ing that such
accusations are altogether false; and if there is anything in the
Philippines which deserves the approval of all worthy conscience,
something which merits not only the gratitude but the admiration
of the Filipino people, it is the organization of public education
implanted by the American people. There is not a single Filipino
capable of reasoning who does not see and understand the colossal
transformation which our entire people experienced by virtue of that
lay education. Not only did the Government organize an efficient
educational system, but it extended it throughout the Archipelago
in such a general way that some European nations which continually
cite the annals of history, would very much like it for themselves;
not only do we the Filipinos find in our lay schools those elements
necessary for our instruction and our education so that we can be
useful individuals to ourselves, and cooeperate in the administration
of our public affairs, but the private schools of the old regime have
changed, have improved, have been transformed, have been placed to
the level where they should, following the standard maintained by
the Government. To deny this is sheer blindness.

A Dominican School in Formosa

Only he who is blinded by passion is capable of making accusation
against the lay school such as we have here reproduced, and against
which the first to protest will likely be the Dominican friars in
the Philippines whose mission in Formosa, has a girl's school for the
Chinese and Japanese in the Capitol, Taihoku, which I visited on my
trip to that island. Reverend Father Clemente Fernandez, a Dominican
and the Apostolic Vicar of Formosa, did me the honor of accompanying
me in visiting such a school, called Beata Imelda, situated in the
barrio of Daitelei, in Taihoku. It is a beautiful school of which
the Dominicans can justly be proud. But it was not the material or
educational organization of the institution that impressed me so much
as the absence of all religious images in the rooms, classes, halls,
and other rooms used for and by the girls.

On my noticing the existence of so singular a case, Reverend Clemente
Fernandez made it known to me that, among the conditions stipulated by
the law of public instruction of Formosa, both for the government as
well as the private schools, is the absolute prohibition of religious
education and the presentation of images and objects of worship. This
is therefore a