27
wage of $10.00 per month. A good cigar can be obtained in Manila for one cent.
Mr. Edward Rosenberg, an American, while in Manila, in a letter says: "Considering the very small wages paid the Filipino workers, the poor and scanty food they necessarily live on, they are, next to the Chinese, the cheapest and best workers of the Orient. They live in light shacks built of bamboo and covered with leaves; cast of building from $20 to $70. The number of Chinese living on the Island estimated to be between 100,000 and 350,000."
Mr. William Bancker, of Springfield, Mass., sent the following letter to George W. Perkins, President of the Cigar Makers' Union:
"I served two years in the Philippines in the army, mostly around Manila, and out of curiosity I visited a number of shops there. Now, every soldier knows the uncleanliness of the average Filippino, and if you ask him he will tell you that many a poor fellow came home in a box by too close association with them as they are poison to the white man. They are affected with a skin disease, and a large majority are covered with open sores or scars. Leprosy, beri-beri, cholera, beubonic plague and other infectious diseases, are, as everyone knows, prevalent there. They sit half naked and work and scratch, while the air is rank with the smell of decayed fish and rank cocoanut oil, which the women use on their hair. Now, imagine one of these natives, whose teeth have rotted black by the constant chewing of the betel-nut, biting out heads, which I took particular notice to see if they did, and using their spittle to help paste the heads on their work, and you can form some idea of what the American smoker will get when the trust dumps these far-famed Manila cigars on the market. The United States government spends thousands of dollars to quarantine against these Asiatic diseases and when one leaves the island for this country, himself and effects are thoroughly disinfected, and in the face of all this, our law makers propose to put their seal of approval on this bill which will put into the mouths of thousands of citizens, a most prolific means of contagion, and if as I firmly believe, it will be the means of infecting these filthy Asiatic diseases into the blood of the American people the present administration can thank itself for it. I believe that even the trust smoker, if he has these things brought forcefully upon him, will think twice before purchasing these goods."
In this summary of a single industry only the
