wished and send them to the secretary of the board for presentation to the Commission. Señor Larena was also to be furnished records and specially asked for recommendation as to location of the Negros Agricultural School.

At 11.05 a. m. adjourned to meet at the call of the president.

FRANK H. BOWEN, Secretary.

Besides this central superior board local school boards are being organized throughout the divisions. These are composed of five or seven members, including the presidente of the municipality. They are to visit and report upon schools, recommend sites and plans for schoolhouses, report annually to the municipal council the amount of money to be raised for the current year by local taxation for school purposes, and look after local school interests in general.

The time is not yet ripe to look for results from these local school boards, since none of them have had more than a few months' existence, and a large number of them have not yet been organized, for the reason that the division superintendents wish their teachers first to become well acquainted with the people of their towns and thus be able to make wise recommendations of candidates for the boards. Some division superintendents feel that the organization of local school boards is premature, and ought to be postponed until the people have a better conception of the American school. Others find the work of the board helpful,` and, although at present wholly advisory, steadily becoming an essential feature in local school administration.

The following account from one of the division superintendents shows the local school board in its present successful working form:

The school board in each municipality, according to law, shall consist of five or seven members, as the division superintendent may determine, one member of which is the presidente of the municipality ex officio. In towns having widely scattered barrios, or having a population of 10,000 or more, seven members constitute the board, but in the other municipalities a smaller membership is sufficient.

One-half of the members are elected by the municipal council and one-half appointed by the division superintendent. The qualifications are not named by law, but I have insisted that each member be a citizen and a responsible and influential landowner. The appointments are made by the division superintendent and sometimes also upon the advice of the chief of constabularly or of the commanding officer. In as far as possible, members are chosen to represent various parts of the municipality. Some of the larger municipalities contain barrios having a population of two or more thousand people. Care is taken to have these barrios represented on the school board. Each member is elected or appointed for a term of two years, but in case of misconduct, inefficiency, or other action unbecoming to his office may, after due notice, with the approval of the general superintendent, be removed from office by the division superintendent.

As soon as the school board is complete in its membership, the presidente is instructed to call a meeting for the purpose of organization and discussion of the duties of the board. They are directed to choose a chairman and a secretary for the year current, and to form such subcommittees as may seem necessary. At the same time the division superintendent presents the needs of the present schools, requests or suggests possible plans for the future development of the schools, explains concisely the purposes of the public schools, and thus gives sufficient ground for immediate discussion and action.

The first duty of the school board-to visit the schools-is important. Neither the people nor the board at the present time understand the purpose of the public schools. Education has to them been mainly ornamental. Education for life is a new idea. It is very important, therefore, that the influential men in each community visit the schools conducted by the American teachers. The school board, however, has no power to make improvement or to direct the teachers, but it is requested to make recommendations to the division superintendent and to the municipal council.

In regard to new school buildings the power of the board is limited to making recommendations of sites and plans to the council. This is sufficient unless the board may have the power to place contracts and direct the construction. the present time the board may inspect the construction of new buildings and see that they are in conformity with the contract. The planning of the schoolhouses

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is entirely in the hands of other persons, but in the present state of the laws it is very hard to determine what person or persons are responsible. The Filipino has no idea of the proper lighting and seating of a schoolroom. At present I am sending plans to the school boards, on which they secure estimates, which, when approved by the council, are returned to me for approval. The school boards have been very helpful in some cases in developing plans for the organization of all the schools necessary for the municipality. The school census shows the barrios and their approximate distances from the pueblo, together with the number of school children in each. A map of the municipality shows the approximate location of the barrios. The American teacher is also directed to visit each barrio and report upon the conditions for establishing new schools. From these materials the division superintendent forms a plan for the development of all the schools, showing the approximate location for each schoolhouse, the number of children which would attend it, and the number of rooms and teachers necessary in each. This plan is submitted to the school board for investigation and recommendations. Later it may present the plan to the council for approval and assistance. In a few cases this plan has been very successful. I think it is the best. The common people generally desire education and opportunity. On the other hand, the richer people do not wish to see the poorer classes become educated. They desire to hold their supremacy unchallenged. These are very general statements, but it frequently happens that the council, representing the wealthy people of the municipality, look upon the development of the public schools very indifferently. They are no more interested than is necessary. Public education, when placed under their authority, therefore, will make but little progress. In each municipality men of influence are needed whose duty it is to awaken the interest of the people and secure the votes of the council for school purposes. This is the most useful work which the school board can do at the present time.

These boards are capable of assisting materially in the problem of education, and will work more effectively after a nicer adjustment of the powers and duties of local bodies, whereby the school boards may have the right to expend money for school purposes with the approval of the division superintendent.

The last feature in this centralized system is the regular series of communications between the officers and teachers in the field and their chief. Circular letters and telegraph facilities to all parts of the islands offer the means of directing operations in the field and keeping the general superintendent closely in touch with the actual work.

V.-WORK DONE UP TO DATE UNDER THE PRESENT ORGAN

IZATION.

The main part of this report now concerns itself with a description and discussion of the work that has been accomplished under the present organization; and this chapter serves merely as a brief introduction to what follows subsequently in detail.

The past year and a half has been a busy one, and the educational movement has gone forward with great strides in spite of many difficulties entirely fundamental in character. The work has been done under the disadvantage of having had practically no basis to build upon. It has been pioneer and creative work purely, and in consideration of this fact it was deemed wise to go slowly with reference to many questions that have arisen.

Briefly, the tangible results since September 1, 1900, are:

An educational bill has been enacted; the archipelago has been divided into 17 divisions and an American school superintendent placed in charge of each, with deputy division superintendents acting for them in each of the provinces; 1,000 teachers for primary work have been appointed, received in Manila, and been stationed, with consideration for their own comfort as well as for the needs of the towns; 200 additional teachers for secondary work are being appointed; about 200 soldier teachers had until recently been detailed from their regiments, and 3,400 Filipino teachers have been appointed; more than three-quarters of a million

of American schoolbooks have been purchased, together with an enormous quantity of school supplies, including 20,000 modern school desks; instruction in the English language has been provided for in about 1,500 schools, in which over 200,000 children are enrolled; night schools for adults and those unable to attend during the day have been opened throughout the archipelago, and are working successfully with an enrollment of about 25,000.

Salaries of Filipino teachers have been increased, and a definite announcement has been made to them that the American teachers are here not to displace them, but to prepare them to take charge of their own schools. The Filipino teachers have received daily instruction in English, and in addition to this, when they have progressed sufficiently with the language itself, have been taught the common branches and the methods of teaching these.

Vacation normal courses have been arranged in the various school divisions, principally to train the native teachers, but also to aid the American teachers. Permanent normal schools in the provinces tributary to the Manila Normal School have been established.

Industrial work is being conducted successfully and plans for additional trade schools in the provinces are maturing, hastened by a regular appropriation for this work which is now available. As a means of preparing the Filipinos for work in the Signal Corps, telegraphy is now a branch taught in these schools.

Sites for the principal agricultural schools have been chosen and the schools are now in process of organization, with the supervisor and teachers in the field.

Grammar high schools have become a part of the school system, and teachers for this work in secondary instruction are being appointed under an appropriation recently made for this purpose. Furthermore, recommendations have been made for the establishment of schools of painting, sculpture, drawing, and music, and the plan of a technical school and a university in Manila has been discussed as a preliminary move to further and more definite action in the near future.

Every portion of the archipelago has been visited by some member of the department, and the peculiar conditions and special needs of these localities investigated. Circulars of inquiry have been sent out to the presidentes, district commanders, provincial governors, and teachers, and a mass of valuable data is accumulating. I now proceed to treat these various matters in detail.

VI.-CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEM.

There are in the Philippine Islands three distinct races-the Negrito, with 21 tribes; the Indonesian, with 16 tribes; and the Malayan, with 47 tribes, making a total of 84 different tribes. Of these, the Negritos, which at one time populated the whole archipelago, are slowly disappearing, and probably less than 25,000 remain. They are physically weak and intellectually stand very low in the human scale.

The Indonesian, with its tribal population of some 251,200, live almost exclusively on the great island of Mindanao. They are not only physically superior to the Negritos, but to the people of the Malayan race as well, and are, as a rule, quite intelligent.

The Malayan race, with its admixtures, however, is the dominant one, and is found in all parts of the archipelago in greater or less numbers. The Visayans, with a population of 2,600,000, occupy the islands south of Luzon; the Tagalogs, with 1,663,000, the central part of Luzon; the Bicols, with 500,000, southern Luzon; Ilocanos and Cagayans, northern Luzon; the Pampangas and Pangasinans, northern central Luzon; the Moros, the Jolo (Sulu) archipelago and Mindanao.

Thus it will be seen that the problem of educating the peoples of three distinct

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