Manila

the capital city of the Philippine Islands. It is situated in latitude 14 deg. 35' N.; longitude 120 deg. 58' E. It lies on both sides of the Pasig River which flows westward. The city has a frontage of four miles on Manila Bay on the west coast of Luzon. The police district of the city includes about thirty-two square miles. Manila proper is a walled town on the left or south bank of the river. This walled town was the old Spanish capital. The Spaniards resided here. A moat runs from the river around the foot of the wall to the river again. Water from the river enters the moat at the upper or east end, and flows around the wall into the river again. Up to 1852 the drawbridges were raised and the gates were closed at nightfall for fear of the native attacks.

The area within the wall is divided into fifty-six blocks by streets running at right angles to each other. The buildings are of two stories built in Spanish fashion. The most important of the Spanish structures are a cathedral, various convents and monasteries, schools, the University of St. Thomas, the hospital, and the palace. The last named was the residence of the Spanish governor and contained the government offices. A lofty monument to Magellan stands in a square facing the river. The Bridge of Spain, a modern stone affair of several arches, spans the river; this and three other bridges afford access to the section known as Binondo on the opposite or northern bank. The European and American retail shops are here. They occupy a street known as the Escolta. Chinese shops line the Rosario. The wholesale warehouses front the north bank of the Pasig between the Bridge of Spain and the bay. Vessels coming in from the ocean are guided by lighthouses to and through the entrance, which is twelve miles in length. The bay or harbor is 120 miles in circumference, and is large enough to shelter the navies of the world. In 1907 there were 223,542 inhabitants, a growth of 6,000 a year during the previous four years.

The city was incorporated by the American government in 1901. The management rests in a board of three members appointed by the governor with the advice of the Philippine commissioners. Thirty per cent of the expenses are paid by the central government; seventy by local taxation. The task before the Americans and the progress made are described by Dr. Heiser, chief quarantine officer:

There was no sewer system in Manila, with only the conduit method of disposing of waste of all kinds. In the city itself are thirty-one miles of canals which were nothing more than open filthy water courses into which all waste material was thrown. The water supply for the city came from a river along the banks of which 10,000 people lived and daily polluted its waters. Four thousand lepers roamed at will, and the insane were chained to stakes with dog chains. Cholera, when it became epidemic, would carry off hundreds of people, depopulating whole villages at times.

Today dozens of artesian wells exist, and in many localities the death rate dropped as much as twenty per thousand after the use of this water. A new gravity water system which brings water from an uninhabited water shed was completed in July, the old water shed having been patrolled by United States troops to prevent its pollution. The canals have been dredged and cleaned of the filth of centuries. A new sewer system for Manila, constructed at a cost of about $2,000,000, will be ready for use next year. A modern ice plant produces daily 100,000 pounds of ice and 5,000 gallons of distilled water, which is sold by the government at a nominal charge. A leper colony has been established and all but 1,000 of the estimated 4,000 lepers have been brought there. The free distribution of quinine has greatly reduced the amount of malaria; diseases like beri-beri have almost been eliminated, and cholera is so well under control that only dozens die now where hundreds died before. And what is more important, the disease can be eradicated from a province in a few weeks. The discovery and active treatment of one cause of a high death rate, that due to intestinal parasites, has brought about an astonishing drop in the death rate.