p. 16 | Review and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 15. (4/10/1900)

The Porto Rico Bill

The Porto Rico bill was passed by the United States Senate, Tuesday, April 3, by a vote of forty to thirty-one. It decides—

1. That Porto Rico is not a part of the United States, but is the property of the United States.

2. That the Constitution of the United States does not extend to Porto Rico.

3. That Congress has power to rule Porto Rico as Congress may choose.

4. That the inhabitants of Porto Rico are not citizens of the United States; but are only “citizens of Porto Rico, and as such are entitled to the protection of the United States—in other words, colonists.

5. “That Porto Rico is a body politic separate and apart from the United States, an autonomous state under the rule of Congress, and therefore not foreign territory; in other words, a colony with limited self-government.”

6. “That Porto Rico, instead of being absorbed into the United States and started toward Statehood, is set up by itself, and put upon the path that leads to colonial self-government similar to that of Canada, New Zealand, or the Australian states.”

Whisky as Food

The following item from the Chicago Tribune is self-explanatory: “Ole Jorgensen answered a charge of drunk and disorderly conduct, in the East Chicago avenue police court yesterday, with the plea that he had not been drinking, but eating, and, as evidence, placed a small, half-filled bottle of ‘food’ before Justice Kersten. He was asked what he meant by bringing whisky into the court. ‘That is not whisky,’ said the prisoner, ‘that is food. I submit that you can not send me to the bridewell for eating too much. Professor Atwater, of Wesleyan University, told the educational Conference that whisky is food. He says you can not deny food value to whisky, and that it is oxidized just like bread and meat. When I read that, I got hungry, and went out for a couple of slices of whisky and a piece of brandy.’ ‘He had eaten a quart or two before I picked him up,’ said Policeman Klinger. The justice adopted the food theory, and discharged the prisoner.”

American Support for Philippine Friars

WE have a copy, which we ourselves made, of a letter from a responsible man in the Philippines, to a friend in this city. With the letter he sent copies of Manila papers. Statements in the papers confirm what is said in the letter. He says that Chaplain McKinnon, the Catholic priest who went to the Philippines and returned with his regiment to this country, and again went to the Philippines at the special request of the President, “is no more than secretary to [Archbishop and Apostolic Delegate] Chappelle;” and conspicuously “wears full United States uniform, to impress the simple people with the authority behind Chappelle.” He says that the bitterness of the opposition of the Filipinos to the friars can not be imagined, and that it is all for cause; but that the influence and the authority of the United States are with Archbishop Chappelle in upholding the friars. He says that “at the second reception of Chappelle there were two hundred police, most of them American soldiers, to see that the sentiment of the people was not voiced against the friars. Every day the bitterness of the controversy grows in the Spanish and Tagalog papers. . . . I have sent you the sentiment of a week. The censorship of the press is strict, or more would have been printed. Fill the papers in America with the facts: . . . With honest dealing the war would have been over long ago. If I were a Filipino, and had the danger of the priests hanging over me, I would fight on. Of course they will be killed off. Their vision is short: they see Otis and Rome here together; but they fail to see the justice and mercy and good will of the people of America—and I confess I don’t see anything but political scheming either.”

Christian Patriotism

That book on “Christian Patriotism” is a study of the subject through all history and time from creation to the end of the world. And whoever reads it can not fail to see that that subject has been present truth in every age, and is present truth to-day, and will be present truth always. Sixteen chapters; 104 pages; price, fifteen cents. Address all orders to your State tract society; the Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.; or the Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich.