A DOUBTFUL EXERCISE OF AUTHORITY.
By A. B. Leonard
[A. B. Leonard, in Gospel in All Lands.] It is to be feared that the attempt of our officials to satisfy the demands of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines is at the risk of alienating the best class of people in those islands and impressing them with the idea that the archbishop of Manila is more the ruler of the country than President McKinley. The American newspaper Freedom, published in Manila, gives a recital of facts that are calculated to arouse suspicion in the minds of all loyal Filipinos. The archbishop seems to be practically in control of the public schools, if such they may be called, and the treatment that the children receive in some instances at the hands of the friars seems to be little less than brutal. It is held by the Democracia, a loyal native Manila newspaper, that it is the duty of Americans to rid the country of friars, who are the cause of nearly all the trouble from which the natives suffer. It was generally supposed in Manila that the Roman Catholic archbishop secured an order from the provost marshal to compel the Democracia to retract certain statements, but the paper named replied that there was nothing to retract, as what they had printed agreed with the facts. The answer came back from the authorities, “You must retract!” so the Democracia, under the heading, “Forced Publication,” printed the order from the provost marshal, and the next day, in place of the usual issue of the paper, a handbill was sent to each subscriber stating that they would suspend publication until such time as they could find out by what system justice was exercised in Manila. The United States should be in better business than suppressing proper freedom of the press in the Philippines at the behest of a Roman Catholic archbishop. When a loyal paper is placed under ban by a United States official because it criticizes the brutal treatment of the native children by cruel priests, he is engaged in a very un-American business.