Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/69

Rh ing use of affixes and suffixes, which gives the speech its character, is common 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 languages 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.

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 frequently takes, not alone in the United States, but among Americans in these islands, is that in giving the Filipino this primary education we are impairing his usefulness as a productive laborer, separating him from agriculture and the trades, making every school- boy ambitious to become an escribiente, and filling their minds generally with distaste for rural life. American investors and promoters in the Philippines 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 reasonable terms for various enterprises in which Americans desire to invest effort and money. When, however, we look a little more closely into the demands