the city as well as the district, is a model of cleanliness and of tropical picturesqueness. The streets are dry and well made, in sharp contrast to the mud and marsh in which Iloilo, for instance, the second city in commercial importance, and the capital of the Visayas, exists. A river runs through it, deeply shaded by tropical trees, bordered by smooth and wellkept lawns. houses are neat The A MORO WOMAN and orderly. Pigs do not roam at large, as elsewhere. The Army and Navy Club looks out over a well-built sea-wall to coral islands beyond, and the climate, though it is warm, has a distinctly genial touch. But, above all, the people are picturesque. They crowd around the arriving ship in their outrigger canoes, tall, beautifully built men and agile women, ready to dive for any coin that may be thrown. Savages all, their smile is infectious even though it discloses filed teeth, stained and reddened by the constant chewing of the betel-nut, which runs like blood from their lips. On Ashore you will find the aristocrats, the dattos and the sultans, dressed gaudily in reds and blues heavily embroidered in gold, or all in white, sheltered from the sun by gayly bespangled red umbrellas borne by retainers. the occasion of Secretary Taft's visit the important dattos and sultans, with representatives of their tribes, came in from the surrounding country and from the hills to greet the visitors, and dwelt there with them in peace and amity. Three years ago they were fighting. The bloody battle of Fort Bacolod was their last stand. To-day many shoulders are to the wheel of progress, for the people are learning willingly the rudiments of business practice. Formerly there was no medium of exchange, no method of business save the barter of their little products to the Chinese for trinkets and gewgaws. That the result in this district is almost astounding is due to Governor Finley's Moro Exchange, now one year old. Governor Finley's first work upon assuming civil duties, succeeding his purely military functions, was to win the friendship and the confidence of the natives. He had fought and beaten them for a time only. They knew nothing but their previous predatory methods of getting a living; no way to obtain what they desired but to take it from some one who had it. He found them sufficiently logical to emulate the man from Missouri and to want to be shown. When he had finally gained their confidence sufficiently through visits to them and by councils, often undertaken at risks to himself that were considered appalling, he informed them that robbery, piracy, murder, and rapine must cease; to which they gave ready assent if he would show them a better way. bery meant little to them. The taking of human life meant so little that a violent death at the hands of another tribe could always be adjusted on payment in terms the most contemptuous, from our point of view, ever set upon a life Rob namely, by the exchange of it for brass. spittoons. The first step was to call the dattos together in council, at which time it was discovered that there was a coolness between them which amounted to a blood-curdling frigidity, the results of the feuds of generations. This datto would not speak to that one, but fingered the carved ivory hilt of his barong lovingly, while that one was gazing at the next with equal ardor. This one's grandfather had helped himself to that one's grandfather's carabao and spilled much blood in doing it, creating a blood feud that had never been settled. So it passed down the line. In this emergency an impromptu clearing-house was established, probably the most unique clearing-house ever created. There was no particular ill feeling manifested beyond the apparent desire to collect their respective debts, debts of blood, of carabao, of vintas, and of produce. claims were all reduced to a common denomination, a general settlement started, and the well-accepted clearing-house principle applied here in a businesslike manner wiped out the feuds and established a basis for the first lessons in business for Moro savages. The Governor Finley's next step was the establishment of the Moro Exchange. The development of the idea and its application required many months of study, resulting finally in the simple expedient of copying the plan of work of the New York Produce Exchange. Having won the confidence of the natives, and having been told practically that they were not really so enamored of bloodshed, plunder, and piracy that they could not be weaned from it if they could be shown a better way of gaining a livelihood, Governor Finley went among them soliciting contributions to stock. This was in the belief that where an investment was made their interest would be greater; and was an advance on the practical operation of the government in the north of doing everything for the native in the first instance instead of instructing him and showing him how to help himself. There was a little demur at first to contributing to something the purpose of which was not at all disclosed, but event ually a sum approximating 700 pesos ($350) was accumulated, mostly in the form of heavy copper centavos equal to one-half cent and about the size of our old-fashioned penny. It took several carabao wagons to bring in the fund. To it was added sufficient for the erection in Zamboanga of the Exchange building, a native structure with thatched roof, open at either end and lined with stalls or booths. Around it is a heavily built stockade, within which is a lodginghouse as well as open stalls for the sale of produce. Then the operation of the Exchange was explained. These people were to bring their produce here, this man his fish, that one his jungle produce, the other his brass work, and so on-a method too well known to us to require explanation, but to them an absolute revelation. Those coming from a distance, and requiring two or three days in which to sell their goods, were to lodge within the stockade, safe from any possible molestation, for any outbreak of savagery in connection with the Exchange would have been disastrous; and its civilizing influence has not yet removed the entire possibility of friction in the Moro country. The articles of incorporation of the Exchange set forth the policy under which it was established and which is being carried out in detail to the letter, and this expression is an example of our theoretical policy in the Philippines here demonstrated in a practical way. "It is assumed as a basis of organization," say these articles," that the regeneration of the Moro and other non-Christian population of the District of Zamboanga depends almost entirely upon their engaging in honest toil. The existing order of slavery and piratical methods must be replaced by honest toil. All classes of the Moro and other non-Christian people must be given an equal chance in the race for existence, advancement, and the opportunity for prosperity." Article II. sets forth that "the corporation is organized to promote the material welfare of the Moro and other non-Christian population of the District of Zamboanga, by instructing them in the affairs of legitimate business methods, by providing means for the development of their native industries, by directing their skill and energy in new lines of industry, and by guiding them in the accomplishment of an honest and progressive mode of living." In the following article the purposes are set forth in detail; namely, "to lease, covenant, own, and hold real estate in the District of Zamboanga; to buy and sell the cultivated products of the soil; to engage in the manufacture, purchase, and sale of the products of the soil capable of fabrication; to trade in the products of the sea, forests, and mines; to raise, purchase, and sell domestic animals; to maintain and operate a public market; to conduct trade with foreign ports; to contract for the furnishing of Moro and other non-Christian labor; to engage in the pursuit of agriculture and horticulture; to conduct a lodging-house, restaurant, and hotel; to engage in a limited banking business; to construct and operate boats and vessels engaged in the coastwise trade; and to issue stock, and to borrow and loan money." Further provision is made that "the certificate of stock shall be subject to purchase only by the corporation and by the Moro and other non-Christian residents of the District of Zamboanga, except that the privilege may be extended to the Christian and non-Christian residents of other parts of the Moro Province when such purchase will not be to the prejudice of the interests of the Moro and other non-Christian residents within the District of Zamboanga." The management of the Exchange rests in the hands of a board of seven Directors, together with the President and General Manager, who must be the Governor of the District, and the Secretary and Treasurer, who may be the Secretary of the District. This Exchange was organized on July 1, 1904, with the following officers: John P. Finley, Captain Twenty-seventh Infantry, Governor District of Zamboanga, President; John R. Proctor, Jr., Captain of Artillery, Secretary District of Zamboanga, Secretary and Treasurer; Datto Radja Muda Mandi, Datto Mangigin (Sultan of Maguindanao), Datto Dacula, Datto Hadji Nuno, Datto |