The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-24
CHAMPIONS THE CATHOLICS.
archbishop CHAPELLE UPHOLDs
PHILIPPINE FRIAns.

ARCHBISHOP CHAPELLE UPHOLDs
PHILIPPINE FRIAns.
Challenges the Statements Attribut-
ed TO FunstOn-Shows why the In
hnbitants Are Not "Under the
Chureh"-What the Friars Have
Done for the Natives Elevation,
Touching Estates of the Church.
Authorities Are Quoted.
Washington, Oct. 23-Archbishop Cha
pelle of New Orleans, apostolic delegate
TO Cuba. Porto Rico and the Philippines.
to-day gave out the following statement to
the Associated Press:
I'm answer TO Gen. Funstons statement
made in an address to the students of stan
ford University. that If Congress would
drive out the friars and conascate everv
inch of church property the bottom would
drop out of the insurrection within one
week. The inhabitants of Luzon are conf
pletely under the church l deem 1t proper
TO make the following public statement:
Knowing what I do from most reliable
authority of Gen. Funston's broadminded-
ness and sense of fairness, l do not be-
lieve that he has been quoted correctly
He may have stated that the insurgents
demand this as "a condition of peace; but
that he gave them as his own statements
cannot credit. From my own experience
1 know how easily it is to be misquoted
All l can say is, If Gen. Funston did
make this statement, he manifested
dense ignorance of the work done by the
religious orders in this archipelago on
the very face of it, however, it shows
quite plainly that il did not come from one
as well posted as Gen. Funston should be
on affairs in Luzon. He is quoted as say
ing:
Frinrs Are Captives.
" The inhabitants of Luzon are COM
pletely under the church. Now, 1 would
ask how can this be possible when every
priest with the exception of a few ma
tives) in the island of Luzon, outside of
the walled city of Manila, is a prisoner of
the insurgents? For the past eighteen
months this state of affairs has existed
and during all this period more than $50
friars have been undergoing unheard-of
torture in insurgent dungeons This being
a fact it is hard for me to see how the
islands can be under the friars.' II looks
to me as though just the opposite were the
case.
THAT the insurgents have asked as one
of their terms of peace the expulsion of
the friars and the condscation to the in
surgents of all the church property IS a
fact well known; but we are told by the
government officials (and ! know IT to be
fact from other reliable sourceS) that
the insurgents represent only one tribe
out of the eighty-five tribes peoplng the
archipelago, so the sentiments voiced by
the insurgents about the friars and church
property cannot be taken as the senti-
ments of the great body of the natives
No more than they can be taken as the
sentiments of the natives toward our peo-
pie and government.
Helped by the Friars.
"Whatever the natives are or have, they
owe TO the fIiars. By them they were lift
ed out of savagery and brought under the
blessed and refining influences of Christi
aniIy BY them they were educated not
oniy in the schools, but In the fields. and
the workshops; were taught by them the
very industries which are now the source
of their prosperity.
"Mr Peyton, the agent of the Episcopal
Foreign Mission Association, tells us that
the natives are the most moral and relig-
ious people on the face of the globe Now
the men who taught Them to be so cannot
be such men as some narrow minded peo-
PIE NOulQ lIy " nave US DttGVG. iNGN. l)F.
Abeel, a Scotch Protestant missionary
also testhes that nearly the whole popu-
lation of the Filipino archipelago has been
converted to the Catholic faith by the
Spanish monks, and a wonderful improve
ment in their social condition has been the
result.
He then goes to show that If any one
doubts this Improvement it can easily be
made manifest by comparing the Christian
native with his southern neighbor of the
same blood-the fanatical Moro.
COnfseatiOn of Estates.
"As to the conhscation Of the estates
you might as well talk of confiscating the
estates of the Vanderbilts the Astors and
other milliOnaires, whose estates have, in
The course of years, grown so wonderfully
There would be just as much right and
justice in one case as the other. The es-
tates of the religious orders have been
acquired in the usual way, by purchase
and in the course Of nearly four centu-
ries have naturally grown large; but If
even unbiased Protestant Witnesses are to
be credited, large as they are all are used
for the betterment and uplifting of the
natives.
"A former British consul Ga Protestant,
writing on this subject, says:
" 1t was by means of these estates
the friars introduced agriculture and set
tied habits of life among tribes originally
tates that they got them to live in vii
lagos and introduced amongst them the
arts of civilized life. 1t was by means Of
these estates that they acquired the power
of inducing them to labor with a certain
amount of regularity and method-the
great safeguard against a relapse again
into their original state of savagery
" The natives he says, are. with some
rare exceptions In need Of tutelage. with
out which they would fail back to the Gus
toms of their ancestors, a tutelage that no
one can exercise better than the friars
Within the precincts Of the nonasterles
used 10 be found carpenter shops. brick
and tile yards, etc. 20 teach the natives
various trades. The villages formed
around them presented a pleasing picture
OF happiness and content, in startling con-
trast TO those who were still pagan and
unciviiized.'
VIII Personally Investigate.
''In. a short time / will start for .ha