Evening star., 1901-01-26

| answers are appended hereto.
Acting upon that clause Of your instruc-
tions which vests in the Philippine commits
sion authority to exercise. subject to your
| approval through the War Department,
that part Of your military authority which
| Is legislative In its character, the commits
sion has adopted regular methods of legis-
| lative procedure. venture to express the
| hope that an examination Of these acts, as
| well as the reading of the report, will
| carry to your mind, as 1t has to mins, the
conviction that the commission are pro-
ceeding in accordance with the high spirit
| of your instructions and with zeal ana dis
| cretion are pressing forward with all prac-
| ticable speed the establishment Of civil gov
ernment in conformity to American ipst!tu-
| tions and in fulf1lment Of our duty to the
people of the Philippine Islands"
Drunkenness and immortality.
Appended to the Secretary's report are
| these cablegrams. concerning the liquor
| traffic:
January Is, 19O1.-Taft, Manila: Gable an
swer following questions: What is present
| condition Manila as to use Of Intoxicating
| liquors. drunkenness and disorder? How
| does it compare with principal American
| cities? Do natives frequent American sa-
| looms or drink American liquors? How
| much drunkenness among American SOL
| diers? Are houses of il-fame licensed, pro-
| tected or in any way encouraged by au-
| thorities? ROOT, Secretary Of War.
Of War: With reference to your telegram of
the 18th: First, very good; second, better
| than any American city Of same size; third,
practically not at all; fourth, considerable.
Same much more conspicuous than at home,
because several barracks near heart OF city
and frequented saloons narrow thor
oughfares. New license law passed banishes
saloons to places less accessible and annoy
ing for general public. Informed by army au-
| thorities that actual drunkenness not much,
if any, greater than at home. Absence Of
home influence and lack of usual amuse-'
ments would naturally increase it. Marked
Improvement In this regard since improved
political condition in city has permitted
more attention to the subject.
Fifth. No; but true that in November,
1898, spread of disease among soldiers led
military authorities, in order to maintain
effectiveness Of army, to subject known
loose women to certified examination and
confinement Of diseased in special hospital,
expense Of which paid from fund in custody
of army officers solely from fees charged
for examination Of 80 cents to 81. according
| to place of examination. System has greatly
reduced percentage Of disability from this
cause. Purely army police measure outside
our jurisdiction, military necessity.
Result better than futile attempts at total
suppression in oriental city of 10000, pro-
ducing greater evil. Loose women known
not permitted to land Number deported.
General moral condition of city greatly ma
lively few. Gambling greatly decreased.
Native vino shops in Manila in August,
1893, 1900, now reduced to 400; American
saloons. including hotel and restaurants re-
duced from 224 in February, 1900 to eighty
eight now. OF these only forty-eight Ii
censed to sell spirituous liquors.
The Friars.
One of the longest chapters in the Com
missions report and one Of the most alb
sorbing interest concerns the friars. The
commission handles this subject in the
dom. 1t gives the history of the expulsion
of these friars from their places by the
rebels and declares that the burning ques
ton agitating the Filipinos is whether they
shall be permitted to return. The commits
sion listened to all sides, including the
Archbishop of Manila. himself a friar, and
the churchmen brought forwaIo by him.
Laymen, officers, newspaper correspond
ents and others had their chance to testify
upon this subject.
The commission says that the friar was
the embodiment of all authority, govern
mental as well as religious, in his locality,
and that not a single function of govern
ment could be performed without his
sistance and participation. AS to the moot
ed question of the immortality of the friars,
the commission says that the evidence on
this point Is SO strong that it seems to
tablish clearly that there were enough in
stances in each province to give considera-
BILE ground for the general report. That
such immortality should exist among the
friars, 1t says, is, however, not strange in
view of the fact that many of them came
from the ignorant peasantry of Andalusia
and were not by training fitted to resist
temptation But immortality on the part of
the friars, 1t Is held, was not the principle
ground for the hostility toward them of
the people. The commission says:
1T did not shock the common people or
arouse their Indignation to see their curate
establish Illicit relations with a woman and
have children by her. The woman did not
lost caste on that account, but often prided
herself on the relation to the chief au-
thority in the village. OF course
there may have been instances in which
friar used his autocratic power to establish
a relation of this kind against the will of
the woman and her relatives. and these
cases have lent themselves to deenen the
colors of the lurid and somewhat over
drawn pictures painted by the anti-friar
writer's"
The report shows that the total amount
of land in the island owned by the Angus
t1nians, the Dominicans, the Franciscans
and the Recolletos is approximately 4O3, 900
acres, besides which they have large sums
of money to loan.
Most of this property has been trans
ferred by the Dominicans to a man named
Andrews and by the Augustinians and by
the Recolletos to English corporati hut
the commission says that these transfers
are not genuine and the friars remain the
owners. 1t declares, however, that the
United States governments is bound by
treaty to protect these interests and sug-
gests that they be purchased for public
lands out of the island revenues and by
condemnation, if need be, though the or
ders have expressed a willingness to sell
at a satisfactory price.
Regarding the return of the friars the
commission says that the deep-seated ha-
tired of the people must be reckoned with.
1t would be of assistance to the American
cause If the Catholic Church were to sub
stitute American priests, but this is a
question of church policy with which the
commission has nothing to do. Says the
report: 1T is enough to say that the politi-
cal question will be eliminated if the friars
are no. sent back"
Religious Exercises in Schools,
Reference is made to the subject of re-
ligious exercises in schools, which has since
been decided in favor Of the church on the
basis Of the Faribault plan. The commits
sion says:
1T is not certain that this would COM
pletely meet the views of the Catholic
hierarchy, but 1t is likely it will avoid that
active hostility to a public school system
which might be formidable obstacle in
spreading education among these Catholic
people.
Communication Between Islands.
The question of establishing adequate
means of communication between and