October 21, 1899.
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Vol. LXIV.
OCTOBER 21, 1S99.
No. 1649
OWING to rather larger professional dealings than we hâve
been accustomed to see of late, the Stock Market took on
a more lively air this week. There was some public interest
distinctly observable. Such as there was found expression in
promising issues that hâve held back from the gênerai advance,
and whose gootl prospects force them on the attention of buyers,
The professional dealings are, of course.guided by the prospective
conditions of the money market. At the moment Europe may
draw gold from us, although it is such a short time since it moved
this way. Nothing could better illustrate the sharp demand that
exists for loanabîe funds than this prompt call for balances when¬
ever they are created, either by trade or the manipulation of ex¬
change. The conditions of the money market for the near future
dépends to a considérable extent upon Europe, which is likely
to draw upon our market whenever it has the opportunity, Not
only bave ordinary demands over there created scareity, but the
extraordinary facts of the cutting off the Transvaal contribution
â– to the world's supply of gold, and the necessity the British Gov¬
ernment will be under to become a borrower to meet war re-
-quirements, wil! make this more severe. The conditions on the
other side of the Atlantic will be more or less reflected on this,
and correspondingly affect our spéculative, if not also our invest¬
ment, markets. Yesterday's war news gave encouragement to the
London market, and the announcement of new developments of
a favorable nature on this side, served to give tlie market (julte
a confident tone.
Y ERY little importance need be attached to the talk of a
European coalition against Great Britain and in favor of
the South African republics. Whatever progress may hâve been
made towards an understanding, it will be baulked by officiai
Germany playing the part towards Great Britain, that the latter
officiai and civil played toward the United States at the outbreak
of the war with Spain. Moreover, however d,esirous Russia and
France may be to obstruct Great Britain, it is not out of any
love for the Dutch in South Afriea, and if they contemplate a
diversion in their favor, it is because of that ever dominant fac¬
tor in foreign politics, the prospective China trade. Like the
rest of the world, they foresee ultimate victory for the British
arms, but the Russian and French statesmen are also astute
enough to see something more, and that a something inimical to
their own interests. Tbe close of the Boer war, probably at the
end of a year's campaigning, wili give Great Bi-itain a vétéran
army of 50,000, or perhaps, 100,000, raen, under proved gênerais,
who can be easily thrown into the Far East with the transport
and commissary services that will hâve then been perfected,
and practically m a position to dictate her own conditions in
China, or at any point in Southern Asia, where her own interests
may be threatened by her adversaries, who to-day are pre-emi-
nently Russia and France. These are reflections that will bave an
Important bearing upon the world's trade of the future, Of
that of the présent it may be said to be a struggle to maintain
the présent high-rate of activity with an insufficient supply of
capital. The war has summariîy cut down the gold supply by a
third, and to whatever extent increased production elsewhere
can offset the loss of that of the Rand, its effect cannot be felt
for some time; consequently, high rates for raoney must remain
the order for some months to come, and the hope of really cheap
capital banished into a distant future. The maintenance of the
Bank of England's 5% rate shows that the comparative ease
of the m'arket in the past week is regarded by the best authori¬
ties as only a peculiar phase likely to be short-lived. The
European financial journals agrée în the opinion that i-ellef can¬
not be expected this year, and are non-committal as to the prob¬
able conditions at the opening of next. The movement of money
has now. it is true, turned toward the centres of eirculatioa, but
Building in the Philippines.
ALTHOUGH the United States hâve uominally been in pos¬
session of the Philippine Islands since Aug. 13, 1S98, and
our forces hâve aetually held Mamia and the suburbs since that
time, still the average American pictures the country as a howling
wilderness, and Manila as a rather extensive bamboo and
tha:tched village, while the Filipino is supposed to run about with
a curtain ring in his nose and a small thatched roof around his
waist. These, at any rate, were very much t'he ideas of the writer
until a year with the U. S. Engineers in Manila effected a
complète revision of preconceived notions. From the co^nclusion
of the Spanish eampaign on Aug. 13, 1898, till the breaking out of
open hostilities with the Filipinos in February, the American au¬
thorities were chiefly engaged in organizing and running a pro-
visional govemmenit, which, while aetually a military rule,
should appear and work as much IJke a civil government as pos¬
sible, and in gênerai was modeled ou former Spanish Unes, as far
as local laws and usages (including taxes!) were concerned. In
this attempt to "bring order cut of chaos" it fell to my lot, as an
architect, to organize and run the Department of Buildings and
Public Lands as a branch of the Bureau of Licenses. In the gên¬
erai confusion of reconstruction, it soon became évident to the
various department heads that they would bave to take the law
into their own hands to a great extent, and in fact make the Iaw.
as they groped their way, by the light of nature. But while the
profession of "law maker" is not overcrowded, and may seem
.attractive to ambitions youth, it is "not all jam," and those
concerned in the civil government of Manila hâve doubtless, to-
day, a great sympathy for Moses, Solon and Johm Y. McKane.
The points which engaged attention in connection with the
Manila Building Department were many, and included the or¬
ganizatlon of the Department and the adjusting of license fées
and collection of same—the> classification of streets and buildingâ;
methods of construction, sanitation, fire limits, and in fact a more
or less intimate knowledge of the business conditions and daily
life and habits of the people.
To t-he student of architecture there is another and broader
field of interest in the architecture of the city, both old and new,
and while little of it stands analysis, it is full of historic interest
â– and suggestion, and Manila will raniî with Genoa and Pisa as a
picturesque city.
The city of Manila has withîm its officiai Mmits a population of
some 300,000 people, composed, in point of numbers, about in the
follo-wing order: Natives (forming the grand majority and mostly
of the Tagalo tribes); Chinese, Spaniards, English, Continental
Europeans and a few Japanese and East Indians. Of course, since
the American occupation, the army distiirbs this proportion if
counted as a part of the population, but this would be an im¬
proper arrangement. American civilians are as yet numerically
insignificant. During the "fool's paradise," from August 13 to
February 4, 1899, the tendency of this élément was to increase
rapidly, but hostilities efEectually checked this .
The city itself consists of the ancient walled city or Manila
proper, and a number of districts which were originally suburbs
and hâve been gradually absorbed by the growth of the city.
These districts, mostly on the ncrth side of the Pasig River, are
called the new city, and forra the main part of the town in area
and population and business activity. On the south side of the
river, besides the walled city, are Paco, Nozelada, Ermita and
Malate, as well as the famous drive and parade ground, by th'e
bay, called the Lunetta. The old city is practically a great fortresa
eliiptieal in form 1 mile by % of a mile, with a compactiy built
town inside its massive walls. The whole is surrounded by a
moat and the city entered through seven gaytes with drawbridges
and redans, and is a most excellent spécimen of médiéval military
engineering on the prineiples of Vauban. This part of Manila,
together with the districts of Binondo, Santa Cruz and Quiapo, in
the "new city," forms the body of the city, and is closely built of
"materiales fortis," i, e., strong material, which means anything
from masonry 5 ft. thick to wooden sheds with corrugated iron
roofs; alwaya excepting the native structures of bamboo and
thatch, which form of construction' is the "hete noir" of the
building department, health board, and insurance men-. In the
more remote districts of San Miguel, Sampaloe, and M'alaganan, as
well as in the southeirn suburbs, detached modem résidences of
masonry and fraime predominate, and hère bamboo houses hâve
been permitted when at a distance of 40 mètres from a regular
structure and also on the back streets and lots.
In organizing a building department under the American rég¬
ime, one of the first matters requiring attention was the estab¬
lishment of "fire-limits," and though but a few weeks had elapsed