but the Vatican has always refused to listen to such petitions out of consideration for the American government.'

Viper priests and vampire politicians, versus the people, is the issue!

CHAPTER LVIII.

WHAT WE SHOULD DO.

The following extract from one of Mr. McCutcheon's letters gives the views of one who is well versed by knowledge and experience:

[Special Correspondence of the Chicago Record.]

"Hongkong, May 1.-An English official very high in the government service in Hongkong has been applying the fruits of long years in colonial work to a solution of the Philippine question. In order that the islands may become successful in a business way there are three things which, in his mind, must be brought about.

"These three things are free trade, free admission of Chinese and expulsion of the friars."

Passing by his first and second conditions, we quote what he has to say concerning the third, under our consideration. It seems to confirm all former testimony:

"The Filipinos, from all I hear, are lazy, for they know that nature provides them nearly enough to live upon whether or not they lift a hand. When they have a little money they rest a while. When you are in a great hurry to get your crops out they have a fiesta or two. Introduce Chinese labor in the plantations and they would be obliged in the interests of self-preservation to abandon their lazy habits and settle down earnestly to work. The Chinese are more intelligent and manageable than the Filipinos, if what I hear of the Filipinos is true.'"

"It is generally believed," I answered, "that a good deal of the Filipinos' indolence came from a dislike to work hard, because the harder he worked and the more he produced the more he had to turn over to the friars who own the land. When a Filipino had gained wealth he at once became the prey of corrupt Spanish officials and friars. Perhaps he found that industry didn't pay him."

"That brings me to my third condition-the expulsion of the friars. Send them all away. The Filipinos don't want them, and have fought two rebellions to get rid of them. They will always be a menace to your peace over there, and they should go, even on the grounds of military necessity. You will never have a stable peace in the islands if your government insists upon retaining an element toward which the whole people are united in hostility. The friars have not been honest. We in Hongkong and Shanghai know that. Why, when war between Spain and the United States seemed probable, they shipped millions of dollars from the Philippines to this city. After the blockade was raised a great deal more money came over here and to Macao. In Shanghai two or three big blocks of apartment houses were built with money that came over from the Philippines. in Macao there are 400 or 500 waiting the chance to get back to the Philippines again, and from what I hear it seems probable that your government intends allowing the friars to return to their parishes. And if they return, in my opinion, you will have the same old trouble over again. They are the chief root of the Philippine trouble, and to remedy a trouble you must get at the root.'"

Up

After their overwhelming defeat before the United States Navy and the united armies of Americans and Filipinos, the secret political-religious friends of these Spanish friars procured for them the full fruits of complete victory at Paris, without striking a blow or paying one penny into the public treasury of these United States.

To free them from the Filipinos and return their stolen possessions to them has already cost the United States the $20,000,000 paid Spain plus scores of millions more, in war expenses, to say nothing of blood and agony untold.

To fulfil the terms of that treaty has cost us our national honor, and to continue them, contrary to the laws of right, might cost us our national life yet. For the Filipinos, in fighting for, the principles of civil and religious liberty, and the rights of self-government, are fighting for the vital and foundation principles of republicanism, democracy and liberty, whereas we, in fighting them, are fighting against our own organic principles, institutions and conscience, by subverting which we must inevitably commit national suicide ultimately. No other nations may be able to annihilate us, but we may work out our own destruction, or salvation.

Shall we seek to follow the path of justice, right and safety, as with Mexico in the '60s, or continue the contrary course in the Philippines?

The enormous cost of "this accursed war" of conquest should not be saddled upon the Filipinos, who were forced into it by the treachery of their allies, to whom they were faithful till brutally betrayed by them, to our 'common enemy." It should be borne by those religious orders who have been the cause of all the trouble.

The public lands which they have appropriated should be taken to reimburse the American government in this matter, and private property confiscated for them should be restored to its rightful owners, after a rigid investigation, establishing titles.

The church property should accrue for the benefit of the people who have paid for it, and not return to their persecutors.

:

Washington, our first President, asked a question which we put to our present President.

After speaking in his farewell address of the dangers and allurements of foreign conquests, alliances and complications, he said:

*

"Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own, to stand on foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice? It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world."

We would then ask why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Asia, imperil our peace and prosperity?

Why should we form an alliance either for or against the Empire of Great Britain, the Holy Roman Empire, or even the Mohammedan, polygamous, slave-holding, barbarous Sultanate of Sulu? As Bishop Spalding of the Roman Catholic church said, when addressing the Liberty Meeting in Chicago, on April 30, 1899:

"We are the foremost bearers of the most precious treasure of the races. In the success of the experiment which we are making the hopes of all noble and generous souls for a higher life of mankind are centered. If we fail, the world fails; if we succeed, we shall do more for the good of men than if we conquered all the islands and continents.

"Our mission is to show that popular government on a vast scale is compatible with the best culture, the purest religion, the highest justice and that it can permanently endure.

On May 2, 1899, Rev. Dr. P. S. Henson of the Baptist denomination, in addressing the so-called Loyalist

Meeting in the Auditorium, in Chicago, said, among other things:

"To-day there are those that wave the Declaration of Independence in our faces and tell us that the thing to do is to deliver over those islands of the archipelago in the East to the people who are their rightful masters, for 'all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.' So wrote Thomas Jefferson. Do you remember that the Lord said to Joshua, 'My servant is dead!' And so is Thomas Jefferson. I do not believe that Thomas Jefferson was infallible. I believe that a live President in the year of grace 1899 is just as much of an authority as a President that lived and died a hundred years ago. I am no worshipper of a saint just because he is dead. Let the dead bury the dead. As to that hallowed document that declares that all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, if that is to be literally construed there never was a greater falsehood palmed off by the devil upon a credulous world."

The dear good old doctor did not quote the Declaration aright, for it says distinctly, "Governments are instituted among men," not the government of God, nor that divinely instituted government of the family, “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," and no loyal American, no true Republican or Democrat can deny the truth of this fundamental principle of freedom.

The following from the Chicago Record of October 12, 1899, reporting the closing exercises of the great peace jubilee shows, how the true heart of America beats with the Declaration:

"People streamed out of Central Music Hall from the patriotic mass-meeting held there last night-the last meeting of the great autumn festival-a few minutes before the lights in the court of honor went out for the last time.