In short, to the citizens of the Philippine Islands are granted the same freedom of person and property as is enjoyed by the citizens of the United States.

The Filipino will not be permanently misled. He too can see in what direction a favorable wind lies, and on which side his bacon is toasted. "In the confusion and uncertainty of the first years of the American occupation, it was but natural that each of the two races-American and Filipinos-overlooked the good qualities of the other. Much of the first mutual suspicion has been disarmed, and practically all animosity has disappeared, before the closer personal relations that have resulted from commercial, economical, and political associations. The tension of a few years has relaxed, and the Filipinos seem to be in a receptive mood for the establishment of business relations with Americans."

The Filipino had no constructive power in government, no trained capabilities for the erection of civic safeguards, or for the formulation of economic or even political rules; no education in the contingencies-certain to arise of international dispute. They had not even progressed, as able students affirm, to the status of forming fixed ideals of government. But the democrats, furious, like fever-stricken children, in their onset upon the fancied citadels of privilege, and crazy with a shallow madness of infatuation for the tinselled dolls of their dreams, would have incontinently turned these children of fortune loose, and-with equanimity-watched their subjugation. The republicans have literally planted the seeds of any just desire for Independence, by giving the Filipinos local self-government.

Does the Filipino heart and soul and throughout the whole social strata wish for independence to-day? The very poor do not, the wealthy Filipinos do not, but a class

of talkers, and the speculative and floating groups of unemployed journalists and lawyers-more or less itinerant and more or less skillful-do. Mr. Wright avers: "almost the entire people would view with great alarm, if not with horror, the withdrawal of the United States, which would mean either internal dissension or their passing into the hands of a foreign power. Of course, this reference to possible internal dissension does not mean that the great mass of the people are naturally rebellious, but simply that, lacking a guiding and kindly hand, they would be commanded by dozens of ambitious leaders, each anxious to usurp supreme authority."

And again: "trusting to the United States, which is scrupulously fulfilling its obligations to the Philippines and to the world, the people are familiarizing themselves with the institutions of free government now provided them, and they will undoubtedly in time demonstrate their capacity for absolute home rule." The future for the Filipinos is now neither dark nor uncertain. Their enormous resources are being developed, and in that development the people participate, and their intellectual and moral culture, from the inevitable impulse of new ambitions, increases. A future, better than any fiction of contentment as a separate national entity, is the future that make them a galaxy of sovereign states, each an integral and autonomous member of the United States of America, sharing its glory, and adding to its cosmopolitan grandeur. Already in Mr. Blount's pages the very steps, whose recital for twentyseven chapters has served his dolorous design, have, by his apparent admission, prepared the ground for the proposed division of the islands into twelve commonwealths to be governed by appointed Americans, and whose inhabitants are to be promised political independence. The plan itself

would seem to be a foolish one, and to-day absurdly premature, but it reflects the admirable reorganization, and the effect of the infiltrating streams of self-reliance, that are stabilizing the Filipinos; and all because the republicansalbeit with violence-held them to this country and in spite of their struggles to more surely hasten their own destruction, won for them a glorious companionship. Already the democrats have begun the tampering and disturbing policies which are intended to aggravate their weakness, undoing the considerable and thoughtful work of the previous administrations, and to start anew those perturbations which foment disorder, feed nascent restlessness, and bring quickly to the surface the political marplots and doctrinaires who live in the waters of confusion.

Apparently they have done worse; the following extract is taken from a daily purporting to be the reflection of Congressman Clarence B. Miller of Minnesota, on the present administration of the democratic governor of the Philippines:

"From the first day of the arrival in the islands of Gov. Harrison," said Mr. Miller, "he ruthlessly violated the civil service rules, and applied the principles of Tammany, the school in which he was trained. Dismissals of a wholesale nature occurred, and no one was protected by civil service or anything else. Words cannot paint the picture of wreckage the islands present to-day as a result. Every American who has visited the islands since the arrival of Harrison has come away ashamed and humiliated.

"Among the hundreds who have been dismissed are scores of Spanish-American veterans. They have been suddenly and without a moment's notice kicked out of the service as though they were so many yellow dogs. Many actually were

reduced to starvation. Many are at this hour being fed by the charity of other Americans.

"The Harrison administration has resulted in bringing American citizenship into dishonor and disgrace in the islands. Apparently nothing is so disgraceful there now as to be an American citizen."

CHAPTER VIII

THE FREE-TOLL REPEAL

These United States of America have suffered the extreme humiliation in the almost complete abolition of their merchant marine, and its replacement on the high sea by the swarming fleets of Great Britain's shipping and transportation steamers. During the period of the Crimean war, (1854-6), the mercantile marine of the United States advanced by such rapid strides, that it actually approximated the tonnage of England. Before the ruinous conditions supervened, which accompanied the outbreak and continuance of the Civil War, the certainty of the substitution of steam for sail, and therewith the enormous expansion of the carrying trade of the world threatened our prestige. Iron became the material for ship-building, and cheap fuel the means for its propulsion, while the lowering of the compensation of the stokers, sailors, and captains of the English steamers, and our inability at the time to compete with the cheap production of steel, disabled us in a contest that was overwhelmingly turned against us with the outbreak of the war. From the close of 1856 to the beginning of the rebellion, the average loss to the navigation interests of the United States was 2 per cent annually. But with the advent of the Civil War this loss was immensely increased, and its ravages hastened from the destruction of American vessels, and the self-preservative action of their owners in changing the flag under which their charges sailed. In