The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1902-08-04
THE LANGUAGE OF THE FILIPINO

Il 50 happens that a recent cabIegram
from Manila imparts information that
may render further discussion of the
/ language question unnecessary. says the
Springfield Republican" Commissioner
Moses, the head of the department Of
public instruction, is reported 10 be or
ganizlng normal college for the train
ing of Filipino teachers And the dis
patch goes on TO say: Commissioner
Moses task Is TO it Filipfnos for the
task American teachers are now per-
forming. it being considered inadvisa-
bic 10 continue to import and maintain
American teachers" Accepting this re-
port as authentic. it may be said to
mark a radical change Of policy in the
department of public instruction in the
archipelago. According 10 Superintend-
ent Atkinson's articles in the Atlantic
Monthly" some time ago his purpose
was to "Americanize' the FHipinos. AMI
one Of the chief instruments in carrying
It out was the making Of English the
base of all teaching in the schools. Our
Negroes correspondent evidently has the
same idea. 1T Is perfectly true" he
writes. that at present the great body
Of the English language is useless to The
people But what does the American oc-
cupation OF these islands mean?" It is
fortunate that he asked that important
question. since the language issue de
ponds largely upon the answer
Is IL now the policy TO 'Americanize"
those people? II 1t is. then the Ameri-
can teachers should not only be main
tanned. but increased in number twenty
fold. No other body Of instructors could
or would. in the long rln. make English
the basis OF public Instruction. and at
the end of 100 years succeed, even pr
TALLY. in making it the language Of the
common. people. The fact that the de-
partment is now convinced OF the mad
yisat iIfty of continuing to import and
maintain American teachers indicates
that new policy. more in harmony with
the principles of human liberty and the
scientific. normal development OF the
native race. has been finally determined
upon Robert Louis Stevenson. after
years of experience in the South Pacific,
wrote to a missionary: Remember that
all you can do is 10 civilize the man IN
the line of his own civilization. such rs
it is" It is to be hoped that our edu-
cationaI experts in the Philippines have
come to realize this truth, which means
thzt the Malay should be developed as
Malay. and not be turned into an an
t,fropic monstrosity by an attempt to
make an imitation Yankee out Of him
Il it be the policy of the Government
to develop a true Filipino nation. then
all possible encouragement will be given
70 the development of that native Ian
gua-e which is already the common
speech of the people Mr. Hatheway's
arg. nent is mainly an assault upon the
adequacy Of that language 10 DO the
7 ecsssary work of modern civilization.
Sri. however primitive it may be. the
> sxer Is that Il should be allowed 20
evolve in a perfectly natural style. and
rot be outlawed as worthless. That in
the course of time It would become en-
riched by large accretiOns from other
tongues is probable. English Is an
amazing conglomerate OF the original
speech of the 'half-civilized'' tribes in
Britain and the French and Latin. Is
anyone sorry today that Julius Caesar or
William the Norman failed to impose
Latin or French upon the English peo-
pie IN an unadulterated form? In truth,
the effort was. in the nature OF things,
impossible. just as It would be impossi-
bic now to force English upon the Fill
pinos. It is sheer nonsense to think OF
bIOttIng out the language of millions Of
people located as the Fnipinos are and
substituting for 1t another speech in It's
interrupted form.
It is worth noting that Mr.. Hathaway
comedies that there Is great similarity
between the various native dialects
spoken in the islands, that or these The