. Philippine life in town and country. workersamong the women, is large in Manila. But theproportion of day-labourers in and about the riverand bay, of fishermen, and of cultivators of fruitsand vegetables in the citys suburbs and environs,is much greater than the advocates of the admis-sion of coolie labour would admit. That privatecontractors should desire to secure coolie labour-ers, whom they can import under contract,holding them to their labour by the aid of lawand authority, and herding them together assuits their purpose in executing a contract, is notstrange. It is true also that the
. Philippine life in town and country. workersamong the women, is large in Manila. But theproportion of day-labourers in and about the riverand bay, of fishermen, and of cultivators of fruitsand vegetables in the citys suburbs and environs,is much greater than the advocates of the admis-sion of coolie labour would admit. That privatecontractors should desire to secure coolie labour-ers, whom they can import under contract,holding them to their labour by the aid of lawand authority, and herding them together assuits their purpose in executing a contract, is notstrange. It is true also that the comparative successattained by the Government in the employmentof large numbers of Filipino labourers on the ex-tensive new harbour works of Manila, under thearmy quartermaster department, and as day-labourers in one or other branch of the civilgovernments activities, has been in part securedthrough the paying by the Government of a highrate of wages; but it is not less true that it hasbeen brought about also by consulting the tastes. City Dwellers 97 and dispositions of the native workmen, by secur-ing so far as possible foremen and overseers withsome tact and forbearance, and by building forthe workmen their little settlements wherein thefamilies could live, supplying them with the tra-ditional amusements, etc. Disregarding entirelythe activities of the Government as an employerof unskilled labour, it is quite certain that thework of Manila could not go on for a single daywithout the aid of large numbers of native work-men who perform relatively hard tasks for thetropics. The native workman of Manila is by nomeans purely an ornamental workman, of thesort which some observers say the Malays else-where are fitted alone to be. Aside from the trade and transportation activi-ties of the capital, on river and bay, in the streetsand at the terminus of the only railroad line thearchipelago at present has, \a large part of thework performed in connection with manufactur-ing industries
Size: 1090px × 2291px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidphilippinelifein00lero
