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The Outlook is a Weekly Newspaper and an Illustrated Monthly Magazine in one. It is published every Saturday-fifty-two issues a year. The first issue in each month is an Illustrated Magazine Number, containing about twice as many pages as the regular weekly issue, and many pictures.

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THE OUTLOOK COMPANY

287 Fourth Avenue, New York Copyright, 1899, by The Outlook Company. Entered as second-class matter in the New York Post-Office.

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Vol. 63

The Outlook

The Welcome to Dewey

Published Weekly

September 30, 1899

It is not difficult to distinguish between a perfunctory ceremony and a genuine popular enthusiasm. The welcome which New York-and through New York the whole people will extend to the victor of Manila Bay this week will be genuine, universal, spontaneous. The natural love of the people for a war-hero has centered around Admiral Dewey as it did about Grant. The intrepidity of Dewey's attack on Manila, the night entrance through the supposedly mined channels, the complete ness of the enemy's destruction, the dramatic circumstances of the fight, the fact that our first great victory was at the other end of the world all these things rightly appealed to the popular imagination. Events since then have proved Dewey to be not only a dashing fighter, a great sea admiral, but also a man of superb common sense, admirable reserve, timely wisdom, sturdy patriotism. Excellent as are the records made by not a few other commanders, naval and military, George Dewey's name is that which stands out foremost in the history of the war with Spain. The celebration will be worthy of its subject an imposing naval review under the command of Admiral Sampson with the North Atlantic fleet; a novel and brilliant illumination of the bay and rivers; a procession, on an enormous scale, of military bodies and civilians passing through a splendid arch of welcome and its approaches, to the designing of which American sculptors and artists have contributed unstinted labor and skill; a systematic, and in a degree uniform, system of street and house decoration; the presenting of memorials and addresses; the entertainment of officers and men in various waysthese are some of the forms which the people's welcome will take. Most impressive of all will be the people themselves—perhaps two millions of them

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crowded on the long route of the procession, all feeling that the one thing they really care for in the excitement, parade, and holiday is a glimpse of Dewey himself. The Outlook has asked Mr. James Barnes, author of "Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors" and other patriotic books of history and fiction, to tell the story of this great occasion to our readers next week, in a personal, clear, and simple narrative, and with it we shall present pictures, taken during the celebration itself, of salient and picturesque scenes. Major-General Wesley Merritt, in the same number of The Outlook, will tell of the famous meeting with Admiral Dewey at Manila, when he brought the first military support to our fleet, relieved the tension of the situation, and, as first Military Governor, divided the responsibility with the Admiral.

Chinese Exclusion

The exclusion of the Chinese from Manila by General Otis has led to an emphatic protest from the Chinese Government to our State Department. Our knowledge on the subject is derived from newspaper reports, but from these we judge that this exclusion of the Chinese is not based upon the law prohibiting Chinese immigration into the United States, but upon the conviction on General Otis's part that the importation of the Chinese at the present time into Manila practically strengthens the hands of the Tagals in arms against the United States. How their presence

in Manila does this is not made clear. It has been suggested, on the one hand, that they are instrumental in smuggling ammunition and goods into the camp of the enemy; on the other hand, that their continued importation intensifies Tagal prejudice against them and against the United States Government, under whose

protection they are admitted. It seems to us that while the country is in a state of war it is entirely legitimate for the military authorities to take such action respecting the admission of strangers to the territory as appears to them necessary for the more effective prosecution of their campaign. When the war is over and peace is established, the question of the policy to be pursued should be decided irrespective of any law prohibiting the immigration of Chinese into the United States. At present neither Porto Rico, Hawaii, nor the Philippines is, properly speaking, a part of the United States. They belong to the United States, and it is for the United States to determine, through its properly constituted authorities, what is the nature of the government to be exercised therein, and what are to be the relations between these several communities and the sovereign power to which they belong, but of which they are not, properly speaking, an integral part.

The President's Course

Mr. Frederick E. White, the Democratic candidate for Governor in Iowa, in a speech at Davenport, September 14, which we find reported in the New York "Evening Post," makes the clearest and strongest statement of criticism against the official course of President McKinley in dealing with the Philippines which we recall. This is, in brief, that, after the treaty with Spain was agreed to by the Spanish and American Commissioners, but before it had been ratified either by the United States Senate or by Spain, the President proclaimed his purpose to extend military government of the United extend military government of the United States over the entire archipelago.

This he did without being empowered so to do: and, remember, Congress was then in regular session. The treaty of peace, article 9, provides that "the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territory here by ceded to the United States shall be determined by the Congress." After the ratification of the treaty, President McKinley failed to communicate with Congress upon the subject, which the Constitution and treaty both enjoined him to do.

This criticism is not without force. It must, however, be remembered that the treaty with Spain was not ratified by the Senate until February 6, 1899; that it was

not ratified by Spain until March 18, after Congress had adjourned: and that until this joint ratification had taken place, Congress had no power to pass laws respecting the Philippines. Meanwhile the President had only the option to maintain the silence respecting the future condition of the Philippines, for maintaining which pending the negotiations at Paris he has been so severely criticised, or else to declare to the Filipinos what would be the policy of the Government when the treaty was ratified, and take the risk that this policy would be supported by the legislative branch of the Government. In our judgment, the second alternative was the wiser one of the two. His so-called proclamation to the Filipinos, which was not in terms a proclamation to them at all, but instructions to the commanding general in the field, was a notification to them that the United States would maintain its sovereignty over the whole archipelago, but that it would administer this sovereignty in the interest of the people, and under it would provide the largest practicable local self-government. It remains, of course, to be seen whether Congress, when it assembles, will sustain the President in this his declaration of what the course of the Nation would be. But we cannot but think that, if he had made no intimation to the Filipinos what that course would be, he would have subjected himself to a more serious and a more practical criticism than that to which he is subjected now by the Democratic Governor of Iowa.

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There is no alliance with England, or with any other power under heaven, except those known and published to the world-the treaties of ordinary international friendship for purposes of business and commerce. No treaty other than these exists: none has been suggested on either side; none is in contemplation. It has never entered into the mind of the President or of any member of the Government to forsake, under any inducement, the wise precept and example of the fathers which forbade entangling alliances with European Powers.

Such a denial as this will be accepted by all unprejudiced Americans as entirely

conclusive. Apparently the only basis for the fabricated report of a secret alliance with England is the fact that "our relations with England are more friendly and satisfactory than they have ever been before." This, as Secretary Hay notes, is not peculiar, since our relations with Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, in short every Power, are growing more intimate and more cordial as we enter more and more into international relationships.

American Reform

in Havana

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The most encouraging facts leading toward the hope that Cuba will become a self-respecting and self-governing community are such as those contained in the report of Brigadier-General Ludlow, the Military Governor of the city of Havana, which has just been published. What the condition of Havana was at the close of the war Mr. Kennan's letters have told our readers fully and plainly; now Havana is another city, and a vastly better one. From being a pest-hole it has become healthful; instead of being an offense to the eye, its streets are now orderly and clean; police discipline is in force, sanitary conditions are watched, civil government is being perfected. one comprehensively significant fact in General Ludlow's report is that the general death-rate has been lowered, not only from the record of the two former years, but in comparison with such normal years as those from 1890 to 1895. For instance, up to September 1 of this year there were only twenty deaths from yellow fever, while the average of such deaths from 1890 to 1895 was nearly four hundred. Add to this the significant fact that only three deaths from yellow fever have occurred among several thousand American soldiers, while the Spanish troops during their occupation of the islands lost many thousand yearly from the fever, and the contrast is complete. A complete modern sewer system is the next imperative necessity. General Ludlow says, without selfpraise or rhetorical language, " In Havana the rule of law is practically complete, while the rural districts are as quiet and as orderly as the interior of New England." Readers of Mr. Kennan's letters will particularly remember the interest

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with which he recorded the fact that the Cubans he met were intensely eager for school privileges; General Ludlow says the same thing, and urges that facilities be immediately given for the many thousands of children who cannot now be accommodated. Already General Ludlow, on his own initiative, has opened many schools, and taken thousands of neglected children from the streets. Throughout his report General Ludlow gives full credit to the Cubans themselves for joining in the effort to rehabilitate and renovate the city of Havana. Many of the American ideas of cleanliness and order are new to the people of Havana, but this report shows that they are learning rapidly, and that as a body of citizens they are neither rebellious nor difficult to deal with.

The Political Conventions

The Republican Convention in Nebraska not only indorsed the President's policy

in the Philippines, but put the Philippine issue to the front for the approaching campaign. The despatches state that a large number of Silver Republicans were present in the Convention, and that the scene of greatest enthusiasm was when the Populist Chaplain of the First Nebraska declared that he had returned home "to vote as he shot." On the currency question the resolutions indorsed the gold standard without qualification, declaring that present prosperity demonstrated the wisdom of the Nation's decision in 1896. With regard to trusts, the Convention declared its hostility to combinations which aim to stifle competition, and recommended the establishment of a Federal bureau with power to prevent over-capitalization, require complete publicity, and otherwise check threatened evils. Upon this question, therefore, its programme differed little from that proposed by Mr. Bryan at Chicago. officials to be nominated were a Judge of the Supreme Court and two University Regents, but a vigorous campaign is in prospect, since all parties realize that the result in Nebraska will profoundly affect the prestige of Mr. Bryan and the ascendency of the principles he advocates in the Democratic National Convention next year. In Massachusetts the Democratic State Convention held last week took the

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