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naturally mistook for another Spanish ruler; but to compare him with Washington is to attribute to him qualities that he could not have developed nor even understood.

It is probable, as Admiral Dewey remarked the other day, that if our officers had better understood the Filipinos when we first went to Manila, the war with them might possibly have been avoided an opinion, however, which our military officers do not share. But the difficulty was twofold-our possible misunderstanding of the Filipinos, and Aguinaldo's clear misunderstanding of the United States. That he misunderstood the United States and our purpose was natural. The only judgment of Western civilization that he could make he was obliged to make from his knowledge of the Spaniards and their methods. And he was misled by those Americans who till the last encouraged him in the hope that we might depart from the archipelago.

His behavior when he was captured was dignified, and he showed great good sense when he recognized the situation that was revealed to him after his capture and took the oath of allegiance to the United States. By no other course could he henceforth be of any service to his people or to civilization.

A CLEAR WAY TO PEACE IN THE PHILIPPINES

FOR

OR a month before Aguinaldo's capture, greater progress had been made than during any preceding period in the pacification of the islands and in the establishment of civil government. Organized hostility had practically ceased before this dramatic end came. Although 50,000 troops will for some time be required in the archipelago, their chief duty will be police-duty; and, but for the great area to be policed, a very much smaller number would be sufficient. Geronimo, one of the strongest insurgent leaders in Luzon,

suffrage is restricted to males of twenty-three years of age who are owners of $250 worth of property, or payers of $15 in taxes, and who read and write either English or Spanish. Voters are required to take the oath of allegiance to the United States.

A general school system has been laid out for the archipelago, and a thousand trained American teachers are wanted, to whom salaries of from $75 to $100 a month will be paid. The Commission has appropriated $400,000 for school buildings, $220,000 for text-books and supplies this year, $25,000 for a normal school and $15,000 for a trade school at Manila.

It is doubtful if at any recent time there has been a nearer approach to peace in every part of the archipelago than now exists Of the local outbreaks and the activity of banditti during the Spanish rule we knew nothing. Certainly the systematic oppression by the Spanish officers was as depressing in its effects on the country as the military occupancy by the United States can be. There is good reason to hope that the inhabitants of the islands will very soon enjoy such stable conditions as they have never before known. Hostilities once ended, the progress in government and in the building up of the people and in the development of the country will be so rapid that a decade of American authority will bring better results than a cycle of Spanish rule. Henceforth the task seems likely to be a comparatively easy one.

The cheerfulness of this news of peace in the islands is made the greater because the whole energy of our government can now be turned to constructive work-the building up of the people for ultimate self-government; for this must be our aim.

A PIECE OF CONSTRUCTIVE STATESMANSHIP ENATOR O. H. PLATT, of Connecticut,

surrendered when he heard of Aguinaldo's SENA, Chairman of the Senate Committee

capture, and there are few important organized bands now in revolt. The insurrection in Mindanao, the next largest island to Luzon, has been completely stamped out.

It has been announced that civil government will supersede military government on May 15. A code of municipal government has been framed by the Commission after a free discussion with the best class of Filipinos. Town governments will be organized with an elective president, a vice-president and a municipal council for a term of two years. The

on Relations with Cuba, has written for this number of THE WORLD'S WORK an authoritative review of our relations and of our proposition to the people of the island. It is a temperate and convincing statement of the necessity and of the justice of our proposal; but it is much more than this, for it is an interpretation of our action by the author of the proposition that we have made.

This proposition is a piece of constructive. work of the highest kind. The gravest prob

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lems growing out of our responsibility for the old Spanish colonies are settled by it at one stroke. The bugaboo of Imperialism is put out of sight; our pledge to ourselves and to the world to give the Cubans freedom kept; a precedent is set for dealing with our other wards when the time is ripe, and the possibility of admitting any of them into the Union is scotched as firmly as it can be. Senator Platt's article is an explanation of this legislation by the author of it, and it is therefore an historical paper. It will be constantly referred to as the official interpretation of the purpose of our government, and it will become one of the fundamental documents of United States and Cuban history.

Evidence continues to accumulate that the

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sion to the Union. The debate on the subject in the Territorial Senate became so violent that the President ordered the sergeant-at-arms to remove one senator from the chamber. well-timed motion to adjourn prevented a free fight. This first legislature has had several turbulent sessions.

There has thus far appeared no openly expressed wish by any section of American opinion for the ultimate admission of any of the islands, and no serious proposal is likely to be made at any early time. But it is in this direction, if in any direction, that ultimate danger to our political life may possibly appear.

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONISTS AGAIN

Cubans will accept our proposal, and public RUSSIA is again the storm centre of the

opinion in both countries is fast adjusting itself to such a settlement. It is a settlement that will be honorable and advantageous to both parties. Cuba will begin its career of independence with advantages that no other part of America south of the United States has had, and we shall have established a principle for the settlement of our whole "colonial" problem.

This practical settlement of the relation of Cuba to the United States has yet attracted less notice in the world than it will attract when Cuba formally becomes independent. It will be one of the very few instances in history of a nation coming into existence by the philanthropy of another nation. Such a result will not only justify our war with Spain, but it will give lasting lustre to American honor. It is an event of which every American citizen must be proud.

THE HAWAIIAN TALK OF STATEHOOD

THE

HE grave danger, and the only grave danger, that thoughtful men have felt might be involved in our expansion necessity (for it was a necessity rather than a deliberate policy), is the question which is sure to arise sooner or later of the admission of some of the islands into the Union.

The proposed settlement of our relations with Cuba disposes of this question as conclusively as it now can be disposed of. But the politicians of the Hawaiian Islands, which are under a Territorial Government, are already discussing possible statehood. Bills were recently introduced in both branches of the Territorial Legislature asking for admis

world. The revolutionists have another spasm of activity. An effort was made in March to assassinate the head of the Church; a student shot and killed the Minister of Public Instruction; and it was reported on April 1, that an officer of the Czar's household had shot at him, had missed him and had killed himself before he could be arrested; and the Czar was reported to be in a panic because of the the many evidences of of danger to his person. The open beginning of the present era of violence was a demonstration by students, for which many were thrust into the army for severe duty. The significant thing that followed was a procession of workingmen, which was a mild demonstration against the government. This is a somewhat novel feature of Russian agitation.

Another significant fact is that the Czar's Ministers practically reprimanded an executive officer who acted with severity against these demonstrations-an indication that the Ministry may feel the necessity of restraining executive severity. If this policy be carried far enough it may mean a rebuke to the Czar himself. But the meaning of most such events in Russia is likely to be misunderstood and misinterpeted abroad, so rigid is the censorship.

It is perfectly well known that the work of the Social-Democratic party, which is directed by leaders outside of Russia, has in recent years been unceasing; and it may be that a larger and better secret army of revolutionists has been trained than at any previous time. Their "underground" press is active, and their publications are freely circulated out

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side of Russia and no doubt extensively circulated there.

Hitherto the enemies of the Government, active as they have at times been, have been comparatively few-as few as they were desperate. But the organization of the SocialDemocrats, who have succeeded the Nihilists, is larger and wider. A group of conspirators is a dangerous thing to a monarch; but, if the conspirators be few, the general system of government is not likely to be changed even by their utmost endeavor. But if the masses of the working population join the army of active discontent, whenever the army becomes large enough civil war may follow. There is probably not the slightest danger at any early time of civil war in Russia, but the new movement looks toward such a hope. The prime purpose of the old form of Nihilism was to remove the rulers by assassination, and the next step in the programme was uncertain. The prime purpose of the newer Social-Democracy is to establish a radically different form of government, and the removal of rulers is a mere incident to that end.

TH

CAN RUSSIA BE LIBERALIZED?

HUS the old stubborn problem of the liberalization of Russia comes forward again. The profoundly interesting question is whether liberalization can come through violence or whether the revolutionists must content themselves with awaiting the slow pressure of world-forces-the pressure that is gradually turning all kings into figureheads.

The pathetic paradox is that the Czar is perhaps the most helpless man in the Empire to bring about a radical change. Encased as he is in a governmental and social system that is stubborn because of the rigidity of the privileged classes and of the ignorance of masses, he is comparatively helpless. No government has been liberalized except by the pressure of an awakened people; and there is yet no satisfying evidence of an awakened people in Russia. Your real Russian may doubt man, and he may doubt God, but he has never doubted the superiority of his own civilization and his own system over the more liberal systems of the western world. In his own orbit the Slav has not yet reached the angle of direct light. Whether the illumination of his long-entrenched aristocratic and religious thought can be hastened by sporadic revolutionary efforts that is the question.

The present trouble will probably pass without affecting any radical change. Even if the Czar should be killed, nothing of far-reaching importance would be likely to happen. The social and military and governmental system would remain the same, and the old problem would present as stubborn an aspect as ever, because the masses of the people are not ready nor of the right temper for selfgovernment.

THE RUSSIAN WORLD-GAME IN ASIA

WHILE

7HILE this acute danger exists at home, perhaps because of this acute danger, Russia is playing the most stupendous game that is now in progress on the map of the world.

She has had practical control of the great Chinese province of Manchuria almost ever since the trouble in China began as a "temporary" occupation to make sure of protection to Russian railways and other interests there, and the treaty, which was at first secret, whereby China was practically to yield Manchuria to Russia, was to be signed by March 26. But on that date China, under pressure from the other Powers, had declined to sign it. Japan and Great Britain, in particular, let it be known that the signing of such a treaty would be regarded by them as a breach of the allies' agreement if not as a signal for the tion of the Chinese Empire. On March 1st, the United States Government informed all the allies of the memorandum that it had sent to China on February 19, that it would be unwise and dangerous for China to execute any treaty with any single Power.

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The impression prevails that the execution. of the treaty giving Manchuria to Russia was not defeated, but only delayed by China's declination to sign it within the required period; that Russia will not relinquish her hold on Manchuria, and that sooner or later it will doubtless formally become Russian. The tension was made greater for a period by a temporary dispute between Russian and British forces at Tientsin about a railroad side-track a dispute that for a time threatened open hostility. This friction was removed.

But the discussion of the sum to be demanded from China as indemnity may cause serious disagreement at any stage. The United States Government has expressed its willingness to the payment of the indem

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