s. Such a tendency is certainly
good and satisfying; a sign of a notable social progress altho for
the majority it is a cause of alarm and regret because of the seeming
increase of such ills. Is there a positive increase of immorality? Is
there real cause for alarm because of a moral retrogression of our
society?

After having asked myself these questions and after having considered
the bases for the public clamor and for the excited opinion before the
sight of growing vice and immorality, I can say that this tendency
of public opinion is satisfying--a sign of betterment, of progress
of general morals. In other words, it is not immorality which is
growing. Rather, it is the moral consciousness which is gaining
ground in individual consciences, thus forming a public opinion which
formerly did not exist, completely awake to existing social evils and
which are combatted. Not that social morals has been decadent. On the
contrary, a moral consciousness has been rapidly formed in our society,
a consciousness which formerly was found only among an inconsiderable
minority, and which resulted in the new movement against vice and
immorality.

Public Opinion in Favor of Hygiene

To better understand this phenomenon and to explain it as it
really is and not as it apparently exists, it is worth while
to compare it with the appearance of a new sentiment which was
formed since the implantation of the American regime: the hygienic
consciousness. Formerly, hardly anybody spoke of the unsanitary
conditions of Manila, and only a few in our society had a true
idea of its deplorable state. Now that our individual education
has enabled us to understand what hygiene is and its importance has
been demonstrated, we have not only improved our sanitary condition
but a collective sentiment equal to the sum total of the individual
sentiments has been formed, and a public opinion in favor of hygiene
has been established. Since this opinion grows more rapidly than
sanitation itself in Manila, we see that every once in a while the
Bureau of Health is censured to the point of attributing to its
fault the increase of anti-hygienic conditions, when in reality what
increases is the clamor for hygiene by virtue of the increase of the
individuals who understand hygiene and demand strict application of
its laws and principles.

Now public opinion denounces hygienic shortcomings which are
incomparably less harmful than formerly, but which we view no