Political caricatures on American period

Dr Alfred W. McCoy is a professor of the SouthEast Asian History at the University of Wisconsin at
Madison where he also serves as director of the Center for SE Asian Studies. He's spent the past quarter-
century writing about the politics & history of the opium trade.

1900-41 Philippine political cartoons gained full expression during the American era. Filipino artists
recorded national attitudes toward the coming of the Americans as well as the changing mores and
times.

While the 377 cartoons compiled in this book speak for themselves, historian Alfred McCoy’s extensive
research in Philippine and American archives provides a comprehensive background not only to the
cartoons but to the turbulent period as well.

While the Priest Lives Alone in a Big Building

Like many nationalists of his day, Vicente Sotto, the publisher of the INDEPENDENT, never missed a
chance to attack the catholic church

Is the Police Force Bribed

Depicts the first of manila's periodic police scandals. The cartoonist, Fernando Amorsolo, gives the
illustration a usual racist edge

New Bird of Prey

The cartoon's caption, "New Bird of Prey" is an allusion to the most famous libel case in the history of
Philippine Journalism.

Where the Mosquito is King

Built on a swamp and ringed with streams and ponds, Manila is a natural breeding ground for malarial
mosquitoes. The Board of Health distributed millions of doses of quinine and eliminated mosquito
breeding grounds by filling up the standing water holes or by spraying them with petroleum

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

The Philippine Assembly passed a law authorizing all legislators, active or retired, to bear firearms. The
Manila press was outraged, but the legislators ignored the opposition and promulgated the law over the
screams of protest

Why the Aparcero Rebels

it shows the form of landlord usury used to strip tenant farmers from their rightful share of harvest.

A new Wrinkle in the Art of Thieving

This shows City Capitalists using the Torrens Title process, which required relinquishment of customary
claims to issue titles, to grab lands in Nueva Ecija and other Central Luzon Provinces.
What's Going to be Done About it?

A sudden and unexpected credit crisis threatens the Negros Sugar crop and planters respond by
lobbying Governor-General Francis B. Harrison for relief. Fueled by free access to the American sugar
market and liberal credit from the newly established Philippine National Bank, the Negros sugar industry
grew rapidly during World War I.

Brothers Under the Skin

Brother's under the skin, urges Filipinos to end social conflict and deal with each other fairly. As
Demobilized American Soldiers filled the insular civil service and American corporations won the major
development projects, Filipino nationalists saw themselves becoming economic aliens in their own land.
The cartoon's image of Meralco (E.R.R & L.Co.) dragging Juan de la Cruz along the neck as he vomits
pesos from his emaciated frame is no overstatement.

Equal Work, Unequal Salary, Why?

When Filipinos began winning civil service appointments after 1913 they found themselves facing
serious discrimination in both wages and positions. Francis b. Harrison the liberal Governor General reed
the pro; American hiring policies of the Taft Era(1900-12) and began the "Filipinization" of the civil
service. American Worker- Filipino Worker- refers not to a ten fold difference in Filipino and American
manual wages within the colony, but to a more fundamental inequality - the difference in wages and
working conditions between the two countries.

The Elections Before and After

After only 15 years of party politics, the corruption of the political process had become apparent by the
early 1920's. In 1926, the future of Mindanao became one of the key issues in the Philippines-American
relations. American imperialists exploited the tensions to advocate partition of the Philippines and a
permanent American protector for Mindanao.

The Results of Co-Education

Vicente Sotto, publisher of the Independent was also a conservative moralist. He seemed to feel that
the Philippines could not win independence until the Filipinos had shaped a national character capable
of bearing that burden.

The Loyalty of the Filipinos

The Loyalty of the Filipinos was published on April 14, 1917 only ten days after the US Congress
declared war on Germany and America entered the conflict. The artist Fernando Amorsolo draws a wise,
handsome, Uncle Sam leading little Juan, loyal and smiling on the road to war.