Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/171

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Vol. XVI, No. 4
WASHINGTON
April, 1905

A REVELATION OF THE FILIPINOS

The Surprising and Exceedingly Gratifying Condition of Their
Education, Intelligence, and Ability Revealed by the
First Census of the Philippine Islands, and the
Unexpected Magnitude of Their Resources
and Possibility for Development

The following article is a summary of the report of the Censzis of the Philippine Islands by General J. P Sanger, Director, and Messrs Henry Gannett a?id Victor H. Olmstead, Assistant Directors, which is published by the United States Bureau of the Census April 8. The report makes four large handsome volumes, comprising about 3,500 pages and containing 280 illustrations and go maps and colored diagrams. It gives the most comprehensive and able description of the people and geography of the islands that has yet appeared. Unfortu?iatcly the edition ivas limited from lack of funds to 4,ooo copies, which were exhatisted even before publication. Through the courtesy of General J. P. Sanger, Director, the National Geographic Magazine republishes the principal results of the Census, and also a large member of the exceedingly beautiful pictures zvith which the report is illustrated.

THE details of the census of the Philippine Islands will undoubtedly surprise us all, for the report shows that the condition of the Filipinos is much superior from every point of view, in education, ambition, capacity, and possessions, than has been generally supposed. The census was taken in March, 1903, and is the first systematic collection of Filipino facts that has been made. As it was directed by conservative men, there can be no question that the statements reported are correct. The work was under the general supervision of General J. P. Sanger, Director, and Messrs Henry Gannett and Victor H. Olmstead, Assistant Directors, who had made such a success of the American censuses of Cuba and Porto Rico. These three gentlemen, with the cooperation of Governor Taft, have performed an achievement of which we may justly be proud. The word census in the Philippines was originally the synonym of everything repulsive, for all that it meant to the natives was a basis for more taxation. Through the tactful diplomacy of General Sanger, however, the feeling of the Filipinos was completely changed, and all of them seem