The New Era in the Philippines Author:Arthur Judson Brown General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1903 Original Publisher: F. H. Revell company Subjects: Missions Philippines History / Asia / Southeast Asia Literary Collections / General Religion / Christianity / History Religion / Christian Ministry / Missions Religion / Christian Church / History Notes: T... more »his is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: VII THE LABOR PROBLEM IN THE PHILIPPINES The unwillingness of the Filipino to work is a serious problem in the development of the Islands. He does not lead " the strenuous life." Rich soil, perpetual summer, and simple wants are not conducive to hard labor. Little toil is necessary in a land where bananas, cocoanuts, and hemp grow spontaneously, and where sugar cane, once fairly started, thrives so vigorously that weeds cannot compete with it. A few hours' work with a bolo will construct a hut of bamboo, and the leaves of the abundant nipajalm will thatch it. Clothing is an equally simple matter in that soft climate. I repeatedly saw men and children of the lower classes with only a loin cloth, and the latter often arrayed only in the atmosphere, while the women drape themselves tastefully in a pretty homemade cloth of cocoanut fibre. In the cities, however, men in neat white suits and women in silk are common. In such circumstances, life is taken more easily than by the Scotchman, the Yankee, or the Chinese, who have to contend against a sterner climate and a more unresponsive soil. The American public school superintendent in Dumaguete spenta fruitless forenoon, during my visit, in the effort to hire a cart to haul a teacher's baggage to a village four miles distant. Scores of carts were idle, but " why should a man go four miles in the sun when it...« less