professional revolutionists there will be attempts to seize them.

Meanwhile President Morales has been greatly strengthening his own power in the republic. I believe him to be the strongest man it has had since Hereaux. In some respects he has employed the same direct methods. Since his accession he has had ten men shot for conspiracy against the government. It is the common opinion among both Dominicans and the Americans down there that these men deserved their fate. They were men who had been his opponents in arms, but to whom he had given amnesty on their signing a bond no longer to oppose him. Like Hereaux, Morales has his agents in every district, and condemned the conspirators only on documentary evidence that they had broken their bond and were plotting revolution. Yet that these methods are distasteful to him and that he is endeavoring to substitute a civil for a military government I have not only his word but his recent actions. Only the other day he learned of a conspiracy against his life, and how and where it was expected to assassinate him. He went fearlessly, armed and prepared, to the place.

"This," he told me, "I did that the people might see that I had no fear. My people are still in a semi-savage state, and personal courage is the first requisite in a leader who expects to control them. When the conspirators saw that I was ready to meet them face to face in their own way, they did not dare shoot."

In Hereaux's time these men would have been summarily shot without trial. Yet Morales allowed them to go unmolested until the next day, when they were arrested by civil process and will be tried in the courts.

Personally President Morales is known as a man of clean morals and upright character. His home life is beyond reproach. He keeps but one establishment, and lives there in democratic simplicity. Hereaux had expensive seraglios at various places, on which he squandered the public money. His successors lived in much pomp at the nation's expense. The life of Morales is as simple and unostentatious as that of any business man

in the United States. He impresses you as endeavoring to carry on the affairs of the republic as such a business man might. He talked freely with me about the unfortunate conditions in his country and his plans for bettering them. Personal investigation has convinced me that what he said is true.

"The bad governmental conditions here," he said, "are the result of the ancient Spanish system of administration. The Captains-General of Spain were nothing more than arbitrary chiefs. This feudal system has continued, not in the ideals of the government, but ingrained in the habits of the people, both rulers and ruled. We have in theory a government organized like that of the United States. The condition which confronts us is that of a number of feudatory chieftains whose influence is strong with their people and who owe only a personal allegiance, if any, to the head of the republic. I have not succeeded in becoming a leader of these chiefs in the sense in which Jiminez and Vasquez were. I have in my government men who represent opposing parties, partisans of Jiminez or Vasquez in some instances, selected not for their political leadership but because of their efficiency. My wish is not for a personal following but a government really representative of the people, so far as it may be practical under present conditions. That does not mean that we can have, right away, representative elections like those of the United States, but it does mean that I am trying to create a public opinion and have it back of me by showing that the government is administering public affairs with fairness and rectitude. To do that I have to hold the Governors of the various provinces personally responsible not only for their own actions but those of their subordinates. There have been some communal chiefs, local 'jefes' who control twenty to fifty men, and who are, of course, in the pay of the Governors. These chiefs are very arbitrary in their dealings with the people. For instance, if they want money they go to a man's house and impress one of his sons into their service. Then the father will pay to secure the release of the boy. Nominally these men are nominated by the Gov

ernors, just as the Governors are nominated by the President. As a matter of fact, we have to rely on the good will of these men for continuance in office. By combining they can revolt successfully and overthrow the established order.

My whole idea is to establish a civil for this military form of government. The little military bands stationed all over the country under feudatory chieftains are a menace to peace. I plan to do away with them and have only strong forces, well paid and loyal, at Santo Domingo City and Puerto Plata. Then I shall stand a better chance of controlling disorder. This done, we can develop the ayuntiamentos,' the civil organizations, which are now powerless because subordinate to the military.

"As regards the proposed arrangement with the United States, there is but one thing to be said. I believe it the only successful method, under existing conditions, of upholding my government or any government which aspires to a decent and orderly administration of the republic's affairs. If it fails, anarchy and warfare will inevitably ensue. This country will accept the convention. I will see to that. With the exception of a few disgruntled political leaders, professional revolutionists, all the intelligent people are in favor of it."

Elections, as President Morales and everybody else admits, are a farce. If attempted in peace, the unsuccessful candidate revolts. If they come at the end of an appeal to arms, only the soldiers and henchmen of the successful general are allowed to vote. The ignorant bulk of the population know little about the franchise, and the educated classes care less. Voting is as unpopular with them as it could be in the most exclusive suburb of a wealthy city in the United States.

The population of Santo Domingo is glibly estimated, both at home and abroad, at six hundred thousand. Half that number would be nearer the fact. You may travel fifty miles a day through large portions of the interior and hardly see a hut or an inhabitant. The population of the capital city is given as twenty thousand. It would be hard work to find twelve thousand people there. This

local overestimation was well illustrated in an interview which I had with the Governor of the important interior province of Santiago, Miguel A. Roman, a man of the pure Castilian stock, well educated and really patriotic, selected for his important post by Morales and an exemplification of his idea that the rulers of provinces should be men of ability and patriotism rather than political henchmen. When asked his estimate of the population of the republic, he replied unhesitatingly, "A little over six hundred thousand." Later I returned to the subject and asked for estimates of the various provinces. He gave these, consulting with his subordinates and generally raising their figures. The total of the numbers given for each province is hardly four hundred thousand. I have no doubt that an actual census would give less than this.

The bulk of these three or four hundred thousand people live contentedly in the most primitive fashion in palmthatched huts little different from those of central Africa or the Philippines. You see the same style of architecture and arrangement in the little villages of Luzon, only there the grade is, if anything, a trifle higher. The country people cultivate a few yams and plantains, have a few pigs and chickens. The more ambitious have little plantations of cacao or tobacco. The little children are often absolutely naked, their elders almost invariably barefooted. They can neither read nor write, and know nothing of the outside world and very little of their own country outside the immediate neighborhood. They are gentle and hospitable both toward one another and strangers. Even in the worst phases of the revolutions there is no record of any harm having come to foreigners in the island, provided they kept out of the immediate zone of conflict. Even there harm would come rather from accident than intent. The Dominican is not a good shot, is more apt to fire his rifle from the hip than from the shoulder, and only in a few instances have battles been bloody.

Few of the Dominicans are black, and fewer still are white. They show varying grades and mixtures of the two colors, some of which are extraordinary. The

man of black face, freckles, and rich red kinky wool, heard of only in vaudeville, exists in Santo Domingo. You see lovely, dusky-faced children with straight yellow hair and blue eyes, and the varying mixtures of race and color would fascinate an ethnologist. I do not find that this mixture makes a people in which vigor is a characteristic.

The climate of the upland valleys is second to none in the world. In it Americans grow fat and keep their color and native energy. Yet few of the Dominicans are of fine physique. The few pure blacks and pure whites are far better types than the mongrel, and I fear the future holds little for the latter. He seems to lack ambition and endurance, both physical and mental. The peon does not eat, though it is at his door, a proper amount of nourishing food. Hence he lacks physical development and the power for sustained labor. In this healthiest of all climates, among a people living practically out-of-doors, consumption is common-due, I believe, to this lack both of nourishing food and inborn ambition toward vigorous action. You see no active sports or games among boys or grown-ups.

Leprosy is prevalent in the island. President Morales told me that he estimated the number of lepers in the capital at two hundred. At the steamer dock there I saw a big black handling baggage with hands all white with the plague. At Puerto Plata a stationer handed me envelopes with hands and wrists that showed similar marks, and at various points in the interior I saw people with their faces partly eaten away, seemingly from the same cause. There is no attempt at segregation.

lation of six thousand, at the most. Out of the city's budget of $40,000 this year $12,800 is being spent on schools. These consist of two kindergartens, two boys' and two girls' primary, two normal schools, one for each sex, and fifteen private schools, assisted and supervised by the municipality. Nine hundred children between the ages of five and fourteen attend these schools-fifteen per cent. of the population. Boston's percentage is 16.95.

In the interior commune of Santiago, center of a splendid agricultural district and occupied by a population representative of the most energetic and ambitious of the island people, there are fifty-four schools, with 1,917 scholars and a daily attendance of 1,617, made up of both sexes in about equal proportion. There are 98 teachers in these schools, selected from graduates of the normal schools of the republic, and French and English are taught, besides the ordinary branches found in our own grammar grades. In the smaller outlying towns of this interior province you find that quite as good conditions prevail. Jenico has six schools, six teachers, 260 scholars, with an average daily attendance of 220. Las Martas has six schools, with six teachers and 320 scholars enrolled, and has a daily average attendance of 280. Val Verde has eight schools, eight teachers, 310 scholars, daily average attendance 260. Tambouril has fourteen schools, fourteen teachers, 400 scholars, daily average attendance 330.

This list might easily be extended to cover the cities and larger towns. Wherever there are opportunities for schooling, the people seem to avail themselves of them gladly, and the children are amenable to discipline and learn readily. Outside the cities and larger towns the opportunities are fewer, and the large percentage of illiteracy in the republic, as a whole, may, I am quite sure, be charged to lack of opportunity rather than lack of desire to learn.

Plenty of labor is to be had in the island at fifty cents a day, gold, and it is worth, as a rule, just about that. This is not because the Dominican is not anxious to work. I believe the contrary to be the rule, At a mining camp which

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I visited in the interior, men came from all about, anxious to earn these wages. Yet the manager has found most of them incapable of what he calls a good day's work. He ascribes this, not to lack of willingness, but to lack of physical endurance due to poor nutrition. found that many came to work with no breakfast, at most only a cup of coffee, and he adopted the rule of giving them good soup with plenty of meat in it at noon. This greatly improved the afternoon results. He is now trying to impress on them the value of a substantial breakfast, after the American idea. These men come from little farms. They might easily have three square meals a day, but, as the manager phrased it, "they simply don't know how to take care of themselves."

That seems to me to sum up the cause of all the republic's troubles. The bulk of its people do not know how to take care of themselves. They are not a race, but a strange mixture which, I fear, lacks that initiative which makes a people advance without being pushed. Left to themselves, I do not believe they will ever become capable of self-government. Yet they are honest, gentle, teachable. They simply need to go to school for a time to a wiser people,

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and meanwhile they need school discipline. Indeed, they are singularly like children-good children in the main and needing only a firm and guiding hand. Americans who have lived long in the island tell me the same thing, and the better-educated Dominicans agree to it.

To insure peace and prosperity, what has been done in Cuba and Porto Rico must be done in Santo Domingo, either by the United States or some other strong, stable power. On this I have not only my own opinion, but the word of President Morales and every other intelligent Dominican and foreigner in the island. I visited every port and town of importance, asked the question everywhere, and got always the same reply: "In the proposed treaty with the United States lies the only hope for peace and prosperity in Santo Domingo."

In climate, beauty, and natural resources the island is a veritable Garden of Eden. Its people are, I believe, eager to take the helping hand of the United States. They wait, breathlessly, as one might say, the action of the Senate on the proposed treaty. Its rejection means bitter trouble for them, and, if one can believe evidence which does not appear in the foregoing, probable international complications for the United States.

HAT the ministerial profession has been losing ground, that the theological schools, regardless of denominational lines, are in a bad way, that the churches have lost or are losing their old-time leadership, are palpable, demonstrable facts. These facts are impressively brought to the front by a noteworthy magazine article, published in the "World's Work" of December last, on 66 The Decline of the Ministry," by Everett T. Tomlinson. The article is written by a college-bred man, the son of a New England minister. He has gone carefully into the statistics of the theological schools, consulted uni

A sermon delivered at All Souls' Church, Chicago, nuary 8, 1905.

versity men, successful ministers, prominent business men, and high-minded students. He has put as good a face on the matter as possible. But, making the best of it, the showing is that the theological schools, notwithstanding the tremendous increase in all the other professions and the phenomenal growth of college constituencies, have barely held their own, while there has been a marked deterioration in the quality of the material that presents itself for ministerial study. Every earnest friend of religion and social well-being should read Mr. Tomlinson's article. The author concludes that "whatever the causes may be, they are to be found in the conditions of the churches themselves."