The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Vol. 7, No.3 (March 1927)

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Vol. 7, No.3 (March 1927)
Issue Date: Vol. 7, No.3 (March 1927)
Year: 1927
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extracted text: Modern Threshing: Central Luzon Valley. For Old Methods and Old Customs, See “An Evening Rev erie of Philippine Peas ants” in this Issue Past and Present in Irrigated Farm Lands The Old Spanish Friars: Monuments of Their Labors Surveying Our Seas: Evolution of the Philippine Chart Impressions of Isabela Province: A Motor Trip Philippine Radio Broadcasting: Its Future Editorials and Business Reviews Current Comment of Timely Interest and Permanent Value ROSITAS 10 CENTAVOS Do you own a Hot Water Heater? This Tank Water Heater will pro vide plenty of hot water for kitchen and bath. Its 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 March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 1 THE GREATEST VIRTUE ANY CAR CAN OFFER “Its Engine Improves with Use” THE WILLYS-KNIGHT SIX How much longer will you permit those twin evils “Carbon Removal” and “Valve Grinding” to pick your pocket and spoil your motoring enjoyment? The Willys-Knight is free from them! THE MANILA OVERLAND SALES CO. P. O. BOX 1159 12th STREET, PORT AREA PHONE 88 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 2 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 (owned by the national city BANK OF NEW YORK) INVESTMENT SECURITIES Your individual requirements carefully analyzed and 'suitable selections offered through our affiliate, the NATIONAL CITY COMPANY which maintains more than fifty offices throughout the United States, Canada and elsewhere. Manila Office - Pacific Building S. Williams, Manager For More Than 27 Years TOM Discrimi nating men have IKm found that we do the best tail ® ■ IllHi oring and have the % wlHw 1/* largest selection of good •if suitings. New York-Paris-Manila 12 Escolta Phone 706 “BEAR BRAND” NATURAL STERILIZEO MILK brings contentment and chubbiness to Babies! Insist on ‘‘BEAR BRAND" SOLE DISTRIBUTORS F. E. ZUELLIG, Inc. ILOILO MANILA CEBU IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL cXmerican Chamber of Commerce Journal PUBLISHED MONTHLY THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS Page Page Agricultural Bureau's Seed Distribution.. 5 Impressions of Isabela Province (By J. L. Myers') 6 Future of Philippine Radio Broadcasting (By Colonel C. H. Nance)........................... 7 Charting 7,000 Islands and Intervening Seas: The Evolution of the Philippine Chart (By Commander R. B. Derickson)............... 8 Editorials (By Walter Robb): Homeward Cargoes ... 10 The Roast Beef of Old Manila.................................. 10 Brick-Batting the Carnival.......................................................... 10 Radio Manila. 10 Straws.......................................... 10 Lands Policy Changed...................................................................... 10 After Five O’Clock: Speaking Personally........................................ 11 Miss Yule’s Text on Japan..................................................................... 11 The Buccaneers: Their Descendants................................................... 12 Spending Twenty Millions on Irrigation: Public Works Report on Past and Present Work and New Projects....................... 14 The Old Spanish Friars: Their Monuments (By Percy A. Hill)...................................................................................................... 16 An Evening Reverie of Philippine Peasants (By Walter Robb). 18 Agriculture and the Burden of Debt (By John E. Wallace). 20 Taxes Make Moro Troubles (John Hackett’s Editorial in the Mindanao Herald)........................................................................ 21 A Measured Blessing (Dr. Victor S. Clark’s Review of Nicholas Roosevelt’s Book on the Philippines)..................................... 28 Magellan’s Voyage to the Philippines........ 29 Review of February Business: Copra and Its Products (By E. A. Seidenspinner). ... 22 Real Estate (By P. D. Carman)............................................ 22 Tobacco (By P. A. Meyer)....................................................... 22 Rail Commodity Movements (By M. D. Royer)............. 22 Shipping (By H. M. Cavender).............................................. 24 Sugar (By George H. Fairchild)............................................ 26 Exchange (By Stanley Williams).......................................... 27 Rice (By Percy A. Hill)............................................................. 21 Hemp (By T. H. Smith)........................................................... 27 Outward Cargoes by Tons Per Year (By E. W. Latie)........ 31 SSLs? THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March. 1927 Commercial Printing is a silent but Powerful Messenger Your letter heads, bill heads, cards, envelopes, etc., when well printed, all help to build up that “feeling of confidence’’. Our reputation for producing GOOD PRINTING has been earned and merits your patronage. McCullough Printing Company 424 Rizal Ave. Phone 800 Luzon Stevedoring Co., Inc. ■ Lightering, Marine Contractors Towboats, Launches, Waterboats Shipbuilders and Provisions SIMMIE & GRILK Phone 302 Port Area BAGUIO TRAIN SERVICE Daily train leaves Manila at 8:00 a. m. A night Special Train will leave Manila at lip. m. every Friday and will return Sunday night until June 10. Commencing March 14 and extending until the end of May, an extra night train will be run every week, leaving Manila Monday night to return Wednesday night. All night trains have standard sleeping cars with bathrooms and all conveniences of a de Luxe travel, and also carry first and third class coaches. Booking for Sleeper Berths at Tutuban Station or American Express Company, Plaza Moraga, Manila. ' RATES First Class Third Class Manila to Baguio one way - F17.60 P 8.55 10 days, Manila to Baguio, round trip - - - — 11.84 60 days, Manila to Baguio, round trip - - - 27.60 12.94 Manila to Damortis, one way - - - 11.10 5.55 10 days, Manila to Damortis, round trip - 15.54 8.88 60 days, Manila to Damprtis, round trip - 16.04 9.13 60 days, Manila to Bauang Sur, round trip - - 18.21 10.37 Sleeper berth, each way ------ 5.00 MANILA RAILROAD COMPANY 943 AZCARRAGA, MANILA IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL THE AMERICAN CHAMBERo/f COMMERCE --------JOURNAL Explaining Good Watermelons: They’re Yankee <§><§><§> Notes on Agricultural Bureau’s Seed Distribution old friars’ chronicles the fact is recorded that tobacco from Cotabato was transplanted in Sumatra. The modern Sumatra varieties are, of course, the result of a long period of experimentation and improvement by selec tion, but there would still be nothing remarkable in these high-bred varieties thriving on the parent soil.) Luzon has been enjoying first rate watermelons since the season opened. Instead of the oldtime tough leathery customers whose color alone was inviting, this year’s melons are crisp and of luscious flavor. How come?—which is a form of query current in the widest famed melon districts of the United States -how come? A field agent of the Bureau of Agriculture reports that the welcome change in the quality of Philippine watermelons comes from the native gardeners planting American melon seeds given them by the bureau, with native seeds—either in the same hills or in parallel rows. It is the resulting mixed strain, he says, that has produced this year’s melon crop. There are many regions of the United States where no better melons can be grown than those this crossing of seed has made available in Manila’s markets. If new seeds are conti nually supplied the improvement of quality can be maintained and possibly emphasized. The Bureau of Agriculture has numerous activities and consumes a goodly sum from the public burse each year, but surprisingly little on seed distribution, for which this year the allotment is only 1’5,500. The plant industry division believes it could utilize a larger amount to advantage. It may be right. It gives free distribution to seeds, seedlings, budded and grafted trees: for co-operative trial planting throughout the islands, for exchange with entities abroad, and for sale through the agricul tural extension division of the bureau. Last year, for example, it distributed 2,320 abaca plants, 484 coffee plants, 27,739 citrus and other fruit trees, as well as 107 kilos of coffee seed, 50 kilos of citrus and other fruit seeds, 11,513 ears of seed corn, 457 cavans of rice seed and 280 kilos of tobacco seed. Imagine half that tobacco seed growing! On the other hand, imagine even a small portion of it growing and doing well. The tobacco industry is languishing. In a table elsewhere in this issue the reader can see that the sales of leaf tobacco abroad have fallen off enormously in the last three years; one way of reviving the business is to better the product. There is always a demand for the best. The work in this direction of the experimental station at Ilagan, Isabela, is bringing some results at least. The manager of the Maluno tobacco plantation reports that he is so encouraged by the showing of seed planted from the Ilagan station experimentally that he is continuing until he can plant on a commercial scale. Similar interest is shown by other big inter ests in the vailey. Letters indicate that the work has attracted attention abroad. Down in Cotabato the bureau has grown five varieties of Sumatra tobacco found to be well adapted both to Cotabato and Cagayan-Isa bela field. The Sarunayan station in Cotabato distributed seeds of these tobaccos last year to 24 Cotabato farmers. (Somewhere in the Courtesy, Bureau of Agriculture. Delivering Eu lde;l Mangoes to Local Fruit Growers As to seed distribution generally, 2,661 plant ers and farmers in the Philippines were listed at the Bureau of Agriculture last year as “co-oper ators on the trial planting of crops and other field experimental work.” If no more was spent last year than was made available this year for like purposes, this comes to about the outlay for a cedula per name on the list—not an extravagant sum unless results were nil. The watermelons alone will certainly put more than 1’5,500, above the price of the old-time melons, into the pockets of the growers, whether it ever reaches the treasury again or not. But it is not melons and other truck crops, but rice and sugar cane, that promise best in the way of big returns. Tudor Sedan Fordor Sedan - Touring Car Runabout THE UNIVERSAL CAR These prices Include Starter and Balloon Tires Eaey Termt, if dttired The Ford is the best Serviced Car in the Philippines. Over 120 Service Stations throughout the Islands will promptly attend to your needs “AFTER WE SELL WE SERVE” MANILA TRADING & SUPPLY COMPANY MAIN OFFICE—MANILA Iloilo Cebu Bacolod Legaspi Pulupandan One-Ton Truck Chassis - Pl,000.00 One-Ton Truck Chassis with Starter - - 1,125.00 Model "T” Chassis with Starter - - - - 940.00 Eaty' Term*, if detired IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 6 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 The bureau displays records of ten varieties of rice seed distributed to growers in five different provinces, Cavite, Ilocos Norte, Bulacan, Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija—some four to the farm school at Munoz and six varieties in all in that district, the center of a prime rice region. Sipot is reported to have yielded 47 cavans per hectare at Tanza, Cavite, and 51 cavans at Dingras, Ilocos Norte. Other yields are higher, Ramai reaching 122 cavans at the farm school, Macan Lamio 90.7, Mancasar 86.3, and Inachupal 84.4. The islands’ average yield of paddy per hectare is around 30 cavans, the Munoz average surely much higher. The Journal’s- attention was called to this seed-distributing activity of the bureau by the editor’s seeing truckloads of sugar-cane points putting off from the bureau for the prov inces. It seemed that these points would be quite a boon to the planters fortunate enough to be co-operating with the bureau. The report obtained later showed that Badila points from the bureau yielded 105.62 piculs of sugar per hectare on volcanic soil in Occidental Negros; New Guinea 24-a, 104.20 piculs; Yellow Cale donia, 93.71; Negros Purple, 91.50. Of course, the bureau is by no means alone in the experimental field for sugar cane, the industry has its well organized association, and this takes the lead perhaps in experiments— so that in this case it is the bureau the is co operating. Impressions of Isabela Province: A Motor Trip ® ® & By J. L. Myers Martin had business in the north, in Echague— timber concessions, mill sites, river transpor tation and markets. There was space in the Dodge for one more. I filled the space. We marvelled, as we crossed Nueva Ecija, at the rice stacks where twenty years ago we had plodded along on our ponies through cogon wastes too dreary to hold anything of promise for the future. Talavera, Baloc and Munoz were then mere dots on the map. They hardly existed on the ground. That was the frontier of those days. The new road has a charm all its own. Leav ing the plains it follows the river beds, always up and climbing. High cogon hills wall in both sides of the narrow gulches, and seem ready to topple over onto the crawling motor The Philippine coffee industry, remarkably prosperous during the first quarter of the last century, and even for some time later, owing to the Amigos del Pais and the native excel lence of the product, has long been in the dol drums and is but a memory in the coffee marts of the world. San Francisco fanciers—may one call them that?—lament the fact that the prime Philippine coffees of the hearty days of the clipper trade are no longer to be had. It was the blight, that is the story, as it may be one day be the story of the exit of Manila hemp; another parallel being that hemp holds no more envied place among hard fibers than Philippine coffees held among their inferiors. But the lands and climate at least remain, and peasants skilled in the care of coffee trees. Robusta and Excelsa varieties, resisting blight, have been planted in Nueva Vizcaya. They fruited for the first time last year. Maybe * * * who knows? It would be gratifying to see coffee back on the outward manifests. Exotic notes, to close the concert: “The naturalized apple trees planted in Balbalan, Kalinga, have fruited for the first time this year. The fruits were of fair size and delicious in flavor. “All citrus plants left in our former Bontoc acclimatization station have fruited again this year and the Saigon pomelo and Jaffa orange were heavily loaded with fruits. The citrus plants on Constabulary Hill in Baguio are doing fine.” cars in the depths. Here and there a mountain side too steep for the hill peoples to cut over is still covered with forest, but cogon pre dominates. The overloaded Dodge pulled along up the hill, seemingly weak-kneed on slight grades, but a glance back showed the error to be ours. A few places require careful driving, but for the most part the road is of good width and fair surface. In many places workmen are pulling down the side hills, the sound of the hom sends them scampering after wheel barrows left standing in the middle of the roadway. The resthouse at Balite Pass is well kept up. A good supply of canned goods is always ready for quick service, and many beds are available. Here the cold raw wind from the north makes the old-timers get inside and close up the doors. From Balite the Dodge eases downhill most all the way into Bayombong, through a wider valley but still a desolate one. Bayombong is a sad intermixture of the old and the new. The church, the cemetery, some old ruins show the work of a past age, when probably all traffic was in from the north. New bamboo shacks and iron roofs are crowding in, and crowding out the old. Gasoline signs and restaurants line the streets, as trucks parked haphazard block them. From Bayombong we leave the Magat river valley and wind our way eastward for hours over apparently unending cogon hills, zigzagging up and down each hillside. It is a temptation to stop, and start a cattle ranch, but not a settler has yet dared do it. Finally, over a saddle in the ridge ahead we catch a glimpse of a hazy plain to the north. This must be the fabled public domain of Isabela waiting for the plow. The Dodge seems fairly to fly along now, over a perfect highway, level, grassy plains on either side. Here and there small rice fields nestle in the basins. Many survey monuments are in evidence. But the land looks hard, and dry and uninviting. It will be a great rice field some day, but the soil will have to be kneaded into shape and leavened with many mortgages and countless usuries. The pioneers will break it up and make it fertile for the money lenders. Our trip is relieved of absolute monotony by the frequency of toll bridges and ferries. We amused ourselves by calculating that in gasoline tax and tolls we had paid to our dear government about ten pesos, on that half of the trip alone. No importa. At Echague we stopped with the genial fores try-service man. They are always that way. In fact all the people with whom we came in contact outdid themselves to make our visit happy. Here is the old hospitality of the frontier. Our ways parted at Echague. I went north into Ifugao country in search of the cimarron. For hours I hiked over rolling prairies and mag nificent pastures, as yet untouched by plows. A few carabao grazed unattended, except by their guards, the tagak kalabaw, or white heron. The heat was intense at noon time and the scarcity of trees made walking a hard ship. Four hours of it took us to the Magat river again. Here we found the source of wealth of the Cagayan valley, tobacco growing in the second bottoms as it probably has grown on the same flats for generations. Our observation is that all the population is confined to the banks of the larger rivers and engaged in tobacco culture. The people seemed a discouraged lot and generally thriftless. We hiked on to the north over more rolling grass lands until we hit the hills of Ifugao. These hills are high and steep, each crowding up against the next and all set on edge. Game was plen tiful on their slopes, due, as I was told, to the activity of the Ifugao constabulary in enforcing the laws against artificial light hunting. On these mountains as elsewhere grass predomi nates. Martin brought in reports of a different kind of country to the southeast. He found heavy virgin timber so dense that it was dripping moisture and infested with leeches. That country does not dry out until March. Perhaps the customs of the savages to the south and east have had much to do with the conservation of the timber there. My impressions are of course superficial, and my opinions possibly unreliable, but they are here for whomever wants them. I believe the Cagayan valley is not ten per cent developed and that the next generation will see the present development multiplied many times over and along many different lines. It has not the climatic advantages of Mindanao, but it is accessible to hordes of immigrants. March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 7 The Future of Philippine Radio Broadcasting & By Colonel C. H. Nance, Vice-President and General Manager, Radio Corporation of the Philippines. ored to surmount the Evolution of mankind and the development of civilization since the earliest times have been based upon the possibilities of intercommunica tion. For thousands of years man has endeavbarriers of space and time in order that there could be had with his fellow beings an ex change of ideas upon which might be built the structure of a com mon understanding. The printing press, the steamship, the loco motive, the telegraph and telephone, each in its turn has broadened the horizon of the world’s communica tions; and for the last twenty-eight years ra dio, or wireless as it was first called, has made further great contributions toward the solution of the problem of quickly communicating with one’s neighbors. Of all the mediums of intercourse which science has yet devised, perhaps none has so well fulfilled its early promise as has that particular branch of the radio art which is known as broadcasting. It is mankind’s first universal system of one-way mass com munication. Through no other agency can the message spoken by a single voice be projected at the same instant to literally mil lions of people separat ed by hundreds or thousands of miles from the speaker and from each other. No other agency can convey the same thought, the same impulse, the same ap peal, by one living voice, simultaneously to uncounted listeners. Speaking before the conference of the In ternational Federation of University Women in Amsterdam in July, 1926, Mr. David Samoff, Vice-President and General Manager of the Radio Corpo ration of America, said: “Radio has swept away the physical bar riers of communication. No nation now need be dependent solely upon thin strands of cable for its world commu nications. No country need fear the strangling of the national voice through the cutting of a cable in time of war or destruction in time of peace. No government able to erect a broadcasting station need subject itself to censorship or interferences by dependence upon a wire system that must traverse a neigh bor’s territory. Radio gives opportunity for self expression to small nations as well as great.” Radio broadcasting was first introduced into the Philippines about three years ago. The difficulties encountered by its pioneers,—to whom great credit is due for their efforts,—were many; yet the need for broadcasting and the very prom ising possibilities for service to the community Hortonse Pick, Central School Girl, Who Sang in the School's Radio Program which it offered were both so great that some sort of a broadcasting service has ever since been main tained. The comparatively small radio audience has suffered much from inadequate transmitting facilities and lack of good programs. Their interest has perforce been great to survive at all and it is precisely upon such unflagging interest that hopes for an enthusiastic recep tion and support of a future greater service may be now quite confidently based. The real starting point toward improving Philippine broadcasting was the enactment into law of a bill introduced into the last legislature by Representative Manuel Nieto of Isabela, which provided for the support of broadcasting through a system of registration fees for all receivers in use; an act quite similar to the present law by which the proceeds from automobile registration are devoted to the maintenance of highways and bridges. The machinery for carrying out the provisions of this law has just been set into motion, but even the early indications are that the fast-growing radio audience stands ready and willing to cooper ate in the support and improvement of Phil ippine broadcasting. This attitude can only be the result of realization by the peo ple that radio in the Philippine home has a place of even more importance in the life of this community than it has been accorded already in many other nations. In spite of many discouraging and delay ing factors, the new Radio Manila went on the air on schedule time with its inaugu ration on February 12. Lack of time and other exigencies of the case made it necessary that a temporary antenna and ground system be used and that the station be operated on something less than full power. Unforeseen delays also caused the initiation of service without the usual amount of preli minary test work, which has therefore had to be continued coincidental ly with regular service during the first few weeks of operation. Another handicap has been the fact that the new studio facilities are not yet completed. Nevertheless the response from the radio audience has been in every way up to expectations and after the various temporary features are replaced by permanent installations within the next few months, the service is without question destined to awaken still greater interest and support from its listeners-in. Quite naturally, the first concrete experiments with radio broadcasting were confined to the dissemination of news, such as election returns, the ringside story of a heavyweight championship, etc., etc. But there were those in the radio industry who had the vision to see this new branch of the art filling the nation’s homes with entertainment of all sorts, and consequently entertainment with its wide popular appeal has been so far in large part the principal material for American programs. Starting at first with a more or less haphazard transmission of theat rical performances, concerts and similar public entertainment where permission could be secured, broadcasting has reached the stage where now many professional artists base their reputations primarily upon their popularity with the radio audience. Jeanne Lyons, Central School High School Girl Who Sang in the Radio Program It is not infrequent that theatrical enter tainments now feature among their offerings the performance of some radio artist who before his appearance before the microphone in a radio studio was quite unknown to the theater-going public. 4 Many churches are now broadcasting their services, either in arrangement with well known stations or through their own privately operated transmitters. Church music is looked forward to as a regular feature of the weekly program from Sarah Margaret Franks, Whose Charming Mezzo-Soprano Voice was heard in the Central School Radio Program favorite stations, and many eminent ministers number their congregations more among radio listeners-in than among those who attend in per son the service at the church. Educational institutions soon recognized the power of broadcasting to aid them, particularly in certain types of extension work, and many regular courses ate now given through so called air colleges. THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 State and municipal governments are regularly broadcasting informative lectures on agriculture, public health, domestic science, and similar topics. The greatest outstanding example of the possibilities of radio broadcasting took place during the general strike in England in 1925 when the press of the country was practically disabled through a walkout. The government at once turned to radio broadcasting and was able to keep the people in their homes fully conversant with developments and to allay Mrs. Heartz Davidson Stewart, Music Teacher, Central High School, who arranged the Radio Program many apprehensions which might otherwise have existed in the absence of all other means of spreading news and information. One of the great missions of radio would seem to be the arousing of popular interest in govern ment, for no other, medium exists whereby the government official, the legislator or the can didate for election can speak simultaneously and instantaneously to so great a portion of the public. Finally radio broadcasting has a rdle to play in the advancement of industry. It brings not only a numberless and interested audience Charting 7000 Islands and Intervening Seas ❖ ❖ The Recent Evolution of the Philippine Chart By Commander R. B. Derickson, U. S. C. fit G. S. Director of Coast Surveys Since man first began to enlarge his knowledge of his surroundings, and impelled by the desire to know what lay beyond his imme diate horizon, he ven tured forth upon long voyages, a record, or graphic description in the way of maps, has been kept for the guid ance of those who follow. Due to this ever in creasing accumulation of geographic data, the explorer or surveyor of today has a rough outline of his field of opera tions, which is to be transformed into a modern chart with soundings, points and distances determined with mathematical accuracy. Today, there is no progressive country without a correctly surveyed and charted coastline with an accurate knowledge of its character and form, together with a record of its tides and depths of water. It is all essential for the solution of the great problems of commerce and defense. Searching through ancient records handed down to us from pre-Spanish days, we find a $ to business and industry, but furnishes an ideal means of conveying to that audience a business or industrial message. This particular phase of radio broadcasting is still more or less experimental because there are certain limitations imposed against direct advertising over the air. But there are commer cial interests in many parts of the world which are contributing regularly to the support of broad casting because they realize how much is to be gained from public goodwill. If the latent power of radio ; broadcasting to perform these var ious kinds of public service to any community be applied to the Phil ippines, it will at once be recognized that much can be done by it here to create the common tie which a unity of interest gives to many scattered peoples. If programs broadcast from Manila can be so chosen as to be of the greatest interest to all inhabitants of the Archipelago, and gradually to mould sentiments which now are frequently so divergent into a common national belief, then indeed will radio broadcasting have served a high purpose here. If the lonely provinciano can have the opportunity of listening-in to the best that Manila has to offer from national and international leaders of thought; to good rendition of the best music; to readings from the best in literature; and to inform ative talks by the highest national authori ties on scientific subjects, agriculture, animal husbandry, public health, child welfare and kindred subjects; and if above all a regular course in educational subjects can be offered to those who cannot attend a university or school in Manila, then a small part of the mission of Philippine radio broadcasting will have been fulfilled. The start along what are believed to be safe and sane lines for a full future development of radio broadcasting has now been made. blurred and indistinct outline of a group of islands supposed to represent the Philippines or those that lay in the track of the junks trading between Chinese ports and the Molukka Islands. Names Tho Pathfinder, Famous Coast and Geodetic Ship in Philippine Waters The daily programs are constantly improving as different individuals, institutions and societies of all sorts realize the advantages of cooperation in this great service to the Filipino people. News, weather and market reports and fore casts will have an increasingly important place on account of their interest to the far-distant provinces; carefully planned series of educational and informative material are about to be added as regular features with the hearty cooperation of the various government bureaus and depart ments concerned. The best artists in Manila are appearing before the microphone and by their generous help are giving audiences all over the islands the opportunity to hear good music. The most popular dance orchestras in the capital are regular features for the later evening hours for those who care for this kind of enjoyment. There are probably not many more than two thousand receiving sets in use in the Philippine Islands at the present time. While the radio audience will always be more limited than in other territories of the same size, on account of the comparatively small population and modest per capita wealth, nevertheless it is safe to predict that within five years there will be 100,000 sets registered as in daily this means that there will be at least one million in the radio audience, a sizeable body of sympa thetic and interested hearers to whom the mes sage of broadcasting can be projected. and descriptions are written in Chinese charac ters of such a remote date that no local Chinese historian has been able to decipher their mean ings. This old print constitutes, so far as wc know, the first chart of the Philippine archi pelago. With the coming of Magellan in 1521, there was produced the first moderately intelligible cartographic record of that section of the archi pelago visited by him. Dating from the explora tions of Magellan and his followers, we have a succession of varied charts, sketches and pictorial maps representing the ideas of the early navi gators. At that time nothing was known of March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 9 the art of hydrographic surveying, therefore no soundings appear on any of these early prints. Depending upon the course and dis tances followed safely upon one occasion, they held as closely as possible to these in all succeed ing voyages. In the study of these documents, it has been interesting to note the evolution of the chart and the approach to exactness of each successive navigator as he pictured the head lands and salient points along his course of travel. Chart Made by Father Pedro Murillo Velarde, S.J., in 1734, and engraved by a Filipino crafts man, Nicolas Cruz Bagay. Upon expulsion of the Jesuits from the Philippines the engraving went into the hands of the Dominicans, where Dr. Robertson found it and whence he obtained it by consent of the Dominicans and Jesuits for the Philippine Library and Museum. Note that the reproduction is from Father Juan Concepcion’s Historia de las Islas Filipinas, 1788, and he, being a Recollect friar and publishing during the period the Jesuits were out of the islands, utilized a filigree in lieu of the words designating Father Murillo Velarde as a Jesuit. Copies of the map are fairly rare. This engraving is from the copy in the editoi’s private library. To describe the base and evolution of charts of any up to that time. It was at this period that much of the complementary and decora tive art which had embellished all former charts was discontinued to a certain extent. Succeed ing navigators considered the unhampered state ment of informative facts to be a surer guide to safety than the saintly pictorial illumination that had heretofore confused all their primitive aids to navigation. Coming down to more modem times, we find that in 1830, Governor Enrile caused to be made a general topographic map of the archipelago, with special reference to roads, political boun daries, etc. Since then, modern methods have devel oped refinements and improvements in the de termination of one’s position on the earth’s surface, thus contributing to make more exact the old time method of chart making. With the arrival of the Americans in the islands, there existed but few reliable charts of the Philippine archipelago. Such as were in existence, aside fom that of Manila bay, compiled from a Spanish survey in 1897, consisted of adaptations from the work of the early ex plorers and navigators. The work of Spanish hydrographers who had in some places made creditable surveys, was not based on modem methods, and left long intervening stretches of coastline unexplored. These charts were wholly inadequate to insure the safety of vessels traversing the waters of the archipelago. There fore, one of the first steps necessary to the com mercial and economic development of the islands was the survey and charting of the coastline and waters in accordance with the best modem practice, as carried on by the home government. This is, at the present time, one of the most important projects engaging the attention of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, both in point of magnitude, and in its direct bearing on the public requirements. At the time the work was taken up in the Philippines, there lay before this bureau to be surveyed and charted 20,260 miles of shoreline, outlining 7,080 islands, of which only 466 have an area of one square mile or over. Add to this the unsounded waters of the archipelago, cover ing an area of 280,377 square statute miles, and you have a stupendous project to be accom plished ! The hydrographic and topographic surveys begun in 1901 have been extended up to date throughout the entire archipelago. The work includes, not only a detailed survey of shoreline, but depths are obtained through all navigable waters of the inland seas, bays, and connecting waters. These soundings extend on the outer coasts to the 2000 and 3000 fathom curve. Of importance to the interior and cadastral surveys, and for the geodetic control of the entire archipelago, a network of triangulation, based on astronomical longitudes, latitudes •and azimuths, has been carried from Y’Ami island across Luzon and other islands to the south end of the Sulu archipelago, a distance of over one thousand miles, establishing upon each island a sufficient number of points for the coordination of all detached projects of both inland and coastal surveys. The results of the surveys to date are shown on one hundred and forty-four modem charts, covering the entire boundaries of the archi pelago. There are also two volumes of Sail ing Directions issued for the benefit of the mariner. The greater part of the information presented in these publications is based upon the original work and investigations of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey since the American occupation. To give advanced information of value to navigation, there is published quarterly at the Manila Office, the Manila Notice to Mariners. This publication contains descriptions of all newly discovered dangers, new editions of charts, information pertaining to lighthouses, and aids to navigation as furnished by the Bureau of Commerce and Industry. Fourteen topographical maps compiled from information furnished by various branches of the government are also published for those interested in the topographic features of the islands. The work of the Coast and Geodetic Survey has been carried on continuously since January 1, 1901. The rate of progress has varied from time to time, depending upon the personnel and equipment available for the work. During the world war nearly all of the commissioned officers of the service were assigned to the Army or (Concluded on page 12) 10 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 EDITORIAL OFFICES American Chamber of Commerce 14 CALLE PINPIN P. O. Box 1638 Telephone 1156 HOMEWARD CARGOES Instead of the usual tabulated customs figures on overseas trade, which will reappear next month when the reports become available, we publish elsewhere a tabulation by the Columbia Pacific Shipping Company, to whom we are much indebted for the information, covering outward cargoes over a period of three years in terms of tons. The period is 1924-1926, during which the islands marketed overseas more than a million tons of surplus per year, of which the homeland, the United States, took 67.4 per cent, or about 700,000 tons per year. Of certain principal commodi ties, of course, such as sugar, cigars, embroideries, desiccated coconut and coconut oil, the homeland took much more than the average and did, in fact, constitute practically the only market—in each case the best market. The American market is vital to the Philippines. It has been of vital importance ever since Manila was opened to foreign commerce, although there was a period of round-about shipping to America, chiefly via London and Liverpool, after the Civil War and before the American merchant marine was restored on the Pacific—which only occurred, practically speaking, after America’s acquisition of the islands in 1898. Subsequent to the World War the American merchant marine was fully restored, Amer ica’s trade throughout the Far East steadily revived, and outward cargoes were more and more carried in national bottoms to which homeward cargoes are essential; and the ships themselves are essential to the United States as auxiliaries to defense. Let a simple truth be stated plainly, for the benefit of-all concerned Without the homeward cargoes obtained in the Philippines, the Amer ican merchant marine could not be maintained on the Pacific. Without the American market (and it would be feasible to develop other sources of raw-products supplies), the Philippines would be profoundly in the dumps. Their surplus for sale overseas last year was 1,112,842 tons; the United States bought 748,903 tons of it and carried 506,012 tons away in her own ships. The average homeward cargo out of this territory of our merchant vessels on the Pacific during the last four months of last year was 2,426 tons per ship. To China and Japan, 572 tons; to the Pacific coast for local and inland delivery, 1,854 tons. This is the vital factor in the homeward voyage. It puts it over. But many ships load, of course, down to the plimsolls, in ports of this territory, and sail directly home. Others scout new routes of trade for American goods, relying upon their Philippine bookings as a sort of base of operations. Philippine and American material interests are mutually vital to each other. All political reckoning should be from this fixed point. THE ROAST BEEF OF OLD MANILA For another full year the Governor-General has arranged for sixty per cent of the fresh beef supply for Manila to come from abroad on two extended contracts. His evident misgivings were that local stockmen could not keep the market regularly supplied, though the existence of a sufficient supply of animals in the provinces is admitted. A sufficient number of animals at Manila ready for the daily kill is the problem the stockmen and the government have not solved. Comment limits itself to the fact that it would abundantly pay, all round, to solve this problem. While it remains unsolved the situation entailed is a confession of weakness and inadequacy, and the law designed to subserve the cattle industry of the islands must remain a nullity. BRICK BATTING THE CARNIVAL Manila suffers from a chronically quarrelsome liver, and delights in taking it out on the other fellow. The carnival this year has been brickbatted incessantly, and the brick-bats were not intended to construct, but to destroy. Typical of Manila, this sort of thing still does no good. All that is alleged to be wrong with the carnival, where many improvements might be made, is really symptomatic. The remedies proposed are those of a pill doctor for yaller janders in a country yokel. The community itself is sick. It suffers from striations of bad temper. It is spiritually disinte grating. Cure it, get the factions out of their armed camps and onto the common field of good sportsmanship, and we shall have a carnival such as was never dreamed of. The idea of an organization permanently carrying on seems good, but the critics are right in saying that it cannot be a polit ical adjunct. It must be ambitious solely in its own behalf—in behalf of the carnival, in behalf of the Philippines. But what helpful suggestion is there, for instance, in a long tirade against the carnival because while it lasts the government offices keep half-day hours and are said to fall behind in their work? If this happens in a fortnight in the balmy spring, what pray happens during the three months of the torrid summer when, the carnival being in recess, the half-day hours for the sweating govern ment still prevail? This query is the more to the point because the half day hours are by no means essential to the carnival, and it is the government that is to be blamed for taking them, not the carnival for taking advantage of them. The carnival is obviously in need of resuscitation, but carping is not the means to employ. If we could all cease carping, how much— besides brilliant annual carnivals—we might have for ourselves and our growing number of pleasant visitors. Finally, we wish to say that this year’s carnival was by no means a failure. The fine arts exhibit was such as to promise magnificently for the future. The stock show revealed the genuine interest of some of our men of means in advancing this branch of agriculture. The preserved-food exhibit was most creditable. We saw no dirty shows, but several good ones. We elbowed through tremendous crowds of merry young folks innocently enjoying themselves on about the only occasion that has been provided for them to do so. We saw them wait patiently, long past the hour, for the rich to parade. The democracy of the crowds was infectious and delightful, as always in Manila. Back to our premise, then: short comings are attributable to sulking in the ranks above the crowd. That is what there is to be put right. RADIO MANILA It at last seems certain that radio is to advance in the Philippines measurably with its advance elsewhere, and one field open to it may bear fruits from what has thus far been barren soil. This is the filed of language instruction. We listened to the program given by Mrs. Stewart and some of her pupils in the high school department of the Central School, when some one put on a language lesson indicating the wide possibilities. Through radio, undoubtedly, the islands can learn to talk with each other; through radio the high school instruction in English throughout the islands may be supplemented—rather complemented—and pupils may learn accurate pronunciation, enunciation and sylabication. Radio, with a small circle of teachers available, can make their work reach every high school in the islands. The advantages of radio to the plantation and provincial-town home are too manifest to require comment. The market quotations, the digests of news, and the evening entertainments will become indispensable. STRAWS The annual report of the bureau of insular affairs, Manila Daily Bulletin, March 3-4, and the O. M. Butler (trade commissioner) summary of last year’s business, in the same paper, issue of February 1, agree that last year the actual balance of trade was against the Philippines, and the letters adds “as in former years.” McIntyre reaches the surmise that “the evil of too restricted land and immigration laws is not limited to the dis couragement of investment of outside capital, but that it drives elsewhere the earnings on local investments is worthy of consideration.” It is signi ficant that the commerce and war departments are in essential accord about a blunt fact hitherto lightly glossed over far too frequently for the islands’ good, and hope may now be expressed that this harmony of opinion may have a rational influence upon policy. Another straw drifts in the same direction in the remarks of Samuel Untermeyer while in Manila, February 14. He is denunciatory of the predatory tendencies of massed wealth, but holds that for the development of resources concessions are, after all, necessary—in the nature of necessary evils, as it were. He only stipulates that they be limited, and extended only as improvements justify their extension. While this goes farther than the chamber of commerce, which has never yet advocated liberalization of the land laws of the islands, it still coincides with the chamber’s fixed view .that more capital should be induced to engage in agricultural industries here, something the fixing of the islands’ relationship to the United States would tend to bring about. A third straw showing how the wind is blowing is the following, favor ably quoted from the Thompson report in the current Lands Courier, official publication of the bureau of lands: “It will probably be necessary to encourage a few larger (rubber) estates in the beginning. Such estates would establish a market for small producers, aid in solving many of the technical problems which might arise in introducing rubber culture into a new area, and generally create a feeling of confidence in the future of rubber production in the islands.” More is quoted, but this is enough for the point. There remains the task of crystalization of this common opinion. LANDS POLICY CHANGED We briefly note that the old policy of the bureau of lands, to oppose every application to register a private claim, has been discontinued, “and only where after investigation the land applied for registration (sic) is found to be really public land or to be occupied by public land claimants and applicants who derive rights of possession or otherwise (sic) from the government is there entered opposition on the part of the government. * * * In the case of small land claims, the bureau has even been more liberal, practically making no effort to oppose registration, especially where the areas involved are within the limitations prescribed for homestead or free patent.” March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 11 AFTER FIVE O’CLOCK G. T. Ussher of the Manila Table Products Company is putting a maple-cane syrup on the local market under the “Oh Boy!” brand. A sample of this syrup on the breakfast hotcakes proved excellent, a rival of genuine maple syrup, justifying encouragement of the new enterprise. Samuel Untermeyer, New York attorney and builder of a national notoriety by his tactics as special counsel for investigating committees, addressed the Rotary Club of Manila February 10, when his round-the-world ship was in port. He expressed fears that big business interests were trying to get hold of the islands, and said that while concessions should be granted they should be extended only as development took place. He lunched with Governor General Wood, too; in his interviews with the press he praised Wood’s and Governor Smith’s adminis trations. A friendly but analytical sketch of his career appears in the February American Mercury. F. E. Eldridge, formerly head of the Far East division of the United States bureau of foreign and domestic commerce, has come to Manila again in the capacity of vice president of the Asiatic Selling Company, a new corpora tion with $200,000 capital representing about three dozen American manufacturers whose lines are allied but noncompetitive. Head offices are to be at Shanghai and a branch is being established in Manila, the business to be both export and import. Simon Erlanger, California capitalist, one of the founders of Erlanger and Galinger in Manila, arrived in Manila March 3 with Mrs. Erlanger for a visit here, the first since 1916. Manila’s evidences of progress during the past decade disappoint Mr. Erlanger, according to his interview in the Bulletin, as does the at titude toward the United States. Admiral (retired) William H. G. Bullard, who represented the Radio Corporation of America at the inception of its business in the Philippines and was recently in Manila again on a trip around the world, has been nominated by President Coolidge for the six-year term as one of the five radio commissioners under the new national radio control act. A. Gideon, manager of the Metropolitan Water District, realizes the certainty of the usual seasonal water shortage this year and bespeaks cooperation of the community in conservation of the dry-season supply. Work progresses on the new storage dam at Novaliches. M. J. Beaumont, Washington (state) news paper man, was a February visitor to Manila, where he praised the press and opined that American sovereignty should continue for some time to come. Charles Brooks, from San Francisco, is in charge of a linotype school in Manila which has many applicants for the course it offers. Rear Admiral Austin M. Knight, U. S. N., died at Washington February 26. He once commanded the Asiatic fleet. Dr. W. A. McVean died at his home in Fresno, California, February 25, survived by his brother, Attorney Donald McVean of Cebu, a sister, Miss Lydia McVean, well remembered from her long residence in the islands, another sister, married, and Mrs. McVean. Dr. McVean’s career in the Philippines began with his post as surgeon on an Army transport in the early years of the American period. After ward he opened and managed, until it burned down a few years ago, the Los Banos Sanitorium—with its own peculiar fame in the islands’ annals. He then opened offices in Manila and was house physician at the Manila Hotel. A wide circle of friends in the islands mourn his death, though it was known his health was im paired when he left Manila two years ago. George W. Simmie has purchased the Derham Building on the port area, the first built there, dating from 1914 and costing P330,000, from Derham Brothers, according to an announcement by Charles Derham before his departure for San Francisco February 25. The price paid was not disclosed. The Luzon Bro kerage Company continues to operate the build ing, which is of two stories, most favorably situated on the new waterfront, and covers a ground space 125 by 375 feet. A. B. Cresap, head of the Luzon Brokerage Company, has been elected commander of the Philippine Department, United Spanish War Veterans. He succeeds E. Criss, whom the annual meeting commended for increasing the membership and organizing new camps. E. E. Wing, manager of the China Banking Corporation, has been elected president of the University Club. Walter Z. Smith, manager of the telephone company, has been elected exalted ruler of the Elks’ Club. Miss Luisa Marasigan of Tayabas and Manila was chosen queen of carnival this year by an international committee that had difficulty in choosing among the young women who were candidates. The carnival was successful in many departments, and attendance large, but the crowds were not spending liberally and the persistent criticism from certain defined quarters is surmised to have had effect. The stock show and fine arts exhibit were valuable new adjuncts. Hamilton McCubbin, chief engineer of the Maao Sugar Central, died at Maao February 16 from burns received when he accidentally fell into a fermenting vat. He was 52 years old and is survived by Mrs. McCubbin and their three children, who live in Honolulu, where Mr. McCubbin had a long career in the sugar in dustry before coming to the Philippines seven years ago. Here he bore a high reputation in his profession and was universally liked. The funeral took place in Manila under Masonic auspices. K. Yamaguchi, proprietor of the Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita, Japan, is a Philippine visitor. He has extended hotel and restaurant interests Stories from Japan ese History. Emma Sarepta Yule: D. C. Heath and Company (In Manila, Philippine Education Company). These are days when none of us can inform ourselves too well about our neighbors in the Far East, where the in ternational strain must be eased by every means possible while China is slipping into her place in the modern fabric of nations—many hands at the beams, and by no means all of them lifting and pulling in the same direction and wishing to make things fit according to a common plan. The nations, for their own peace and good, can never know too much of one another. Miss Yule has hit upon an excellent plan for the public to learn about Japan, in compiling and writing the series of stories from Japanese history. The age-old martial spirit is revealed among its flaunting banners. Not only this, but the causes for this martial spirit, how it was implanted, why it grew and flourished, are made clear. So with spiritual fortitude, self-reliance, and the marked genius of the Japanese to cooperate for the common weal. The eclipse of the ancient era, the first effulgent rays of the modern era, making its eclectic selection among the in stitutions of the West, and then the broader, bolder light of the five decades—how remark able, less than two generations!—that have lapsed into the bosom of time since the restor ation. In 1871, Japan had not an ocean-going ship, nor the art and means of building them. At the end of the World War she was recognized in Japan and has been enjoying the salubrious airs of Baguio. Major General William Weigel, U. S. Awho has for several years been commander of the.Philippine Division, U. S. A., is approaching retirement and left the Philippines on the Feb ruary transport for the United States. His high post and his geniality had made him friends in every element in the islands. He is succeeded in command by Brigadier General Frank M. Caldwell, U. S. A., who remains for the present with headquarters at Fort Mills, Corregidor. J. C. Rockwell, vice president of the Manila Electric Company, left Manila with Mrs. Rock well on furlough to the United States March 3, where, while in New York, he will endeavor to finance the project for operating the Malangas coal mines, known to be resourceful but now practically closed down after a loss of several millions sustained by the public treasury since the government initiated mining operations there. Wm. J. Odom, well known Manila contractor and builder, has proposed a plan for erecting a bridge across Estero Cegado which is reported accepted by the city engineer. The bridge when built will connect Dasmarinas with Plaza Santa Cruz. The width will be 17 meters, 11 for vehicles and three on either side for pedestrian traffic. Mr. Odom is contributing P25.000 of the P45.000 estimated cost. Property values in that downtown section, now boasting a group of new concrete office buildings, will be favorably affected by the bridge. John K. Butler, visiting the Philippines in behalf of Hawaiian capital in the sugar industry here, advocates extension of irrigation in the islands’ sugar regions as a means of insuring greater cane production and regular crops. John W. Mears has been elected commander of Manila Post No. 1, American Legion, succeed ing Max T. Cavanagh of the International Banking Corporation. Mr. Mears is president of the Philippine Advertising Corporation. as one of the Five Powers. Miss Yule’s stories, covering the entire period from mythological times down to the present, affords abundant insight into the character of the people who could padlock their insular empire for two centuries, and then, that episode in the background, fling it wide open, give the aggressive maritime nations of the world access to thirty-three ports without restraint—and still hold every island, gain great new areas, and achieve competence on the seas while un dergoing revolution within the home borders and a complete renovation of all institutions from the schools up. The book is obviously one for children, no doubt intended for highschool supplementary reading. Grown-ups, however, will find it a book that charms with its simplicity and in nocence from pretense, while it instructs mar velously by being profoundly true. It is, the present reviewer doesn't hesitate to say, the most accurate text he has ever read save those relating to the exact sciences. Japanese scholars praise it highly, as they should, but the source material available to the reviewer was not .Japanese. If no child’s knowledge of Japan went beyond the scope of Miss Yule's book, for his guidance as a citizen it would be enough; and for any adult wishing wider and more fun damental information about Japan and the Japanese, the book is a first rate foundation. What a pleasure it is to record that Miss Yule is our neighbor. She is the head of the depart ment of English in the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines. — W. R. The Manila Harbor Board has ordered a tower clock from New York for Pier Seven, which will be installed about the middle of the year for the general convenience of the public at the pier. In the interests of the New York World, Mrs R. R. Yates is visiting Culion for first-hand material on the leper colony there. 12 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 (Concluded from page 9) Navy, and were withdrawn from survey work. However, at the close of the war, full comple ment was again provided, and the work is pro gressing as fast as practicable. It is with difficulty that an exact estimate of the time required for the completion of the survey can be made. The unsurveyed areas lie in far distant and unfrequented parts of the archipelago, where weather conditions, and the delivery of coal and other supplies are serious problems. During the coming year, the steamer Path finder, the largest unit of the survey, will carry on work in Balintang Channel, north of Luzon, extending hydrographic surveys from Y’Ami island southward to a junction with completed work on the north coast of Luzon. The steamer Fat homer will continue survey work on the northeast coast of Luzon, between Polillo island and Casiguran sound. The steamer Marinduque, which is not adapted to off-shore work in the typhoon season, owing to her age and weak condition, will be employed in the Gulf of Davao, during the cessation of the northeast monsoon. Of interest to those living in the interior of Luzon, it may be noted that the Coast and Geodetic Survey is cooperating with officers and surveyors of the Bureau of Lands, in estab lishing a geodetic control for the coordination of all land surveys in the Cagayan valley. This will establish an absolutely permanent datum upon which all future land surveys will be based, a feature recognized as a great conve nience by land-owners who in the past have had trouble in defining their boundaries. Those inclined towards the scientific study of the subject of “floating continents” will be THE BUCCANEERS: THEIR DESCENDANTS The buccaneers, who wore leather britches and possessed such astounding virility, are so famed in the sagas Americans were wont to rehearse in lusty choruses in earlier years in the Philippines—when almost every town of consequence in the islands had its group of hardy American pioneers—that it will surely be of more than passing interest to many readers of the Journal to note what became of the buccaneers and something about their descend ants. “Upon the island of Saba,” remarks a para graph in An Ethnological Potpourri, written by Arnold Hollriegel for Berliner Tageblatt and quoted in the Living Age of January 1, “Upon the island of Saba (West Indies, of course), which is an isolated volcanic cone not far from Porto Rico, the inhabitants are ex clusively whites—freckled, blonde and blue eyed. They live in the crater of the volcano, and see the ocean only when they climb up the rim. Nevertheless, they are the most famous boat-builders of the Antilles. They are ruled by a Netherlands governor, but they speak only English, and are the descendants of the old buccaneers.” To the editor,-this was only the hors d’ceuvre, a cocktail and caviar—something to enliven the appetite. He therefore turned with avid curiosity to the Britannica, to learn: “A few miles northwest of St. Eustatius is the island of Saba, five square miles in extent. It consists of a single volcanic cone rising abrupt ly from the sea to the height of nearly 2,800 feet. The town, Bottom, standing on the floor of an old crater, can only be approached from the shore, 800 feet below, by a series of steps cut in the solid rock and known as the ladder. The best boats in the Caribbees are built here: the wood is imported and the vessels, when complete, are lowered over the face of the cliffs. The population in 1908 was 2,294. The islands, St. Eustatius and Saba, form part of the colony of Curagao.” This was the fish course, and led on to— interested to know that Manila was selected as one of the world longitude stations, in the recent determination of longitude by radio signals, directed by the Commission of Longitudes by Radio, International Union of Astronomy and Geophysics, with a chain of observatories encir cling the earth. An officer of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey was in charge of the Manila observatory established for that purpose at Fort McKinley. Operations of the Coast and Geodetic Survey are carried on by joint appropriations of the United States and the insular government. The bureau is under the Department of Com merce and Communications of the latter govern ment. Last November, Lieutenant L. G. L. Van Der Kunn of the Dutch Navy journeyed through Philippine waters with the Dutch Submarine No. 23, of which he was in command, the sub marine being on a gravity-study problem. The route was through San Juanico strait, between Samar and Leyte. At Tacloban, near the mouth of the strait, the commander stopped to pick up a pilot. None was to be had, and the tide began urging the submarine farther into the strait, which abounds in shallows, narrows and treach erous currents. Without a pilot the trip had to be made, Van Der Kunn relying entirely on the chart he had from the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in Manila. The chart was so accurate and ample in every detail that the submarine encountered no mishap whatever. Upon arrival in Manila the Dutch commander made a call at the Coast and Geodetic office, expressed his gratitude and praised the work highly. He said only the extreme accuracy of the charts had brought him safely through. “Buccaneers, the name given to piratical adventurers of different nationalities united in their opposition to Spain, who maintained themselves chiefly in the Caribbean sea during the 17th century. “The island of Sto. Domingo was one of several in the West Indies which had early in the 16th century been almost depopulated by the oppressive colonial policy of Spain. Along its coasts there were several isolated establish ments presided over by Spaniards, who were deprived of a convenient market for the produce of the soil by the monopolies imposed by the mother country. Accordingly English, Dutch and French vessels were welcomed and their cargoes readily bought. The island, thinned of its former inhabitants, had become the home of immense herds of wild cattle; and it became the habit of smugglers to provision at Sto. Domingo. The natives still left were skilled at preserving flesh at their little establishments called boucans. The adventurers learned boucanning from the natives; and gradually His paniola became the scene of an extensive and illicit butcher trade. “The Spanish monopolies filled the seamen who sailed the Caribbean with a natural hate of everything Spanish. “The pleasures of a roving life, enlivened by occasional skirmishes with forces organized and led by Spanish officials, gained upon them. Out of such conditions arose the buccaneer, alternately sailor and hunter, even occasionally a planter—roving, bold, unscrupulous, often savage, with an intense detestation of Spain. “As the Spaniards would not recognize the right of other races to make settlements, or even to trade in the West Indies, France, England and Holland would do nothing to control their subjects who invaded the islands. They left them free to make settlements at their own risk.” (And, with the Constitution, this would have been the sequel in the Philippines, a move ment of both Americans and natives and a boon to the islands). Buccaneering by the French and British in the Caribbean thrived; they made settlements on St. Kitts and St. Christopher “and gave encouragement to their countrymen on Sto. Domingo. * * * A store house secure from the attacks of the Spaniards was required. The small island of Tortuga (northwest of Hispaniola) was seized for this purpose in 1630, converted into a magazine for goods of the rivals, and made their head quarters, Sto. Domingo itself still continuing their hunting ground.” So the hearty tale runs on. “Their history now divides itself into three epochs. The first of these extends from the period of their rise to the capture of Panama by Morgan in 1671, during which time they were hampered neither by government aid nor, till near its close, by government restriction. The second, from 1671 to the time of their greatest power, 1685, when the scene of their operations was no longer merely the Caribbean, but prin cipally the whole range of the Pacific from Cali fornia to Chili. The third andlastperiod extends from that year onwards; it was a time of dis union and disintegration, when the independence and rude honor of the previous periods had degenerated. * * * It was chiefly during the first period that those leaders flourished whose names and doings have been associated with all that was really influential in the exploits of the buccaneers—the most promienent being Mans field and Morgan.” But the names of leaders Sawkins, Sharp and Watling are added in establishing the buccan eers on the Pacific, after a successful land campaign of 300 of them across Panama and the seizure of ocean vessels in that city’s roadstead. “Never short of silver and gold, but often in want of the necessaries of life, they continued their practices for a little longer; then, evading the risk of recrossing the isthmus, they boldly cleared Cape Horn and arrived in the Indies. Again, in 1683, numbers of them under John Cook departed for the South Sea by way of Cape Horn. On Cook’s death his' successor, Edward Davis, undoubtedly the greatest and most prudent commander who ever led the forces of the buccaneers at sea, met with a certain Captain Swan from England, and the two captains began a cruise which was disastrous to the Spanish trade in the Pacific. "Their—the buccaneers’—great importance in history lies in the fact that they opened the eyes of the world, and especially of the nations from whom these buccaneers had sprung, to the whole system of Spanish-American govern ment and commerce. * * * From this, then, along with other causes, * * * there arose the West Indian possessions of England, Holland and France.” The cigars and liqueurs, gentlemen. The ladies have withdrawn. A hearty chorus, then, altogether: “Oh, the buccaneers were hardy peers!” —W. R. The Philippine Guaranty Company, Incorporated (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 ow rates iberal conditions ocal investments oans on real estate repayable by monthly or quarterly instal ments at low interest Call or write for particulars Room 403, Filipinas Bldg. P. O. Box 128 Manila, P. I. Mgr’s. Tel. 22110 ■ Main Office Tel. 441 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 13 RADIOLAS MAY BE SEEN AND HEARD AT Western Equipment and Supply Co. 119 T. Pinpin Manila, P. I. Tel. 2-24-68 RADIOLAS AND ACCESSORIES TRIED, TESTED, PERFECTED RCA RADIOLA Only in RCA Radiolas have the new things of Radio had a real period of trial and proof. 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IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 14 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 Spending Twenty Millions on Irrigation ♦ ♦ 4Past and Present: A Public Works Report on the Work The government program of irrigation con struction in the Philippines was embarked upon with two main purposes in view: First, to in crease the production of rice, the staple food of the Filipinos, sufficiently to obviate the annual importation of rice which, during the last two decades, averaged 180,000 metric tons valued Settling Basin and Sluiceway, Talavera Irrigation System. at 1*12,100,000: second, to prevent the failure of rice crop on the irrigated land during droughts which occur once or twice in five years. The program contemplates placing under irrigation 160,000 hectares of rice land with the proceeds of the sale of bonds amounting to 1*20,000,000 authorized by the Philippine Legis lature in March, 1922, in addition to the amount of 1*3,297,000 appropriated from current govern ment revenues from 1911 to 1921. It was esti mated that the increase in production of this area of 160,000 hectares of rice land would cover the shortage in the islands’ production of rice, making them self-supporting as regards this staple food. As a result of the irrigation construction pro gram, there are now in operation 18 irrigation systems, distributed in 12 provinces, which serve an area of 66,856 hectares, completed at a cost of 1*12,908,357. Of this total amount, 1*4,413,606.70 were set aside by annual appropria tions from current revenues of the insular gov ernment; 1*26,500 from municipal funds; and the remainder, 1*8,468,250.30, from the proceeds of the sale of 1*20,000,000 bond issue. The Penaranda River Irrigation System in Nueva Ecija Province is under construction and will be completed before the irrigation season in 1928. It will serve 18,000 hectares of land and will cost approximately 1’2,700,000. Extension of the Talavera and Sibalom-San Jose irrigation systems are now underway. These extensions will place under irrigation an addi tional area of approximately 1,500 hectares and are estimated to cost 1*80,000. It is planned to start before the end of the year two new projects, namely, the Tarlac River Irrigation Project in Tarlac Project, and the Pampanga River Irrigation Projects Under Project in Nueva Ecija ProvConsideration ince. These projects will serve about 42,000 hectares of land and will be completed at a cost of approxi mately 1*7,500,000. These two projects to gether with the contemplated extensions of completed projects will practically exhaust all the funds appropriated to-date for irrigation construction. Other projects are under consideration. It is proposed to finance these projects with the collection of annual irrigation charges from the completed projects. All irrigations systems have been built in thickly settled districts that are under inten sive cultivation and General Description are provided with good of Irrigated Districts facilities of transport ing the products raised on the projects to great centers of population. They are traversed by first class roads, and many of them by railroad lines also. The landholdings are very small, less than five hectares on the average. There are only a few farms having an area larger than 100 hectares. The value of the lands irrigated ranges from 1*500 to 1*2,000 per hectare, the average being about 1*1,000. The average cost of systems is 1*193 per hectare. The lands irrigated are, as a general state ment, flat. They are mostly located in the plains of Central Luzon,'along the west coast of North ern Luzon, and in the plains of Panay Island. The principal crop grown on lands irrigated by the systems is rice. Sugar cane, corn, tobacco, mongo, peanut, and garden truck are also raised but only to a very limited extent. On every project, there are two irrigation seasons: the wet and the dry season. In the wet season, the principal crop grown is rice. This season begins in May or June and ends in No vember or December. The rainfall during this period increases from the month of May to July Wasteway and Gate (With Road Bridge Overhead), Main Canal, North Gate, Angat Irrigation Systam. and August, the two months of heaviest rainfall, and decreases to a very small amount during the months of November and December. Suffi cient rainfalls during the rice growing period, but it is not well distributed, making irrigation necessary to raise the maximum crop of rice. The deficiency in the rainfall becomes gen erally acute in October, November, and Decem ber. The dry season begins in January and ends in March during which there is a very limited water supply in the rivers. The water supply available for most of the systems is not sufficient to mature a second crop of rice planted on the A SUMMARY Prior to 1926 there were thirteen irri gation systems serving 28,045 hectares of land. They cost 1*6,348,357. During 1926 four more irrigation systems were completed. They placed 33,000 hectares more under irrigation and cost 1*7,014,769. This is the largest area brought under irrigation in any one year since the incep tion of the government’s irrigation system program. Three more projects are under construction. The combined area to be irrigated is 27,000 hectares and the estimated cost is 1*5,766,000. It is proposed to begin construction on the following projects this year: Amburayan system, extension: 1,200 hectares, Cost 1*260,000. Angat system,extension, Bulacan: 3,600 hectares, cost 1*380,000. Sibalom San Jose, extension, Antique: 1,000 hectares, cost 1*65,000. Tagudin system, extension, Ildcos Sur: 500 hectares, cost 1’70,000. Tarlac system: 25,000 hectares, cost 1*4,200,000. This Tarlac system, one of the largest ever undertaken, embraces the districts of Tarlac, Gerona, Paniqui, Ramos, Pura, Victoria and La Paz, the population of which was reported in the census of 1918 at 84,880. entire irrigable area, but is usually sufficient to mature dry season crops, such as sugar cane, mongo, peanuts and garden truck. Depending upon the method of financing and administering the irrigation system, they are classified as insular, municipal, and special systems. Insular irrigaClassifica tion of tion systems are those Irrigation Systems built in accordance with the Irrigation Act and are entirely financed by the insular government. The cost is reimbursable by the landowners benefited in equal annual installments with 4% interest within a period not exceeding 40 years from the date of completion. For projects undertaken after March, 1922, the interest has been increased to 6 % and the number of install ments reduced to 20. The completed insular irrigation systems number 14 and, with the excep tion of one which is administered by the bureau of lands, they are all operated and maintained by the Bureau of Public Works. The cost of operation and maintenance, which is estimated at about 1*3.00 per hectare, and insurance which is 1% of all the other annual charges, are also collected yearly from the land owners benefited. The total annual charges vary from 1*8.72 to P23.25 per hectare. The municipal irrigation systems are adminis tered by the municipal council of the towns wherein they are located. Two-thirds of the cost of these systems was furnished by the insular government and one-third by the municipal council concerned. There are only two muni cipal irrigation systems in the islands, namely, the Ayala and the Santa Maria systems in Zam March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 15 boanga, which have been completed at a cost of 1*40,000 and serve 614 hectares of land. The landowners benefited pay an annual charge of 1*2.00 per hectare. The Dipolog system was started also as a municipal irrigation project but was later financed as an insular irrigation project after the failure of Dipolog to set aside its entire share of the cost of the system. There are two special irrigation systems, namely, the Trinidad Irrigation System in Benguet sub-province, and the San Miguel Irriga tion System in Tarlac. The first was built under special authority granted by the Depart ment of Commerce and Communications and serves a portion of the government lands admin istered by the Trinidad Farm School, besides other private lands in the Trinidad valley. The system is administered by the superintendent of the school. The San Miguel Irrigation System was built under a special contract with the Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas, which has recently obligated itself to pay the government annually 1’29,000. This amount represents 4% on the net investment in the system. The canal system is administered by the company under the general supervision of the Bureau of Public Works, except the first 3 kilometers of the main canal and the headworks which remain under the immediate control of the said Bureau. FOR SALE Second Hand Machinery One Alternator, 250 KW; 2200 volts; 60 cycle, 3 phase, direct connected to cross compound Hamilton-Corliss Engine 12-24X36; with generator panel and rheostat. Two lOO KW Alternators; 2200 volts; 60 cycle, 3 phase; belted, 18" pulley; direct connected exciters; with gen erator panels. Two Venn-Severin Crude Oil Engines, 60 H.P. each. One Worthington surface condenser, 400 H.P. One Scotch Marine Boiler, 400 H.P. 50—100-kilo Ice cans; new. (Knocked down.) 4 Galvanized steel brine tanks; 2500 kilo capacity each; ammonia fittings. Steam pipe and fittings up to 10". Tube bender for sterling boiler tubes. Tube cleaner, Lagonda, water driven, fot 4" tubes; with extra parts, new. Steam and Oil separator. Steam Traps. Marine Engines: (1 Union, 50 H.P., distillate) (1 Quayle, 25-35 H.P., crude oil.) Meters, Electric, Transformers. For Prices, etc., Apply BRYAN, LANDON GO. Cebu or Iloilg The irrigation construction program is entirely financed by the government. With the excep tion of the municipal Economic Aspects of irrigation systems, Irrigation Construction which are partly built with municipal funds. Insular funds are used in the construction of irrigation systems. Construction of municipal irrigation systems was discontinued in 1922, as no funds have been set aside for projects of this nature. The cost of constructing irrigation systems has been on the average 1’193 per hectare, whereas the average value of the land ben efited upon which the cost of the system is a lien is approximately 1’1,000 per hectare. Hence, the lands irrigated constitute a sound security for the investment made in the construction of systems. Data from projects that have been in opera tion show that the increase in yield, as a result of irrigation, is about 30 cavans per hectare for the rainy season crop only. Assuming a 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 NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY "2000 MILES OF STARTLING BEAUTY” conservative increase of 20 cavans per hectare, and the conservative price of 1’3.00 per cavan, the additional income that the farmer derives from irrigation is approximately 1’60 per hectare for one crop. The annual charges of 1’8.72 to 1’22.26 per hectare, which the landowners pay during 20 to 40 years is, therefore, a littfe over one-third to one-seventh of the farmer’s additional income. The benefit that the government derives from irrigation includes the resulting increased revenues from business, railroad traffic and land taxes. The expected increase in production in the newly irrigated districts will reduce by more than one-half the average annual importa tion of rice unless the production of rice in other sections of the country falls below normal. In Sulu last year 11,379 parcels of land under private title were assessed at a value of 1’3,869,750 and 1’38,202.45 taxes collected at 1-1/8% 609 Robert Dollar Bldg. Shanghai, China. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 16 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 The Old Spanish Friars: Their Monuments ❖ ♦ By Percy A. Hill The Spanish friar is not always accorded his rightful place in men’s opinions. This is true in respect to many Americans, and more generally in respect to Filipinos. The work of the friars is, however, behind them in the Philippines, where as time spreads its mantle of understanding and tolerance over the period preceding cession of the islands to the United States, the friar is becoming more comprehen sible. Growing knowledge and tolerance show us that many of the stories retailed to the credulous belong in the category of propa ganda. Moreover, no community of indivi duals is perfect. No country lacks its draw backs, no religion is ideal, as no rose is without its thoms. Humanity is too prone to judge by excep tions, when the rule is the true index. Wein our day cannot estimate the Filipino from the polished few educated to shine, any more than we may justly condemn, for the sins of the few, the missionary friars who were our prede cessors down through the centuries in incul cating in these islands ideals of progress and of civilization. The basic motive of Castilian domination of the Philippines was not commerce or exploi tation, but the salving of human souls. The islands were in fact governed as a Christian mission for nearly four centuries. The friar was the outward semblance and manifestation of government; it is due to his efforts that the Philippines became a Christian country, the only one in the Orient. If we were to eliminate the friar over this long period, we should find that the Filipino of today had nei ther his name, his culture or religion; he would be, on the contrary, one with his Malay brethren in Borneo. We inay even recall that when Legaspi anchored his caravels in Manila bay, the chiefs exhibiting the more advanced rudiments of civilization were not native to the Philippines but were Borneo chiefs pro fessing the cult of Islam, who had subjected the Tagalogs to their rule by right of kris and shield. The very words that nowadays in Manila signify baptism and church are but Tagalog terms for circumcision and mosque; and Moham medanism remained in the communities along the shore of Manila bay for fifty years after the conquest. Visitors traveling in the Philippines are aston ished at the massive stone churches and monaste ries, the con ven tos, often in crumbling antiquity, that dot the archipelago from Aparri to Davao— the most prominent and imposing structures extant even today. These temples erected to the God of the Christians are the work of the indefatigable friar, who was teacher, architect, mason, carpenter and painter as well as priest and missionary. The friars also built innumerable roads, bridges and irrigation systems that still exist and are permanent utensils of the people. They caused watchtowers and fortresses to be erected on the exposed coasts, where, save for these de fenses, Mohammedan pirates might land, sack the settlements and carry the youths into captivity; and having had these built, they garrisoned them with their parishioners, so that whole projects of this kind were com pleted and administered without the outlay of a penny of public taxes or royal revenue. In the early years of the 19th century, to cite a typical instance of the redoubtable charac ter of the friar, under the leadership of their Augustinian priest, after having been aroused by his sermon, the people of Batangas attacked and captured a French frigate and turned it over to the government as a prize. (It was when the rise of Napoleon threatened French seizure of the islands. Augustinian records of the period disclose their liberal cash contri butions to the impoverished public treasury, so that the islands might be put into a better state of defense.) The travail of the friars never ceased until they had brought the people under the hells and settled them in communities round the A little higher, butt- the most skillful blend in cigarette history churches. It may be doubted whether any but these devout Spaniards could have con verted to Christ ah entire oriental people. Cer tainly no others succeeded, nor have they suc ceeded yet, in spite of modern urges. With the Spaniard, given his peculiar Iberian complex, the church was the prime instrument: its struggles with the state or secular authority are matters of history. It is true that because of this policy, Spain at last lost the islands. The fervor and devotion of the earlier centu ries is said to have waned in later times; anta gonism was provoked by the lax and meddle some element of the closing decades of the 19th century, which did much to alienate the people’s loyalty. But incipient displeasure was fanned to fervor heat by the politicians of the day, who are never wanting when such opportunities offer. Unfortunately the people as a whole recall the preachments of this period of climax, and forget the benefits bestowed upon their for bears by the barefoot frugal friar who was the exponent of Christ’s doctrines in the islands up through the centuries. Even so, too, it is now becoming the fashion to belittle the accomplishments of America here. Differ with them as one may on creed, there can be little but admiration for the old friars who were true soldiers of the Cross in this wilderness of the East. In those distant days, little but hardship, labor and scanty subsist ence was the friar’s recompense; he truly bore the Cross as a prerequisite to the crown; this long before the Pilgrims landed on the stem J Give a thought to joining the 100,000 MILE CLUB Hundreds of Studebaker owners the world over are driving Cars that have travelled 100,000 miles and are still going strong. 1927 is another Studebaker Year PHILIPPINE MOTORS CORPORATION IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 17 and rockbound coast, or John Rolfe married Pocahontas. Here in the Philippines the doughty friar founded agriculture, introduced new crops, fruits, vegetables and plants, and added to the religion of Christ the laws of Rome and the culture of Europe. Patient, daring and indom itable, the friar endured every sacrifice will ingly: torture, slavery and death, and the moving accidents of flood and field. The conquest of the Philippines was not effected by pike and smoking arquebus, but by the missal, the rosary and the girdle. Many of the friars were of noble blood, the heirs of farreaching ancestry; yet their daunt less hardihood put to shame the bravest sons of the sword. There was no civil list, no alms but the meager fare proffered by the untutored neophytes; there were no mines of gold and silver from which to draw wealth. The field which beckoned these sturdy forerunners of civilization was no fabled El Dorado, no oriental country of luxury and ease, no empire like that of the Montezumas or the Incas, but a wild and savage archipelago, half the world away from the land of their nativity—vast wastes of forest verdure, mountains silent with primeval sleep; rivers, lakes and swamps— an ocean of wilderness mingling with the sky. The memorable but half-forgotten chapter of the early friars (and the Jesuits too, of course) in the Philippines, is chiseled in stone in every hamlet; their imperishable monument is the creed of the people. How often they laid aside the cassock and grasped the sword to defend their flocks from pirates of Sulu and Borneo, who, sweeping the narrow seas with their prahus, carried fire and sword to all who had sought Christ and abandoned Islam. Many friars and Jesuits were killed, or en slaved and put to the torture, yet there were no apostates of a religion that had endured through so many centuries. In the musty archives of the orders we can read of the host of martyrs who laid down their lives for their faith, and in this way stimulated their converts to hold fast in the new belief. Clangorous belfries often apprised the people of the approach of the baleful heretics, the Dutch or the Eng lish. These .free lances on the sea threatened more than once the islands’ coasts, and the people remained loyal to Spain not because of the valor of the soldiers, but because of the friars’ militant exhortations. The churches, massive, exalted, graceful, were the neophyte’s first lessons in a visible culture. Future times will bootlessly emulate the inspiration the friars imparted to the people to build spacious and lofty temples to their new faith. In an epoch when vulgar violences and ruthless destruction were concomitants of the most advanced civilizations, these temples with their aspiring towers were indeed harbingers of hope. Friars familiar with the chisel, the mallet and the brush, patiently instructed in the decoration of the churches—thus intro ducing the people to the craftsmanship of modem times. When the friars’ native ingenuity fell short of the task, master craftsmen were enlisted from China. Within the walls of the old churches the humble and haughty alike enjoyed equal rights, equal privileges. Within these holy sanctuaries even he who was charged with crime was secure, and the arm of secular justice was stayed until the fellow’s guilt or innocence was proved. To clothe the naked, feed the hungry and redeem the criminal were part and parcel of the friars’ labors. A lofty task, truly. Despite the few who fell short of the mark, how much there is to admire in the 300 years of sustained effort. None builds today a church such as the old friars built everywhere in the islands. The people’s consecration to the hallowed shrine^s not what it was of old, under the exhor tation of the sandalled priest. Why? Perhaps not because new creeds have come, but because the struggle for existence is more demandatory. Frivolity, too, claims its share of the purse; the old days of contentment with little, of simple living, are gone. Those opposed may orientate their arguments as they will, yet all their accusations will not make it appear that the friar came to the islands seeking gold, or lured by power. The gold was not to be had, while fame could be garnered nearer home. The friar came with the zeal of the crusader who believes Providence has called him to enlighten, teach and redeem that which he accounts a priceless treasure—the souls of men. His devotion manifests itself in the morals and ethics of the native people; the end, he will say, with his compeers, the Jesuits, does justify the means. Under obscure slabs of stone, in many unknown graves, rests the dust of the early A Smoking and Club Room for Men The Oriental Limited helps to speed the hours away on your trip across America aboard the finest train between Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria and Chicago. Then too, the trip is Through Some of the Finest Scenery in all America The Great Northern Cascades and Rockies, mighty in their mile-high magnificence,-asseen from low passes, and past lakes, rivers, and waterfalls, through an agricultural empire, to Minneapolis and St» Paul and down the Mississippi Valley to Chicago. Our descriptive literature tells all about the trip. Sent free. Ask A. G. HENDERSON. AGENT. Chaco Building AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. Manila, P. 1. Great Northern /4 Dependable Railway Spanish friars, the builders in stone, brick and temples now become the ghostly ruins of their granite of many mighty hopes. The vine creeps up the gaunt and naked belfry tower, the un taught jungle clutches at the nave, while carnival of beastly things above the vaulted ceiling causes nocturnal disquietude and boding fear in the village, sunk into a tropic lassitude from which no hearty voice of leadership redeems its flagging energies. But the doctrine, the Christian faith, inculcated by the friar, remains. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 18 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 An Evening Reverie of Philippine Peasants By WALTER Robb Where transportation has made the innovation practicable, in the central Luzon rice valley the crop is handled as shown on the front cover this month. The tractor and light separator do the threshing, the truck the hauling. It is a gratifying step forward from conditions de picted in the picture above and the dialogue below, still far too common in the islands. Girl: There is gold in the sunset this evening. Mother: Aye, and gold in the harvest: the world is beautiful. Father: Idle women’s words! “Gold!” “Be autiful world!” Bah! Where is the gold? Where is the beauty? Once it was in your faces, this beauty, but it very early left them. See, the gold you saw in the sunset has already turned to graying dusk. Where are your gold and beauty, I say! Where are they? Mother: In the harvest, father. Girl: And in the sunset glow, father; it is God’s benediction upon us. Father: No; they are not in the harvest, nor in us, the harvesters; nor are they in the sunset. God does not pause to bless such poor creatures as we are. We are creatures of our amo—and do you think he will bless us? Mother: Well, with all this harvest of rice, made by our labor and God’s timely rains and sunshine, we shall be free from the amo. Next year we shall work for ourselves. Father: Idle women’s words again! Will you never learn from your flail handle? Forty years you have been to school with this harsh master, and yet have not learned his first lesson. Girl: Talk less in riddles, father dear. Father: I am talking in figures, not riddles, my weakling daughter. Mother: The rice will be 200 cavans, no less; and it is the biggest harvest we have ever had. Father: No less than 200 cavans—at one peso a cavan? Mother: Why do you say that, Gorio? The market is three pesos. It may go even higher. Girl: Oh, I am sure it will go higher! I am sure God has heard my prayers! I am sure, sure of it! I see his promise in the rainbow! Look! Father: No need to look for God’s promise in rainbows. Look for premonitions of storms there, and go and cover the rice bins. It is our promise in the amo’s book you must look to. Mother, Girl (in alarmed tones): Our promise in the amo’s book? Who made it? Father: I did, to be sure. Who else, pray, would make it? Mother: Are .we in debt again, father? Tell us the truth. Girl: Yes, tell us the truth—here, nowWhy are we in debt this year, when we have all worked so hard? Boy: Ha, ha, ha! Tell them, father! Ha, ha! Why are we in debt this year? It is only my 20th year, so it is only the 20th year that I know we have been in debt. Father (unabashed): Well, there was the baby’s funeral. Mother and Daughter (crossing themselves): Ah, yes! The baby’s funeral! (Mother chokes with sobs, and coughs, hiccoughing a red stain that falls upon the rice stubble at her feet.) Girl: But brother made the coffin: the whole expense was but ten pesos—and I did the washing at the amo’s house for two months afterward. Mother: And I washed too, before the baby came, and served for the dona and her children. Father: You women are my despair! You know it is in the bond that we all work for the amo when we are not in the fields. Mother: Yes, it is true; but I thought. . . Girl: He told me he would pay me for the work. He talked to me—that day the dona went to place the children in the convent—he used soft words and told me I might stay at the house always and get good wages, only. . . . Father: I heard his words! I had followed you two to the mango tree where you talked; and that’s why I wouldn’t let you go when you begged so hard the next morning. It made the amo angry, and of course he credited you with nothing—just shook the bond in my face. With him, it was either the bond or my daughter. I would not sacrifice you. . . . Girl (comprehending at last): Father! (em bracing him). Mother: Then we still owe the ten pesos; that is only ten cavans out of the two hundred we shall have. Father: No; we owe more, more than we can pay. After I quarreled with the amo over Maria, he feared we would leave him—thought we might go, I suppose, to Nueva Ecija and try homesteading. So he played it very nice with me for a time. He let me have money for the sabufigan, all I wanted to bet. ... I wanted so much to win! Win big! Win like the amo always does! Then, indeed, we should have gone to the homestead country—should have been free! ... I lost. . . Later I found it was crooked betting. . . . And the amo shook the bond in my face again. . . . (Breaks off suddenly, works feverishly for a moment, then gazes balefully at the glory fading in the western sky. The women watch him, to sense his changing moods. At last he turns to his work again; he pours a basket of winnowed rice into the bin and brings the empty basket back to the women.) Mother: Then you were not working at the big house all those Sundays? Father: No; I lied to you; I was gambling. The fever rose in me like a plague in the blood. I could not resist. Mother: I know, I know. You wanted to win, for us. How much did the amo let you have for this gambling? Father: Two hundred pesos. Mother and Daughter (aghast at the debt saddled upon the family): Two hundred pesos! Father! (He is silent, brooding). Mother: At what rate, the same as in the old bond? Father: Yes, at the old rate, one cavan of palay for each peso—delivered to the camarin at harvest time. Girl (hand on mother’s shoulder and gazing into the west, where the dark has come and a storm is gathering): And this is harvest time! The several (father, son, mother and daughter watching the storm, against which they must cover the rice): Harvest time! Ah, yes! (Look into each other’s eyes, reading unspoken thoughts.) Father: But there is no gold in the harvest, I tell you. Mother: No, father: no gold in the harvest— this year. Maybe next. . . . Boy: Ha, ha, ha! Mother! (Ejaculating which, he falls to work again, making a palm cover for the rice bins.) Girl (aside, musing aloud): And no gold in the sunset. ... no benediction. ... no hope. . . . Oh! (louder, ringing her hands helplessly). Father: Daughter, what was the prayer you wished God to answer? Girl (turning her distracted gaze toward him and gradually regaining self-control): It was for the younger ones, father: I wanted them to go to school. ... to have chances I could not have ... to leam. . . . Father: Well, they shall learn here. Son (addressing the stalwart yokel), whittle out some more flails this evening. Rosa is fifteen— that for her may be made almost as heavy as Maria’s or mother’s. Boy: Yes, father; I’ll whittle them out right enough. Here, help me get this damned thing over the rice bin, will you? It will be raining in a minute. Hurry! Mother! Sister! Lend a hand here, all of you, quick! Father (tugging at his corner of the palm cover to the bin, and making it fast with a rattan tie): Well, it isn’t very strong, son, but ’twill do. Tomorrow we’ll begin hauling. The women can finish the threshing. If it rains enough we must get the plows out. Get a torch made, son: we must find our way to the hut. The children will be waiting for their supper. I’ll hitch up the carabao. . . . Pile in the baskets, mother. . . . Ready? Hurry up, Maria, girl. The rainbow’s gone, so don’t be searching for your pot of gold at the end of it. Boy: Ha, ha! Peasants’ jokes are always edged with iron, aren’t they? Can you tell me why, sister? Girl: Not tonight, brother. Don’t plague me tonight. My shoulders ache, I’m tired. I’ll lean against your back and go to sleep. Boy (roughly but graciously): All right, but don’t joggle off the cart. (Squares around so his sister may lean against him: and, bamboo torch, burning fitfully, storm approaching, baskets and flails about them, they drowse on the cart bed while the carabao drags it homeward.) Nomenclature: amo, master; sahufigan, cockpit; big house, the planter’s mansion, in the midst of the surrounding fields; camarin, granary or warehousb; cavan, measure of 97 pounds. March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 19 A Twelve Years’ Record of Endurance November 14th, 1926, was the twelfth anniversary of the manufacture of Dodge Brothers Motor Cars. An eventful twelve years! During that time Dodge Brothers manufactured 1,800,000 motor cars so enduringly and honestly built that over 90 per cent are still in use. Through these twelve years Dodge Brothers Motor Cars have been more and more widely used as time has passed because the standards of sturdiness and stability, which always marked them, have contin ually been advanced. □ □dee Brothers MOTOR CARS IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 20 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 Agriculture and the Burden of Debt By John E. Wallace Let the Tao Speak During twenty-eight years of American occupation in the Philippines there has been no effective attempt toward a thorough and comprehensive de tailed survey of the eco nomic condition of the tao, such as Darling has secured for the Indian peasant. Darling’s results are highly illuminating and provide for the first time a sound basis for develop mental procedure. Some small groups have been investigated in the Philippines, but the immediate rejoinder is that these do not represent the average condition. There is the most urgent need of a survey com prehensive and inclusive enough to afford a true picture of the average condition, since all developmental projects must be built on the average actually existing condition. The general attitude toward debt is very much the same in the Philip pines as in Panjab. DEAN BAKER. Mr. Malcom L. Darling, I. C. S. of the Co operative Department, Panjab, has written and has had published during 1925 a book entitled, “The Panjab Peasant in Prosperity and Debt”. The basis of Mr. Darling’s inves tigation and findings is a study of the liabilities (including debts) of 55,308 cases, these individ uals being members in 2,106 co-operative Credit societies, scattered over the whole of the Panjab. The author deals with the Panjab in its main divisions and as a whole, bringing out contrasts and similarities. The book is packed full of interesting information and A Study of Orien- opinions of a kind to tai Peasant Debt put the reader in touch with the life and thought of rural Panjab in a hew way. From the meagre information at hand it is generally thought that the Panjab farmer is more heavily in debt than the peasant of any other province. Even if this is so, though, the difference is likely so small that the conditions as disclosed in the Panjab may well serve as an index of those of India as a whole. This article is no attempt to give a thorough digest of this book, but rather to give wider publicity to a few of the outstanding facts dis closed, together with some supplementary ob servations of my own. The survey disclosed the fact that for the Panjab as a whole only 17 per cent of the peas ants are free from debt; the average indebted ness being Rs. 463 per indebted proprietor. “In 1921 the total mortgage debt of the province (excluding occupancy tenants) was ascertained to be 34-1/2 crores, which means that the total debt is 77 crores, mortgage debt being 45 per cent of the whole. To be on the safe side we may put it at 75 crores, which is 15-1/2 times the land revenue. * * * The land revenue demand absorbs about one-fifth the net income of the land. Accordingly a multiple of 15-1/2 means that the average proprietor’s debt is equal to about three years of his net income. Viewed thus the burden can hardly be regarded as light.” As the author then adds, “On the other hand if debt and sale value are compared then the burden can hardly be regarded as heavy, for in the last five years (ending 1922) the average price fetched by land amounted to 204 times the land revenue payable upon it.” He adds, however, “It is fairer to express the debt in terms of net income rather than of sale value, as the latter is notoriously inflated and bears little relation to yield.” It is pointed out, though, that from the western standpoint for a province containing 21 million people the total indebtedness is small. Figures are presented from a study made in Prussia in 1902, which show that Prussia with a population only one-third of that of the Panjab had a total debt of 563 crores against the Panjab’s 75 crores; that the average indebtedness per acre was four times as great and the average indebtedness per proprietor was 20 times as great as in the Panjab. From these bare figures it would look as though the condition of the Prussian peasant is much worse than that of the Panjab peasant, but such is not the case. “It is one of the complexities of the subject that debt may be as much an indication of prosperity as of poverty.” Regarding the matter of debt then, there are at least two important factors to be kept in mind. The first is that a poor person or a poor ' country cannot bear the Purpose of Debt burden of debt. Debt rests Important upon credit. The average holding in the Panjab is about 8 acres; in Prussia it is about 82 acres or ten times as large. In the Panjab the very density of the population works against credit for it is a large factor in splitting the land into small holdings. Agriculture is always a gamble with the elements. Where holdings are small the margin of safety is almost nil and one off year may spell ruin- to the farmer. The second consideration is that of the purpose of the debt. In the Panjab less than 5 per cent of debt is for land improvement, or in other words less than five per cent is for investment of this kind. Probably 33 to 50 per cent is due to compound interest and the vicious system of money lending, and much of the remaining percentage is debt for unproductive purposes. The author lists four basic causes for indebted ness, together with others less important. They are: (a) Small holdings, due to over-population and inheritance laws and customs which split the land into fragments. (b) Improvidence and insecurity of position in the face of drought and pests. The people are more improvident and wasteful than they are extravagant or given to vice. (c) Constantly recurring losses of cattle from diseases and drought. (cZ) Social obligations, such as cost of mar riages, religious ceremonies and hospital ity. Other important causes of debt are: Lack of any supplementary industry or occupation on the part of most, by which the income may be augmented or the hard time tided over; cost of litigation and the inability to withstand even a little prosperity, and consequent extravagance when there is money in hand. When we think, then, of the small holdings of land, of the recurring drought and disease affecting both man and animal, of the loss of crops through pests, and burden of social obli gations, to say nothing of numerous lesser factors, is it any wonder that the average Indian peasant is weighed down with debt? External factors all seem to be against him. I believe, though, that any consideration of the problem of debt in India must take into account also the attitude towards debt that prevails here; the psychological background. Certainly the westerner as he comes to know India and her people is struck not only with the prevalence of debt but also with the lightness with which it is assumed and with which it rests on ’the debtor. Not only the untutored peasant but men of education and position borrow heavily without assets to cover the debt, and let it run on indefinitely apparently without any concern, until called to account. Apparently debt is not thought of as a moral obligation and it seems to carry but little of the fear that many of the West attach to it. It is only when one lends money in either a large or small way that one comes to understand the bania’s and mahajan’s side of the matter. MACLEOD and CO. ANNOUNCE the arrival of the first shipment of the new BLACKSTONE FULL DIESEL ENGINES “LOW PRESSURE’’ “COLD STARTING” “SPRING INJECTION” These engines provide the most economical power for larger sizes of rice mills, sugar mills, saw mills, electric light plants, irrigation systems and other purposes. Spare parts are carried in stock, avoiding the usual delays and troubles in having parts made locally. These engines supplement our line of small INTERNATIONAL OIL ENGINES iy2 to io h.p. of which nearly three thousand have been sold during the past five years. Write for our new CATALOGUE No. 72 giving full information, prices and terms of our complete ma chinery line. MACLEOD AND CO. MACHINERY DEPARTMENT 154 Marques de Comillas MANILA Cebu Iloilo Davao Vigan IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 21 I know of a cooperative Attitude Must Be credit society which for Changed two or three years had defaulted in its payments although efforts had been made regularly to collect the money due. Recently when threat ened with court action and harsh words were used, Rs. 150 were produced on the spot, much to the surprise of those demanding the money. This surprise was followed by another when one of the members naively stated that they could have paid the debt long ago if they had been forced to do so. We wrestle, in fact, not only with adverse external conditions but with the debt habit and an ingrained indifference to debt. In view of this fact an abundance of money at low rates of interest will not save the Indian peasant. As Mr. Darling says, “There is no greater danger to the uneducated farmer than cheap credit or the power to borrow money at low rates of interest, a fact that many have learnt to their cost.” And until a new attitude towards debt is developed all attempts to help the Indian farmer through cooperative societies or other loan agencies must include the strictest supervision, otherwise only disaster will result. In addition to the need of a changed attitude towards debt the Indian farmer will have to reverse his ideas regarding saving. In the last analysis whether a man Easy Attitude saves money and banks Toward Debt it for the rainy day ahead, or whether he saves money to pay a debt incurred in connection with a rainy day already past, the process is the same; something must be saved out of the income, even though in the latter case it is only to pay the interest on the debt. The time element here, though, makes all the difference in the world. The man who saves money and invests it for a future need is an independent and free man, and his own strength is augmented by the savings which begin to work for him by drawing interest. On the other hand the man who saves to pay off a debt is a slave to his creditor and until the debt is paid it continues to multiply interest against him. In the former case savings are always enhanced, interest accruing, but in the latter savings are always discounted by the interest that must be deducted. It might be said to be axiomatic that a man must save, and that being the case he might as well save first as last. Yet few seem to realize this. Certainly it has not been the Indian peasant’s conception of the matter. And it is right here that a reversal in thinking must take place. This is what the cooperative movement strives to attain. Many think of cooperative credit societies as primarily loan agencies. Such they are but their chief value to India will lie not in their service to the farmer in providing capital at reasonable rates of interest, but rather in teaching him to save before the day of need and to invest. This is first of all done by forcing the members to buy shares. This isjundoubtedly the most revolutionizing element in cooperative society work; it aims at implanting a new conception in the mind of the Indian farmer. The many thousands of societies scattered all over India testify to the fact that success is being achieved. It will take time, though, for these new ideas and attitudes to take root. TAXES MAKE MORO TROUBLES The wide-spread opposition among the masses in Mindanao and Sulu to the collection of the land tax is becoming a serious matter. We believe that this tax, or rather the man ner in which it is imposed, is the fundamental cause of much of the dissatisfaction and unrest prevailing. The inhabitants of Mindanao have enough intelligence to understand that money is nec essary to maintain a protecting government, to build roads and other improvements for the common good, and they pay their taxes with as little grumbling as do taxpayers anywhere else, if the tax is just and they see any tangible signs that the money is spent for their benefit. But when an effort is made through incompetent and inexperienced officials to impose a new and. complicated tax on a backward people, unaccus tomed to any other form of taxation than the personal cedula and similar simple forms of tri bute, the gpvernment is going out of its way to look for trouble. The Manila-made laws and regulations gov erning the assessment of land for taxation are in no way adapted to an undeveloped, sparsely settled region like Mindanao. And the asses sors, charged with the duty of valuing prop erty, show just about as much capacity for the job as our high school graduates do for earning an honest living. We suspect that many of the assessors are high school products. The tax on uncultivated land might be a compelling force to increase industry. But it is hard for a Moro tao to understand why his entire 10-hectare patch should be taxed at the same rate when he actually cultivates only half of it, while the other half is left to the crocodiles and ducks. It savors of double taxation to him. And the datu who owns or controls 1000 hectares of potential rice land strenuously objects to paying the same rate on his entire domain that he does on the hun dred or two hectares that are actually produc tive. Then, in their desire to increase revenues, regardless of consequences, the provincial boards lose all sense of justice and boost the valuation of property out of all proportion to the income derived therefrom. Just one case in point, not an isolated one but typical of the general methods: Lying to the south of Cotabato river there is a tract of about 800 hectares of land for which the INFORMATION FOR INVESTORS Expert, confidential reports made on Philippine projects ENGINEERING, MINING, AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, LUMBER, ETC. Hydroelectric projects OTHER COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES BRYAN, LANDON GO. Cebu, P. I. Cable address: "YPIL,” Cebu. owner holds a Torrens title. A few hectares are annually planted to rice and there are two or three hundred coconut trees scattered about. Three-fourths of the area is rough jungle and grass land. The total income averages about 1*2,000 a year. The land tax for 1925 was 1*159. Under a new assessment the tax for 1926 was 1*330, an increase of more than 100%, and a tax of 16% of the owner’s total income. What would even the tax-burdened Frenchman say about an imposition like that? We have it on good authority that assess ments in Cotabato province have been increas ed everywhere from 50% to 500%. As a result, it is stated that nearly 80% of the 1926 land tax is delinquent, with little hope for collec tion. And this condition is not confined to Cotabato. The policy of the present government is declared to be to induce the people to settle on the land and establish permanent homes. But as soon as they do they are swatted with what appears to them to be unjust and unrea sonable impositions. Is it surprising that there is resentment that often flares into open defiance?—Mindanao Herald. Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Harper, Manila residents for three years, have returned to the United States for a vacation, after which they expect to return to the islands. Mr. Harper has been head of the printing department of the Manila Daily Bulletin, Mrs. Harper and he have been active in church work. CONSOLIDATED REPORT ON PUBLIC LAND APPLICATIONS OF ALL KINDS FILED FROM JULY 26, 1904, TO JANUARY 31, 1927 Kind o' Applications Applications Received | Homestead.................... Addo Homestead........ Free Patent.................. Add. Free Patent.... Sales................................. Add. Sales..................... Miscellaneous Sales.. . Add. Misc. Sales........ I.G.P. Sales.................. Add. I.G.P. Sales ... Townsite Sales............. Lease............................... Add. Leases.................. Miscellaneous Lease. . I.G.P. Lease................. Foreshore Lease........... Add. Foreshore Lease. Reclaimed Land.......... Revocable Payment. . Total.........• • No. | Area in Ila 128659) 1881717.30 1196, 7809.58 417071 179709.33 297; 485.63 8693 267758.96 31 2457.43 1406' 2290.78] 12’ 1.37 506! 1934.051 f .24 162! 46 62 2889| 829362.21 9' 1073.19 455' 421.71 68 117! 1371! 188W3' 175068.48 Applications Rejected Applicatioos Cancelled Appliestions Applied Applicailions Patented Applications Pending No. Area in lie Area in IIu No. Aren 11a No. | Area Ila No. Area Ha 28241 421442.31 7168j 942372.66 28152 386687.16 12020 115917 02 54879 863436.13 69 525.24 351 75 435.86 1052 6848.47 8009 41433.56 158 66 2782 10092.36 11088 35435.39 19775 92490.56 13 51.77 ■ 219i i 19 31.05 265 402.81 3622 83565.93 8165.071 861 26707.40 22 14688.57 3765 134631.96 1 28.00 1 ■3i; 3 66.76 7 27 2362.67 309 1462.74 2 75 16.94 2 80 1015 807.97 11 1.35 1 5; 1 .02 84 309 98 1 .24 103 177.53 05 316 1446.23 2 1 .24 28 14.44 30' 3 .59 10 130 31.48 1579 468365.99 12338 200; 152 59137.36 1! 1129 289520.65 1 94 00 I 8 979.19 69 124 03 1 .79 3 22.23 382 274.65 22 12l 1 4 30 154 5’ 55 238 41 15! 43 18 68 73| 645 581 42322 1017419.38 75611 114897.941 32975 483375.30 215431 166043.95 83613 1393233.10 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 22 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 COPRA AND ITS PRODUCTS By E. A. SEIDENSPINNER Vice-President and Manager. Copra Milling Corporation REAL ESTATE By P. D. CARMAN San Juan Heights Addition TOBACCO REVIEW By P. A. Meyer Alhambra Cigar and Cigarette Manufacturing Co. COPRA 1J The lowest monthly business since the begin ning of 1922 appears in January, 1923, P570,486.00, August, 1926, P585,519.00 and last month P594.903.00. February sales were as follows: Heavy buying pres sure manifested during the closing days of January continued un abated into the first week of February, car rying the market up to a high of 1’12.875 to 1’13.00 at LagunaTayabas concentration points. With unexpect edly free offering of copra during the first half of February and weaker advices from America and the Continent, the market gave way and rapidly declined to 1’12.00 to 1’12.25 for resecada. During the whole month of February, production continued excellent with arrivals at Manila equalling 307,368 sacks, exceeding by more than 100,000 sacks the re corded high for the same period during the past five years. There is little hope apparently for March to equal February figures, as a consider able decrease is expected in production in Laguna and Tayabas. The U. S. copra market opened 4-7/8 cents touched a high of 5 cents and declined to 4 3/4 cents during the closing days of the month, at which figure it is now reported quiet. The London market was very erratic during February, fluctuating almost daily between €25 10 and £26/10 for Cebu sundried. It is now reported quiet to dull at £25 10 for Cebu sundried. Latest advices as follows: San Francisco, 4-3/4 cents; London, Cebu, £25/10; Manila, buen corriente, 1*10.75 to 1*11.00; resecada, l*J2.00 to 1’12.25. 1922 ............................... P 657,012 1923 ............................ 1,151,309 1924 ......................................................... 840,673 1925 ......................................................... 972,578 1926 ......................................................... 919,150 1927 ......................................................... 594,903 One large transaction of P 100,000 in Binondo is included in last month’s business. Sales, City of Manila Sta. Cruz.................... Malate......................... Paco............................. Sampaloc.................... Ermita......................... Tondo........................... Sta. Ana...................... San Nicolas................ Binondo....................... Quiapo......................... Intramuros.................. San Miguel................. Pandacan.................... January 1927 February 1927 124,947 P 143,885 89,861 39,538 449,734 54,883 79,466 53,022 126,200 14,559 245,063 11,587 7,993 15,560 18,500 31,000 208,000 58,000 7,800 853 3,767 26,400 4,200 616 • Pl,215,531 P 594,903 Raw Leaf: The trad ing in grades for local consumption is quiet. An increase is observed in the export to conti nental Europe and Hong kong. Of some impor tance are also this month’s shipments to the United States which to the greater part consisted of stripped tobaccco. Shipments abroad during February, 1927, are as follows: Leaf Tobacco and Scraps kilos Australia..................................................... 15,216 China.......................................................... 10,266 Germany.................................................... 83,474 Holland....................................................... 41,825 Hongkong................................................... 108,570 Italy............................................................ 108 Japan.......................................................... 7,822 Java............................................................. 191 Spain............................................................ 571,232 United States........................................... 107,223 Total................................. 945,927 Cigars: The business with the United States leaves, on the whole, very much to be desired. Exorbitant cost of production in the local fac tories makes competition with the cheap machine made American cigars the longer the more difficult. Comparative figures for the trade with the United States are as follows: Cigars COCONUT OIL Early February demand for scattered tank cars advanced the U. S. coconut oil market to 8-3/8 cents f. o. b. coast. On the whole, the volume of business at the latter figure was small, end in the face of free offerings in quantity up to the end of the year, prices declined to 8 cents f. o. b. coast at which figure the month closed. There are rumors that sales were made as low as 7-3/4 cents, but we are unable to con firm these reports. Cottonseed oil which had been quoted as steady up to February 9th is now offered liberally at 8 cents, and these offerings, of course, affect buyers’ ideas for coconut oil. It seems at this writing that consuming buyers will find the 8 cent level sufficiently attractive to sustain the market and all forward offerings will probably be absorbed at this figure. Latest advices from U. S. and foreign markets follow: San Francisco, 8 cents f. o. b. tank cars; New York, 8-1/4 cents c. i. f. COPRA CAKE For the first half of February, the continental market was exceptionally quiet with little incli nation on the part of buyers and sellers to get together. During the last few days of the month, an improved inquiry was noted from Hamburg with quotations advanced to £7/10 May shipment and £7 ’5 June forward shipment. The conference freight rate on copra cake from the Philippine Islands to U. K. and Continental ports has been reduced from 50s to 45s or just 1/2 of the November increase. Unless this rate is reduced to 40s or better, it is quite prob able that local crushers will drop the Continental market for the time being and trade with U. S. copra meal buyers entirely. West coast quo tations for copra meal are given as $27.00 per short ton nominal, which is quite a bit better than the European market because of the high freight rate. Latest cables follow: San Francisco, copra meal $27.00 per short ton nominal; Hamburg, £7/ near; £7/5 future. OXYGEN Electrolytic Oxygen 99% pure HYDROGEN Electrolytic Hydrogen 99% pure ACETYLENE Dissolved Acetylene for all purposes WELDING Fully Equip ped Oxy-Acetylene Weld ing Shops BATTERIES Prest-O-Lite Electric Stor age Batteries February 1927..................................... January 1927....................................... February 1926..................................... 13,558,309 11,165,358 15,176,412 RAIL COMMODITY MOVEMENTS By M. D. Royer Traffic Manager, Manila Railroad Company Stat ist ic s have been com - piled on the following commodities for the period January 26 to February 25, 1927, both inclusive, showing quan tities received in Manila Philippine Acetylene Go. 281 CALLE CRISTOBAL MANILA Rice, cavans.............. Sugar, piculs............. Tobacco, bales......... Copra, piculs............. Coconuts..................... Lumber, B. F........... Desiccated coconuts, cases......................... /•’</>. 1927 320,125 296,000 6,580 175,845 2,926,000 197,500 223,875 307,664 2,900 119,415 2,240,000 280,000 12,150 5,320 Rail transportation of commodities under consideration was about normal for February, although the market tendency was on a lower level. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 23 Graph Showing the Relative Amount of Classified Advertising Carried by Leading Manila Dailies During the Past Four Years IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 24 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 SHIPPING NOTES SHIPPING REVIEW By II. M. CAVENDER General Agent. Dollar Steamship Line There are no changes of particular significance since our last report on the freight market. Freight rates in all direc tions from the Philip pines, while considered low, are firm. To the Atlantic U. S. seaboard we find a scarcity of tonnage which indicates nothing more than that the usual demand for sugar tonnage at this time each year is in full swing. During December and January there existed an unusual shortage of tonnage to the U. K. and the Continent but this has eased off and tonnage seems now aplenty. Ton nage trans-Pacific exceeds by a large margin the demands of shippers. Passenger traffic continues to increase in all directions. While much of this travel is an an THE YOKOHAMA SPECIE BANK '■ - LTD. (ESTABLISHED 1880) HEAD OFFICE: YOKOHAMA, JAPAN Yen Capital (Paid Up) - - - - 100,000,000.00 Reserve Fund - - . . 89,500,000.00 Undivided Profits ... - 5,982,168.08 MANILA BRANCH 34 PLAZA CERVANTES, MANILA K. YABUKI Manager PHONE 1759-MANAGER PHONE 1758—GENERAL OFFICE nual occasion, much of the movement this year is the direct outcome of the foreign exodus from China. Steamship officials continue to warn people to make their reservations early. During February, a total of 1729 passengers, all classes, are reported having departed from the Philippines (first figure represents cabin passen gers, second figure steerage): To China and Japan 181-263; to Honolulu 13-612; to United States 86-496; to Singapore 27-0; to Europe and miscellaneous ports 50—J. Filipino emigra tion during the month to Honolulu decreased somewhat, the movement to the Pacific coast increased. The comparison shows Honolulu, January 725—February 612; Pacific Coast, January 312—February 496. It has been officially announced that the United States Shipping Board has allocated to Swayne 8s Hoyt, Inc., the Japan and Yellow Sea outport business formerly conducted by the Oregon Oriental Line. The s.s. West Faralon inaugurates the service under the new operators. Some months ago when Swayne 8s Hoyt were allocated the management of the American Far East Line, formerly managed by Struthers 8t Barry, to be operated in combination with the Pacific Australia Line, already under Swayne 8s Hoyt’s control, the new line to be called the American Australia Orient Line, the Shipping Board stipulated that the Yellow Sea Outport business was to go to the Oregon Oriental Line. With this re-allocation and expansion of services, Swayne 8s Hoyt will have four trans pacific routes employing from 18 to 19 ships. The s.s. Bearport, which has been lying idle at Portland, has been assigned, and one or two additional vessels are to be added to enable Swayne & Hoyt to carry out the new schedule efficiently. Below are listed the four routes under which they will operate: ROUTE A—Monthly sailings from Pacific coast ports, namely: Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, to Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Davao (possible calls at Zamboanga and Cebu), Manila and Hongkong. From Hongkong the ships will return direct to San Francisco. Vessels allocated to this service are: Montague, West Islip, West Carmona, West Ivan, West Nivaria and West Cajoot. ROUTE B—Direct service to the New Zealand ports of Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Dunedin and return to the Pacific coast ports of Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Vessels allocated to this route are: West Conob, West Henshaw, West Canera and one ship yet to be named by the shipping board. ROUTE C—Monthly services from San Francisco to Shanghai, Hongkong and Manila. In this service alternate boats will call at outports, i. e., the Bearport leaving San Francisco February 2 will call at Philippine outports and the Pawlet leaving March 2 will call at Indo China and Siam outports. Vessels will call at Hongkong westbound and thence direct to San Francisco. Ships allocated to this service for the next six months are: West Prospect, Bearport, Pawlet, Eldridge, Dewey, West Faralon and West Chopaka. ROUTE D—Monthly service from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Yokohama, Kobe, Shanghai, Japanese outports and Yellow Sea ports, namely: Chefoo, Tsingtau, Taku Bar and Dairen, returning direct to San Francisco. Vessels in this service for the first six months will be: West Faralon, West Chopaka, West Elcajon, West Sequana, West Prospect and Pawlet. According to an announcement, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha expect to enter three new qua druple-screw motor liners in the San FranciscoOrient trade in 1928. These new liners, two of which will have Sulzer type Diesel engines and the third a BurmeisterWain installation, will be of 16,500 gross tons, 580 feet long, with a moulded beam of 72 feet, capable of making 19 knots, and will have accommodations for 200 first class, 100 second class and 400 third class passengers and a capacity of 3000 stowage tons. The names of the liners have not as yet been announced, but are expected to be in the near future. The entry of these motor liners will no doubt increase competition on the Pacific. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 25 From statistics compiled by the Associated Steamship Lines there were exported from the Philippines during the year 1926: To China and Japan ports 165,133 tons with a total of 463 sailings, of which 77,763 tons were carried in American bottoms with 161 sailings. To Pacific coast for local delivery 262,032 tons with 163 sailings, of which 217,821 tons were carried in American bottoms with 138 sailings. To Pacific coast for transhipment 29,263 tons with 120 sailings, of which 28,005 tons were carried in American bottoms with 102 sailings. To Atlantic coast 457,608 tons with 207 sailings, of which 180,192 tons were carried in American bottoms with 60 sailings. To European ports 184,225 tons with 167 sailings, of which 2231 tons with 23 sailings were carried in American bottoms. To Australian ports 14,581 tons with 52 sailings, of which American bottoms carried A grand total of 1,112,842 tons with 1172 sailings, of which American bottoms carried 506,012 tons with 484 sailings. SHIPPING PERSONALS R. C. Morton, oriental director United States Shipping Board, returned to his headquarters in Manila February 23, when he arrived aboard the American Mail Liner President Jefferson. Mr. Morton was absent from Manila several weeks to China and Japan looking over shipping conditions in those countries. M. J. Thompson, for several years Manila passenger agent of the American Mail Line and the Dollar Steamship Line, announced his resignation effective February 28, to join Clark & Co., Inc., a Manila optical firm. Mr. Thomp son’s successor has not yet been named. L. E. Nantz, well known shipping man along the China coast, was recently named to take charge of the Hongkong Office of the American Australia Orient Line under the agency of L. Everett, Inc. W. K. Garrett arrived in Manila aboard the President Madison February 10 to take up duties with the Robert Dollar Company in the freight department. Mr. Garrett was formerly afloat with the same organization. C. C. Black, assistant oriental manager of the Prince Line, with headquarters in Hongkong, returned during the month from six months’ leave to his home in the United Kingdom. Mr. Black was formerly manager of the shipping department of W. F. Stevenson & Company in Manila. Manila to New York via Suez and Europe See 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 Norris Miles, until recently freight clerk aboard the American Mail Liner President Jackson arrived in Manila February 23 to take up duties in the passenger department of the joint Manila offices of the Dollar Steamship Line and American Mail Line. H. N. Guernsey, former general agent of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company at Manila, and more recently general agent of the Panama Mail Steamship Company at Colon, has accepted a position with the Luzon Stevedoring Company and is due in Manila with his family March 17 aboard the s.s. President Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Guernsey have a host of friends in the Philippines who are happy to receive this good news. 24 Calle David MANILA Telephone No. 2-24-41 ROUND THE WORLD AMERICAN MAIL LINE (ADMIRAL ORIENTAL LINE) DOLLAR STEAMSHIP LINE COMBINED TRANSPACIFIC SERVICE SAILING ONCE A WEEK The “President” Liners Offer Speed—Service—Courtesy—Comfort Excellent Food, Comfortable Cabins, Broad Decks, American Orchestra, Dancing, Swimming Pool, Sports TO SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELES via I Hongkong, Shanghai, Kobe, Yokohama, and Honolulu SAILINGS ON ALTERNATE FRIDAYS Sailings every fortnight President Van Buren - Mar. 18 President Hayes Apr. 1 President Polk - - Apr. 15 President Adams - Apr. 29 President Garfield - May 13 president Harrison May 27 President Monroe - June 10 SAILING ONCE A WEEK VICTORIA AND SEATTLE via Hongkong, Shanghai, Kobe, and Yokohama SAILINGS ON ALTERNATE SATURDAYS IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 26 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 FEBRUARY SUGAR REVIEW By George H. Fairchild New York Market: The American sugar market for the month under review was weak, irregular, and uncertain, with transactions of minor importance. Quo tations for Cubas have fluctuated in a narrow margin ranging from 3-1 16 cents to 3-316 cents, or from 4.84 cents to 4.96 cents landed terms duty paid for P. I. centrifugals. The market showed a tendency to improve on the 23rd of the month when Europe purchased a considerable amount of Cubas at 3 cents f.o.b., which brought the quotations to 3-3/16 cents c. and f., or 4.96 cents l.t. duty paid for prompt shipment, at which price and position large sales of Porto Ricos were effected. This improvement, however, was not maintained and buyers refused to buy at a higher price than 3-1, 8 cents or 4.90 cents l.t. duty paid for P.I. centrifugals. The weakness in the market was, of course, due to the small trade demand for refined sugar both in the United States and Europe. In addition to this, the large receipts of new ship ments from Cuban crop in the Atlantic coast have maintained the over-abundant stocks in the Atlantic sea ports, these stocks, on February 24, amounting to 219,000 tons as compared with 105,204 tons in the same period in 1926, and 105,873 tons in 1925. It is, however, gratifying to note that Europe and the Far East have made heavy purchases of Cubas during the month, showing that these outside countries are keeping up with their estimated quota from the Cuban exportable surplus. As indicated in last month’s review, the trend of prices in the next few months will depend to a great extent upon what the Cuban government may.do later on with reference to its restriction policy, since upon this will depend the amount of Cuban exportable surplus available in the open market. Quotations on the New York Exchange have declined from those of the previous month. These follow: High Low Latest March............... ......... 3.16 3.06 3.10 ......... 3.28 3.18 3.18 July.................... ......... 3.39 3.29 3.29 September........ ......... 3.46 3.37 3.38 December........ ......... 3.34 3.18 3.28 January............. ......... 3.16 3.08 3.12 As compared with previous month: March.......................... May.............................. July............................... September................... December.................... High Low La test 3.38 3.11 3.12 3.44 3.21 3.22 3.50 3.31 3.33 3.55 3.38 3.39 3.46 3.18 3.18 Sales of P.I. centrifugals, near arrivals and afloats, in New York during the month aggre gated 37,000 tons at prices ranging from 4.90 cents to 5.10 cents landed terms. Local Market: In view of the weak tone in the American sugar market, the local market for centrifugal was without interest during the first three weeks of the month, exporting houses refusing to purchase any considerable quantities at the current quotations of from 1*11.75 to 1’12.00 per picul. During the last week, however, about 125,000 piculs of cen trifugals have changed hands on the basis of 1*12.00 per picul. Only insignificant quantities of muscovados exchanged hands in the local market owing to the weak demand in the Japanese and Chi nese markets. The small sales were made at prices ranging from 1*7.25 to 1’7.75 per picul on the basis of No. 1. Weather conditions throughout the islands have been satisfactory during the month under review with abundant sunshine, resulting in a marked improvement in the quality ratio. Many of the larger Centrals have continued grinding above their rated capacities and are expected to finish milling by the end of April. In view of the favorable weather Negros may produce about 10 per cent above the last estimate of the Philippine Sugar Association, making the total centrifugal production for the whole islands 500,000 metric tons. The latest esti mate by islands of the 1926 1927 crop is as follows: Negros..........................................355,312 metric tons Luzon......... 122,024 Panay........................... 14,795 Mindoro................................... 5,376 “ Total................................... 497,507 metric tons The favorable weather during February was especially beneficial to the young cane which now looks promising. Germinating has been satisfactory, and planters throughout the Islands are generally optimistic of the prospects for the next crop. Last year, through the petition of the Philippine Sugar Association to the Governor General and the presiding officers of both houses of the legislature, the law prohibiting the importation of work animals was temporarily suspended, permitting the planters to purchase animals for the cultivation and harvesting of the present crop. As the planters were unable within the period alloted to complete the purchases of the number of head stipulated, and realizing their need for replenishing their stock of work animals for the next crop, the Association has requested an extension of the period to permit the planters to import work animals into these Islands. In view of the Association’s request, the government has extended the period of the permit for the unfilled order. Shipping statistics from the Philippines covering the period from January 1 to Feb ruary 15, 1927, are as follows: Atlantic J’a'eific China & Total Centrifugals 96,148 16,826 ____ 112,974 Muscovados — 43 2,894 2,937 Refined. . . . — 146 — 146 96,148 17,015 2,894 116,057 Railway—Material Locomotives—(Steam and Alcohol) Track—(Permanent and Portable) Cars—(All Types) Switches, Etc., Etc. Inspection Cars (Hand and Motor) Machinery “Atlas Polar” Diesel Engines “Skandia” Semi-Diesel Engines “Pyle National” Turbo Generators “Asea” Electrical Equipment Koppel Industrial Car & Equipment Co. Manila A. H. BISHOP, Manager Iloilo Miscellaneous: The world’s visible supplies in the U.K., U.S., Cuba, and statistical European countries at the end of the month were 3,936,000 tons as compared with 4,303,000 tons at the sa.ne time in 1926, and 3,484,000 tons in 1925. Willett 8s Gray’s latest report estimates the decrease in the world’s production from that of last year at 1,115,000 tons as compared with 1,302,977 tons’ decrease in the previous estimate, indicating that there was an increase of 188,000 tons in the world’s production esti mates within a month. A United Press dispatch, received on February 13, stated that more than 150,000 tons of sugar cane were destroyed by the storms and floods which swept the cane districts around Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Another dispatch, re ceived on February 21, reported a cane fire in the Camaguey Province, Cuba, destroying about 500,000 pounds of cane. Influenced by the weak tone in the American sugar market, the Java market ruled quiet and dull. It showed, however, a tendency to improve at the close of the month. Latest quotations for Superiors (per 100 kilos) have declined sharply from those of the previous month, as shown by the following: May............. Gs. 19-3 4 June..............Gs. 19-1/4 July..............Gs. 19 Aug.-Sept. Gs. 18-3/4 As compared with the previous month: May..............Gs. 21 June............. Gs. 20-1/4 July-Aug.Sept......... Gs. 19-7/8 The chamber of commerce recently organized in Baguio has been incorporated. It is interna tional. Datu Tahil, rebellious eastern Sulu leader, has surrendered to the government and is being prosecuted for alleged sedition. Upon arrest he was sent to San Ramon to serve a former sentence, from which he was paroled for a career in public office, for a similar offense. Princess Tarhata Kiram has also returned to Jolo, where public order is quiet again. Labor disturbances have recently affected sugar milling at Bais, Oriental Negros. Upon orders from Manila the constabulary intervened when locomotives belonging to the mill were commandeered by the engineers, and cane fires occurred that apparently were of incendiary origin. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNA L March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 27 REVIEW OF THE EXCHANGE MARKET By Stanley Williams Manager International Banking Corporation. Telegraphic transfers on New York were quot ed at 1 % premium on January 31st, and the market was unchanged at that level with buyers at 5 '8% premium up to February 19th, when selling ideas were lower ed to 7 8% premium. On the 24th there were sellers at 3 4 % pre mium and on the 25th the rate was called nom inally 5 8% premium although 1/2% premium could be had. On the 28th the market was quoted 12% premium all round but 3 '8% was possible. Buyers quoted par ready and March at the close. Sterling cables were quoted at 2 0 1. 2 on January 31st and the market was unchanged on this basis with buyers at 2 0 5 8 until February 24th, when rates on both sides were raised 1,16th. On the 26th buyers would not do better than 2 0 3 '4 and the market closed on the 28th with possible sellers at 2 0 5 8 buyers at 2 0 3 4. Three months sight credit bills were quoted at 2 1 3 16 and 3 ms dp bills, at 2, 1 5 16 throughout the month until the 26th, when both rates were raised 1 16th. The New York London cross rate which was quoted at 485 on January 31st, touched a low during the month of February of 484 15 16 on the 4th and a high of 485 3 16 on the 25th. It closed at 485 1 8 on the 28th. London bar silver closed at 27 9 16 per oz. spot 27 5. 16 forward on January 31st. After touching 27 1 8, 26 7, 8 on February 1st it reacted to 28, 27 3'4 on the 3rd and then dropped away to 26 3716, 26 on the 14th. Again reacting to 27 3/16, 27 on the 19th, it again dropped to 26 9/16, 26 3/8 on the 22nd, 24th and 25th and closed at 26 1/8 spot 25 7/8 forward on the 28th, after a somewhat erratic market for the month. New York bar silver closed at 58 5 ’8 on January 31st. It rose to 60 on February 3rd and then dropped to 56 7. 8 on the 14th and 15th. After touching 58 1 2 on the 19th it dropped to 56 1/8 on the 28th. DIGNITY What kind of glasses does the man who has attained success wear? Do not his glasses seem a part of him, a part of his driving personality? Dignity demands correct clothes, correct glasses. The eyes are seen first and remembered longest. CLARK & CO. Optometrists will assist you in selecting the right kind of glasses. Always the best in quality but never higher in price. Telegraphic transfers on other points were quoted nominally at the close as follows: Paris, 11.70; Madrid, 170-1/2; Singapore 113-1 2; Japan, 99; Shanghai, 78; Hongkong 102; India, 135 1 2; Java. 123 1 4. THE RICE INDUSTRY By Percy A. Hill of Munoz, Xuera Ecija, Director, Rice Producers' Association. There has been a slight stiffening of the rice market, prices for palay at shipping cen ters averaging 1’3.50 per cavan of 44 kilos with rice at the consuming centers from 1’8.00 to 1’8.40 per sack accord ing to grade. These prices will probably ob tain for the next thirty days with slight fluc tuation. In reference to grades of rice, there is a market for all kinds. The long, white and soft varieties are milled under the name of superior, which sell at from 30 cent to 50 cent per sack over the first grade. The latter is milled from the regular standard va rieties with a high average of whole grains. The second class rice, which compares with the rice imported, contain more or less broken grains and is of mixed varieties that cannot be classified. The third class rice is that containing red or discolored varieties and is generally much broken in milling. As for food value, there is little difference as to the four classes above mentioned. The better grades are for those better able to pay for a whole white rice, being milled from the tastier varieties or those that look that way. Certain varieties of rice are often preferred by different districts. For the wealthier class, such varieties as mimis and lamio. The people of Laguna and Tayabas prefer a small compact grain such as asucena, those of the Visayas the medium grades, and those of the Ilocano provinces like a coarse, hard grain which is similar to the bearded varieties to which they are accustomed. It is yet a long way to the standardization of varieties from a commercial standpoint, which, if put into effect, would mean such a large gain to the industry. The coarse thick hull is to be avoided, a factor which has such an effect on the industry that Burma, which has some 7,000,000 tons of rice annually, cal culates the weight of rice in the paddy as 70%. Siam and Indo-China, at about 68 to 70, and in the Philippines, from 63 to 65. Although there is room for improvement, the mere recom mendation of a particular seed must have more factors than yield or drought-resistance to make the best milling product. While weight-yields per hectare are good, rice-weight per cavan is still better in judging standard varieties recommended for seed. REVIEW OF THE HEMP MARKET By T. H. Smith Viee-Presidcnl and General Manager, Macleod & Company This report covers the markets for Manila hemp for the month of February with statistics up to and including February 28th, 1927. U. S. Grades: The New York market open ed with shippers soliciting offers on the basis of F, 16-7 8 cents, I, 14-^5, 8 cents, and JI, 10-7 8 cents. Buyers were not responsive to these indications and a downward tendency set in, the market for the time being in the hands of buyers. Prices cabled from New York were purely nominal. About the middle of the month the market ruled weak with sellers on the basis of F, 15—1 2 cents; I, 13-1 2 cents; JI, 10 cents. Prices ruled fairly steady during the latter half of the month but business was dull and the market closed nominally on the basis of F, 15-1/4 cents; I, 13-1/2 cents; JI, 10 cents. Davao hemp has been pressed for sale in New York down to within a small premium on the above prices. High-grade hemp continues neglected with sellers in New York of D Good Current at 16cents, D 25% over Good Current 16-1/2 cents and no buyers thereat. ’ The decline registered in the competitive fibres of Manila hemp, namely East African and Java sisals, no doubt had the effect of checking business in medium grades of Manila hemp. The Manila market for U. S. grades ruled, quiet during the first week of the month with business passing at D, 1’41; E, 1’40; F, 1*39; SI, 1’38; S2, 1*33.4; S3, 1*26; G, 1*23; H, 1’20: I, 1’34; JI, 1’24 February delivery. The market, however, developed a declining tendency in sympathy with the consuming markets but not to the same extent as the decline registered in New York. Toward the middle of February prices in Manila were down to a level of D, 1’39; E, 1’37.4; F, 1*36.4; G, 1’22.4; H, 1’20; I, 1’31.4; JI, 1*23; SI, 1*35.4; S2, 1*31; S3, 1’23.4, on which basis a moderate business was done for Feb. delivery. The market con tinued quiet to dull and a further decline was registered to a basis of D, 1’38; E, 1’36.4; F, 1’35.4; G, 1’21.4; H, 1*19.4; I, 1’31; JI, 1’22.4; SI, 1’34.4; S2, 1’30.4; S3, .1*23. At the close a steadier tone was apparent, on exporting houses showing more desire to operate at the last prices to 4 reals more for desirable parcels. U. K. Grades: Opened with London in active on a nominal basis of J2, .£46; K, £44.15; LI, £44.15; L2, £42; Ml, £42; M2, £38, Feb ruary-April shipment. A weakness soon develop ed and business was done at J2, £44.10; K, .£43; LI, £43; L2, £40.10; Ml, £40.10, M2, £37.10. Steadying at the decline, the market quickly turned to buyers at .£1 per ton over the above prices with second-hand sellers scarce and the majority of shipping houses not offering. A lack of demand left the market lifeless again about the middle of the month with J2 at £45 ; K, £43.15; LI, £43.15; L2, £40.10; Ml, £40.10; M2, £37.10. Bears then took the market in hand selling J2 at £43.10; K and LI, £41.15 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 28 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 February-April shipment and the market closed dull with sellers of J2 at L’43; K, L'41.15; LI, E41.15: L2, C39.15; Ml, C39.15; M2, C36 February-April shipment. The bulk of the business put through has been for February or February March shipment at the rates quoted above. The premium ruling for afloat hemp to the U. K. has now apparently disappeared. The Manila market for U. K. grades opened quiet and values during the first week of the month were J2, 1’22.4; K, and LI, 1’21.4; L2, 1’20.4; Ml, 1’20: M2, 1’18; DL, 1’17; DM, 1’14 February delivery. Supplies of U. K. grades were on the small side and about midFebruary business was passing in small lots at J2, 1’23: K, 1’21.4; LI, 1’21.2; L2, 1’20.2; Ml, 1’19.2; M2, 1’17; DL, 1’16; DM, 1’14 February arrival. The latter two weeks of the month have registered a drop in prices with a moderate business only being put through on the decline. Closing values are for early March delivery: J2, 1’21.2; K, 1’20; LI, 1’20; L2, 1’19: Ml, 1’19; M2, 1’16.4: DL, 1’15; DM, 1’13. Japanese enquiry has been quieter although prices paid here and there have been substan tially higher than European prices. Freight Rates: The effectiveness of the advance in rate on rope and hemp to the Atlantic coast has been deferred until March 9th giving all shippers the privilege of shipping under the old rate until June 9th, 1927. Statistics: We give below the figures for the To To Feb. 28, March 1, 1927 1926 Bales Bales period extending from January 31st to February 28th, 1927: 1927 1926 Stocks on January 1st . . . 112,382 153,181 Receipts to February 28th.. 195,771 215,888 Stocks on February 28th. 110,110 168,186 Shipments To the-United Kingdom.......... Continent of Europe. . Atlantic U. S................ U. S. via Pacific.'. .... Japan. Elsewhere and Local. . Total A MEASURED BLESSING 62,142 52,672 20,987 28,325 53,813 64,894 11,806 20,679 33,380 22,096 15,915 12,217 198,043 200,883 The following comment by Dr. Victor S. Clark, editor of the Living Age, that "brings the world to your door" weekly, embodies his review for the Independent of Nicholas Roosevelt’s book. The Philippines, A Treasure and a Problem. While this book, to be had from the Philippine Education Co., Inc.. Manila, has been reviewed by the Journal, Dr. Clark’s comment is in itself germane to the Philippine situation.—ED. About a quarter of a century has elapsed since the United States set up in its newly acquired overseas possessions some form of civil govern ment. That government differed at the outset, and has varied in subsequent development, in Hawaii, Porto’ Rico, and the Philippines, especially since in the former Spanish islands we have endeavored to fit American institutions to alien races by a method of trial and error. Now that a generation has grown up under these regimes, it is appropriate to review the results of our experiments. In the volume before us Mr. Roosevelt has done this foi the Philippines lucidly, intelligently, and with no reticence as to his own convictions. He is neither an apologist nor a faultfinder, but a reporter and interpreter of opinion. This opinion, to be sure, is prepon derantly that of Caucasian expatriates to the tropics, who, as a class, are not blessed with a Pollyanna complex; but they are about the only people who know the facts, and are certainly better authorities than stay-at-home theorists and sentimental tourists. Mr. Roosevelt also records native opinion, although not so fully or sympathetically, and he checks the information he has received from others by his own obser vations as well as official data. So much for the background of the book; now for its contents and conclusions. The author gives us an excellent description of the Filipino people, of their racial, religious, and social differ ences, and of their physical, political, and inter national environment. He does not develop these topics by chapter and paragraph like a professor’s syllabus, but interweaves them with his story as they apply to the subject in hand. Since sunsets have nothing in particular to do with his theme, he does not describe them; nor is his geography of the archipelago maplike and precise; but his allusions to important islands and regions as economic and political factors in the problems he discusses are numerous and informing. Statis tics are used charily, and tables of figures do not thrust themselves into the reader’s path like hurdles for him to vault. Mr. Roosevelt argues against immediate independence, yet in favor of the Philippines for the Filipinos. He believes we should have a definite Philippine program and stand by it. We should say frankly that we intend to remain in the Islands, at least until the present generation of native politicians has passed off the stage, but we should limit our functionstheretosupervision andcontrol. Theauthority of the few American officials we send to Ma nila and the outposts should be paramount. Their powers and instructions should be ample to prevent such a debacle as occurred under the Harrison regime, and to enable a stronger governor to carry the country -forward regardless of local apathy and hostility to an economic and cultural level justifying autonomy or independence. This thesis is supported by abundant evidence and illustration, and it represents the judgment of the majority of Americans and Europeans who have a thorough knowledge of the Philippines. Stress is laid on facts familiar to those acquainted with the Far East, but unknown to many Americans. The Filipinos are not a single nation, but a conglomeration of discordant tribes and peoples separated by barriers of race, lan guage, and religion higher than those in Europe. Contrary to complacent opinion in America, the progress of the archipelago under our rule, while creditable upon the whole, has had many unnecessary setbacks. We have reduced the percentage of illiteracy, but two thirds of the people today cannot read or write; and only one person in eighty takes a newspaper or periodical. as compared with one in every three or four in the United States. Under the lax Harrison regime epidemic diseases virtually stamped out by the American health service reappeared with explosive violence. In some places roads and other public works have been allowed to lapse back into jungle. The interisland steamship service is so poor that different parts of the archipelago still re main almost completely isolated from each other. As a foil for our deficiencies Mr. Roosevelt repeatedly points to excellencies of the Dutch administration in Java. More than twenty years ago, when our people were still in the first flush of enthusiasm over their novel adventure in making tropical Yankees of our little brown brothers, the present reviewer journeyed over much the same ground that Mr. Roosevelt cover ed last winter, and garnered his gleanings of wisdom there in the obscure repository of two government reports. It may be at least as amus ing as capping rhymes to pair a few sentences from these reports with corresponding passages from the present volume. Of Java the reviewer said: “The Javanese worker profits little byithe well ordered government under which he lives, because his interests have not risen above food, shelter, and the satisfac tion of physical wants. The door to higher things has not been opened to him. No ambition stirs him to additional effort. His standard of living remains stationary, or even retrogrades with the increasing pressure of a growing population.” Twenty-two years later Mr. Roosevelt writes: “The government is frankly paternalistic. That this policy has been of great help to the people is obvious. At the same time it has yielded rich returns to the Dutch planters and to the govern ment." Nevertheless, a recent attempt at commu nist-national revolt in Java raises a doubt as to the policy of “full bellies and empty heads” conducing more to peace and content among dependent peoples than our own. Perhaps our errors have been of method rather than ideals. Possibly the weakest point in our policy has been in the institution upon which we pride ourselves the most—the public schools—which have alienated the natives from their env ironment. To venture one more parallel of opinion, the present writer observed when our educational system in the Philippines was just taking form: “It will be of questionable advantage to future governments to have a class of partly educated, idle political agitators to conciliate, whose whole ambition is centered in the public service. Our IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 29 public school instruction is largely wasted if it is to present a transient, soon forgotten moment of enlightenment to a population of paddy-field taos.” Today, Mr. Roosevelt tells us: “About forty per cent of the children of school age attend school * * *. They stay there three years or less * * *. In this period they learn only a little more than Americans learn in the first grade.” And of those who complete a longer course he says: “A diMagellan’s Passage from Spain to Manila: 1519-1521 By Thomas Lediard, Gent. In II,\ <>f EnUlon.l ,n All It.< Hrnneh.*." (C„p,, th, Library „i th, Jnurnn' K.I.'nr) In the year 1519, Ferdinand de Magalhaens, or, as we corruptly call him, Magellan, by nation a Portuguese, by descent a gentleman, and by profession a soldier and seaman, having served his Prince faithfully both in Africa and India, and being ill treated, renounced his country, disnaturalizing himself, as the custom then was, and offered his service to the Emperor, Charles V. then King of Spain. He had long before conceived an opinion that another way might be found to India, and particularly to the Molucca islands, besides the common track by the Cape of Good Hope followed by the Portuguese. This he proposed to the Emperor with such assurance of performing what he promised that he had command of five ships given him, the San Victoria, Luis de Mendoza, captain; the San Antonio, Juan de Cathagena; Santiago, Juan Serran, and the Concepcidn, Gaspar de Quexado, commanders. (By typographical error Lediard omits the Trinidad.—Ed.) In them he had 250, or, as some say, 230 men. With this squadron he sailed from San Lucas de Barrameda, on the twentieth of September of the aforesaid year, 1519, he himself being com mander in chief. Being come to the river called Rio de Janeiro, on the coast of Brazil, and near three and twenty degrees south latitude, some discontent began to appear among the men, which was soon blown over. But proceeding to the bay of San Julian, in nine and forty degrees of south latitude, where they were forced to winter, three of the captains and most of the men being engaged, and conspiring the death of their General, that Magellan, having in vain endeavored to appease it by fair means, was forced to use his authority. He executed two of the captains, with Luis de Mendoza, their treasurer, and set a third, Juan de Carthagena, with a priest, who had sided with them, on shore among the wild Indians. This done, he erected a Cross, in token of possession, and proceeded on his voyage. On the twenty-first of October, 1520, having been out above a year, he discovered the cape which he called Cabo de las Virgines, or Vir gins’ Cape, because that day was the feast of St. Ursula and the 11,000 virgins; and there turned into the strait he went in search of, which from him is to this day called the Strait of Magel lan. It lies in 52 degrees of south latitude, is about 100 leagues, or somewhat more, in length, in some parts a league wide, in some more, in some less, but all narrow and inclosed with high land on both sides, some bare, some covered with woods, and some of the loftiest mountains with snow.. Having sailed about 50 leagues in 1 his strait, they discovered another branch of it and Magel lan sent one of his ships to bring him some account of it ; but the seamen, being parted from him, took the opportunity, and confining their captain for opposing their design, returned into Spain, being eight months on the return. Magellan having waited beyond the time appointed and finding they did not return to him, proceeded through the strait and came into the South Sea, with only three ships, having lost one in his passage, but all the men saved, and another, as I said before, having deserted him. The last land of the strait he called Cabo Deseado, or the desired cape; because it was the end of his desired passage to the South Sea, and the entrance into that sea he named Mare Pacificuni. ploma’d proletariat, they are always stressing what the community owes them, without ever admitting that they may owe the community anything in return for their education.” What conclusion are we to draw’ from all this? Apparently that we should keep our hands on the plow, but that we should draw the furrow a little deeper and straighter than hitherto. The cold being something sharp, he thought fit to draw nearer to the Equinoctial, and accordingly steered West Northwest, it being the eight and twentieth of November, 1520. In this manner he sailed three months and twenty days without seeing land, which reduced them to such straights that they were forced to eat all the old leather they had on board, and to drink stinking and putrified water, of which nineteen men died and near thirty were so weak that they could do no service. After 1500 leagues sailing, he found a small island, in 88 degrees of south latitude, and 200 leagues farther another, but nothing considerable in them; and therefore held on his course, till, in about 12 degrees of north latitude, he came to those islands which he called de los Ladrones. or of the Thieves; because the natives hovered about his ships in their boats, and, coming aboard, stole everything they could laid hold of. Finding no good to be done here, he sailed again, and discovering a great number of islands together he gave the sea the name of the Archipelago de San Lazaro, being those wc now call the Philippines. (It was San Lazarus day, and hence Magellan gave the name to the archipelago. The term Filipinas, Philippines, was first applied to the island of Leyte in honor of Philip II, and by extension came to be applied to the is lands generally. The reader should bear in mind that Lediard was writing about 1740, his book having been pu blished in 1744.—Ed.) On the eight and twentieth of March he anchored by the island of Buthuan (Butuan, the name re ferring back to a pe riod of phallic worship in the Philippines, as so many place names in the islands do), where he was friendly received by the natives and their King, and got some gold, which they sifted out of the earth of the mines, and found in pieces, some as big as nuts and others as large as eggs. From thence they removed to the isle of Messana, at a small distance from the others, and thence to that of Cebu. As my design is only to speak of the discoveries Ma gellan made, I pass by the friendly reception he met in this island and the success he had in converting all the inhabitants to the Christian faith. Magellan, having hitherto succeeded so well, stood over to the island of Mac tan, where, not agreeing with the natives, he came to a battle and was killed in it, with a poisoned arrow, together with eight of his men. After ibis disaster, the rest sailed over to the island of Bohol, under the command of Eduardo Barbasa, and being too weak to carry home their three ships, burnt one of them, the Concepcidn, after taking out the canon and all that could be of use to them. Being now reduced to two ships, they made away to the southward, in search of the Molucca islands, and instead of finding them fell into the great one of Borneo. where they made some short stay, being friendly received. However, before their departure they were attacked, on the ninth of July, by 100 praus and Junks, of which they took four, and in them the son of the King of Lozon (Luzon he means). Departing thence, with the assistance of Indian pilots, they arrived at length at the Moluccas, on the eighth of November, 1521, in the seven and twentieth month after their departure from Spain, and anchored in the port of Tidore. one of the chief of those islands, where they were lovingly treated by the King, who concluded a peace, and took an oath ever to continue in amity with all expedition for Spain. Here they traded for cloves, exchanging the commodities they brought to their own content. When they were to depart, finding one of the ships leaky and unfit for so long a voyage, they left her behind to refit in the island of Ma. e. and then sailed with all expedition for Spain. The ship they sailed with, called the Victory, commanded by Juan Sebastian del Cano, and carrying six and forty Spaniards and thirteen Indians, took its course to the southwest, and coming to the island of Ma/va, near that of Timor, in 11 degrees south latitude, stayed there fifteen days to stop some leaks they dis covered in her. On the five and twentieth of January, 1522, they left this place and the next day touched at Timor, from whence they did not depart till the eleventh of February, when they took their way to the southward, resolving to Is yours a “blindman’s buff” home? Stepping into any of your rooms, or into the hallway after dark, do you ever have to grope all over the wall for an electric switch that just won’t be found? No need of this kind of blindman’s buff when switches are installed where they should be. Just where the handiest places are is part of a contractor’s job to know. So when an electrical contractor lays out plans for wiring your home by all means let him provide for plenty of switches and convenience outlets. They mean greater effectiveness in the use of appliances as well as no more blindman’s buff hunts for a switch in the dark. Manila Electric Co. Light Transportation Power IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISIMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 30 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 PALE PILSEN DELICIOUSLY REFRESHING SOLD AT AMERICAN CHAMBER BAR YOUR LOGGING PROBLEM can be solved readily by some type of WASHINGTON LOGGING ENGINE The Washington Simplex Yarder above leads all Yarders in ease of operation and lowcost of UDkeep. Washington Iron Works, Seattle, U. S. A. Agents for the Philippine Islands The Edward J. Nell Co., Ltd.,—Manila. WAS HI NG TON ENGINES leave all India, and the islands, to the northward to avoid meeting the Portuguese, who were powerful in those seas and would obstruct their passage. They ran therefore into 40 degrees of south latitude before they doubled the Cape of Good Hope, about which they spent seven weeks, beating it out against contrary winds. So that their provisions began to fail, and many men grew sick, which made some entertain thoughtsof turning back to Mozambique, but others opposed it. In fine, after two months more hardships, in which they lost one and twenty of their com pany, they were forced to put into the island of St. James, being one of those of the Cabo Verde belonging to the King of Portugal, where, with much entreaty, they obtained some small relief of provisions, but thirteen of them going ashore again for some rice, the Portuguese had promised to supply them with, were detained on shore, which made those who were left on board the ship hoist sail and put to sea, fearing the like treachery might surprise them, and, on the seventh of September, arrived safe at San Lucas below the city of Seville, where, after firing all their guns for joy, they repaired to the great Church, in their shirts, and barefoot, to return thanks to God. The ship which performed this wonderful voyage was called the Victory, as was said before; the commander’s name was Juan Se bastian del Cano, who was well rewarded and honored by the Emperor. This was the first voyage round the world, and this discovery of the Strait of Magellan it was which made it practicable. The other Spanish ship, which was left at the Moluccas to stop her leaks, attempted to return the way it came to Panama: but after struggling above four months with the easterly winds, most of the men dying and the rest being almost starved, it went back to the Moluccas where it was taken by the Portuguese; and the few men that survived, after being kept two years in India, were sent to Spain in the Portu guese ships. Father Pablo Pastells, S. J., who, under the patronage of La Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas, is patiently laboring in the archives of Seville, gives the names of the men who returned to Seville on the Victoria and had part in the first circumnavigation of the globe. He has them, he says, “as they have been faithfully conserved by the diligence of the general histo rian of the Indies, Antonio de Herrera, in his ‘Decades,’ and they are the following: “Sebastian del Cano, captain; Miguel de Rodas, master; Martin de Insaurraga, pilot; Miguei de Rodas, seaman; Nicolas Griego, Juan Rodriguez, Vasco Gallego, Martin de Judicibus, Juan de Santander, Hernando de Bustamante, Antonio Lombardo, Francisco Rodriguez, Antonio Fernandez, Diego Gallego, Juan de Arratia, Juan de Apega, Juan de Acurio, Juan Subieta, Lorenzo de Iruna, Juan de Ortega, Pedro de Indarchi, Ruger Carpintete, Pedro Gasco, Alfonso Domingo, seaman; Diego Garcia, Pedro de Valpuesta, Simon de Burgos, Juan Martin, Martin Magallanes, Francisco Alvaro and Roldan de Argote. Total, 31. Note however that in this number are included the thirteen who were imprisoned by the governor of the island of St. James, who upon the petition of Charles V were ordered liberated and returned to Spain by the king of Portugal.” Thanks too to Pastells and his patrons, one might proceed to list in full detail the cargo of cloves and spices taken to Spain from the Mo luccas on the Victoria, what each man’s share was and what this share fetched him. The Real Casa de Contratacibn took over the cargo by order of the emperor, reserving the eighth part; and on November 14, 1522, Diego Diaz accordingly receipted in the name of the house for 52,023 pounds of cloves and un costal de escobaje: which seems to have been sweepings to the weight of 125.36 Spanish pounds, the equivalent of a costal. Magellan had sworn allegiance to Spain at the portals of the church of Triana, and it was here that the sails were reefed, as they had been furled three years before, and the first thanks giving ceremonies held. One Malayan named Manuel, having been baptized, had been taken prisoner on St. James island together with the 13 Spaniards. By command of John III of Portugal, upon demands imperatively made by Charles V, he and they were released immediate ly and returned to Spain, five months and seven days after the arrival home of the Victoria. Such were the tardy movements of mails and ships in those days, even at the command of the most powerful rulers. Charles V put a treasure of 15,000 ducats into Magellan’s fleet and its outfitting, though some of the money came tardily and perhaps the actual expenditures were below the budget. Some of the money came from Peru, some from Porto Rico; for regular shipments of silver and gold from the Spanish colonies in America were then being made. The Trinidad was of 110 tons, cost P2.160; the Concepcibn 108 tons, cost Pl,830; the Victoria 102 tons, cost Pl,600; the Santiago 90 tons, cost Pl,496; the San Antonio 144 tons, cost P2.640. Included in the armament were 50 blunderbusses, 100 suits of armor with full equipment, 60 crossbows, 360 dozen arrows, 200 shields, 95 dozen spears, 1,000 lances, 200 pikes, 50 kegs of powder, 5,000 pounds of powder in barrels, 150 varas of match, 15 falcons, 17 cannon, three siege guns, shot of iron and stone and six bullet molds. The bridge between Malabon and Navotas now makes a visit to the latter village convenient by motor, and all Manilans will find such a trip most entertaining, especially on Sundays. Na votas is one of the old Samal settlements on Manila bay, though Navotans have long been Christian and speak Tagalog. They are fisher men. Their boats, which they build themselves or purchase from other Samal towns, are of varying types from the smallest to dugouts more than 100 feet long. Their seins are hun dreds of yards long. The men weigh much more than the ordinary Manilaman, they are huskies of the sea. The ruins of the old convento exhibit the underground passages for escape from Moro attacks. It was a Jesuit structure and the king sold it into private hands when the Jesuits were expelled from the islands. No village adjacent to Manila is more interesting than Navotas. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1927 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 31 COMPARATIVE MOVEMENT OF PRINCIPAL COMMODITIES PHILIPPINE ISLANDS TO ALL POINTS IN WORLD DURING YEARS 1924, 1925, 1926 To Ytars Cement Cigars Cocoanut Oil Copra CaVe Desiccated Cocoanut Furniture Rattan Bamboo China, Japan, India, Straits Settlements, 1924 204 954 1237 617 310 2 78 Indo-China....................................................... 1925 774 1342 408 52 357 27 23 1926 149 1312 701 50 250 69 11 Pacific Coast, U. S. Local Delivery........... 1924 3415 40622 44778 22936 2470 365 1925 3244 50246 80228 13294 4894 715 1926 3678 49950 82098 13602 2561 357 Pacific Coast, U. S., (Overland or Inter 1924 5178 5695 1406 404 4391 87 coastal) .............................................................. 1925 4415 804 776 11036 63 coasta 1).............................................................. 1926 3977 18 101 10286 47 Atlantic Coast U. S. Ports Direct Steamers. 1924 1194 57873 28848 5 7714 151 1925 3441 42667 31870 2508 8041 313 1926 2944 63329 41972 13011 228 European Ports................................................... 1924 1487 36312 38326 9 1925 369 7226 30132 40997 4 1926 315 1509 44522 56426 2 Australian Ports................................................. 1924 111 1925 84 1926 88 Totals...................................................................... 1924 204 12339 105427 107961 61981 14577 690 1925 774 12895 101351 143058 57156 23998 1118 1926 149 12314 115507 168642 70379 25929 643 Totals for Last Three Years. . . 1127 37548 322285 419661 189516 64504 2451 To Years Furniture Hardwood Gums Rub- Maguey Sizal Kapok Lumber Rope Muscovado China, Japan, India, Straits Settlements, 1924 1 225 326414 34 4657299 2138 34166 Indo-China....................................................... 1925 110 185 324580 65 7070723 3369 64672 1926 70 208 364075 246 15124688 3369 61863 Pacific Coast, U. S. Local Delivery.......... 1924 24 553 151984 622 6470058 1872 45722 1925 28 304 63300 507 18334025 2518 71706 1926 6 328 56861 248 20309077 1206 51814 Pacific Coast, U. S. (Overland or Inter 1924 2 119 86683 636933 284 3000 coastal) .............................................................. 1925 2 106531 536 171879 417 223 1926 32 2 99515 123 332494 749 Atlantic Coast, U. S. Ports Direct Steamers. 1924 23 282 361404 835 6293880 1464 232834 1925 19 371 325417 225 4837829 1634 337355 1926 20 758 352814 1241 5949546 1000 273964 European Ports................................................... 1924 199 842371 240 5124899 141 1925 28 216 566097 63 2744530 309 43 1926 3 372 488867 2422512 265 1 Australian Ports................................................. 1924 3 3 19832 2808701 1925 17673 8088342 1926 6 2 19321 5471735 4 Totals...................................................................... “1924 ’ 53 1381 1788688 1731 25991770 5899 315722 1925 185 1078 1402648 1379 41247328 8247 473999 1926 137 1670 1381457 1858 49810052 6593 387642 Totals for Last Three Years........................ 375 4129 4572793 4986 117049150 20739 1177363 To Years Refined --------:------------------------ -----General No. O.S. Total Percentage Tobacco Veneer Total for Three Years of Movement China, Japan, India, Straits Settlements, "1924““ 1191 2537 24 10244 104348 Indo-China....................................................... 1925 954 48 15570 143258 1926 239 1311 1 18267 165133 412739 12.8% Pacific Coast, U. S. Local Delivery........... 1924 3793 45 2053 2536 204326 1925 3947 23 2710 3234 283582 1926 1723 9 2441 2595 262032 749940 23.3% Pacific Coast, U. S. (Overland or Inter- 1924 31 246 144 33149 coastal).............................................................. 1925 78 13 412 32457 1926 100 60 218 29263 94869 2.9% Atlantic Coast, U. S. Ports Direct Steamers 1924 867 539 899 1708 389521 1925 62 638 614 692 481206 1926 413 537 1694 457608 1328335 41.2% European Ports................................................... 1924 33641 21 2045 228369 1925 19271 1 2135 177274 1926 12630 2024 184225 589868 18.3% Australian Ports................................................. 1924 102 2 22 8574 1925 37 278 76 19535 1926 39 593 34 14581 42690 1.5% Totals...................................................................... 1924 5882 37110 2999 16699 968287 1925 4009 21001 3664 22119 1137312 1926 2062 14462 3572 24832 1112842. 3218441 100.0% Totals for Last Three Years........................ 11953 72573 10235 63650 3218441 32 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March. 1927 BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY B. A. GREEN i: REAL ESTATE j Improved and Unimproved City, Suburban and Provincial Properties Expert valuation, appraisement and reports on real estate Telephone 507 34 Escolta Cable Address: “BAG” Manila Manila, P. I. 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STIVER Attorney-At-Law Notary Public Certified Public Accountant Investments Collections Income Tax 121 Real, Intramuros Manila, P. I. SANITARY - CONVENIENT - SATISFACTORY! Five European Barbers I 1 Special attention given the ladies LA MARINA BARBER SHOP 117 Plaza Goiti Jose Cortina, Prop MADRIGAL & CO. | 8 Muelle del Banco Nacional 1 Manila, P. I. Coal.Contractors and ' Coconut Oil Manufacturers MILL LOCATED AT CEBU Derham Building Phone 22516 Manila P. O. Box 2103 MORTON & ERICKSEN,INC. Surveyors I AMERICAN BUREAU OF SHIPPING j Marine and Cargo Surveyors Sworn Measurers I M. J. B. The Quality Coffee F. E. Zuellig, Inc. Cebu Manila Iloilo S. W. STRAUS & CO. BONDS for sale by J . A . S T I V E R P. O. Box 1394 Telephone 2-20-70 121 Real, Intramuros, Manila Forty-four years without a dollar loss to any investor Quality ffi Shirts TOYO SHIRT FACTORY 1044 AZ.CARRAGA, MANILA.j IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL LA NOBLEZA CIGAR AND CIGARETTE FACTORY 409 Tayuman, Manila Cable address L.N. Tel. No. 2-78-53 » RIU HERMANOS S 151 ESCOLTA Manila Wine Merchants, Ltd. 174 Juan Luna Manila, P. I. P. O. Box 403 Phones: 2-25-67 and 2-25-68 WEANDSCO Western Equipment and Supply Co. Exclusive distributers in the Philippines for Western Electric Co. Graybar Electric Co. 119 Calle T. Pinpin P. O. Box 2277 Manila, P. I. Tel. 2-26 89 P. O. Box 997 THE FILIPINO GUN STORE 702 Rizal Avenue We wish to announce that we have just opened a complete PHOTO SUPPLY DEPT., offering to the PUBLIC, free of charge, Developing, Adjusting and Cleaning Kodaks. Conte and see us for Instruction. Give us a trial and be satisfied. M. .1. Guieb, Manager and Prop. For 1’4.00 Per Year you can keep your home town editor in America conversant with the Philippines by sending him The Journal THE AMERICAN EXPRESS CO.. INC. • International Banking, Shipping, Travel CIT Y 1’ICKET OFFICE Manila Railroad Company American Express Travelers Cheques MITSUI BUSSAN KAISHA. LTD. Phone 858 P. O. Box 461 Telegraphic Address; "MITSUI, MANILA" TEXACO GASOLINE QUICK STARTING MOST MILEAGE GREATEST POWER HIGH GRADE UNIFORM QUALITY MOTOR LUBRICANTS AUTO STATION TAFT AVENUE AND SAN LUIS THE TEXAS COMPANY, (1A I.) INC. MANILA CEBU ZAMBOANGA DAVAO ILOILO VIGAN IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL