New Britain herald., 1926-07-19
TWENTY-FIVE YRS.
 IN PHILIPPINES
Turn Of Quarter Century Sees
 Numerous Changes

arlington, D. C., July 19 - The commission for investigation of the Philippinv Islands appointed by President Coolidge has sailed to make a new survey of the United States territory in the Far East.
 With the commissions departure the spotlight of public interest again turns to the Philippines, says a bulletin of the National Geographic society from it's Washington, D. C.. headquarters.
 "The quarter century since the first Philippine commission finished it's work in 1901, has seen vast changes in the Islands. An inven- tory cr Philippine trade, of educa- tion, and general welfare shows ad- yances all along the line.
 How Trade Has Changed.
 "Scratch coffee, insert embroider- les, then the list if the islands five chief products for export remain the same. But the order of their l1n- portance and most of all the rolled in total of their importance to the Philippines has changed. For years Manila hemp was the leader. The most valuable export today is sugar and the next most valuable is the cocoanut. Then follows hemp. To- bacco Is in fourth place just as 1t was during the latter years of Span ish control. Philippine embroidery is the new entry. Coffee in the Phil ippine's succumbed to a tropical dis ease,
 "The year 1901 was the first nor nal year for the Philippines after they became United States territory. Aguinaldo's instruction had been suppressed. The soldier made way for the civilian. That year Philip pine trade exports and imports, dou- bled the Spanish average for many years. Today Philippine trade ex- ceeds the quarter billion mark which makes it more than four times as much as in the first peace year un- der the American flag.
 Older Than Harvard
 If age weer the only test, the Filipino could call the American school system mere mushroom growth. A graduate of the Univer- sity of Santo Tomas in Manila can refer to Harvard as young upstart college because Santo Tomas open ed its doors in 1907, the same year John Smith and his hundred colo nists began their trials with mosqui- toes and malaria at Jamestown. The Philippine school system, however is almost entirely American made Spanish law required that there be two teachers, one for instruction of boys and one for instruction of girls to each 5000 people. Actually 1t worked out to one teacher to more than 4,000 people.
 Today there are more than 25,- 900 teachers in Philippine public schools These teachers, 9S per cent of whom are Filipinos, are training 1,132.o0o pupils.
 English Superseding spanish 2. "Although there are S7 dialects spoken in the Islands, English has become the national language in 25 years. There is not a town or re- mote village now where some chill dren at least do not speak English. Spanish is spoken but not nearly as much as English.
 Probably the most significant de- tail in an inventory of the state Of the Philippines is the decrease in the number of white residents. The census of 1903 showed 14,000 white people, most of them American while the last authoritative census, 1918 showed 12.00O. Meantime the population of the whole archipelago had increased by 3,000,000.
 "Straws in the wind are probably more important than the tablets of 95 years of progress in the Philip pines. These are some of the straws. Plans are under way for planting SO,000,000 para rubber seedlings during the current year. A new profitable export has been discov- cred in buntal Bangkok straw hats which has leaped in four years from the s200,00o peg to s2,000,- 900. Although tenth among the worlds sugar producers, the Philip pines are first in area of land