In the educational campaign which we have thus far conducted with some considerable degree of success, two agencies have proved invaluable, namely the Catholic Church and the public schools.  Again and again I have begged Apostolic Delegate Monsignor Agius and Archbishop Harty to bring to bear the influence of the Church in favour of simple sanitary regulations, the general adoption of which was imperatively necessary in combating some epidemic of disease.  They have invariably given me invaluable assistance.

Through the public schools we reach more than half a million children, and they take the information which we convey to them home to their parents.  Simple rules for the prevention of cholera have been universally taught in the schools.  When the use of English has become generalized the difficulty now encountered in reaching the common people will largely disappear.  The truth is that they are singularly tractable and docile when their reason can be effectively appealed to.  The readiness with which they have submitted to the rigorous measures necessary for the elimination of leprosy is a lasting honour to them.

Would the sanitary campaign so vitally important to the people of the Philippines be effectively continued if American authority were withdrawn at this time?  With regret I must answer this question emphatically in the negative.  We have succeeded in training a few good physicians and surgeons.  We have thus far failed to train really efficient sanitary officers.  What is lacking is not so much knowledge as to what should be done as initiative and courage to do it.  Until this condition changes radically for the better, Filipinos cannot safely be intrusted with the sanitary regeneration of their country.  Under American control the population of the islands is steadily and rapidly increasing.  It is my firm conviction that if Filipinos were at this time placed in control of the health work, the population would steadily and rapidly decrease.

The present attitude of the Filipino press toward sanitary work is both interesting and important.  I quote the following editorial from the March 27, 1913, issue of El Ideal, a paper generally believed to be controlled by Speaker Osmena:—­

“Some persons, who, because of being ignorant of many things, do not sympathize with the Filipino people, who are in the habit of frequently throwing up to them the violent opposition of our masses to strict sanitary measures in cases of epidemics, and the lively protests which are provoked here on some occasions by other provisions tending to end some public calamity, thinking they see in this disposition of mind an indication of our incapacity to govern ourselves....

“To be more expressive, we shall say that the sanitary agents and veterinarians of the government, swollen with power and overly zealous of their prestige, quickly become, when an occasion like those cited by us presents itself, cunning czars, whose sphere of influence is in direct ratio to the peaceful character and ignorance of the people intrusted to their care, and whose excesses and abuses recognize no limits but the natural ones established by the greater or lesser honour of those public servants, their greater or lesser cynicism, and their greater or lesser degree of temerity.