The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-10-24
OR HE WAS MISQUOTED
THE FRIARS ARE HELPLESS
CHAPELLE DECLARES.
SOME IN PRISON UNDERGOING TORTURES
The Statements Voiced by the Insurgents-aS TO
Church Property do not Represent the
Sentiments of the Whole
People.

washington Oltt. o.--ATclOtSnop
Chapelle of New Orleans, Apostolic
Delegate to Cuba, Porto Rico and the
philippines, today gave out the follow
ing statement to The Associated Press:
''In answer to General Funston's state
ment, made i'm an address to the stu
dents of Stamford University, that If
Congress would drive out the friars and
confscate every inch of church property
the bottom would drop out of the insur-
rectiom within one week. The inhabi-
tants Of I4uz0n are completely under the
chalrch l deem it proper to make the
following public statement:
"Knowing what / do from most re-
Hatie authority of General Funston's
Observation-Disclosures and sense of fairness,
| do mot believe that he has been, quoted
correctly. He may have stated that the
insurgents demand this as a condition of
peace; hut that he gave them as mis- own
sentiments | cannot credit. From my
own experience I know how easily it Is
to be misquoted AT / can say, is, if
General Funston did make this state
ment, he manifested a dense ignorance
of the work done by the religious or
deTrs III this archipelago. On the very
face of it, however, it shows quite plain
~ that 1T did not come from ONE as well
posted as General Funston should be on
affairs in I4lzon. He is quoted as say
ing:
THE inhabitants Of IJuzOn are COM
pletely under the church Now / would
ask how can this he 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 prisoner
of the insurgents? 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
undergoing unheard of torture in insur-
gent dungeons. This being a fact, it is
hard for ne to see how the islands ram
be under the friars.' 1t 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 confScation to the
Insurgents of all THE church property is a
fact we'll known: hut we are told by the
Government officials (amd | know it to
he a fact from other reliable sources),
that the insurgents represent only one
{
archipelago, so the sentiments voiced by
the insurgents about the fIiars and
church property cannot be taken as the
sentiments cf the great body of the ma
tives, amy more than they can be taken
as the sentiments OF the natives toward
our people and Government.
''Whatever the natives are or have
they owe to the friars BY them they
were lifted out of savagery and brought
under the blessed and refining influences
of Christianity BY them they were
educated not only in the schools, but in
the fields and the workshops We're.
taught by them the very industries
which are now the source of their pros
perity. Mr.. Peyton. the agent of the
Episcopal Foreign Mission Association
tells us that the natives are the most
moral and religious people on the face
of the globe Now, the men who taught
them to be so cannot be such men as
some narrower minded people would try
to have us believe. Rev DR.. Abeel,
Scotch Protestant missionary, also teS-
titles that nearly the whole population
of the Filipino archipelago has been con-
verted to the Catholic faith by the
Spanish monks and a wonderful im-
provement in their social condition has
been the result
''He then goes on to show THAT if amy
ONE doubts this Improvement it can east-
ly be made nIauifest by comparing the
Christian native With his Southern neigh
bor Of the same blood-tIhe fanatical
Moro.
'As to the oonhscati;Cn of the estates,
You might as we'll talk of confiscating the
estates of the Vanderhilts, the Astors and
other millionafres whose estates have
i'm the course cf years. grown SO won
derfuly. There wouId be just as much
right and justice in one case as in THE
other. The estates of the religious Gu'
ders have been acquired an THE usual
way by purchase, and in the course OF
NEARLY four centuries have naturally
grown large hut III even unbiased Pro-
teStant witnesses are to he credited
large as they are. all are used for the
betterment and uphHfting of the natives
"A former British Consnl Ca Protes-
tantl. writing ON this subject says
1t was by meauls of tine estates
THAT the ffiars introduced agriculture and
settled habits of life amcng TRIBES ori-
girally nomadic 1t was by meams of
these estates that they got them to live
i'm villages and introduced amongst them
the arts of civilized Fife.
In a short time ] will start for the