Evening star., 1901-04-09

against us. There is no security for auy
foreigner in any part of the archipelago.
We do not care to go back until things are
settled. The day that the American gov
ernment shall establish a government
throughout the archipelago which shall in
sure security to life there will be no trouble
at all for the priests to return, because the
people there are even now comparing their
peaceful, orderly, quiet life TO what they
have been compelld to go through the last
four years. There Is a reason why the
insurrectionists are against the priests,
whether he belongs to order or not:
that is because he upholds the constituted
authority; they preach that-the mainte-
nance of law and order-and these insur-
rectos know that IL they return and keep
their power and advocate the maintenance
of law and order they Will win the people
to the support of the American govern
ment. They do not want that, so they are
trying to keep them away. Ny own pres
ent representative in the Visayas, the
ecclesiastical governor, is an uncle of Silas
%, who was the most cruel of all the In
surgentS down there, and / feel sure that
this gentleman of the cloth is down there
disseminating revolutionary ideas. 1t will
be a little premature to send the priests
back to all their curaces now; but for
instance, to the island of Romblon, they
could return tomorrow. There is an Ameri-
can garrison there and the people are quiet
and orderly. In the three towns the
island of Tablas they could go to only one.
do not think they could go to the island
of Negros, especially the western part,
who are now in the government there are
bitterly opposed to the friars Carrying out
the argument why they cannot return to
western Negros, / have lived there for
twenty-five years and thought nothing was
going to happen there, but the very men
who were first to go into the insurgent
ranks were those We thought beyond re-
proach, and the first thing they did was
to go into the churches and steal every
thing: and the very man who is now presi-
dente in that town never had place to
eat out of cup to drink out of. He
has taken the plate and silver service OF
the convento, and II / were to return 1
would say he was thief; and so they
want US to be kept away, so that We can
not recognize our property and throw IL
in their faces that they are thieves. l can
prove by records that they have stolen at
least 100000 belonging to the different
parishes, besides all of the plate belonging
to the different conventos and churches"
Since this testimony was given conditions
as to military and civil government have
materially changed.
Laymen Testify.
The examination of the priests, which
ended in August, was followed In October
by the appearance before the commission
of laymen, whose testimony practically.
without exception, contravened every ma
terial statement of the ecclesiastics. The
first witness was Felipe Calderon, a lead
ing Filipino lawyer, who declared that the
friars were, save in rare instances, drawn
from the lowest orders Of Spanish society.
He said:
THE fact is that they are almost totally
unconscious Of proper social forms. They
act ipdecently and indecent express
sions in the presence of ladies In public to
such extent that / forced one
occasion to throw out friar who was not
only using indecent language. but acting
indecently in the presence of my wife. Ed
ucated men there are among them but
nearly all of them lack social polish, which
corroborates the fact that they are from
the lowest orders
DO the orders differ at all in this re-
spect?'
They do differ considerably. You could
draw distinctions. For instance, II may be
said that the Augustinians, the Recolletos,
the Dominicans and the Franciscans are
the four orders that have the least educa-
tion.''
II mean as between those fourg' said the
questioner.
''Of these four It seems that the Angus
tinians have a little more social polish, but
the Franciscans are the last link of the
chain. They are absolutely bereft of any
idea even OF social polish or etiquette. The
Jesuits, for instance have. IL may be said
a very fair conception OF social forms and
it is said they are chosen from the upper
families. 1 know several of them, and /
am certain that they come from distin-
guished families. The Pauiist fathers also
have more culture and better conceptions
of social forms"
The questioner asked Mr. Calderon IL he
thought as legal proposition the lands OF
the friars could be taken away from them.
He answered:
Strictly speaking, IN the eye of the civil
law, 4 am OF the opinion that their lands
cannot be taken from them, for they can
rely not only on prescription but also upon
a possessory title Of very long standing"
Prfestiy Extortfon.
AS an instance of priestly extortion of
the people he gave the following testi-
mony:
Il will explain the contract with the
friars: An Individual takes a parcel OF
land. The first thing the friar does it to
object to any legal document being drawn
concerning it, because they have already
some printed contracts drawn up by them
selves, and those are what they demand
Continued on Fifteenth Page.)