Labor Conditions In The Philippines PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ...that in spite of all the safeguards and alleviating conditions placed around these workmen, especially by British and Dutch authorities, such contracts present aspects which public opinion in the United States--which could be influenced but slightly by purely utilitarian considerations--could not abide, and that these aspects would be revealed in the inevitable discussion which legislation to legalize such contracts would arouse. Furthermore, public sentiment in the Philippines is opposed to such contracts, and they would constitute a reactionary current in the progressive policy that we, in conjunction with the Filipinos, have adopted for that country. This is leaving entirely out of the question probable constitutional objections to what would be de facto, if not de jure, involuntary servitude in many instances. Among the large employers interviewed in the Philippines, but one let it be inferred that he would favor such contracts upon grounds connected with his own business. A few officials and business men from the United States, none of whom was an employer of importance, expressed views in favor of compulsory contracts with agricultural workmen upon purely theoretical grounds, because the common practice of colonial governments in the East seemed to justify such a policy. But it was generally agreed that the aim of the American administration in the Philippines--to make a democratic, self-governing people of the natives--is different from that of European colonial administrators, and that this aim would probably not be advanced by the introduction of an alien cooly population. Probably the only practicable solution for the pressing problem of labor supply--and the seriousness of this problem should not be underestimated--must come...