O

NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS.

NE of the features that make THE ARENA unique among modern reviews is its frequent publication of symposia on leading questions of public thought. Although these may not always embody conflicting opinions, yet the views expressed are different in that they represent the writers' varying standpoints-the usual basis of opposing conclusions arrived at by honest minds.

As an illustration of this dual method of reaching a common goal, we publish this month two articles under the general caption, "Cuba vs. the United States." The first presents the position of President Roosevelt, Secretary Root, GovernorGeneral Wood, and all truly enlightened Americans on the moral obligation we have assumed to aid the Cubans to become industrially self-sustaining. The writer, F. B. Thurber, as president of the United States Export Association, knows whereof he speaks, and his article embodies the substance of his recent remarks before the House Committee on Ways and Means. The second paper gives the views of one of the most intelligent men that Cuba has produced, and is an eloquent appeal to the American conscience to rise above the sordid demands of trust-fostered selfishness in our political dealings with our involuntary wards. Señor de Abad is the author of many valuable works on Cuba, and is at present acting as special Cuban commissioner to Washington to secure customs reforms on behalf of his people.

Another symposium of not less vital significance to the ethical and moral welfare of the United States is the discussion of "The Problem of Immigration," in this number. The competitive aggressions of the Chinese upon the labor market of the Pacific coast have created an economic exigency that threatens to compel the early reenactment of the Exclusion law, for which Mr. John Chetwood, a noted lawyer of San Francisco, urges some potent arguments. That this policy, however, is but a palliative measure of doubtful morality, is ably

set forth by our other contributor, the Rev. Robert C. Bryant, who shows conclusively that the cause of the congestion of our cities lies much deeper than mere population totals can suggest in the monopoly of natural opportunities, or private ownership of the bounties of Nature.

To those who know the power of the pulpit as an opinionforming agency, when directed along scientific and rational channels, this article on "Chinese Exclusion" and the Rev. Frank D. Bentley's on the "Survival of the Fittest in the Coming Age" will bring much encouragement, as they indicate a belated awakening of the ministerial mind to a realizing sense of its obligations to the increasing mass of the "unchurched."

Two other features of this issue that have a direct bearing on pending questions of current legislation are "Experiments in Colonial Government," by Dr. Felix L. Oswald, and Prof. Frank Parsons's "Conversation" on public ownership and control of our telephone systems. As our Government has not yet taken action on the final disposition of the Philippines, many valuable hints may be gathered by our lawmakers from Dr. Oswald's international study of colony-making. And Prof. Parsons's facts and figures are of interest in view of the recent introduction in the lower house of Congress of a bill to acquire and operate the telegraphs as a part of the PostOffice system."

An interview with Edwin Markham, on "Lights and Shadows of the Present Social Outlook," will form our "Conversation" for the April number, which will also contain a study of this famous poet from the pen of Editor Flower. It will be followed in May with a discussion of "Education and Democracy," by Rabbi Charles Fleischer.

The short-story feature, introduced some time ago, is proving very popular with ARENA readers. This month's "tale of the desert" by Laura M. Dake, the gifted author of "In the Crucible," is one of the best that we have published thus far. The story for April will be entitled "Out of His Element"-a contribution by Evelyn Harvey Roberts.

Theodore F. Seward's essay on "The Unity of Christianity and Judaism," announced for publication this month, is unavoidably crowded out. It will appear, however, in our next issue-together with "An Economic View of Fashion," by Julia Cruikshank; "The New Race Question in the South," by Samuel A. Hamilton; "Maurice Maeterlinck and the Bees,' by Axel Emil Gibson; "The Future of the Woman's Club," by Winnifred Harper Cooley, and an excellent paper on "The New Woman," by the Hon. Boyd Winchester.

J. E. M.

"We do not take possession of our ideas, but are possessed by them. They master us and force us into the arena, Where, like gladiators, we must fight for them."

-HEINE.

THE ARENA

VOL. XXVII.

APRIL, 1902.

No. 4.

THE

EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES.*

HE Civil Commission of the Philippines is expending about one million dollars for educational purposes. throughout the Archipelago, and the Washington authorities have sent a thousand teachers to the Islands and have shipped tons of text-books and schoolroom accessories to Manila for the free use of the natives. These preparations are for primary grade work, and suggest the criticism that there is a misconception of the educational needs of the Filipinos. This generous effort of the United States to abolish illiteracy does not respond to the necessities of public instruction, for, from the time the Archipelago was conquered by Spain, the natural eagerness of the natives to acquire knowledge has been gratified in elementary subjects. There are, however, certain directions that educational projects may take with advantage, and these are well shown by the history of public instruction in the Philippines.

When Spanish adventurers claimed the Islands for their King of the sixteenth century, the natives were familiar with primitive methods of mining the gold, silver, iron, and other mineral deposits of the Archipelago; they knew how to manufacture them into jewels, swords, and crude agricultural implements, and could also weave cotton, silk, and pine-apple fiber into dress goods. The different tribes spoke different dialects, and their secular and religious education had been neglected by

* An interview for THE ARENA by J. Warren T. Mason, of London.

their Saracen masters, except in Manila, Mindanao, and Sulu, where the tenets of Mohammedanism had been spread.

When the hardy Spanish pioneers set out for the Philippines, the Catholic Church, full of the spirit of proselytism, sent with them the same class of missionaries who followed Columbus and the Cabots to America. At the time the colonization of the Islands began, about the year 1565, Philip II., then King of Spain, was engaged in fighting Protestantism with the weapons of the Inquisition, and, though relentless against his fellowChristians, he was mild and paternal in his treatment of the Filipinos. He ordered that they be kept in ignorance of Europe's religious wars, and directed that if the Church wished to convert them it must do so by kindness and not by fear.

The missionary friars, to obey the injunction of their King, were thus compelled to instruct the natives in the rudiments of learning, instead of in the proselytizing ability of a torturechamber. The friars, recognizing the adaptability of the natives, did not stop at making converts, but began a system of training them for the Church, which necessitated much more careful teaching than the restless, warlike natures of the American Indians made possible in the western hemisphere.

To the zeal of the friars came substantial assistance. The first governor-general of the Philippines, Legazpi, authorized the opening of schools, and the first bishop and archbishop of Manila and the first governor of Mindanao bequeathed a considerable part of their fortune in trust for educational purposes, the two clerics leaving also their libraries for popular use. The Jesuits obtained control of the bequest of the governor of Mindanao, and in 1601 erected the University of St. Joseph at Manila, thirty-five years before the first university was founded in America. Collegiate instruction of the natives grew so popular that it became almost a fashionable craze for rich persons to add endowments to St. Joseph, and shortly after its foundation the college grew so wealthy that it abolished all fees and education was free. This liberality of the Spanish residents was more commendatory than the educational system being established about the same time by the Pilgrims in

New England, of which Americans are so proud. The Spaniards voluntarily made careful provision for the instruction of an alien race in whose welfare they had no personal concern, while the Pilgrims founded their schools for the education of their own sons; and it is not on record that many of the native inhabitants were invited into the schoolrooms.

The increasing fame of St. Joseph brought into enviable prominence the Jesuits and strengthened their hold over the natives. This the other orders observed with disquietude. Each friar was ambitious to enhance the fame and wealth of his order, as soldiers desire to add to the honor of their regiments; and, since educational projects were shown to be so valuable an asset to this end, a stimulus was given to the spread of knowledge that probably could not have resulted from any other cause. The Dominicans and Franciscans were particularly covetous of the popularity of the Jesuits, and the Dominican Order in 1619 opened the college of St. Thomas at Manila, seventeen years before there was any provision for higher education in America.

This imitation of the Jesuits did not meet with the approval of the Franciscans, and, instead of compelling the natives to go to Manila for an education, they took the first step in the systematic diffusion of knowledge by founding local schools in different parts of the Islands. Heretofore, primary education had been given by the friars in the course of their missionary labors, and, there being a lack of thoroughness, only the exceptionally bright pupils were able to prepare in this scanty manner for a collegiate course. With the development of the Franciscans' method the elementary grades received much closer attention, and not only did the Franciscans become supreme in popularity among the natives, but, the schools being supported by voluntary contributions, the coffers of the order filled rapidly. The Dominicans and the Jesuits recognized that the ascendency of the Franciscans was due to their primary schools, and they adopted a similar system. Other orders did likewise, until finally a complete network of local educational institutions was spread over the Archipelago.