tinued, and not many are now detained in custody. The full establishment of civil authority as superior to the military is to be postponed until September, by which time it is expected that the work of pacification will in a general way be complete, except, of course, for brigands and small bands of guerrillas. Archbishop Chappelle, of New Orleans, and Cardinal Gibbons, of Baltimore, have been in conference with the Vatican authorities at Rome over the various questions involved in the claims of the Philippine friars. Gen. Frederick D. Grant has returned to the United States after much active experience in the archipelago.

The situation in Porto Rico is taking Porto Rico's the turn that might well have been Outlook. expected. Thoroughly Thoroughly competent men had been sent there by President McKin ley, and the Foraker act represented an enlight ened attitude on the part of Congress. The tariff feature of the Foraker act supplied Porto Rico with a temporary revenue by authorizing the collection of a duty equal to about one-seventh of the rates under the general Dingley tariff. This was to last merely while Porto Rico was creating a system of internal taxes that would supply ordinary needs and make it feasible to establish entire free trade between that island and the United States. On July 4 an extraordinary session of the Porto Rican Legislature is to be convened, and it is expected that the Hollander tax plan will be found adequate. In that case President McKinley will promptly announce the removal of all tariff barriers. It has been a useful experience to the Porto Ricans to have to work their way, so to speak, to a position of free access to American markets by providing otherwise for their domestic expenses.

The President's

Although it is much too early to inRejection of a terest the country in a serious discusThird Term. sion of Presidential candidates for 1904, the politicians themselves are always scheming for points in the great game; and the buzzing of the Presidential bee has been louder in their ears this summer than the roar of industrial prosperity or the whir of the reaper in the yel low wheat fields. There can be no doubt of the fact that a large number of influential Republican politicians had set on foot a movement to secure the renomination of President McKinley for a third term. Interviews advocating it had been given to the press by prominent men. The movement had gone so far that the President felt it necessary to take the matter up with his Cabinet, and to issue to the public over his own name on June 10 the following statement:

I regret that the suggestion of a third term has been made. I doubt whether I am called upon to give it notice. But there are now questions of the gravest importance before the Administration and the country, and their just consideration should not be prejudiced in the public mind by even the suspicion of the thought of a third term. In view, therefore, of the reiteration of the suggestion, I will say now, once for all, expressing a long-settled conviction, that I not only am not and will not be a candidate for a third term, but would not accept a nomination for it, if it were tendered me.

My only ambition is to serve through my second term to the acceptance of my countrymen, whose generous confidence I so deeply appreciate, and then with them do my duty in the ranks of private citizenship. WILLIAM MCKINLEY. Executive Mansion, Washington, June 10, 1901. The gentlemen who launch third-term movements are, as a rule, not thinking so much either of the country or of the President himself as of themselves and their own plans and objects. But the McKinley movement was in a large degree patriotic. Mr. McKinley's announcement was universally commended. It removed all possible doubt, and it will have the good effect to keep the spirit of partisanship at low ebb during the remaining years of the Presidential term. The whole country rejoices with the President in the good news that Mrs. McKinley's health is improving. It was expected that the President and his wife would go to their Ohio home before the 1st of July. Mrs. McKinley's protracted illness made it necessary that the President should give up his plan of spending the Fourth of July with Secretary Long in Massachusetts, although he had not abandoned the idea of attending the Harvard commencement late in June, on which occasion he was to receive the honorary degree of LL.D.

The Mild Poli

Off Year.

The politicians are amusing themtics of an selves with a long list of possible Republican candidates, the most conspicuous of which are Vice-President Roosevelt and Governor Odell, of New York; Senators Hanna and Foraker of Ohio, Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, Senator Fairbanks of Indiana, Senator Cullom of Illinois, Senator Spooner of Wisconsin, and last, but not least, Senator Allison of Iowa. Two of these men are said to be assiduously at work as determined candidates. Only four months of Mr. McKinley's second term have expired, and the country at large will not bother itself much about politics for three years to come. It is not likely, even, that any broadly defined issues will mark the Congressional elections of next year. In an interview, Senator Jones, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, stated last month that in his opinion the Democratic party would take up the Philippine ques

tion as its principal issue. He pointed out the obvious fact that the decision of the Supreme Court does not fix American policy one way or the other, but merely leaves Congress free to decide what action it will take. The Democrats, according to Senator Jones, will oppose the policy of retaining the Philippines, and will advocate the establishment there at the earliest possible moment of an independent republic under the guarantee and protection of the United States. Mr. Jones also declared that it would be the general Democratic policy to oppose the shipsubsidy bill as against the Republican plan of resurrecting it. The Senator remarked that the transcontinental railroads would have issued their orders to Republican leaders to smother the Nicaragua Canal bill, and that the Republican Ways and Means Committee would also prevent the reporting back to the House of the Babcock tariff bill, aimed at trusts,-both of these topics. presenting an opportunity to the Democracy. But it is not at all clear that the Democrats are

really in harmony upon any one of the subjects. outlined by Senator Jones as constituting a party programme. The great debate as to what really constitutes a Democrat which was to have been carried on all summer in South Carolina by Senators Tillman and McLaurin has been abandoned. Senator McLaurin had been accused of too much sympathy with the broad plans and policies of territorial and commercial expansion for which the McKinley administration stands. Tillman had proposed to McLaurin that they should both resign their seats in the Senate, and then appeal to the Democratic voters of South Carolina to decide at a primary election which of them should be accorded the full Senatorial term as South Carolina's typical and representative Democrat. They were subsequently persuaded to withdraw their resignations; but it is undoubtedly true that Mr. McLaurin represents a growing element of Southern and Western business men of Democratic affiliations who are tired of the moral domination of the Democratic party by its Populist allies. Under

RUSHING THE BABY SHOW.

these circumstances it does not seem likely that the Democratic party can rally itself for a victory in the Congressional elections next year.

The future of the Philippine question as a party issue will be determined almost entirely by the course of events. If complete peace should be secured at an early date, as now seems probable, and if rapid progress begins to be shown in civil government, educational work, settlement of the church and land questions, and the growth of commerce, so that the army can be reduced and the expense of holding the archipelago brought to a comparatively low point, the Philippine question will not be likely to assume the paramount place in our party contests.

Cuba's

The Cubans now expect to launch their Acceptance of independent republic early next year. Conditions. The original acceptance by the convention at Havana of the scheme set forth in the so-called Platt amendment as respects the future relations between the United States and Cuba was in a form that could not be indorsed at Washington. Secretary Root, on behalf of President McKinley, had offered the visiting Cuban committee frank and elaborate explanations of all the points set forth in the Platt amendment, in order to reassure their minds and make plain to them the honorable intentions of the American Government. The Cuban convention thereupon availed itself of the committee's report to make official incorporation of Mr. Root's remarks in that part of the Cuban consti

CUBA MAKES A DISCOVERY.

THE YOUNG NAVIGATOR: "Why, this isn't a collar after all; it's a life-preserver!"-From the Journal (Minneapolis).

tution which covered the subject of relations with the United States. The promptness with which the Administration at Washington conveyed to Havana its disapproval of the method that had been pursued caused some surprise, but had a very wholesome effect. While Secretary Root's explanations had undoubtedly been both lucid and sound, they could not be made a part of the enactment to which they had reference. The Cuban convention on June 12 very wisely voted that the Platt amendment, just as it stood, should be made a part of the constitution. A good many influential people in Cuba had hoped that the amendment would be defeated, for the reason that they desired outright annexation. The constitution as a whole will doubtless soon be re-offered to President McKinley for his approval, and meanwhile the convention has been drafting an electoral law, with a view to the holding of an election a few months hence. When Congress convenes early in December, it will presumably be given an opportunity by the President to pass upon the whole situation, and it may reasonably be expected that the new Cuban government will be inaugurated and our troops wholly withdrawn at some early date next year. So far as our own Government is concerned, this expeditious solution is doubtless a cause of congratulation; and the Cuban politicians are naturally happy in the prospect of getting things into their own hands. But the plain

and serious truth is that it is unfortunate for the Cuban people in all their best interests that the withdrawal of the United States could not be postponed for two more years, or, at the very least, another twelvemonth. Cuba needs American energy and experience in the work of getting a school system created and established, as well as in other branches of administration.

Hard Winter in South Africa.

While we have reduced our forces in the Philippines to about 40,000 men, nearly all of whom are engaged in quiet and comfortable garrison duty, with little if any higher rate of mortality than if they were stationed at military posts in the United States, it is far otherwise with the British in South Africa, who still maintain there an army of about 250,000 men, greatly worn and fatigued, suffering from the hardships of what is now midwinter in those regions, and constantly baffled by the astonishing persistence and mobility of the enemy. The British Government has at length ceased to repeat its assertion that the war is over. The leaders of the Boers themselves declare that they have not the slightest intention of giving up, and that they are in a position to keep the guerrilla warfare going on for an indefinite time. It is

supposed that there are from 15,000 to 20,000 Boers still in the field, operating ordinarily in very small commandoes, a number of which occasionally unite, however, to form a column equal in numbers to a full European regiment. There was more fighting and there were more British losses last month up to the time of our going to press than for several months previous; and the advantage seemed in the majority of cases to be on the side of the Boers. The attempt of General Kitchener to keep them cornered in the northeastern part of the Transvaal proved wholly unsuccessful, for-divided into small companiesthe Boers easily broke through the British cordon and carried the war into Cape Colony itself. It is not necessary to recapitulate here the engagements in detail, the most important of which was on May 30, at Vlackfontein, fifty miles from Johannesburg, in which the British lost more than 50 killed and about 120 wounded.

Victory

by

The Boers, of course, are not in a position to hold prisoners; and they Depopulation. are therefore obliged to release as many as they capture. The British, on the other hand, have now no prospects whatever of success apart from their careful sequestration of all the men they can possibly capture, in order to bring the male fighting population to the vanishing point. All the Boers in existence would not populate an average ward of New York or Chicago. If only there were Boers to populate two such wards instead of one, they would defeat the British in the end. But as matters stand it is probable that the Boers must in a few months give up through lack of men and ammunition. Prisoners are being deported to Ceylon, St. Helena, Bermuda, and elsewhere, in great numbers. Lord Kitchener reported that in the month of May 2, 640 Boers were either killed or captured. Weyler's Cuban policy of concentrating the non-combatant Boer population in specified camps has been put into force by Lord Kitchener, with the result of a deplorable amount of disease and suffering. In due time the British will win through the grim policy of depopulation.

LORD MILNER, OF CAPE TOWN.

It is the

peerage under the title of Lord Milner of Cape Town,-all in recognition of his alleged great services to the empire. The rest of the world has been looking on with curiosity and wondering what these services can have been. prevailing opinion outside of England that Milner's unfortunate conduct of the negotiations with President Krüger did more than almost any other one thing to bring upon England this inglorious and disastrous war, which can now have no possible outcome that would justify it as a profitable or fortunate thing for England. Undoubtedly, Milner is an excellent and upright gentleman, full of honest zeal for the extension of the British empire everywhere and by all means. He has served his masters to the best of his ability. But he has cut an unenviable figure in the eyes of the world; and his elevation to the peerage at this particular juncture was probably as remarkable an instance of trying to put a good face on a bad matter as history has ever recorded. Lord Milner is booked to return to South Africa in August.