Four best Manila newspapers June editorials

Media

Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: Four best Manila newspapers June editorials
Language: English
Year: 1929
Rights
Abstract: Tribune, June 18 - The Davis Platform. Selected by Professor Carl N. Taylor
Herald, June 2 - Wasted Brain Power. Selected by Professor Vicente M. Hilario
Times, June 28 - The School Tax. Selected by Professor Cristino Jamias
Bulletin, June 8 - No Time to Stop. Selected by Professor Verne Dyson
Fulltext: July, 1929 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 11 Four Best Manila Newspapers June Editorials WASTED BRAIN POWER School days are again with us. In cities, towns and barrios, universities, colleges and grade schools will, until the end of the present school ear, be teeming with the youth of the land, in search of education. What education? Engineering colleges and institutes, medical, pharmacy, dental and law colleges will be overcrowded with young men and young women, all going through the mill for a degree and a diploma. It is most inspiring, this educational race of the young people, everybody fired with the ambition to belong to the lettered class. Far be it from us to discourage the youth from turning back. Let all the people have a college degree, if that were possible. But let not such a degree stand between them and their own material well-being. In many instances it has come to that. Many a young man possessing a college degree has been rendered useless because of it. There are many, many wandering lawyers, pharmacists, dentists, scientific farmers, engineers and other professionals who are forced to be at leisure even in the face of starvation, for the dignity of their college education will not permit them to engage in occupations which are considered lower than their professions. Why should such a condition come’ to exist among us, precisely at this stage of our national development when everybody is called upon to exert an effort in the common endeavor, in whatever capacity one can be useful, despite one’s education or college degree? * * * But that is the fact. And obviously things have come to such a pass through some errors or, perhaps, because of the lack of an effective system to guide the youth in acquiring an education that will be useful to them and to the country. Often, we hear lamentations of the waste of our manpower. * * * Why is education? Why does a young man or a young woman go to college? In many instances he or she does not know. Many a young person goes to college with not even a notion of why he is there. All he cares for is a degree. And the lack of a purpose naturally leads to his idleness after college. We believe that universities and colleges should be more unsparing, not only in the selection of students who show fitness for higher education, but also be more solicitous of the welfare of the youth seeking education by helping them to discover in what line of endeavor they will be more useful to themselves. College education would, indeed, be meaningless as it now happens to numerous college graduates who wander around seeking the end of the rainbow, were it not applied to some constructive work. College faculties should guide the students to discover thejir own inclinations, in what work they could Be of utmost service, what they love to do. And after they have been properly trained and made fit for such work, it is to be expected that, when the real commencement of their actual and practical life sets in, there will be less faltering and vacillations as to what they should do, and therefore, less idle professional wanderers and less waste of brain-power. * * * To some extent the parents of young persons who go to college are t© blame for the growing number of idle professionals. A baker or a butcher or a shoemaker or a tailor who has made a fortune in his trade sends his son to college to’ study law or medicine or pharmacy. His ambition is to make a professional of his son. He wants his offspring to belong to the lettered class. He wants his heir to be cultured, to be acquainted with the Greek classics, to wear a cap and gown so that his picture in such academic garb may decorate his parlor. He would not have his heir learn the secrets of his trade, which has brought him wealth. Perhaps he considers his trade too lowly for his son. Perhaps his neighbor’s heir is now a lawyer. And his own son must also have a title. EDITORIAL SELECTIONS FOR JUNE Tribune, June 18.—The Davis Platform. Selected by Professor Carl N. Taylor. ' Herald, June 2.—Wasted Brain Power. Selected by Professor Vicente M. Hilario. Times, June 28.—The School Tax. Selected by Professor Cristino Jamias. Bulletin, June 8.—No Time to Stop. Selected by Professor Verne Dyson. With the departure of Dr. George Pope Shannon from Manila, the Jo u r - n a l wishes to acknowledge his courtesy as the head of the English department of the University of the Philippines in arranging for a committee of English professors to judge each month the newspaper editorials and select the best one from each of the dailies published in English in Manila. A new hand will be at the helm next month.—Ed. This foolish idea of keeping up with the Joneses is killing our small trades, the nerve centers of our bourgeoisie. And it is partly responsible for the growing number of our intellectual wanderers. Culture! One need not go to college to get acquainted with Plato, Aristotle or Aristophanes, or with Virgil, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. Even a baker or a butcher can converse with them out of college. But what good can a speaking acquaintance with the ancient masters to do a college graduate if he lacks the solid comfort that a rich butcher or baker enjoys? For the sake of their children, rich traders should think also of this aspect of life outside the university campus.—Herald. THE DAVIS PLATFORM Governor General Davis has made public what may be regarded as the central plank of the platform of his administration. The new chief executive is for industrial development largely, if possible, with Filipino capital as its cornerstone, but jointly, if needs be, with outside help. He also gives his official assent to the new trend in education, vocational training in the schools. This announcement of what he intends to do here for the people of these Islands should be considered a policy intended for the present and for internal Philippine affairs. That would simplify matters. That would keep the next administration free of political entanglements, and the Filipino leaders as free, we believe, to take up the question of major political import direct with the Washington authorities. One of the results of the Harrison administration, it would seem, is to create here a delusion. He gave the impression that a governor general is powerful enough to tell both the President and Congress what to do and what not to do with respect to independence. On the face of it, that is absurd. That is erecting him dictator over the executive and the legislative departments of the American government. As former Governor General Stimson has well said, political separation from America is a question that is within the exclusive incumbency of Congress. The governor general is simply out of the picture. So the nationals of this country cannot be mistaken in limiting the significance of the announced policies of governors general to the realities of the present and to objectives having bearing on in internal questions before the country. Industral development is such a reality, and is, in objective, properly of internal import. The Filipinos, if they know what is to forge ahead in terms of the life of progressive countries, cannot afford to look askance at any governmental action tending to hasten their industrial development. Thus, even if Governor General Davis did not make mention of it, it would be only natural that the Filipino leaders find acceptable his program of industrial progress for the Philippines. In a sense, the Davis policies are a second chapter to those of former Governor Stimson. The emphasis in them is on material progress. Only the impractical dreamers, with their feet dangling leagues over the solid earth, will quarrel with the effort to hasten that material development among the Filipinos as a problem purely internal and divorced from the national movement for independence.—Tribune. THE SCHOOL TAX The two bills prepared by the department of finance, one providing for a tax of one peso on every male resident of the Philippines from 18 to 60 years old and the other setting aside 15 per cent of the gross income of each province, the fund thus accumulated to be devoted wholly to school purposes, are worth seriously considering by the legislature when it reopens next month. Objections may be raised to the one peso tax as it .may constitute an added burden on the poor. But'then it may be argued that unless the poor show more willingness to help the schools it will be impossible to accommodate their children who year in, year out, knock in vain at school doors for admittance. It is about time to thrust home the need of the mass as well as the well-to-do to help the public schools. After all, it is preferable for the father of a poor family with, say four or five children, to contribute one peso a year to the school fund rather than to see his offspring remain in abject ignorance. 'And it happens in most cases that the poorer a family is the more children there are in it. An additional tax of one peso may be earned by increased efforts and the education the children will get in exchange certainly cannot be measured in terms of money.—Times. NO TIME TO STOP Some persons of the higher political strata are reported to be rather worried over the present graft investigations. The worry appears to be based upon political considerations. In other words there is political fright. Washing soiled linens in public is not the most delightful pastime for one in politics, because of the fear of furnishing ammunition for political enemies. But if the linens are dirty and growing dirtier the most practical thing is to get the laundering—disinfecting also if necessary—• done as speedily as possible. Although it usually is not realized, that is the safest course in the long run. Those getting rather shaky at the knees in connection with the present investigations would do well to remember that they will fare far worse if their political enemies ever get in power and start the house cleaning. Or to bring the matter more directly down to cases, the Nacionalistas who now hardly know what to do should think where they will be if the Demócratas come into power. The Demócratas certainly would make capital if they only could get the seats the Nacionalistas now have, if they could get control of the present investigations. In self defense, if for no higher reasons, the ones now in control should go though with what they have started, making the cleaning thorough. That is the most practical and effective means of strengthening their own position. This is no time to waver, no time to think of calling off the investigators and calling in the whitewashers. —Bulletin.