Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 175, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1914 — Page 3

FILIPINO

W* N AGREEMENT with the somewhat S well-known Mr. Meredith, Uncle Same j ■ believes that ‘‘civilized man canno£ live without cooks,” and Is putting that' belief into demonstration In handling the educational problems of the Phlb Ippines. The Filipino, to be sure, had a civll--4 izatlvn and cooks prlor to the Amerlean occupation, but the civilization was not of high standard. And after several years of close study of the needs and possibilities of our restless little brown foster brothers of the far eastern Islands domestic science has been deemed the surest foundation upon which to build. To begin with, the home and Its women has been accepted by educators as the best process of engrafting occidental civilization, education and culture on the stunted, half-wild growth which centuries of Spanish rule left behind. It was the Filipino himself who pointed out the way for the solving of his own personal equation. Primitive as his home life had been he had been living up to the best he knew. When something —better was before him he was prompt to see the advantages of the newer way. The domestic science of the Filipino was not science at all; It was only a crude makeshift, handed down to him from his ancestors. His home was little better than a shack, very small and destitute of furnishings. Hts diet was so restricted that the Idea of such a thing as the art of cookery had never occurred to him. His clothing was little —or nothing. With the coming of the American and bls higher standard of civilization the Filipino, especially he of the younger generation, saw life from a new angle. He came to the realization that there is more in life than the mere business of living. He found that there is work to do; that he must do his share toward raising the standards of succeeding generations; that he had his allotted task In the bringing of the civilization of his country to a higher level. The first evidence of this awakening In the Filipino was the change in his method of life. Gone are the open fires over which swung a single pot on a tripod. Gone is the ancient habit of an entire family, Including the pups and the rest of the four-footed animals, eating from a common dish. Gone also are the primitive sleeping arrangements. . To be sure the- change was by evolution rather than by revolution, but its progress- was suffleient- , ly rapid and marked to compel the attention of the American educators who had gone across seas to teach these primitive folk new things. They had gone with a notion that the Filipino could be taught the same things and by the same methods that form the educational system in California and New York, Texas and the Dakotas. They found, however, that physical environment and previous social experience in the Filipino racial characteristics vastly different from our own and made of him a separate educational problem. The Filipino was not especially interested in whether or not he received mental training, but he was ambitious, cleverly imitative and keenly alert to the greater creature comforts of civilization which he glimpsed for the first time when the American came and conquered. And for all his reputation for slothfuiness he was willing and anxious to work for these things which so suddenly he had come to desire—these tangible and outward signs bf a higher civilization. So it was that domestic science and vocational training became an integral part of the educational system of the Philippines. A half-million Filipino young people are voluntarily tn school—there is no compulsory education in the islands. Primary English education is open to all and is incidental to the domestic science and vocational courses. The Filipino knew what he wanted and he got it, and he ‘is quite as happy as the more sophisticated souls imagine we would be if ever we did get what we want One of the most potent factors in making the Filipino, not into an- imitation good American, but Into a good, patriotic and useful citizen of his own native archipelago, has Been the School of Household Industries in Manila. Here annually from all the Islands of the group, in ever increasing numbers, young Filipinos are instructed in domestic science and economy. Besides, these youhg women are taught the more important if less remunerative vocation of successful housewife and mother. The course In housekeeping and household arts, one of the most Important and most widely studied of the several offered by the school, gives the young women a basic education in the three R.’s, - three full years study being demoted to reading, writing, arithmetic and grammar. In the homemaker's" course they study hygiene, home sanitation, physiology, cooking and the care of Infants. A short course tn nursing is glyen, and a full

nurse’s course is included among the vocational courses. Dressmaking, lace making, embroidery, hat making and weaving are among the other branches Included in the-vocational school and optional in-the homemaker's course. Much as the Filipino‘needed education along all lines, in nothing was his need so great as in the first principles of sanitation. When the American came the natives, even In the larger cities, knew nothing of sanitation, household or otherwise. It had not been taught the Filipino by his Spanish rulers, who practised the theory that the more the native knew the more discontented and hence the more difficult to manage he would become. Also, the Spanish ruler himself knew practically nothing of the higher domestic arts, and his idea that his home was his castle and what went on within of no concern to the outsider he handed down to the Filipino. The Filipino, however, was far readier to as-, slmllate the beneficent changes offered by the Americans. He promptly learned that sanitation, both at home and abroad, lessened the danger of plagues, which since time immemorial had mowed down the native population like grain before a scythe. The Filipino is proud irr his own way and has 'a strong notion of what are his personal rights. Anything akin to tyrannical enforcement of. ironclad rules would have defeated the whole scheme. Hosts of domestic science teachers, equipped with the best training, have gone to the Philippines this last decade with high hopes and unbounded enthusiasm for the work before them, only to return presently with blank failure the record of their Philippine sojourn. Those who have succeeded —and the success of these has been tremendous —have done so through intimate sympathetic understanding of the Filipino, the code and traditions which give him his own peculiar point of view and his essentially peculiar home life. Nothing in all the course of study offered by the school of household Industries has seemed, to Interest the young women so greatly as the study of sanitation, hygiene and the care of infants. While the Filipino himself may have definite reasons of his own for desiring cleaner and more wholesome living conditions, the younger women have learned that to a lack of knowledge may be charged the terrific death rate among Infants. Out of each three round-eyed, smiling babies born* one dies before it has lived a year, a victim of ignorance and unsanitary environment. Innate, universal' mother love was quick to value and acquire knowledge of anything which results in saving the babies. But nothing in all the school is so variously interesting as the changes wrought by the study of cooking. In times past the Filipino had the scantiest variety of food, which was prepared in the simplest fashion, meat being a heavy item of his menu. The greatest delicacy of the Igorrote was, and in some portions of the Islands continues to be. "pot roast ala Ftdo.” Many of them still eat dog stew, but the majority are beginning to learn that there are numerous other foods vastly more palatable and satisfying. Even the Igorrote maiden knows that if she is to get and keep a husband she must know modern methods of conducting the modern home, which the men have acquired a liking for. I_lSo It happens that In the cooking classes are the ybuhgest ahd future -wives and mothers. And even in their

dress they herald the new day. The picturesque and fantastic' costumes have been discarded for simple checked gingham frocks under all enveloping white linen aprons. In sharp contrast to these cooking school girls are the young women who are studying in various other branches and clinging religiously to the gayly flowered skirts, tight at the hips, flowing away to voluminous breadth and great trains at the feet, and surmounted by» the queer little crisp cotton jackets, for all the world like badly cut kimonos and bunching up about the neck in an ungraceful fashion, always suggesting hump shoulders. _ To make beautiful laces and fine embroideries seems to be an almost natural art with the Filipino girls, an Inherent aptness resulting undoubtedly from the uncounted generations of lace makers before them. The strong, supple and delicately slender brown fingers are steady as Iron. The clear dark eyes are not tired by the intricate, tedious patterns which would mean wreck of nerves and vision of women less patient and tranquil jninded. Lace making and embroidery were not Introduced by American teachers, but were brought to the islands centuries ago by the Spaniards. According to Medina’s history, needlecraft-was taught in the convent schools as early as 1630, and Retana in the early eighteenth century wrote that “the girls easily imitate the laces and embroidery of Europe” and that they perform "such work fairly well In a little time.” The foundation being laid, it was an opportunity quickly, seized by the American teachers, and while the instruction under convent teaching necessarily was restricted to a comparatively small number, 1| Is the hope,of the instructors of these days that needlecraft speedily shall become of universal knowledge among Filipino women. Also it is hoped' that through their aptness for embroidery and lace making there may be opened up for them a steadily remunerative occupation. Mil the nurse’s training work also the idea has been to provide the young women with remunerative work, but the beginnings in that line wera in the face of stubborn prejudice and opposition. The natives were extremely suspicious of doctors and hospitals and it was quite beyond comprehension that any youiig woman of modesty and good taste should be willing to undergo a nurse’s experience. - __ A campaign of enlightenment had to be carried on before it was possible to establish nursing classes. ' But the readily adaptable Filipino, once convinced that the finest of young women became nurses among more advanced and enlightened people, speedily abandoned her prejudice. The set of the wind is now as strongly In the opposite direction and the vocation of trained nurse has so caught popular fancy that the. number of applicants each year is far greater than the capacity of . the training school. In basketry and rug weaving another profitable line has been opened for women, and by rare good fortune it happens that the islands produce in lavish quantities all of the required materials, which with their commercial values unknown hitherto were permitted to rot in the jungles Still another line of Income is from the preserving and canning of fruits for commerce, a line which at once makes Income hearing previously wasted human energy as well as a vast fortune in unused fruits. So summed up the training of the young Filipino women means that when the Americans came to teach them the desire for a better method of living the new and strangely benevolent conqueror- shnwwd tiiem at the sama ttme how the desire might be gratified.

HOME TRADE BOOSTS

WHAT if we should go to one of our local storekeepers and say: “Hers is a ten-dollar bill; I want you to buy for me such and-such an article, made so-and-so, this Color, that size, and deliver it to me at your convenience—say 30 days.” - Along comes another townsman, and another, still another, until 50 of us, all living here in'our community, shall have placed in the hands of the storekeeper a sum amounting to a thousand dollars, with similar instructions. We would then have treated our local storekeeper with the same liberality as we, who have been buying of the mall order houses, have treated these monopolistic concerns. .We would have then sfifigjned Mm with cash capital sufficient to buy what we ordered and give him a'falr profit on his deal. Yes, we would thus enable him to take a trip to the city, buy from the manufacturers the articles desired, ship them to us, spend a day or two enjoying himself if he so pleased, and leave him a fair percentage of profit over and above the cost of the articles and his expenses. DO WE DO THIS? YES, WE DO—NOT. But this is exactly what we do with the mail order man in the big city. We send him the money in advance. He has the use of our cash for the purchase of his merchandise. He sends us whatever he chooses and if wo do not like it we can whistle for our < He takes our money and buys that which we have ordered. Then he may take a trip to Europe If he so wishes, all at our expense. .. Few of us realize that we, the people outside the Mg cities, furnish the capital for the conduct of the big mall order houses. We do not stop to think that it is our money which Is building those great structures which are the pride of Chicago and some other cities. We do not stop to consider that we are the capitalists who are supplying the sinews of war against our own local business men. lust think of W— dividends of fifteen millions of dollars PAID TO THE BIG MEN IN THE MAIL ORDER BUSINESS AS A PROFIT EACH YEAR ON OUR MONEY. We send the cash in advance to them. They require practically no inare doing their business on the money which we, poor, deluded country dwellers, send to them, when we are only cutting our own throats and helping to diminish the prestige and strength of our local tradesmen. What would be the result if we should hand our dollars, in advance, to our local storekeepers and give them the same chance to make profits, without Investment? What would be the effect on our community? It would mean prosperity for us all. It would mean more taxes to be paid by our business men, improvements of a municipal character, better school facilities, better street lighting, better paving, etc. Of coursd, our local storekeepers do not expect us to do business in this way. Yet why should we not? We do it with the mail order houses and when we are fooled we take our medicine because we are ashamed to let our friends know how we have been buncoed. I But we should do tMs-r-we should give all of our business to those men who have made their investments in our town, who are trying to build up the community, who are paying the taxes and who are helping us to increase the value of our real estate holdings. We all know that the value of our houses and lots, here In town, will be Increased as ths community advances In prosperity, and the only way for the community to advance Is for our business men to do an Increased business. WE SHOULD PATRONIZE THE MEN WHO ARE TRYING TO HELP OURSELVES. We all hope to advance. We all hope to become prosperous. Whpn we buy from the mall order house we are helping monopoly to put our storekeepers out of business. When we send a. dollar to the big city, Instead of spending it at home, we are depriving our children of some of the opportunities for education which they are entitled to. Let us spend our dollars here at home, with the merchants who are trying to keep up the schools and other local advantages which we cannot have for our children unless we have a prosperous community. Let mi npt forget that the mail order man'does not pay any of our taxes In- this town. The taxes are paid by the local business men, at least the greater proportion, and the more business we do with them, the more taxes they must pay. LET US WAKE UP TO A CONSIDERATION OF OUR BEST INLET US SUPPORT THOSE WHO HELP US, AND OUR CHILDREN.

HAS CITIZENSHIP A VALUE?

ITIZENBHIP has a definite value. This value cannot be computed In dob (Cjl lars and cents, but It is worth fighting for. ' Citizenship grows out of communities. Were there no communities there would be no citizens. We would then be merely unprotected Individuate —entirely at the mercy of all other individuals who might wish to destroy any weaker or less ferocious one.' . By dwelling in communities wo hare many advantagwu Soma gs u» value and appreciate these advantages while others selfishly accept the advantages but refuse to do their share toward maintaining the community. Laws have been enacted to compel us to pay taxes—used for the financial communities for our protection. BUT THER®' ARE NO LAWS WHICH COMPEL THE MEMBER OF ANY COMMUNITY TO. SHOW APPRECIATION OF THE BENEFITS DERIVED FROM LIVING IN A COMMUNITY. One of the benefits of living In a community Is the opportunity furnished ns to buy merchandise required for our comfort and Indulgence, right here In our own town. This facility permits us to -buy what we need when we need it We can step into a store, lay down a dollar and buy a dollar’s worth of goods. Perhaps we can get the goods without paying the dollar down in cash—that is, if we have the credit What a genuine benefit It is to be able to do this. In the olden days our forefathers were compelled to drive many miles to a store where the merchandise might be obtained. Large quantities were bought at a time because the trip to the store could not be made at frequent Intervals. As our citizens increased in numbers and gathered into communities, stores were established at the various centers of the Increasing population until now we can buy, right at home, our necessities and luxuries. That which we value we endeavor to protect If we value the facility for purchasing goods at home we should protect ft The best way to protect it is to make it possible for the storekeepers to continue to do business. If we do not help them to continue to do business here in our community the natural consequence will be for them to close up their stores and go out of business. If we buy from our local storekeepers only such merchandise as wo cannot buy conveniently elsewhere, we will poon discover that the stores will carry only such restricted lines of goods as are in demand by the people who live here. Then we will find out that we are not much better off than our forefathers were. We must send away for such merchandise as we require. We must wait until the order has been received in the mail order house and filled in the due course of time by--the employes of the concern we are patronizing There are many disadvantages in this method. We do not fully realize them now. But they will come home to us when conditions arrive which compel us to buy everything by mall —If such a time does come. However, If we look at the matter in the gght light we will not permit such a contlngency to arrive-...- '" ' / Why should we be deluded into sending our money away from home be* cause of the fulsome and flattering descriptions In a mall order catalogue? Why should we prefer the questionable qualities In merchandise as exploited by a catalogue writer to the honest, dependable goods which we can see before us In our own local stores? Do we save money by buying from the mail order houses? When the matter of freight and express charges have been figured out, when the question of delays, unsatisfactory shipments, breakage, damaged goods, etc., have been answered, where Is the profit, if any? ON THE OTHER HAND, THE LOCAL MERCHANT 18 ALWAYS RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING HE SELLS- The purchaser can examine any article for sale in the local store and buy only that which is satisfactory. It will be delivered without delay. If there is any imperfection it will be quickly remedied. If there Is any shortage in the delivery it wlll.be supplied at once. A personal call or a telephone message will arrange everything Quickly -- And when it comes to prices you win always get full value for your money when dealing with the local storekeeper. He buys his merchandise In the market and he sells it at a profit to us. He asks only a modest profit and he is entitled to it. We should be perfectly willing to pay him a profit tor his investment, for bls labor, and for his ability to save us time, trouble and money. . IF WE ARE NOT WILLING TO DO THIS, WE SHOULD BE HEARTILY SHAMED OF OURSELVES- AND WE WOULD NOT BE ENTITLED ro THE ADVANTAGES AFFORDED BY HIS STORE. • “ , . -A. - ■> ■ tv.sao . ■ ?

Whom Do We Support?