 | 402,561 9,294,014 | 10,650,122 | 12.604,933 I 1,366,108 I 1,954,811 Raw material used; Liters Nipa sap ................ Molasses ................... Cane Sugar ............ 36,327.704 | 18.193,014 | 19,615,514 5.332,576 I 6,648.522 I 7,673,192 12,917,547 | 21,443,946 | 38,261,160 2,380,762 | 624,471 | 771 4,577 | 3,331 ] 5,240 NOTE:—A proof liter of alcohol is a mixture containiutl oj absolute alcohol ami 50</r, of water. MORE ABOUT TARHATA More news from Jolo since the Septem ber Journal was published contains curios details on the conduct of Princess Tarhata Kiram, who was a student in the Univer sity of Chicago at the time Mrs. Carmen Aguinaldo Melencio, daughter of General EmJilio Aguinaldo, was there. Tarhata re turned to Manila a very modem girl, with bobbed hair and liberal ideas. But it was very dull resuming life in Jolo: there were no sorority dances, no moonlit lake yacht ing trips, no motoring parties of young people. Yet there were the tribg and tri bal traditions. These, it seems, have claim ed Tarhata. She no longer bobs her hair; she has acquired again a taste for buyo; and, displacing a fourth wife, she lives with Datu Tahil, third member of the Jolo prov incial board. This relationship she is maintaining is contrary to Moro law, limit ing legitimate wives to four, for the fourth wife, it is said, had not been divorced nor obtained divorce when the relationship began; and even yet there has been no de cree of divorce. Thus the daughter of the East, doffing western culture, has returned to the East with a vengeance. She suffers more or less ostracism because of her quaint con duct. An elder niece of Sultan Hamid Hamilul Kiram remains his favorite. She is Putri Dayang-Dayang Kiram, much older than Tarhata, comfortably stout and uneducated. She occupies the town resid ence of the sultan. Princess Radda Kiram, formerly a student in the Philippine Wo men’s College in Manila and also older than Tarhata, has returned to her people in Ynchausti Rope Factory Manufacturers of high grade Manila Ropes Contractors to the U. S. Army and Navy and the Philippine Islands Government (Complete stocks carried by Messrs. Guy T. Slaughter & Co., of 210 Cali fornia Street, San Francisco, Cal.) Prices and Samples Mailed on Request Ynchausti y Cia. 945 M. de la Industria cTWanila, P. I. Do you own a This Tank Water Heater will pro vide plenty of hot water for kitchen and bath. It’s cost is low. The consumption very moderate. ♦ Manila Gas Corporation DISPLAY ROOM: MAIN OFFICE: No. 7 Calle David Calle Otis, Paco Tel. 443 Tel. 289 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 192G THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 21 Jolo and contracted a legitimate Moro union with a noble there. Princess Emma Kiram, fourth niece of the sultan, is in Jolo too, making her home with her mother. She is reported heart whole and fancy free; at least she is still unmarried. She for merly attended the Philippine Normal School and later the Philippine Women’s College. Sultan Kiram has no children from any of his numerous wives. He is nearly 60 years old and when he dies there may be a pretty contest for the throne, en joying, as it does, retainers or subsidies from the British and American governments. Hayden, With Thompson, For Development *• ** «« «« Michigan Professor Gives Views About Mindanao The correspondent with the Thompson mission in the is lands from July 9 to October 4 who will probably have the most influence in de termining whatever opinion upon gov ernment the report of Colonel Thomp son may contain, is Dr. Ralston Hayden, of the University of Michigan, who represented the Christian Science Monitor. Dr. Hayden made an in dependent study of Mindanao, and the fol lowing (from the Mindanao Herald of September 18) was verified for the Journal by him as substantially his views: “Mindanao is the greatest land of op portunity under the American flag. This is the outstanding impression that I have received during several weeks of observa tion of the island. Some Filipino Greeley should make the cry, ‘Go south, young man, go south,’ a slogan through every province in the Visayas and Luzon. No other peo ple in the world possesses the opportunity for national expansion and personal en richment which Mindanao affords the Fi lipinos. The island offers them quicker, greater and more certain returns for the investment of money and labor than the richest parts of the great American West ever gave to settlers from the East. eAmericans in the Easy-Going Eastern Tropics Reflections on a False Territorial Policy in the East By Percy A. Hill In the Philippines one day is just like another, due to lack of real seasonal chano-es. Years jumble themselves to gether until it is difficult to distinguish be tween them. It must have been the same during the long centuries when the people INSURANCE-" We sell it and give continuous service during life of the policy Pacific Commercial Company INSURANCE UNDERWRITERS 5th Floor Pacific Bldg. Phone 8-20 “Residence in it entails less of hardship and of separation from kith and kin than does that in any other frontier country in history. “It is the section of the Philippines whose greatness and wealth lie in the future. Furthermore, it seems to me the part of the archipelago in the development of which Americans and Filipinos should best be able to collaborate to their mutual ad vantage. Already there is going on a very rapid development participated in by both peoples, much more rapid than I had ex pected. “One of the most striking aspects, to my mind, is the large number of American planters who have made good, many of them on the proverbial shoestring. The beautiful plantations of rubber, coconuts and hemp, carved from the wilderness by pioneers with little more capital than their own perseverance and brawn, and in spite of all hindrances, are proof positive of what Americans can and will do here under favorable conditions and with adequate financial backing. “In such mutual effort lies the best solu tion of the political as well as the economic problems of the country. That the island of Mindanao will develop rapidly, one way or another, however, is almost certain. The world needs what it can produce and will not long be denied what these rich lands owe it.” dreamed away their existence under the benevolent rule of the friars. In the early days of our occupation Americans often af fected surprise when a native did not know the year he was born in, or his age, but this was of course before they themselves had Shoes for men and women Highest quality Guaranteed comfort Ji* Educator Shoes for children Ji* Phoenix—Kayser Interwoven Hosiery Ji* Cheney Ties Walk-Over Shoe Store Masonic Temple, Manila GORDON’S DRY GIN The leading Gin all over the world @@ When ordering a “Martini” Cocktail, be sure to call for a “Gordon’s” Martini Cocktail. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 22 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1925 lived long in the land of the prideful game cock, the insalubrious carabao and the pes simistic monkey. As a matter., of fact, most men do not mark time by almanacs. They remember when someone died who was dear to them, the year of the. big typhoon or when iponey was scarce and supplies dear. Days and months are significant for what they bring and not for the numerals attached to them. In the Philippines it is easy to lose track of time, as one day is like to another, all mere waves beating on' the shores of time. Americans, domiciled here for any length of time, whose interests show a fair chance of continuity, become in a measure satis fied with their lot if they are of pioneering stock. As in the western states where the covered wagon has long since given way to the iron-horse and the Ford, here also have Americans blazed a way on the west ern advance. The struggle for existence is less marked here than in more rigorous climes, and though they are fully aware of 'world progress, it is viewed in a more or less detached manner. In time the American becomes adapted,to his environs to the ex tent that he experiences a sense of oppres sion when he returns to countries in which the populations - are engaged in the old, old struggle of successfully putting the clock 24 hours behind them. But he also realizes the old truth that whether in lands of comparative case on in those that hasten, all men journey to their logical end. In the Philippines this verse is more than a trite saying: “Earth has no cure for the tense unrest, The hurrying haste of Fate, Like the soothing balm Of the tropic palm And the land where things can wait." Certainly life in the Philippines has its compensations as well as its drawbacks. The call of the East means more than the mere words. Nor is it a tradition empha sized until it has become a fact. “To eat of the lotus,’’ said the ancient Egyptians. “The peace qf the gods,” say the Chinese, arid we perforce, with' Kip ling, call it the “urge of the East.” Frcm this obsession.-only those are exempt who from their very first day in trie orient find that their impulses register dissent. But to the many this call is something inherited, perhaps from that far-off day, when our Aryan ancestors were dwellers in the high plateaus of an ancient East. As Kipling well remarks, nobody can hustle the East, which is a truth best known east of Suez and west of the 180th meridian. Then there is the cail of the East, Boy! bringing a mu chacho of indeterminate age, bearing a cool ing drink, a luxury not enjoyed by all man kind today, whether free or still in bond age. As a rule the American in the Philippines is a millionaire— that is, he is a million aire in time. There is more time for re creation, for introspection; or more time for laziness, if you prefer it expressed that way. And the genus home is as lazy as he dare be in more climes than the Philippines. Not but that great results have been and are still forthcoming in every ljne of human endeavour. A mere cursory glance will show you this. But all has been accomplished in a manner allowing people to live nor mal lives and enjoy a few of the days as they fly past. Nobody but a God’s op timist would put rush on a letter in the Philippines. There is not the feverish hur ry downtown to see how far ahead the other fellow has got; not as much selfish ness, and there is more humanity than where organized effort takes these things out of our hands, under the idea that life and living can be standardized like a mod ern machine factory. The American in the Philippines has time to shake your hand, listen to your tale of woe; and he can laugh naturally, unafraid that a sterotyped job will slip away from him because of his act ing human. This is most emphatically not so in those congested communities of the world dominated by smoking mill-stacks, clanging trolleys . and the midday siren— forever reminding one he shall, live by the sweat of his brow. In the early days of our occupation of the Philippines the virile men who repre sented America in the far east were a hard bitten lot. They were certainly neither weak nor effeminate. The charm of a new land where there were no Ten Command ments had an appeal to men not only of the fighting and pioneering strain but to others of gentler rearing. The adventurer or the soldier who had left home or the army to take up the White Man’s burden as they saw it, were not only in love with the life, but the land itself cast its glamor over them. Swaying palm-trees, forested moun tains in primeval sleep, waves on coral strands, were lures they could not with stand. They had a love for the care-free life that, while it offered them nothing but discomfort and danger, yet seemed to them the happiest of existences. The islands were our last frontier, our last Far West. The early Americans here took little heed of scorching suns or wild typhoons; they drank strong liquor like water; but what splendid vitality upheld them in the savage law of survival. Restless, strong, generous, insist ent on their rights, scornful of mollycoddles, they struggled along the thorny paths abso lutely refusing to be models for school teachers or teary sentimentalists. In the decade before the Great War, Americans in the Philippines paid less at tention to wages and a great deal to service. They believed they were, and so they were, too, crusaders of Uncle Sam in the loftiest sense; hence it was not how much they re ceived, but what they achieved, that they most valued. They were vital, painstaking and conscientious—as is the way of pione ers: a band of friendly spirits on the last frontier, dispensing hospitality and hearty goodwill to all, including the stranger with in their gates. They accomplished, and passed on; and many of them rest peace fully in graves where the jungle again claims the land. One of the greatest drawbacks the Phil ippines received was the dictum of no tres passing: the Philippines for Filipinos, voic ed by a governor of the islands who now freely confesses that his sentimentality was more highly developed than his sense of justice. This altruistic dictum is really one of the reasons that the waste places of the islands still remain a waste to this day, a liability instead of an asset. It stifled ef fort and initiative. It held back capital and progress. It was content to see the native remain lazy and thriftless, rather Myers-BuckCo., Inc. Surveying and Mapping. PRIVATE MINERAL AND PUBLIC LAND 230 Kneedler Bldg. Tel. 1610 than see him take his place in the economic struggle, which all peoples have pass?d through that are worth their salt. It also gave them heroes where none existed, it educated youth to shine instead of to serve, and the present inchoate status of the Phil ippines can be charged to it in consequence. In the Dutch Indies today are more than 00,000 white men who have built up and are maintaining an economic prosperity that is a credit to them and an everlasting benefit to the millions under their benevol ent sway. Here we could have done the same, had not this monkey-wrench been thrown into the wheels of progress. We were cursed with the altruistic complex, and the infantile complex has followed as night follows day. But for that one un fortunate speech, we would have more pro gress, more wealth and a happier people litre today. It was tampering with an eco nomic law in the name of democracy, for the tasks would have been cheerfully as sumed by the men on the ground but for the limitations imposed upon them. This faux pas was only equalled by the acts of another governor, who was only nominally an American. Many of the old-timers went away; some have passed over the Great Divide; others have settled down in far-off towns on the edge of civilization, where they remain pioneers today in spite of dicta. An exodus took place on the change of administration in 1913, and the Great War took others. Still there are a few thousand left who be lieve in American ideals and Americans in dividuality and who hold high the banner of freedom. Their conception of this is infinitely more nearly correct than that of men 10,000 miles away and 10,000 moons removed from the picture—the act ualities. Their conception of freedom re mains the same today as that enunciated a century and a half ago, the protection of life and liberty and the pursuit of hap piness, and they remain unappalled at the mouthings of the few who would like to dominate the many, all in the sacred name of freedom, a fact of which they are daily convinced. After all is said and done it is blood that counts, more than brains; the fighting and pioneering instinct, and not the cool dictates of policy, that endure. We cannot breed' out of ourselves the attributes of the Adam that abides with us. The glory of American achievement rests on the fact that they were American, with something of all our vices and virtues. The old-timers’ con ception of freedom means just that; their conception of liberty does not mean license; they have a quarter of a century of ex perience to base their wisdom upon, and they are the exponents of an Americanism that clings to the old truths, a free individ uality and its expression, a pioneering in stinct that constructs and does not destroy, and a square deal for others, whether they like it or not. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 23 STABILITY n Ih Steadiness of Purpose with the ability to carry on— Integrity of the institu tion embedded in an earned confidence— DEPENDABILITY Twenty-seven years’ service with the future bright ahead—Yes, indeed, THE MANILA DAILY BULLETIN is STABILITY itself. E Soiv your Business seeds in the fertile circnlation of the MANILA DAILY BULLETIN—and reap rich rewards. ^(^exponeht of TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE PUBLIC UNDER ONE MANAGEMENT ULLETIN IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 24 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 SHIPPING REVIEW By H. M. CAVENDER General Agent. Dollar Steamship Line During September there was more space available at Philippine ports to ports thruout the world than possibly has been on the berth and in want of but without carg o e s during any month in the past ten years. Tonnage increases on everv hand while there is but a slight annual increase in the exporta tion of cargoes from the archipelago. In ward cargoes were heavy into the port of Manila. Outports of entry received more cargo direct from the outside- There is a noticeable gradual increase in the direct importation to outports of entry. Manila is gradually losing the transhipment fea ture as she has done in the case of much export cargo. ' - Available figures as to outward passen gers show that during September a total of 1104 people left the islands by regular lines. No figures are yet available giving the total passengers entering during the same period. Of those departing we find them distributed as follows: (first figure represents cabin passengers, second figure steerage) to Hongkong 116—128; Shanghai 14—5; Japan 8—2; Honolulu 2—589; Pa cific coast 68—155;.Singapore 9—0; Europe 8—0 and 1 cabin passenger to New York. Filipino emigration during September to Honolulu and to the Pacific coast, included in the foregoing paragraph, amounted to Honolulu 589 as compared with 307 in Au gust and to the Pacific coast 155 as com pared with 252 in August. The combination of the American Far East and the Pacific-Australian lines in a single service known as the AmericanAustralian Oriental Line is completed. The new line, owned by the United States Shipping Board, is under the operating management of Swayne & Hoyt. The man agement in the Far East is directly under the control of Swayne & Hoyt with the firm of L. Everett, Inc. acting as Executive Head of the Oriental agencies. The main office is at Shanghai; at Manila the firm is presented by Mr. G. P- Bradford with offices in the Pacific Building. A new schedule of operation has been announced, operations are divided in three interlocking routes, the first from Pacific Coast ports OXYGEN Electrolytic Oxygen 99% pure HYDROGEN ADMIRAL ORIENTAL LINE Electrolytlo Hydrogen 09% MANILA ACETYLENE SEATTLE VIA HONGKONG - SHANGHAI - KOBE - YOKOHAMA PRESIDENT McKINLEY . PRESIDENT JEFFERSON PRESIDENT GRANT - - PRESIDENT MADISON PRESIDENT JACKSON - Leave* Manila Oct. 16 Oct. 28 Nov. 9 Nov. 21 Dec. 3 Seattle Nov. 7 Nov. 19 Dec. 2 Dec. 13 Dec. 25 ONLY TWO-DAY STOP AT HONGKONG TWENTY-THREE DAYS MANILA TO SEATTLE ADMIRAL ORIENTAL LINE PHONE 22441 24 DAVID Dissolved Acetylene for all purposes WELDING Fully Equipped Oxy-Acetylene Welding Shops OIL I Prest O Lite / 7L- Electric Storage ----- ~' Batteries ■F1 BATTERIES Philippine Acetylene Co. 281 Calle Cristobal MANILA IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 25 to New Zealand and Australia with sail ings every four weeks, taking in Aukland, South Island ports and outports, omitting Wellington and Lyttleton; the second route is to Aukland and Wellington, thence to Australia, loading from New Zealand and Australia for the Philippines and Hong kong direct to Los Angeles and San Fran cisco; the third route is outward to Yoko hama, Kobe, Shanghai, Hongkong, Manila and Singapore affording shippers an op portunity to ship to outports in China, the Philippines and Indo China. Four ships have been allocated to the first route, six to the second and six to the third, giving in all sixteen large, fast cargo liners. G- P. Bradford, agent in the Philippine for Swayne and Hoyt, left Manila Sep tember 26 on board the s.s. Bearport for southern ports. He expects to be away from Manila three weeks. Neil Macleod ltft Manila for Shanghai October 4 on board the s-s. President Jackson. Mr. Macleod is manager of the ship ping department of Smith, Bell & Co., general agents in the Philippines for Al fred Holt’s interests, and it is understood he proceeds to Shanghai to attend the an nual get-together Holt representatives stage in the Orient. Hilton Carson Furniture Moved Contract Hauling Baggage Transferred Dump Trucks for Hire AUTO TRUCKING 1955 Azearraga CO. Phone 22345 SHIPPING PERSONALS Carl Seitz, oriental manager of the Ore gon Oriental Line, after spending more than a month in the Philippines, returned to his headquarters at Shanghai aboard the s.s- President Taft, sailed September 22. J G. Megirt arrived in Manila Septem ber 5 aboard the s.s. President Pierce, to take up duties with the Dollar and Admiral lines as claim agent, relieving Mr. Wells, transferred. Mr. Megirt, formerly a com missioned officer in the Army Transport Sevrice, left that service only recently to join the Dollars. Shipping row and the whole of Manila was violently jarred on September 16 when telegraphic advices announced the untimely deaths of Lester "Ham” Hamilton and Jack Plummer. Manila to New York via Suez and Europe Sec the Old World on your trip home. Stops of several days in many ports. You can travel through Europe and catch our boat for New York via Southampton, England, at Bremen. “The Most Interesting Trip In The World.” NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD Zuellig & von Knobelsdorff AGENTS 90 Rosario Manila Phone 22324 DOLLAR STEAMSHIP LINE SERVES THE WORLD ROUND THE WORLD 24 Calle David Telephone 22441 High-class Passenger and Freight Service The President Liners Offer SAILINGS SPEED-SERVICE- COURTESY-COMFORT SAILINGS EVERY Excellent Food, Comfortable Cabins, Broad Decks, EVERY 14 DAYS eAmerican Orchestra, Dancing, Swimming Pool, 14 DAYS Sports. i To SAN FRANCISCO To BOSTON-NEW YORK via SINGAPORE, PENANG, COLOMBO, HONGKONG, SHANGHAI, KOBE, SUEZ, PORT SAID, ALEXANDRIA YOKOHAMA and HONOLULU NAPLES, GENOA., MARSEILLES Round—the—World NEXT SAILING NEXT SAILING PRESIDENT LINCOLN - - - Oct. 20 PRESIDENT MONROE - Oct. 28 PRESIDENT CLEVELAND - - Nov. 3 PRESIDENT HARRISON - Nov. 11 1 THROUGH RATES TO EUROPE Stopovers will be granted which permit the making of | Railway Tickets to all points in America. interesting side trips at various points. ■ ■ — ■■ --------- '------ ...................... IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 26 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 REVIEW OF THE HEMP MARKET By L. L. Spellman Macleod &Compan}> This report covers the Manila hemp market for the month of September with statistics up to and including Sep tember 27th, 1926. U. S. GRADES: The first of the month found the U. S. market fairly firm with the ex porting houses of fering in New York on the basis of JI 12%<*, I 15(? and F 16 There was a fair amount of hemp sold dur ing the first week and prices advanced from to VtC on the various grades. By the 10th the demand was apparently fully sup plied and prices commenced to ease off. By the 15th sellers were offering on a dull market at JI 12<\ I 14 and F 16<\ these prices showing a decline of from to For the balance of the month bus iness was slack and the market closed with shippers offering on the basis of JI 11%<\ I 14%<* and F 16(\ During the entire month the trend had been downward and the loss averaging about a lb. on the various grades. A fair amount of hemp was sold the early part of the month and the buyers continued to take Housemarks and special grades so it is believed that the sales ran about average. On the first of the month Manila ship pers were buving on the basis of E P40.—, F 38.—, G 26.—, H 17.—, I 35.50, JI 28.—, SI 37.—, S2 34.50, S3 28.—. There ap peared to be a real scarcity of F, E and grades above and exceptionally high prices were paid for these grades separately. The demand for all hemp was strong and prices costinued to advance until about the 10th of the month when purchases were made on the basis of D P48.—, E 45.—, F 40.—, G 25.4, H 17.—, I 36.—, JI 28.—, SI 39.—, 52 35.—, S3 28.—. There was no fixed price and quotations varied from P0.50 to Pl.— for the different grades according to the parcels. The demand, however, was for the high-grade hemp. By the 11th prices had started downward and by the 15th there were practically no buyers in the market. By the 20th prices had drop ped to the basis of E P42.—, F 38.4, G 25.—, H 16.4, I 34.4, JI 27.4, SI 37.4, S2 33.4, 53 27.4 From then on to the end of the month very little hemp changed hands and the market closed with shippers indicating nominal prices on the basis of F P37.— to 38.—, I 33.— and JI 26.— to 26.4. None of the shipping houses appeared to be at all anxious to buy. ‘ On the other hand the dealers had disposed of all their Septem ber hemp and a good many of them had nothing to arrive before the middle of Oc tober so there was no pressure to sell. U. K. GRADES: The first of the month found the U. K. and Continental market fairly steady with shippers offering on the basis of J2 £46.—, K £37.10, LI £35.10, L2 £34.—, Ml £31.— and M2 £29.—. The second week found the market lifeless with prices tending downwards. The shippers reduced their prices about 10/ a ton on the average. By the middle of the month the market seemed to. be slightly better but prices were unchanged. The London spe culators offered to sell at reduced prices but the shippers refused to follow. The last half of the month the market re mained fairly steady and a reasonable quan tity of hemp changed hands. The market closed fairly firm with average quotations showing about 10/-loss during the month, Sellers were offering on the basis of J2 £45.-, K £37.10, LI £37.10, L2 £35.10, Ml £34.-, M2 £30.-. There were buyers of the better grades at 10/- less than quotations but there was apparently no market at all for Ml and M2. The Manila buyers on the first were pay ing on the basis of J2 P22.-, K 17.25 LI 17.25, L2 16.25, Ml 15.50, M2 14.50. These prices held fairly steady until about the 10th when there was a decline of from 10.50 to Pl.- a picul. The market here closed with neither buyers nor sellers an xious to operate, with nominal prices on the basis of J2 P20.75, K 16.25, LI 16.25, L2 15.25 Ml 14.25, M2 13.25. FREIGHT RATES: Freight rates are unchanged. STATISTICS: We give below the fig ures for the period extending from August 3j to September 27. 1926 Bales 1925 Bales Stocks on January 1st 153,181 131,228 Receipts to Sept. 27th 955,879 909,720 Stocks on Sept. 27th. 157,691 156,531 Shipments To Sept. 27,1926 To Sent. 28,1925 To— Bales Bales United Kingdom .. 192,658 Continent of Europe 132,194 Atlantic U. S. . . . 256,816 U. S. via Pacific . . 126,426 Japan.......................... 177,072 Elsewhere & Local. 66,203 Total ........................ 951,369 273,519 94,355 211,987 116,549 126,753 56,254 879,417 For More Than 27 Years Discrim inating men have found that we do the best tailoring and have the largest Jli selection of good suitings. 12 Escalla Phone 706 For the Home Folk Begin to plan now for their Christmas. Send them something that will genuinely please them. Japanese Kimonos, made to order, from dainty wool challies or all—silk crepe—beautiful pat terns—are gifts which will cer tainly bring joy. Place your orders now while we have plenty of time to make up the kimonos before the Christmas mail. We have a most attractive as sortment of real Japanese silks and new cotton crepes. Be sure to see them. Osaka Bazar Japanese Department Store 332 Echague Phone 216 Christmas Cards XA7 HEN the time v v comes, don’t fail to see our selec tion of Christmas Cards, the finest we have ever shown. DENNISON CHRISTMAS GOODS—SEALS - RIBBONS ETC. EMBOSSING & ENGRAVING I FRANK’S STATIONERS 13 137 ESCOLTA IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 27 TOBACCO REVIEW By P. A. Meyer Alhambra Cigar and Cigarette Manufacturing Co. RAW LEAF: No important develop ments in the local market can be re ported for Septem ber. Buying, in li mited quantities, in a few Ysabcla dis- . tricts, has been started toward the latter part of the month by some of the local factories. Local dealers have ilready received parcels of the new Cagaran and Ysabela crops but so far no im>ortant transactions resulted. The export >usiness is very quiet, only one fair sized •onsignment to France being noticeable. Shipments abroad during September are as ollows: Leaf Tobacco and Scraps Kilos Australia ................ . ...’ 481 China ...................... ........ 3,207 France .................... ........ 574,080 Holland ................... ........ 105,895 Hongkong ............... ........ 4,140 Indochina ............... ........ 53 United States ........ ........ 43,011 730,867 CIGARS: September shipments to the United States show a decrease of nearly 40% over the corresponding 1925 figure, a result of the cigar-makers’ strike, which was terminated only on September 27. The laborers returned at the old wages with the understanding that committees of manufac turers and cigarmakers, to be appointed, would work out a reduced schedule of wages, to become effective after November 6. Comparative figures for the trade with the United States are as follows: Cigars__ September 1926 ........ 13,758,438 August 1926 ........ 13,579,849 September 1925 ........ 21,812,973 THE RICE INDUSTRY By Percy a. Hill of Munoz Nueva Ecija, Director. Kice Producers' Association, Prices for palay have taken a slight downward trend at a time when they ordinarily increase Rice as a consequen ce has also decreas ed in price in the consuming centers and ranges from P9.40 to 9.70 per sack according to grade. The reason given is that stocks held for the European market remain un called for in Indo-Asia, hence a small de crease in price accelerates trade. The present outlook for the Philippine crop is good, but weather conditions, as always, will predicate the full or partlly filled breadbasket. The new irrigation systems will of course insure the crop returns based on moisture properly distributed but plant ers in the areas affected have not as yet got into the game of selecting a seed that will give greater returns-which after all will be based on the actual ability to de liver the water as per contract. The field for chemical fertilizers for the rice producer is opening up, but sales of these will be-based on the old economic law of returns in proportion to costs. Ad vance by trial and error will rule for some years until a fertilizer is evolved that will satisfy both Philippine soil conditions and the pockets of the producers, all of which will connote an advance for our basic in dustry. In reference to this we might say the Philippines are handicapped by freight conditions except when the fertilizers are shipped in their more concentrated form and mixed by capable chemists who are familiar with Philippine conditions. Their universal use will of course increase yields, which after all is the vital need of the rice in dustry. A bumper crop of rice will of course result in a lowering of price and all other industries will benefit by this factor. Again in some cases areas will be abandon ed to grow export crops which promise to render greater returns. A rise in the price of the cereal would again cause these to be planted to rice, and so it goes. Not only do we need stability in the political future but we also need stability along agricultural lines well, all of which is no doubt due at a not very distant day. SEPTEMBER SUGAR REVIEW By George H. Fairchild NEW YORK MARKET: The New York spot mar ket during the month of September has ruled steady and firm with prices on the upward trend. The market opened at the be ginning of the month with sales of Cubas at a price of ZVtC c. & f. equiva lent to 4.27<J landed terms, duty paid, for Philippine centrifugals. This price was maintained throughout the first week. To wards the second week the market took an upward trend and substantial quantities of Oubas were sold on the basis of 2%<? c. & f. or 4.40£ landed terms, duty paid, for centrifugals. The market continued strong and steady with advancing prices toward the latter half of the month and Cubas were sold at prices ranging from c. & f. to 2-25/32^ c. & f. Toward the close of the month prices again ad vanced to 2%(' c. & f. for Cubas, equivalent to 4.65^ landed terms, duty paid, for Phil ippine centrifugals, the highest price ob-, tained for sugar since April of last year. Stocks in the U. K., U. S., Cuba and five principal continental countries at the end of September were 1,940,000 tons as com pared with 1,550,000 tons at this time last year and 810,000 tons in 1924. It is to be noted from these figures that there has been a decrease of visible supplies of 1,010,000 tons from those of the previous month as compared with a decrease of r NOTEi 'THESE1! i facts; A Means to an End. WE often hear the expression “I need glasses." This is quite true in a way, but the thing that is needed before glasses is advice—competent, professional advice—such as CLARK & CO. Optomet rists are able to give. Glasses or lenses are only the means of translating correct optical service into con crete usable form. at Always the best in quality but never higher in price. Washington Grocery NG TIP & COMPANY Exclusive importers Colonial Brand Best German Export Beer Light Wines and Liquors 207-209 ECHAGUE PHONES/ 1065 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 28 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 640,000 tons for the same month in 1925 and 850,000 tons in 1924. This may ac count for the decided improvement in the market for the month under review, as it is apparent that the surplus of visible stocks is disappearing at a satisfactory rate. It is believed in some quarters that the world’s invisible supplies are undoubtedly below normal, and that in spite of the ap parent large visible supplies, the total world’s supplies, visible and invisible, are not much larger than those of previous years. Quotations for futures on the New York exchange have steadily advanced during the month. These follow: High Low Latest December ........ ........ 2.90 2.59 2.88 January ........... ........ 2.91 2.63 2.90 March ............. ........ 2.83 2.60 2.83 July ................. ........ 2.98 2.91 2.98 September ....... ........ 3.06 2.99 3.06 Sales of Philippine centrifugals, near ar rivals and afloats, were made at prices ranging from 4.30(? to 4.65? landed terms. The market for refined has shown mark ed improvement, latest quotations ranging from 5.90? to 6.00? as compared with those of the previous month ranging from 5.60? to 5.70?. LOCAL MARKET: The local market for centrifugals has been quiet for the first half of the month, but steadied toward its close. Transactions of centrifugals were made at prices ranging from Pl 1.00 to P11.25 per picul. The market for muscovados has been quite active during the month, prices paid for No. 1 ranging from 6.50? to 7.50?, with 25? down per grade. Shipments of Philippine sugar to various LUMBER REVIEW FOR AUGUST By Florencio Tamesis Acting Director, Bureau of Foreetry The activities of the sawmill oper ators during the month of August were practically the same as those re ported in the month of July. In other words, the slacken ing of the lumbering activities due to the rainy weather is still manifest. But it can be seen from the following figures that the production and movement of lumber for this month are considerably greater than those of the TIMBER AND LUMBER EXPORT Destination United States ...................................... Japan .................................................... Australia .. ........................................... Great Britain ...................................... Netherlands ......................................... China .................................................... Italy ..................................................... Canada ................................................. Egypt ................................................... Other British ...................................... East Indies ...................................... Total ........................ 6,007,232 P431.582 4,128,064 P269.878 countries from January 1 to September 22, 1926, are as follows in metric tons: U. S. U- S. China & Pacific Atlantic Japan Total Centrifu gal .. 45,056 244,012 289,068 Muscova dos .. .. 62,045 62,045 Refined 1,645 .. 139 1,784 1(5,701 244,012 62,184 352,987 Negros in general reports favorable weather prevailing during the month, with plenty of sunshine and seasonable rains at intervals; in some localities, however, there has not been sufficient rain. With a con tinuance of favorable weather hope is ex pressed for another bumper crop on that island. In view of the expected large crop this coming season, milling will commence earlier this year than has been case in pre vious years. Some of the large centrals will begin grinding in October. Luozn also has had favorable weather, and it is expected a good crop will be har vested this season, although it may not be as large in certain districts as that har vested in the previous year. Work on the new mills is being pushed. The Bataan Sugar Company announced that their central at Balanga, Bataan, will be completed by next December, while the Central Luzon Milling Company which is erecting a central at Bamban, Tarlac, re ported that their mill will begin grinding next January. The Philippine Sugar Association had a very sucessful convention during the week of September 6 to 10. About 150 sugar men from the different sugar districts of the Islands attended. Many important pro blems affecting the sugar industry were discussed, and means of solving them re commended. Among the resolutions passed by the convention were: corresponding period last year. For ins tance the mill production reported from 33 mills for the month of August amount to 15,917,770 board feet; lumber shipment, 16,432,927 board feet; lumber inventory, 31,441,791 board feet as compared with 13,921,620 board feet, 14,066,293 board feet, and 37,292,298 board feet, respectively, for the corresponding month in 1925. The corresponding figures for the month of July of this year are as follows: mill production, 12,392,269 board feet; lumber shipment, 16,894,075 board feet; and lumb er inventory, 32,030,829 board feet. These figures indicate, as has been stated above, that the activities of the sawmills for the month of July were practically the same as those of August. The value of our lumber export for Aug ust is about P20.000 less than that of July, but about Pl62,000 greater than that of August of last year. The exact figures of our export for August of this year and August of last year are shown by the fol lowing table: 1925 August 1926 August Board Feet Value Board Feet Value 2,922,208 P263.226 1,803,272 Pl 72.984 2,024,176 ’ 76,506 1,043,464 22,810 676,280 67,423 524,488 27,964 288,320 16,407 53,000 5,273 49,184 4,270 12,720 1,100 43,672 3,652 13,922 1,836 3,392 100 10,600 900 636,424 34,008 30,104 3,003 (1) Urging the conversion of La Granja in Negros into an experiment station for the Philippine Sugar Association. (2) Requesting the legislature to renew the charter of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, provided 60 per cent of its capital be devoted to agricultural loans. (3) Asking the legislature to lift the ban on importation of foreign carabaos. (4) Providing for the study of sugar cane varieties giving the greatest yields. (5) Providing for the continuation of the soil survey work of the sugar centrals. (6) Creating a committee to study the means of raising the food nutrition of laborers in the sugar plantations in order to produce greater efficiency. (7) Providing for the study of improv ing the general health and sanitation of the sugar planters. (8) Creating a committee to study the most practical plan of accounting for the centrals. (9) Providing for the holding of a con test among certified public accountants to PROVINCIAL ADVERTISING PHILIPPINE EDUCATION MA6AZINE reaches 25,000 teachers in 49 provinces, and the educated English-speaking class, the leaders of 13,000,000 people, every month. These teachers have a pur chasing power of considerably more than Pl,500,000a month. e/4re you going after their trade? Have you seen a copy of Philippine Education Magazine lately? Clifford Butler—Advertising Manager PHONE 2-21-31 Philippine Guaranty Company, Ing. (Accepted by all the Bureaus of the Insular Government) Executes bonds of all kinds for Customs, Immigration and Internal Revenue. DOCUMENTS SURETYSHIPS For Executors, Administrators, Receivers, Guardians, etc. We also write Fire and Marine Insurance Low rates lberal conditions ocal Investments oans on real estate repayable by monthly or quarterly Instalments at ow interest Call or write for particular! Room 403, Filiplnas Bldg. P. O. Box 128 Manila, P. I. Manager's Tel. 22110 Main Office Tel. 441 IN- RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 29 wolve a most simplified way of acounting or the haciendas. (10) Creating an accounting office for he centrals. The Board of Trustees of the Philippine 5ugar Association have again re-elected dr. Rafael R. Alunan to head the associaion during the year 1926-27. The officers >f the association for this term are the same as for the previous year and are as ollows: Rafael R. Alunan, President. V. von Kauffman, First Vice-President. L. Weinzheimer, Second Vice-President. Damian de Urmeneta, Third Vice-Preident. R. Renton Hind, Fourth Vice President. Geo. H. Fairchild, Secretary-Treasurer. Paredes, Buencamino & Yulo, Counsel. Henry Hunter Bayne & Co., Auditors. Trustees F. von Kauffman, for La Cariota Sugar Central; L. Weinzheimer, for Pampanga Sugar Mills and Calamba Sugar Estate; V. H. Babbitt, for Hawaiian-Philippine So.; Jorge L. Araneta, for Ma-ao Sugar Central Co.; Jose M. Yusay, for Binalbas-an Estate, Inc.; Nicolas A. Lizares, for T=alisay-Silay Milling Co-; Rafael R. Aluian, for Bacolod-Murcia Milling Co.; Da lian de Urmeneta, for Central Azucarera de Bais; Gil Montilla, for Isabela Sugar Co., Inc.; G. G. Gordon, for Mindoro Sugar Co.; Tirso Lizarraga, for Kabankalan Su gar Co.; R. Renton Hind, for Luzon Sugar Co. and Bataan Sugar Co.; Filomeno 0. Gana, for Ca-Ba-Lag Planters’ Association; John Dumas, for Factors, Administrators, Planters, and Fabrication Sections. REVIEW OF THE EXCHANGE MARKET By Stanley Williams Manager, International Banking Corporation. Telegraphic trans fers on New York were quoted nomi nally on August 31 at l'< premium with occasional sel lers for important amounts at %% premium and the market was practi cally unchanged on this basis through out the month of September, until the 28th, when rates were dropped to a nominal %%• premium with possible sellers at %% premium. Forward rates were on the easy and quoted at approximately per month down to the end of December. Some fair lots of export exchange were settled, how ever, for deliveries ranging from Novem ber to February at well above those levels. Sterling cables were quoted at 2/0 'fa on August 31 and the market was unchanged at that level until September 22, when there were possible sellers at 2/0 9/16, and the market remained unchanged on that basis during the rest of the month, closing on the 30th at a nominal 2/0 with pos sible sellers at 2/0 9/16. Sterling 3 m/s credit bills were un changed at 2/1 3/16 and 3 m/s D/P bills at 2/1 5/16 throughout the month. The New York London cross rate which closed on August 31 at 485*4 touched a high during the month of September of 485 13/16 on the 4th and a low of 485 3/16 on the 27th, closing steady at 485% on September 30. London bar silver closed at 28% spot 28% forward on August 31. It touched a high of 28 11/16 spot 28 13/16 forward on the 1st and 2nd of September and then gradually dropped away to 27 11/16 spot 27 13/16 forward on the 23rd. A sharp drop carried it to 27%, 37% on the 24th and 25th. The quotation was 27, 27% on the 27th and 28th and further sharp drops carried it to 26 7/16, 26/9/16 on the 29th and 26% spot 26% forward on the 30th. New York silver which closed at 62% on the 31st gradually dropped away during the month to a low of 56% on September 30. WELCH-FAIRCHILD, Ltd. SUGAR FACTORS AM) EXPORTERS MAMI.A, P. I. Cable Addree: WEHALD, Manila Standard Codes Agents Hawaiian - Philippine Company Operating Sugar Central Silay, Occ. Negros, P. I. Mindoro Sugar Company San Jost Mindoro, P. I. Purest Mineral Water from Deep Hot Springs ! YOUR CLUB SERVES IT 1 Drink It For Your Health’s Sake THE COMEBACK The comeback must be the right comeback. Your printed product must be the no-come back kind—when the work is done and deli vered there is no comeback except another job and a boost from you. The right comeback is the comeback we try to get from you—the comeback of a customer thoroughly satisfied, of good opinion, of more orders. The job that has no comeback but a come back customer is the kind that builds our bus iness. Hammering away every minute to get the right comeback puts the quality in our work, puts the promptness in our service. It takes work and pep but it’s worth it—it wins your good opinion, and that’s the comeback we want. THE TIMES PRESS Cosmopolitan Building Manila, P. I. A Telegraphic transfers on other points were quoted nominally at the close as fol lows : Paris ................................. Madrid ............................... Singapore ......................... Japan ................................ Hongkong .......................... Shanghai ........................... India ................................. Java .................................. 16.20 155 114% 98% 101% 76% 134% 122% New York Agents: Welch, Fairchild & Co., Inc., 135 Front Street San Francisco Agents: Welch & Co., 215 Market Street IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 YOUR LOGGING PROBLEM can be solved readily by some type of WASHINGTON LOGGING ENGINE The Washington Simplex Yarder shown above leads all Yarders in ease of operation and low cost of upkeep. Washington Iron Works, seattie, u. s. a. Agents for the Philippine Islands The Edward J. Nell Co., Ltd., — Manila. WASHINGTON ENGINES ^ale pistil DELICIOUSLY REFRESHING Sold at American Chamber Bar STATISTICAL REVIEW IMPORTS AND EXPORTS PROM AND TO ATLANTIC AND PACITIC PORTS BY NATIONALITY OF CARRYING VESSELS IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 31 dctober, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL PBIMCIgAI. JXFOBTJB 13.4 1.245,839 2.4 2,090,613 Vs Monthly average for 12 months 38,714,976 P ' 12,972,160 > products IMPORTS. v» % 5.0 0.1 £ SO A^oAobHes............. Bl » 102:019 0.5 BO^-l ?:i 3.«oS:^ 16.3 P 3,148.101 5.1 1,189,271 Nationality of 7.6 IIS French" East Indies Germany ................ Spain ....................... Australia................ British-Bast Indies Dutch Bast Indies. Netherlands ...... Italy ....................... Hongkong .............. 9.7 3.8 160,450 1,030,756 266,743 231,546 1,106,245 0.6 1.0 5.0 S:i 0.7 0.7 0 3 0.3 ?:l 0.1 0.1 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1926 BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY “LA URBANA” (Sociedad Mdtua de Construccidn y Prdstamos) PRESTAMOS H1POTECARIOS INVERS1ONES DE CAPITAL Escolta 155, Manila Philippines Cold Stores Wholesale and Retail Dealers in American and Australian Re frigerated Produce. STORES AND OFFICES CALLE EC HA GUE, MANILA, P. I. B. A. GREEN Phone 22516 P. O. Box 2103 REAL ESTATE Improved and Unimproved City, Suburban and Provincial Properties Morton & Ericksen, Inc. Surveyors AMERICAN BUREAU OF SHIPPING Expert valuation, appraisement and reports on real estate Telephone 507 Cable Address: "BAG” Manila 34 Bscolta Manila Philippine Islands Macleod & Company. Manila Cebu Vlgan Davao Iloilo Exporters of Hemp and Maguey Agents for International Harvester Co. Agricultural Machinery ROSENBERG’S GARAGE TELEPHONE 209 It ffi W I’ (China banking QJnrpnratinn fEaitila, V- 3. INSURANCE 653 FIRE, MARINE, MOTOR CAR. F. E. ZUELLIG, INC. Cebu Manila Iloilo J. A. STIVER ATTORNEY-AT-LAW NOTARY PUBLIC CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT INVESTMENTS COLLECTIONS INCOME TAX 121 Real. Intramuros Manila. P. I HANSON & ORTH, Inc. MANILA, P. I. Buyers and Exporters of Hemp and Other Fibers Phone 2-22-33 "El Hogar Filipino" Building WARNER, BARNES & CO., LTD. Insurance Agent. 612-513 Pacific Bldg. Tel. 22418 BRANCHES: New York—London —Merida —Davao Transacting cAll Classes of Insurance Sanitary - Co venient - Sa sfactory! FIVE EUROPEAN BARBERS Special attention given the ladiee Shampoos, facial massage and hair cuts under skilled management. LA MARINA BARBER SHOP 117 Plaza Goitl Jose Cortina, Prop. MADRIGAL & CO. 8 Muelle del Banco Nacional, Manila COAL CON TRACT OR 8 COCONUT OIL MANUFACTURERS MR. MANUEL VALENTIN Formerly Chief Cutter for P. B. Florenci 16 Years Experience on High Class Gar FOR LATEST STYLES IN GENTS’ CLOTHING. GO TO M. J. B. The Quality Coffee F. E. Zuellig, Inc. Cebu, Manila, Iloilo OA L L ' S ARAGK Quality ffi Shirts Repairing, Painting, Upholstering, Body Building, Electrical Work, etc. Cars stored at reasonable rates TOYO SHIRT FACTORY 1044 AZCAROACA. MANILA. Phone 1912. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL ACME CARD RECORDS “AU that the name implies!” Sales, purchase, cost, collection or production records of a year or so ago may be costing your business a tremendous sum because they fail to supply the vital facts of today — Acme will give you vital information at a glance! —Let us show you its benefits— Exclusive Distributors in the Philippines. ERLANGER & GALINGER, INC. MANILA CEBU Campos Her ma nos, Iloilo Smith, Bell & Compani], Ltd. Honqkonq & Shanqhai Bank Buildinq Phone 810 IMPORT: 1. Underwood Typewriters. “The machine you will eventually buy.” Call for a trial and demonstration of the world’s best. 2. Carr’s Celebrated Biscuits.“Fami ly Assorted” is one of Carr’s finest specialities and includes the most delicious kinds. 3. Lifebuoy Health Soap. The whole family will benefit in health and good looks if you will place Lifebuoy on the washstands. 6. Whyte & Mackay Whisky. 4. Lux Flakes. 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