Educating the Filipinos 



47 



ing use of affixes and suffixes, which 

 gives the speech its character, is com- 

 mon to them all. There are, moreover, 

 words and expressions identical to them 

 all. A hundred common words could 

 readily be selected which would scarcely 

 vary from one language to another ; but 

 the fact still remains that, while simi- 

 lar in grammatical structure, these lan- 

 guages are very different in vocabulary — 

 so different that two members of any two 

 different tribes brought together are 

 unable to converse, or at first even to 

 make themselves understood for the 

 simplest steps of intercourse. The 

 similarity in structure makes it very 

 easy for a Filipino of one tribe to learn 

 the language of another ; but never- 

 theless these languages have preserved 

 their distinction for more than three 

 hundred years of European rule and in 

 the face of a common religion and in 

 spite of considerable migration and mix- 

 ture between the different tribes. This 

 is as true where different populations 

 border one another as elsewhere. In 

 no case is there any indication that these 

 languages are fusing. The Filipino ad- 

 heres to his native dialect in its purity, 

 and when he converses with a Filipino 

 of another tribe ordinarily uses broken 

 Spanish. 



TO THE FILIPINOS A NATIONAL, LAN- 

 GUAGE IS A NECESSITY— THEY 

 PREFER ENGLISH 



For common intercourse, as well as 

 for education, the Filipino demands a 

 foreign speech. To confine him to his 

 native dialect would be simply to per- 

 petuate that isolation which he has so 

 long suffered and against which his in- 

 surrection was a protest. Opponents of 

 English education find no sympathizer 

 among the Filipino people. The ad- 

 vantage which the possession of the 

 English language will give him is read- 

 ily understood by the Filipino, and it is 

 fortunate that the acquisition of the 

 Spanish tongue was largely denied him 



and that it never won his affection. 

 English is the lingua franca of the Far 

 East. It is spoken in the ports from 

 Hakodate to Australia. It is the com- 

 mon language of business and social 

 intercourse between the different na- 

 tions from America westward to the 

 Levant. To the Filipino the possession 

 of English is the gateway into that busy 

 and fervid life of commerce, of modern 

 science, of diplomacy and politics, in 

 which he aspires to shine. 



Knowledge of English is more than 

 this — it is a possession as valuable to 

 the humble peasant for his social pro- 

 tection as it is to the man of wealth for 

 his social distinction. If we can give 

 the Filipino husbandman a knowledge 

 of the English language, and even the 

 most elemental acquaintance with En- 

 glish witings, we will free him from that 

 degraded dependence upon the man of 

 influence of his own race which made 

 possible not merely insurrection, but 

 that fairly unparalleled epidemic of 

 crime which we have seen in these 

 islands during the past few years. 



Another form which criticism fre- 

 quently takes, not alone in the United 

 States, but among Americans in these 

 islands, is that in giving the Filipino 

 this primary education we are impair- 

 ing his usefulness as a productive la- 

 borer, separating him from agriculture 

 and the trades, making every school- 

 boy ambitious to become an cscribiente, 

 and filling their minds generally with 

 distaste for rural life. American in- 

 vestors and promoters in the Philip- 

 pines at the present moment are deeply 

 disgusted with the Filipino as a laborer 

 and are clamorous for the introduction 

 of Chinese coolies. They claim that 

 the Filipino hates and despises labor for 

 itself, will not keep a laboring contract, 

 and cannot be procured on any reason- 

 able terms for various enterprises in 

 which Americans desire to invest effort 

 and money. When, however, we look 

 a little more closely into the demands 



