The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-15
PHILIPPINE PROBLEMS
QUESTION OF UNIFIcATIoN OF
 THE LANGUAGE.
Rights of the Natives as Against Those of the Aggressive Whites. Feared Results of Introduc-
 tion of Patronage System.

Washington Special to New York Evening Post.
 A letter from one of the teachers in the Phil ipplne Islands discusses the question of the unifcation of language tnus
 Under the Spanish regime the friars opposet; the Spanish language. while now the majority Of the native padres favor the English and teacher And even in private schools 0i s,ens ens are taking to, introduce English, and efforts have been made to secure some of our Ameri- here. and later when Mir. Atkinson came, the unanimous opinion of officers and civilians in view of the language conditions in the various parts of the archipelago, was that English should be introduced for the purpose of having scme common language. Naturally the Eng insttnctlvely favored the truly Imperialistic, policy. believed that English would not be an gsgvisa6ie common language. And why not :? Well, look to British India for an answer where the vernacular taught for the very purpose Of preventing unihcation and nation alixation. and hence union with it's proverbial strength. But here. let us hope things are different. We wish to unify and natioraIize % rnsse different peoples. and give them com Tor literature. True, Japan did not have to % through the process of making English the language already: it remained merely to be neveloped; China. on the contrary, has come % 70 see thls need of common language. and schools are now being established for teach ing English as this language.
 NOW let us get at the facts in the philo- logical question here. The term Language of sthe Philippines is self-contradictory. Here there three distinct races--the Nexrito. with twenty-one tribes; the, Indonesian, with sixteen tribes. and the Malayan with forty seven tribes, making a total of eighty-f four dinerent tribes. Thus we get an idea of the numerous different dialects spoken, which ifequentiy differ so widely as to be prac- tically foreign languages. Of course. in cer- tain sections. two or three of these may have expressions in common. due to the fact of long time intercourse between the tribes Hence the 1ocanos. Tagalogs. and Macabebes all living in adjoining territory, and others : Similarly situated. make fhA.naalvaa nm derRtood in conversation. This sgnifes little. however; the language is so rudimentary. with fnhections and signs playing their part, that making ones self understood is not such a diff hcut matter under those circumstances. Take. other-the Macabebe and the Moro. the Ilocano and the Cebuanian the fTagalo and the Paraguan. and see whether they can converse readily Can one depreciate the plan of com mon language under these conditions par ticulariy when these dialects are practically barren of literature in the furnishing of which introducing English?
 Another interesting Philippine letter comes from a young American, who went out to the islands some months ago without precon- ceivcd opinions. political or otherwise. His view. typical of the probable relations be- tween the white and the brown in the archipelago. is worth quoting. He writes under date of April g. when the excitement over President Roosevelt had announced his pur- pose to order investigation:
 the states. What kind of notions are the President and the people in the United States getting into their heads fin regard to General ghaffee and the situation of things here: They ought to come out here for while and see what a race of cattle the FiliDinos are Then think they would change their views a little
 There never was native that known to tell the truth. He likes you whole lot better if he thinks he has got to toe the mark. If you try to be kind to him, he will run you in just one minute
 have had little chance to study Eli. pinos as I have had fifty of them at wori under me for five months. All the way you can get along with them is to tell them once or twice. and then if you they don't in tend to do anything just pick up a club and wade into them and let them know you are running the place, and they win do anything for you
 If the Americans had shot every priest when the army first came out here. things would have been In a different shape than they are today. The priest sets the natives on, and then they do the dirty work. The water cure is the only thing that will make a native tell anything. He will stand right up and say that he knows nothing about where there any guns hid. but after the water cure has been applied he will lead you 10 where there are guns in abundance.
 pretty bright man. but 1 am beginning ts think he Is a trihe weak. If they would have a pubiIc shooting match and shoot of all the ;. natives and then let the Chinese come in. sc sfefe would be some labor, you could depend a things being better.
 1hat this is q typical view ts shown by some