The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-27


 ulated, but the people are extremely re
 luctant to leave the country. In Amer
 ica we have had tremendous west
 ward movement without the pressure 0
 population.
 Americans are like the Boers ir
 their hatred of inferior races. While
 we stand for the brotherhood of mar
 as does no other nation the Englisf
 have commanded the good will of the
 American Indians more than we have
 as was shown notably in our early wars
 with England Like us the Boers hate
 and despise the native races about
 them and try to exterminate them.
 Tn the Philippines we have a coun-
 try that under present conditions the
 white man cannot live in. Our officials
 there have suppressed the news of the
 actual conditions in a war that certain
 ly does them no credit"
 It was at this point MT. Bigelow said
 that since no reporters were present he
 could talk freely and unconstrainedly 1 of conditions in the Philippines and 1 concerning American consuls that have not yet been made public.
 "The climatic and sanitary conditions in the islands are such that practically
 only young men, strong men, and sin gle men can work there even for a short time. The result is scandalous situation of immortality such as is wholly unmentionable in this place., When I was in Manila the city from it's lack of sanitation was filled with terrible stench, in the midst of which our volunteers had to work under the scorching sun and sleep in filthy quar- ters. Fully half of our men there have been enfeebled for life. They looked like a gang of diseased tramps l do not know when I have seen more mis- erable type of men, sent to the hottest place on earth, ragged, with no pro- vision for fruit or vegetables, and doing the lowest work of public scavengers unlightened by the labor of the coolies, who with the FiIipinos stand by on the streets and make laughing stock of them.
 Besides introducing civilized meth ods of sanitation to clean these Angean stables and instituting modern rapid transit and other improvements, so that American families can live there, we have in the Philippines another great problem In the report of the Taft commission no reference tb the Chinese was made. The Chinese are dsplacing menial labor all over the world. The Chinese exclusion bill has failed in this country and we now see laundrymen on every corner, the China man is busting the East Indian in Singapore, who in turn is displacing the negro in South Africa, and we shall yet live to see the solution of the negro question in this country very much through the Chinaman. He is vigorous and can adapt himself to any climate and will be invaluable in the Philip pines.
 Now as to our consuls. England in her foreign service has so profited by her mistakes that she has built up, a regular system in which her consuls grow up and are trained like business men. Stuart Lockhart, the English secretary in Hong Kong told me that he went into the service as a clerk would enter a banking house and grad ually by experience worked up to his present position. The consul at Shang- hai told me the same thing, and showed | that what the English do to-day with their colonies is strictly in the line of business.
 We need something of that kind, a 1 great national West Point for training in colonial administration, by which our | may learn to control the na- tives, know their language and their | idioeyncracies, and cultivate tact. Our | and steamship lines and great | given this kind of training, | but when it comes to the government | far different rules prevail.
 Our consular service in China is such that one American consul there was sent to jail for embedding letters of American citizens The only thing that recommended his successor was that he was captain of a baseball club Mer- ehants have told me that our consuls to China have been so incompetent as to hinder American trade they and the have been afraid to men, ion their corruption because of the power the consul wields over their in- erests.
 "On our diplomatic ana consular list here have been few great names, mostly of literary men like Bret Harte md w. D. HowelIs and Washington rving But throughout the world to- lay the American merchant finds the an obstacle unless he Is da honest merchant, and he finds the con- ul in his position for the purpose of ,etting more out of it than his salary would indicate "In South Africa we have practically 10 consul. Bryant Lindley told me that turing his many years there he never thew an American consul to keep sober liter g o'clock, and it was the usual hing for the English consul to close ID the days work of our incompetent 6icial,
 'Now, people who ought to know this tate of things are so judlcious that of it never becomes public. Dur best public men can do nothing lowadays contrary to the will of their farty. The great machine of the party annot do without the spells of office. Theodore Roosevelt is an ardent civil ervice reformer at least in theory, but he moment I pinned him down to the uestion if he would be in favor of a ivil service reform in our offices in Ianila, he said: There would be a reat objection to civil service reform We have to-day in Judge Taft the est man that could be selected for the but we have not the slight