General Joseph Wheeler.

The squadron had not been idle. By day their vigilance detected the smallest movement at the harbor mouth. Upon that point each night two battleships bent their dazzling search-lights like cyclopean eyes.



View of San Juan Hill and Blockhouse, Showing the Camp of the United States Forces.

It was decided to block the narrow channel by sinking the collier Merrimac across its neck. Just before dawn on June 3d the young naval constructor, Hobson, with six volunteers chosen from scores of eager competitors, and one stowaway who joined them against orders, pushed the hulk between the headland forts into a roaring hell of projectiles.



The Collier Merrimac Sunk by Hobson at the Mouth of Santiago Harbor.

An explosion from within rent the Merrimac's hull, and she sank; but, the rudder being shot away, went down lengthwise of the channel. When the firing ceased, the little crew, exhausted, but not one of the eight missing, clustered, only heads out of water, around their raft. A launch drew near. In charge was the Spanish admiral, who took them aboard with admiring kindness, and despatched a boat to notify the American fleet of their safety.

It was well that "Hobson's choice" as to the way his tub should sink failed. On July 3d, just after Sampson steamed away to see Shafter, the Maria Teresa was seen poking her nose from the Santiago harbor, followed by the Almirante Oquendo, the Vizcaya, and the Christobal Colon. Under peremptory orders from his Government, Admiral Cervera had begun a mad race to destruction. "It is better," said he, "to die fighting than to blow up the ships in the harbor." These had become the grim alternatives.

The Brooklyn gave chase, the other vessels in suit, the Texas and the Oregon leading. As the admiral predicted, it was "a dreadful holocaust." One by one his vessels had to head for the beach, silenced, crippled, flames bursting from decks, portholes, and the rents torn by our cannonade. Two destroyers, Furor and Pluton, met their fate near the harbor. Only the Colon remained any time afloat, but her doom was sealed. Outdoing the other pursuers and her own contract speed the grand Oregon, pride of the navy, poured explosives upon the Spaniard, until, within three hours and forty minutes of the enemy's appearance, his last vessel was reduced to junk. Cervera was captured with 76 officers and 1,600 men. 350 Spaniards were killed, 160 wounded. The American losses were inconsiderable. The ships' injuries also were hardly more than trifling.

So closed the third of July, so opened the glorious Fourth! To Shafter and his men the navy's victory was worth a reenforcement of 100,000. Bands played, tired soldiers danced, shouted, and hugged each other. Correspondingly depressed were the Spaniards. They endeavored, as Hobson had, to choke the harbor throat with the Reina Mercedes; but she, like the Merrimac, had her steering apparatus shot away and sank lengthwise of the channel. Still, it was not deemed wise to attempt forcing a way in, nor did this prove necessary. Toral saw reenforcements extending the American right to surround him, and out at sea over fifty transports loaded with fresh soldiers. Spanish honor had been signalized not only by the devoted heroism of Cervera's men but by the gallantry of his own. The Americans offered to convey his command back to Spain free of charge. He therefore sought from Madrid, and after some days obtained, authority to surrender. He surrendered July 16th. Besides the Santiago garrison, Toral's entire command in eastern Cuba, about 24,000 men, became our prisoners of war.



From a Photograph by F. C. Hemment. Copyright, 1898, by W. R. Hearst. The Spanish Cruiser Christobal Colon.



Copyright, 1898. by C C. Langill. N. Y. The U. S. S. Brooklyn.

The Santiago surrender left the United States free to execute what proved the last important expedition of the war, that of General Miles to Porto Rico. It was a complete success. Miles proclaiming the beneficent purposes of our Government, numbers of volunteers in the Spanish army deserted, the regulars were swept back by four simultaneous movements, and our conquest was as good as complete when the peace protocol put an end to all hostilities.



General Nelson A. Miles

Meantime an independent campaign was under way in the far Orient. At once after war was declared Commodore George Dewey, commanding the United States naval forces in Asiatic waters, was ordered to capture or sink the Spanish Philippine fleet. Obliged at once to leave the neutral port of Hong-Kong, and on April 27th to quit Mirs Bay as well, he steamed for Manila.

A little before midnight, on April 30th, Dewey's flagship Olympia entered the Boca Grande channel to Manila Bay, the Baltimore, Petrel, Raleigh, Concord, and Boston following. By daybreak Cavite stood disclosed and, ready and waiting, huddled under its batteries, Admiral Montojo's fleet: Reina Christina, Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa, Don Juan de Austria, Isla de Luzon, Isla de Cuba, General Lezo, Marquis del Duero, El Curreo and Velasco—ten vessels to Dewey's six. Counting those of the batteries, the Spaniards' guns outnumbered and outcalibred Dewey's. All the Spanish guns, from ships and from batteries alike, played on our fleet—a thunder of hostile welcome, harmless as a salute.



Admiral George Dewey.

The commodore delayed his fire till every shot would tell, when, circling around in closer and closer quarters, he concentrated an annihilating cyclone of shot and shell upon the Spanish craft. Two torpedo boats ventured from shore. One was sunk, one beached. The Reina Christina, the Amazon of the fleet, steamed out to duel with the Olympia, but "overwhelmed with deadly attentions" could barely stagger back. One hundred and fifty men were killed and ninety wounded on the Christina alone. In a little less than two hours, having sunk the Christina, Castilla, and Ulloa and set afire the other warships, the American ceased firing to assure and arrange his ammunition supply and to breakfast and rest his brave crews. He reopened at 11.16 A.M. to finish. By half-past twelve every Spanish warship had been sunk or burned and the forts silenced. The Spanish reported their loss at 381 killed and wounded. Seven Americans were wounded, not one killed.



Protected Cruiser Olympia.



General A. R. Chaftee.

As the Filipino insurgents encircled Manila on the land side the Spaniards could not escape, and, to spare life, Dewey deemed it best to await the arrival of land forces before completing the reduction.

Waiting tried the admiral's discretion more than the battle had his valor. It was necessary to encourage the insurgents, at the same time to prevent excesses on their part, and to avoid recognizing them even as allies in such manner as to involve our Government. Another embarrassment, threatening for a time, was the German admiral's impertinence. One of his warships was about to steam into harbor contrary to Dewey's instructions, but was halted by a shot across her bows. Dewey's firmness in this affair was exemplary.



General Merritt and General Greene taking a look at a Spanish field-gun on the Malate Fort.

On June 30th the advance portion of General Merritt's troops arrived and supplanted the insurgents in beleaguering Manila. The war was now closing. Manila capitulated August 13th. The peace protocol was signed August 12th. The Treaty of Paris was signed December 10th. Spain evacuated Cuba and ceded to the United States Porto Rico, at the same time selling us the Philippine Archipelago for $20,000,000.



CHAPTER XIII.

"CUBA LIBRE"

[1898-1902]

As if Santiago had not afforded "glory enough for all," some disparaged Admiral Sampson's part in the battle, others Admiral Schley's. As commander of the fleet, whose routine and emergency procedure he had sagaciously prescribed, Sampson, though on duty out of sight of the action at its beginning, was entitled to utmost credit for the brilliant outcome. The day added his name to the list of history's great sea captains.



Admiral William T. Sampson.

Schley had the fortune to be senior officer during his chief's temporary absence. He fought his ship, the Brooklyn, to perfection, and, while it was not of record that he issued any orders to other commanders, his prestige and well-known battle frenzy inspired all, contributing much to the victory. The early accounts deeply impressed the public, and they made Schley the central figure of the battle. Unfortunately Sampson's first report did not even mention him. Personal and political partisans took up the strife, giving each phase the angriest possible look. Admiral Schley at length sought and obtained a court of inquiry.



Admiral W. S. Schley

The court found Schley's conduct in the part of the campaign prior to June 1, 1898 (which our last chapter had not space to detail), vacillating, dilatory, and lacking enterprise. It maintained, however, that during the battle itself, despite the Brooklyn's famous "loop," which it seemed to condemn, his conduct was self-possessed, and that he inspired his officers and men to courageous fighting. Admiral Dewey, president of the court, held in part a dissenting opinion, which carried great weight with the country. He considered Schley the actual fleet commander in the battle, thus giving him the main credit for the victory.

Legally, it turned out, Sampson, not Schley, commanded during the hot hours. Moreover, the evidence seemed to reveal that the court's strictures upon Schley, like many criticisms of General Grant at Shiloh and in his Wilderness campaign, were probably just. In both cases the public was slow to accept the critics' view.

Both before and after his resignation, July 19, 1899, Secretary of War Alger was subjected to great obloquy. Shafter's corps undoubtedly suffered much that proper system and prevision would have prevented. The delay in embarking at Tampa; the crowding of transports, the use of heavy uniforms in Cuba and of light clothing afterward at Montauk Point, the deficiency in tents, transportation, ambulances, medicines, and surgeons, ought not to have occurred. Indignation swept the country when it was charged that Commissary-General Eagan had furnished soldiers quantities of beef treated with chemicals and of canned roast beef unfit for use. A commission appointed to investigate found that "embalmed beef" had not been given out to any extent. Canned roast beef had been, and the commission declared it improper food.

The commission made it clear that the Quartermaster's Department had been physically and financially unequal to the task of suddenly equipping and transporting the enlarged army—over ten times the size of our regular army—for which it had to provide. If wanting at times in system the department had been zealous and tireless. At the worst it was far less to blame than recent Congresses, which had stinted both army and navy to lavish money upon objects far less important to the country. The army system needed radical reform. There was no general staff, and the titular head of the army had less real authority than the adjutant-general with his bureau.

These imbroglios had little significance compared with the problems connected with our new dependencies. The Senate ratified the peace treaty February 6, 1899, by the narrow margin of two votes—forty-two Republicans and fifteen others in favor, twenty-four Democrats and three others opposing. But for the advocacy of the Democratic leader, William J. Bryan, who thought that the pending problems could be dealt with by Congress better than in the way of diplomacy, ratification would have failed.

The ratification of the Treaty of Paris marked a momentous epoch in our national life and policy. In a way, the very fact of a war with Spain did this. A century and a quarter before a Spanish monarch had furnished money and men to help the American colonies become free from England. "The people of America can never forget the immense benefit they have received from King Carlos III.," wrote George Washington. At that time a Spaniard predicted that the American States, born a pigmy, would become a mighty giant, forgetful of gratitude, and absorbed in selfish aggression at Spain's expense. Our change to quasi-alliance with Great Britain against Spain seemed to not a few the fulfilment of that prophecy. Europe declared that we had hopelessly broken with our ideals. Cynics there applied to the United States the Scriptures: "Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like one of us? . . . How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"



The New Cuban Police as organized by ex-Chief of New York Police, McCullagh.

The United States did not heed these sneers. Hawaii had been annexed. Sale tenure of the Samoan Islands west of 171 degrees west longitude, including Tutuila and Pago-Pago harbor, the only good haven in the group, was ours. These measures, which a few years earlier all would have deemed radical, did not stir perceptible opposition. Nearly all felt that they were justified, by considerations of national security, to obtain naval bases or strategic points. Such motives also excused the acquisition of Guam in the Pacific, ceded by Spain in Article II of the Paris Treaty, and that of Porto Rico.

Civil government was established in Porto Rico with the happiest results. The Insular Treasury credit balance trebled in a year, standing, July 1, 1902, at $314,000. The exports for 1902 increased over 50 per cent., most of the advance being consigned to the United States. The principal exports were sugar, tobacco, the superior coffee grown in the island, and straw hats. Of the coffee, the year named, Europe took $5,000,000 worth, America only $29,000 worth. Porto Rico imported from Spain over $95,000 worth of rice, $500,000 worth of potatoes. The first year under our government there were 13,000 fewer deaths than the year before, improvement due to better sanitation and a higher standard of living. Mutual respect between natives and Americans grew daily.

Touching Cuba, too, the course of the Administration evoked no serious opposition. We were in the island simply as trustees for the Cubans. The fourth congressional resolution of April 20, 1898, gave pledge as follows: "The United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island (Cuba) except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination when that is completed to leave the government and control of the island to its people." This "self-denying ordinance," than which few official utterances in all our history ever did more to shape the nation's behavior, was moved and urged, at first against strong opposition, by Senator Teller, of Colorado. Senator Spooner thought it likely that but for the pledge just recited European States would have formed a league against the United States in favor of Spain.

December 13, 1898, a military government was established for "the division of Cuba," including Porto Rico. The New Year saw the last military relic of Spanish dominion trail out of Cuba and Cuban waters. The Cuban army gradually disbanded. The work of distributing supplies and medicines was followed by the vigorous prosecution of railroad, highway and bridge repairing and other public works, upon which many of the destitute found employment. Courts and schools were resumed. Hundreds of new schools opened—in Santiago city 60, in Santiago province over 300. Brigandage was stamped out. Cities were thoroughly cleaned and sewer systems constructed. The death rate fell steadily to a lower mark than ever before. In 1896 there were in Havana 1,262 deaths from yellow fever, and during the eleven years prior to American occupation an average of 440 annually. In 1901 there were only four. Under the "pax Americana" industry awoke. New huts and houses hid the ashes of former ones. Miles of desert smiled again with unwonted tillage.



Showing Condition of Streets in Santiago before Street Cleaning Department was organized.



Santiago Street Cleaning Department.

A census of Cuba taken by the War Department, October 16, 1899, showed a population of 1,572,797, a falling off of nearly 60,000 in the twelve years since the last Spanish census, indicating the loss due to the civil war. The average density of population was about that of Iowa, varying, however, from Havana province, as thickly peopled as Connecticut, to Puerto Principe, with denizens scattered like those of Texas. Seventy per cent. of the island's inhabitants were Cuban citizens, two per cent. were Spanish, eighteen per cent. had not determined their allegiance, while about ten per cent. were aliens. Eighty per cent. of the people in the rural districts could neither read nor write.

In December, 1899, Governor Brooke retired in favor of General Leonard Wood. A splendid object-lesson in good government having been placed before the people, they were, in June, 1900, given control of their municipal governments and the powers of these somewhat enlarged.

In July Governor Wood issued a call for a constitutional convention, which met in November. The fruit of its deliberations was an instrument modelled largely upon the United States Constitution. The bill of rights was more specific, containing a guarantee of freedom in "learning and teaching" any business or profession, and another calculated to prevent "reconcentration." The Government was more centralized than ours. The President, elected by an electoral college, held office four years, and was not re-eligible twice consecutively. The Senate consisted of six senators from each of the six departments, the term being six years. One-third were elected biennially. The House of Representatives consisted of one representative to every 25,000 people. One-half were elected biennially. Four years was the term of office. The judicial power vested in a Supreme Court and such other courts as might be established by law. Suffrage was universal.



Governor-General Leonard A Wood in the Uniform of Colonel of Rough Riders.

In his call for the convention, also in his opening address before it, Governor Wood mentioned its duty to determine the relations between Cuba and the United States. Jealous and suspicious, the convention, believing the United States bound by its pledge to leave the island to the unconditional control of its inhabitants, slighted these hints. Meantime, at President McKinley's instance, Congress adopted, March 2, 1901, as a rider to the pending army appropriation bill, what was known as "the Platt amendment," so called from its author, Senator Platt, of Connecticut.

This enacted that in fulfilment of the congressional joint resolution of April 20, 1898, which led to the freeing of Cuba, the President was to leave the government and Control of the island to its people only when a Government should be established there under a constitution defining the future relations of the United States with Cuba. The points to be safe-guarded were that Cuba should permit no foreign lodgment or control, contract no excessive debt, ratify the acts of the military government, and protect rights acquired thereunder, continue to improve the sanitation of cities, give the United States certain coaling and naval stations, and allow it to intervene if necessary to preserve Cuban independence, maintain adequate government, or discharge international obligations created by the Paris Treaty.



Judge Cruz Perez Gov. Gen. Wood. General Maximo Gomez. T. E. Palma. Governor-General Leonard A. Wood transferring the Island of Cuba to President Tomaso Estrada Palma, as a Cuban Republic, May, 1902. From copyrighted stereoscopic photograph. By Underwood & Underwood. N. Y.

A week before the Platt amendment passed, the Cuban convention adopted a declaration of relations, "provided the future government of Cuba thinks them advisable," not mentioning coaling stations or a right of intervention, but declaring that "the governments of the United States and Cuba ought to regulate their commercial relations by means of a treaty based on reciprocity."

When the convention heard that the Platt amendment must be complied with, a commission was sent to Washington to have this explained. Upon its return the convention, June 12, 1901, not without much opposition, adopted the amendment.

The first President of the Cuban Republic was Tomaso Estrada Palma. He had been years an exile in the United States, and was much in sympathy with our country. His home-coming was an ovation. In May, 1902, the Stars and Stripes were hauled down, and the Cuban tricolor raised. The military governor and all but a few of his soldiers left the island, as the Spaniards had done less than three years before; yet with a record of dazzling achievement that had in a few months done much to repair the mischiefs of Spain's chronic misrule.

Cut off from her former free commercial intercourse with Spain, Cuba looked to the United States as the main market for her raw sugar. Advocates of reciprocity urged considerations of honor and fair dealing with Cuba, where, it was said, ruin stared planters in the face. The Administration and a majority of the Republicans favored the cause. Not so senators and representatives from beet-sugar sections. The "insurgents," as the opponents of reciprocity were called, urged that raising sugar beets was a distinctively American industry, and that to sacrifice it was to relinquish the principle of protection altogether. The so-called "Sugar Trust" favored reciprocity, being accused of expending large sums in that interest. Against it was pitted the "Sugar Beet Trust," a new figure among combinations.

During the long session of the Fifty-seventh Congress, a Cuban reciprocity bill being before the House, the sugar-beet interest demonstrated its power. The House "insurgents," joining the Democratic members, overrode the Speaker and the Ways and Means chairman, and attached to the bill an amendment cutting off the existing differential duty in favor of refined sugar. A locking of horns thus arose, which outlasted the session, neither side being able to convince or outvote the other. Sanguine Democrats thought that they espied here a hopeful Republican schism like that of 1872.



CHAPTER XIV.

THE UNITED STATES IN THE ORIENT

PHILIPPINES AND FILIPINOS

[1899]

The Philippine Archipelago lies between 4 degrees 45 minutes and 21 degrees north latitude and 118 and 127 degrees east longitude. It consists of nineteen considerable and perhaps fifteen hundred lesser islands, an area nearly equal that of New Jersey, New York, and New England combined. The island of Luzon comprises a third of this, that of Mindanao a fifth or a sixth. The archipelago is rich in natural resources, but mining and manufactures had not at the American occupation been developed. Agriculture was the main occupation, though only a ninth of the land surface was under cultivation. The islands were believed capable of sustaining a population like Japan's 42,000,000. Luzon boasted a glorious and varied landscape and a climate salubrious and inviting, considering the low latitude. Manila hemp, sugar, tobaco, coffee, and indigo were raised and exported in large amounts.



General Bates. The Sultan. The Jolo Treaty Commission.

The islands lay in three groups, the Luzon, the Visaya (Negros, Panay, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, and islets), and the Mindanao, including Palawan and the Sulu Islands. Some of these islands were in parts unexplored. The Tagals and the Visayas, Christian and more or less civilized Malay tribes, dominated respectively the first and the second group. The Mindanao coasts held here and there a few Christian Filipinos, but the chief denizens of the southern islands were the fierce Arab-Malay Mohammedans known as Moros, most important and dangerous of whose tribes were the Illanos.

In all, there were thirty or more races, with an even greater number of different dialects. Northern Luzon housed the advanced Ilocoans, Pampangos, Pangasinanes, and Cagayanes, with their hardy bronze heathen neighbors, the Igorrotes. The Visayas had many degraded aborigines, the Negritos among them. Over against the Moros in the Mindanao group one could not ignore the warlike Visayan variation, or the swarming savages of the interior, hostile alike to Moro and Visaya.



Three Hundred Boys in the Parade of July 4, 1902, Vigan, Ilocos.

The population of the islands numbered 8,000,000 or 10,000,000, 25,000 being Europeans. Half the islanders were Christians, eight or ten per cent. Mohammedan, perhaps ten per cent. heathen. One considerable fraction were Chinese, another of mixed extraction. Probably none of the races were of pure Malay blood, though Malay blood predominated. Mercantile pursuits were largely in Chinese hands. The Moros disdained tillage and commerce alike, living on slave labor and captures in war.

Spain had done in the islands much more educational work than the Americans at first recognized, though none of an advanced kind. Schools were numerous but not general. Many Filipinos had studied in Europe. There was a select class possessing information and manners which would have admitted them to cultivated circles in Paris or London, and thousands of Filipinos were intellectually the peers of average middle-class Europeans. The University of St. Thomas graced Manila. Some seventy colleges and academies at various centres professed to prepare pupils for it.

Filipinos of aught like cosmopolitan intelligence numbered less than 100,000. Below them were the half-breeds, perhaps 500,000 strong, white, yellow, or brown, according to the special blend of blood. They were "intelligent but uneducated, active but not over industrious. They loved excitement, military display, and the bustle and pomp of government." Farther down still were the vast toiling masses neither knowing nor caring much who governed them. Only in suffering were they experts, having learned of this under the iron heel of Spain all there was to be known.



Girls' Normal Institute, Vigan, Ilocos, April, 1902.

In the Philippines one had incessantly before him social and economic problems in their rudimentary form—populations the debris of centuries, and the reactions upon them of their first contact with real civilization. In case of any but the most advanced tribes the immediate suggestion was despair, a feeling that they could never appropriate the culture offered them. But the heartiness of the response which even such communities made to our advances brought hope. Our methods were better than the Spanish, and our progress correspondingly rapid; yet the task we undertook bade fair to last centuries. Nor were its initial steps undefaced by errors.

A Blue Book would not suffice to describe this motley material. We can only illustrate.

The Iocoros were in a forward state, if not of civilization, of preparation therefor. On all hands their youth were anxiously waiting to be taught. Compared with Teutonic races they were superficial and emotional, but they had great ambition and perseverance.



Igarrote Religious Dance, Lepanto.

A sharp contrast were the Igorrotes. These appeared to be at bottom Malays, though Mongolian features marked many a face. They had withstood all attempts to christianize them, and stubbornly clung to their primitive mode of life as tillers of the soil. Mentally they were near savagery, entirely without ambition or moral outlook. Nevertheless they adhered to the American arms and rendered valuable porter service.

Their religion had elements of sun and ancestor worship. The one tangible feature in it was the "kanyan," a drunken feast held on such occasions—fifteen in all—as marriage, birth, death, and serious illness. The feast began with an invocation to Kafunion, the sun god, and a dance much like that of the American Indians. Then came the drinking of tapi, a strong beer made from rice, and gorging with buffalo, horse, or dog meat, the last being the greatest delicacy. Till the Americans vetoed the practice, the Igorrotes were "head hunters." The theory was that the brains of the captured head became the captor's.

The Igorrotes had magnificent chests and legs, and were extensively used as burden-bearers. Sustained by only a few bowlfuls of rice and some sweet potatoes, a man would carry fifty or even seventy-five pounds on his head or back all day over the most difficult mountain trails. The Igorrotes had a mild form of slavery, and, though good-natured and at times industrious, appeared utterly without spirit of progress. It was interesting to mark whether or not contact with a superior race would be a stimulus to them.



Igarrote Head Hunters with Head Axes and Spears.

A contrast, again, to the Igorrotes was presented by the Ilocoans, an intelligent, industrious, Christian people, eager for education, yet promising to cherish independent ideals the more dearly the more prosperous and advanced they became.



Native Moros-Interior of Jolo.

Most implacable of all the races were the Moros of the Sulu Islands. Warlike, and despising labor, their terrible piracies had been curbed only within fifty years, and their depredations and slave raiding by land were never wholly prevented. They were suspiciously eager to "assist" our forces in subduing the insurgents. The American authorities negotiated a treaty with the Sultan and his dattos, involving their submission to the United States. A provision of this treaty excited reprobation, that permitting a slave to buy his freedom, a recognition of slavery in derogation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The provision was excused as an absolutely necessary makeshift to put off hostilities till the United States had a freer hand.

Spain never governed a colony well. Her whole record outre-mer was of a piece with the enslavement and extermination of the gentle Caribs, with which it began. In slavery and the slave trade Anglo-Saxon conquistadors shared Spain's dishonor, but in sheer ugliness of despotism, in wholesale, systematic, selfish exploiting, and in corrupt and clumsy administration the Iberian monarchy surpassed all other powers ever called to deal with colonies. The truth of this indictment was, if possible, more manifest in the Philippines than anywhere else in the Spanish world.

The religious orders, which early achieved the conversion of Tagals, Visayas, and some other tribes, after generations of evangelical devotion, ceased to be aggressive religiously, growing opulent and oppressive instead. They were the pedestal of the civil government. Their word could, and often did, cause natives to be deported, or even put to death. One of their victims was that beautiful spirit, Dr. Rizal, author of Noli me Tangere, the most learned and distinguished Malay ever known. He had taken no part whatever in rebellion or sedition, yet, because he was known to abominate clerical misrule, he was, without a scintilla of evidence that he had broken any law, first expatriated, then shot. This murder occurring December 30, 1896, did much to further the rebellion then spreading.

"Once settled in his position, the friar, bishop, or curate usually remained till superannuated, being therefore a fixed political factor for a generation, while a Spanish civil or military officer never held post over four years. The stay of any officer attempting a course at variance with the order's wishes was invariably shortened by monastic influence. Every abuse leading to the revolutions of 1896 and 1898 the people charged to the friars; and the autocratic power which each friar exercised over the civil officials of his parish gave them a most plausible ground for belief that nothing of injustice, of cruelty, of oppression, of narrowing liberty was imposed on them for which the friar was not entirely responsible. The revolutions against Spain began as movements against the friars." [footnote: Abridged from Report of Taft Commission.]

Senator Hoar wrote: "I should as soon give back a redeemed soul to Satan as give back the people of the Philippine Islands to the cruelty and tyranny of Spain."

Freemasonry in the Philippines was a redoubtable antagonist to the orders. There were other secret leagues, like the Liga Filipina, with the same aim, most of them peaceful. Not so the "Katipunan," which adopted as its symbol the well-known initials, "K. K. K.," "Kataas-Tassan, Kagalang-Galang, Katipunan," "sovereign worshipful association." If the Ku-Klux Klan did not give the hint for the society's symbol the programmes of the two organizations were alike. The Katipunan was probably the most potent factor in the insurrection of 1896. Its cause was felt to be that of the whole Filipino people. In December, 1897, the conflict, as in Cuba, had degenerated into a "stalemate." The Spaniard could not be ousted, the Filipino could not be subdued. Spain ended the trouble for the time by promising reform, and hiring the insurgent leaders to leave the country. Only a small part, 400,000 Mexican dollars, of the promised sum was ever paid. This was held in Hong-Kong as a trust fund against a future uprising.



Emilio Aguinaldo.

Chief among the leaders shipped to Hong-Kong was Emilio Aguinaldo. He was born March 22, 1869, at Cavite, of which town he subsequently became mayor. His blood probably contained Spanish, Tagal, and Chinese strains. He had supplemented a limited school education by extensive and eager contact with books and men. To a surprising wealth of information the young Filipino added inspiring eloquence and much genius for leadership. He had the "remarkable gift of surrounding himself with able coadjutors and administrators." The insurrection of 1896 early revealed him as the incarnation of Filipino hostility to Spain. Judging by appearances—his zeal in 1896, bargain with Spain in 1897, fighting again in Luzon in 1898, acquiescence in peace with the United States, reappearance in arms, capture, and instant allegiance to our flag—he was a shifty character, little worthy the great honor he received where he was known and, for a long time, here. But if he lacked in constancy, he excelled in enterprise. Spaniards never missed their reckoning more completely than in thinking they had quieted Aguinaldo by sending him to China with a bag of money.



Gen. Frederick Funston, Gen. A. McArthur.

It being already obvious that Spain had not redressed, and had no intention of redressing, abuses in the Philippines, Aguinaldo and his aides planned to return. The American war was their opportunity. Conferences were had with Consul Wildman at Hong-Kong and with Commodore Dewey. Aguinaldo and those about him declared that Wildman, alleging authority from Washington, promised the Filipinos independence; and other Hong-Kong consuls and several press representatives received the impression that this was the case. Wildman absolutely denied having given any assurance of the kind. Admiral Dewey also denied in the most positive manner that he had done so.

Whatever the understanding or misunderstanding at Hong-Kong, Aguinaldo came home with Dewey in the evident belief that the American forces and his own were to work for Filipino independence. He easily resumed his leadership and began planning for an independent Filipino State. Dewey furnished him arms and ammunition. The insurrection was reorganized on a grander scale than ever, with extraordinary ability, tact, energy, and success. Nearly every one of the Luzon provinces had its rebel organization. In each Aguinaldo picked the leader and outlined the plan of campaign. His scheme had unity; his followers were aggressive and fearless. Everywhere save in a few strongholds Spain was vanquished. At last only Manila remained. The insurgents must have captured 10,000 prisoners, though part of those they had at the Spanish evacuation were from the Americans. They hemmed in Manila by a line reaching from water to water. We could not have taken Manila as we did, by little more than a show of force, had it not been for the fact that Spain's soldiers, thus, hemmed in by Aguinaldo's, could not retreat beyond the range of our naval guns. January 21, 1899, a Philippine Republic was set up, its capital being Malolos, which effectively controlled at least the Tagal provinces of Luzon. Its methods were irregular and arbitrary—natural in view of the prevalence of war. Aguinaldo, its soul from the first moment, became president.



A Company of Insurrectos near Bongued, Abra Province, just previous to surrendering early in 1901.



11th Cavalry Landing at Vigan, Ilocos, April, 1902.

The Philippine Republic wished and assumed to act for the archipelago, taking the place of Spain. It, of course, had neither in law nor in fact the power to do this, nor, under the circumstances, could the Administration at Washington, however desirable such a course from certain points of view, consent that it should at present even try. The Philippine question divided the country, raising numerous problems of fact, law, policy, and ethics, on which neither Congress nor the people could know its mind without time for reflection.



Copyright, 1899, by Frances B. Johnston. Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador, acting for Spain, receiving from the Honorable John Hay, the U. S. Secretary of State, drafts to the amount of $20,000,000, in payment for the Philippines.

When our commissioners met at Paris to draft the Treaty of Peace, one wished our demands in the Orient confined to Manila, with a few harbors and coaling stations. Two thought it well to take Luzon, or some such goodly portion of the archipelago. That the treaty at last called for the entire Philippine domain, allowing $20,000,000 therefor, was supposed due to insistence from Washington. Only the Vice-President's casting vote defeated a resolution introduced in the Senate by Senator Bacon, of Georgia, declaring our intention to treat the Filipinos as we were pledged to treat the Cubans. After ratification the Senate passed a resolution, introduced by Senator McEnery, of Louisiana, avowing the purpose not to make the Filipinos United States citizens or their land American territory, but to establish for them a government suited to their needs, in due time disposing of the archipelago according to the interests of our people and of the inhabitants.



CHAPTER XV.

THE UNITED STATES IN THE ORIENT

WAR, CONTROVERSY, PEACE

[1899-1901]

It was wholly problematical how long Aguinaldo unaided could dominate Luzon, still more so whether he would rule tolerably, and more uncertain yet whether centre or south would ever yield to him. The insurgents had foothold in four or five Visayan islands, but were never admitted to Negros, which of its own accord raised our flag. In Mindanao, the Sulu Islands, and Palawan they practically had no influence. Governor Taft was of opinion that they could never, unaided, have set up their sway in these southern regions. But should they succeed in establishing good government over the entire archipelago, clearly they must be for an indefinite period incompetent to take over the international responsibilities connected with the islands. To have at once conceded their sovereignty could have subserved no end that would have been from any point of view rational or humane.

The American situation was delicate. We were present as friends, but could be really so only by, for the time, seeming not to be so. At points we failed in tact. We too little recognized distinctions among classes of Filipinos, tending to treat all alike as savages. When our thought ceased to be that of ousting Spain, and attacked the more serious question what to do next, our manner toward the Filipinos abruptly changed. Our purposes were left unnecessarily equivocal. Our troops viewed the Filipinos with ill-concealed contempt. "Filipinos" and "niggers" were often used as synonyms.

Suspicion and estrangement reached a high pitch after the capture of Manila, when Aguinaldo, instead of being admitted to the capital, was required to fall still farther back, the American lines lying between him and the prize. December 21, 1898, the President ordered our Government extended with despatch over the archipelago. That the Treaty of Paris summarily gave not only the islands but their inhabitants to the United States, entirely ignoring their wishes in the matter, was a snub. Still worse, it seemed to guarantee perpetuation of the friar abuses under which the Filipinos had groaned so long. Outside Manila threat of American rule awakened bitter hostility. In Manila itself thousands of Tagals, lip-servants of the new masters, were in secret communion with their kinsmen in arms.



Native Tagals at Angeles, fifty-one miles from Manila.

No blood flowed till February 4, 1898, when a skirmish, set off by the shot of a bullyragged American sentry, led to war. February 22, 1899, the insurgents vainly attempted to fire Manila, but were pushed back with slaughter, their forces scattered.

March 20, 1899, the first Philippine Commission—Jacob G. Schurman, of New York; Admiral Dewey; General Otis; Charles Denby, ex-minister to China; and Dean C. Worcester, of Michigan-began their labors at Manila. They set to work with great zeal and discretion to win to the cause of peace not only the Filipinos but the government of the Philippine Republic itself. In this latter they succeeded. Their proclamation that United States sway in the archipelago would be made "as free, liberal, and democratic as the most intelligent Filipino desired," "a firmer and surer self-government than their own Philippine Republic could ever guarantee," operated as a powerful agent of pacification.

May 1, 1899, the Philippine Congress almost unanimously voted for peace with the United States. Aguinaldo consented. Mabini's cabinet, opposing this, was overturned, and a new one formed, pledged to peace. A commission of cabinet members was ready to set out for Manila to effectuate the new order.

A revolution prevented this. General Luna, inspired by Mabini, arrested the peace delegates and charged them with treason, sentencing some to prison, some to death. This occurred in May, 1899. After that time not so much as the skeleton of any Philippine public authority—president, cabinet, or other official—existed. Later opposition to the American arms seemed to proceed in the main not from real Filipino patriotism, but from selfishness, lust of power, and the spirit of robbery.

Everywhere and always Americans had to guard against treachery. In Samar false guides led an expedition of our Marine Corps into a wilderness and abandoned the men to die, cruelty which was deemed to justify retaliation in kind. Eleven prisoners subsequently captured were shot without trial as implicated in the barbarity. For this Major Waller was court-martialed, being acquitted in that he acted under superior orders and military necessity. A sensational feature of his trial was the production of General Smith's command to Major Waller "to kill and burn"; "make Samar a howling wilderness"; "kill everything over ten" (every native over ten years old). General Smith was in turn court-martialed and reprimanded. President Roosevelt thought this not severe enough and summarily retired him from active service.



Bringing ammunition to the front for Gen. Otis's Brigade, north of Manila.

Despite vigilant censorship by the War Department, rumors of other cruelties on the part of our troops gained credence. It appeared that in not a few instances American soldiers had tortured prisoners by the "water cure," the victim being held open-mouthed under a stream of water, the process sometimes supplemented by pounding on the abdomen with rifle-butts.

These disgraces were sporadic, not general, and occurred, when they did occur, under terrible provocation. Devotion to duty, however trying the circumstances, was the characteristic behavior of our officers and men. Deeds of daring occurred daily. On November 14, 1900, Major John A. Logan, son of the distinguished Civil War general, lost his life in battle near San Jacinto. December 19th the brave General Lawton was killed in attacking San Mateo. Systematic opposition to our arms was at last ended by an enterprise involving both nerve and cleverness in high degree.

Our forces captured a message from Aguinaldo asking reenforcements. This suggested to General Frederick Funston, who had served with Cuban insurgents, a plan for seizing Aguinaldo. Picking some trustworthy native troops and scouts, Funston, Captain Hazzard, Captain Newton, and Lieutenant Mitchell, passed themselves off as prisoners and their forces as the reenforcements expected. When the party approached Aguinaldo's headquarters word was forwarded that reenforcements were coming, with some captured Americans. Aguinaldo sent provisions, and directed that the prisoners be treated with humanity. March 23, 1901, he received the officers at his house. After brief conversation they excused themselves. Next instant a volley was poured into Aguinaldo's body-guard, and the American officers rushed upon Aguinaldo, seized him, his chief of staff, and his treasurer. April 2, 1901, Aguinaldo swore allegiance to the United States, and, in a proclamation, advised his followers to do the same. Great and daily increasing numbers of them obeyed.



Fort Malate, Cavite.

To the Philippines, though Spain's de facto sovereignty there was hardly more than nominal, our title, whether or not good as based on conquest, was unimpeachable considered as a cession by way of war indemnity or sale. Nor, according to the weight of authority, could the right of the federal power to acquire these islands be denied. But did "the Constitution follow the flag" wherever American jurisdiction went? If not, what were the relations of those outlands and their peoples to the United States proper? Could inhabitants of the new possessions emigrate to the United States proper? Did our domestic tariff laws apply there as well as here? Must free trade exist between the nation and its dependencies? Were rights such as that of peaceable assemblage and that to jury trial guaranteed to Filipinos, or could only Americans to the manner born plead them?

On the fundamental question whether the dependencies formed part of the United States the Supreme Court passed in certain so-called "insular cases" which were early brought before it. Four of the justices held that at all times after the Paris Treaty the islands were part and parcel of United States soil. Four held that they at no time became such, but were rather "territories appurtenant" to the country.



The Pasig River, Manila.

Mr. Justice Brown gave the "casting" opinion. Though reasoning in a fashion wholly his own, he sided, on the main issue, with the latter four of his colleagues, making it the decision of the court that Porto Rico and the Philippines did not belong to the United States proper, yet, on the other hand, were not foreign. The revenue clauses of the Constitution did not, therefore, forbid tariffing goods from or going to the islands. In the absence of express legislation, the general tariff did not obtain as against imports from the dependencies. This reasoning, it was observed, was equally applicable to mainland territories and to Alaska. The court intimated that, so far as applicable, the Constitution's provisions in favor of personal rights and human liberty accompanied the Stars and Stripes beyond sea as well as between our old shores.

Unsatisfactory to nearly all as was this utterance of a badly divided court, it sanctioned the Administration policy and opened the way for necessary legislation. It did nothing, however, to hush the anti-imperialist's appeal, based more upon the Declaration of Independence and the spirit of our national ideals.

It was said that having delivered the Filipinos from Spain "we were bound in all honor to protect their newly acquired liberty against the ambition and greed of any other nation on earth, and we were equally bound to protect them against our own. We were bound to stand by them, a defender and protector, until their new government was established in freedom and in honor; until they had made treaties with the powers of the earth and were as secure in their national independence as Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Santo Domingo, or Venezuela." But we ought to bind ourselves and promise the world that so soon as these ends could be realized or assured we would leave the Filipinos to themselves, Such was the view of eminent and respected Americans like George F. Hoar, George S. Boutwell, Carl Schurz, and William J. Bryan.

These and others urged that the Filipinos had inalienable right to life and to liberty; that our policy in the Philippines was in derogation of those rights; that Japan, left to herself, had stridden farther in a generation than England's crown colony of India in a century; that the Filipinos could be trusted to do likewise; that our increments of territory hitherto had been adapted to complete incorporation in the American empire while the new were not; and that growth of any other character would mean weakness, not strength. The mistakes, expense, and difficulties incident to expansion, and the misbehavior and crimes of some of our soldiers were exhibited in their worst light.

Rejoinder usually proceeded by denying the capacity of the Filipinos for self-government without long training. Even waiving this consideration, men found in international law no such mid-status between sovereignty and non-sovereignty as anti-imperialists wished to have the United States assume while the Filipinos were getting upon their feet. Many made great point of minimizing the abuses of our military government and of dilating upon native atrocities. The material wealth of the archipelago was described in glowing terms. Only American capital and enterprise were needed to develop it into a mine of national riches. The military and commercial advantages of our position at the doorway of the East, our duty to protect lives and property imperilled by the insurgents, and our manifest destiny to lift up the Filipino races, were dwelt upon. The argument having chief weight with most was that there seemed no clear avenue by which we could escape the policy of American occupation save the dishonorable and humiliating one of leaving the islands to their fate—anarchy and intestine feuds at once, conquest by Japan, Germany, or Spain herself a little later.

All demanded that abuses in connection with our rule should be punished and the repetition of such made impossible, and that whatever power we exercised should be lodged, without regard to party, in the hands of men of approved fitness and high and humane character. American tutelage, if it were to exist, must present to our wards the best and not the worst side of our civilization, and do so with tact and sympathy.



The Inauguration of Governor Taft, Manila, July 4. 1901.

On April 17, 1900, William H. Taft, of Ohio; Dean C. Worcester, of Michigan; Luke E. Wright, of Tennessee; Henry C. Ide, of Vermont; and Bernard Moses, of California, were commissioned to organize civil government in the archipelago. Three native members were subsequently added to the commission. Municipal governments were to receive attention first, then governments over larger units. Local self-government was to prevail as far as possible. Pending the erection of a central legislature, the commission was invested with extensive legislative powers. Civil government was actually inaugurated July 4, 1901. Judge Taft was the first civil governor, General Adna R. Chaffee military governor under him.

Educational work in the Philippines was pressed from the very beginning of American control. Our military authorities reopened the Manila schools, making attendance compulsory. In a short time the number of schools in the archipelago doubled. By September, 1901, the commission had passed a general school law, and had placed the schools throughout the archipelago under systematic organization and able headship. About 1,000 earnest and capable men and women went out from the States to teach Filipino youth. Five hundred towns received one or more American teachers each. Associated with them there were in the islands some 2,500 Filipino teachers, mostly doing primary work.



Group of American Teachers on the steps of the Escuela Municipal, Manila.

American teachers advanced into the interior to the neediest tribes. Nine teachers early settled among the Igorrotes, scattered in towns along the Agno River, and an industrial and agricultural school was soon planned for Igorrote boys. Normal schools and manual training schools were organized. Colonial history, whether ancient or modern, had never witnessed an educational mission like this.



CHAPTER XVI.

POLITICS AT THE TURNING OF THE CENTURY

[1900]

McKinley and Bryan were presidential candidates again in 1900. It was certain long beforehand that they would be, even when Admiral Dewey announced that he was available. The admiral seemed to offer himself reluctantly, and to be relieved when assured that all were sorry he had done so.

McKinley was unanimously renominated. Unanimously also, yet against his will, Governor Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, was named with him on the ticket. The Democratic convention chose Bryan by acclamation; his mate, ex-Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson, by ballot.

The 1900 campaign called out rather more than the usual crop of one-idea parties. The Prohibitionists, a unit now, took the field on the "army canteen" issue, making much of the fact that our increased export to the Philippines consisted largely of beer and liquors to curse our soldiers. The anti-fusion or "Middle-of-the-road" Populists, the Socialist Labor Party, the Socialist-Democrats, and the United Christian Party all made nominations.

The Gold Democratic National Committee, while recommending State committees to keep up their organizations, regarded it inexpedient to name a ticket. They reaffirmed the Indianapolis platform of 1896, and again recorded their antagonism to the Bryan Democracy. Certain volunteer delegates who met in September found themselves unable to tolerate either the commercialism which they said actuated the Philippine war, or "demagogic appeals to factional and class passions." They nominated Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, and Archibald M. Howe, of Massachusetts. These gentlemen declined, whereupon it was decided to have no ticket.



W. J. Bryan accepting the nomination for President at a Jubilee Meeting held at Indianapolis, August 8, 1900.

A number of loosely cohering bodies accorded the Democratic ticket their support while making each its own declaration of doctrine. The Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, through its Supreme Council, gave anticipatory endorsement to the Democratic candidate so early as February. May 10th the Fusion Populists nominated Bryan, naming, however, Charles A. Towne instead of Stevenson for the vice-presidency. Towne withdrew in Stevenson's favor. The Silver Republicans likewise nominated Bryan, making no vice-presidential nomination. The Anti-imperialist League, meeting in Indianapolis after the Democratic convention, approved its candidates, its view as to the "paramount issue," and its position thereon.

For a time after his able Indianapolis speech accepting the various nominations, Mr. Bryan's election seemed rather probable spite of incessant Republican efforts to break him down. He had personally gained much strength since 1896. There was not a State in the Union whose Democratic organization was not to all appearance solid for him, an astounding change in four years. An organization of Civil War Veterans was electioneering for him among old soldiers. Powerful Democratic and independent sheets which had once vilified now extolled him. He was sincere, straightforward, and fearless. His demand at Kansas City that the platform read so and so or he would not run, while probably unwise, showed him no trimmer.

Many Gold Democrats had returned to the party. The gold standard law, approved March 14, 1900, made it impossible for a President, even if he desired to do so, to place the country's money on an insecure basis without the aid of a Congress friendly in both its branches to such a design. There was, to be sure, effort to make this law appear imperfect; to show that Mr. Bryan, if elected, could, without aid from Congress, debauch the monetary system. But these assertions had little basis or effect. Silver dollars could be legally paid by the Government for a variety of purposes; but outside holders of silver could not get it coined, and the Treasury could not buy more.

New issues—imperialism and the trusts—seemed certain to be vote-winners for the Democracy. The cause of anti-imperialism had taken deep hold of the public mind, drawing to its support a host of eminent and respected Republicans. The Democratic platform expressly named this the "paramount issue" of the campaign. The party in power defended its Philippine policy in the manner sketched at the end of the last chapter, ever asserting, of course, that so far as consistent with their welfare and our duties the Filipinos must be accorded the largest possible measure of self-government. In this tone was perceived some sensitiveness to the anti-imperialist cry. Though Republican campaign writers and speakers affected to ignore this issue, some of them denying its existence, imperialism was more and more discussed.

After the Spanish War the question whether the United States should, the inhabitants agreeing, keep any of the territory obtained from Spain, divided the Democratic as well as the Republican ranks. So long as expansion meant merely addition to United States territory and population after the time-honored fashion, and this was at first all that anyone meant by expansion, no end of prominent Democrats were expansionists. But for their devotion to the policy of protection and their determination to continue high protection at all costs, the Republicans might have kept in existence this Democratic schism over expansion.

According to the Constitution as almost unanimously interpreted (the "insular cases" referred to in the last chapter had not yet been decided), customs duties must be uniform at all United States ports. If Luzon was part of the United States in the usual sense of the words, rates of duty on given articles must be the same at Manila as at New York. If the Philippine Islands and Porto Rico were parts of the United States in the full sense, tariff rates at their ports could not be low unless low in New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, and elsewhere.



The Republican National Convention, held in Philadelphia, June 1, 1900.

No considerable or general tariff reduction for the United States proper was to be thought of by the Republicans. But it would not do to maintain in the ports of the new possessions the high duties established by law in the United States proper. Were this done, the United States would in effect be forcing its colonies to buy and sell in the suzerain country alone, as was done by George III. through those Navigation Acts which occasioned the Revolutionary War. Such a system was certain to be condemned. If the expansion policy was to succeed in pleasing our people a plan had to be devised by which duties at the new ports could be reduced to approximate a revenue level while remaining rigidly protective in the old ports.

Out of this dilemma was gradually excogitated the theory, which had been rejected by nearly all interpreters of the Constitution, that the United States can possess "appurtenant" territory, subject to, but not part of itself, to which the Constitution does not apply save so far as Congress votes that it shall apply. So construed, the Constitution does not ex proprio vigore follow the flag. Under that construction, inhabitants of the acquired islands could not plead a single one of its guaranties unless Congress voted them such a right. If Congress failed to do this, then, so far as concerned the newly acquired populations, the Constitution might as well never have been penned. They were subjects of the United States, not citizens.

The Republican party's first avowal of this "imperialist" theory and policy was the Porto Rico tariff bill, approved April 12, 1900, establishing for Porto Rico a line of customs duties differing from that of the United States. This bill was at first disapproved by President McKinley. "It is our plain duty," he said, "to abolish all customs tariffs between the United States and Porto Rico, and give her products free access to our markets." Until after its passage the bill was earnestly opposed both by a number of eminent Republican statesmen besides the President and by nearly all the leading Republican party organs. Every possible plea—constitutional, humanitarian, prudential— was urged against it. The bill passed, nevertheless.

The result was a momentous improvement in Democratic prospects. The schism on expansion which had divided the Democratic party was closed at once, while many Republicans who had deemed the taking over of the Philippines simply a step in the nation's growth similar in nature to all the preceding ones, and had laughed at imperialism as a Democratic "bogy," changed their minds and sidled toward the Democratic lines.

In their long and able arguments against the Porto Rico tariff, Republican editors and members of Congress provided the opposite party with a great amount of campaign material. Often as a Republican on the hustings or in the press declared imperialism not an issue, or at any rate not an important one, he was drowned in a flood of recent quotations from the most authoritative Republican sources proving that it was not only an issue, but one of the most important ones which ever agitated the Republic. As Democrats put it, Balaam prophesied in favor of Israel.

Several minor matters were much dwelt upon by campaigners, with a net result favorable to the Democrats. A great many in his own party believed, no doubt wrongly, that the President's policy had in main features been influenced by consideration for powerful financial interests, or that at points these had in effect coerced him to courses contrary to what he considered best. The commissariat scandal in the Spanish War incensed many, as did the growth of army, navy, and "militarism" incident to the new colonial policy.



Parade of the Sound Money League, New York, 1900. Passing the Reviewing Stand.

Then there was the awkwardness with which the Administration had treated the Filipinos. In 1900 it seemed clear that these people could never be brought under the flag otherwise than by coercion. Anti-imperialists were not alone in the conviction that Aguinaldo's followers had been needlessly contemned, harassed, and exasperated, and that had greater frankness, tact, and forbearance been used toward them they would, of their own accord, have sought the shelter of the Stars and Stripes. Moreover, our measures toward the Filipinos had alienated Cuba, so that the voluntary adhesion of this island to the United States, so desirable and once so easily within reach, was no longer a possibility; while the coercion of Cuba, in view of our profession when we took up arms for her, would be condemned by all mankind as national perfidy.

The sympathy of official Republicanism with the British in the Boer War tended to solidify the Irish vote as Democratic, but—and it was among the novelties of the campaign—Republicans no longer feared to alienate the Irish. The Government's apparent apathy toward the Boers also drove into the Democratic ranks for the time a great number of Dutch and German Republicans. Colored voters were in this hegira, believing that the adoption of the "subject-races" notion into American public law and policy would be the negro's despair. The championing of this movement by the Republican party they regarded as a renunciation of all its friendship for human liberty.

The Republican campaign watchword was "Protection." Press and platform dilated on the fat years of McKinley's administration as amply vindicating the Dingley Act. "The full dinner pail," said they, "is the paramount issue." Trusts and monopolies they denounced, as their opponents did, but they declared that these "had nothing to do with the tariff." There was wide and intense hostility toward monopolistic organizations. They were decried on all hands as depressing wages, crushing small producers, raising the prices of their own products and lowering those of what they bought, depriving business officials and business travellers of positions, and working a world of other mischief politically, economically, and socially. They had rapidly multiplied since the Republicans last came into power, and nothing had been done to check the formation of them or to control them.

Why, then, was not Democracy triumphant in the campaign of 1900? When the lines were first drawn a majority of the people probably disapproved the Administration's departure into fields of conquest, colonialism, and empire. Republicans themselves denied that a "full dinner pail" was the most fundamental of considerations. Few Republican anti-imperialists were saved to the party by the venerable Senator Hoar's faith that after a while it would surely retrieve the one mistake marring its record. Nor was it that men like Andrew Carnegie could never stomach the Kansas City and Chicago heresies, or that the Republicans had ample money, or yet that votes were attracted to the Administration because of its war record and its martial face. Agriculture had, to be sure, been remunerative. Also, before election, the strike in the Pennsylvania hard coal regions had, at the earnest instance of Republican leaders, been settled favorably to the miners, thus enlisting extensive labor forces in support of the status quo; but these causes also, whether by themselves or in conjunction with the others named, were wholly insufficient to explain why the election went as it did.

A partial cause of Mr. Bryan's defeat in 1900 was the incipient waning of anti-imperialism, the conviction growing, even among such as had doubted this long and seriously, that the Administration painfully faulty as were some of its measures in the new lands, was pursuing there absolutely the only honorable or benevolent course open to it under the wholly novel and very peculiar circumstances.

A deeper cause—the decisive one, if any single cause may be pronounced such—was the fact that Mr. Bryan primarily, and then, mainly owing to his strong influence, also his party, misjudged the fundamental meaning of the country's demand for monetary reform. The conjunction of good times with increase in the volume of hard money made possible by the world's huge new output of gold, might have been justly taken as vindicating the quantity theory of money value, prosperity being precisely the result which the silver people of 1896 prophesied as certain in case the stock of hard money were amplified. Bimetallists could solace themselves that if they had, with all other people, erred touching the geology of the money question, in not believing there would ever be gold enough to stay the fall of prices, their main and essential reasonings on the question had proved perfectly correct. Good fortune, it might have been held, had removed the silver question from politics and remanded it back to academic political economy.

Probably a majority of the Democrats in 1900 felt this. At any rate the Kansas City convention would have been quite satisfied with a formal reaffirmation of the Chicago platform had not Mr. Bryan flatly refused to run without an explicit platform restatement of the 1896 position. His hope, no doubt, was to hold Western Democrats, Populists, and Silver Republicans, his anti-imperialism meanwhile attracting Gold Democrats and Republicans, especially at the East, who emphatically agreed with him on that paramount issue. But it appeared as if most of this, besides much else that was quite as well worth while, could have been accomplished by frankly acknowledging and carefully explaining that gold alone had done or bade fair to do substantially the service for which silver had been supposed necessary; for which, besides, it would really have been required but for the unexpected and immense increase in the world's gold crop through a long succession of years.

The Republican leaders gauged the situation better. Mr. McKinley, to a superficial view inconsistent on the silver question, was on this point fundamentally consistent throughout. With all the more conservative monetary reformers he merely wished the fall of prices stopped, and such increment to the hard money supply as would effect that result. The metal, the kind of money producing the needed increase was of no consequence. When it became practically certain that gold alone, at least for an indefinite time, would answer the end, he was willing to relinquish silver except for subsidiary coinage.

The law of March 14, 1900, put our paper currency, save the silver certificates, and also all national bonds, upon a gold basis, providing an ample gold reserve. Silver certificates were to replace the treasury notes, and gold certificates to be issued so long as the reserve was not under the legal minimum. If it ever fell below that the Secretary of the Treasury had discretion.

Other notable features of this law were its provision for refunding the national debt in two per cent. gold bonds—a bold, but, as it proved, safe assumption that the national credit was the best in the world—and the clause allowing national banks to issue circulating notes to the par value of their bonds.

Our money volume now expanded as rapidly as in 1896 advocates of free coinage could have expected even with the aid of free silver. July 1, 1900. the circulation was $2,055,150,998. as against $1,650.223,0400 four years before. Nearly $163,000,000 in gold certificates had been uttered. The gold coin in circulation had increased twenty per cent. for the four years; silver about one-eighth; silver certificates one-ninth. The Treasury held $222,844,953 of gold coin and bullion, besides some millions of silver, paper, and fractional currency.

The Republican victory was the most sweeping since 1872. The total popular vote was 13,970,300, out of which President McKinley scored a clear majority of 443,054, and a plurality over Bryan of 832,280. Of the Northern States Bryan carried only Colorado, Idaho, and Nevada. He lost his own State and was shaken even in the traditionally "solid South." Unnecessarily ample Republican supremacy was maintained in the legislative branch of the Government.



CHAPTER XVII.

THE TWELFTH CENSUS

[1900-1902]

The plan for a permanent census bureau was not realized in time for the 1900 enumeration, but the act authorizing this provided important modifications in prior census procedure. Among several great improvements it made the census director practically supreme in his methods and over appointments and removals in his force.

Initial inquiries were restricted to (1) population, (2) mortality, (3) agriculture, and (4) manufactures. Work on these topics was to be completed not later than July 1, 1902. During the year after, special reports were to be prepared on defective, criminal and pauper classes, deaths and births, social data in cities, public indebtedness, taxation and expenditures, religious bodies, electric light and power, telephone and telegraph, water transportation, express business, street railways, mines and mining. A few titles mentioned in the eleventh census were now omitted.



Mr. Merriam, Director of the Census.

The enumeration extended to Alaska. Two men had charge of it there. Enumerators went out afoot, by dog-teams, canoes, steamboats—up rivers, over mountains, through forests. The Indian Territory was for the first time canvassed like other portions of the Union, and so was the new territory of Hawaii.

The United States were divided into 207 supervisor districts and 53,000 enumeration districts. Enumeration began June 1, 1900, continuing two weeks in cities, elsewhere thirty days. Persons in the navy, army, and on Indian reservations were numbered. For those in institutions there were special enumerators. Each enumerator used a "street-book" or daily record, individual slips for returns of persons absent when the enumerator called, and an "absent family" schedule.

The returns were tabulated by an electrical device first employed ten years before. Its work was automatic and so fine that it would even obviate errors. For instance, age, sex, etc., being denoted by punch-holes in cards, the machine would refuse to pass a card punched to indicate that the person was three years old and married.

Nearly 2,000 employees toiled upon the census during the latter part of 1900, and nearly a thousand during the entire year, 1901. From July 14, 1900, piecemeal results were announced almost daily. By October the population of the principal cities was out. A preliminary statement of total population was given to the press, October 30, 1900, followed by a verified one a month later. The first official report on population was made December 6, 1901, within eighteen months from the completion of the enumerators' work. Results were first issued in sixty bulletins, all subsequently included in the first half of the first volume. Two volumes were devoted to population, three to manufactures, two to agriculture, and two to vital statistics. One contained an abstract of the whole. Following these came volumes on special lines of inquiry.



Census Examination.

The population of the United States, not including Porto Rico or the Philippines, was found to be 76,303,387, an increase of not quite 21 per cent. in the decade, or less than during any previous similar period of our history. All the States and territories save Nevada were better peopled than ever before. Nevada lost 10.6 per cent. of her inhabitants, as against two and a half times that percentage between 1880 and 1890, occupying in 1900 about the same tracks as in 1870. Oklahoma people increased 518.2 per cent. Indian Territory, Idaho, and Montana came next in rapidity of growth. Kansas, with 2.9 per cent. increase, and Nebraska, with only 0.7 per cent., showed the slowest progress, the figures resulting in considerable part from padded returns in 1890. Vermont, Delaware, and Maine crawled on at a snail's pace. In numerical advance New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois led. Texas marched close to them, overhauling Massachusetts. In percentage of increase the southern, central, and western divisions were in the van.

Almost a third of our people were now urban, ten times the proportion of 1790. The rate of urban increase (36.8 per cent.) was, however, smaller than during any preceding decade, except 1810-1820, and was notably less than the 61.4 per cent. urban increase from 1880 to 1890. Numerically also city growth was less than at the preceding census.

There were 545 places of 8,000 or more inhabitants, with an average population of 45,857. Of the larger cities fully half adjoined the Atlantic. Greater New York, a monster composite of nearly three and a half millions, ranked first among American cities, and second only to London among those of the world. Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore followed in the same order as a decade before. The enterprising lake rivals, Cleveland and Buffalo, had raced past San Francisco and Cincinnati. Pittsburgh, instead of New Orleans, now came next after the ten just named.

There were, as in 1890, three cities of more than a million inhabitants each. There were six of more than 500,000, as against four in 1890. Of cities having between 400,000 and 500,000 people none appeared in 1900; three in 1890. Five cities now had over 300,000 and less than 400,000, a class not represented at all in 1890. Thirty-eight cities used in numbering their people six figures or more each, a privilege enjoyed in 1890 by only twenty-eight. The cities of the Pacific coast showed noteworthy increase.

Ohio, Indiana, Delaware, Kansas, and Nebraska and all the North Atlantic States except Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, lost in rural population. Rhode Island, with 407 inhabitants to the square mile, was the most densely peopled State. Massachusetts came next. Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, and Nevada could not show two souls to the square mile. Alaska, doubled in population, had one in about ten square miles. No western State had ten to the mile.

The Twelfth Census revealed slight change in the centre of population. This now stood six miles southeast of Columbus, Ind., having moved west only fourteen miles since 1890. In computing its position neither Hawaii nor Alaska were considered. Never before had its occidental shunt been less than thirty-six miles in a decade. For three score years it had not fallen under forty per decade. What sent it southward two and a half miles was the doubling of population in the Indian Territory and the filling of Oklahoma. The trifling shift of fourteen miles westward pointed significantly to the exhaustion of free land in the West and to the immense growth of manufactures, mining, and commerce in eastern and central States, retaining there the bulk of our immigrants and even recalling people from the newer States and territories.

Males still bore about the same proportion to females as in 1890, although females had increased at a rate 0.2 per cent. greater than males. In the North Atlantic and South Atlantic groups the sexes were equal in numbers.

At the South alone did the negro continue a considerable element. Eighty-nine per cent. of the negroes lived there. At the North only Pennsylvania had any large numbers. The country held 8,840,789, an increase of 18.1 per cent. in ten years, the percentage of white increase being 21.4 per cent. In West Virginia and Florida, also in the black belts, especially that of Alabama, blacks multiplied faster than whites. In Delaware and Georgia the pace was even. In Alabama as a whole, however, the negro element had not relatively increased since 1850. Blacks outnumbered Caucasians in South Carolina and Mississippi, no longer in Louisiana. In Mississippi the black majority shot up phenomenally. Of the total population the negroes were now only 11.6 per cent., barely one-ninth, as against one-fifth in 1790. Between 1890 and 1900 the proportion of the colored increased both at the North and at the far South, diminishing in the border southern States. This indicated migration both northward and southward from the belt of States just south of Mason and Dixon's line.



The Census Office, Washingtonl D. C.

The foreign-born fraction of our population, which had alternately risen and fallen since 1860, now fell again, from 14.8 per cent. to 13.7 per cent. The South retained its distinction as the most thoroughly American section of the land, having a foreign nativity population varying from 7.9 per cent. in Maryland to only 0.2 per cent. in North Carolina.

The foreign born, conspicuous in the Northwest and the North Atlantic States, were mostly confined to cities. They had augmented only 12.4 per cent. as against 38.5 per cent. from 1880 to 1890. Nearly a third of the recorded immigration from 1890 to 1900 was missing in the enumeration, due only in part to census errors. Many foreigners had returned to their native lands, most numerous among these being Canadians. The preponderance of immigrants was no longer from Ireland, Canada, Great Britain, and Germany, but from Austria-Hungary, Bohemia, Italy, Russia, and Poland.

In 1900 the United States proper had 89,863 Chinese against 107,488 in 1890. Of Japanese there were 24,326 against only 2,039 in 1890. In the Hawaiian Islands alone the Chinese numbered 25,767 and the Japanese 61,111. Natives of Germany still constituted the largest body of our foreign born, being 25.8 per cent. of the whole foreign element compared with 30.1 percent. in 1890. The proportion was about the same in 1900 as in 1850.

The Irish were 15.6 per cent. of the foreign born. The figures had been 20.2 per cent. in 1890, and 42.8 per cent. in 1850. The proportion of native Scandinavians and Danes had slightly increased. Poles. Bohemians, Austrians, Huns, and Russians comprised 13.4 per cent. of the foreign born as against 6.9 per cent. in 1890, and less than one-third per cent. in 1850.

The congressional apportionment act based on the twelfth census, and approved January 16, 1902, avoided the disagreeable necessity of cutting down the representation of laggard States by increasing the House membership from 357 to 386, a gain of twenty-nine members. Twelve of these (reckoning Louisiana) came from west of the Mississippi, two from New England, three each from Illinois and New York, four from the southern States east of the Mississippi, two each from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and one from Wisconsin.

The number of farms shown by the twelfth census was over five and one-half million, four times the number reported in 1850, and more than a million above the number reported in 1890. This wonderful increase, greater for the last decade than for any other except that between 1870 and 1880, denoted a vast augmentation of cultivated area in the South and in the middle West. Oklahoma, Indian Territory, and Texas alone added over two hundred thousand to the number of their farms. The increase in value of farm resources exceeded the total value of agricultural investments fifty years before.

In the abundant year of 1899 our cereal crops exceeded $1,484,000,000 in value, more than half this being in corn. The hay crop was worth over $445,000,000, that of potatoes $98,387,000, that of tobacco $56,993,000. Next to corn stood cotton, the crop for this year reaching a value of $323,758,000. The total value of farm and range animals in 1900 was $2,981,722,945.



A Census-taker at work.

The census of 1850 reported 123,000 manufacturing establishments, with a capital of $533,000,000. In 1900 there were 512,000 manufacturing establishments, capitalized at $9,800,000,000, employing 5,321,000 wage earners, and evolving $13,004,400,000 worth of product.

In ten years the number of manufacturing plants and the value of products appeared to have increased some 30 per cent. The capital invested had multiplied slightly more, about a third. The number of hands employed had risen but a fifth, betokening the greater efficiency of the individual laborer, and the substitution of machine work for that of men's hands.

Of seventy-three selected industries in 209 principal cities, the most money, $464,000,000, was invested in foundries and machine shops; the next most, $363,000,000, in breweries. $289,000,000 are employed in iron and steel manufacturing.

Our foreign commerce for the fiscal year 1899-1900 reached the astounding total of $2,244,424,266, exceeding that of the preceding year by $320,000,000. Our imports were $849,941,184, an amount surpassed only in 1893. Our total exports were $1,394,483,082. The favorable balance of trade had continued for some time, amounting for three years to $ 1,689,849,387, much of which meant the lessening of United States indebtedness abroad. The chief commodities for which we now looked to foreign lands were first of all sugar, then hides, coffee, rubber, silk, and fine cottons. In return we parted with cotton from the South and bread-stuffs from the North, each exceeding $260,000,000 in value. Next in volumes exported were provisions, meat, and dairy products, worth $184,453,055. Iron and steel exports, including $55,000,000 and more in machinery, were valued at about $122,000,000. The live-stock shipped abroad was appraised at about $181,820,000. About 3-1/2 per cent. of our imports came from Cuba, about 20 per cent. from Hawaii, and about 1 per cent. from Porto Rico, Samoa, and the Philippines.

In 1902 the tables were turned somewhat. American exports fell off and the home market was again invaded. Imported steel billets were sold at the very doors of the Steel Corporation factories.

So abundant were the revenues the year named, exceeding expenditures by $79,500,000, that war taxes were shortly repealed. "A billion dollar Congress" would now have seemed economical. Our gross expenditures the preceding year had been $1,041,243,523. For 1900 they were $988,797,697. Our national debt, lessened during the year by some $28,000,000 or $30,000,000, stood at $1,07 1,214,444.



CHAPTER XVIII.

THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION, 1901

The time had come for North and South America to unite in a noble enterprise illustrating their community of interests. United States people were deplorably ignorant of their southern neighbors, this accounting in part for the paucity of our trade with them. They knew as little of us. Our war with Spain had caused them some doubts touching our intentions toward the Spanish-Americans. An exposition was a hopeful means of bringing about mutual knowledge and friendliness. But the fair could not be ecumenical. At Chicago and Paris World's Fairs had reached perhaps almost their final development. To compete in interest, so soon, with such vast displays, an exposition must specialize and condense.

On May 20th, the day of opening, a grand procession marched from Buffalo to the Exposition grounds. Inspired by the music of twenty bands representing various nations, the parade wound through the park gate up over the Triumphal Bridge into the Esplanade. As the doors of the Temple of Music were thrown open, ten thousand pigeons were released, which, wheeling round and round, soared away to carry in all directions their messages announcing that the Exposition had begun. The Hallelujah Chorus was rendered, when Vice-President Roosevelt delivered the dedicatory address.

The authors of the Pan-American, architects, landscape-gardeners, sculptors, painters, and electricians, aimed first of all to create a beautiful spectacle. Entering by the Park Gateway you passed from the Forecourt, attractive by its terraces and colonnades, to the Triumphal Bridge, a noble portal, with four monumental piers surmounted by equestrian figures, "The Standard-bearers." This dignified entrance was in striking contrast with the gaudy and barbarous opening to the Paris Exposition. From the gate the whole panorama spread out before the eye. Down the long court with its fountains, gardens, and encircling buildings, you saw the Electric Tower soaring heavenward, fit expression of the mighty power from Niagara, which at night made it so glorious. The central court bore the form of a cross. At either side of the gate lay transverse courts, each adorned with a lake, fountains, and sunken gardens, and ending in curved groups of buildings. On the east was the Government Group; on the west that devoted to horticulture, mines, and the graphic arts. The intersection of the two arms formed the Esplanade, spacious enough for a quarter of a million people, and commanding a superb view. Connected by pergolas with the building in the transverse ends two structures, the Temple of Music and the Ethnology Building, stood like sentinels at the entrance to the Court of Fountains. A group of buildings enclosed this court, terminating in the Electric Tower at the north. From the Electric Tower round to the Gateway again all the buildings were joined by cool colonnades. Beyond the Tower was the Plaza, a charming little court, its sunken garden and band-stand surrounded by colonnades holding statuary.



The Electric Tower and Fountains.

The broad and spacious gardens with their wealth of verdure, their lakes, fountains, and statuary, formed a picture of indescribable charm. Nothing here suggested exhibits. Instead, spectators yielded to the spell of the beautiful scene. Chicago was serious and classic; Buffalo romantic, picturesque, even frivolous. The thought seemed to have been that, life in America being so intense, a rare holiday ought to bring diversion and amusement. No style of architecture could have contributed better to such gayety than the Spanish-Renaissance, light, ornate, and infinitely varied, lending itself to endless decoration in color and relief, and no more delicate compliment could have been paid our southern neighbors than this choice of their graceful and attractive designs. Each building was unique and original in plan. Domes, pinnacles, colonnades, balconies, towers, and low-tiled roofs afforded endless variety. The Electric Tower, designed by Mr. Howard, the central point in the scheme of architecture, its background of columns and its airy perforated walls and circular cupola with the Goddess of Light above, combined massiveness with lightness. Other buildings were strikingly quaint and pleasing, especially those suggesting the old Southern Missions. All blended into the general scheme with scarcely a discord. This harmony was not accidental, but resulted from combined effort, each architect working at a general plan, yet not sacrificing his individual taste. It was an object lesson in massive architecture, showing how easily public edifices may be made beautiful each in itself, and to increase each other's beauty by artistic grouping.



The Ethnology Building and United States Government Building.

Perhaps the most novel feature of the Fair was the coloring. Charles Y. Turner's colors-scheme, original and daring, called forth much criticism. With the Chicago White City the Rainbow City at Buffalo was a startling contrast. But the artist knew what he was doing when he boldly applied the gayest and brightest colors to buildings and columns, and added to the quaint architecture that bizarre and oriental touch in keeping with the festal purposes of the occasion. The rich, warm tones formed a perfect background for the white statuary, the green foliage, and the silvery fountains. The Temple of Music was a Pompeian red, Horticultural Hall orange, with details of blue, green, and yellow. The whole effect was fascinating, and at night, when the electric lights illumined and softened the tones, fairy-like.



The Temple of Music by Electric Light.

But the coloring had a deeper meaning than this. Mr. Turner tried to depict, in his gradations of tone, the struggle of Man to overcome the elements, and his progress from barbarism to civilization. Thus, at the Gate, the strongest primary colors were used in barbaric warmth, yet in their warmth suggestive of welcome. As you advanced down the court the tones became milder and lighter, until they culminated in the soft ivory and gold of the Electric Tower, symbol of Man's crowning achievements. Everywhere you found the note of Niagara, green, symbolizing the great power of the falls.

Many forgot that in all this Mr. Turner was working from Greek models. Color was lavishly used on the Athenian temples, rich backgrounds of red or blue serving to throw the sculptural adornments into vivid relief. Buffalo was in this a commentary on classic art, revealing what fine effects may be produced by out-of-door coloring when suited to surroundings. We saw that in our timid, conventional avoidance of exterior colors we had missed something; that cheerful colors might well supplant on our houses the eternal sombre of gray and brown, as they so often and so gloriously do in nature.