Columbia Missourian from Columbia, Missouri • Page 13

'T" "ayi JE i. UjyMM j' jW -y fyWW sSSRsIt- JSw.wiBR The Filipino Women in the. Wide World -T T- mi HIM, '-4- i iltL-Yf-r ii i il i' 111 iiT iF iWliriBMWBWM i9RSHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhBhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhSh I Crow company composed of city schoolteachers marching in a parade in Manila. HbbYbYbYbYJIvbYbYbYbYJ ABBBBBIBBI Wtff3twBBBl IwMBB-fel-BBBBS HyilllBBHHl MwAll HK-StM'1 sVAbVABbVI BBBBBBfBBVBBSSr'Sr J. Sofia R.

de Veyra (Copyright, Harris Ewing.) By Mrs. Sofia R. de Veyra PROFESSIONAL opportunities are today as good for women as for men in the Philippines. Women are already members of the Philippine bar and of the Philippine bar association. They are admitted to the practice of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy.

This ever-broadening education of the Filipino womtan is correspondingly broadening her activities in life. She has begun to take great Interest in matters of a pubHc character. Filipino women are now occupying positions in the Bureau of Education and In the University of the Philippines. They display considerable activity in all lines of endeavor, founding associations of a civic and instructive character. They read the daily newspapers in order to be in touch with the progress of the times and needs of their people.

They are solicited, not only to patronize theatrical functions, or raise funds for the community, but also to occupy public office, to direct movements of a social character, and the like. They are entitled to membership in the school boards, according to a wise "provision of Administrative code. They are daily taking their places in the government offices, the commercial houses, and in short, in all the movements and enterprises of a modern Mrs. Delgado, vice-chairman of the Philippine chapter of the American Red Cross, leading a com fany of American and Filipino women in the Fourth Liberty Loan parade, Manila, October 12, 1918. (Photo by Philippine Bureau of Science.) country.

Recently they have launched a campaign prohibition. They have established over three hundred women's clubs in the Islands engaged In social settlement work, the improvement of health conditions, the prevention of infant mortality, and similar enterprises. The most active of these clubs is the so-called Woman's Club, with headquarters at Manila It is a member of the Federation of Women's Clubs in the United States. Through its activities there exist today in Manila many humane Institutions. There is the Day Nursery and a Flower Market, both conducted by women.

There are three women police matrons to care for women pending trial in court, and there is a Woman's Free Employment Agency In charge of a woman, the function of which is to look for employment for the destitute of her sex. A Little Mother's League has also been formed and is rendering good service. Free legal aid is provided by the Woman's Club for indigent women, Filipino women lawyers being most eager in extending their helping hand. A Civic Committee composed of women Is also active. Activities of the Clubs.

The many clubs now existing throughout the archipelago are extending their activities day by day. They are engaged chiefly In infant-welfare work, maintaining hospitals, providing medical and nursing service for the poor, social hygiene, better sanitation of schools and of all public places. They distribute seeds and plants; encourage civic improvement; send members to aid mothers and (babies and to illustrate practical sanitation in the home; and secure nurses to teach the feeding of babies and children and the preparation of food for the sick When the great war came, Filipino women were ready to do their in bringing it to a successful end. Every teacher in the public schools, every nurse, doctor, lawyer or other professional woman became a member of the Red Cross. Almost every pupil In the public schools joined also, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were turned into the treasury at Washington from the Philippine contributions.

Garments for soldiers, for Belgian and French refugees, and for typus-stricken Serbians were made by thousands. The great war, however, was not the first war In which Filipino women played an active part; for in the revolution against Spain, as well as in the war against the United States, they not only fought side by side with their brothers, but also aided in all field operations. They collected money for the war and looked after the wounded. They devised all sorts of means for extending aid to those actually fighting. Some would appear carrying bamboo canes perforated at the joints, as if used to carry water, but the hollow spaces contained rice instead of water.

Others, more daring, crossed the rivers at night, rowing "bancas" laden with contraband. They also took money in coin to the insurgent camps, hidden under the seats of their vehicles; and they smuggled large quantities of cotton- across the lines, tied to their waists. A Woman General. In Luzon, the towns of Laguna were the theater of the military prowess of Gen. Agueda Kahabagan.

She had her men well organized and, though a woman, went at the head of her soldiers into their engagements. These and many other services rendered by the Filipino women, made several of the leading men of the Philippine revolution think of giving them a more direct participation and responsibility In the government by granting them the right to vote. Ma-bini, the great statesman, commonly known as the "brains of the proposed in his constitutional program the extension of the right of suffrage to women. There is one outstanding fact In the development of Philippine womanhood. Despite the influences of two civilizations of distinct types the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon the Filipino woman has succeeded in preserving her individuality ia all its pristine beauty.

Industrious, careful of her home and her family, obedient to parental authority as a girl, and to that of her husband as a wife, she is still the center of the moral welfare of the family. She has been greatly influenced by the spread of democracy and by the new order of culture and education, but her inherent qualities and her temperamental characteristics still persist. She realizes better than ever what her real sphere in life is and what her mission in the nation should be; but in contributing her share in her country's advancement, she takes care lest she depart from her womanly traditions. The only question is, whether the introduction of Anglo-Saxon ways and institutions will some day imperil the beautiful cohesion of the family of which she forms a part. Will the individualistic tendency of the new education ultimately transform her into a totally occidental woman? Will it affect the home of which she is the moral support? Will the laws that destroy the family usages the divorce law, the civil marriage law, and the many other similar innovations finally compel her to completely "individualize" herself, perhaps to the detriment of the beautiful solidarity of the Filipino family? Evening Missourian Banquet Supplement.

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