The city of Baguio has a city hall, a storehouse, a corral and market buildings.  Lot owners who have built summer homes for themselves have brought up friends to show them what Baguio was like.  Curiously it has never seemed possible to convey any adequate idea of its attractions and advantages by word of mouth.  Again and again I have urged sceptics to come and see for themselves.  When after the lapse of years they finally did so, they have invariably asked me why I had not told them about it before, forgetting that I had exhausted my vocabulary without being able to make them understand.  Practically without exception, the persons who actually visit Baguio become “boosters.”

It is fortunate in a way that the boom did not come quicker, for the hard truth is that up to date the rapidity of the growth of the summer capital has been determined absolutely by the local lumber supply.  The original Filipino hand-sawyers were ultimately replaced by small portable mills, and these in turn by large modern mills to which logs are brought by skidding engines or overhead cables, yet it is true to-day, as it has always been true, that no sawmill has ever been able to furnish dry lumber, for the simple reason that the green output is purchased as fast as it can be sawed.

For a time the lumbermen took advantage of the necessities of the public, but when timber on the government concessions first granted them had been exhausted and they applied for new cutting areas, my turn came.  I fixed maximum prices on lumber which they might not exceed without forfeiting their concessions.  I also fixed a minimum annual cut which they were compelled to make, and imposed a regulation providing that at least half of the total cut should be offered for sale to the public.

There is no justification for the claim that Baguio is a rich man’s city.  The town site is very large and can be indefinitely extended.  Good lots may be had at extremely moderate prices, and the cost of houses is strictly a matter of individual means and taste.  A large section is given up to small dwellings for Filipinos.  The man who earns his living with a bull cart has no more difficulty in establishing a home there than does the Filipino millionnaire, and rich and poor are building in constantly increasing numbers.

While experience has taught me that I cannot convey by words alone any adequate conception of what Baguio is like, I must nevertheless here make the attempt.

Twenty-one miles of well surfaced roads wind among its pine-covered hills and afford beautiful glimpses of the luxuriant vegetation along its numerous small streams.  There are building sites to suit all tastes, and each house owner is convinced that his particular location is better than that of any one else.  One spring supplies exceptionally pure water sufficient for the needs of at least ten thousand people, and an abundant additional supply can be obtained when needed.  The scenery is everywhere beautiful, and in many sections truly magnificent.