The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-06-30
HISTORICAL RESEARCH
Plan For Collecting Records Of
the Philippines.
MISSION OF SCHOLARLY FILIPINO.

Professors c. }. zuIueta, Appointed to
the eface By the American Cow
eminent, WIN work Principally In
the Archives OF Seville ana Other
spanish acknowledgements For
scientific Investigation.
Thus early in Its history the Ameri-
can government in the Philippines has
started to do something for the worlds
scholars. says the New York Post. The
historical records Of the islands aud
their people. in large part still buried
in the archives, are to be collected at
government expense and made availa-
bic for reference in more convenient
fesnl.
For the work Of collection a well
equipped Filipino has recently been
named to an Office specially created for
the purpose and Is now about to begin
the work In Spain. lie will spend a
year at least there, working principally
in the archives Of Seville, which are
much the richest in Philippine, and
also in those of Madrid, Barcelona and
simaneas. Then he will visit France
and perhaps other countries on the con-
tinent fl search Of material vet unpub-
lished from which to make copies, and.
Of course. the British museum. He will
then come to the United States by way
OF Mexico where there are now re-
puted to be buried in various archives.
both in the City Of Mexico and in sew
eral outside towns, many more data
bearing on Philippine history than it
had formerly been supposed Mexico
contained.
This work Of collecting copies of doc
umentary sources will occupy the Fiji
Pine in question, Professor G. J. zulue-
Ia, at least three years. He receives
$500 in gold per year and Of course,
necessary. expenses in travelling and
procuring the copies desired. 1t Is I'M
derstood that the library Of congress
at Washington Is also 10 receive one
copy Of each document, the other being
sent to Manila for the new Philippine
government library. Librarian Put
nam, who was recently on tour Of the
orient gathering material and making
arrangements for reciprocal exchanges,
etc, was in Manila in search Of ma
lterial for the Congressional library
and Is said To have made an arrange
ment whereby the latter library shares
In this work with the Philippine gov
eminent.
Philippine history has been left
mainly to the friars, who have pub
lished a number of chronicles, begin
ming with the earlier years Of Spanish
Occupation. Recently several Spanish
laymen have worked III this line. But
the impress Of controversy left on al
most everything previously written in
4 Philippine history, due to the fact that
the friar chronicler Of one order not
wiiIfuIly, but inevitably, magniaed the
deeds of his own brethren at the ex-
pense of the other orders, has not been
removed By these lay writers. The
more, therefore, that man reads IN
Philippine history as written TO date
the more puzzled be viii become un-
less he covers practically the whole
field and can balance the statements
Of one writer against another and
CLEAN the truth by thoroughgoing
comparison The reader needs, too,
some knowledge Of the Filipinos as
\ they are today and some actual con-
tact with the "friar question as tt
stands at this moment.
In other words, Philippine history
has never been written. in the modern
sense of that word Considering the
sources of what has been published
hitherto, the careful reader will be
constantly on his guard as to accepting
commonly published estimates Of the
state of culture Of the Filipinos when
they were discovered by the Spaniards,
\ the share Of the friars in the work Of
internal Improvement as compared
with the share of Spanish civilians, the
educational question and the teaching
of Spanish, the merits Of the continual
controversies between the friars and
the civil authorities, the causes of the
various uprisings and the character Of
the participants. the composition and
size Of the antifriar party on the is
lands and the capacity Of the natives
lin general. Professor Zulueta, named
for the mission above described, Is one
Of the little handful Of Filipinos who
have really made an honest study Of
their peoplea past. Like Jose Rial.
he is to a certain extent a partisan.
( He is, however, a scholar in touch with
modern methods and the modern spirit
of research. He has been professor of
history in the Manila lyceum, a sec
ondary school for boys inaugurated by
iFilipinos in 1900.
The Philippine government will try
to build up IN connection with the his
torical library scientific library Of re-
search and reference. This library will
be connected with the Philippine mu-
scum. which was started in modest
way two years ago, under the bureau
of non-Christian tribes The securing
of chronological botanical, meteorological
aud other collections for the st. Louis
exposition is being made to coincide
with the needs Of this establishment,
and where duplicate collections cannot
be made they will be returned to Ma
Mia for this museum. Similarly the
h,,raau ~ Government IabOratorip