CHAPTER XV. THE CHINESE IN THE PHILIPPINES. NATURALLY the the Philippines have attracted. the Chinese. The climate is such as all Southern China enjoys, with a few degrees of heat added. The soil is fertile, and industrial and commercial opportunities are to be had for the taking. China is less than three days' sail from Northern Luzon by good native junks. Her people stand so thickly on her soil that it is with difficulty that they dig a scanty living from between their feet. It would be a marvel if the Chinaman had not entered so wide a door of opportunity as the Philippines have held before him from the earliest era of reliable history. As early as the seventh century we have sure testimony of his presence. From then until the earlier invasions, Chinese invaders and traders held large parts of Luzon in subjection, and, coming over from Formosa and Amoy in their pirate junks to harry the coast cities, they would cast in their lot with the people of the Islands, marry Filipino women, and become permanent residents. When Legaspi took the helm of Philippine affairs in 1565 he saw that it was the part of good statesmanship to protect the Chinamen whom he found in various lines of industry and commerce, and he drew up regulations looking to that end, which, for farseeing wisdom and sense of adaptation of legislation to conditions other than those of his own nation, might furnish matter to be conned with profit by some modern legislators. In 1580 the Spanish government erected a building for Chinese traders in a quarter of Manila convenient to the river and sea front. It was called the Alcayceria. It was a square of shops, with a large storeroom at the rear, and one living room over each little shop. This was soon crowded, and the overflow of Chinese traders was accommodated farther in from the bay. Later a large Chinese market was erected for them, and no Chinese traders were permitted to open shops for the sale of any goods outside of that one market. Not until 1860 was this attempt to curb the irrepressible commercial instinct of the Celestial invaders given over as impracticable. In the face of laws the most unequivocal, and in spite of penalties the most terrifying, as well as that subtle but powerful opposition born of race hatred, the Chinese spread, not only into all parts of Manila, but took up their packs and small stocks and went to large provincial cities, where their fixed prices, frugality, and power of sustained industry soon gave them the long end of the commercial lever among a class of merchants who exacted all that was possible for their inferior goods, and slept more than half the time behind closed doors. the close of the sixteenth century, Dr. Antonio Morga testifies that it would be impossible to do without this factor in the life of the country. He says, "They are workers in all trades and business, and are very industrious." At The Chinese have been the chief instructors of the Filipinos in those practical matters of agriculture and trade which to-day form the basis of the prosperity of the Archipelago. Long before the Spaniard came to the islands they had taught the growth of sugar-cane, and had put into use rude machinery for expressing the juice and making crude sugar on a large scale. The entire hemp industry, whether it is viewed on the side of production or placing in the markets of the world, owes its introduction to the notice of the Filipino people to the enterprise and industry of the despised Chinaman. The making of cocoanut oil, and the entire copra industry would have come to nothing commercially without Chinese capital and Chinese labor in the beginning. Foreman practically lived in the Philippines for fifteen years, and his testimony is as follows: "Again, but for the Chinese coolie competition, constant labor from the native would be almost unprocurable. The native day-laborer would work two or three days, and then suddenly disappear. The active Chinaman goes day after day to his task (excepting only at the time of the Chinese New-Year, in January or February), and can be depended upon. Thus the native is pushed by alien competition to bestir himself. Only a small minority of the laboring class will put their hands to work without an advance on their wages, and men who earn $8 per month will often demand as much as $25 to $40 advance without any guarantee whatThe Chinese very rarely expect payment until they have given value for it. Only the direst necessity will make an unskilled native laborer continue several weeks at work for a wage which is only paid when due." soever. Nevertheless they have always been an unwelcome race. After Legaspi had passed away, and rulers of a narrower outlook came to power, restriction began to be invented and applied to the coming of the Chinese, and to their free entry into industrial and commercial lines. This opposition at one time reached to the promulgation of a peremptory order for their total expulsion. The authorities knew that to carry that decree out in all literalness would call for an army such as Spain never dreamed of sending, and that its enforcement would stop the wheels of business, and throw the colony into bankruptcy. Hence a way was found to evade the execution of so foolish an order. It was gravely announced that the archbishop believed such action would "prejudice public interests." In a former chapter some details of the massacres of Chinese were given. But it was not stated that the Chinese quarters in Manila were always commanded by batteries in order that at any time the hated alien, with his terrible industry, might be cannonaded into subjection, and so that he would at all times feel the precarious character of his hold upon his home and goods. To this day this hatred exists. Filipino drivers of public conveyances will go out of their way to run down Chinese coolies carrying their baskets. in the streets. I have seen the most wanton cases of this form of petty persecution. Hardworking and unoffending men are crippled, and sometimes killed outright, by the fury of Filipinos who will not work, and who are mad out of measure with the Chinaman because he' will work. Massacres of Chinese have occurred at intervals since early in the seventeenth century when twenty-four thousand were put to death within a week! Again, in 1639, in Laguna province, the intolerable exaction of the governor and a favorite doctor drove the Chinese into rebellion, and thousands were put to death. An edict was published calling upon "all good Catholics" to put an end to the last Chinaman in the province, but happily this was not entirely possible. The year 1660 saw another bloody but futile attempt to drive this alien toiler away. During nearly all these years of persecution and strife the Chinese kept gaining power in the business world. They adopted all kinds of expedients to curry favor with |