Austin Craig,

University of the Philippines,

Manila, December 20th, 1913.




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I

DOCTOR Sancianco, in his Progreso de Filipinas, (1), has taken up
this question, agitated, as he calls it, and, relying upon facts and
reports furnished by the very same Spanish authorities that rule the
Philippines, has demonstrated that such indolence does not exist, and
that all said about it does not deserve reply or even passing notice.

Nevertheless, as discussion of it has been continued, not only
by government employees who make it responsible for their own
shortcomings, not only by the friars who regard it as necessary in
order that they may continue to represent, themselves as indispensable,
but also by serious and disinterested persons; and as evidence
of greater or less weight may be adduced in opposition to that
which Dr. Sancianco cites, it seems expedient, to us to study this