Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-14
ISLANDS Numbered
/ BY 81 LANGUAGES
FiIipinos Handicapped by In
ability to Understand
Each Other.
BY WALTER ROBB.
Special to The Star and Chicago Daily News
CopyrIght 1927.


Copyright. 1927.
MANILA, p. l., July lin an
Interview in Manila Gov. Gen. WOOD,
before leaving for the United States.
made an estimate of the number oil
miles he had travelled on inspection
trips in the PHILIPPINES during ms slX
years administration as governor gen.
eral.
II don't know exactly how far it is
altogether" he said, but it would be
the equivalent of several voyages
around the world. Single trips have
extended over 1000 to 5000 miles. and
included stops at 40 or so towns"
He had reference to the frequent
trips made on his official yacht, the
Apo.
Made Visits Informal.
IL have made it a practice" he
went on, Ito make my visits into the
provinces informal, and whenever pos
sible to have them unannOunced. with
the result that I have been able to see
the people just as they are in their
daily lives and Just how the officials
regularly carried on. | would lmme-
diately inspect the market on arrival
at a town. and then the health and
municipal offices. The frequent visits
seemed encouraging to the people and
to the officials as well.
My annual 'eport for last year will
be out soon. In it | have stated about
what there was to say of the last
year. Peace and order are good, the
country prosperous and the people con-
tented and happy. There has been CO.
operation from every one, municipal
and provincial officials and the Legis-
iature The Legislature passed num-
Der of measures, and many of them
were approved. There was not entire
agreement. some measures / could not
approve. But the lack of entire agree
ment is normal situation, indicating
only divergence of views. There
was no stalemate, talk of noncoopera-
ton is nonsense. and by means Of CO.
operation we have gone ahead"
OF course, the main bill vetoed was
that providing plebiscite on indie
pendence. This was then sent to
President Coolidge, who upheld Gen.
Woods action and accompanied his
own veto with an extended letter CIV
ing his reasons. Gen. Wood has nat
urally been very DESTROYS of getting
this letter of the President before the
Filipino people.
81 Languages Spoken.
But we have not been able to break
over the language barriers" he said.
THAT is the difficulty out here, one
of the main ones-reaching the people.
There are 81 language handicaps to
vault" meaning the 81 languages and
dialects spoken in the islands.
THE number of people speaking
Spanish is diminishing, many of the
younger generation are acquiring Eng
Ish. They are making commendable
effort, but it is still too early to reach
them in that language. What we are
doing is having the message translated
into some five of the principal Ian.
guages, but unless this is done by men
with thorough grasp of English.
mistakes are likely to creep into the
translation and change or weaken the
sense" (The five principal languages
will reach the great bulk of the people
who are literate in any tongue what
ever.)
Gen. Wood has hope of getting into
better contact with the people through
radio sets Installed in provincial high
schools. Teachers and advanced pu-
pills could take notes, he thinks, on
messages and lectures over the radio
and then retail this information to the
patrons in the local vernacular.
Offers Great Problem.
But contemplation of the problem
evoked audible signs from the weary
administrator.
1T is indeed great problem. Why,
] have gone into towns on the Apo,
having the captain, the mate and the
chief engineer each speaking two or
more dialects, and yet we were quite
unable to make any one understand
us. Finally some one would turn up
who had come in from a port city or
provincial capital. He would know
English or, perhaps, Spanish, and we
could then talk through him.
But such communities are rarer
now than formerly. Throughout his
talk, Gen. Wood emphasized repeat.
eddy the wonderful progress the Fill.
pinos have made during the last quar-.
ter century. His program is to keep
on along the road which America laid
in 1898. But to go faster and employ
the assistance of ga initial