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PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
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and meanings. At the insular schools and other national institutions, such the University of the Philippines, the Philippine Normal School, the Philippine School of Arts and Trades, the Philippine School of Commerce, the Philippine Nautical School, the Central Luzon Agricultural School, and others, one fails to notice, among the young men who flock from all parts of the Archipelago, any essential differences between the so-called "tribes" of the Philippines. The Filipino students, no matter from what province they come, demonstrate the same essential characteristics, harbour the same traditions, and manifest the same national aspira- tions. The names Tagalog, Visayan, Ilocano, Bicol, etc., are mere geographical expressions.
RELIGION
The Philippines is the only Christian country in the Far East to-day. Ministers of the Gospel accompanied the Spanish military forces. Three centuries of ceaseless and painstaking efforts on the part of these ministers converted the natives to Catholi- cism, which soon became widely spread. Many churches built in Manila and throughout the provinces are impressive structures of massive masonry, and some of them are famous for their architecture and interior decorations.
In the year 1901 an Independent Filipino Church was organized by secession from the Roman Catholic Church. The religious dogmas promulgated and followed by this new denomination are practically identical with those observed by the Church of Rome. The mass is sung either in Latin or in the native dialects. Protestantism came to the Philippines immediately after American occupation. The Protestants established missions and spread their doctrine throughout the Archipelago. The inhabitants of Mindanao, the Moros, are, as their names signify, Mohammedans. A very limited number of them have been converted to Christianity. Among the pagan inhabitants of the mountains, such as the Ifugaos, the Igorots and the Bontocs, may be found very primitive religious ideas.
EDUCATION AND LITERACY
Public education in the Philippines is free, secular and co-educational, and the principal aim is the spread of literacy on the basis of a common language at present, the English. The Bureau of Education maintains a complete system of public educa- tion. Public elementary and high schools are distributed throughout the Islands. Insular schools for special education are maintained. The enrolment of students in the public schools is increasing every year, the total annual enrolment for 1921 being 1,070,255. With the object of extending elementary education to a larger percentage of children of school age, the Philippine Legislature made available within five years the sum of P30,000,000 in addition to the regular annual appropriations for the Bureau of Education. Private schools, patterned after the public schools, besides the old Spanish schools and colleges which still survive, have sprung up in the Philippines in recent years. Practically all these offer instruction in English, and even the old Spanish schools and colleges have included English in their curricula. Upon graduating from the high schools, the students are admitted to higher in- stitutions of learning, foremost among which is the University of the Philippines, established and maintained by the Philippine Government.
Sixty-six per cent. of the people of the Islands, ten years of age or over, can read and write. The census taken in 1903 showed that only 20.2 per cent. of the people could read and write. There is an increase, therefore, of nearly 46 per cent, in the literacy of the people from 1903 to 1918, showing the remarkable progress attained by the modern educational system.
English and Spanish are both used as official languages and are widely spoken in the Islands. The English language is becoming the dominant language. There are six established native dialects with some printed literature, namely, the Tagalog, Visayan, Ilocano, Bicol, Pangasinan and Pampangan.
AGRICULTURE
The Philippine Islands is an agricultural country. The people depend chiefly on domestic agricultural products for their livelihood, and approximately 88 per cent. of the total exports of the Islands is made up of the produce of the farms. The soil is fertile to a degree, being for the most part volcanic in origin and exceedingly rich in all varieties of sedimentary deposits. The total area of cultivated lands in the Philip- pines at the present time is estimated at 3,643,000 hectares, or 12 per cent. of the entire area of the country.