It is frequently said in disparagement of the Filipinos that they will not work, but this is answered conclusively by a patent and ever present fact, viz., that they produce their own food, make their own clothes, build their own homes and in other ways supply their needs. They have not the physical strength of the average American, nor have they the experience in machine labor or in the organization of work, but they will do more physical labor than a white man can perform in this climate and they have shown themselves capable of doing the finer kinds of work when instructed. They are also capable of successful co-operative effort when under efficient guidance. One of the commission informed me that the street car system lately inaugurated in Manila was put in at a labor cost of 40 per cent below the estimate, the work being done by Filipino laborers under an American contractor. This is certainly an excellent showing. The operating force is composed of Filipinos and the cars are run very successfully.
The superintendent of the railroad from Manila to Dagupan, an Englishman, speaks very highly of the Filipinos employed on the road. He says that he uses natives entirely for the train service and that he has not had an accident on the road during the thirteen years of its operation.
A large company of men were unloading stone and gravel from barges near our hotel, and they were as industrious and as cheerful a lot of workmen as one could wish to see. They carried the material in baskets and accomplished more, so far as I could judge, than the coolies whom I saw at similar work in China. The Filipino demands better treatment than that accorded to the coolie, but when employed by those who understand him and show him proper consideration, he is both competent and faithful.
In the government printing office nearly nine-tenths of the employés are natives (and the proportion is increasing), and Mr. Leach, the public printer, informed me that they readily learned the work and were able to run the typesetting machines and presses, do the bookbinding and stereotyping and other skilled work connected with the office. The newspaper offices of the city also employ native labor, and I need not remind my readers that the members of the various typographical unions of the United States are among the most intelligent of our skilled laborers. We visited the largest tobacco factory in Manila, the Germinal, and found between twelve and fifteen hundred men and women making cigars and cigarettes by hand and by machine. There are several smaller factories, and all are operated by native labor.