t in a
relative but absolute manner. An unsanitary condition is denounced
absolutely as an intolerable evil; relatively speaking our censure
would be less severe if we bore in mind that a similar ill is not
close at hand; we suffered in silence when we were ignorant not of its
existence but of its effects upon health, so then for us it existed
in a latent state and we did not see, feel, or notice it because of
lack of preparation. It is identical to what happens when at the
foot of a post charged with electric current is placed the sign:
"Danger to life." Such a sign is practically useless and is no means
of safety to the individual who does not know how to read. The one
who can read knows the danger; he who does not read does not avail
himself of the hygienic value of the danger signal.

Anti-Cockpit Campaign

Against the cockpit there is now a widespread campaign. This did not
grow out of increased passion for the vice but out of the increased
number of its enemies. None can say that cockfighting has increased;
it is easy to prove that it has decreased; the number of days permitted
by law is now insignificant compared with what it was a few years
ago. Nevertheless, the campaign against cockfighting has increased
precisely because the number of cockfighters has decreased. Exactly
the same thing happened in card playing and horse-racing.

Nothing in particular would be said about this general movement in
favor of social morality if the attitude of public opinion would not
have that mistaken and dangerous bias which is given it by certain
elements which at all times have been an obstacle to the instruction
of the Filipino people. These elements, taking advantage of the
preoccupation of public opinion to combat vice and purify public
morals, instead of simply supporting this movement and strengthening
it justifying its usefulness by the good itself which it seeks to
accomplish, launches a political campaign which consists in alarming
the people making them believe that immorality increases, that the
social ills are growing, that national life itself is endangered thru
the fault of the reformers as a result of the new regime in vogue
in the Philippines since the loss of the past sovereignty. They
take advantage of the current of public opinion in favor of public
morals, to make it appear that the democratic form of the Government,
the English language, the lay schools, coeducation, and Anglo-Saxon
civilization are