GOVERNMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES.
By G.
"By the tenor of the instructions given to the Taft Commission, the policy of the administration in the Philippines is made known. The Filipinos are placed on the same ground as respects security of person and property as citizens of the United States. The commission is to establish municipal governments, in which the natives 'shall be afforded the opportunity to manage their own local affairs to the fullest extent of which they are capable.' These local governments are to be formed 'as fast as the territory is held and controlled by our troops.' The commission says that the governments to be established by them should be shaped so as to conform to 'native customs, habits, and even prejudices, to the fullest extent consistent with the accomplishment of the indispensable requisites of just and effective government.' In the matter of that great source of bitterness, priestly domination and church lands and holdings, provision is made for the acquirement of such property by legal processes and lawful compensation. It is also declared that 'no form of religion and no minister of religion shall be forced upon any community or upon any citizen; and, upon the other hand, no minister of religion shall be interfered with or molested in following his calling, and the separation between State and Church shall be real, entire and absolute.' Carried out according to the letter and in the spirit, this declaration should be satisfactory, and to it the Roman Church authorities should assent, however much they may regret a vanished past."—Christian Work. But, according to Archbishop Chapelle, the special representative of the papal interests in the Philippines, the Roman Church is having no occasion to "regret a vanished past." He has recently expressed great satisfaction with the conduct of affairs by the United States, and great confidence in the prospective outcome as far as the church's property interests are concerned. It should not be forgotten that the old controversy between Spain and the Filipinos was virtually a rebellion of native Catholics against Roman oppression, and the present trouble is in reality a continuation of the same, only a stronger government is battling Rome's enemy. Then why should not Rome be satisfied with her new ally? The expression that "the separation between Church and State shall be real, entire, and absolute" is mere verbiage. This government has already abandoned that principle even at home; and much more in its connection with Rome in Cuba and in the Philippines. The "security of person and property" is the very thing that Rome wants established. This point settled, and the old régime is safe, with the United States army behind it. Nor is it clear how the United States can do otherwise, under the treaty with Spain, than recognize property rights then existing. And certainly the Roman priesthood could not be banished under the Constitution. The government can no more force ministers of Rome away from the Philippines than they can force them upon the Filipinos. There seems to be little, or nothing, in the instructions to the Taft Commission to which Rome will seriously object.