| OCR Text |
Show J 1 fio w We Civilize the Filipinos Extracts From the Report of Foreign Missions of the Pres i byterian Church, With Comments Thereon From j Father Lambert in Freeman's Journal. 1 A much respected Presbyterian friend has sent us a sizable pamphlet containing contain-ing the "Report of a Visitation of the Philippine Mission of the Board of Foreign For-eign Missions of the, Presbyterian Church to the United Spates of America, Amer-ica, by the Rev. Arthur J. Brown, D.D., Secretary.". The report contains, as might be expected, ex-pected, a large amount of anti-Catholic and anti-friar declamation, misrepresentation misrepre-sentation and pious sermonizing. But in the midst of all this threshed straw and decayed vegetable matter that we may pass strenuously holding the nose there are some observations and statements of facts that are important and well worthy of careful reflection. The first quotation we make is somewhat some-what long. But owing to its startling character we give it in full. It is taken tak-en from page 30 of the pamphlet and runs thus: "Apart from some of the difficulties which are common to other mission fields, a distinctive problem in the Philippine Phil-ippine islands 'is the presence of an overshadowing number of irreligious Americans. Of the approximately 70,-000 70,-000 people from the United States now in the Philippine islands, only a few hundred identify themselves with the Christian cause. Many are given to profanity or intemperance or immorality, immorali-ty, or, perhaps, to all three, and are so conspicuous in their vices that they appear ap-pear to be relatively more numerous than they really are. The American saloon sa-loon is the greatest curse that has been introduced in the archipelago. Near our missionary residence in Dumaguete, for example, there is a saloon kept by a former volunteer soldier. It was nuea wun soiaiers every time 1 passea it. and I was informed that its receipts "are between $300 and $400 Mexican every ev-ery payday. Statistical reports show that during the year 1900 liquors were imported into the port of Manila to the value of $1,531,558 gold, that flour was imported during the same period to the value of $411,616 gold. The Manila Ma-nila Times says that 'the people will no doubt wonder what on earth was done with so much flour. The proportion propor-tion appears to be one solid to four liquids.' Before the arrival of Americans, Ameri-cans, the native wine shops were numerous, nu-merous, but they seldom carry more than a few pesas' worth of bino (rice whisky) and tuba (cocoanut beer). Intemperance In-temperance is not a Filipino vice. He drinks moderately as compared with the American, usually in his home at night and in the opinion of the Taft commission, 'consequently suffers comparatively com-paratively little harm.' In a month's constant traveling, I did not see a drunken Filipino. Drunkenness came with the American soldier and sailor. "An unimpeachable authority, not a missionary, told me that venereal diseases dis-eases brought by Americans are spreading with such appalling rapidity that in some villages half the population popula-tion has already been infected, and that it has become absolutely necessary to establish hospitals for the treatment of venereally diseased native women. I saw 200 such women, many of them mere girls, in one hospital in Manila. 'What are we to do?' half-pathetically said an officer of the bureau' of public' health to me. 'We cannot allow these contagious diseases to run unchecked ; : and rot away their lives."' The perusal of this suggests the serious se-rious question whether it would not have been more fortunate for the Fili- i pinos to have been sunk to the bot- j torn of the sea than to have lived to become the victims of this blighting j wave or irreligion, profligacy, drunk- ' enncss and immorality that has swept ! over them from across the Pacific. In view of this enforced degradation of a helpless people, how like sounding brass and tinkling cymbal are the. words of an American orator on a pub- 1 lie occasion in Manila: "There is no reason for our being here; our pres- I ence in these islands cannot be justified justi-fied either in history or to our own ( consciences, unless we are here for the ' 1 sole purpose of assisting the Filipino ' people to the enjoyment of the largest I practicable mrasuro nf th i;k 1 I delight in, and the blessings of our j i own free institutions, and to the j I achievements of a better and purer j and stronger life than they could pos- ' 5 sibly have known but for our com- i ing." s i I When speaking of the government j I regulating prostitution and maintain- ing hospitals for diseased prostitutes, I the Rev. Dr. Brown was told by a high 1 official in Manila "that the reason why j j the government is justified in making j f stated examinations of prostitutes and I f maintaining a' public hospital for those i found to be diseased lay in its inability . I Cl to prevent immorality, and that it f could only regulate it and deal with it3 f effects." , 1 Dr. Brown says: "One of Aguinal- J do's generals expressed to me his de- I ' sire to connect himself with our rnis- I sion, and he was mystified when I tried - i f to explain to him what it is to be a if Christian in the Protestant sense of j the term." That general was not alone t j in being mystified when trying to get j s an idea of what it is to be a Christian ' t s in the Protestant sense of the term. There are hosts of others who have f been stumped by the same puzzle, and S it remains yet unsolved. I Here is an interesting item: "As for t Bible translation, they should, of I course, be in the vernacular an.-: not t in Spanish. The sectarian features of ! the Baptist translation in Panay, al- ready referred to, have unfortunately I forced Dr. Hall to begin another I translation, upon which he has made I considerable progress." ; I So they are to have contradictory I Pibles as well as contradictory creeds. 1 The Filipino then will not get what I the word of God says, but what the f Baptist or Presbyterian says it says. J And as their translations will not agree, the Filipino must remain in a ! '. state of intellectual suspense until the 1 Baptist and the Presbyterian agree, j which will be when the cow jump3 J over the moon. 1 j We will conclude for the present with . the following frank statement of Mr. I Brown, found on page 54 of his pam- il phlet: f "I believe that the public schools in the Philippines, secular though they i are .are a powerful ally of Protestant ! missions." I |
