CHAPTER XXXII
IMPROVED MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
The improvement in means of communication which has taken place in the Philippines since the American occupation is almost revolutionary. I well remember my tribulations in the Spanish days, resulting from the inadequacy of the mail system. There were long delays in receiving letters sent from Manila to the more important towns in the archipelago, but if, as was usually the case with us, one was living in a small and more or less isolated provincial town, he was fortunate to get his letters at all. They would be forwarded from place to place by irresponsible native carriers, and under the most favourable circumstances were likely to be greatly delayed in transmission. There was little respect for the privacy of letters. On one occasion I arrived at Joló, confidently expecting a large mail, only to be disappointed. A week later my companion, Dr. Bourns, was calling upon a German resident of that place. Lying in a waste-basket he saw a letter written in a hand which he recognized as that of one of my friends. He thereupon called upon the German to deliver any other letters he might have for me, and some were produced, but others had been thrown away! We found that our mail had begun to come prior to our arrival, and as the Spanish postmaster did not know any persons named Bourns or Worcester he turned it over to this man to see whether he could make out whom it was for. The latter opened the letters, read them, and threw them away.
But this was not the worst of it. There was a time when for months I received no letters, and my companion no newspapers or magazines. Then the arrangement was reversed. I got my letters but no papers or magazines, while he had papers but no letters.
Under the Spanish régime letter carriers in Manila received the munificent salary of $46 per annum, but were authorized to collect a charge of three-quarters of a cent on every article of mail delivered by them, except letters from foreign countries and letters passing between persons living in Manila.
The Spanish government did not admit general merchandise to the mails, but accepted only samples and medicine. We admit all classes of merchandise except certain objectionable things and certain articles dangerous to the mails or to those handling them. We have increased the maximum allowable weight of mail packages to eleven pounds, and on January 1, 1913, established a "collect on delivery" service under which merchants and others may send goods through the mails and have the charges thereon collected from the addressee before delivery. These are important and valuable extensions of the service, and greatly benefit the Filipinos as well as the merchants by bringing people throughout the islands into touch with shops from which they can order the goods they need.
It is difficult to determine the difference in the amounts of business done under the Spanish and American systems for the reason that the Spanish figures are in many cases obviously unreliable. The latest available statistics, for the fiscal year 1893, show an enormous discrepancy between the amount of mail matter claimed to have been transported and the revenue received, which should theoretically have been about twice as large as seems to have been collected. It is believed, however, that the following figures are fairly reliable.
The number of post-offices has increased from four hundred sixty-six to five hundred ninety. It is anticipated that one hundred fifty additional post-offices will be established in smaller municipalities and out-of-the-way places within the present year, and as it is these places are receiving postal service through the employment of competent letter-carriers, who are collecting and delivering their mails.
Only sixty-five of the Spanish post-offices were in charge of officials employed by the general government. The remaining four hundred one were looked after in a way by local municipal officials. All postmasters are now paid by the general government.
The mails are being carried with much greater frequency than ever before. During the last year there were 273 contract routes on which mails were carried a total of 873,957 miles at a cost of $40,440.75.
So far as can be judged from the figures available the mails despatched from the islands during the fiscal year 1912 were about five times those annually despatched during the late years of the Spanish régime.
In 1893 nine parcel post packages were sent to foreign countries. In 1912, 2640 such parcels went abroad. In 1893 the number of registered articles transmitted between Philippine post-offices was 29,078. In 1912 it was 535,137. The increased use of newspapers is shown by the fact that in 1893 the weight of the newspapers mailed for delivery within the Philippines was 121,070 pounds, while in 1912 it was 687,568 pounds. This difference is no doubt largely due to the severe restrictions imposed on the press under the Spanish régime as compared with the freedom which it enjoys to-day.
The Spanish postal administration paid little attention to complaints by Filipinos relative to losses of articles transmitted through the mails. Now the most trivial complaint is painstakingly investigated, and only in rare cases is there failure to recover the value of lost or stolen articles from the postal employee responsible. The sanctity of the mails which now prevails is an important factor in the increased use which the people make of them. It is claimed that under the Spanish régime few matters of importance were intrusted to the mails by Filipinos because their letters were so frequently opened and inspected by government officials.
The Spaniards had four subsidized mail routes after 1897. We have nine subsidized routes, and six others which are maintained wholly at government expense by the Bureau of Navigation.
The Spanish government provided no postal money-order service whatever, and the transmission of money by mail with safety was impossible. We have 265 money-order post-offices and during 1912 issued 160,524 money-orders payable in the islands, the total sum of which was $5,592,205.85. We also issued 68,229 orders amounting to $1,764,608.02 payable in the United States, and 2607 orders amounting to $68,364.83 payable in other countries. These amounts were transmitted largely by Filipinos, who now do a considerable mail order business with merchants in the United States.
A further great convenience not furnished by the Spanish government is the payment of money-orders transmitted by telegraph. During the last fiscal year there were forwarded 8333 such orders, covering payments amounting to $1,128,229.79.
The improvement in the telegraph service has been quite as marked as that in the mail service. In 1897 there were only 65 telegraph offices in the islands, 49 of which were on the island of Luzón, 9 on Panay, 4 on Negros and 3 on Cebú. The total length of all telegraph lines was some 1750 miles. There were no cables or other means of telegraphic communication between the islands.
Practically all of the old lines were destroyed during the revolution which began in 1896, so that the lines now existing must be considered as having been built since the American occupation. There are 282 telegraph offices with 4781 miles of land line and in addition 1362 miles of marine cable and 7 wireless stations in operation. Every provincial capital, with the exception of Basco in the remote Batanes Islands, and Butuan in Agusan Province, now has telegraphic facilities as does almost every other place of commercial importance in the Philippines. The advantage of prompt telegraphic communication with such outlying points as Puerto Princesa, Joló, Zamboanga, Davao, Surigao and the east coast of Samar is enormous, while the extension of the cable service to Catanduanes has been a great boon to the hemp growers of that island. The latest available figures relative to the telegraphic business conducted by the Spaniards are for the year 1889, during the second six months of which there were handled 33,697 commercial telegrams. During the fiscal year 1912 our business of the same class reached a total of 496,643 telegrams. This class of business has been increasing from 25 to 30 per cent yearly for several years.
The expenditures of the Spanish government for all postal and telegraphic service for the fiscal year 1895 amounted to $484,960.50. Those of the Bureau of Posts for 1912 were $1,072,684.48. No statement of the Spanish revenues can be found. Our revenues for 1912 were $627,724.70. The personnel of the Spanish service for 1895 shows only 31 positions paying salaries of more than $500 per year, most of which were filled by Spaniards. There are now 96 positions paying salaries of more than $500 per year filled by Filipinos. Filipino post-office employees receive salaries 50 to 100 per cent larger than those of employees of similar rank during the Spanish régime. Think how much these figures mean in increased opportunity for employment of Filipinos, and in increased communication not only between the people in the islands but between them and the outside world.
In a number of instances the telegraph lines which are controlled by the Bureau of Posts are supplemented by provincial telephone systems, which are of great value in maintaining quick communication with towns not reached by telegraph wires. Such lines are especially useful in the Mountain Province, Mindoro, Palawan, Nueva Vizcaya, and the sub-province of Bukidnon, where messengers who travel by land have to go on horseback or on foot.
The following table shows the growth of the postal and telegraph business of the Islands:--
Post-Office and Telegraph Statistics
-----------+-----------------------+----------+------------------------ | Money Orders Sold | | Telegraph Receipts +------------+----------+ +-------------+---------- Fiscal | | Increase | Postage | | Increase Year | | (+) or | Receipts | | (+) or | Amount | decrease | | Amount | decrease | | (-) | | | (-) -----------+------------+----------+----------+-------------+---------- | | Per cent | | | 1900 | $1,526,310 | | $117,848 | | 1901 | 1,514,435 | - 1 | 122,833 | | 1902 | 1,854,927 | +22 | 126,375 | | 1903 | 2,842,587 | +53 | 132,445 | | 1904 | 3,102,606 | + 9 | 121,714 | | 1905 | 3,444,053 | +11 | 121,648 | | 1906 | 3,687,127 | + 7 | 198,583 |[163]$56,351 | 1907 | 3,229,446 | -12 | 198,546 | 118,360 | +110 1908 | 3,645,123 | +13 | 220,306 | 136,138 | + 15 1909 | 4,008,678 | +10 | 245,482 | 139,208 | + 2 1910 [164] | 4,890,835 | +22 | 282,317 | 168,402 | + 21 1911 | 6,132,582 | +25 | 313,549 | 184,555 | + 9 1912 | 7,425,173 | +21 | 349,407 | 236,679 | + 28 1913 [165] | 8,272,858 | + 6 | 380,942 | 283,305 | + 4 -----------+------------+----------+----------+-------------+----------
As I have elsewhere remarked, the Philippines have a coast line longer than that of the continental United States. A very large percentage of the municipalities are situated on, or close to, the sea and the maintenance of adequate marine transportation is therefore a matter of vital importance to the peace and commercial prosperity of the archipelago. In the early days of American occupation conditions were most unsatisfactory. Most of the boats in the coastwise trade were antiquated, foul and had no decent facilities for transporting passengers. As the number of vessels was too small to handle the business of the country, ship-owners occupied a very independent position. The freight rates on such things as lumber and currency were practically prohibitive. It was a common thing for vessels to refuse to receive hemp, sugar and perishable products that had been brought to the beach for shipment, giving as an excuse the fact that they were employed in the private business of Messrs. Smith, Bell & Co., Warner, Barnes & Co., or whoever happened to own them, and could not transport freight for the public as the volume of their private business would not permit it. However, if the owners of the freight were willing to sell it to the ships' officers for a fraction of its value, they encountered no difficulty in transporting it!
Furthermore, there existed the danger of Moro raids, the necessity for checking the operations of smugglers, and that of preventing the ingress of firearms, which in the hands of irresponsible persons might cause great damage and expense to the government and the public.
In view of these facts it was decided to establish a fleet of twenty coast-guard vessels, which were not only to do police duty and to assist in the transportation of troops, but were to carry freight and passengers when opportunity offered. Fifteen such vessels were ordered from Messrs. Farnham, Boyd & Co., of Shanghai, and five from the Uraga Dock Company of Japan. The Japanese vessels proved unsatisfactory, and only two were accepted, making the total fleet seventeen. As the condition of public order improved the coast-guard boats became available to a constantly increasing extent for commercial service.
Prior to July, 1906, there were practically no established steamship routes over which commercial vessels operated on regular schedules. With the exception of the service between Manila, Cebú and Iloílo, vessels traded here and there without regular ports of call or fixed dates of arrival or departure. The policy which guided their owners was one of privilege and monopoly, and by agreement between them competition was rigidly excluded. Trade was discouraged and the commercial development of the islands seriously retarded.
In accordance with a plan formulated by Mr. Forbes, then secretary of commerce and police, the coast-guard vessels were placed on regular commercial routes and were operated on schedules which gave efficient service to all important islands of the archipelago. Ten routes were maintained and many isolated points, and small towns or villages which offered so little business at the outset as to make them unprofitable, and therefore unattractive as ports of call for commercial vessels, were put in close communication with the larger towns and distributing centres, so that the small planters could market their products with little trouble. This promptly led to increased production and trade, and greater prosperity through the islands.
Business increased to such an extent that in July, 1906, it proved practicable to withdraw the government vessels and turn these routes over to commercial firms which entered into a definite contract with the government to maintain an adequate service. Their vessels were allowed substantial subsidies, amounting in the aggregate to $100,000 per year, in order to assure the prompt despatch of mail, adherence to schedule, and efficient service. The ten old coast-guard routes were divided into fourteen new commercial routes which gave excellent service to all parts of the islands.
Secondary routes were then arranged and coast-guard cutters were placed on them. A number of these were in turn given over to commercial vessels after they had developed enough trade to be commercially profitable. Three such routes are now maintained by the Bureau of Navigation, and it is planned to establish two more in the near future.
The importance of the change thus brought about by the government in transportation facilities can be appreciated only by those who have had actual experience with the intolerable state of affairs which previously existed. Meanwhile conditions on the inter-island steamers have been enormously improved by the enforcement of proper sanitary regulations, and insistence that staterooms be decent and food reasonably good.
Of the original cutters two were for a long time under charter by the military authorities for use as despatch boats and transports; two are employed as lighthouse tenders, and two have been assigned to the Bureau of Coast Surveys for coast and geodetic work; one collects lepers and takes them to the Leper Colony at Culion. The cable-ship Rizal, operated by the Bureau of Navigation, has succeeded in repairing and keeping in repair the marine cables throughout the islands. Such cables are especially subject to injury in Philippine waters on account of the strength of the currents between the islands, the frequency with which stretches of sea bottom are overgrown with sharp coral, and the common occurrence of earthquakes. When not otherwise engaged the Rizal carries commercial cargoes if opportunity offers. She has proved useful for bringing in rice when a shortage of this commodity, which is the bread of the Filipino people, threatened, and for handling cargoes of lumber of sizes such that regular inter-island steamers could not load it.
In addition to the vessels above mentioned, the Bureau of Navigation owns and operates a fleet of launches, some of which are seagoing, and a number of dredges which are employed in improving the harbours and rivers of the islands as funds permit. The bureau also owns and operates its own machine shop and marine railway, and repairs its own vessels.
A section of the machine shop is set aside for lighthouse work, and in it lighthouse apparatus of every description is fabricated and repaired. While lighthouses and buoys are not means of communication they are aids to it.
The thousand and ninety-five inhabited islands and approximately two hundred and fifty ports of varying importance, depending as they do entirely upon water transportation for communication with each other and with the outside world, had no wharfage whatever available for large vessels, and no publicly owned wharfage within ten yards of which even the larger inter-island steamers could be berthed. Manila had no protected anchorage, and during the season of southwest monsoons and typhoons vessels were sometimes compelled to lie in the harbour for weeks before they could unload, a fact which gave the port a deservedly bad name.
The Spaniards had commenced harbour work at Manila in 1892, twenty-five years after preliminary study began and sixteen years after prospective plans had been submitted. Their operations were stopped by the insurrection in 1896, at which time the present west breakwater had been about half completed, but as the completed portion was at the shore end and in shallow water it afforded no protection to ships. There had been constructed twenty-four hundred feet of masonry wall partly enclosing one of the basins provided for in the Spanish plans, and fourteen hundred eighty-five feet of wall lining canals connecting the proposed new harbour with the Pasig River. These also were temporarily useless, because there had been no dredging in front of them, or backfilling in their rear.
Outside of Manila practically nothing had been done to facilitate the loading and discharge of vessels, or to protect them from the elements.
We now have at Manila a deep-water harbour dredged to a uniform depth of thirty feet and enclosed by two breakwaters having a total length of nearly eleven thousand five hundred feet. Two hundred and sixty-one acres of land have been reclaimed with the dredged material. Two steel piers extend from the filled land into the deep-water harbour. One of these is six hundred fifty feet long and one hundred ten feet wide, the other six hundred feet long and seventy feet wide. Both are housed in, the sheds covering them having a total area of ninety-two thousand square feet. These piers and sheds are practically fireproof, and the largest ocean-going steamers on the Pacific can lie alongside them. Additional work planned, which should be undertaken when funds permit, includes two more piers; and bulkheads to connect the inner ends of the present piers, so as to give inter-island steamers opportunity to unload.
At Cebú the sea-wall has been completed to a length of two thousand sixty feet and the channel in front of it dredged in part to ten and a half and in part to twenty-three feet at low water. Some ten and a half acres of land have been reclaimed with the material removed. Streets and roadways have been built on the reclaimed area, and a wharf eight hundred twelve feet in length, designed as an extension to the wall, is now fifty per cent completed. The harbour at Cebú should ultimately be dredged so as to give thirty feet of water along the piers.
At Iloílo the dredging of a fifteen-foot channel up to the custom-house was completed in March, 1907. Seven hundred and eighty-three feet of river wall and twelve hundred ninety feet of reënforced concrete wharf, both to accommodate vessels of eighteen feet draft at low water, have been built along the south bank of the middle reach of the river. The lower reach has been dredged to twenty-four feet at low water, the middle reach to eighteen feet and the upper reach to fifteen feet, while two hundred ten thousand square metres of land have been reclaimed and two hundred six thousand improved with the dredged material. Wharves for ocean-going steamers should ultimately be constructed at this important port.
At Paracale, in Ambos Camarines, a reënforced concrete pier four hundred ninety feet in length has been built. It extends out to a depth of fifteen feet at low water.
At Bais, Negros, a timber pier for vessels of sixteen feet draft, with a stone causeway approach a mile and a half in length, and a warehouse for the temporary storage of sugar, have been constructed.
Channels have been blasted through the coral reefs surrounding the islands Batan, Sabtang and Itbayat in the Batanes group, where the annual loss of life had previously been great, owing to the occurrence of sudden storms which often made it impossible for people to return to their towns through the surf. The port of Pandan, in Ilocos Sur, has been improved by means of a stone revetment twenty-nine hundred seventy-five feet in length along the north bank of the Abra River, thus maintaining the channel in one position and affording vastly better means of loading and discharging cargo for the important town of Vigan. A self-propelling combination snag boat, pile driver and dredge for the improvement of the great Cagayan River has been built, and is now in operation on that stream.
Very numerous other works of repair and construction have been carried out. Some 80 surveys have been made in minor ports to determine the feasibility of improvements, and in many cases plans have been prepared for proposed work.
The Spaniards had devoted much time and study to a project for coast illumination. At the outbreak of the insurrection in 1896 they had twenty-eight lights, fourteen of which were flashing and fourteen fixed minor lights, while four additional stations were under construction. Then all work was stopped, and when systematic inspection was made by American lighthouse engineers five years later, extensive repairs were found to be necessary. The repairs were made as promptly as possible, and new construction then began. To-day there are a hundred forty-five lights in operation, and the waters of the Philippines are among the best lighted in the world. One hundred and eleven buoys of various classes are being maintained.
The following table shows the progress made in the construction of lighthouses:--
Fiscal Year Light-houses in Operation
1902 57 1903 66 1904 76 1905 89 1906 105 1907 117 1908 129 1909 139 1910 143 1911 142 1912 145 1913 [166] 145
In all nearly $7,000,000 have been expended in the improvement of ports and harbours, and about $750,000 in the construction of lights.
At the time of the American occupation, knowledge of the waters of the archipelago was in a most unsatisfactory state. There was not even an accurate chart of Manila Bay. Navigating officers followed certain well-known trade routes which experience had shown to be safe, but did not dare to leave them. Uncharted dangers were soon discovered at Iloilo and in other important ports, and the necessity for a systematic survey of the waters became immediately apparent.
On September 6, 1901, the Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Surveys was organized. The work is conducted under a joint agreement such that it is supervised by the superintendent of coast and geodetic surveys at Washington, who is represented in the Philippines by an officer called the director of coast surveys. The latter reports to the head of the insular government so far as concerns the expenditure of funds furnished by that government, which has the power of approval over his assignment to duty. There is a division of expenses between the two governments. The United States has paid approximately fifty-five per cent of the total cost, and the insular government has paid the balance.
The Bureau is engaged in a systematic survey of the coasts, harbours and waters of the Philippine Islands and of the topography of the shore-line. It determines positions astronomically and by triangulation, investigates reported dangers to navigation, and observes tides, currents and the magnetic elements. Five steamers are now engaged in this very important work. It is estimated that fifty-four per cent of the surveys of the coast and adjacent waters have already been completed. When one remembers that the coast-line of the Philippines is longer than that of the continental United States, one realizes that this is a remarkable achievement.
The Bureau has published one hundred twenty-four charts covering the entire boundaries of the islands, and six volumes of sailing directions which are kept constantly up to date by additions whenever new facts of importance to mariners are ascertained. The greater part of the information thus made available represents results obtained by the Bureau, but these are supplemented by the most reliable data that can be obtained from other sources.
The following table shows the number of miles of coast surveyed at the end of each year, beginning with 1901:--
Number of Miles of Coast Surveyed
Fiscal Year Miles
1901 89 1902 576 1903 1,208 1904 1,921 1905 2,415 1906 3,041 1907 4,536 1908 6,109 1909 7,126 1910 8,763 1911 9,992 1912 11,308 1913 [167] 11,748
Not only have all important waterways through the islands been surveyed and lighted, but travel and the transportation of merchandise on land have been enormously facilitated by the construction of additional railways and of a system of first-, second- and third-class roads and of trails.
Prior to 1907 the only railroad line in operation in the Philippines was the so-called Manila-Dagupan Railway, which was 122 miles long.
The following table shows the steady increase in mileage since that time and also the steady increase in railroad earnings:--
Railroad Statistics
---------+-----------+-------------+----------+----------+---------------------- | Total | Earnings of | | | Earnings of Manila Fiscal | Mileage | Philippine | | Calendar | Railway Co. Year | in | Railway | Increase | Year +-----------+---------- | Operation | Co., Amount | | | Amount | Increase ---------+-----------+-------------+----------+----------+-----------+---------- 1907[168]| 122 | | | 1907 | $25,823 | 1908 | 221 | | | 1908 | 961,936 | 16 1909 | 290 | $74,815[169]| | 1909 | 1,023,812 | 6 1910 | 400 | 118,646 | 59 | 1910 | 1,233,794 | 21 1911 | 455 | 142,888 | 20 | 1911 | 1,919,244 | 56 1912 | 599 | 386,970 | 171 | 1912 | 2,304,436 | 20 1913 | 611[170] | ([171]) | | | | --------+-----------+--------------+----------+----------+-----------+----------
The north line of the Manila Railroad Company, which is the successor to the Manila and Dagupan Railway Company, now extends to Bauang in the province of La Union. It has laterals terminating at Camp One, on the Benguet Road; Rosales in Pangasinan; Mangaldang in Pangasinan; Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija; Camp Stotensburg in Pampanga; Florida Blanca in Pampanga; Montalban in Rizal, and Antipolo in Rizal.
The main south line of this road extends from Manila to Lucena in Tayabas. It has branches to Cavite in the province of the same name; to Naic in Cavite; to Pagsanján in La Laguna, and to Batangas in the Province of Batangas.
The Philippine Railway Company has built and is now operating a line on Panay which extends from Iloilo to Capiz, and a line on Cebú which extends north from the city of the same name to Danao and south to Argao.
The development of the road system is even more important than that of railroads.
The following tables show the mileage of first-, second- and third-class roads, and the total number of permanent bridges and culverts, in existence at the end of each year, beginning with 1907:--
Public Works Statistics
-------------+------------------------------------------------------- | Total Mileage of Roads in Existence +-------------+------------+--------------+------------- Fiscal Year | First-class | | Second-class | Third-class | Roads | Increase | Roads | Roads -------------+-------------+------------+--------------+------------- | | Per Cent | | 1907 | 303[172] | -- | -- | -- 1908 | 423 | 40 | -- | -- 1909 | 609 | 44 | -- | -- 1910 | 764 | 25 | 641[173] | 2,074[173] 1911 | 987 | 29 | 664 | 1,837 1912 | 1,143 | 16 | 1,342.1[173]| 1,999 1913[174] | 1,187[175] | -- | 1,305.3 | 1,967 -------------+-------------+------------+--------------+-------------
-------------+----------------------- | Total of Permanent | Bridges and Culverts Fiscal Year | in Existence +------------+---------- | Number | Per Cent -------------+------------+---------- 1907[176] | 3,280[176] | -- 1908 | 3,631 | 11 1909 | 3,865 | 6 1910 | 4,372 | 13 1911 | 4,842 | 11 1912 | 5,181 | 7 1913 | 5,660 | 9 -------------+----------+------------
The old Spanish road system was quite extensive and very well planned, but the amount of really good construction was very limited. The system of maintenance was faulty, and the abandonment of maintenance during the insurrection against Spain and the war with the United States resulted in the almost complete destruction of many roads which were in fairly good condition at the time public order became seriously disturbed. The total value of Spanish work on existing roads is estimated at $1,800,000. The total value of all American work up to June 30, 1911, is estimated at $6,100,000.
The imperative need of better highways throughout the islands was brought home by the difficulties encountered by the army during the insurrection, and the first act of the Philippine Commission, passed on the twelfth day after the commission became the legislative body of the islands, appropriated $1,000,000 ($2,000,000 Mexican) for the construction and repair of highways and bridges.
Much of this money was very advantageously expended by the military, who contributed a large amount of transportation free of cost. Unfortunately, while the necessity for roads was at this time fully appreciated, there was failure to appreciate the extraordinary rapidity with which tropical rains and vegetation destroy good roads in the Philippines. We further failed to appreciate the absolute indifference of the Filipinos themselves as to whether roads once built are or are not maintained.
One of the first large pieces of work undertaken was a road from Calamba on the Laguna de Bay to Lipa, an important town in the province of Batangas, and thence to the town of Batangas itself. This road ran for its entire extent through a rich agricultural district. I passed over it when the dirt work had all been completed, and when all but two short stretches were surfaced. I certainly had vigorously impressed upon me the necessity of surfacing. Over that portion of the road which had been so treated an automobile could have been driven at sixty miles an hour. Over the remainder of it, built by the same engineer, shaped up in the same way, and as good a dirt road as could be constructed, four mules could not haul the ambulance in which we were riding without our assistance. We had to get out and literally put our shoulders to the wheel, or tug at the spokes, in order to enable the faithful beasts to extricate the ambulance from the morasses into which the two unsurfaced stretches had been converted.
Needless to say, the surfacing was completed as soon as possible, and then came what the Filipinos call a great desengaño. [177] I venture to say that from the time the road was finished until it was completely destroyed there was never a shovelful of dirt nor a basketful of gravel placed upon it. In 1908 I attempted to drive over it in one of the two-wheeled rigs known as carromatas, which will go almost anywhere. I was upset twice in as many miles and gave up the attempt.
For a considerable time the destruction of roads almost kept pace with their construction, and until 1907 the small amount of provincial funds available usually resulted in failure to attempt repairs until both surfacing and foundation had been badly injured or destroyed. The remnants of old Spanish roads still existing, and the new roads constructed by Americans, were in danger of being wiped out. It was then decided that further insular aid for road construction should not be given until the indifference of provincial officials could be overcome, and funds provided for proper maintenance. It was further decided that roads and bridges should be considered as on a basis similar to that of other government property, and that maintenance must take precedence over new construction. Regulations providing for it were outlined and incorporated in a proposed resolution which was submitted to the several provincial boards with the information that further insular funds would not be appropriated for any province until its board passed this resolution, thereby agreeing to provide road and bridge funds by means of the so-called double cedula tax, and perpetually to maintain the heavily surfaced roads then in existence within its limits.
The cedula tax is an annual personal or poll tax. The amount originally fixed by the commission was one peso, but legislation was subsequently enacted empowering provincial boards to increase it to two pesos, the additional amount to go for road and bridge work.
Most of the provinces promptly took the suggested action, and the few which at first stood out were soon compelled by popular opinion to follow suit. It is not too much to say that real progress in permanent road and bridge construction in the Philippines dates from 1907 when the present regulation relative to maintenance was put into effect.
Provision was made for a yearly provincial maintenance appropriation of not less than $282 per mile of duly designated road. Stone kilometer posts were erected beside all improved roads.
During the rainy season one caminero, or roadman, is stationed on each kilometer section. During the dry season one caminero cares for a two-kilometer section. These men are constantly at work cutting the encroaching vegetation from the lateral banks, keeping drains clear, and immediately filling depressions in the road-bed as they appear, using for the purpose material stored in specially constructed bins placed at regular intervals and kept filled with broken stone and gravel. Heavy repair work which may be necessary after great typhoons or floods must be specially provided for.
The inspection of each kilometer of road is made as follows: daily, by the sub-foreman; bi-weekly, by the foreman; monthly, by the district engineer; and tri-monthly by the division engineer.
Under this system, in spite of unfavourable climatic conditions the reconstructed or newly constructed Philippine roads are to-day maintained far better than are most of the roads in the United States, and one may drive automobiles over them at top speed. Numerous freight and passenger automobile lines have already been established.
The average present cost of constructing heavily surfaced roads, including bridges which are apt to be numerous and expensive, is $8250 per mile.
Only first-class bridges, of concrete, masonry or steel, are permitted on main roads in the lowlands. Arbitrary enforcement of this rule is the one thing about the present road system which in my opinion affords grounds for legitimate criticism.
While no one can dispute the wisdom of constructing bridges of hard materials whenever this can be done, it is possible to carry too far the policy of limiting construction to such materials, and in my opinion it has been carried too far in a number of instances.
Years ago a good automobile road was constructed from Cagayan de Misamis to and beyond the barrio of Agusan, which is the point of departure for the main trail into the sub-province of Bukidnon. Numerous small streams on this road were bridged with reënforced concrete, but proper allowance was not made for their terrific rise during heavy rains in the highlands and almost without exception the bridges were destroyed during the first severe typhoon. Funds are not yet available for their reconstruction with strong materials. Meanwhile nothing has been done. The road is therefore impassable during heavy rains, as the streams cannot then be forded. Meanwhile, our "temporary" wooden bridges on the connecting trail system, constructed before the bridges on the coast road were built, remain intact, and render it possible always to cross streams much larger than any of those which intersect the coast road.
Of course if the hard and fast rule governing bridge construction in the lowlands is once departed from, its enforcement may become difficult. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that existing regulations should be so modified as to authorize and encourage the construction of temporary bridges in such cases as that above cited.
The enormous change which road construction has produced in ease of travel, and in reduced cost of transporting farm products, cannot be appreciated by one unfamiliar with conditions in Spanish days. Then the ordinary country road was a narrow ditch sloping in on both sides toward the bottom, this condition being brought about by failure to provide proper drainage so that there was tremendous erosion during the rainy season, at which time these so-called roads became converted into deep quagmires by the action of very narrow-tired solid wooden cart wheels, most of which were fixed upon their axles. It was not unusual to see carts in mud up to their bodies, seeming to float on it while being pulled by floundering carabaos. Many of the roads were so bad that wheeled vehicles could not be used even during the dry season, and their place was taken by so-called cangas, or bamboo sledges, which also caused rapid road destruction. When all else failed, the Filipino mounted his faithful carabao, which could swim the unbridged streams if the current was not too swift, and could successfully negotiate deep quagmires, and thus he journeyed from place to place, leaving the transportation of his products until the coming of the dry season.
The use on improved roads of cangas, and of carts with narrow-tired wheels or with wheels fixed on their axles, is now forbidden by law. The carts permitted to be used have broad tires that help to smooth the roads instead of cutting them to pieces.
As already stated, this road system is supplemented in the wilder parts of the archipelago, so far at least as the special government provinces are concerned, by a trail system which is rapidly being extended. The trails, which are at first built only wide enough to permit the passage of horses, are on grades such that they can be converted into roads by widening and surfacing, and are gradually widened in connection with the maintenance work so as to permit the passage, first of narrow-tired carts, and later of carts of ordinary width. Indeed one such trail extending from Baguio, in Benguet, to Naguilian, in the lowlands of the neighbouring province of Union, has already been sufficiently widened to permit the passage of automobiles, and the same thing can be done with any of the others when occasion requires.
It has been most interesting to note to what an extent the construction of good roads and trails and the cultivation of the land in their vicinity have gone hand in hand. The prosperity of the country has been enormously increased by the carrying out of the present sensible road policy for which Governor-General W. Cameron Forbes is primarily responsible.
The policy of the Forbes administration contemplated the steady continuance of road and bridge construction and maintenance until a complete system, which had been carefully worked out for the entire archipelago, should have been finished.
What would result if road and bridge work were turned over to a Filipino government? Judging from their absolute failure to maintain any roads until the insular government assumed control in 1907, and from the present neglect of municipalities to care for the sections of road for which they are responsible, we are justified in saying that new construction would promptly cease; maintenance would be neglected; existing roads would be destroyed; bridges would be left up in the air by the destruction of their approaches, and would ultimately go to pieces, and the whole system would come to rack and ruin.
To be sure, the Filipino politicians loudly assert that they are heartily in sympathy with the present road policy of the government, but this is largely because the securing of government aid for roads in their respective provinces increases their popularity with the people, and the probability that they will be reëlected. If it were left for them to determine whether money should be expended for this purpose or for some other which would more immediately inure to their private benefit, there can be no two opinions as to the result.
The continuance of American control for the present is absolutely essential, if proper means of communication and aids to navigation are to be established and maintained in the Philippine Islands.
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