Dr. Apacible, the head of the Hong Kong junta during the insurrection, now a practicing physician in Manila, was selected by the Filipino reception committee to accompany us on our trip, and being personally acquainted with the leaders of thought, he was able to bring us into contact with those who reflected the opinion of the people, while Captain Moss, of General Corbin's personal staff, and Collector Shuster, representing the insular government, kept us in touch with the Americans in military and civil life. We found everywhere commendation of the educational system established by the Americans. It is the one department of work instituted by our government which seems to have avoided serious criticism. I presented this universal commendation as evidence of the good intentions of our people, pointing out to the Filipinos that people are apt to assert their rights in proportion as they increase in intelligence, and that our people would not be foolish enough to encourage education if they really intended to do injustice to the Filipinos.
FILIPINO NIGHT SCHOOL—AMERICAN TEACHERS
The large increase in the number of students and the interest taken in the establishment of schools must be taken into consideration by anyone who attempts to forecast the future of the islands. In many communities there are more people speaking English to-day than could ever speak Spanish, and the multitude of dialects will soon be dissolved into a common language. One superintendent of schools told me that in his district the attendance was more than 50 per cent above the school population, owing to the fact that grown men, and women with children, insisted upon studying. Another superintendent reported that she could not find teachers for all the villages which offered to erect school houses. An incident was related by still another teacher which illustrates the ambition of the Filipino youth. A Filipino boy, who was working in the home of an English woman notified his mistress that he wanted to go to school. Being anxious to keep him, she offered to raise his wages from twenty pesos per month to forty, but he rejected the offer, saying that he loved wisdom more than he loved money.
Besides the public schools, primary, secondary, industrial and normal, there are a number of religious schools. The Jesuits had their schools and colleges under Spanish occupation, one of the boys' schools which we visited at Cebu being older than Harvard University. The Catholic sisters also have numerous girls' schools throughout the islands. At Manila the Jesuits have an observatory and weather bureau which, for equipment and scientific accuracy, probably has no superior anywhere.
The Protestant churches are also establishing schools, some of them industrial. Who will measure the effect upon coming generations of these multiplying agencies for the training of the boys and girls of the Philippines?
The northern islands are inhabited by a Christian population. Whatever may be said of the governmental methods of Spain or of the political corruption of her colonial representatives, she established the Christian faith in the islands. Prior to American occupation the higher officials of the church and many of the priests were Spanish, but since 1900 American and Filipino bishops and priests are being substituted. Under the lead of Archbishop Harty the work of the church is being vigorously pushed and a large number of baptisms are reported. Several of the Protestant churches are gaining a foothold, there being upwards of ten thousand Filipinos enrolled in the evangelical churches. The Presbyterian church of the Tondo district, Manila, has something like four hundred natives, Señor Buencamino, secretary of state under Aguinaldo, and afterwards a member of the civil service commission, being president of the Tondo congregation.
No discussion of the religious situation in the Philippines would be complete without a reference to the independent Catholic church of which Señor Gregoria Agilpay is the head. Obispo Maximo Aglipay is a native Filipino, 46 years old, with an intelligent face and fine presence. In three and a half years he has established a church with some three hundred priests and about seven hundred congregations. He claims a membership of about four million, but the clergy of the regular Catholic church do not concede nearly so large a following. In fact, they deny that he has made any considerable impression upon the Catholic population, and as there is no accurate church census, it is impossible to say in what proportion the Catholic membership is divided between these two church organizations.