Unofficial letters of an official's wife [by] Edith Moses.

UNOFFICIAL LETTERS OF

of the natives the more I am convinced that he understands how to manage them. The great question
now is how to get the people back to work. They
have become so accustomed to loafing that it is
almost impossible to get them to do anything. Batangas was the garden spot of Luzon. It was covered with fine haciendas of sugar, coffee, tobacco,
and rice. Now it is a jungle. We did not see a
man working between Batangas and Taal, nor a cultivated field. The common people were not poor
before the war, they all had saved money and buried
it. For three years they have been living on what
the soil produces spontaneously and their savings.
Now they are destitute, but they do not want to
work. In towns where soldiers have been quartered,
almost the entire population depends on the money
spent by the government and soldiers. The town of
Batangas is so prosperous it is difficult to get a
muchacho, or a man to do any kind of work. Small
saloons and places for selling beer and sweets are
seen everywhere, and it certainly does not argue
well for the future of this country that we are teaching these natives the use of whisky. The present
prosperity comes from the presence of the military,
and it is a prosperity that will decline as soon as the
garrison is removed. One of the many reasons why
towns where soldiers are being withdrawn have
petitioned that they may remain, is the fact that the
money spent by the soldiers and civilian employees
330