War, Labor Troubles, and the Philippines
This nation and government has all it can attend to. The great strikes in Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Colorado, and the labor troubles in the mining regions of Montana and Idaho, have been more than serious, not so much in the immediate consequences, but in the intense feeling excited and engendered by friends, enemies, and a pandering press, in all parts of the country. A large standing army has been called for by many; it looks as tho it might be needed at home. In the Philippines matters seem no nearer a settlement than at the close of the war with Spain. The news accounts from them under the press censorship in vogue seem to be about as reliable as were the news from the Spanish-Cuban War under the Spanish control of the press. Many Filipinos, fighting for liberty, have been slain; whole parts of the islands ravaged; but there has been no gain in territory, and in the wet season, loss. The last estimate of needed troops by a trained soldier is 150,000; but it is not promised that this shall end the war. This government paid twenty million dollars for the Philippine Islands in the first place; one hundred million more has been expended in prosecuting the war against their rightful inhabitants; seven hundred men have been killed or have died in the hospital; ten times as many more are wounded or sick, subjects of indefinite pensions; and the war has just begun. The only party that seems to be losing nothing but gaining much out of this war is the Roman Catholic Church. She has well trimmed her sails to meet the changing winds of unstable earthly governments. But this is not a novel experience to the Papacy. “Through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand.” But this is not all.