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mere charitable committee with a relief fund of $500 or $1,000, and said that it might perhaps be of some use in caring for the sick in the hospitals and asylums. When I ventured to suggest that it might possibly render service in a wider field by helping to get the Cuban people on their feet, he demanded, rather fiercely, "Has your organization got $100,000,000 to $100,000,000 to spend in Cuba?" I admitted meekly that it had not. " Well, then," he rejoined, "what's the use of talking? It will take fifty or a hundred millions of dollars to put the Cuban people where they were before the war."

I referred, in this connection, to the $3,000,000 given by President McKinley to the Cuban army, and expressed the hope that, although this amount was much smaller than either of the sums he named, it would enable a good many thousands of Cuban soldiers to get a new start in peaceful vocations; but he gave this hope even scanter consideration than he had given to my suggestion about the Red Cross, and waved the $3,000,000 aside with the remark that it was a trifle, such as one would throw in charity to a beggar."

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Not receiving a great deal of encouragement in any of my conversational leads, I asked the General a few questions with regard to the insurrection and the destruction of life caused thereby, and then, upon a polite suggestion from General Rodriguez that if we wished to make any propositions in behalf of the Red Cross we had better go and see the Mayor, we rose and took our leave.

It is unfair, of course, to base an estimate of character upon such scanty knowledge as one is able to get of a man by means of a day's observation and a single interview; but if the estimate does not pretend to be anything more than it really is-viz., a summing up of first impressions -it can hardly be seriously misleading. General Gomez, then, impresses me as a man of strong character and great natural ability, but a man who has had little cultivation, and whose intellectual faculties are powerful in operation but limited in range. He is a true patriot and an honest man-a combination not everywhere to be found in the race to which he belongs-but he has a violent, headstrong temper, which he does not always try to

control; he has little comprehension of or sympathy with the motives and feelings of his subordinates, simply because he is lacking in quickness and delicacy of perception; and what success he has in the control and government of men is due, mainly, to the dominant force of his ener getic personality. Despite the enthusiasm that he excited in Santa Clara, he does not seem to me to be a man who would retain, in time of peace, the regard and affection of the people, although he might command their respect or excite their fear. Neither is he a man to inspire such devotion as that shown to Skobelef by the Russian soldiers at Plevna. Skobelef never for a moment lost sight of the comfort and welfare of his men, and they were ready to go into the gates of hell with him; but Gomez sometimes neglects his men through lack of sympathy and thoughtfulness.

Two days after the four-hundred-dollar banquet at the Santa Clara Hotel, a member of the Junto Formento told me that the soldiers who had come into the city to act as honorary escort to General Gomez were starving in the street. I did not at first believe the story; but, upon making inquiries of the men themselves, I found that the statement, although exaggerated, was essentially true. I talked personally with foot-soldiers who told me that they had had nothing to eat since noon of the previous day. Now, if that four-hundred-dollar banquet in Santa Clara, or the twelve-hundred-dollar banquet given to Gomez a few days later in Cienfuegos, had been offered to such a man, for example, as General Wood, I think the latter would have said, “Gentlemen, I have no objection to a reception and a dinner; but the soldiers who have fought with me and for you in the bush are ragged and hungry in the streets. Let us dine on bread and coffee and spend the four hundred dollars, or the twelve hundred dollars, that a banquet would cost, in buying food and clothing for the real heroes of the war."

General Gomez, however, allowed at least three or four thousand dollars to be spent in banquets for him, between Remedios and Havana, and never once thought of suggesting that the money, or a part of it, be used in supplying the wants of the ragged, hungry, and unpaid soldiers who

marched in his triumphal processions. But, as Mr. Warner said, when I expressed to him my surprise and indignation, "What else could you expect? That's the Cuban. of it !"

The neglect of the soldiers would not have been so surprising, perhaps, if General Gomez had seemed to take any pleasure or satisfaction in the banquets and festivities that were arranged in his honor; but he never did. In his dress, manner, and bearing he was always simple and unostentatious, and to nie he seemed to be not only entirely devoid of personal vanity, but anxious to avoid even the appearance of it. His apparent lack of interest in his troops must be attributed, therefore, rather to thoughtlessness and deficient sympathy

than to a selfish preference for receptions and banquets as compared with food and clothing for his hungry and ragged

men.

As an administrator or a statesman, General Gomez, I think, would be a failure. His mind and will are too inflexible, his acquaintance with the world of men and affairs is too limited, and his temper, without the check of prudence or tact, is too overbearing for a proper discharge of all the duties that would devolve, for example, upon the President of a Cuban Republic. As dictator in troublous times he would suppress disorder with an iron hand; but as president he would probably fail, through lack of prudence, thoughtfulness, tact, and self-control.

Religious Conditions in the Philippine Islands

By Robert

HE very interesting interview with Archbishop Ireland published in a recent number of The Outlook leads one to infer that, personally, the Archbishop disapproves of any attempt to change the religious conditions in our new possessions. From a careful reading of the interview it appears that he has inadvertently overlooked the important fact that there is a vast difference between the Catholicism of the Philippine Islands and the Catholicism of the United States.

The Catholicism of the Philippine Islands, if we are to believe those who have given the subject much study, is intolerant and very much like the Catholicism of France prior to the French Revolution; while in the United States Catholicism is liberal and patriotic-a condition which, in a great measure, has been brought about by the learned Archbishop himself.

During the three hundred years and more that Spain held the Philippines no religion other than that sanctioned by the Spanish Government was tolerated within their boundaries. And in many respects these islands present to-day the worst form of modern religious intolerance, for which nothing is more responsible than the presence of numerous and powerful societies of friars. Here are to be found the Augustinians, Recollects, Franciscans,

N. Reeves

Dominicans, and Jesuits-all exercising a power that would not be permitted in any civilized country of Europe or America.

Spain, while it possessed these islands, relied upon the friars to keep the people in strict allegiance to its cruel and exacting policies. That they acted their part in the establishment of Spanish misrule and the suppression of intellectual liberty is painfully apparent from the religious conditions in the islands at the present time.

The early superstitions of the natives have been suppressed by persecution that extended even to the death of devotees. And the temples and chapels of the Malayan Mohammedans and the Chinese Buddhists have time and time again been unroofed and their congregations subjected to all manner of religious persecution by these friars. Besides the native population there is in the Philippine Islands a large colony of German, Swiss, American, and English Protestants, but none of these have hitherto dared erect a church, or hold, publicly, religious exercises of any kind.

Under Spanish rule the press, too, was under the strictest ecclesiastical control. The introduction of nearly all foreign scientific and literary works was prohibited. Even Bernardin de St. Pierre's beautiful story "Paul and Virginia" was

specially interdicted by the ecclesiastic authorities in 1882.

In this way the friars, by maintaining the religious and political persecutions for which Spain has ever been infamous, have fought off all new ideas, and kept the islands from being politically and commercially developed. And there can be but little doubt that even now, under American protection, the presence of these friars is a menace to the liberties of the people.

The Spanish secular clergy, many of whom are men of refinement and education, have had but little voice or power in the shaping of affairs. According to Elisée Reclus, the secular clergy in 1896 numbered but 967,294 communicants, while the friars, according to the same authority, had in 1892 (four years earlier) 5,180,956 communicants. From this we can see how strongly the monastic orders are established. And when we remember that their power extends not only to the neighboring islands but as far as Tongking and China, and in fact throughout all Oceanica, we realize with what stubbornness they will resist all efforts upon the part of the United States to limit their power.

The political position of the Church in the Philippine Islands heretofore has given these friars not only great power but enormous wealth. In spite of their vows of poverty, they constitute the wealthiest class upon the islands. Under Spanish rule, a part of the tribute exacted from the Philippines was strictly reserved for the monastic orders. To obtain an idea of the amount reserved we need only to refer to the Philippine budget for the administrative year 1896-1897. In this budget $1,400,000 was set aside for religious orders, while nothing was allowed for the building of public highways, bridges, or buildings. It may be interesting to know, too, that in this same budget Spain allowed $6,000 for "scientific studies," a term which was made to cover indispensable repairs on public buildings, rivers, and canals.

As is well known, monastic orders, when given power, have always shown remarkable sagacity in securing the most valuable property. This was true throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, and was particularly true in France prior to the

Revolution. It is true to-day in the Philippines. The friars have here obtained possession of the best properties. They own most of the real estate in the city of Manila, besides vast tracts of the most fertile soil in the country districts; and in some parts of the islands they have succeeded in extorting from the people additional wealth by an odious system of rack-rents.

The hatred of these friars for every native Filipino and every Protestant, Mohammedan, and Buddhist was responsible in a great measure for the continued uprisings of the Philippine insurgents. The insurgents, by far the best educated of the natives, naturally resented the extortions and persecutions of the friars. They saw clearly that these friars, next to the Spanish Government, were the greatest obstacles to progress in the islands, and they therefore directed their revolutions as much against the tyranny of the friars as against the tyranny of Spain. This fact was made plain when, in the latter part of 1897, Spain induced the insurgents to enter into negotiations for peace.

The first condition which the insurgents laid down was "the expulsion or secularization of the religious orders and the abolition of all official vetoes of these orders in civil affairs."

The fact that Spain has ceded its rights in the Philippines to the United States does not in any way lessen the revolutionary spirit of the insurgents.

The priests

Speaking of this, Dr. Jacob G. Schurman, President of the Philippine Commis sion, recently said: "It is the old outbreak against the misconduct of the priests, but instead of Spain the United States is being fought, because it is the United States which now appears to stand as the protector of the Church. certainly misused their powers in many ways. The Filipinos complained, in the first place, of the almost absolute control of their lives and fortunes which local priests enjoyed. They complained of the ownership of the land by the big religious orders, and of the corruption of justice. from the highest to the lowest places in the land. Lastly, they complained of the riotous debauchery of the members of the religious orders." Such are a few of the facts pertaining to the present religious conditions in the Philippine Islands, The

time has now come for a change. Whatever the United States decides to do— whether it holds permanently these islands as new territory, whether it forms a colonial government or establishes a protectorate one thing is certain: it will not and cannot maintain the religious tyranny in the past. The islands can no longer be lost to the influences of our nineteenth-century civilization. Freed from influences which have retarded their growth in the past, these islands should become a field of great value, not only politically and commercially, but educa

I

tionally. Education in the Philippines is in a remarkably backward state. Very few of the native population, comparatively speaking, receive a lettered education. Education is, therefore, absolutely necessary for the proper development in the minds of the people of those ideas of political and religious liberty which characterize our own government. And no reform, religious or political, can be properly introduced into these islands in an effective manner until there is a propagation of liberal secular education such as we now have in the United States.

Workingmen's Homes in the

By John F. Crowell

N the course of a tour for the study of the social conditions of industrial communities in Germany, during the summer, I came upon a most hopeful experiment in the housing of working people's families in the Bavarian city of Ulm. . Ulm is one of those rapidly growing industrial cities which have sprung up in Germany in the last generation. The rapid growth of population with the industrial expansion of concentration with expansion-led to a crowded condition of living to which the Bavarian people have not been accustomed. There could be no doubt that, with labor living in two rooms per family, as is often the case in Chemnitz, the general efficiency of this element in economic progress must inevitably deteriorate. Yet rents were high, the people were not satisfactorily housed, nor were there enough houses to decently provide for the housing of the working people.

Under these circumstances of inadequate and unfavorable conditions of living, the municipal spirit, still so vigorous in social policy, came to the rescue. The city bought a tract of land on which, according to plans worked out by the city architect, two large double dwellings were built as an experiment. The funds for the purpose were in this case furnished by a building association. These houses were each three and a half stories high, and divided into apartments, or wohnungs," for a family each. Each wohnung" comprised two rooms, a kitchen, a pantry, a cellar, and a wood-room. For every four

City of Ulm

families there was a laundry. Back of the houses lay a garden-plot divided so as to give each family a garden of its own. To the Bavarian laborer this garden is a little household gold-mine.

These houses were finished in July, 1892, and were straightway occupied by sixteen families. The building associa tion which furnished the funds was met at once with a demand for more such dwellings, and two more of the same kind and capacity were immediately begun. Thus far the experiment seemed to have been worked out with a very satisfactory degree of success.

But the financial resources of the German working classes are by no means equal to those of corresponding classes in England and the United States, nor even to those of France, I am inclined to think. There is no such social fund lying in reserve there as the Postal Savings in England and the funds of the beneficiary societies; nor is there the vast savings banks reserve which characterizes the thrifty laborers of the United States. The German laborer is not as yet a member of the investing class, hence the development of State insurance of working people. In the housing of the working-class families the absence of an effective provident impulse toward self-help requires the community to make up what the class lacks as a means of attaining a high enough state of industrial efficiency to compete with other communities, municipal or national:

This factor comes into view very clearly in the Ulm experiment. Self-help soon reached its limits for want of funds. In March, 1893, Obermeister Wagner announced at a sitting of the City Council that the building association's funds were exhausted. Upon this he raised the question whether the municipality should not step in and on its own account relieve the pressure by providing sufficient and better housing in the form of still smaller houses more within the capacity of the workingman to buy. His proposal to make a loan out of the public funds, at the lowest possible rate of interest at which the city could borrow, found ready approval on the part of the Council. A plan for the erection of sixteen double houses was prepared, and a loan of over 200,000 marks (nearly $50,000) effected promptly for expenditure in building. In this set of houses each contained two apartments, in each of which apartments there were one large living-room, one bedroom, kitchen, pantry, cellar, wood-room, and laundry. The average cost of each house, including the cost of the lot, amounted to 5,500 marks, or $1,100.

These houses are the property of the city, but only temporarily so. They were built with the express purpose of selling them to the occupiers on terms which they could accept. When the occupant desires to own the house he lives in, the property is turned over to him upon certain conditions. It has been reckoned that the purchaser could pay three per cent. on the cost of the house, and two and a half more on account of a sinking fund. Together these payments were less than what had usually been paid for rents alone for much inferior accommodations in the crowded portions of the city. In the course of twenty-three years, it is calculated, these payments will put the Occupier in unencumbered possession of his home. He must, however, pay ten per cent. of the capital cost down upon receipt of title as occupying owner.

These buildings are, of course, intended only for a definite industrial class of families. Only persons classed as manual laborers may purchase. They must be married, must occupy the house themselves, and make regular payments. Provisions are made for the city to buy back the property in case the would-be pur

chaser fails to pay, or misuses the property in such manner as to depreciate its value unduly. Even the rule of paying ten per cent. of the purchase price, which proved onerous to some entitled to profit by this opportunity, has been modified to admit of purchasers paying gradually this quota of cash; but the title is meanwhile reserved. Where the occupant is not a purchaser, the rent is from 130 to 140 marks per year.

This wise and provident policy has borne gratifying fruit. There is a greater degree of contentment among these families owning their own houses. A most favorable improvement in the conditions of family life has been achieved. A much higher standard of health of men, women, and children has resulted. On the strength of these results, the demand for such houses increased, and in February, 1896, ten more double dwellings were erected for the same class of families, at a further outlay, on the part of the city treasury, of 200,000 marks.

For the five years over which this experiment has extended the account of the city stands as follows:

1. Thirty-six dwellings with a total of seventy-two apartments, in which each family has the exclusive use of two rooms, a kitchen, cellar, closet, wood-room, and pantry, together with a wash-room, and a garden near the house. The total average cost of each dwelling is inventoried at 5,600 to 5,900 marks.

2. Sixteen dwellings of forty-eight apartments, each containing three rooms, kitchen, pantry, cellar, closet, wood-room, and wash-room, with an adjoining garden. The total cost per dwelling in this case is given as from 7,200 to 8,800 marks.

These one hundred and twenty apartments are now occupied by six hundred persons-the envy of their less fortunate fellows occupying the inconvenient oldstyle buildings built after the tenement type of the larger cities. But the example set by the city has stimulated private enterprise to imitation and encouraged building unions to do and hope for more in the future out of their own efforts. The net outcome is that the ancient city of Ulm is leading all Germany-as she flatters herself-in the attempt to improve the conditions of a most important factor in the general prosperity of the community. She

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