against Spanish authority was this unchecked growth of
ignorant, cruel, and oppressive ecclesiasticism. It was this
which weighed most heavily upon the people. It made the mere
question of gaining a livelihood difficult, but especially did
it strangle intellectual and moral growth. It not only
oppressed the Filipinos, but it overawed and dominated the
Spanish authorities. It was the power of the mendicant orders
which drove out the just Condé de Caspe, and later the
well-disposed and clement Blanco, which stimulated and
supported the frightful atrocities of the cruel Polavieja
during the revolution of 1896. Archbishop Nozaleda, a Spanish
monk of the Dominican order, was a leader in urging wholesale
and often wholly unjustifiable arrests, which were succeeded
by the torture and execution of hundreds of persons. It is
difficult for a mind reared in the freedom and culture of
modern Europe, or still freer America, to realize the horrible
excesses and actual mediæval cruelties which were committed in
the prisons of Manila and elsewhere in the islands upon Filipino
insurgents, or those accused of being in league with them,
during the revolution of 1896. The actual story of these
things as it is unfolded, not only from Filipino sources, but
from the Spanish archives of Manila, is like a scene evoked
from the long-buried and forgotten past in the middle ages.
Indeed, the only intelligible interpretation of events which
cast shame on the name of Spanish authority and Spanish
Christianity is found by reflecting that affairs in the
Philippines, just previous to the battle of Manila, were
controlled by ideas and forces which existed generally in
Europe previous to the Reformation,—ideas which slowly
retreated before the dawn of the new learning and the
liberation of the individual conscience."
_H. Welsh,
The Other Man's Country,
chapter 1 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company)._
{397}
In the other view there is an appeal to results which cannot
easily be divested of force. They are set forth in the
following:
"The ideals of civilization for the Spanish missionary priests
in the Philippines were substantially the same as those of
Bacon and Raleigh, of the founders of New England and the
founders of New York. In the mind of all, a civilized people
was one which lived under settled laws by steady labor, which
was more or less acquainted with the material progress made
amongst the races of Europe, and, as all would say, which was
Christian. The Spanish friars undertook the task of giving
such a civilization to the Malays of the Philippines, and no
other body of men of any race or any faith have accomplished
what they have done. A task of somewhat similar kind has been
attempted by others in our own day in the name of Christian
civilization but not the Catholic Church. Hawaii has been
under control of missionaries from New England for
seventy-five years more completely than the Philippines were
ever under that of the Spanish friars. The native kings
adopted the new creed and enforced its adoption on their
subjects by vigorous corporal punishments. The missionaries
were abundantly supplied with such resources of civilization
as money could buy, and they have grown wealthy on their
mission; but what has been the fate of the natives? They have
dwindled in numbers to a fourth of what they were when Messrs.
Bingham and Thurston entered their islands, their lands have
been taken by strangers, their government overthrown by brute
force, and the scanty remnant has dropped the religion imposed
on them. In the Philippines in a hundred and forty years a
million of Catholic natives has grown seven fold. In Hawaii
under missioners of the world's manufacture a hundred and
forty thousand of the same race has shrunk to thirty-eight
thousand. Have the promises of the Spanish friars or those of
the American ministers been the most truthfully kept? The
actual condition of the Catholic population formed by the work
of the religious orders should not be judged by the excesses
which have marked the present revolution. Many old Christian
nations have gone through similar experiences. It would be as
unreasonable to judge the Christianity of France by the Reign
of Terror as to condemn the Filipino population for the
atrocities sanctioned by Aguinaldo. The mass of the country
population has taken no part in these deeds of blood which are
the work of a small number of political adventurers and
aspirants for office by any means. Until lately revolutionary
disturbance was unknown in the Philippines. During three
centuries there was only one serious Indian rebellion, that of
Silan, in the province of Illocos, at the time of the English
invasion. The Spanish military force was always too small to
hold the islands had there been any real disaffection to the
Government. The whole force at Manila in the present war, as
given by General Otis, was only fifty-six hundred, and about
as many more represented the entire Spanish force among a
population of seven millions.
"The disposition of the Catholic Filipinos is essentially law
abiding. One of the friars lately driven from the islands by
the revolution assured the writer that in Panay, an island
with a population of half a million, a murder did not occur
more often than once or twice in a year. In our own country
last year the proportion was more than fifty times as great.
There is no forced labor as in the Dutch Indian colonies to
compel the native Filipinos to work, yet they support
themselves in content without any of the famines so common in
India under the boasted rule of civilized England. A sure
evidence of material prosperity is the growth of the
population, and of its religion a fair test is the proportion
of Catholic marriages, baptisms and religious interments to
the whole number. The proportion of marriages in 1806 to the
population among the natives administered by the friars was
one to every hundred and twenty, which is higher than England,
Germany, or any European country. The number of baptisms
exceeded the deaths by more than two and a half per cent, a
greater proportion than in our own land. Compare this with
Hawaii and one feels what a farce is the promise of increased
prosperity held out by the American Press as the result of the
expulsion of the Spanish friars. It is not easy to compare
accurately the intellectual development of the Catholic
Filipinos with American or European standards. The ideals of
civilization of the Catholic missioners were different from
those popular with English statesmen and their American
admirers. The friars did not believe that the accumulation of
wealth was the end of civilization, but the support of a large
population in fair comfort. There are no trusts and few
millionaires in the islands, but their population is six times
greater than that of California after fifty years of American
government. The test so often applied of reading and writing
among the population finds the Filipinos fairly up to the
standard of Europe at least. Of highly educated men the
proportion is not so large as in Europe, but it is not
inconsiderable, and neither in science nor in literature are
the descendants of the Malay pirates unrepresented in their
remote islands. The native languages have developed no
important literature of their own, but they have a fair supply
of translations from Spanish works in history, poetry, and
philosophy. In that they are superior to the Hindoo of British
India, though spoken by nearly a hundred millions. These are
facts that throw a strange light on the real meaning of
civilization as planted by the Spanish friars among a
barbarian race. Compare them with the fate of the Indian races
on our own territory and say what benefit the Filipinos may
expect from the advent of 'Anglo-Saxon' civilization."
_Bryan J. Clinch
(American Catholic Quarterly Review,
volume 24, page 15)._
These opposing views are suggestive of the seriousness of the
problem which the subject offers to the new authority in the
Philippines. The American Commission now studying such
problems in those islands has presented its first views
concerning the Spanish friars in a lengthy report, written by
Judge Taft, and transmitted to Washington as part of the
general report of the Commission, bearing date November 30,
1900. The passages quoted below contain what is most essential
in the interesting document:
"Ordinarily, the Government of the United States and its
servants have little or no concern with religious societies or
corporations and their members. With us, the Church is so
completely separated from the State that it is difficult to
imagine cases in which the policy of a Church in the selection
of its ministers and the assignment of them to duty can be
regarded as of political moment, or as a proper subject of
comment in the report of a public officer.
{398}
In the pacification of the Philippines by our Government,
however, it is impossible to ignore the very great part which
such a question plays. Excepting the Moros, who are Moslems,
and the wild tribes, who are pagans, the Philippine people
belong to the Roman Catholic Church. The total number of
Catholic souls shown by the Church registry in 1898 was
6,559,998. To care for these in that year there were in the
archipelago 746 regular parishes, 105 mission parishes and 116
missions, or 967 in all. Of the regular parishes all save 150
were administered by Spanish monks of the Dominican,
Augustinian, or Franciscan orders. Natives were not admitted
to these orders. There were two kinds of Augustinians in these
islands, the shod and the unshod. The latter are called
Recolletos, and are merely an offshoot from the original order
of St. Augustine.
"By the revolutions of 1896 and 1898 against Spain, all the
Dominicans, Augustinians, Recolletos, and Franciscans acting
as parish priests were driven from their parishes to take
refuge in Manila. Forty were killed and 403 were imprisoned,
and were not all released until by the advance of the American
troops it became impossible for the insurgents to retain them.
Of the 1,124 who were in the islands in 1896, only 472 remain.
The remainder were either killed or died, returned to Spain,
or went to China or South America. There were also in the
islands engaged in missions and missionary parishes, 42
Jesuits, 16 Capuchins, and six Benedictines, and while many of
these left their missions because of disturbed conditions they
do not seem to have been assaulted or imprisoned for any
length of time. In addition to the members of the monastic
orders, there were 150 native secular clergymen in charge of
small parishes who were not disturbed. There were also many
native priests in the larger parishes who assisted the friar
curates and they have remained, and they have been and are
acting as parish priests. The burning political question,
discussion of which strongly agitates the people of the
Philippines, is whether the members of the four great orders
of St. Dominic, St. Augustine, St. Francis, and the Recolletos
shall return to the parishes from which they were driven by
the revolution. Colloquially the term 'friars' includes the
members of these four orders. The Jesuits, Capuchins,
Benedictines, and the Paulists, of whom there are a few
teachers here, have done only mission work or teaching, and
have not aroused the hostility existing against the four large
orders to which we are now about to refer. …
"The truth is that the whole government of Spain in these
islands rested on the friars. To use the expression of the
Provincial of the Augustinians, the friars were 'the pedestal,
or foundation, of the sovereignty of Spain in these islands,'
which being removed, 'the whole structure would topple over.'
… Once settled in a parish, a priest usually continued there
until superannuation. He was, therefore, a constant political
factor for a generation. The same was true of the Archbishop
and the bishops. The civil and military officers of Spain in
the island were here for not longer than four years, and more
often for a less period. The friars, priests, and bishops,
therefore, constituted a solid, powerful, permanent, well
organized political force in the islands which dominated
policies. The stay of those officers who attempted to pursue a
course at variance with that deemed wise by the orders was
invariably shortened by monastic influence. Of the four great
orders, one, the Franciscans, is not permitted to own
property, except convents and schools. This is not true of the
other three. They own some valuable business property in
Manila, and have large amounts of money to lend. But the chief
property of these orders is in agricultural land. The total
amount owned by the three orders in the Philippines is
approximately 403,000 acres. Of this 121,000 acres is in the
Province of Cavité alone. The whole is distributed as follows:
Cavité, Province of Luzon, 121,747 acres; Laguna, Province of
Luzon, 62,172 acres; Manila, Province of Luzon, 50,145;
Bulacan, Province of Luzon, 39,341; Morong, Province of Luzon,
4,940; Bataan, Province of Luzon, 1,000; Cagayan, Province of
Luzon, 49,400; Island of Cebu, 16,413; Island of Mindoro,
58,455. Total, 403,713. …
"It cannot admit of contradiction that the autocratic power
which each friar curate exercised over the people and civil
officials of his parish gave them a most plausible ground for
belief that nothing of injustice, of cruelty, of oppression,
of narrowing restraint of liberty, was imposed on them for
which the friar was not entirely responsible. His sacerdotal
functions were not in their eyes the important ones, except as
they enabled him to clinch and make more complete his civil
and political control. The revolutions against Spain's
sovereignty began as movements against the friars. … Having in
view these circumstances, the statement of the bishops and friars
that the mass of the people in these islands, except only a
few of the leading men of each town and the native clergy, are
friendly to them cannot be accepted as accurate. All the evidence
derived from every source but the friars themselves shows
clearly that the feeling of hatred for the friars is well nigh
universal and permeates all classes. In the provinces of
Cavité, Laguna, and Bulacan, as well as in the country
districts of Manila, the political feeling against the friars
has in it also an element of agrarianism. For generations the
friars have been lords of these immense manors, upon which,
since 1880, they have paid no taxes, while every 'hombre'
living on them paid his cedula, worked out a road tax, and, if
he were in business of any kind, paid his industrial impost. …
"In the light of these considerations it is not wonderful that
the people should regard the return of the friars to their
parishes as a return to the conditions existing before the
revolution. The common people are utterly unable to appreciate
that under the sovereignty of the United States the position
of the friar as curate would be different from that under
Spain. This is not a religious question, though it concerns
the selection of religious ministers for religious
communities. The Philippine people love the Catholic Church. …
The depth of their feeling against the friars may be measured
by the fact that it exists against those who until two years
ago administered the sacraments of the Church upon which they
feel so great dependence and for which they have so profound a
respect. The feeling against the friars is solely political.
The people would gladly receive as ministers of the Roman
Catholic religion any save those who are to them the
embodiment of all in the Spanish rule that was hateful.
{399}
If the friars return to their parishes, though only under the
same police protection which the American Government is bound
to extend to any other Spanish subjects in these islands, the
people will regard it as the act of that Government. They have
so long been used to have every phase of their conduct regulated
by governmental order that the coming again of the friars will
be accepted as an executive order to them to receive the
friars as curates with their old, all-absorbing functions. It
is likely to have the same effect on them that the return of
General Weyler under an American Commission as Governor of
Cuba would have had on the people of that island.
"Those who are charged with the duty of pacifying these
islands may therefore properly have the liveliest concern in a
matter which, though on its surface only ecclesiastical, is,
in the most important phase of it, political, and fraught with
the most critical consequences to the peace and good order of
the country, in which it is their duty to set up civil
government. … It is suggested that the friars, if they
returned, would uphold American sovereignty and be efficient
instruments in securing peace and good order, whereas the
native priests who now fill the parishes are, many of them,
active insurgent agents or in strong sympathy with the cause.
It is probably true that a considerable number of the Filipino
priests are hostile to American sovereignty, largely because
they fear that the Catholic Church will deem it necessary, on
the restoration of complete peace, to bring back the friars or
to elevate the moral tone of the priesthood by introducing
priests from America or elsewhere. But it is certain that the
enmity among the people against the American Government caused
by the return of the friars would far outweigh the advantage
of efforts to secure and preserve the allegiance of the people
to American Sovereignty which might be made by priests who are
still subjects of a monarchy with which the American
Government has been lately at war, and who have not the
slightest sympathy with the political principles of civil
liberty which the American Government represents.
"We have set forth the facts upon this important issue because
we do not think they ought to be or can be ignored. We
earnestly hope that those who control the policy of the
Catholic Church in these islands with the same sagacity and
prevision which characterize all its important policies, will
see that it would be most unfortunate for the Philippine
Islands, for the Catholic Church and for the American
Government to attempt to send back the friars, and that some
other solution of the difficulties should be found. … The
friars have large property interests in these islands which
the United States Government is bound by treaty obligations
and by the law of its being to protect. It is natural and
proper that the friars should feel a desire to remain where so
much of their treasure is. … It would avoid some very
troublesome agrarian disturbances between the friars and their
quondam tenants if the Insular Government could buy these
large haciendas of the friars, and sell them out in small
holdings to the present tenants, who, forgiven for the rent
due during the two years of war, would recognize the title of
the Government without demur, and gladly accept an
opportunity, by payment of the price in small instalments, to
become absolute owners of that which they and their ancestors
have so long cultivated. With the many other calls upon the
insular treasury a large financial operation like this could
probably not be conducted to a successful issue without the
aid of the United States Government, either by a direct loan
or by a guaranty of bonds to be issued for the purpose. The
bonds or loans could be met gradually from the revenues of the
islands, while the proceeds of the land, which would sell
readily, could be used to constitute a school fund. This
object, if declared, would make the plan most popular, because
the desire for education by the Filipinos of all tribes is
very strong, and gives encouraging promise of the future
mental development of a now uneducated and ignorant people.
The provincials of the orders were understood in their
evidence to intimate a willingness on the part of the orders
to sell their agricultural holdings if a satisfactory price
should be paid. What such a price would be we are unable
without further investigation to state. If an agreement could
not be reached it is probable, though upon this we express no
definite opinion, that there would be ground in the
circumstances for a resort to condemnation proceedings."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901.
Act of the United States Congress increasing army and
authorizing the enlistment of native troops.
Rejection of the proviso of Senator Hoar.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (February-March).
Congressional grant of military, civil and judicial
powers for the government of the Islands to persons whom the
President may appoint.
The so-called "Spooner Amendment."
During the first session of the 56th Congress the following
bill was introduced in the U. S. Senate by Mr. Spooner, of
Wisconsin, but received no action:
"Be it enacted, etc., That when all insurrection against the
sovereignty and authority of the United States in the
Philippine Islands, acquired from Spain by the treaty
concluded at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898, shall
have been completely suppressed by the military and naval
forces of the United States, all military, civil, and judicial
powers necessary to govern the said islands shall, until
otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such person and
persons, and shall be exercised in such manner as the
President of the United States shall direct for maintaining
and protecting the inhabitants of said islands in the free
enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion."
Half the following session of Congress passed before any
disposition to take the action proposed by Senator Spooner was
shown. Then the matter was brought to notice and pressed by
the following communication to the Secretary of War, from the
Commission in the Philippines:
"If you approve, ask transmission to proper Senators and
Representatives of following: Passage of Spooner bill at
present session greatly needed to secure best result from
improving conditions. Until its passage no purely central
civil government can be established, no public franchises of
any kind granted, and no substantial investment of private
capital in internal improvements possible." This was repeated
soon afterwards more urgently by cable in the message
following:
{400}
"Sale of public lands and allowance of mining claims
impossible until Spooner bill. Hundreds of American miners on
ground awaiting law to perfect claims. More coming. Good
element in pacification. Urgently recommend amendment Spooner
bill so that its operation be not postponed until complete
suppression of all insurrection, but only until in President's
judgment civil government may be safely established."
The request of the Philippine Commission, endorsed by the
Secretary of War, was communicated to Congress by the
President, who said in doing so: "I earnestly recommend
legislation under which the government of the islands may have
authority to assist in their peaceful industrial development."
Thereupon the subject was taken up in Congress, not as
formulated in Senator Spooner's bill of the previous session,
but in the form of an amendment to the Army Appropriation
Bill, then pending in the Senate. The amendment, as submitted
to discussion in the Senate on the 25th of February, 1901, was
in the following terms:
"All military, civil, and judicial powers necessary to govern
the Philippine Islands, acquired from Spain by the treaties
concluded at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898, and at
Washington on the 7th day of November, 1900, shall, until
otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such person and
persons and shall be exercised in such manner as the President
of the United States shall direct, for the establishment of
civil government and for maintaining and protecting the
inhabitants of said islands in the free enjoyment of their
liberty, property, and religion: Provided, That all franchises
granted under the authority hereof shall contain a reservation
of the right to alter, amend, or repeal the same. Until a
permanent government shall have been established in said
archipelago full reports shall be made to Congress, on or
before the first day of each regular session, of all
legislative acts and proceedings of the temporary government
instituted under the provisions hereof, and full reports of
the acts and doings of said government and as to the condition
of the archipelago and its people shall be made to the
President, including all information which may be useful to
the Congress in providing for a more permanent government."
Strenuous opposition was made, firstly to the hasty grafting
of so profoundly important a measure of legislation on an
appropriation bill, and secondly to the measure itself, as
being a delegation of powers to the President which did
violence to the Constitution and to all the precedents and
principles of the American government, and also as having
objects which would not only do flagrant wrong to the people
of the Philippine Islands, but bring dishonor on those of the
United States. The military authority already exercised by the
President in the Philippines sufficed fully, it was contended,
for every purpose of temporary or provisional government
there, except in its lack of ability to grant franchises and
to dispose of the public lands. Hence it was freely charged
that the controlling influences which pressed this measure on
the government came from capitalists and speculators who were
reaching after valuable franchises, mining rights and land
grants in the archipelago. Said Senator Daniel in the debate:
"So far as any legislation which looks forward to the opening
of the way to civil government may be involved to the
softening of the conditions which exist, to the amelioration
of the distresses which are upon the Philippine people, I
would give most cheerful acquiescence. But because we desire
to do these things in a good spirit, in a resolute and
patriotic spirit, let us not permit the provocation of
difficult conditions to lead us into enacting any kind of
provision of law that is not necessary to these ends. Let us
not undertake to give to the President of the United States
any power of disposing of the permanent assets of the
Philippine people; let us not put him in the attitude of being
a franchise giver or a franchise seller or a franchise lessor.
The franchises of those islands—their rivers, their ferries,
their streets, their roads, the thousand and one privileges
which are granted by public authority—are as important and as
valuable to that people and as permanently associated with
their happiness and their prosperity as are their fields or
their mines or their fisheries or anything else which belongs
to their country. … It is true there is the reservation of the
right to alter, amend, or repeal, but while that is legally
broad enough for any remedial legislation whatsoever to
follow, we know that practically it is of very small
consequence. If capital goes in and invests itself in
improvements which are in themselves of a permanent nature, if
railroads are constructed, telegraph lines run, telephones
established, ferries built, steamers and boats, gas
establishments, electrical establishments—if those things are
disposed of, the man who once gets in will never be gotten
out. In all such affairs possession is nine points of the law
before they get into court, where it is generally made the
tenth."
Senator Hoar called attention "to the fact that the report of
the Taft commission urges that power be given to sell the
public lands at once, as it is necessary for their
development, and a large amount of capital is there now
clamoring to be invested," and he remarked: "So I suppose that
one of the chief purposes of this is that the public lands in
the Philippine Islands may be sold before the people of the
islands have any chance whatever to have a voice in their
sale." He then quoted the following passages from the report
of the Taft commission:
"The commission has received a sufficient number of
applications for the purchase of public land to know that
large amounts of American capital are only awaiting the
opportunity to invest in the rich agricultural field which may
here be developed. In view of the decision that the military
government has no power to part with the public land belonging
to the United States, and that the power rests alone in
Congress, it becomes very essential, to assist the development
of these islands and their prosperity, that Congressional
authority be vested in the government of the islands to adopt
a proper public-land system, and to sell the land upon proper
terms. There should, of course, be restrictions preventing the
acquisition of too large quantities by any individual or
corporation, but those restrictions should only be imposed
after giving due weight to the circumstances that capital can
not be secured for the development of the islands unless the
investment may be sufficiently great to justify the
expenditure of large amounts for expensive machinery and
equipments.
{401}
Especially is this true in the cultivation of sugar land. …
Restricted powers of a military government referred to in
discussing the public lands are also painfully apparent in
respect to mining claims and the organization of railroad,
banking, and other corporations, and the granting of
franchises generally. It is necessary that there be some body
or officer vested with legislative authority to pass laws
which shall afford opportunity to capital to make investment
here. This is the true and most lasting method of
pacification." "In other words," said Senator Hoar, "the
leading, principal, bald proposal on which this amendment
rests is that before those 10,000,000 people are allowed any
share in their own government whatever their property is to be
sold by Americans to Americans in large quantities, as on the
whole the best means of pacification—that the best way to
pacify a man is to have one foreign authority to sell his
property and another to buy it." An amendment to the
amendment, offered by Senator Bacon, reserving to Congress the
right to annul any grant or concession made, or any law
enacted, by any governmental authority created under the
powers proposed to be conferred on the President; another
offered, by Senator Vest, providing that "no judgment, order,
nor act by any of said officials so appointed shall conflict
with the Constitution and laws of the United States," and
still others of somewhat kindred aims, were voted down; but
the influence of Senator Hoar prevailed with the Senate so far
as to induce its acceptance of the following important
modification of the so-called "Spooner Amendment":
"Provided, That no sale or lease or other disposition of the
public land, or the timber thereon, or the mining rights
therein, shall be made: And provided further, That no
franchise shall be granted which is not approved by the
President of the United States, and is not, in his judgment,
clearly necessary for the immediate government of the islands
and indispensable for the interests of the people thereof, and
which can not, without great public mischief, be postponed
until the establishment of a permanent civil government, and
all such franchises shall terminate one year after the
establishment of such civil government."
With this proviso added, the "Spooner amendment" was adopted
by the Senate on the 26th of February (yeas 45, nays 27, not
voting 16), and agreed to by the House on the 1st of March
(yeas 161, nays 136, not voting 56).
_Congressional Record,
February 25-March 1, 1901._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (March).
Organization of provincial governments.
Establishment of a department of public education.
Proposed tariff.
Date fixed for cessation of military regime.
On the 3d of March, the President of the Philippine
Commission, Judge Taft, addressed a cable despatch to the U.
S. Secretary of War in which he reported: "Commission has last
three weeks organized five provincial governments—Pampanga,
Pangasinan, Tarlac, Bulacan, Bataan—last two are Tagalog
provinces. Attended each provincial capital in a body; met by
appointment Presidentes, Councillors, and principal men of
towns; explained provisions general provincial act and special
bill for particular province and invited discussion natives
present of both bills. Conventions thus held very
satisfactory; amendments suggested, considered, special bills
enacted, appointments followed. … In three large provinces
natives appointed provisional Governors. In Bataan, on
petition, eight out of nine towns, volunteer officer
appointed. In Tarlac feeling between loyal factions required
appointment American. … In compliance with urgent native
invitations leave March 11 for south to organize provinces
Tayabas, Romblon, Iloilo, Capiz, Zamboanga, such others are
ready. Returning shall organize Zambales, Union, Cagayan,
Ilocos Norte. Military Governor has recommended organization
Batangas, Cavité, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, but shall delay action
as to these until return from northern and southern trips."
On the 18th of March it was announced from Washington that a
number of recent Acts of the Philippine Commission had been
received at the War Department, among them one which
establishes a general department of public instruction, with a
central office at Manila, under the direction of a general
superintendent, to be appointed by the commission, at a salary
of $6,000 a year. "Schools are to be established in every
pueblo in the archipelago where practicable, and those already
established shall be reorganized where necessary. There are to
be ten school divisions in the archipelago, each with a
division superintendent, and there is to be a superior
advisory board, composed of the general superintendent and
four members to be appointed by the Philippine Commission, to
consider the general subject of education in the islands and
make regulations. The English language, as soon as
practicable, shall be made the basis of all public
instruction, and soldiers may be detailed as instructors until
replaced by trained teachers. Authority is given to the general
superintendent to obtain from the United States 1,000 trained
teachers, at salaries of not less than $75 nor more than $100
a month, the exact salary to be fixed according to the
efficiency of the teacher. The act provides that no teacher or
other person "shall teach or criticise the doctrines of any
church, religious sect or denomination or shall attempt to
influence the pupils for or against any church or religious
sect in any public school." Violation of this section is made
punishable by summary dismissal from the public service. It is
provided, however, that it may be lawful for the priest or
minister of the pueblo where the school is situated to teach
religion for half an hour three times a week in the school
building to pupils whose parents desire it. But if any priest,
minister or religious teacher use this opportunity "for the
purpose of arousing disloyalty to the United States or of
discouraging the attendance of pupils or interfering with the
discipline of schools," the division superintendent may forbid
such offending priest from entering the school building
thereafter. The act also provides for a normal school at
Manila for the education of natives in the science of
teaching. It appropriates $400,000 for school buildings,
$220,000 for text books and other supplies for the current
calendar year, $25,000 for the normal school, $15,000 for the
organization and maintenance of a trade school in Manila and
the same amount for a school of agriculture.
{402}
The new tariff for the Islands, which the Commission had been
long engaged in framing, was submitted, in March, to the
government at Washington for approval. "In his letter of
transmittal Judge Taft says that the proposed bill follows
largely the classification of the Cuban tariff, 'but has been
considerably expanded by the introduction of articles
requiring special treatment here by reason of different
surroundings and greater distance from the markets.' Judge
Taft says also that the disposition of the business interests
of the islands is to accept any tariff the commission
proposes, provided only that the duties are specific and not
ad valorem. The question of revenue was kept steadily in view
in the preparation of the schedules, but it was not the only
consideration. Raw materials of Philippine industries, tools,
implements and machinery of production, materials of
transportation, the producers and transmitters of power and
food products are taxed as lightly as possible. … Export
duties are levied on only six articles—hemp, indigo, rice,
sugar, cocoanuts, fresh or as copra, and tobacco. The free
list admits natural mineral waters, trees, shoots and plants,
gold, copper and silver ores, fresh fruits, garden produce,
eggs, milk, ice and fresh meat, except poultry and game. There
is also a list of articles conditionally free of duty. The
importation of explosives is prohibited, but that of firearms
is not."
It is announced from Washington that "Judge Taft and General
MacArthur have agreed upon July 1 as the date for the
establishment of civil government in the Philippines. The
military regime in the islands will therefore cease on June
30, when General Chaffee will relieve General MacArthur of the
command, and Governor Taft will be inaugurated the next day
with considerable ceremony."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (March-April).
Capture of Aguinaldo.
His oath of allegiance to the United States.
His address to his countrymen, counselling peace.
A stratagem, executed with great daring by General Funston of
the American forces, accomplished the capture of the Filipino
leader, Aguinaldo, on the 23d of March. From intercepted
correspondence, it had been learned that Aguinaldo, then
occupying his headquarters at Palanan, Isabela Province, was
expecting to be joined by some riflemen, whom his brother had
been ordered to send to him from central Luzon. On this,
General Funston conceived the plan of equipping a number of
native troops who should pass themselves off as the expected
reinforcements, several American officers going with them
ostensibly as prisoners, the hope being that Aguinaldo might
thus be reached and taken by surprise. General MacArthur
approved the scheme, and it was carried out with success. The
party was made up of 78 Macabebe scouts, four Tagalogs who had
formerly been officers in the insurgent army, and General
Funston, Captain Newton, Lieutenants Hazzard and Mitchel, who
acted the part of prisoners. They were taken by gunboat from
Cavite to a point above Baler, whence they made their way on
foot, sending a message in advance that the expected
reinforcements were on the way and had captured some prisoners
en route. The following brief narrative of what occurred
subsequently is taken from a newspaper account of the
expedition:
"For six days the expedition marched over an exceedingly
difficult country, covering 90 miles. When the men reached a
point eight miles from Aguinaldo's camp they were almost
exhausted from lack of food and the fatigue of the march. They
stopped at this place and sent a message to Aguinaldo,
requesting him to send food to them. The ruse thus far had
worked with the greatest success, and on March 22d, when
Aguinaldo sent provisions, it was seen that he did not have
the slightest suspicion. With the food he sent word that the
Americans were not wanted in his camp, but instructing their
supposed captors to treat them kindly. On March 23d the march
was resumed, the Macabebe officers starting an hour ahead of
the main body of the expedition. The 'prisoners,' under guard,
followed them. When the party arrived at Aguinaldo's camp a
bodyguard of 50 riflemen was paraded, and the officers were
received at Aguinaldo's house, which was situated on the
Palanan River. After some conversation with him, in which they
gave the alleged details of their suppositious engagement with
an American force, they made excuses and quietly left the
house. They at once gave orders in an undertone for the
Macabebes to get in position and fire on the bodyguard. The
order was obeyed with the greatest rapidity, and three volleys
were delivered. The insurgents were panic-stricken by the
sudden turn in affairs, and they broke and ran in
consternation. Two of them, however, were killed and eighteen
wounded. Simultaneously with the delivery of the volleys the
American officers rushed into Aguinaldo's house. Major
Alhambra, one of Aguinaldo's staff, had been shot in the face.
He, however, was determined not to be captured and he jumped
from a window into the river and disappeared. Two captains and
four lieutenants made their escape in a similar manner.
Aguinaldo, Colonel Villa, his chief of staff, and Santiago
Barcelona, the insurgent treasurer, did not have time to make
an attempt to get away before General Funston and the others
were upon them, demanding their surrender. Seeing that the
situation was hopeless, they gave themselves up. Aguinaldo was
furious at having been caught, but later he became
philosophical and declared that the ruse by which he had been
captured was the only one which would have proved successful
if the Americans had tried for 20 years. One of the Macabebes
was wounded. The party stayed two days at the camp and then
marched overland to the coast, where the Vicksburg, whose
arrival was excellently timed, picked them up and brought them
back to Manila."
On the 2d of April, a despatch from General MacArthur to the
War Department announced that Aguinaldo, on the advice of
Chief Justice Arellano, had taken the following oath of
allegiance to the United States: "I hereby renounce all
allegiance to any and all so-called revolutionary governments
in the Philippine Islands, and recognize and accept the
supreme authority of the United States of America therein; I
do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance
to that government; that I will at all times conduct myself as
a faithful and law abiding citizen of the said islands, and
will not, either directly or indirectly, hold correspondence
with or give intelligence to an enemy of the United States,
nor will I abet, harbor or protect such enemy; that I impose
upon myself these voluntary obligations without any mental
reservations or purpose of evasion, so help me God."
{403}
On the 19th of April, Aguinaldo issued the following address
to his countrymen: "I believe I am not in error in presuming
that the unhappy fate to which my adverse fortune has led me
is not a surprise to those who have been familiar with the
progress of the war. The lessons taught with a full meaning,
and which have recently come to my knowledge, suggest with
irresistible force that a complete termination of hostilities
and lasting peace are not only desirable, but absolutely
essential to the welfare of the Philippine Islands. The
Filipinos have never been dismayed at their weakness, nor have
they faltered in following the path pointed out by their
fortitude and courage. The time has come, however, in which
they find their advance along this path to be impeded by an
irresistible force, which, while it restrains them, yet
enlightens their minds and opens to them another course,
presenting them the cause of peace. This cause has been
joyfully embraced by the majority of my fellow countrymen who
already have united around the glorious sovereign banner of
the United States. In this banner they repose their trust and
believe that under its protection the Filipino people will
attain all those promised liberties which they are beginning
to enjoy. The country has declared unmistakably in favor of
peace. So be it. There has been enough blood, enough tears and
enough desolation. This wish cannot be ignored by the men
still in arms, if they are animated by a desire to serve our
noble people, which has thus clearly manifested its will. So
do I respect this will, now that it is known to me. After
mature deliberation, I resolutely proclaim to the world that I
cannot refuse to heed the voice of a people longing for peace,
nor the lamentations of thousands of families yearning to see
their dear ones enjoying the liberty and the promised
generosity of the great American Nation. By acknowledging and
accepting the sovereignty of the United States throughout the
Philippine Archipelago, as I now do, and without any
reservation whatsoever, I believe that I am serving thee, my
beloved country. May happiness be thine."
PHŒNICIANS, The:
Modified estimates of their influence upon early
European civilization.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
PILLAGER INDIAN OUTBREAK.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1898.
PLAGUE, The Bubonic.
For years the plague has "continued to breed in various inner
parts of Asia, and in 1894, coming from the Chinese province
of Yunnan, it invaded Canton, taking there 60,000 victims in a
few weeks. Thence it spread to Hong Kong, reached next year
the island of Haïnan and Macao, invaded Formosa in 1896, and
in the autumn of the same year appeared at Bombay. In the big
city of India it found all necessary conditions for breeding,
unchecked, for several months in succession: famine,
overcrowding, and the absence of all preventive measures; and
from Bombay it was carried by rail and road, to different
parts of India. … Happily enough, the plague is no longer the
mysterious, revengeful being which it used to be for our
ancestors. Its cause and modes of propagation are well known.
It is an infectious disease with a short period of incubation.
From four to six days after infection takes place, a sudden
loss of forces—often a full prostration, accompanied by a high
fever-sets in. A bubo appears, and soon grows to the size of
an egg. Death soon follows. If not—there is a chance of slow
and painful recovery; but that chance is very small, because
even under the best conditions of nursing, the mortality is
seldom less than four out of each five cases of illness. As to
the means of propagation of the plague, they are many. The
poison may infect a wound or a scratch; it may be ingested in
food; it may be simply inhaled. Dust from an infected house
was sufficient to infect healthy rats; and when healthy rats
were shut up in one cage with unhealthy ones, all caught the
disease and died. Already in 1881 Netten Redcliffe and Dr.
Pichon indicated that before the plague attacks men it
destroys mice and rats. This was fully confirmed in 1894 by
the Japanese and French bacteriologists Kitasato and Yersin,
at Hong Kong, and by Dr. Rennie, of the Chinese Customs, at
Canton. Masses of dead rats were seen in the streets of the
infested parts of Hong Kong, and the keeper of the west gates
of Canton collected and buried 24,000 of these animals. Dr.
Rennie also pointed out that among those inhabitants of Canton
who lived in boats on the river there were no cases of plague,
except a few imported from town, so that even rich Cantonese
took to living in boats; and he explained the immunity of the
boat-dwellers by the absence of infection through rats. The
worst is, however, that swine, and even goats and buffaloes,
snakes and jackals, are attacked by the plague. …
"As soon as the plague broke out at Hong Kong, the great
Japanese bacteriologist Kitasato and the French doctor Yersin,
who is well known for his work with Roux on the serum
treatment of diphtheria, were already on the spot. Yersin
obtained from the English authorities permission to erect a
small straw hut in the yard of the chief hospital, and there
he began his researches. Both Kitasato and Yersin had no
difficulty in ascertaining that the plague buboes teemed with
special bacteria, which had the shape of tiny microscopic
sticklets, thickened at their ends. To isolate these bacteria,
to cultivate them in artificial media, and to ascertain the
deadly effects of these cultures upon animals, was soon done
by such masters in bacteriology as Kitasato and Yersin. The
cause of the plague was thus discovered. It was evident that
infected rats and swine—especially swine with the Chinese, who
keep them in their houses—were spreading the disease, in
addition to men themselves. The same bacteria teemed in the
dead animals. As to men, the discharges from their buboes, and
even, in many cases, their expectorations, were full of plague
bacteria. Besides, Yersin soon noticed that in his
'laboratory,' where he was dissecting animals killed by the
plague, the flies died in numbers. He found that they were
infested with the same bacteria, and carried them about:
inoculations of bacteria obtained from the flies at once
provoked the plague in guinea-pigs. Ants, gnats, and other
insects may evidently spread infection in the same way, while
in and round the infested houses the soil is impregnated with
the same bacteria. As soon as the pest microbe became known,
experiments were begun, at the Paris Institut Pasteur, for
finding the means to combat it; and in July 1895 Yersin,
Calmette, and Borel could already announce that some very
promising results had been obtained."
_P. Kropotkin,
Recent Science
(Nineteenth Century, July, 1897)._
{404}
Of the first appearance of the plague in India, at Bombay, and
the early stages of its spread in that country, the Viceroy,
Lord Elgin, made the following report to the Secretary of
State for India, on the 27th of January, 1897: "The first
official intimation of the outbreak which reached us was in a
telegram from the Government of Bombay, dated the 29th
September 1896. The disease was then reported to be of a mild
type, and at first it showed no tendency to increase. …
Throughout the months of October and November the disease made
little or no progress, and the number of deaths reported a day
averaged nine. Early in December there was a marked increase,
and the number of deaths reported daily from the 2nd to the
23rd (inclusive) was about 32. From the 24th December onwards
there was another marked increase, and the number of deaths
reported from that date to the 14th January (inclusive)
averaged about 51. The next week shows a further increase, the
reported number of deaths averaging 74 a day. The total number
of deaths reported during October was 276; during November,
268; during December, 1,160; and from the 1st to the 25th
January, 1,444. The total number of deaths reported from the
beginning of the outbreak thus amounts to 3,148. We have
reason to fear that all deaths from the plague have not been
reported as such, and that the true mortality from the disease
is higher than is shown by the above figures. … For a
considerable time, except for a few imported cases in some
towns in Gujarat, the outbreak was confined to Bombay itself,
but on the 23rd of December we learnt from the Government of
Bombay that the plague had broken out in Karachi. … The total
number of deaths that have been reported in Karachi, from the
beginning of the outbreak up to the 24th January, is 608. It
will be observed that the disease has been very malignant in
Karachi, and that almost all the cases reported have been
fatal. As soon as the Surgeon General with the Government of
Bombay reported to that Government that he had seen cases of a
mild type of bubonic plague in the city, preventive measures
were adopted and a Committee of medical experts were appointed
to report on the disease and the situation. The Municipal
Corporation have from the outset required the infected
quarters to undergo a thorough and systematic cleaning and
disinfection; and they have also pushed on vigorously other
sanitary measures, such as the improvement of house
connections and the construction of surface drains in quarters
where the drainage was defective. A house-to-house visitation
by medical officers has also been instituted. The Corporation
have sanctioned liberal measures towards these ends, and the
executive officers have displayed great energy in carrying
them out. … We have informed the Government of Bombay that we
consider it necessary that the plan of removing all persons
from infected houses, and thoroughly cleansing and
disinfecting the buildings, should be carried out, and we have
asked His Excellency in Council, if he agrees, to report the
measures that are adopted to bring the plan into general
effect."
To the above suggestion that all persons be removed from
infected houses, the government of Bombay replied, on the 12th
of February: "His Excellency is advised that, to give full
effect to such a proposal, at the lowest computation, 30,000
persons belonging to different races, castes, and creeds would
need to be provided with temporary dwellings. There is no site
within the limits of the Bombay municipality which would
accommodate a tenth of this number. Great difficulty has
attended all attempts at the segregation of healthy inmates of
infected houses hitherto made, and very limited success bas
been achieved. From the beginning of the outbreak of this
disease it has been found that the native inhabitants of the
city are very reluctant to leave their houses or to allow any
member of their family afflicted with the disease to be taken
away. Indeed, their dread of the disease itself appears to be
hardly so powerful as their horror of being removed from their
houses. Ignorance and superstition prevent them from
discerning either that removal to a hospital is good for the
sick or removal [from] infected dwellings good for the
healthy, and they are far more easily moved by fear of the
municipal and police authorities than by any realisation of
the benefits that will accrue from a sensible course of
action. It is estimated that not less than 300,000 persons
have already fled from Bombay, moved so to do, not only by
fear of the plague, but quite as much, if not more, by an
unfounded and unreasonable fear of what might happen to them
at the hands of the police and municipal authorities were they
to remain."
Contending with such obstacles to the use of the most
effective measures for checking the spread of the disease, the
authorities at Bombay and elsewhere, who seem to have worked
with energy, saw little to encourage their efforts for some
time. In a second report to the Secretary of State for India,
made February 10, Lord Elgin was compelled to write: "We much
regret that we are unable to report that the plague shows any
signs of abating. In both Bombay and Karachi there has been an
increase in the daily number of seizures and deaths since the
beginning of the current month." But, a month later, on the
10th of March, the Viceroy reported that "the position of
affairs in Bombay is distinctly better. There has been a
decrease in the reported number of plague seizures and deaths,
and the total daily mortality from all causes shows a marked
diminution. During the week ending the 22nd February, the
average daily number of seizures and deaths was 115 and 117,
respectively; during the following week the daily average fell
to 107 and 99, whilst during the period March 2nd to March 8th
it has been 99 and 84. … Persons are now returning to the
quarters of Bombay, which are comparatively free from plague,
from the more infected outlying suburbs, and the Government of
Bombay have therefore found it necessary to watch persons
entering as well as those leaving Bombay. In the suburbs of
Kurla, Bandora, and Bhiwandi the plague continues to be
severe. Outside Bombay in the Presidency proper the number of
indigenous cases has increased, and the disease shows a
tendency to spread, especially in the Thana and Surat
districts. … Outside Karachi the plague shows no tendency to
spread in Sind, and Sukkur is the only other place from which
indigenous cases have been reported."
_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: C.-8386, 1897; and C.-8511, 1897)._
{405}
From that time there appears to have been a nearly steady
subsidence of the disease until the following September, when
it showed renewed virulence at Poona, and began to be newly
spread, invading districts in the Punjab and elsewhere outside
of the Bombay Presidency. By the middle of November Poona was
substantially empty of inhabitants, except those stricken with
the disease and those who bravely cared for the sick and dying.
In December there was a fresh outbreak in Bombay, which soon
became more deadly than that of the previous winter and
spring. By the beginning of February, 1898, and through March,
the deaths from plague alone in Bombay had risen above a
thousand a week. Then another subsidence occurred, followed by
another recrudescence of the disease in August, and another
decline in October. But the variations in other districts were
not uniform with those in Bombay. At the end of 1898, the
total of mortality from plague in all the afflicted districts
of India, reckoning from the beginning, was believed to exceed
100,000, including 70,000 in the Bombay Presidency and Sind
(28,000 in the city of Bombay), and 2,000 in the Punjab. In
Calcutta there had been but 150 deaths. Although the measures
taken for checking the spread of the pestilence were far less
stringent than they would have been among people more capable
of understanding what they meant and what their importance
was, they alarmed the religious jealousies of both the Hindus
and the Mohammedans, and were resisted and resented with
dangerous fury at a number of times. At Poona, in June, 1897,
two British officials were murdered by young Brahmins, who had
been excited to the deed by native journals, the language of
which was so violent that the government found it necessary to
prosecute several for sedition. At Bombay, in March, 1898,
when the plague was at its worst, there were very serious
riots, in which a number of Europeans were killed, and troops
were called to the help of the police before the frenzied mob
could be overcome.
Again, in 1899, there was a revival of the disease in India,
especially at Bombay, during the winter, with a decline in
April and fresh virulence in September. At the end of the year
the estimate of total mortality from plague in India since the
beginning was 250,000.
Of the wider spreading of the pestilence during 1900 the
following summary of information is given in the annual report
of the United States Secretary of the Treasury, in connection
with details of quarantine measures: "The Surgeon-General
reports that plague has been more widely distributed during
the year than was ever known in history, and for the first
time obtained lodgment in the Western Hemisphere, at Santos,
Brazil, in October, 1899. By this it is not meant that the
disease has been actually more prevalent than before, but that
its points of contact have embraced nearly every civilized
country in the world, though its prompt recognition and
application of modern methods have either entirely prevented
its spread or have caused it to disappear after a short period
of infection. The scientific knowledge of the disease renders
it far less to be dreaded than before, but increase in rapid
communication between different parts of the world facilitates
its transportation. In illustration, the fact is cited that 20
vessels have been reported, arriving at as many principal
seaports in different parts of the world, on which plague was
discovered on arrival or had manifested itself during the
voyage. As heretofore, its chief ravages have been in India,
where preventive measures have been hindered by religious
fanaticism. In India during the year there were 66,294 deaths.
Notable outbreaks of the disease occurred in Kobe and in
Formosa, Japan, at Oporto, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Honolulu,
Sydney, Mauritius, Hongkong, and Glasgow.
"In December, 1899, on account of the apparent spread of this
disease, 12 commissioned officers were detailed by order of
the President for duty in the offices of the United States
consuls at the principal ports in England and on the
Continent. In June, the disease fortunately not having become
as widespread as anticipated, they were recalled, with the
exception of five, who are still retained for the purpose of
furnishing information and for service at any needed point.
Two of those thus retained, when the plague was announced at
Glasgow, Scotland, on August 28, 1900, were immediately sent
to that point and began inspection of vessels for the United
States and also for Canada, by request of that Government,
thus enabling vessels to be entered at ports on this side
without undue restraint. In the laboratory of the Service,
scientific investigations as to the viability of the plague
bacillus and the methods and efficiency of disinfection have
been conducted, and the results, together with excerpts from
all available literature hearing upon the prevention of
plague, have been published in the Public Health Reports,
forming, for this year, a volume containing most complete
information upon this disease. About 700,000 doses of
Haffkine's prophylactic were also prepared in the laboratory
and sent to the United States quarantine officers at home and
abroad, together with large quantities of Yersin's serum,
purchased early in the year from the Pasteur Institute in
Paris. In these two preparations, the one (Haffkine) a
prophylactic and the other (Yersin) both prophylactic and a
cure, the Surgeon-General says that science has effective
methods of combating the spread of this disease."
_United States, Secretary of the Treasury,
Annual Report, December 4, 1900._
The "antitoxin, or serum, first prepared by Professor Haffkine
as a plague inoculation, called Haffkine's prophylactic, is
now being used in Bombay and western India with remarkable
results. This prophylactic is prepared by first taking the
plague bacilli, or the young germs, from a person affected
with the plague and cultivating them. These microbes are
killed by artificial means and a high degree of heat. From
these dead germs and their poisonous excrements is produced a
fluid that is believed to have acquired the power, when
injected into the human system, to render the blood immune
from the attack of plague germs and to neutralize their
effect. The injection of such a poison has the effect of an
antitoxin and prevents the system from nourishing plague. A
dead plague germ being inoculated into a person, plague will
not follow. A person after having one attack of the disease is
rarely liable to a second. The person first inoculated is
subject to symptoms of the plague.
{406}
In vaccination for smallpox
a living germ is dealt with, whereas in plague inoculation
dead seed only are injected. … Inoculation is exceedingly
unpopular among the natives. The government has had great
labor in persuading the Hindoo mind of the efficacy of
Haffkine's prophylactic against plague and at the same time of
its utter harmlessness in every other respect. The Hindoo is
suspicious that the dead germs and their toxic excreta may be
of animal rather than vegetable substance, which would make
the injection of the fluid into their body a religious
offense."
_United States Consular Reports,
January, 1900, page 101._
"In the present epidemic, plague-spots are scattered over the
whole face of the globe from Sydney to Santos and Hongkong,
and recently from San Francisco suspicious cases have been
reported. The annual pilgrimage of Moslems to worship at the
shrines of Mecca and Medina is now, as in the past, of all
human agencies, the most active in spreading the pest. … Since
Egypt is nearest, plague first appears there in the seaport
towns, particularly Alexandria. Sanitary conditions have
improved vastly, like economics, under British control; and,
last year, what in other times might have been a devastating
epidemic was limited to relatively a few scattered cases.
Recognizing the danger to themselves, the European powers have
been led to take steps, under the Venice Convention, for their
own protection. An international quarantine, under the control
of the Egyptian Sanitary, Maritime, and Quarantine Council, in
which the powers have one vote each and Egypt three, has
established stations at two points on the Red Sea."
_American Review of Reviews,
May, 1900._
PLATT AMENDMENT, The.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
PLURAL VOTING.
See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
PLYMOUTH COLONY:
Return of the manuscript of Bradford's History to
Massachusetts.
See (in this volume)
MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
POET LAUREATE.
To the line of English Poets Laureate (see, in volume 3,
LAUREATE, ENGLISH POETS), there was added on the 1st of
January, 1896, the name of Alfred Austin, succeeding Tennyson,
who died October B, 1892.
POLAND, Russian:
Relaxation of oppressions.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897.
POLAR EXPLORATION, Arctic and Antarctic:
A chronological record.
Until quite recent years, the antarctic region had had few
explorers. In 1598-9 Dirk Gerritz was carried south by a storm
and found land, probably the South Shetlands, at 64° South
latitude. Capt. Cook made two antarctic voyages, in the second
one reaching latitude 71° 10' South, at longitude 106° 54'
West, sailing entirely around the southern ocean in a high
latitude, and discovering many islands. In a Russian
expedition, 1819-21, Bellinghausen discovered Peter I. Island
and Alexander I. Land. Enderby Land was discovered by John
Biscoe in 1831-2. In 1840-3 the great English expedition under
Captain (afterward Sir) James Ross, in the Erebus and Terror,
discovered and named Victoria Land, and reached latitude 78°
11', February 23, 1842. The continent which Captain Charles
Wilkes claimed to have discovered in 1840 has not been found
by later explorers. In 1874 the Challenger was turned back by
the ice in latitude 66° 43' South.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1892-1893.
Whaling voyage of the Dundee vessels, the Balæna, Active,
Diana and Polar Star, equipped for geographical observation by
the Royal Geographical Society and others interested, carrying
William S. Bruce, C. W. Donald, and W. G. Burn Murdoch.
Accompanied by the Norwegian sealer Jasen, under Captain
Larsen. South Shetlands and Graham Land visited and valuable
observations made.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1893-1900.
Scientific exploration of Labrador by A. P. Low.
Operations still in progress.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1894-1895.
Commercial voyage of the Norwegian whaler Antarctic, under
Captain Kristensen, sent by Captain Svend Foyn, fitted out by
H. J. Bull, and carrying the scientist C. E. Borchgrevinck.
The valuable right whale was not found, but large beds of
guano were discovered in Victoria Land, where a landing was
made near Cape Adare.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Return of Peary relief expedition with Lieutenant Robert E.
Peary and his companions. In spite of great difficulties
Lieutenant Peary had again crossed the ice-sheet to
Independence Bay, determined the northern limits of Greenland,
charted 1,000 miles of the west coast, discovered eleven
islands and the famous Iron Mountain (three great meteorites),
and obtained much knowledge of the natives. The purely
scientific results of the expedition are of great value. The
relief expedition was organized by Mrs. Peary.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Cruise of Mr. Pearson and Lieutenant Feilden in Barents Sea.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Return of Martin Ekroll from Spitzbergen after a winter's
study of the ice conditions there. Convinced that his plan of
reaching the pole by a sledge journey had little chance of
success.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Survey of the lower Yenesei River and Obi Bay by Siberian
hydrographic expedition.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Commercial expedition of Captain Wiggins from England to
Golchika, at the mouth of the Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Russian geological expedition to Nova Zembla.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Russian expedition under the geologist Bogdanovich to the Sea
of Okhotsk and Kamchatka.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895-1896.
Two scientific voyages of the Danish cruiser Ingolf
in the seas west and east of Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Summer expedition of naturalists and college students to the
northern coast of Labrador.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Attempt of Lieutenant Peary to remove the great meteorite
discovered by him at Cape York, Greenland. After dislodging it
he was compelled by the ice to leave it. Small parties from
Cornell University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and one under Mr. George Bartlett, left by Peary at different
points to make scientific observations and collections,
returned with him.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Hydrographical survey of the Danish waters of Greenland and
Iceland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Hansen sent to Siberia to look for traces of Nansen.
{407}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Return of Dr. Nansen from voyage begun in 1893. After skirting
the coast of Siberia almost to the Lena delta, the Fram was
enclosed by the ice and drifted with it north and northwest.
On March 14, 1895, in 84° 4' North latitude, 102° East
longitude, Nansen and Johansen left the Fram and pushed
northward with dogs and sledges across an ice floe till they
reached latitude 86° 13.6', at about 95° West longitude, on
April 8, within 261 statute miles of the pole. With great
difficulty they made their way to Franz Josef Land, where they
wintered, and in June met explorer Jackson. Returning on the
Jackson supply steamer Windward, they reached Vardö August 13.
The Fram drifted to latitude 85° 57' North, 66° East
longitude, then southwestward, reaching Tromsoë August 20,
1896. Nansen demonstrated the existence of a polar sea of
great depth, comparatively warm below the surface, apparently
with few islands; though he did not find the trans-polar
current he sought.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Spitzbergen crossed for the first time, by Sir W. Martin
Conway and party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Many parties visit the northern coast of Norway and Nova
Zembla to view the total eclipse of the sun, August 8-9.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Expedition sent by Russian Hydrographic Department to find
site for a sealers' refuge in Nova Zembla. Bielusha Bay, on
the southwest coast, chosen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Expedition sent by Canadian government to investigate Hudson
Bay and Strait as a route to Central Canada. Passage found to
be navigable for at least sixteen weeks each summer.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Seventh Peary expedition to Greenland. Accompanied by parties
for scientific research. Preliminary arrangements made with
the Eskimos for the expedition of 1898, and food-stations
established. Relics of Greeley's expedition found on Cape
Sabine, and the great meteorite at Cape York brought away at
last.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Second expedition of Sir Martin Conway for the exploration of
Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
A summer resort established on west coast of Spitzbergen, with
regular steamer service for tourists during July and August.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Cruise of Mr. Arnold Pike and Sir Savile Crossley among the
islands east of Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Cruise of Mr. Pearson and Lieutenant Feilden in the Laura in
the Kara Sea and along the east coast of Nova Zembla, for the
purpose of studying the natural history of the region.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Expedition of F. W. L. Popham with a fleet of steamers through
Yugor Straits to the Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Hydrological and commercial expedition, comprising seven
steamers, under Rear-Admiral Makaroff, sent by the Russian
government to the north Siberian sea.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Balloon voyage of Salamon August Andrée and two companions,
Mr. Strindberg and Mr. Fraenkel, starting from Danes' Island,
north of Spitzbergen, in the hope of being carried to the
pole. Four buoys from the balloon have been found. The first,
found in Norway in June, 1899, and containing a note from
Andrée, was thrown out eight hours after his departure. The
"north pole buoy," to be dropped when the pole was passed, was
found empty on the north side of King Charles Island,
north-east of Spitzbergen, September 11, 1899. A third buoy,
also empty, was found on the west coast of Iceland July 17,
1900. Another, reported from Norway, August 31, 1900,
contained a note showing that the buoy was thrown out at 10 P.
M., July 11, 1897, at an altitude of 250 metres (820 feet),
moving North 45 East, with splendid weather. Many search
expeditions, some equipped at great expense, have returned
unsuccessful. In spite of many rumors nothing definite is
known of the fate of any of the party. One message from Andrée
was brought back by a carrier pigeon. It was dated July 13,
12.30 P. M., in latitude 82° 2', longitude 12° 5' East, and
stated that the balloon was moving eastward.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
New islands on the southern coast of Franz Josef Land
discovered by Captain Robertson of the Dundee whaler Balæna.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Return of Jackson-Harmsworth expedition from three years'
exploration of Franz Josef Land and the region north of it.
Franz Josef Land was resolved into a group of islands and
almost entire]y mapped. Small parties journeying northward
over the ice, establishing depots of supplies, the most
northern in latitude 81° 21', discovered and named Victoria
Sea, the most northern open sea in the world.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Anglo-Australasian antarctic conference in London.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897-1899.
Journey of Andrew J. Stone through the Canadian Rockies, down
Mackenzie River and along the arctic coast, in search of rare
mammals and information concerning the native tribes. Mr.
Stone often had only one companion. He traveled rapidly, in
one period of five months covering 3,000 miles of arctic coast
and mountains, between 70° and 72° North latitude and between
117½° and 140° West longitude.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897-1899.
Belgian antarctic expedition under Captain Adrien de Gerlache
to lands south of America. Sailed from Antwerp to explore and
chart coast line, expecting to leave party to winter at Cape
Adare and explore interior. Near Alexander I. Land the Belgica
caught in the ice pack and held for a year, drifting as far
south as latitude 71° 36', in longitude 87° 39' West. Finally
released by the cutting of a canal through the ice. This
dreary winter the first spent by men far enough south to lose
sight of the sun. The continent found to be mountainous,
glaciated, and without land animals except a few insects,
though sea fowl abounded. One flowering grass, and a few
mosses, rock lichens, and fresh-water algæ constitute the
flora. Some 500 miles of coast chartered.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Expedition of Dr. K. J. V. Steenstrup to Greenland to study
the glaciers of Disko island.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Completion by Dr. Thoroddsen of his systematic exploration of
Iceland, begun in 1881.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Spitzbergen circumnavigated and surveyed by Dr. A. G.
Nathorst. Coast mapped and important scientific observations
made.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Pendulum observations made in Spitzbergen by Professor J. H.
Gore, with instruments of the United States Coast and Geodetic
Survey, for the determination of the force of gravity in that
latitude.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Cruise of Prince Albert of Monaco, on coast of Spitzbergen,
for the purpose of making scientific observations.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Some claim to Spitzbergen made by Russia. Never before claimed
by any nation.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
German arctic expedition under Theodor Lerner to the islands
east of Spitzbergen, for scientific purposes and to obtain
news of Andrée if possible.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Andrée search expedition under J. Stadling sent to the Lena
delta, the mouth of the Yenesei and the islands of New Siberia
by the Swedish Anthropological and Geographical Society.
{408}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Conference on antarctic exploration held in the rooms of
the Royal Society, London, February 24.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
Reconnoitring expedition by Danish party under Lieutenant G.
C. Amdrup, to east coast of Greenland. Coast explored and
mapped from Angmagsalik, 65¾ North latitude, to 67° 22'.
Remains of a small extinct Eskimo settlement found.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
Second attempt by Walter Wellman to reach the north pole.
Wintered in Franz Josef Land, establishing an outpost, called
Fort McKinley, in latitude 81° North. In February Mr. Wellman,
with three companions, started northward and seemed likely to
succeed in their undertaking, but a serious accident befalling
Mr. Wellman, and an icequake destroying many dogs and sledges,
a hurried return to headquarters was necessary. Here important
scientific observations were made. The 82d parallel was
reached by the explorer.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
German expedition for deep-sea exploration in antarctic
waters, in charge of Professor Carl Chun, on the Valdivia.
Southern ocean found to be of great depth.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1900.
British antarctic expedition under Borchgrevinck to Victoria
Land; the funds provided by Sir George Newnes. Latitude 78°
50' South reached, and the present position of the southern
magnetic pole determined.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Carefully planned expedition of Lieutenant Peary, purposing to
advance toward the pole by west coast of Greenland,
establishing food stations and depending upon picked Eskimos
for co-operation with his small party. In the last dash for
the pole, supply sledges to be sent back as emptied, and the
returning explorer, with two companions only, to be met by a
relief party of Eskimos. The Windward was presented by Mr.
Harmsworth for this expedition. Lieutenant Peary was disabled
for several weeks in 1898-9 by severe frost-bites, causing the
loss of seven toes. The Greeley records were found at Fort
Conger and sent back by the annual supply vessel. Sextant and
record of the Nares expedition found and sent back; presented
by Lieutenant Peary to the Lords of the Admiralty of Great
Britain and placed in the museum of the Royal Naval College at
Greenwich. Vessel sent to Greenland each summer to carry
supplies and bring back letters, carrying also small parties
of explorers, scientists, university students and hunters, to
be left at various points and picked up by the vessel on its
return.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Expedition of Captain Sverdrup to northern Greenland
Lieutenant Peary's especial field.
Having planned a polar expedition similar to Peary's he sailed
up the west coast, but the Fram was frozen in near Cape
Sabine. Sverdrup therefore explored the western part of
Ellesmere Land, then sailed again in an attempt to round the
northern coast of Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
International conference held at Stockholm in June recommended
a program for hydrographical and biological work in the
northern parts of the Atlantic ocean, the North Sea, the
Baltic, and adjoining seas.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Scientific expedition of Edward Bay, a Dane, to Melville Bay,
Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Swedish expedition under Dr. A. G. Nathorst to search for
Andrée in eastern Greenland. Valuable observations made and
fjord-systems of King Oscar Fjord and Kaiser Franz Josef Fjord
mapped.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Explorations in Iceland by F. W. W. Howell and party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Hydrographic surveys on the coasts of Iceland and the Färoe
Islands by MM. Holm and Hammer in the Danish guard-ship Diana.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Joint Russian and Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen, for the
measurement of a degree of the meridian. Owing to the
condition of the ice, the northern and southern surveying
parties unable to connect their work.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Explorations in Spitzbergen by the Prince of Monaco, with a
scientific staff.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Successful experimental voyage of the Russian Vice-Admiral
Makaroff in his ice-breaking steamer, the Yermak, north of
Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Russian government expedition, to cost £5,400, to explore
northern shores of Siberia to mouths of the Obi and Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899-1900.
Arctic expedition of the Duke of the Abruzzi. His ship, the
Stella Polare, was left at Crown Prince Rudolf Land during the
winter. The Duke became incapacitated by a fall and by the loss
of two joints from the fingers of his left hand, incurably
frost-bitten; but a small party under Captain Cagni pushed
northward till provisions were exhausted. Nansen's record was
beaten, the Italian party reaching latitude 86° 33', at about
56° East longitude. No land was found north or northwest of
Spitzbergen. Three men were lost from Cagni's party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Exploration of Ellesmere Land, Greenland, by Dr. Robert Stein,
of the United States Geological Survey, Dr. Leopold Kann of
Cornell, and Samuel Warmbath of Harvard, who took passage in
the Peary supply ship Diana, trusting to chance for conveyance
home. Their totally inadequate outfit was generously augmented
by Peary's friends of the Diana. Dr. Kann returned in 1900,
leaving Dr. Stein.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Seward peninsula, the most westward extension of Alaska,
explored and surveyed by five government expeditions.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Exploration of the interior of northern Labrador by a party
from Harvard University. Soundings along the coast by schooner
Brave.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Second Danish expedition under Lieutenant Amdrup to east
Greenland, completing the work of 1898-9 by mapping the coast
between 67° 20' North and Cape Gladstone, about 70° North, and
making valuable scientific collections.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Swedish expedition, under Gustav Kolthoff, to eastern
Greenland, for study of the arctic fauna.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Swedish scientific expedition of Professor G. Kolthoff to
Spitzbergen and Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Exploration of Spitzbergen by a Russian expedition under
Knipovich.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Russian expedition to east coast of Nova Zembla by Lieutenant
Borissoff to complete survey of the islands.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Dr. Nansen's expedition under the leadership of Dr. J. Hjort,
for the physical and biological examination of the sea between
Norway, Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
German expedition, under Captain Bade, to explore East
Spitzbergen, King Charles' Land and Franz Josef Land, and to
look for traces of Andrée.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Attempt of a German, Captain Bauendahl, to reach the north
pole, leaving his vessel in the ice north of Spitzbergen and
traveling over the ice with provisions for two years, weighing
ten tons.
{409}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Scientific expedition of Baron E. von Toll to the unexplored
Sannikoff Land, sighted in 1805 from the northern coast
islands of New Siberia. Preceded by a party which established
food depots at various places months before.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Three exploring parties sent to Alaska by the United States
Geological Survey.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Expedition sent by the Duke of the Abruzzi to Franz Josef Land
to search for the three men lost from his party in 1900.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
North polar expedition under Mr. Evelyn B. Baldwin of the
United States Weather Bureau; splendidly equipped by Mr.
William Ziegler of New York. Mr. Baldwin, who has had arctic
experience with Lieutenant Peary and Mr. Wellman, will
probably proceed by way of Franz Josef Land.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Several expeditions to co-operate in exploration of the
antarctic region and to reach the south pole if possible. The
British expedition, long striven for by the Royal Geographical
Society and the Royal Society and made possible by L. W.
Longstaff's contribution of £25,000, to be under the command
of Captain Robert Scott and to explore the Victoria (90°-180°
East) and Ross (180°-90° West) quadrants,—in the main the
region south of the Pacific. The Weddell (90° West-0°,
Greenwich) and Enderby (0°-90 East) quadrants assigned to the
finely equipped German expedition, under Drygalski, which will
first explore south of the Indian Ocean. The Swedish expedition
under Dr. Nordenskïold to explore the lands south of America.
A private Scottish expedition under William S. Bruce to
explore the Weddell Sea region south of the Atlantic Ocean. An
Argentine expedition to visit the South Shetlands.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Projected expedition of Captain J. E. Bernier of Quebec, on
Nansen's principle, with a specially built vessel, to sail
through Bering Strait, coast Siberia to longitude 170° or 165°
East, then enter the ice. Sledging parties to push toward the
pole, marking the route with hollow signal poles (of aluminum)
packed with records and provisions, and maintaining
communication with the ship by wireless telegraphy. This is
one of two plans which he lays before the Canadian government.
The other contemplates a movement, with dogs and reindeers,
from Franz Josef Land, coming back to Spitzbergen, taking 12
or 14 men, all scientists.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Projected expedition of Herr Annschütz-Kämpfe, of Munich, to
the north pole, in a submarine boat capable of carrying five
men and remaining under water for fifteen hours at a time.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
As this goes to press (April, 1901), a national antarctic
expedition is being fitted out, jointly, by the Royal
Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Great Britain,
assisted by a subsidy of £45,000 from the British government.
A steamer named the "Discovery," built especially for the
expedition, at Dundee, was launched in March, and is being
equipped with remarkable completeness. Special arrangements,
says "The Times," will be made for magnetic work, while
meteorology, geology and biology will be well cared for. "The
staff of navigating officers and of scientific specialists has
been carefully selected, and under Commander Robert Scott. R.
N., who will be in command of the expedition, their work, we
may be sure, will be so well organized that nothing of
importance will be neglected. There will be five navigating
officers, three of them belonging to the Royal Navy and two
others to the Royal Naval Reserve, while the special
scientific staff, including the two medical officers, will be
of equal strength. … Captain Scott is at present investigating
the question of the utility of balloons."
POLISH PARTY, in Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896, and after.
POONA, The Plague at.
See (in this volume)
PLAGUE.
POPE LEO XIII.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY.
POPULATION:
Of Europe and countries peopled from Europe.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
POPULIST PARTY, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1894.
Capture by Japanese.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1895.
Trans-Siberian Railway.
Russo-Chinese Treaty.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1898.
Lease to Russia.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JULY).
----------PORTO RICO: Start--------
[Image: Map of Porto Rico.]
PORTO RICO:
Area and Population.
In the testimony given, January 13, 1900, before the United
States Senate Committee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico,
General George W. Davis, Military Governor of Porto Rico, gave
the following information: "The island of Puerto Rico has an area
of about 3,600 square miles, according to the best information
that now exists, but that area has to be verified, and it is
doubted if the area is quite so large. It has a population of
about a million, perhaps—certainly one of the most densely
populated areas of 3,000 or 4,000 square miles on the face of
the earth, approximating the density of population of Belgium,
I think, and considerably greater than that of any of our
thickly settled agricultural regions in the United States. New
England has about 200 to the square mile while Puerto Rico has
nearly 300. The inhabitants are mostly of Spanish
origin—emigrants from Spain during the last 400 years and
their descendants. There is a large representation from the
Canary Islands and the Balearic group in the Mediterranean, a
large number of Corsicans and their descendants, and
consequently they are French subjects, a few Germans, a few
English, and very few Americans before the occupation; a few
Venezuelans, a few from Santo Domingo, and a few Cubans, but
the most of the population is Spanish. Included in that
million are about 300,000 negroes and mulattoes, approximately
a little more than that number.
{410}
About one-third of the entire population is of the negro or
mixed race, what would be called in the United States
'colored' people. Of pure-blood negroes there are about
70,000, the remainder mulattoes, and all speaking Spanish, and
largely the slaves liberated in 1874. The number of slaves
liberated at that time was considerably less than the number
of negroes in Puerto Rico, the number being only about 30,000,
for whom some $11,000,000 was paid the owners. That statement
gives a fair idea of the character of the population as
respects numbers and race." Several small adjacent islands are
regarded as belonging to Porto Rico and were included in the
cession to the United States. One of these, named Viequez,
about 15 miles long and 3 or 4 miles wide, is very fertile,
and has about 7,000 inhabitants. On another, called Culebra,
there are some 600 or 700 people. The remaining islands are
smaller and unimportant.
_56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document Number 147, pages 1-2._
PORTO RICO:
The government as it was under Spanish rule.
"The civil government of the island was the Governor-General,
and the Governor-General was the civil government. All power
was lodged in his hands and he was accountable only to Madrid.
He was at once the executive, the legislative, and the judicial
head. As Captain-General, he had chief command of the military
forces, and made such disposition of them as he chose; as
Governor-General, he conducted civil affairs, whether insular
or municipal, according to his own pleasure. … If, as
occasionally happened, he was a wise and good man, seeking the
welfare of the people rather than his own personal enrichment
or the advancement of his political friends, there was less
cause for complaint from the people, who were completely
ignored. As the position was one of great power and of large
opportunities for pecuniary profit, it not infrequently went
to those who were prepared to exploit it in their own
interests. …
"The system of autonomy, which was proclaimed November 25,
1897 [see, in this volume, CUBA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER)], was
never fully installed. The war intervened, and the provincial
legislature, which was its most important feature, was
dissolved when Sampson's fleet appeared, and the
Governor-General conducted the government practically on the
old plan, except that the ministry, as provided by the
autonomistic law, was retained, as follows: Secretary of
government or of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary
of the fomento or interior, including public works, public
instruction, public lands, mines, etc., agriculture and
commerce, and secretary of justice and worship. The last three
secretaries were subordinate to the secretary of government,
through whom all orders from the Governor-General and all
communications to or from him must pass. The autonomist law
allowed the secretaries or ministers to be members of one or
the other of the two legislative chambers. The
Governor-General with his council constituted the executive
power. No act of his was valid unless approved by one of the
secretaries, and the secretaries could issue no order which he
had not countersigned. He had the power to convoke or dissolve
the chambers, to refer objectionable bills to Madrid for
approval or disapproval, and to appoint or remove the
secretaries. All matters of a diplomatic character were in his
hands exclusively, and, constituted by the Pope patronato
real, he was the head of the church in the island and
practical director of ecclesiastical affairs. The legislature
consisted of two chambers, the council and the house of
representatives. The council was composed of fourteen members,
eight of whom were elected, and six appointed by the Crown;
the house of representatives of one representative for each
25,000 inhabitants, elected by the people. The liberality of
this law is further indicated by the fact that it gave the
right of suffrage to all males of 25 years of age and over.
The two chambers were empowered to legislate on all insular
questions, such as the estimates, which must be adopted by the
Cortes at Madrid, public instruction, public works,
sanitation, charities, etc. It will be seen that the reforms
granted by this autonomistic decree were large in the letter,
taking powers which the Governor-General had exercised
unquestioned and giving them to the people, who had never been
allowed to participate in the government of their own country.
Whether it would have proved liberal in practical operation is
not so certain. The Government invariably discriminated
against Porto Ricans in favor of Spaniards, and it is also to
be remembered that Spanish laws as written and Spanish laws as
administered are not always identical."
_H. K. Carroll (Special Commissioner),
Report on Porto Rico, 1899, pages. 15-16._
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (May).
American bombardment of forts at San Juan.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (July-August).
American conquest of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (July-December).
Suspension of hostilities.
Cession to the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (August-July).
Popular feeling in the Island on the American occupation.
Welcome to the Stars and Stripes.
Expectations and desires of the people.
Their character.
Extent of illiteracy.
The Peones.
"All classes of natives of the island welcomed the American
Army, American occupation, and American methods, and accepted
without hesitation the Stars and Stripes in place of the red
and yellow bars. They had not been disloyal to the old flag;
but it had come to represent to them, particularly during the
present century, in which a class feeling developed between
the insular and the peninsular Spaniard, partiality and
oppression. In the short war, some of the natives occupying
official positions made demonstrations of loyalty to the Crown
of Spain, as was perfectly natural, but they were among the
first to submit to American rule when the protocol promised
cession of the island to the United States. On the other hand,
as the commissioner is informed, a Porto Rican who had hoped
and prayed for American intervention for fifty years enrolled
himself as a Spanish citizen some months after the war was
concluded, and his hopes had been realized. Porto Ricans
generally complained that the former Government discriminated
in favor of the Spaniard, who, in the distribution of the
offices, was preferred to the native, and who, aided by the
powerful influence of the authorities, prospered in business
as banker, merchant, manufacturer, or agriculturist. They also
insist that the internal improvement of the island was
neglected; that agriculture bore more than its share of the
burden of taxation; that the assessments were very inequitable
and unequal; that education was not fostered, and that in
general the welfare of the people was not the first concern of
their rulers.
{411}
"They expect under American sovereignty that the wrongs of
centuries will be righted; that they will have an honest and
efficient government; the largest measure of liberty as
citizens of the great Republic under the Constitution; home
rule as provided by the Territorial system; free access to the
markets of the United States and no customs duties on goods
coming from our ports; a school system modeled after that of
the United States; the adoption of the English language in due
time and the general adaptation to the island of all those
institutions which have contributed to the prosperity,
progress, and happiness of the American people. The largest
and most representative gathering, since American occupation,
was held in San Juan, October 30, 1898, without distinction of
party or class with the object of consultation and formulation of
a programme for the future. In brief, the propositions of the
congress as submitted to the commissioner for presentation to
the President of the United States were these: Immediate
termination of military and inauguration of civil government;
establishment of the Territorial system, with laws common to
other Territories of the Union; a legislature in two branches;
suffrage for all male citizens of 21 years of age or over, the
right to be surrendered at the end of the first two years by
those who do not then know how to read and write; judicial
reform; introduction of the jury system; autonomy for
municipal governments; taxation on the basis of valuation;
free and reciprocal commerce with the ports of the United
States; aid for agriculture; obligatory and universal
education; trade schools; savings banks. This programme of
reforms seems to have very general support, although there is
a difference of opinion on certain points. Many Porto Ricans
urged the commissioner to represent them as desiring that the
military regime be made as short as possible, not because the
military governors were in any way objectionable or their rule
oppressive, but because the civil status of the island should
be fixed with no unnecessary delay. There was no other opinion
except among foreign subjects, many of whom thought that the
people were not yet ready for self-government, and that the
firm hand of military power would be needed for probably two
years. …
"If the desire to assume the burdens of local self-government
may be taken as indicating some degree of capacity for
self-government, the people of Porto Rico certainly have the
desire. They may be poor, but they are proud and sensitive,
and would be bitterly disappointed if they found that they had
been delivered from an oppressive yoke to be put under a
tutelage which proclaimed their inferiority. Apart from such
qualifications as general education and experience constitute,
the commissioner has no hesitation in affirming that the
people have good claims to be considered capable of
self-government. Education and experience, although too high
a value can hardly be set upon them, do not necessarily make
good citizens. … The unswerving loyalty of Porto Rico to the
Crown of Spain, as demonstrated by the truth of history, is no
small claim to the confidence and trust of the United States.
The people were obedient under circumstances which provoked
revolt after revolt in other Spanish colonies. The habit of
obedience is strong among them. Their respect for law is
another notable characteristic. They are not turbulent or
violent. Riots are almost unknown in the island; so is
organized resistance to law; brigandage flourished only for a
brief period after the war and its object was revenge rather
than rapine. They are not a criminal people. The more violent
crimes are by no means common. Burglary is almost unknown.
There are many cases of homicide, but the number in proportion
to population is not as large as in the United States.
Thievery is the most common crime, and petty cases make up a
large part of this list of offenses. The people as a whole are
a moral, law-abiding class, mild in disposition, easy to
govern, and possess the possibilities of developing a high
type of citizenship."
_H. K. Carroll (Special Commissioner),
Report on Porto Rico, 1899, pages 55-57._
"On the 25th day of July, 1899, an election was held in
Adjuntas for municipal officers, and the registration was made
in conformity to General Orders, No. 112, c. s., Headquarters
Department of Puerto Rico. The order imposed the following
qualifications for electors: Men over 21 years old, able to
read and write, or who were taxpayers of record, who had been
actual residents of the island for at least two years, and of
the municipality for six months preceding the date of the
election. The number who proved these qualifications before
the board of registration was 906, out of a population,
according to the census of 1897, of 18,505; that is, less than
5 per cent could vote under the conditions stated. There was
much public interest in this election, and it is believed that
about all who were eligible were registered. This incident
indicated that in the whole island there may be approximately
45,000 who could vote under the conditions of the order above
referred to. The class who can not fulfill these conditions,
say 75 per cent of the males over 21 years of age, are usually
in a state of abject poverty and ignorance, and are assumed to
include one-fifth of the inhabitants. They are of the class
usually called peones. This word in Spanish America, under old
laws, defined a person who owed service to his creditor until
the debt was paid. While those laws are obsolete, the
condition of these poor people remains much as before. So
great is their poverty that they are always in debt to the
proprietors or merchants. They live in huts made of sticks and
poles covered with thatches of palm leaves. A family of a
dozen may be huddled together in one room, often with only a
dirt floor. They have little food worthy of the name and only
the most scanty clothing, while children of less than 7 or 8
years of age are often entirely naked. A few may own a machete
or a hoe, but more have no worldly possessions whatever. Their
food is fruit, and if they are wage-earners, a little rice and
codfish in addition. They are without ambition and see no
incentive to labor beyond the least that will provide the
barest sustenance. All over the island they can be seen to-day
sitting beside their ruined huts, thinking naught of
to-morrow, making no effort to repair and restore their cabins
nor to replant for future food.
{412}
"The remarks of Mr. James Anthony Froude in his work on 'The
English in the West Indies' apply with full force to these
people: 'Morals in the technical sense they have none, but
they can not be said to sin because they have no knowledge of
law, and therefore they can commit no breach of the law. They
are naked and not ashamed. They are married but not parsoned.
The women prefer the looser tie, that they may be able to lose
the man if he treats her unkindly. Yet they are not
licentious. … The system is strange, but it answers. … There
is evil, but there is not the demoralizing effect of evil.
They sin, but they sin only as animals, without shame, because
there is no sense of doing wrong. They eat the forbidden
fruit, but it brings with it no knowledge of the difference
between good and evil. … They are innocently happy in the
unconsciousness of the obligations of morality. They eat,
drink, sleep, and smoke, and do the least in the way of work
they can. They have no ideas of duty, and therefore are not
made uneasy by neglecting it.' Between the negro and the peon
there is no visible difference. It is hard to believe that the
pale, sallow, and often emaciated beings are the descendants
of the conquistadores who carried the flag of Spain to nearly
all of South America, and to one-third of North America."
_General George W. Davis,
Report on the Civil Government of Puerto Rico,
September 30, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1293-1294)._
"The educated class of Puerto Ricans are as well educated and
accomplished as the educated men of any country. They have had
the benefit of a liberal education, a few in the United
States, a good many in France, and a great many in Madrid and
Habana, where they have passed through the universities. The
lawyers and doctors are all graduates of either the university
in Habana or some university in Spain, with very few exceptions.
The merchants are largely Spanish, many of whom will probably
preserve their nationality under the provision of the Treaty
of Paris which gives them that right. A few may adopt American
citizenship, and ultimately possibly all will, but many of the
merchants who conduct the largest part of the business of
Puerto Rico will retain their Spanish citizenship. There are a
number of merchants who are natives, a few Germans, and a few
English. I do not remember any American merchant in business
there before the occupation. The schools in Puerto Rico
conducted under the Spanish system were few in number. The
amount allotted for education by the insular budget was
something like 300,000 pesos a year, as I now recall the
figures. The teachers were officers of the government, holding
life positions and receiving pensions when superannuated. They
belong to a civil-service class which is not dependent upon
any change of administration, only being removed for cause.
The lawyers, or judges, rather, of the island, occupy a
similar position."
_General George W. Davis,
Testimony before Senate Committee.
(56th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document. No. 147)._
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (October-October).
The military government instituted by the United States.
"The government of the island, its various civil institutions,
its codes and its courts, the systems of taxation, etc., have
been modified in very important particulars since the American
occupation began, October 18, 1898. It will be useful, perhaps,
to indicate the more important changes. Under General John R.
Brooke [in command of the Department, October 18 to December
5, 1898] orders were issued declaring
(1) That the political relations of Porto Rico with Spain were
at an end; that provincial and municipal laws were in force in
so far as not incompatible with the changed conditions, and
that they would be enforced substantially as they were before.
(2) Abolishing the use of all stamped paper and stamps of
every kind for documents, public and private.
(3) Exempting all conveyances and contracts from the payment
of royal dues.
(4) Discontinuing the diputacion provincial, and distributing
its duties among the secretaries or ministers.
(5) Directing that appeals should not be sent to the supreme
court in Madrid, but should be heard by the superior court at
San Juan.
(6) Abolishing the subdelegation of pharmacy which gave
degrees to pharmacists.
(7) Making the fisheries free to all.
Appropriations for the support of the church ceased with
American occupation, and the Government lottery was
discontinued.
"Under the military government of General Guy V. Henry
[December 6, 1898 to May 8, 1899], orders were issued:
(l) Appointing military commissions to try cases of arson and
murder which had accumulated in the civil courts.
(2) Closing public offices on Sunday, as far as possible.
(3) Suspending the municipal tax on fresh beef for use of the
Army.
(4) Making Christmas and New Year's holidays.
(5) Forbidding grants or concessions of public or corporate
rights or franchises without the approval of the commanding
general and the Secretary of War.
(6) Abolishing the municipal consumo tax on articles of food,
fuel, and drink, and providing for additional assessments on
the sale of liquors and tobacco.
(7) Separating the collection of customs duties from that of
direct taxes.
(8) Establishing a new system of land taxation, by which
agricultural lands should be taxed according to the several
classes instituted, from 1 peso down to 25 centavos per
cuerda, and levying 50 per cent additional on lands whose
owners reside abroad.
(9) Providing for the free vaccination of the people of the
island.
(10) Prohibiting the exhumation of bodies in the cemeteries,
recognizing the right of priests to control burials in
consecrated grounds, and requiring municipalities to keep
cemeteries in repair.
(11) Reducing notarial fees from $1.88 to $1, from $4.50 to
$1, from $11 to $1, and from $1 to 50 cents, according to
class of document, and canceling others.
(12) Reorganizing the cabinet, so as to make all the
secretaries directly responsible to the governor-general.
(13) Suspending the foreclosure of mortgages on agricultural
property and machinery for one year.
(14) Appointing February 22 a holiday.
(15) Prohibiting the sale of liquor to children under 14 years
of age.
(16) Modifying the civil marriage law.
(17) Declaring that eight hours shall constitute a day's work.
(18) Creating an insular police.
{413}
"Under the military government of General George W. Davis
[May 8, 1899, to May 1, 1900], orders were issued
(1) Modifying the order of
General Henry concerning hours of labor, so as to allow
agreements between employer and employee for longer or shorter
hours.
(2) Naming May 30 as a holiday.
(3) Allowing the writ of habeas corpus to be issued.
(4) Constituting a board of prison control and pardon.
(5) Continuing the observance as a holiday of June 24.
(6) Creating a provisional court on the basis of circuit and
district courts of the United States for the hearing of cases
not falling within the jurisdiction of local insular courts.
(7) Creating a superior board of health for the island.
(8) Reorganizing the bureau of public instruction and the
system of education.
(9) Relieving the judiciary from all control by the department
of justice, discontinuing the office of secretary of justice,
and appointing a solicitor-general.
(10) Abolishing the sale at auction of the privilege of
slaughter of cattle, and making it free.
(11) Reorganizing the judicial system of the island, with a
supreme court in San Juan and district courts in San Juan,
Ponce, Mayaguez, Arecibo, and Humacao, and with modifications
of civil and criminal procedure.
(12) Discontinuing the departments of state, treasury, and
interior, and creating bureaus of state and municipal affairs,
of internal revenue, and of agriculture, to be placed under
the direction of a civil secretary, responsible to the
governor-general, and continuing the bureaus of education and
public works, with an insular board of nine members to advise
the governor-general on matters of public interest referred to
them.
"The reductions in the budget of expenditures have been
extensive. That of 1898-99, adopted in June, 1898, amounted to
$4,781,920, native money. The appropriations for 'general
obligations,' which went to Madrid, $498,502, for the clergy,
$197,945; for the army, $1,252,378; for the navy, $222,668,
making a total of $2,171,493, ceased to be obligations,
leaving $2,610,428 for the fiscal year. A new budget was
adopted for the calendar year 1899, which still further
reduces expenditures, calling only for $1,462,276. This
budget, if carried out, would have involved a reduction from
the proposed budget of 1898-99 of $3,319,644; but a new budget
was formed, as already stated, for 1899-1900, which appears to
call for an increase over this very moderate sum. The revenues
were reduced by the abolition of stamped paper, personal
passports, export duties, royal dues on conveyances, the
lottery system, and other sources of income, amounting, all
told, to less probably than a million of pesos."
_H. R. Carroll (Special Commissioner),
Report on Porto Rico, October 6, 1899, pages 53-55._
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899 (August).
Destructive cyclone.
"On the morning of the 7th of August, 1899, the United States
Weather Bureau, through its branch establishment here,
announced the approach of a cyclonic disturbance, and the
danger signal was ordered to be hoisted at substations of the
Bureau at Ponce and Mayaguez. At the same time I directed that
the danger be reported to all commanding officers of posts
throughout the island. There had been no serious or
destructive storm in Puerto Rico since 1867, and the
inhabitants had ceased to feel great concern on account of
tropical tempests. Except at seaports, little heed was given
to the caution, and in some cases the telegraph operators
failed to receive or to promptly deliver the warning messages.
The vortex of the cyclone appears to have traversed the island
throughout its whole length, from about Humacao to Mayaguez,
and its path was a scene of very great devastation. … The gale
struck the island at Humacao about midnight of August 7, and
furiously blew all the rest of that night and well into the
next day, while at Mayaguez the violence was not great until 9
o'clock on the morning of the 8th. But as the latter town was
under the lee of high mountains, it suffered much less than it
would have done had it been higher or not thus protected. Most
of the habitations in the track of the center of the cyclone
were entirely smashed and the débris strewn all over the
country. The full reports of the loss of life bring the number
of deaths up to 2,700. The wind worked dreadful havoc with nearly
everything useful to man. Besides the mortality, which was
appalling, the material damage was almost beyond belief. But
the greatest loss of life resulted, not from the wind, but
from the terrible downfall of rain that immediately followed.
… Added to the horror of the situation there came with the
gale on the southern coast a tidal wave, which submerged large
areas with sea water and swept away what the wind and rain had
spared, in some places completing the destruction. Every river
bed or bottom of a land depression was a roaring torrent. The
wind uprooted myriads of trees, and the rain, entering and
permeating the soil, loosened it, and on steep declivities
resulted in avalanches of earth, mud, and water, covering wide
areas and piling up the debris in the ravines and gorges. … The
material loss to the coffee growers can as yet only be
estimated, but the most conservative figures received place
this year's crop at one-third of the normal. … Regard being
had to the fact that five years must elapse before the coffee
trees and their shade can be replanted and reach a normal
bearing condition, the total loss can not be safely placed
below 25,000,000 pesos for Puerto Rico on account of this
hurricane."
_General George W. Davis,
Report (Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1343-1344)._
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899 (October).
Census of the Island taken under the direction of the
War Department of the United States.
"The population of Porto Rico shown by the schedules of the
present census taken with reference to the date of October 16,
1899, was 953,243. This was about nine-tenths of the
population of Maryland in 1890, the State whose population is
nearest to that of Porto Rico. … If the figures for … earlier
censuses may be accepted, it appears that the population of
Porto Rico has been growing through the last twelve years with
greater rapidity than before since 1860. Its present rate of
increase is about the same as that of Ohio, Tennessee, or the
Carolinas during the decade between 1880 and 1890. … It
appears that the average increase of population in the
interior has been more rapid than that on the coast. If the
figures for the coast cities of San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez
had been excluded, the difference would be yet more marked.
The depressed condition of sugar-cane growing in the West
Indies of recent years may have played an important part in
producing this difference, for the growing of sugar cane is
prevalent in the coast plains of Porto Rico.
{414}
"The area of Porto Rico, including the adjacent and dependent
islands of Vieques, Culebra, Mona, and Muertos, has been
measured in connection with this census and found to be 3,606
square miles. But owing to the imperfect surveys on which all
maps of Porto Rico are based there must be a considerable and
indeterminate margin of possible error in any such
measurement. The island is about three times the size of Long
Island, which was in 1890 perhaps the largest insular division
of the United States. It is also slightly greater than the
eastern shore of Maryland (3,461 square miles). … Porto Rico
has 264 persons to a square mile. This density of population
is about the same as in Massachusetts, twice that in New York
State, and thrice that in Ohio. It is more than seven times
that of Cuba and not much less than twice that of Habana
province. …
"The people of Porto Rico are, in the main, a rural community.
There are no large cities in the island, the two largest being
San Juan, which, regarding the entire municipal district as a
city, had a population of 32,048, and Ponce, which with its
port constituted practically one city, with a population of
27,952. These are the only two cities exceeding 25,000
inhabitants. The next city of magnitude is Mayaguez, on the
west coast, with a population of 15,187. The only other city
exceeding 8,000 inhabitants is Arecibo, with a population of
8,008. The total urban population of the island contained in
cities exceeding 8,000 inhabitants each is 83,195, or only 8.7
per cent of the population of the island. This is a much
smaller proportion than in Cuba, where the corresponding
figures are 32.3 per cent, or in the United States, where the
corresponding proportion in 1890 was 29.2 per cent. There are
in Porto Rico 57 cities, each having a population of 1,000 or
more. The total urban population of the island, under this
definition, numbers 203,792, or 21.4 per cent of the total
number of inhabitants of the island. Similar figures for Cuba
show 47.1 per cent of the population of that island."
_Census of Porto Rico, Bulletin No.1._
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899-1900.
The question of the tariff treatment of its new Territory
by the United States Government.
Writing in "The Forum," November, 1899, Mr. H. K. Carroll, who
had investigated the conditions in Porto Rico as a Special
Commissioner of the United States government, described the
obligation which, in his view, they imposed on the latter as
follows: "The only free market the Puertorican has for his
products is the island market. All the rest of the world is
closed to him. He cannot even buy in a free market; everything
he buys as well as everything he sells being subject to
duties. This is the penalty of independence; but Puerto Rico
is not, and does not want to be, independent. She wants such
commercial relations with us as Alaska, New Mexico, and
Arizona have, and desires a territorial form of government. I
am of the opinion that we cannot refuse these reasonable
requests without doing great injustice to Puerto Rico. It must
be remembered that we sought Puerto Rico; for Puerto Rico did
not seek us. We wrested her from the sovereignty of Spain,
without asking her if she desired to change her allegiance. We
were of the opinion that she was not justly treated by Spain;
that she was governed in the interests of the mother country
solely; that she was oppressed and overtaxed and denied a
proper measure of home rule; and that in consequence we were
serving the cause of humanity in breaking the chains that
bound her. This was what the Puertoricans thought also. They
welcomed our troops and our control. They were glad to turn
their backs on the history of the past, and begin under the
glorious Republic of the North a new and more prosperous
career. They are disappointed, perhaps unreasonably, that
their new life has not already begun; they are eagerly
expectant. They look to the President to recommend, and to
Congress to adopt, a system of government which will make the
island a Territory, equal in rank and rights and privileges to
existing Territories. They ought not to be disappointed
without the best and strongest of reasons. Three reasons are
mentioned in opposition to the granting of territorial
government to Puerto Rico. First, admission as a Territory
implies ultimate admission to statehood; and statehood for
islands separated as Hawaii and Puerto Rico are by from 1,200
to 2,500 miles from the United States is not to be thought of
for a moment. Second, territorial organization involves the
relinquishment of customs duties; and the cane and tobacco
growers of our West India possession would have free access to
the markets of the United States, and thus come into injurious
competition with our own farmers. Third, the people of Puerto
Rico are not competent for the measure of self-government
which the territorial system provides."
This most reasonable and just view of the duty of the American
people to their new fellow citizens received strong
endorsement from higher official authority in the subsequent
annual report of the Secretary of War, who said: "It is plain
that it is essential to the prosperity of the island that she
should receive substantially the same treatment at our hands
as she received from Spain while a Spanish colony, and that
the markets of the United States should be opened to her as
were the markets of Spain and Cuba before the transfer of
allegiance. Congress has the legal right to regulate the
customs duties between the United States and Porto Rico as it
pleases; but the highest considerations of justice and good
faith demand that we should not disappoint the confident
expectation of sharing in our prosperity with which the people
of Porto Rico so gladly transferred their allegiance to the
United States, and that we should treat the interests of this
people as our own; and I wish most strongly to urge that the
customs duties between Porto Rico and the United States be
removed."
_Message and Documents:
Abridgment, 1899-1900, volume 2, page 757._
And, finally, the President of the United States, in his
Message to Congress, December 5, 1899, gave his high authority
to the declaration that this duty of his government to Porto
Rico was "plain": "It must be borne in mind," he said, "that
since the cession Porto Rico has been denied the principal
markets she had long enjoyed and our tariffs have been
continued against her products as when she was under Spanish
sovereignty. The markets of Spain are closed to her products
except upon terms to which the commerce of all nations is
subjected. The island of Cuba, which used to buy her cattle
and tobacco without customs duties, now imposes the same
duties upon these products as from any other country entering
her ports.
{415}
She has therefore lost her free intercourse with Spain and
Cuba, without any compensating benefits in this market. Her
coffee was little known and not in use by our people, and
therefore there was no demand here for this, one of her chief
products. The markets of the United States should be opened up
to her products. Our plain duty is to abolish all customs
tariffs between the United States and Porto Rico and give her
products free access to our markets."
_Message and Documents: Abridgment,
volume 1, page 53._
Notwithstanding all which high official acknowledgments and
declarations of obligation and duty, on the part of the
Republic of the United States to the people of the island
which it had wrested from Spain, certain interests in the
former that objected to competition from the latter were able
to secure legislation which deferred the performance of the
"plain duty" required. An Act of Congress which the President
approved on the 12th of April, 1900, "temporarily to provide
revenues and a civil government for Porto Rico and for other
purposes," enacted as follows:
"SECTION 3.
That on and after the passage of this Act all merchandise
coming into the United States from Porto Rico and coming into
Porto Rico from the United States shall be entered at the
several ports of entry upon payment of fifteen per centum of
the duties which are required to be levied, collected, and
paid upon like articles of merchandise imported from foreign
countries; and in addition thereto upon articles of
merchandise of Porto Rican manufacture coming into the United
States and withdrawn for consumption or sale upon payment of a
tax equal to the internal-revenue tax imposed in the United
States upon the like articles of merchandise of domestic
manufacture; such tax to be paid by internal-revenue stamp or
stamps to be purchased and provided by the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue and to be procured from the collector of
internal revenue at or most convenient to the port of entry of
said merchandise in the United States, and to be affixed under
such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with
the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall
prescribe; and on all articles of merchandise of United States
manufacture coming into Porto Rico in addition to the duty
above provided upon payment of a tax equal in rate and amount
to the internal-revenue tax imposed in Porto Rico upon the
like articles of Porto Rican manufacture: Provided, That on
and after the date when this Act shall take effect, all
merchandise and articles, except coffee, not dutiable under
the tariff laws of the United States, and all merchandise and
articles entered in Porto Rico free of duty under' orders
heretofore made by the Secretary of War, shall be admitted
into the several ports thereof, when imported from the United
States, free of duty, all laws or parts of laws to the
contrary notwithstanding; and whenever the legislative
assembly of Porto Rico shall have enacted and put into
operation a system of local taxation to meet the necessities
of the government of Porto Rico, by this Act established, and
shall by resolution duly passed so notify the President, he
shall make proclamation thereof, and thereupon all tariff
duties on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from
the United States or coming into the United States from Porto
Rico shall cease, and from and after such date all such
merchandise and articles shall be entered at the several ports
of entry free of duty; and in no event shall any duties be
collected after the first day of March, nineteen hundred and
two, on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from
the United States or coming into the United States from Porto
Rico.
"SECTION 4.
That the duties and taxes collected in Porto Rico in pursuance
of this Act, less the cost of collecting the same, and the
gross amount of all collections of duties and taxes in the
United States upon articles of merchandise coming from Porto
Rico, shall not be covered into the general fund of the
Treasury, but shall be held as a separate fund, and shall be
placed at the disposal of the President to be used for the
government and benefit of Porto Rico until the government of
Porto Rico herein provided for shall have been organized, when
all moneys theretofore collected under the provisions hereof,
then unexpended, shall be transferred to the local treasury of
Porto Rico, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall designate
the several ports and sub-ports of entry in Porto Rico, and
shall make such rules and regulations and appoint such agents
as may be necessary to collect the duties and taxes authorized
to be levied, collected, and paid in Porto Rico by the
provisions of this Act, and he shall fix the compensation and
provide for the payment thereof of all such officers, agents,
and assistants as he may find it necessary to employ to carry
out the provisions hereof: Provided, however, That as soon as
a civil government for Porto Rico shall have been organized in
accordance with the provisions of this Act and notice thereof
shall have been given to the President he shall make
proclamation thereof, and thereafter all collections of duties
and taxes in Porto Rico under the provisions of this Act shall
be paid into the treasury of Porto Rico, to be expended as
required by law for the government and benefit thereof instead
of being paid into the Treasury of the United States."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (April).
Act to provide temporarily for the civil government
of the Island.
The fundamental provisions of the act of the Congress of the
United States to provide temporarily for the civil government
of Porto Rico, which the President approved April 12, 1900,
are the following:
"SECTION 6.
That the capital of Porto Rico shall be at the city of San
Juan and the seat of government shall be maintained there.
"SECTION 7.
That all inhabitants continuing to reside therein who were
Spanish subjects on the eleventh day of April, eighteen
hundred and ninety-nine, and then resided in Porto Rico, and
their children born subsequent thereto, shall be deemed and
held to be citizens of Porto Rico, and as such entitled to the
protection of the United States, except such as shall have
elected to preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain on
or before the eleventh day of April, nineteen hundred, in
accordance with the provisions of the treaty of peace between
the United States and Spain entered into on the eleventh day
of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine; and they, together
with such citizens of the United States as may reside in Porto
Rico, shall constitute a body politic under the name of The
People of Porto Rico, with governmental powers as hereinafter
conferred, and with power to sue and be sued as such.
{416}
"SECTION 8.
That the laws and ordinances of Porto Rico now in force shall
continue in full force and effect, except as altered, amended,
or modified hereinafter, or as altered or modified by military
orders and decrees in force when this Act shall take effect,
and so far as the same are not inconsistent or in conflict
with the statutory laws of the United States not locally
inapplicable, or the provisions hereof, until altered,
amended, or repealed by the legislative authority hereinafter
provided for Porto Rico or by Act of Congress of the United
States: Provided, That so much of the law which was in force
at the time of cession, April eleventh, eighteen hundred and
ninety-nine, forbidding the marriage of priests, ministers, or
followers of any faith because of vows they may have taken,
being paragraph four, article eighty-three, chapter three,
civil code, and which was continued by the order of the
secretary of justice of Porto Rico, dated March seventeenth,
eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and promulgated by
Major-General Guy V. Henry, United States Volunteers, is
hereby repealed and annulled, and all persons lawfully married
in Porto Rico shall have all the rights and remedies conferred
by law upon parties to either civil or religious marriages:
And provided further, That paragraph one, article one hundred
and five, section four, divorce, civil code, and paragraph
two, section nineteen, of the order of the minister of justice
of Porto Rico, dated March seventeenth, eighteen hundred and
ninety-nine, and promulgated by Major-General Guy V. Henry,
United States Volunteers, be, and the same hereby are, so
amended as to read: 'Adultery on the part of either the
husband or the wife.' …
"SECTION 14.
That the statutory laws of the United States not locally
inapplicable, except as hereinbefore or hereinafter otherwise
provided, shall have the same force and effect in Porto Rico
as in the United States, except the internal-revenue laws,
which, in view of the provisions of section three, shall not
have force and effect in Porto Rico.
"SECTION 15.
That the legislative authority hereinafter provided shall have
power by due enactment to amend, alter, modify, or repeal any
law or ordinance, civil or criminal, continued in force by
this Act, as it may from time to time see fit.
"SECTION 16.
That all judicial process shall run in the name of 'United
States of America, ss: the President of the United States,'
and all criminal or penal prosecutions in the local courts
shall be conducted in the name and by the authority of 'The
People of Porto Rico'; and all officials authorized by this
Act shall before entering upon the duties of their respective
offices take an oath to support the Constitution of the United
States and the laws of Porto Rico.
"SECTION 17.
That the official title of the chief executive officer shall
be 'The Governor of Porto Rico.' He shall be appointed by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate;
he shall hold his office for a term of four years and until
his successor is chosen and qualified unless sooner removed by
the President; he shall reside in Porto Rico during his
official incumbency, and shall maintain his office at the seat
of government; he may grant pardons and reprieves, and remit
fines and forfeitures for offenses against the laws of Porto
Rico, and respites for offenses against the laws of the United
States, until the decision of the President can be
ascertained; he shall commission all officers that he may be
authorized to appoint, and may veto any legislation enacted,
as hereinafter provided; he shall be the commander in chief of
the militia, and shall at all times faithfully execute the
laws, and he shall in that behalf have all the powers of
governors of the Territories of the United States that are not
locally inapplicable; and he shall annually, and at such other
times as he may be required, make official report of the
transactions of the government in Porto Rico, through the
Secretary of State, to the President of the United States:
Provided, That the President may, in his discretion, delegate
and assign to him such executive duties and functions as may
in pursuance with law be so delegated and assigned.
"SECTION 18.
That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, for the period of four
years, unless sooner removed by the President, a secretary, an
attorney-general, a treasurer, an auditor, a commissioner of
the interior, and a commissioner of education, each of whom
shall reside in Porto Rico during his official incumbency and
have the powers and duties hereinafter provided for them,
respectively, and who, together with five other persons of
good repute, to be also appointed by the President for a like
term of four years, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, shall constitute an executive council, at least five
of whom shall be native inhabitants of Porto Rico, and, in
addition to the legislative duties hereinafter imposed upon
them as a body, shall exercise such powers and perform such
duties as are hereinafter provided for them, respectively, and
who shall have power to employ all necessary deputies and
assistants for the proper discharge of their duties as such
officials and as such executive council. …
"SECTION 27.
That all local legislative powers hereby granted shall be
vested in a legislative assembly which shall consist of two
houses; one the executive council, as hereinbefore
constituted, and the other a house of delegates, to consist of
thirty-five members elected biennially by the qualified voters
as hereinafter provided; and the two houses thus constituted
shall be designated 'The legislative assembly of Porto Rico.'
"SECTION 28.
That for the purposes of such elections Porto Rico shall be
divided by the executive council into seven districts,
composed of contiguous territory and as nearly equal as may be
in population, and each district shall be entitled to five
members of the house of delegates.
SECTION 29.
That the first election for delegates shall be held on such
date and under such regulations as to ballots and voting as
the executive council may prescribe. … At such elections all
citizens of Porto Rico shall be allowed to vote who have been
bona fide residents for one year and who possess the other
qualifications of voters under the laws and military orders in
force on the first day of March, 1900, subject to such
modifications and additional qualifications and such
regulations and restrictions as to registration as may be
prescribed by the executive council. …
{417}
"SECTION 32.
That the legislative authority herein provided shall extend to
all matters of a legislative character not locally inapplicable,
including power to create, consolidate, and reorganize the
municipalities, so far as may be necessary, and to provide and
repeal laws and ordinances therefor; and also the power to
alter, amend, modify, and repeal any and all laws and
ordinances of every character now in force in Porto Rico, or
any municipality or district thereof, not inconsistent with
the provisions hereof: Provided, however, That all grants of
franchises, rights, and privileges or concessions of a public
or quasi-public nature shall be made by the executive council,
with the approval of the governor, and all franchises granted
in Porto Rico shall be reported to Congress, which hereby
reserves the power to annul or modify the same.
"SECTION 33.
That the judicial power shall be vested in the courts and
tribunals of Porto Rico as already established and now in
operation, including municipal courts. …
"SECTION 34.
That Porto Rico shall constitute a judicial district to be
called 'the district of Porto Rico.' The President, by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint a
district judge, a district attorney, and a marshal for said
district, each for a term of four years, unless sooner removed
by the President. The district court for said district shall
be called the district court of the United States for Porto
Rico.
"SECTION 35.
That writs of error and appeals from the final decisions of
the supreme court of Porto Rico and the district court of the
United States shall be allowed and may be taken to the Supreme
Court of the United States in the same manner and under the
same regulations and in the same cases as from the supreme
courts of the Territories of the United States. …
"SECTION 39.
That the qualified voters of Porto Rico shall, on the first
Tuesday after the first Monday of November, anno Domini
nineteen hundred, and every two years thereafter, choose a
resident commissioner to the United States, who shall be
entitled to official recognition as such by all Departments,
upon presentation to the Department of State of a certificate
of election of the governor of Porto Rico, and who shall be
entitled to a salary, payable monthly by the United States, at
the rate of five thousand dollars per annum: Provided, That no
person shall be eligible to such election who is not a bona
fide citizen of Porto Rico, who is not thirty years of age,
and who does not read and write the English language.
"SECTION 40.
That a commission, to consist of three members, at least one
of whom shall be a native citizen of Porto Rico, shall be
appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate, to compile and revise the laws of Porto Rico; also
the various codes of procedure and systems of municipal
government now in force, and to frame and report such
legislation as may be necessary to make a simple, harmonious,
and economical government, establish justice and secure its
prompt and efficient administration, inaugurate a general
system of education and public instruction, provide buildings
and funds therefor, equalize and simplify taxation and all the
methods of raising revenue, and make all other provisions that
may be necessary to secure and extend the benefits of a
republican form of government to all the inhabitants of Porto
Rico."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (May).
Organization of civil government.
Appointment of Governor Allen.
Under the Act to establish civil government in Porto Rico,
Honorable. Charles H. Allen, formerly a representative in
Congress from Massachusetts, and lately Assistant-Secretary of
the Navy, was appointed to the governorship of the island. Mr.
J. H. Hollander, of Maryland, was appointed Treasurer, and Mr.
John R. Garrison, of the District of Columbia, Auditor.
Governor Allen was inducted into office with considerable
ceremony, at San Juan, on the 1st of May.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (August-October).
First steps in the creation of a public school system.
"The report of M. G. Brumbaugh, commissioner of education, on
education in Porto Rico, dated October 15, 1900, shows what
has been accomplished in the short time that elapsed after the
commissioner entered upon his duties on August 4, 1900. … The
people want schools … and the pupils will attend them. In
1899, 616 schools were opened in Porto Rico. In 1900 the
department will maintain at least 800 schools, an increase of
30 per cent, which will provide for nearly 9,000 additional
pupils.
"In 1899 there were 67 Americans in the teaching force of the
island. Since October 1, 1900, the number has increased to
100. The commissioner criticises one class of teachers who are
'seekers after novelty and new experiences, who imposed upon the
administration and the children, and who used the salary and
position of teacher solely to see a new country for a year and
then return. … The people of Porto Rico have patiently borne
with these adventurers, and quietly longed for their
departure.' This class of teachers is now gone and the newly
selected American teachers have some knowledge of Spanish and
are graduates of universities, colleges, and normal schools in
the States, and are for the most part young men and women of
ability and discretion. The salaries of American teachers were
fixed by law at $40 per month for nine months in cities of
less than 5,000 population. In cities of larger population the
salary was $50 per month for nine months and both are
inadequate, although at the time the salaries were fixed the
War Department provided free transportation from and to the
United States. This transportation may now be withdrawn at any
time, and the small inducement held out by the meager salary
offered to teachers is not calculated to invite the best class
of them to the island.
"The new normal and industrial school at Fajardo, which was to
have been established by the joint efforts of the local
municipality and the American Government, was only so far
advanced that the land had been purchased by the end of
September, 1900. The normal department was opened October 1,
in a rented building, while the industrial department cannot
be opened until suitable quarters are provided. The
commissioner recommends that the United States make this place
the site of an agricultural experiment station for which it is
pre-eminently fitted. On account of the industries of the
country—coffee, sugar, tobacco, and fruit—agriculture could be
well studied here, and free boarding, lodging, and tuition would
be given the students, who would be for the most part poor
boys and girls.
"As to the school accommodation, the commissioner states that
there are no public school buildings in Porto Rico. The
schools are conducted in rented houses or rooms which are
often unfit for the purpose, and the hygienic conditions are
bad. There is a wide field, or rather a demand, for
improvement in this direction, as well as in the school
equipment and material.
{418}
In 1899, $33,000 was expended for school-books, and in 1900,
$20,000 will be expended for books and supplies, which shall
be free. In the United States 'free books' means usually their
purchase by local boards and free use by the pupils. In Porto
Rico the books and supplies will be free to the pupils without
expense to the local boards. A pedagogical museum and library
has been established for the benefit of teachers and others.
About 300 volumes have been contributed to the library from
friends in the States, and the Department will make the number
up to 500 by purchase. A library of 5,000 volumes of standard
Spanish and American literature was found in a building in San
Juan, which has been installed in suitable rooms as a public
library.
"Many of the leading institutions of the United States have
responded cordially to the application of the Department of
Education on behalf of young Porto Ricans who wish to
prosecute their studies in colleges and universities. Some
have offered free tuition, some have added free lodging, while
others have offered even free living to all such students as
wish to avail themselves of their instruction. Many young
Porto Ricans have availed themselves of these generous offers.
"There are now 800 schools in Porto Rico, and 38,000 pupils
attending them, while there are 300,000 children of school age
for whom there are no accommodations. But the commissioner
expresses the hope that gradually the great illiteracy in
Porto Rico will be reduced, and the people prepared for the
duties of citizenship in a democracy by means of the schools
that shall be established. … The total expenditure for
education in Porto Rico from the 1st of May to the end of
September was $91,057.32."
_United States, Secretary of the Interior,
Annual Report, November 28, 1900, page 116._
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (November-December).
The first election under U. S. law.
Meeting of the Legislative Assembly.
The first election in the Island under the provisions of the
Act recited above occurred on the 6th of November
simultaneously with the elections in the United States. It
seems to have been almost entirely a one-sided vote. "About
two weeks before election day," says a despatch from San Juan,
November 7, "the Federal Party, which carried the island at
the election of less than a year ago by a majority of 6,500
votes, suddenly withdrew from the electoral contest. The
Federal leaders sent instruction to their followers not to
appear at the polls, but the Federal Election Judges were
instructed to appear and watch the proceedings until the
elections were concluded in order to gather evidence of any
unfairness in the registration and any irregularity in the
voting. The Federal Party intends to institute court
proceedings after the election in the hope of nullifying it,
claiming that gross irregularities in the registration and
voting will be shown, and alleging that the districting was
not done according to law." Only about 200 Federals voted, it
is stated, while some 60,000 votes were cast for the
candidates of the Republicans. Governor Allen cabled the
following announcement of the election to President McKinley:
"I am gratified and delighted. The outcome in Porto Rico is a
guarantee of the island's future. To bring people who had long
been under different rules and conditions to their first
general election, to have the election pass off as quietly and
orderly as in any State of the North conducted by the people
without let or hindrance, and without a soldier or armed force
of any sort, and to have nearly 60.000 men march to the polls
to deposit their first ballot for self-government in such a
manner, are good reasons for congratulation, not only to the
people of the island, but to the painstaking members of the
Administration, who had worked diligently and patiently to
this end. This overwhelming Republican victory also means
legislation for the good of the island in line with the
American Administration. It means stable government and the
protection of property interests, with which prospective
investors in Porto Rico are deeply concerned. It means
education, public works, and all the beneficent works which
follow legislation wisely and conscientiously undertaken. It
is an emphatic declaration of unqualified loyalty to the
United States."
The newly elected Legislative Assembly met and the House of
Delegates was organized December 3. A correspondent of the
"New York Tribune," writing a week later, said: "Already
nineteen bills have been introduced. To introduce nineteen
bills in six days after organizing, as well as forming the
regular committees, is not bad work when it is considered that
not one of the members had the slightest idea of parliamentary
procedure. During the session one of the members may be seen
making frequent trips to the Executive Mansion, where he
confers with Secretary Hunt in regard to some doubtful point.
It is said by some that in a short time the lower house will
be controlled entirely by the portfolio members of the
Council. It is known that the five Porto Rican members of the
Council, when considering the question of franchises, etc.,
often vote contrary to their own ideas in order that the
Council may continue harmonious. But it is not likely that the
heads of departments will be able to control the thirty-five
members of the House. The House, although regularly elected,
is not representative of the island; the Federals refraining
from voting kept over half the natives from the polls. The
Federal party, it is asserted, is made up of the richest and
best element of Porto Rico. The Republicans, though in power,
do not feel that they are able to run things alone, so the
majority is willing to be dictated to by the Council.
Nevertheless there is a certain element in the House which
will not be dictated to. So soon as any really important bill
comes up for debate it is predicted that the House will divide
against itself. And a little later, when the House passes some
pet bill and the Council rejects it, the House will probably
resign in a body. It is a natural trait of the people.'
After another fortnight had passed, the same correspondent
wrote very discouragingly of the disposition shown by a
majority of the members of the House of Delegates, and their
conduct of business, and stated: "The popular opinion among
the Americans, even among some of the higher officials, is
that if the House continues as it is Congress will abolish it
altogether, and govern the island through a Governor and
Cabinet. Such irregular procedure has been followed that it is
a question here whether any business has been legally done."
{419}
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1901 (January),
Close of the first session of the Legislative Assembly.
The first session of the first Legislative Assembly of the
island came to a close on the 31st of January, 1901, and the
following remarks on its work were made in a newspaper
despatch of that date from San Juan: "Over one hundred bills
have been introduced in the House of Delegates, and dozens
have been passed by both houses, and are awaiting the
Governor's approval. … Committees have a hard day's work if
they get together and agree to pass the bills on hand before
midnight to-night. Ever since the House of Delegates resumed
business after the new year, eight or nine members have been
continually absent. There are only thirty-five members
altogether, and the island is small, yet twenty-six has been
the average attendance. A full attendance for even one day is
not recorded. It was predicted that a number of the members
would resign; they did not. They simply remained away, like
truant schoolboys. A bill has been passed providing for the
education of certain young Porto Rican men and women in the
United States, about two hundred of them having petitioned the
House of Delegates to be sent north at the island's expense.
It is not known on what ground these petitions have been made.
The island expends about $400,000 yearly on education, and
excellent educational facilities are offered. But the people,
in a way, seem to discredit the value of the opportunities at
hand."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1901 (April).
Distress of the workingmen of the Island.
Their appeal to the President of the United States.
The following petition, signed by 6,000 of the workingmen of
Porto Rico, was brought to the United States by a delegate
from the Federation of Labor in Porto Rico and presented to
President McKinley on the 15th of April:
"The undersigned, workers of Porto Rico, without distinction
of color, political or religious creed, have the honor to
bring to your attention the following facts: Misery, with all
its horrible consequences, is spreading in our homes with
wonderful rapidity. It has already reached such an extreme
that many workers are starving to death while others, that
have not the courage to see their mothers, wives, sisters and
children perish of hunger, commit suicide by drowning
themselves in the rivers or hanging themselves from branches
of trees. All this, honorable sir, is due to the scarcity of
work, which keeps us in enforced idleness, the mother of our
misery. Our beautiful estates are idle; our lands are not
being cultivated; our shops remain closed; and our Chambers do
absolutely nothing to prevent our misery on this once so rich
an island. The Government and municipality do not undertake
any public works to keep us out of idleness. The emigration of
workers, unknown in this island before, increases day by day,
in proportion as misery increases. Under these trying
conditions we are no longer a happy and contented people. We
therefore, beg of you, honorable sir, to interest yourself in
our cause, leading us, as the father of our country, in the
path that will bring us work, and with it the means of
subsistence. We want work; nothing but work. We want to earn
the means of subsistence by the sweat of our brows; and nobody
better than our Chief Magistrate can help us by lending ear to
our appeals. "
----------PORTO RICO: End--------
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1891-1900.
Delagoa Bay Arbitration.
See (in this volume)
DELAGOA BAY ARBITRATION.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1898.
Alleged Treaty with Great Britain.
There is said to be knowledge in diplomatic circles of a
treaty between Great Britain and Portugal, concluded in 1898,
which has never been made public, but which is understood to
engage the former to assist the latter financially and to
protect the kingdom as against dangers both external and
internal. In return it is believed that England received the
right to embark and disembark troops, stores and ammunitions
at any point on Portuguese territory in Africa, to keep them
there, or to convey them across Portuguese territory to any
point she might see fit, irrespective as to whether she was at
war with any third Power. Circumstances have given some
support to this rumor, but it has no positive confirmation.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1899.
Reciprocity Treaty with the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1896.
War with Gungunhana.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA).
POSTAGE, British Imperial Penny.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (DECEMBER).
POWERS, Concert of the.
See (in this volume)
CONCERT OF EUROPE.
POWERS, The four great.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
PRATT, Consul:
Interviews with Aguinaldo at Singapore.