The Isles of Fear

The Isles of Fear By Katherine Mayo The Isles Of Fear Chapter I — THE POINT OF VIEW Will you spare a moment to hear, before starting in on the meat of this book, why and how it is written? For some few years past we, the American people, have been vaguely aware of a sensation of unrest in the region of the Philippine Islands—and of Voices, once and again, asking for Philippine Independence. We have not known what those voices stood for. We have had no background upon which to rate their claim. And yet the Philippine Islands are America's responsibility—a responsibility that we voluntarily assumed and may not lightly shift to other shoulders merely for the asking. But the Philippine Islands are a long way off. The mere journey takes more time than most of us can consecutively spare to public uses. And so, being myself free to go, and having some previous experience in field investigation, I determined to make an attempt to serve my fellow countrymen by collecting for their use the material that their own obligations preclude their collecting for themselves. Arrived in Manila, that delightful town, I addressed myself at once to the principal Filipino personages. I was received with the utmost courtesy and cordiality and for weeks enjoyed social intercourse and many conferences with the chief figures in Filipino upper life. The limit of my entertainments was the limit that I myself imposed. I found the people interesting, intelligent, charming, appealing. And to each with whom I deliberately talked, I made this careful preliminary statement: "Your emissaries in Washington are asking for the independence of these Islands. The question is one that the people of America must decide—a grave question, of grave responsibility. And we know so little about your Islands that our actual knowledge is almost nothing at all. The best thing would be for us all to come and see. But that very few of us can do. And it is this that brings me here now. "I want to report you and your country to my own people. Whatever you say and whatever my eyes see, I will do my best faithfully to convey to them without any colour or favour. And if you desire it, in reporting you I will withhold your name, although to do so weakens testimony. "I intend, to the best of my ability, to see all elements in your body social— your friends and your opponents, the learned and the unlearned, the rich and the poor, not here in Manila alone, but as far as may be, all over these Islands. And I shall try to get at every one's views and learn all that I can concerning them, everywhere alike and fairly. "Then I will write it in a book. And my own people, I hope, will see and trust the purpose behind the book and will feel that they get, from the result, something on which to start the working of their minds. "Finally, I want you to know that I come here as ignorant concerning you as the most uninformed person now in America; that I have no pre- possessions, no friendships, no alliances that can in any way influence my judgment; that I come wholly without connections with any cause or organization, without commitment to any publication or party, and entirely at my own expense, as a volunteer, whose one hope is to do a bit of work that will serve both sides of the water. For the question is one question—a question of light on duty, toward the common good." I hope they wholly understood and believed me. I know they were exceedingly kind, offering their services in every way to help my study. In particular, one influential and intelligent lady, Mrs. Jaime de Veyra, was ready to put aside all her personal affairs to accompany me over the Islands, wherever I might elect to go, to act as interpreter and guide. But, delightful and useful as under other circumstances the plan would have been, I could accept no medium through which to get my facts, whose whole value must rest on their first-hand quality. In accordance with which principle I made it a rule, throughout, to see all witnesses privately, and to choose my own roads and times and places, independent of any guidance. I used no Government conveyances, and received no Governmental favours, excepting in the granting of access to statistics and records, and in credentials to Filipino Governors of distant Provinces—the proper right, on demand, of any reputable American citizen. And I have done my best. That means, alas, that although those who until now have had no spokesman, neither any way of reaching the public ear, will be pleased with the result, others will be outraged and hurt. And although these last are far fewer than the first, I have so warm a feeling for them almost all that I heartily regret the necessity of wounding a single one. This book, then, is written for the American citizen who knows, of the Philippine Islands, that they lie somewhere in the Pacific Ocean; that Admiral Dewey took them for us in the Spanish War; that some people think them an object of interest to a hungry Japan; and—at a stretch—that they produce cheap cigars and "Manila rope." Such a foundation will bear, perhaps, the support of another fact or two to carry to-day's picture. For example: There are in the lot 3,141 islands and islets, of which only about two-thirds are inhabited. Taken altogether, their area about equals Arizona's. One of them, Luzon, is as big as Ohio; another, Mindanao, is as big as Indiana. Of the rest 2,775 measure less than one square mile apiece. They lie in a half- moon, hugging the east coast of Asia. Their latitude is about that of the stretch from the City of Mexico to southern Panama. Their climate varies. In the high mountains of Luzon oaks and pines grow among tree-ferns, and films of ice may form of nights on standing water; while in Mindanao, even as the glorious sea-breeze blows, a white man's skin starts dripping, night or day, whenever he stirs. Periods of heavy rainfall, alternating with dry periods, form their general changes; to which may be added typhoons in season. Some islands—some localities—are fever holes that eat you alive, and some again are fairly healthful—with which difference the presence or absence of Uncle Sam has much to do. The majority are beautiful in one way or another, with volcanic peaks or forest stretches, lakes, open plains, or mountain ranges. And they produce sugar, hemp, copra, timber, tobacco, rubber, and a few things more. According to the Wood-Forbes Report estimate, the foreign population of the Archipelago comprised, in 1919, 55,212 Chinese, 12,636 Japanese, 6,931 Americans, 1,202 British, 4,271 Spaniards and 2,893 other nationals—as Swiss, German, French, etc.—altogether 83,145. The Reports' estimate of the native population, at the same date, was 10,956,730. The foreigners in the Islands, in the year 1920 (The United States and the Philippines, D. R. Williams), comprised less than one per cent of the population and rendered 5,852 income tax returns, as against 3,667 returns rendered by the Filipinos, representing ninety-nine per cent of the population. Total number of votes cast in the General Election of 1919 672,122 Estimated degree of literacy, about 37% Total daily newspaper circulation 131,400 Number of ethnological tribes 43 Number of distinct dialects spoken 87 Total wealth of the Island $5,500,000,000 Average income of the average Christian Filipino family of five persons, per year $70 Estimated Insular income for 1924 $34,488,580 Total of estimated duties that would have been collected on Philippine products exported to the United States in 1922 had duties been levied and assessed as on foreign goods in accordance with the taxes provided in the U. S. Tariff Act of 1922 $39,337,220 Per capita revenue from taxation in 1923 $3.50 Total land area under cultivation (10% of the whole territory) 11,503 sq. miles Value of cultivated land $229,000,000 Total area of forest-land of commercial value 64,880 sq. miles Percentage of forest-land belonging to the Government 99% Proportion of urban property owned by Americans and other foreigners 9% Proportion of urban property owned by natives 91% Proportion of taxes paid by Americans and other foreigners, approximately 80% Proportion of the positions under the Philippine Government held by Americans other than school teachers, in the year 19241 1/8% Total foreign trade of the Philippines for 1923 $208,552,737 Total Philippine Exports for 1923 $120,752,990 Total Philippine Imports for 1923 $87,799,747 Total foreign trade of the Philippines, for 1923, with the U.S. 65.3% or $136,298,285 Total foreign trade of the Philippines, for 1923, with Japan 7.6% or $15,749,553 Total foreign trade of the Philippines, for 1923, with the United Kingdom...8.2% or $21,929,918 Value of Philippine exports to the United States for 1909 (The Islands were granted free trade with U. S. in October, 1909.) $14,847,918 Value of Philippine exports to the United States in 1923 $132,387,472 Distance to nearest Japanese territory 66 miles Distance to nearest Dutch territory 43 miles Distance to nearest British territory 20 miles Distance from Manila to Hong Kong 630 miles The Philippine Islands, to-day, are United States territory.

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