After five years English will be substituted, and it is thought that the undertaking will be facilitated because Spanish has never been the uniform language of the islands, neither has there been any uniform native tongues. Near Manilla a large proportion of the residents speak dialects of the Malay tongue, and know nothing of Spanish. The Philippines are divided into numerous tribes, each having a language of its own quite dissimilar and mutually incomprehensible. The Taft commission has revised the school system, and the teaching taken out of the hands of the religious orders which control it under the Spanish supremacy.

Congress will probably allow the President to continue his present quasi-military control, through the commission now at Manilla. It seems to be generally agreed that self-government cannot be established until the Filipinos shall have become more civilized; and Congress will probably wait until the future is more assured before enacting experimental legislation. Meanwhile the President holds out scant hope to the "equal rights" men with regard to the new American possessions.

"Peace and freedom," Mr. Roosevelt said, "are the objects for which they are fighting. Military power is used to secure peace, in order that it may be supplanted by civil governments. Other nations have conquered to create irresponsible military rule. We conquer to bring just and responsible civil government to the conquered. When the Filipinos have shown capacity to real freedom by their power of self-government, then, and not till then, it will be possible to decide whether they are to exist independently of us, or to be knit to us by the ties of common friendship and interest. When that day may come, it is not in human wisdom now to foretell."

"In this case," says Major Parker, "distance is so great, and

the alien character of these people so distinct, that it is worse than folly to hold out to them the idea of proximate Statehood. Should they ever become fitted for it, the result can be obtained only in the course of many generations."

Yet if we are to take Admiral Dewey's opinion, recently given before the Senate Committee on the Philippines, the inhabitants of those American possessions are better fitted for self-government than the Cubans. This would seem to point to inconsistency, for the Cubans are free and independent. The exact political status of the Filipino, which was long a matter of doubt, has now been settled by an official statement filed by Mr. Knox the American Attorney-General.

The case was that of a Filipino who desired to become an American citizen by the usual process of naturalization. Congress not having yet fixed permanently the political standing of the civil rights of the natives, the Government holds that they cannot take out naturalization papers any more than can the Chinese in America, but must retain the nationality of the Philippines.

This is certainly ambiguous. What is that nationality? One of the late insurgents now loyal to America, Buencamino by name, warmly demanded an answer to this question when he stood before the Philippine committee. "Are we, or are we not," he asked,

"American citizens?" He is now assured that in the opinion of the American Government, the Filipinos are simply inhabitants of a conquered country held by force of arms, subjects of the Imperial republic. No matter how intelligent, or well-behaved, or loyal, they cannot obtain rights which are granted freely to the most

doubtful and disreputable of Turks, Russians, or Africans.1

General MacArthur told the Senate Committee that there is no question of the power of the Filipinos to attain any standard of excellence. They have a large representation in all the artisan employments. They have a deft touch; they are great in wood-carving; they are artists; they are natural musicians. General Merritt testified also to their good conduct and aptitude.

are

An American army officer but lately returned from the Philippines says the native women imitating the American women-school teachers and wives of Army officers-in the matter of dress, personal adornment, and manners. During the last year a great change of this nature has been observed among the native women who have been thrown into contact with the "Americanos." The Philippine women now insist not only upon having more clothes, but better clothes, and the result is a marked improvement in their average personal appearance.

A year and a half ago this officer passed through a village in Luzon. In the house where he lodged was a girl of ten or twelve years who smoked big cigars and apparently enjoyed them. Visiting the same village a few months ago, the officer called to see his friends. the native family. He found the girl now a little larger, of course, and also very much better dressed. "You are not smoking, I see," he said to her. "No, senor."

1 A very significant sign of the times was the prohibition last fourth of July of the reading in the Philippines of the American Declaration of Independence, that greatly cherished but blatantly thrasonical document.

Well, try one of these," he said, offering her his cigarcase. "No, thank you, senor," replied the girl in fair English. "Me no smoke now. Americano woman no smoke." The moral of this story is obvious.

There are 150,000 children in the schools, and the Americans have sent them 3000 teachers, so that in the words of the Senator Depew, "they may learn English, the Declaration of Independence, the Star-spangled Banner,' and Yankee Doodle."" Happy Filipinos !

When Spain had control of Porto Rico, travel and transportation were made very difficult by the conditions of the roads. There was only one main road from San Juan to Ponse, a distance of eighty-five miles, besides this one road there were only about one hundred and sixty miles of main roads in the islands. The usual method of travelling was on horseback, with pack animals for freight, but only in a few places could the bull-carts be used, and then under very irksome conditions. When the Americans came into possession, their first work was upon the roads of the island, building new roads, constructing railroads, and instituting the electric street-car system, and the telegraph. The Porto Ricans are good workers, and are further encouraged by a large increase in wages, 9d. a day to 28. 1d. But they have the fault common to warm climates of working only as long as necessity demands, then idling and squandering their earnings. They appreciate, however, the benefits of the change, for the old clumsy bull-cart is disappearing, and its place is being taken by waggons drawn by horses, and whereas formerly the cost of the transportation of the coffee to the sea was 3s. 4d. a hundred pounds, now under the

new conditions the charge is 5d. The aim of the Americans is to bring the standard of this island to the level of an American State. Let us hope their object may one day be accomplished.

Yet it must be admitted America lacks the necessary apparatus for the government of dependencies. It has been pointed out that Great Britain in the government of her dependencies is still a monarchy, although at home she has become practically a republic.1 As a monarchy the nation boasts an Imperial service entirely detached from home parties or political influence. Will it be possible for America to acquire and maintain such a service, free from home politics, without the exaltation of the executive and the exercise of his direct authority?

It

As we have just seen, the country already finds that an Imperial policy is an expensive one. It involves large drafts on the home treasury, not merely in outright grants for necessary internal improvements, but also in financial concessions not less expensive. involves fortifications, troops, a large and effective navy, and the cost of territorial administration. She will be obliged to find Government houses, prisons and court-houses, improve rivers and harbours, subsidize railways, survey public lands, and pay numerous official salaries.

In brief, the colonial system means the adoption of a new scale of national taxation and expenditure, and

1 (6 Republic" is a facile term. Gibbon speaks of "The republic of Europe, with the Pope and Emperor at its head." Elsewhere he says that Charles IV. was "the temporal head of the great republic of the West."-" Decline and Fall," chap. xlix.