Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-02-24

are two higher schools at Manila with |
combined enrolment of over twelve |
hundred. as well as the University of !
the Philippines. The latter institution
is very popular, but most of the young |
Filipino college men take courses In
letters and the fine arts. In the present
stage Of development of the country, |
1t would be much better If they cared
more for the sciences and engineering. !;
In the lower schools, a very success
full feature is the work in manual
training. 1t is no mere sideline, more
or less of mere novelty, as It Is In
the United States. An old Spanish
| friar many years ago said that the
brains of the Filipinos are In their fin !
| gers. They are deXterous in the most
| delicate operations to a high degree.
Hence the manual training work pro.
duces some fine results. with true
professional finish, unlike the patiently
! amateurish products usually turned
out by such departments. In these
| AAAeahuoi SAebiAlhi5 AooAo AANy Nc aouAu
ed new industries for the islands. The
lace making work has been greatly
stimulated.
! One of the most important works of
the bureau of education has been the
way it spread the propaganda of the
bureau Of health. The health bureau
work in the Philippines is as funda.
mentally important as the same work
in the canal zone, and the results
achieved have been as great. We
found the islands in state of almost
unbelievable uncleanliness, swept
periodically by all the plaques of
Egypt, and every step forward was
made against forces of ignorance and
superstition. There were few educa-
ted and intelligent natives who realiz-
ed that conditions needed lettering,
but that was about as far as they got.
The health service fought the chol.
era until instead of sweeping away a
third of city, the plague took only a
few hundred victims On one occasion
| the people of Manila would not believe
that the cholera was among them be.
cause the deaths were SO few. There
are still outbreaks at intervals, but the
machinery for fighting the disease is
so well organized that the old panics
at it's approach are thing Of the past.
| The bubonic plague has been put down
by campaigns OF rigorous sanitation,
and strict quarantine system. All
this work is being done among a
people who used to close every window |
tightly at highland still do, very |
often-because they believe In an evil
spirit that wanders around in the
darkness. w.
The work against smallpox has been |
carried on by means of extensive vac
cination, with results even better than
were hoped for. Some of the most
hostile of the wild tribes were won
over by means of cures that seemed to
them miraculous. The whole record OF
sanitary work is one for the United
States to be proud of-but it cannot be
regarded as finished 1t has not reach
ed the stage where 1t will run along on
its own momentum.
II we turn the Philippines over to
native government, they will carry
with them, among others, these two
great tasks unfinished-education and
sanitation. A nation of eight million
people, one-eighth of them savages,
must be kept on the road toward intel.
ligent self government. An archipelago
with a land area of 100000 square
miles must be kept free from a dozen
virulent diseases that ravaged it up to
a few years ago, and free from the
filth that was long thought an inevi-
table concomitant of the orient. 1t is
] a big contract.