The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-22
Address Is Made To Member
 If Bar At Nashville
COMPLEX CODE IN ISLANDS
Secretary Taft Discusses the Purchase of Lands From the Friars and the Difficulties In Catholic
 Church Affairs.

Nashville, Tenn, May A.-Secretary of War William H. Taft addressed a large audience at the sVendome theatre here tonight, the taking over of the Philippine archipelago by the American government being his subject He was most cordially received and, was frequently applauded. Secretary Taft Is here as the guest of the Bar association of Tennessee.
 Secretary Taft in his address discussed the taking over of the Philippines by the American government. By way of introductory he said his study of the civil law as administered in Spain and her colonies had the effect of broadening his views
 Tn the Philippines the civil code is a Spanish code much resembling the code Napoleon. There are in addition the mortgage code and the commercial code and there was code of court procedure.
 He said it became necessary to adopt the American abde and a modification of the California criminal code, "One of the most serious objections that many of us felt to Taking over the Philippines and making them a dependency of this coun- ,tr~ i, ,ss the difficulties which were sure Ake in the transfer of sovereignty
 monarchy like Spain, in which n ; aansrch and the state seem to be Tn n tookkrest and Jurisdiction inextricably f to a sovereignty like that of the V hdi States, In which both by consti-
 "if and by tradition and custom the ~ late fs entirely separate from ahe church. The Philippine islands were in effect Christian mission, set on foot by Philip II. of Spain, and carried on by the reg ular monastic orders"
 Church and State.
 He then discussed at length the rela- tions between the church and state, the effect of a restoration of Jesuits and the Ag,iinaldo instruction. He said In the convention at Maloos called by Aguinal- do the attitude of the revolutionfsts to- ward the friars which had all been shown by the killing of 40 of them and the imprisonment of 300, was further mani fested by the enactment of decree na- tionalizing the friars' lands, or confscat- ing them to the use of the government of the so-called Philippine republic. As vol know, the hostility to the authority of the United States continued in the form of guerilla warfare until 1902
 As soon as a condition of peace was restored and the new government had
  tenn, the question which thrust itself on the authorities was the danger to tie peace of the community growing out of the assertion by the friars, who owned these large tracts of agricultural lands of their titles and of suits of the past and present"
 Difficult Problem.
 The secretary then told of the negotia- tions between the church of Rome and the agent of the government, saying there was in no sense an effort to establish diplomatic relations but merely the Amer icanf method of aseking a solution of d difficult problem by dealing secretly with the person having authority.
 He discussed these negotiations ip de- tail
 Tt is quite possible that the friars lands will not prove to be worth what we paid for them, though if agriculture im- proves in the islands I think we shall probably be able to escape with a very slight loss. Meantime the friars' lands are being slowly disposed of to the ten ants. The rhinderpest carried off T5 per cent of the cattle of the islands and greatly interfered with the agriculture. This, of course, affected the value of lands and affects the case with which the friars lands may now be disposed of to the ten- ants The destruction of so many of the cattle cannot be remedied under decade. The safest position of the friars lands now owned by the government will prob ably be retarded for number of years"
 Payment of Damages.
 The rents and damages done by the United States army was fixed at S42o,000. The secretary closed his speech as fol. lows:
 "The Roman church is in a deplorable condition from property and financial standpoint Its losses during the revolu- tionary war were very heary. The de- privaton of it's priests by the circum- stances which I have referred to inter- fered greatly with its usefulness and in- f1uence This is a most unfortunate mat ter for the islands viewed from purely governmental standpoint.
 aThe Roman Catholic church must al. ways be the most important influence for the uplifting of its Filipino people, and its prosperity will always make for the good of the Filipino people. Since the American occupation other denominations have come into the islands and have been doing good there, both directly and be- cause the spirit of Christian emulation which their presence creates does good to the older church. AS non-Catnonc sincerely believe, and I think, that there are no Protestants that know the conditions in the islands who do not ad- init that it will be of much advantage to the islands as a whole to have the Rom an Catholic church restored to condi- ton of prosperity. This change for the better must be quite slow. The radical difference between church whose priesthood were paid by the government and out of the taxes collected from the people to a church whose priesthood must be paid in some way by contributions of the congregations Is so great that 1t IS very difficult for the people to adjust themselves to the change
 steamshlp Pier Destroyed.
 Bogota, May 21.-The steamship pier at Santa Marta. on the Atlantic coast, was