Omaha daily bee., 1912-02-04

tcopyrlsht. isl2 BY Frank G. Carpenter

IyAYt up nation.
Il WV That IS what Uncle sam Is
doing In the Philippines. He
GfYIzE rs started seta,oo0 people TO
49, thinking. and both the wild
l..... .-..d the civilized are using their
brains. The ladies' with which he Is STIR
ring this mighty intellectual pot are Of
many kinds. One Is the new government
another the roads and public works that
are being made everywhere. third is the
chances for money making which he has
opened up TO the people, and most I'M
portant Of all is the schools.
When l visited the Islands In 1869 edu-
cation was almost unknown. The great
majority Of the people had no schooling
whatever. Eighty per cent Of them were
densely Ignorant, and not one man in ten
could read or write. The few schools.
such as they were, had been broken up
by the war. and about the only teaching
was that Of the friars. who were lncul-
eating the knowledge Of the middle ages.
and that largely religious.
During my stay some schools were or
ganIxed by the army. and an ex-soldier
was put at the head OF the bureau OF
tuuSttAous AHNu hHlAo IAAh HCbdh W
Y bring in the American sehoolma am and
TO teach the children in English.
What a job this was Americans who
have not been TO the Philippines will
never know. Only about per cent Of
the population Of tho islands could speak
spanish. and the people carried on their
work In polyglot of languages. Even
the Christian Fillpinos had sixteen DIFF
ferent dialects. and these were so varied
that the better class man from Minda-
mao or Negros could hardly make him
self understood TO the man OF Luzon.
There was no common language and
English was comparatively unknown.
Giving the Filipino Language.
Today the Filipinos have one tongue.
which can be understood anywhere In
the islands and which viii carry the
traveller through them from Borneo 10
Formosa. This Is the English. Thousands
of teachers have been teaching II duririy
the past fifteen years, and hundreds OF
children are now practicing It in every
city and village. Today there are mos Q
than 5000 Filipino school teachers. all az
whom speak 1t fairly well. There are al 20
about 500 American teachers who are
working here and there throughout the
archipelago. and the younger generate on
is growing Up with English as its thong hit
language and book language.
This means much to the Philippines.
1t is unifying the people and mating
them one nation. In the past the Fill
pinos, or the Christian natives as din tin
guished from the wild tribes and the
Moros, had eight different types of Lam
guages. The natives OF one prcGince
could not understand those OF the ones
adjoining them. In Luzop 4 they ispoke
seven different tongues, and throu shout
the archipelago there were numerous d.
alectA
There were about 10000 who used the
TagaIog, 10000 who eonversed In tho
loco and more than half q MILL bn who
spoke BicoL There were 5000 or 4oo.OO
who had the Pangasinam and more than
a quarter Of a million who had the Pam
panga. Still different tongues weie spoken
by the sOo1eoe Of the yisayai, Islands
further SOUTH. and these had their dia-
leets.
The Moros Of Mihdanao and SUN had
their own language. but il was different
IN different places. The whole archipei-i
ago in short was Babel with such a con-
fusion Of tongues that 1t would have been
impossible to have introduced modern
civilization without a new language.
Uncle Sam has given the people this new
tongue and it Is the United States Eng
lish. ..s-.,
Filipino schools.
Il Is necessary TO understand the above
conditions 10 know what We are doing IN
educating the islands Ny information
comes from letters and reports Just re-
ceived BY the bureau OF insular affairs OF
the war department. and from talks with
General Clarence Edwards and from Of
ficers who have recently returned from
the Philippines.
The story Is one of live progress. We
are establishing schools everywhere and
that on the American plan. Many have
been instituted among the Wild tribes. and
the IgorFotss, the Bzgobas and the Ifu-
gsos have schools OF their own Some OF
the wild boys learn their lessons sitting
on the floor Of their matched school
houses, clad in little more than a gee
string. The Igoyrote school boys wear
caps and Jackets and gee-strings. but the
little ONES speak English Tnd they are
acting as interpreters for their fathers
engaged in the government WORKS. We
are even educating some Of the Negritos,
the children Of our caye-dyellins pygmies.
and our education Of the F1lipinos them
selves is going on everywhere
AZ it is now we have altogether about
sa.oaa children on the school rolls. This