The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-24
In DEFENCE OF THE FRIARS
CHAPPELLE ON
THOSE OF PHILIPPINES.

Wrought i'm Their Social Condition
Confiscation of Estates Would be I'm.
just.
Washington, Oct. 22.-ArchbishoI
Chappelle of New orleans, apostolic
| delegate to Cuba, Porto Rico and the
| Philippines, to-day gave out the follow
ing statement to the Associated Press
In answer to General Funston's state
ment made in an address to the stu
dents Of Stanford university, that If
congress would drive out the clergy and
confiscate every inch Of church proper
ty the bottom would drop out of the in
surrection within one week, and that
the inhabitants of Luzon are complete
ly under the church., l deem it proper
to make the following statement:
Knowing well what / do from most
reliable authority of General Funston S
broad -mindedness and sense of fairness,
/ do not believe that he has been quot
ed correctly. He may have stated that
the insurgents demand this as condi-
tion of peace but that he gave them as
his own sentiments | cannot credit.
From my own experience l know how
easy it is to be misquoted. All l can
say is that If General Funston did make
this statement he manifested a dense
ignorance of the work done by the re-
ligious orders in the archipelago. In
the very face of it, however, it shows
quite plainly that 1t did not come from
one as well posted as General Funston
rb ho ;,, 10 ic
quoted as saying: The inhabitants of
Luzon are completely under the
church.
Now, 1 would ask how can this be
possible when every priest with the ex-
ception of a few natives in the Island
of Luzon) outside of the walls of the
city of Manila Is prisoner of the in
surgents? For the past eighteen months
this state of affairs has existed, and
during all this period more than three
hundred and fifty friars have been un-
dergoing unheard-of torture in insur-
gent districts. This being a fact, it is.
hard for me to see how the islands can.
be under the friars.' 1t looks to me
as though just the opposite was the
case.
1Hdl lIle lllSuIBculS nave dShCu,
one of their terms of peace, the expul-
sion Of the friafs and the confiscation
to the insurgents of all the church prop
erty is fact we'll 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 peopling the archipelago; so the
sentiments voiced by the insurgents
about the friars and church property
cannot be taken as the sentiments OF
the great body of the natives-no more
than they can be taken as the senti-
ments of the natives towards our people
and government.
What the natives are and have they
owe to the friars. BY them they were
fitted out of savagery and brought unA
Ter the blessed and refining influences
If Christianity. BY that they We're ed
lcated, not only in the schools, but in
he fields and the workshops, were
aught by them the very industries
which are now the source of their pros
,erity Mr.. Peyton, the agent of the |
Episcopal Foreign Mission associat ton,
ellis us that the natives are the most |
material and religious people on the face |
# the globe. Now, the men who taught |
hem to be so cannot be such men as
ONE narrow minded people would |
make believe. DR.. Abeel, Scotch Pro-
estant minister, also testifies that
nearly the whole population of the
philippine archipelago has been convert
d to the Catholic faith by the Spanish
f,1 i,,,,, t,,
heir social condition, has been the re-
ult' He then goes on to show that if
ny one doubts this improvement it can
asily be made easy by comparing the
native with his southern ma
i've Of the same blood-the fanatcal
Ioro.
LAS to the confiscation of the estates,
ou might as well talk of confiscating
he estates Of the Vanderbilts the AS
ors and other millionaires, whose es-
ates have, in the course of years,
rown wonderfully. There may be just
s much right and justice in one case
$ in the other. The estates of the re-
gious orders have been acquired in
1e usual way by purchase, and in the
purse of nearly four centuries have
aturally grown large, but if even un-
ased Protestant witnesses are to be
edited, large as they are, they all are
sed for the betterment and uplifting
the natives.
"a former British consul Ga Protest
1t writing on this subject, says: 1t
as by means of these estates the fri
IS introduced agricultural and settled
lbits Of life among tribes originally ,
Jmadics. 1t was by means of these
tates that they got them to live in ]
e villages and introduced amongst
EN- the arts Of civilization. 1t was by Z
cans of these estates that they gained
e power of inducing them to labor
it'll a certain amount of regularity I
Id method-the great safeguard
'ainst relapse again into their orig
al state OF soNa6ery. The natives, :
says, are with some reference per- 1
ms in need of tutelage without which ;
ey would fall back to the customs of l
cir ancestors, a tutelage that no one
n exercise better than the friars.
ithin the precincts of the monaster-
are to be found carpenter shops, II
rges, brick and tile yards, etc, to C
ach the natives various trades The e
lages formed around them pleasing 6
etures of happiness and content. in b
artling contrast with those who were