The Schurman Commission[1] to the Philippines, appointed by President Mckinley in 1899, found that the only educational advantages attainable by the common people of the Archipelago were those afforded by the primary schools. Moreover, the “wretchedly inadequate provision” that there should be two primary school teachers (one male and one female) for each 5000 inhabitants was never carried out.[2] The only official institution for secondary education in the Islands was the College of San Juan de Letran, which was administered by the Dominican Friars, Manila. It had two normal schools, one for the education male and the other for the education of female teachers.[3] Although a School of Arts and Trades, a School of Agriculture, a Nautical School, a School of Painting and Sculpture,[4] a Military Academy, and several theological seminaries were found to be still in operation in 1900, the only remaining institutions for higher learning were the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, and the Royal College of San Jose.[5] “In old days,” wrote the Commissioners,  “it was not altogether safe for a native to avail himself fully of the educational facilities theoretically afforded him at the institutions within the Archipelago, and if he went abroad to pursue his studies he was a marked man after his return.[6] This fact was strikingly illustrated in the case of Dr. Jose Rizal, who was eventually executed without cause. His fate has been shared by many other prominent Filipinos in the past.”[7]
            In view of these facts, the Commission concluded, it had to be admitted that the average native had never had a fair opportunity to show what he could do. On the contrary, the Commission was disposed “to credit him with ability of no mean order” and to recommend that the government to be established for the Philippines should promptly provide for the establishment of “an adequate system of secularized and free public schools.”[8]
            Under the American Military Government of the Philippines (1898-1901), military officers were used to open as many schools as possible, but the schools that were established were poor and there was no attempt at gradation of pupils. The Filipinos were reported eager to learn English, but outside of Manila very little instruction in that language was given.[9]
            In Iloilo, for example, the military authorities, before opening the schools, took a census of the children of school age, and in order to “feel the pulse” of the public on the subject they questioned the parents as to whether they would send their children to the public schools when opened.

            The reply, wrote Brigadier General R.P. Hughes, very generally came in the form of a query:— “Are you going to have English taught?” On being answered in the affirmative they said their children would be sent. But the difficulty in getting teachers of English for the Visayan Department is simply insurmountable. I have made efforts in every direction that promised results and it is with great personal regret that I have to acknowledge myself beaten.[10]

            The diversity of the native dialect[11] and the fact that the majority of the inhabitants did not understand Spanish[12] caused the Taft Commission to the Philippines, in its 1901 report, to make the following observations under the heading, “Sending Students to America:”                  

It is recognized by the more intelligent persons in the different parts of the archipelago that the quickest and surest way for Filipino youth to acquire the English language and to arrive at an understanding of the Western Civilization as it exists in America is to live among Americans in the United States and be taught in American schools. Acting on this knowledge, many parents have already enrolled their sons in American schools, and in certain provinces, the several towns are making provisions to send and maintain a boy in some school in the United States.
Many propositions have already been made, both by persons in America and by persons in the Philippines, looking to the use of the funds of the insular government for this purpose. Hitherto, however, it has been considered expedient to allow individual and local zeal to carry on the works; yet the commission is aware of the immense advantage which will accrue to these islands by the extension of this practice. In no other way can young Filipinos, whose ancestors have been physically and intellectually removed from contact with modern life, acquire a thorough knowledge of Western civilization.[13] When, therefore, the public schools are thoroughly organized, it may be good to hold out the privilege of some years of residence in an American institution of learning as a reward for extraordinary achievements on the part of some of the most proficient pupils in the public school of the islands.[14]

           
            The Commission’s report of the following year again stressed the “great need of properly trained Filipino teachers” and the “paramount importance (of) the problem of securing them.” The normal school of Manila,[15] the provincial schools, and the normal institutes in several districts were occupied in preparing Filipinos for work in the public schools, but in addition, the Commission recommended:

It would be well for the government to undertake to send to America and maintain in certain normal schools there a considerable number of Filipinos who give evidence of good ability and the other qualifications requisite for a teacher. The academic subjects in which they might receive instruction in America can very well  be taught in the Philippines, but, in addition to this formal instruction, it is impossible to provide her a substitute for the object lessons in American civilizations which they will receive in spending three or four years in different parts of the United States. The most valuable lessons of civilization can not be taught by precept, but only by example. There will be no difficulty in obtaining free tuition in the schools of the required standing, so that the expense to be borne by the government would be confined to the  transportations and maintenance of the students for the time being. The services which these young persons would render on their return furnish ample justification for the expenditure on the part of the insular government. [16]

            The educational authorities in the Philippines had, in fact, from the beginning of the civil government, determined upon a plan to send students from the Philippines for their education and even “complete Americanization.”[17]
In the fall of 1902, the members of the Federal Party petitioned the Philippine Commission to enact legislation providing for the sending of a hundred students to the United States, at the expense of the Philippine government,[18] for education in academic and special professional branches. A bill was accordingly prepared by Dr. Pardo de Tavera, a Filipino member of the Commission. While his bill was pending before the Commission, Dr. Tavera entered into correspondence with a number of United States institutions of learning, but since he was not fluent in English he availed himself of the services of William Alex Sutherland. Mr. Sutherland, who was to become the most important individual to be connected with the early period of the pensionado movement, was at that time a translator in the office of the Executive Secretary and formerly an instructor in Spanish at the University of New Mexico.[19] As a result of his correspondence, the conditions upon which Filipino students would be admitted, the terms for tuition and other expenses, the scope of curricula, and the adaptability of the schools to the Philippine government’s purposes were all accurately determined. In this manner there also was determined, “almost unconsciously, the spirit with which these students would be received by the faculties and school authorities, and by reflection also the manner in which the members of the Student bodies of the respective schools would receive the Filipinos.”[20]
            In the meanwhile, considerable interest in the proposals to provide for the education of Filipinos in the United States had been around in this country, as shown in the press and by suggestions submitted by representatives of important educational and eleemosynary [21] groups to officials of the United States Government. William H. Brearley, the corresponding secretary of the New York Baptist Mission Society, in a letter to President Mckinley, suggested that 100 Filipino boys be brought to the States for a year’s education, the expense of which (estimated at 150 USD for each boy, exclusive of transportation!) was to be raised by popular subscription.[22] It was proposed that these boys should live in private homes, but that not more than one should be placed in any one town. [23] Indicative of the interest of the general public is the letter of a citizen of La crosse, Wisconsin, who wrote the President that he would be “willing” to develop patriotism among the Filipinos by teaching them popular songs. This letter was referred by the President (through the War Department) to the Civil Governor of the Philippines.[24]
            The agency of the Federal Government that at that time exercised supervision over the civil affairs of the Philippine Islands was the Bureau of Insular Affairs of the War Department.[25] Its chief, Colonel Clarence R. Edwards realized that if large numbers of government-supported Filipino students were sent to the United States the Bureau of Insular Affairs would be responsible ultimately for their progress and welfare. Colonel Edwards undertook therefore, the assembling of such facts as would enable him satisfactorily to perform such functions, and for this purpose solicited the advice of many experienced educators. In this connection the interest and help of Professor James T. Young, instructor in the government of colonies and dependencies at the University of Pennsylvania, may be mentioned. In response to Edwards’ request for his views on the matter of bringing the Filipinos to this country “under an agreement whereby they could be placed in desirable homes throughout the entire country and attend the public schools.”[26] Professor Young replied by referring to the “remarkable” work done along similar lines by the Department of Education in Puerto Rico. He had (he wrote) just had a long conference with Dr. Brumbaugh, who inaugurated the Puerto Rican plan, and had learned that the three distinct groups of students had been sent to the United States, including about forty-five at Carlisle Indian Training School,[27] about 150 under private auspices, and a small number supported by an appropriation of Puerto Rican government. Yet another group was composed of twenty girls and boys turned over to Booker Washington and distributed by him to various colored institutions in the South. The results of all these experiments convinced Professor Young that younger children were the most successful. “There is one very important point which I feel should be carefully regarded by the Philippine Commission,” he wrote Edwards. “The children should be sent at an early age; in fact as soon as they can safely be allowed to leave their parents. Of course they mature much earlier than our own boys and girls and therefore it would be safe to send them to America at the age of twelve, selecting for education in American preparatory schools only the best and most steady of the older boys.”[28]
            In the spring of 1903 Colonel Edwards [4]  went to St. Louis to look over the grounds that had been assigned the Philippine government for the great exposition of the following year. Traveling on the “diplomatic train,” the Colonel had many opportunities to talk with representatives of the various foreign governments, especially the Chinese Minister, who told him what great good had come of the sending by the Chinese government of students to the United States. “Naturally the first crop was so progressive,” Edwards wrote to Young, “that most of their heads were cut off,[29] but the last experience China has gone through has suggested to the Government the wisdom of again inaugurating the system, and he brought over some sixty Chinese children that are being placed in various minor institutions, and the Minister tells me that the Government proposes to appropriate a considerable amount for this purpose every year.”[30]
            It is not intended in this study to unduly emphasize the part played by James T. Young in the movement to educate Filipino youth in the United States, but merely to offer him as an example of the many American educators who from the beginning interested themselves in the movement. Young’s own attitude toward his achievement in this respect is well illustrated in an incident that occurred after the Philippine government had made provisions for the education of some of its youth in the country. When a reporter of the Philadelphia North American called at his home with the proof-sheet of a story announcing that “through the instrumentality of Dr. James T. Young…100 Filipino youths are to receive the advantages of an American education,” Young immediately wrote Colonel Edwards that he was “completely mystified” as to how he became the hero so circumstantially described in the story, as he had done no more than discuss the plan with officers of the Puerto Rican Department of Education.[31] “I am afraid you are too modest,” Edwards replied; “—your suggestions to me have been of value in presenting this proposition to the Philippine authorities, and if the plan accomplishes what we all hope it will be thanks enough for all.”[32]
            One of the more feasible proposals for education of Filipinos in this country was submitted to the War Department by Lieutenant Colonel R.H. Pratt, superintendent of the Indian Training School at Carlisle [33] Pennsylvania. Pratt referred to the fact that he had begun to accept Puerto Ricans at Carlisle in 1899. “Nearly all,” he wrote, “have been fed out from the school into our general school system in the same manner as we have always pushed out our Indian pupils.”[34] Commenting on this proposal, and the proposal that the Filipinos be sent to educational institutions for negroes, Colonel Eddwards wrote as follows to Professor Young:

Personally, I do not believe it is wise to send Filipinos to Booker Washington’s institution or to the Carlisle Indian School any more than I would send white children there. The good that has grown out of the experiment in Puerto Rico of sending them to Carlisle School is all due, I fancy, to Colonel Pratt, who has seen that they were properly placed in families and have the advantage of school.[35]

            On the other hand, Colonel Edwards secured the cooperation of the Civil Service Commission in making arrangements “for a number of colleges and schools through-out the United States to give free scholarships to Filipino lads, the expenses of whose transportation and maintenance could be borne outside of the schools or colleges….”[36]