coast. The Oregon election, held the first Not more than 10 per cent. of American tongues. The earnest effort, which is now well begun, to educate the children in the English tongue and according to American methods in public schools, at the same time establishing a standard of education in the church schools, must have an important effect on the coming generation. Wise government, the establishment of new industries, the construction of roads and railways, the improvement of agricultural methods, the opening of public lands for settlement-these must bring prosperity and comfort to the people if they can adapt themselves to the new conditions. If the Philippines are administered for the Filipinos instead of being exploited by Americans, the result should be admirable in every respect from the enlightened Filipino's point of view. Because of the intense hatred of the Filipinos for the Spanish friars, who own large tracts of agricultural land in Luzon and other islands, Governor Taft began early in June to treat with the Vatican for the sale of the friars' land. A commission of five cardinals was appointed by the pope to consider the matter with Governor Taft and the officers of the religious orders. The Dominicans, Augustinians and Recolletos, or unshod Augustinians, own 403,000 acres, much of it under cultivation, from which prior to the insurrection of 1896 they received rentals amounting to perhaps $200,000 annually. In Cavite province, where originated the various revolts of the natives against Spanish rule, the friars own 121,000 acres. In Laguna and Manila provinces the friars own 112,000 acres more. It is the wish of the Philippine government to buy these lands and sell them again in small tracts to their present occupants. Such action would put an end to the apprehensions of the natives lest the Spanish friars return. Being devout Catholics, their dislike for the friars is wholly political. Under the Spanish government the administration of local affairs was almost completely in the hands of the priesthood. Where, except on the Pacific coast, would such expressions be tolerated as properly reflecting the views of Americans? But the people of the coast states know what they want done with the Philippines. They want to develop the resources of those islands and build up a profitable trade with them under the American flag, as they have built up a profitable trade with the Hawaiian islands. There is little talk of letting go of the Philippines there. Will the sentiment of the Pacific states spread eastward? Will the Argonaut's policy or the Hoar policy prevail? Candor compels the admission that the cold-blooded views of the Pacific coast, supported as they are by circumstances and given license by the indefinite expressions of President Roosevelt, Senator Spooner and Governor Taft as to the remoteness of the period when the Filipinos can be permitted to have independence if they want it, are likely to turn the scale on the side of permanent control of the Philippines by the United States. Secretary Root, in his formal instructions to Governor Taft for the latter's guidance in his negotiations with the Vatican, has declared in the plainest possible words that the church and the state must be entirely separated in the Philippines and THE FIRST MCKINLEY MONUMENT ERECTED IN THE UNITED STATES. The gift of Mr. Charles H. Hackley to the city of Muskegon, Mich. Cost $30,000. Unveiled on Decoration Day, May 30. (From a photograph taken for THE WORLD TO-DAY by N. B. Lawson.) that the Spanish friars must not return to their former charges. Lands. There is still a greater land Selling the Public question in the Philippines, the solution of which must have a most important bearing on the future of those islands. Of the 73,345,415 acres of land in the archipelago only 4,940,000 acres are the property of individuals. The rest belong to the public domain, which is to be thrown open for settlement when Congress shall pass the civil government bill and preliminary surveys and other preparations shall have been completed. If the Filipinos show an intelligent interest in this great land distribution they should benefit by it as a whole in no small degree. The Philippine commission asserts that large sums of American capital are waiting to be invested in sugar growing, mining and other industries as soon as title to lands can be procured. Governor Taft dis likes the restriction proposed by congress under which no more than 5,000 acres can go to any one owner. He holds that the great expense of installing the machinery for sugar manufacture, together with the other preliminary outlays of money, renders sugar growing unprofitable on tracts of less than 20,000 acres, which is the limit of ownership by individuals that he suggests. The question as to whether Americans or Filipinos will become the owners of these fertile lands and whether great plantations conducted scientifically, or small fields plowed by the water buffalo, in future years will be the distinctive feature of agriculture in the Philippines, must be answered before anyone can tell what is to be the destiny of those islands. on the question by the fighting Boers in the field, the leaders of the burghers on May 31 signed the peace terms offered them by his majesty's ministry. The terms are honorable both to the British government and to the Boers. The latters' manly acceptance of the new conditions, as demonstrated since the surrender, must increase the respect in which the world holds those devoted men who fought so long for free LORD bosom of many a war-weary Boer. All KITCHENER, THE ENGLISH HERO OF THE BOER WAR. From his latest photograph. dom against overwhelming odds. In every of the THE MEN WHO HAVE CONTROLLED THE ENGLISH FORCES DURING THE BOER WAR. A MEETING OF THE half years, will prove in the end an inestimable blessing not only to South Africa but to the world in general. The terrible loss of life and the suffering which it has engendered, not to mention the enormous money cost, have shocked and sobered all the great powers. Nations, little and big, are more secure now from armed attack than they were before this war. The Boers on their dreary veldts and tangled kopjes have demonstrated that modern warfare is too heavy a burden to be assumed lightly by any government. Conquest is no longer to be regarded as a desirable pastime even by the most ambitious monarch. War is in a fair way to become an abstract propositim exclusively, thanks to De Wet, Botha, De La Rey and the other unconquerable men of the veldt. They have done more than the diplomats at the czar's peace conference at the Hague were able to accomplish to bring on the age of peaceful arbitration. National boundaries henceforth are likely to remain as they are; it costs too much in blood and treasure to change them in these days of the Mauser and the telescopic sight. In South Africa itself, the Boer, by vindicating his fearless manhood, has swept out of existence the contempt in which formerly he was held by the English, even after the amazing successes won by him in the earlier war with that nation. Before the recent struggle he was pronounced by his antagonist a dolt and a knave, a coward and an ignorant braggart. To defeat him was thought to be a mere holiday task. Now he is known to be a man of courage and indomitable will. The extraordinary feats of his ancestors in taming the wilderness and beating back the savage tribes have been far overshadowed by his own deeds when pitted against scores of thousands of British soldiers. Since he has submitted at last to overwhelming odds and acknowledges himself a British subject, the British empire is proud of him and will rely on his descendants to constitute the flower of the British army in future wars. That the destiny of South Africa is to be a brilliant one, now that Boer and Briton have fought their way into each other's regard, is scarcely to be doubted. There is little reason to fear that the two conquered republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, are to be another Ireland. Only HOW THE RECENT CENSUS WAS TAKEN IN WEST AFRICA. Various ways of obtaining an idea of the population of different districts were adopted, but the best and the one most easily understood by the natives was the shell or cowrie system. Each chief or head man placed in a jar as many shells or cowries as there were men in his village and then did the same for the women and for the children. He then brought the three jars to the white man in whose district he was, and that official counted the number of shells and thus obtained a fairly accurate return of the population. governmental blunders still to come can make them such, in view of the admirable spirit shown in defeat by the surrendered Boers. Such a government as that of Australia should be South Africa's within a brief period. Faults The British empire has to of the thank the Boers for demonBritish strating its singular weakness Army. as a military nation. A small island which had lost its appctite for real war but which believed itself to be warlike because it had been successful in shooting down hostile savages armed with spears and fanatics who in battle were obliging enough to charge across an open plain where they could be shot down in windrows by machine guns, was astonished to discover that its men and its methods were absolutely unfitted for modern warfare against a civilized foe. Its colonies did much to save the situation by voluntarily furnishing it with considerable supplies of men who could ride and shoot. On the anvil of experience its own troops now have been hammered into something resembling soldiers. But its army methods still are bad. Its men are poorly trained. Many of its officers are incompetent. These things it has discovered with the active assistance of the Boers. One must believe that England will profit by the lesson. An official report issued since the peace and based on the testimony of a large number of British officers, from the commander-inchief downward, gives overwhelming evidence that the officers of the army as a class are stale, without enterprise and ignorant of their duties. It is declared to be thought "bad form" to apply one's self keenly to one's work. keenly to one's work. The incompetent dawdler is as well placed as is the energetic officer who seeks to become proficient in all things relating to his profession. Sport with the hounds, or on the polo field or the race track, is preferred to the tasks which go to make a good soldier. Great Britain is profoundly stirred in some quarters by revelations such as these. If the deadly |