Education and Freedom in the Philippines
By Editor
A NUMBER of the acts of the Philippine Commission have been reported by cable to the War Department. The commission provides for a general department of public instruction, with a central office at Manila. Schools are to be opened in every pueblo where practicable, and those already established are to be re-organized where necessary. The English language, as soon as practicable, shall be made the basis of all public instruction, and soldiers may be detailed as instructors until replaced by trained teachers. Authority is given the general superintendent to secure from the United States 1,000 teachers. The act provides that no teacher or other person “shall teach or criticize the doctrines of any church, religious sect, or denomination, nor shall attempt be made to influence the pupils for or against any church or religious sect in any public school.” It is provided, however, that it shall be lawful for the priest or minister of the pueblo where the school is situated to teach religion for one-half hour three times a week in the school building to pupils whose parents desire it. The act also provides for a normal school at Manila. We will expect the Filipinos now to be grateful for these civilizing arrangements. They would have been profoundly and truly grateful, had they been allowed to make the arrangements for themselves as free men. Education is good; but the Filipinos went to war with Spain for freedom; they fought America for freedom; and in spite of all pretensions and all claims of expediency, America has no valid excuse for creating subjects in a foreign land. She has broken away from her basic principles, and is following in the footsteps of the one-time Roman Republic.