On one single day 600 teachers, representing and devoted to the
American public school system, sailed for the Philippine Islands.
These 600 teachers, men and women, will do more than 6,000 or
6,000,000 soldiers could do with cannon and Gatling guns to
civilize and Americanize the new possessions.
They will teach the inhabitants FACTS. They will give them
solid knowledge in place of degrading ignorance and superstition.
They will teach them that the world is round and that every man
on it has the same chance, if he will use his brain; that if he
himself cannot seize the opportunity it can he seized by the
children whose success is as dear to him as his own.
Like all wars, the conquest of the Philippines has had many
discouraging and some disgraceful features. The killing of
ignorant men and women, the burning of houses, the unnecessary
severity, will all be forgotten when the school teachers of
America shall have done their work. ----
A great many thoughtless people imagine that the world is
retrograding, that times are not as good as they used to be.
We are still far from perfect. But as a matter of fact we are
angels compared to the men of olden times. A few years ago the
usual course was as follows:
First, soldiers were sent to subdue the people.
Then tax collectors followed with the public executioner, the
noose and various ingenious instruments of torture to extract
cash payments.
We still send soldiers, but with them we send physicians to cure
the wounded; and when the soldiers' work is done we do not send
tax collectors or other civil vampires.
We send school teachers, publishers of newspapers, organizers of
labor unions. We send those agencies which shall enable the
people conquered to make themselves equal or superior to their
conquerors.