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February 15, 1936

Carnival starts. City full provincianos. Traffic jams on Ayala bridge simply intolerable. Certainly calesas should not be allowed to cross there at such a time.

Visit from my old acquaintance E. J. Haberer writer. German-American Jew. How much cleverer the Jews are than all the others! He will not call on Quezon because he is a devoted friend of Isauro Gabaldon. Wished to talk over the agrarian question which he considers the most important of all Philippine issues (so do I). Says there are no friar land questions–it is all a racket on the part of the church to sell dear lands at a high price and buy more land elsewhere much cheaper; also on the part of the tenants to get something for nothing. Says the days when the friar stood in the fields with a whip are gone forever. Advocates repression of the agitators, of the agents provocateurs and of the land speculators. Intensely admired Quezon’s statement to the tenants who want to work but forty days a year; that all should be obliged to raise two crops–even tho’ one is dry (maize etc.). That the food crops of the Philippines such as coconut oil should be shipped to the underfed people of Central Europe. Admires the practical achievements of the Bolsheviks, and their handling of the land question. Says “small holdings” cannot succeed because they are uneconomic; he added that homesteading is the practical solution of the land question in the Philippines. He expressed the view that the worst disaster which can overtake a man in the Philippines is to become rich–such is the bloodthirsty horde of parasites and parientes which immediately settles on him.

Bridge in p.m. with Doria, Mrs Peters and Babbitt.